Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Review: I’m Not the Person I Used to Be (Season 4 Episode 9)

No other episode of television makes me short-circuit and explode with joy like Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Season 4 Episode 9, “I’m Not the Person I Used to Be.”

The hilarious references and meta-jokes are layered on top of Sober Greg’s introduction, which is then twisted around George’s hallelujah song about the joys of not being popular, and then it is all ignited by the live wire reveal that Valencia was in love with Father Brah.

That is not even to mention the Kamala Hare-is-accompanied catch-up Paula gives us at the close of the episode.

Writing about it now, my heart is racing and I simply can not contain my exuberance and admiration for the Crazy Ex-Girlfriend team. Suffice it to say, “I’m Not the Person I Used to Be,” sets a new bar of excellence for television.

The mid-season finale is twisted, salty, and sweet in all the right places and it dips right into its five pretzel rating.

Organic Chemistry

The episode delivers some big shocks, but it is not shocking at all that my favorite aspect is Valencia’s story.

I am openly thirsty for more V on the show and “I’m Not the Person I Used to Be” gives it to me with the big fat bonus of a story I never would have expected.

We now know that Valencia thought that she would be able to be with the person she loved, and when that option was silenced, without any closure, she moved ahead in life with an open wound. Not only that, she moved on with a secret open wound.

SHE THOUGHT HER LOVE FOR JOSEPH WAS UNREQUITED AND IT EXPLAINS SO MUCH.

The way the show handles the story coming to light and its resolution is pure, heart-stomping, genius.

A core pressure point to Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is that we live under the burden of having our lives match the unrealistic and sexist storylines of rom-coms and princess movies.

The high school reunion trope is a foundation on the episode and is a common one on rom-coms and Holiday Movies. Valencia, not Rebecca, gets to be the star of the storyline that takes the high school reunion trope to task.

I could cry because that is what I want from the show: for Valencia to be rightly included in the core messaging.

Heather is in her element and darn cute on the episode, which adds levity so that us viewers are up enough to handle the heartbreaking blow.

The effects are vaudeville and strange, with the level of camp reaching just up to the line of acceptable. Heather is always theatrical with her apathy, so it is both new and reassuring to see her excited about Valencia’s high school love story and going over the top to discover the mystery.

Those synchronized espressos kill me.

Valencia is happy in her relationship with her girlfriend Beth.  But, unlike Darryl, who we saw discover and label himself as bisexual, Valencia has never been explicit about her sexuality.

She still doesn’t make her preferred label clear on “I’m Not Who I Used to Be.” The show does troll us for a second when Heather assumes that Valencia’s secret love is a woman. Season 4 seems to be making the on-going point that we as viewers and voyeurs want to define, label, and know intimate details about other people’s ships, even if that’s not actually our right. 

It’s an interesting point and I like that Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is gently leaning into it.

I’ll be honest, at first, I really want the coat-owner to be a woman. For a second, it even feels unfair that we don’t get to know that Valencia was into women in high school. It feels like maybe Valencia’s bisexuality is being exploited.

But, the fact that the coat-owner is Joseph aka Father Brah (Valencia still calls him Joseph!), and Father Brah is a man in a relationship with another man, God, for me moves the gender identity of Valencia’s love out of baiting territory and into brilliance.

We know Father Brah! He is one of my all-time favorite characters on the show. This storyline weaves him even deeper into the fabric of the show and it just feels so right.

 

The second I learn that Father Brah is the Chemistry Coat-Owner I freak out.

I ship it! But, I ship Beth and Valencia too! My heart! Can Father Brah leave the church? Could they ever actually be together? Could we get a throuple on the show? Would it be a quadrouple, with God being the fourth?

I SHORT-CIRCUIT!

The conversation the pair has, who do indeed have chemistry together, manages to gracefully and reasonably cover all these questions.

Valencia and Joseph missed their moment. But, the loss that they felt from the misunderstanding is healed and they now have the love they shared back, and they will always have that. It is so tender and almost too sad to bear. But, it is also how life goes.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend subverts the stories that tell us there has to be one way to a happy ending.

Much of the episode has a Hallmark Holiday Movie feel, but the show doesn’t make anyone a villain or tie anything up with a bow. It is dramatic and emotional, but it validates and respects the characters’ relationships.

Importantly, it treats Father Brah’s relationship with God as valid, just as valid as Valencia and Beth’s.

Religious vows and queer relationships are both commonly invalidated, or at least given short shrift in media. They are also not typically showcased as being accepting of each other.

This interaction gives us all that.

A woman in a queer relationship validating, without hesitation, a man’s relationship with God. A man of the cloth validating, without hesitation, a woman’s queer relationship. That might be the most beautiful gift of the holiday season, that lasts until Valentine’s Day of course. 

Meet Sober Greg

It’s remarkable that Crazy Ex-Girlfriend can take something tricky, like replacing a core member of the ensemble with a new actor and make it into a refrain for the final season.

Rebecca is not who she once was. Even the catchier-by-the-episode theme song for Season 4 plays with the idea of an evolving Rebecca.

Greg is back, but he too is not who he once was. He’s literally a different person, now played brilliantly by Skylar Astin. He is different in invisible ways as well. His cynicism has been significantly tempered and he can actually get through a whole song about meet-cutes without crapping on the concept of love or forgiveness.

But, they are the same too. Sober Greg still isn’t about that reunion life. They are both still raunchy and witty.

They have grown more than they have changed.

Skylar Astin nails it. It is quite the feat of suspended disbelief to have us accept that he IS Greg. Astin’s acting captures just enough of Santino Fontana’s mannerisms and tone to make him feel like Greg. But, Astin never goes so far as to seem like he is impersonating Greg.

Skylar Astin as Sober Greg sounds fantastic. His singing voice, like Fontana’s, smooths away any of the rougher edges of his character.

I’m feeling a new wave of gratitude and sorrow. We are going to miss you so much, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

It tracks that Rebecca was in such an elevated and unmedicated state during their time together, that her vision of Greg was significantly warped. Surprisingly, it makes sense.

And, the referencing to the obvious in the script helps us to be cool with it too. We’re not being tricked or asked to ignore the obvious as much as we are all in on this ride together. The winks are mutual.

It all works well and it is beautiful to see how Rebecca’s honesty is allowing her to build better relationships. Better, but never boring.

Sassy Mutton Chops

The adorable arrabbiata duet Sober Greg and Rebecca sing is lovely but it is not the strongest song on the episode.

That accolade goes to Danny Jolles as George performing the Gwen Stefani-esque “What U Missed While U Were PopUlar.”

The song gets the most meaningful when it points out that unpopular kids go through emotional angst and tears while in high school so they aren’t taken aback by the miseries of adulthood. That bordering on profound message is then followed by a popular jock admitting that his pride and apathy were performative and he was hurting too.

George accepts Hurting Jock’s apology for making fun of his ska band and it is yet another example of what Crazy Ex-Girlfriend does better than any other show in existence: blend absurdity with social commentary and heart to make a nuanced message about life that is delivered in song and dance.

George: We learned to cry while you were popular.

The dancing and costuming on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend also deserve a heap of credit. On “I’m Not Who I Used to Be,” the dancing is phenomenal from a troupe of exceptionally diverse dancers.

I’m not sure it gets more relate-able than high school massage circles with your unpopular friends. The pull-over fleece George is sporting helps to emphasize his perpetually locked shoulders.

The visual, musical, and movement elements of the song pull together and form an endlessly watchable performance.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend continues to top itself and is growing sweeter by the week. I am glad I will have several weeks to nurse my aching heart before the show’s return in January.

Crazy Talk

• It has always been important to me that White Josh is White Josh. He is the white version of Josh Chan, which gives Josh Chan a Filipino man, dominance. I’m not that on board for White Josh having been secretly more popular.
• Hector is the surprise hit of the season! He continues to give us strange thrills and I love it.
• Good to know that we can look forward to a Valentine’s Day finale. Love and tears and pasta are in the air.
• Valencia and Sober Greg are sticking around through the end of the series and I could not be happier.
• Seriously though, I am still hurting over Father Brah and Valencia. Someone check-in on me soon.

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