Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Review: When Will Josh See How Cool I Am? (Season 2 Episode 2)
On Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Season 2 Episode 2, “When Will Josh See How Cool I Am?,” Josh comes home from karate practice and, like the perfect housewife she longs to be, Rebecca has prepared Josh a romantic, home-cooked meal using a recipe passed down by her racist-but-that-was-okay-for-that-time-but-still-wrong grandmother.
As it turns out, Josh has already eaten a sushi burrito (which sounds intriguingly disgusting) and has plans for the rest of the evening, plans which do not include the woman currently giving him a warm place to rest his head and bury his face.
Hearing that one of these plans includes a sport which totally can’t be that hard, Rebecca’s pathological lying switches into gear, and she tells Josh that she’s actually Junior Miss Table Tennis champion for the Eastern Northern Seaboard County District.
Claaaaassic Rebecca.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend makes us painfully aware that Rebecca is constantly trying to change herself to fit her square peg in the round hole that is Josh’s Peter Pan sensibilities. We see her learning week-to-week, but as long as she operates around the core belief that she and Josh belong together, she’ll never actually move forward.
So, while this scheme doesn’t take as much commitment as flying to Hawaii or signing up everyone in his apartment complex for a class action, hiring an 11-year-old to teach her ping-pong is still a symptom of a larger problem.
A problem that seems to be getting in the way of her friendship with the too-forgiving Paula, who gets one of the saddest Disney songs ever heard where she expresses her general discontent with the current state of her life and her hopefulness that things will get better.
May I just say that Paula living her own life is one of the most exciting things that’s ever happened to me personally. Right next to Greg enrolling in AA (does one “enroll?”).
Now that they’ve signed this friendship contract, Rebecca and Paula’s conversations no longer revolve around Josh. They get to chat as friends with open, honest communication, and we truly get to explore their friendship beyond their mutual shipping of RebeccaxJosh. That may, however, lead Paula to the heartbreaking discovery that Rebecca isn’t as as great of a friend as she’d originally thought.
Darryl’s already in the corner practically salivating for a best friend.
Meanwhile, Greg starts his 12-step journey, beginning by telling his friends that he’s an alcoholic, confessing some of his most embarrassing drunken antics, and apologizing to Heather for stealing her fries once (which is almost worse than crashing both Hector and White Josh’s car). While Crazy Ex-Girlfriend was never one to shy away from serious psychological issues, the way they’re handling Greg’s alcoholism is laudable.
Greg has always been independent to a fault, afraid to display any emotion for fear of judgement (probably from White Josh), but here, he’s opening up to everyone about his struggle with his addiction, including Rebecca.
God, that conversation — I’ve not seen people in real life have a conversation as honest as that. Greg finally admits he loves Rebecca and that he missed his shot, and Rebecca takes it all with the kind of open mind that Greg deserves in his time of need.
Stop it, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. This is a comedy!
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has set it up so that relapse is a very real threat here. We’ve come to care deeply for Greg and treating his alcoholism with the kind of concern it truly warrants raises the stakes as high as any drama.
And with his two most emotional triggers, Rebecca and Josh, still singing and dancing around him, it’s like watching a horror movie, screaming at the protagonist to get his dumb white ass out of that house.
The donuts were a nice touch too, existing as a metaphor for sobriety. Bringing the donuts is an enormous responsibility. Several people are counting on you to bring those donuts. You’ll be hurting them if you miss the next meeting…because they want donuts.
So Greg and Paula are moving forward, accepting responsibility for their addictions, while Rebecca is slowly coming to terms with the fact that she might have a Josh Chan problem.
Josh, on the other hand, seems to be regressing, ironically as he gets more screen time this season. He’s gone from hanging to Valencia’s every word to casually and selfishly using Rebecca as a human fleshlight.
Josh, relationships are not about staying in your own lane. They’re about driving the car together. Or tandem bicycling. Or, like, flying a plane or something. It’s a two-person job, okay?!
If you want someone who cooks and cleans and puts an unconditional roof over your head, go move back in with your mom and buy an actual fleshlight.
Sigh. If the clip from next week is any indication, these battles aren’t going to get easier any time soon.
Musical Numbers
“Maybe This Dream”
“Ping Pong Girl”
“Greg’s Drinking Song”
“I Could If I Wanted To (reprise)”
Dinosaur Donuts
- “Maybe this dream won’t be like when I go running and I have to take a dump so I have to rush home. Plus I also have my period, so I have menstrual cramps plus dump cramps and as I run frantically, I *pee* just a little because I’ve had two babies so by the time I get home, my undies smell like a sewer rat. Maybe this dream won’t be like that.”
- “Boba is a drink that you eat.” Father Brah also wrote this episode.
- “What celebrity weekends in Claremont?”
- “(smiling, thumbs up) What a mess.”
- “Ned Stark dies by the way.” “No, but he’s the show!” “Don’t get too used to Robb, either.” Hateful, Darryl.
- “Let’s share a Costco card.” Isn’t that everyone’s dream, really?
- “I don’t know the rules!” “There’s one rule!”
- “Chip-hunk.”
What did you think of this episode of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Reviewer Rating:
User Rating:
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend airs Fridays at 9/8c on The CW.
James A. Windley
James A. Windley, Writer, Virgo, Loaded couch potato. James' love of television began at the intersection when Saturday morning cartoons met to Xena: Warrior Princess syndications, and his head has been a mess ever since. He loves superheroes, drama (in life, not television), and misses when very special episodes were a thing.