Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: All Signs Point to Josh... or Is It Josh’s Friend?

November 4, 2016 7:37 PM - Season 2, Episode 3

Rebecca thinks she's pregnant, but it's... someone else.

It's Paula, of course, who cries really ugly when Daryl pulls some strings to get her on early rolling admission to law school.

Signs and destruction are all over the place, and at the end of the episode, Rebecca and Josh have broken up, Greg is going to Emory, and WhiJo is a thing.

posted by Etrigan (18 comments total)

Not enough songs in this one! Also, I'm confused at how it's only episode three, because everything just fell apart in a finale sort of way.

I binge-watched the first season over the summer, and now waiting every Friday for a single episode is *killing* me.
posted by hopeless romantique at 11:20 PM on November 4, 2016 [3 favorites]

The Paula storyline infuriates me. A friend once said that only on TV do people have babies 15 years apart, and I basically agree (yes it happens but mostly not) - it's worn ground at this point. The law school storyline was great, hope she stays on that track.

Rachel Bloom did an amazing job this episode- the scene with Josh was killer. So glad we got a glimpse of the shrink, I love her!

Is this the end of Greg? Are we slowly losing all our characters and soon it'll just be Rebecca alone in a room? Still waiting for a Valencia update.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 4:33 AM on November 5, 2016

Maybe it's been Rebecca alone in a room the whole time.

The pacing on this episode was really weird. It feels like a song was cut for time or something. I suspect this episode and the next will basically feel like a two-parter, but for now it feels off.

I would be really shocked if Paula didn't have an abortion. I don't think Scott would necessarily be in favor of it, but Paula really doesn't seem to want another kid. This would be the second abortion storyline on the CW this season already.
posted by lemonadeheretic at 6:01 AM on November 5, 2016

This episode gave me sympathy cramps.
posted by tracicle at 7:20 AM on November 5, 2016

Rebecca's pregnancy "reveal" to Josh, him freezing, her going to pee, then coming back, casually announcing she isn't pregnant and launching into "Period Sex" ...that was just gold.

Also funny... Rebecca's "reflecting over wine" scene that cuts directly to her passed out on the couch in front of a completely empty bottle.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:29 AM on November 5, 2016 [6 favorites]

it's only episode three ... everything just fell apart in a finale sort of way.

That's a good thing. It means we don't know what's going to happen next.

Isn't that more interesting?
posted by amtho at 9:57 AM on November 5, 2016 [2 favorites]

Also, Paula's story this season is devastating and amazing, and most relevant for a completely underrepresented but huge part of the population.
posted by amtho at 9:58 AM on November 5, 2016 [7 favorites]

Darryl has really grown on me. I didn't think his character was going to amount to much when he was first introduced, but man, that was such a sweet, caring thing to do (even if he went behind Paula's back to rearrange her life). He definitely deserves the title of her best friend. Rebecca isn't even in the running. And yes, Paula's arc is just heartbreaking at this point, and everything amtho said in the post above.

I love that everybody is starting to mature and act in their own best interest: Greg going off to school, Josh realizing that a relationship with Rebecca is not a smart thing for him, even White Josh and Darryl deepening their relationship. It's all good.

I'm happy to see the therapist back, and I guess it's something we should have expected. If Rebecca can't involve Paula in her craziness, then she'll need to talk to somebody about it.

While I thought Rachel did a great job with the musical number, I felt that the piece wasn't strong enough or important enough to waste the "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" set-up on. That's just too iconic a piece to throwaway on a joke song.
posted by sardonyx at 8:08 PM on November 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

Isn't that more interesting?

Let's leave it vague, it's more interesting that way.
posted by Johnny Assay at 8:26 PM on November 5, 2016

Uuuuuuuuuugh, please don't let this be another show where no one has ever heard of abortion. Please please please please please. On the other hand, if they have Paula have an abortion, and they deal with it in a realistic way, I will love this show and everyone involved in it forever. This is absolutely the kind of situation in which women have abortions, and yet the kind of situation in which they almost never do on TV.

This whole episode was really more on the serious side, and just sort of left me with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach for the whole time. The sense of dread that Paula's dreams will get wrecked by this pregnancy or that Greg will torpedo his sobriety was just palpable.

I did enjoy the line about "shipping" Darryl and White Josh, though. Who doesn't ship them?
posted by lunasol at 9:04 PM on November 5, 2016 [5 favorites]

I'm expecting an abortion story line for Paula. I will be shocked if they go another way with it. I do love how supportive Scott is and how their relationship has grown so much closer (all due to Rebecca!)

I loved the open, first with Rebecca's poly fantasy and then the polyamorous triad calling Rebecca out on her fantasies. And then the dancers call her out on her fantasies! And then her therapist calls her out on her fantasies but she doesn't listen. Ah, Rebecca. Someday you'll learn. Maybe in Season 4.

I also loved Josh's freakout when Rebecca said she was pregnant. His frozen, horrified expression was amazing. And wow, Rebecca just cannot read the room at all.

I expected either Greg or Rebecca to avoid the park - I didn't expect Greg to go to the park and literally see a sign.

Is this another episode where we didn't see Darryl and White Josh together? I'm sad but I also like seeing them apart and having Josh's character especially develop.
posted by rednikki at 9:46 PM on November 5, 2016 [2 favorites]

rednikki, I so hope you're right about Paula!
posted by lunasol at 10:07 PM on November 5, 2016

At this rate I'll be surprised if Rebecca doesn't end up in a hospital by the end of the season (or even by the midpoint). She is spiraling hard. Removing Paula's active enabling seems to have only made things worse, because she's still voicing (tepid) support for the relationship with Josh, but no longer puts any kind of counterweight on Rebecca's most self-destructive ideas.

Other thoughts:
Totally agreed that Paula's pregnancy subplot needs to be an abortion subplot -- at the very least to justify if she doesn't go that route .
The Math of Love Triangles was amazing -- really funny and also a perfect thematic statement for the episode. Oddly, "Period Sex" isn't on youtube.
Run, Greg, run! Only don't, because Santino Fontana is wonderful.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:43 AM on November 6, 2016

Could be wrong but was that the bridge from Under You Spell in Once More With Feeling?

If so, nice call back by the location team!
posted by dogsbody at 9:19 AM on November 6, 2016

This is absolutely the kind of situation in which women have abortions, and yet the kind of situation in which they almost never do on TV.

I want to be vague because spoilers, but I'll note that another show currently running on the same network as "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" actually had a character find out she was pregnant and decide to have an abortion within the span of two episodes. And while said show treats the decision with some gravitas, it doesn't present it as a particularly hard decision.
posted by Johnny Assay at 2:53 PM on November 6, 2016

I'll note that another show currently running on the same network as "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" actually had a character find out she was pregnant and decide to have an abortion within the span of two episodes.

Wow, Penn & Teller: Fool Us got really dark after Alyson Hannigan signed on.
posted by Etrigan at 4:00 PM on November 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

Wow. I finally had a chance to sit down and watch this and all I want now is for Rebecca to be put into intensive therapy and for Greg to run for the hills. And I say this as a person with mental illness. Actually that's probably why I'm saying it. WOW that was an upsetting episode.

Josh...well. Josh, you've known this whole time that this fling with Rebecca wasn't sitting right with you. And while I am sorry you had to be upset so badly in order to wake up, you've got your own problems so I hope you work those out.

Also I would like Paula and Rebecca to start being nicer to Darryl.
posted by angeline at 5:25 AM on November 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

Catching up. After all the period jokes earlier in the episode, I noticed Greg's friends telling him their moms were "in the red zone" and wondered if that was intentional.
posted by bunderful at 7:04 PM on February 12, 2017