Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Review: Who’s The Cool Girl Josh is Dating? (Season 2 Episode 7)

Talk about squad goals.

On this episode of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Season 2 Episode 7, “Who’s The Cool Girl Josh is Dating?” we meet the rebound chick whom we’re supposed to hate but, dammit, she’s actually a good person and isn’t that just the worst?

Continuing with its trend of #relatable relationship moments, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend takes the notion of the evil new girlfriend and subverts it in that perfect human way.

Josh’s new main squeeze Anna Hicks is markedly different from both Rebecca and Valencia—more entrepreneurial, less controlling, obsessive, and demanding—but she also likes cats, so she’s not great.

Casting Brittany Snow is a pitch perfect (heh-heh) move as she convincingly plays that woman who you want to hate, but for reasons you can’t understand (general human decency or the Snapchat flower crown filter), actually doing so proves easier imagined than realized.

So of course, classic Rebecca has to do some digging to find this woman’s flaws, dragging Valencia into another one of her crazy ex-schemes and discovering along the way that no one is the evil we perceive them to be.

Let’s talk about these two ladies for a sec.

Notice how in discussing “protecting” Anna from Josh, Madge and Allegra do a loop-de-loop from Josh’s worst qualities (some of them more exaggerated than others) to Josh’s best physical features?

If there was ever evidence to suggest that neither of them cared for Josh as a person, this is it.

Valencia spent most of their relationship shaping Josh into the person she wanted him to be, while Rebecca spent the last two seasons shaping herself into the person she thought Josh wanted, but neither of them consider Josh as his own separate human entity.

It certainly doesn’t help that Josh himself often rejects his own agency (he still hasn’t found his own place) and is uncomfortable with the idea of spending time alone.

Now we get to see Josh interact with a relative stranger, stumbling over himself, un-confident, and learning. This should be a thoroughly fascinating case study: how a man-child survives in the wild without someone from his past holding him to their ideals.

On the other side, there’s Paula who is so frazzled from law school and her personal life that her home life is suffering.

We’ve all been there, sister. It’s certainly worse when your personal life isn’t even lacking because of work, but nettling you for a completely disparate reason. Concentration goes out the door.

Fights with friends drain a considerable amount of mental energy. In high school, I quickly realized that it was easier to forgive someone than go to class, sit next to them, and pretend they didn’t exist.

It’s so taxing, y’all, and I’m lazy.

As a 40-something paralegal with two (maybe three? I really lost count) kids, Paula already had a full dance card, but she always had someone to take her mind off her struggles, even if that person was self-involved and never actually listened.

Now, she’s got to deal with ignoring said person, law school, and home duties all while still managing to support her husband as he’s supported her. And, as expected, in all the emotional/personal/professional juggling, she dropped a ball.

Apologizing isn’t going to fix everything, it’s true. Things were said.

Eventually, even after Rebecca and Paula reconcile, they’re going to have to take strides to fix what broke them in the first place lest it happen again and more permanently, but if there’s one thing Crazy Ex-Girlfriend does well, it’s showing a slice of life set against a musical background, and in real life, there is no dead-end.

Well, I mean, except death, but you get my point.

Musical Numbers

“Research Me Obsessively”

“You Go First”

Sh*t Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Characters Say

• Paula: “Nothing I like better than a warm Costco white.”
• Heather: “I knew you guys didn’t miss Coolio.”
• Valencia: “I’m not dumb, you just make really obscure references.”
• Rebecca: “He once told me his favorite animal was Antarctica.”
• Rebecca (guessing the entry code): “[Try] her parents’ credit score!”
• Valencia (on guessing Anna’s goal weight as the code): “I knew that bitch weighed herself.”
• Rebecca: “How do you live your life?” Valencia: “I go outside.” Rebecca: “That’s fair.”

What did you think of this episode of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend? Do you wish Sunil got more screen time? How will you survive the cold winter without your favorite workplace musical? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Crazy Ex-Girlfriend airs Fridays at 9/8c on The CW.

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