Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Review: Who is Josh’s Soup Fairy? (Season 2 Episode 8)

Rebecca tries her hand at being a mom and does an exceptional job. Because that’s totally the trend in the grand scheme of Rebecca’s life, right?

On Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Season 2 Episode 8, “Who is Josh’s Soup Fairy?”, Paula discovers that her husband has “accidentally” cheated on her and needs some time away to think while learning about the Sacramento court system, prompting Rebecca to offer her babysitting services in an effort to rekindle their friendship.

Oof. Let’s unpack.

Scott’s bombshell comes a bit out of left field and yet is entirely expected. Throughout the series, we’d seen how many times Paula, out of unhappiness, threw herself into her friendship with Rebecca, neglecting her home life. Scott had always been the dowdy, bumbling yet supportive husband in the background who never objected.

On a show as cringingly realistic as Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, how long did we really think that classic passive husband trope would continue?

Ironically, it is Rebecca’s knack for self-absorbed antics that leads Paula to finally understand that her life and marriage were directionless. She took on a bit of course correction to earn her happiness without stopping to think that perhaps her marriage was unhappy because they were both dissatisfied.

People don’t accidentally cheat on their partners.

Infidelity, like everything in life, is a series of decisions culminating in the actual act of cheating. Alcohol invariably makes your decisions worse, but they are ultimately still decisions.

Somewhere along the way, Scott decided that, rather than discussing his discontent with his wife, he would get a drink with his attractive coworker, who had been showing him the kind of interest he wasn’t getting at home. He then decided to order a second drink, and a third, and maybe even a fourth (I make bad decisions after the third drink, so I’m just spitballing here), and from there, biology took over.

So, after all this is said and done, Paula’s left without a backup partner to watch the kids for the weekend (or “kid” because Brendan is a lost cause).

Enter Rebecca to save the day, which is so perfectly in line with her savior complex, her need for perfection, and her unhealthy desire to please that it’s honestly just neglectful at this point to say yes to anything she asks.

Not 12 hours into her shift does Rebecca find herself at her wit’s end, despite having listening to a podcast on “moms” on the way over.

While it’s funny to watch Rebecca struggle with parenting, we already knew that this would be an unmitigated disaster.

Rebecca’s own self-identity is so undefined that the notion of her taking care of someone else is mind-boggling. She’s going through the motions of caring for someone without the actual emotional investment.

She wants to be a wife and mom because she views service as an act of love and, while that’s absolutely the case for very many people (myself included), for Rebecca, it’s a case of cognitive dissonance. She’s been told repeatedly how a good wife behaves and what a good mom does, but in essence, she’s not wired that way.

Her optimal partner would be a “you’re okay, I’m okay” type of person with no Disneyfied rom-com expectations and has no issues with her doing her own thing.

And that person is absolutely NOT man-child Josh Chan, who still needs his best friends from high school to hide the truth from him about his modeling career.

I love you, Josh, but zip-away sleeves? Buddy.

(As a note, it’s no surprise that Joshanna lasted as long as it did. As someone who lives in Silver Lake, I can tell you that meeting up with someone who lives in West Covina is not happening more than once a month.)

In the end, Paula and Rebecca’s friendship prevails over true love.

Now, is this because Paula is accepting that Rebecca will always be a bit selfish or is it because Paula is overlooking that flaw for the sake of her broken heart? Only time will tell.

This episode gets 4.5 stars instead of the usual 5 because the songs were not my favorite.

Musical Numbers

“I’m So Maternal”

“Duh”

Sh*t Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Characters Say

Paula: “What… MAN… did this?”

Rebecca: “I read the first [Hunger Games] last night just for this moment.”

Rebecca: “I know you’re older than 8 and younger than me.” (How any adult views kids, tbh.)

Tommy (talking about his Instagram followers): “Men who like birdwatching, men who fly drones, men who build basements…”

Heather: “Why are you wearing those ironic mom half-sneakers?”

Heather: “I think you meant to say you’re upset a kid is missing???” (It was the number of question marks in her inflection that made this line perfect.)

WhiJo: “Oh, god. I’ve left my body. I’m floating over this room.” (White Josh’s snark has gone up at least 50% in the last season and I’m loving it.)

What did you think of this episode of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend?

Do you think Paula will take Scott back? Did anyone notice how extra elevated Vincent Rodriguez’s ass was in those khakis? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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

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