Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Review: I Can Work With You (Season 4 Episode 10)

I am effusively and emphatically in love with Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Season 4 Episode 10, “I Can Work With You.” So, I apologize for the gushing that is about to happen. Nevermind, I’m not sorry. It feels great to feel great about the inventive show!

Like Hector, I stan. 

“I Can Work With You,” works so well because it hits all the sweet spots, in the sweetest way. It is tender and poignant, laugh-out-loud funny, shippy, and meaningful for character development. It handily earns a five-star five-pretzel rating.

Baby Momma 

Rachel Bloom’s performance as Rebecca Bunch on “I Can Work With You,” is so perfect it feels magical. 

She enters a shame spiral, exits and reflects on her shame spiral, faces her fear of her past personified in Hebecca, and grows forward in baby steps. She manages to get some in the middle of all that, too. 

 

The sheer breadth of characterization the episode covers is remarkable.

What makes it stand out the most, though, is how it deftly walks the tightrope of harrowing and hilarious when it comes to mental health. 

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend never makes fun of Rebecca’s BPD; the show is never laughing at mental illness.

It does showcase BPD’s ridiculous traits and the outlandish impacts on relationships that it can create, especially when other people are not bastions of perfect mental health themselves. 

It really is a very fine line, but the show walks it gracefully. Part of how it does that is let the intense moments of growth or breakthrough be mostly absent of punchlines. 

Rebecca’s discussion with Hebecca is one of the most tender and sad and real conversations about mental health I’ve ever seen. It easily evokes tears because of how vulnerable and raw the emotions are. 

REBECCA: All I can say is have fun in the gray.

Rebecca, finally, is coming to terms with choices that she made.

She is taking responsibility and not letting that ruin her. She is acknowledging her mistakes but then moving past them, concluding that she is still a person worthy of love and able to change into a better version of herself.  

I wish Dr. Akopian was here to see this! 

Rebecca’s support system ardently believes in her and has offered her unconditional love, including trust in caring for their children, and that lets Rebecca be vulnerable.  

That is the main ingredient: vulnerability. It is all over this episode, not just in the characters’ arcs, but also in the storytellers themselves.

The writers, actors, directors, musicians, and crew of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend really put it all out there for us.

The Crazy Ex-Girlfriend team can feel safe doing so because we will not abandon them, just like Valencia, Paula, Heather, and Darryl will never abandon Rebecca. 

That’s the real love story. A show and its fans; a Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and her BFFs. 

Acute Triangle

The love story on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has made a right turn into a triangle. It is a major credit to Scott Michael Foster who plays Nathaniel Plimpton, who is nice now, that the triangle is such a good one. 

I thought it was impossible for me to want to see Rebecca with anyone more than I wanted her with Greg. Especially after that reprise of “Settle For Me” AND seeing New Greg calmly care for baby Hebecca. 

But still, here we are. When Nathaniel rests his head back on the fridge with a heartbroken sigh, I feel it in every part of my body. 

The moment I realize I want her with Nathaniel is actually when she does the babysitter-bang with New Greg.

It’s like when you can’t decide on what you want for dinner until someone says “Mexican,” and that makes you realize you don’t want Mexican at all, you want Thai! Your reaction to a decision helps you know what the decision you really want to make.

Similarly, seeing Rebecca with New Greg is delicious, but it’s not what I actually am hungry for. 

Seeing her with New Greg gives me feels of lusty joy and then instantly feels of regret. I want it to be Nathaniel, who is nice now. 

It is that wonderful kind of triangle that hurts with longing and hope but also includes two fantastic outcomes.

I trust the writers to bring Rebecca the satisfying climax she deserves.

Rachel Bloom has said that the show ends the way she and Aline Brosh-McKenna originally pitched it. So, it is unlikely that the end will be a Nathaniel romance. 

I find solace in the fact that Scott Michael Foster as Cappie on Greek gets his HEA with Casey. So, I can always go watch that to lick my wounds.

That doesn’t mean, though, that the end is a New Greg romance either.

My guess would be that the final crescendo of this incredible show will be about self-love, self-acceptance, and then, at long last, empathy.

I am holding out hope that the empathy piece will look like the focus turning from Rebecca’s perspective to Valencia’s. 

A Good Fett

Josh Chan and Nathaniel’s story on “I Can Work With You,” is fall-out-of-my-chair hilarious. I am literally on the floor throughout the entirety of “Sports Analogies.”

JOSH AND NATHANIEL: We’re sad about our dads.

The shot of the two hot, fit, guys double fisting whiskey and cigarettes is the spot-on visual parody of toxic masculinity that we all need this week (and needed every week of 2018, really). 

The coupling is brilliant because it highlights each of the exes underrated qualities. Josh Chan commits to excellence in his projects and Nathaniel is so analytical, he can find connections anywhere. They are yet another pairing I didn’t know I needed, but boy do I!

The song is Crazy Ex-Girlfriend at its best, providing timely social commentary in a fresh way while meaningfully contributing to character development. It is the “Let’s Generalize About Men,” of Season 4. 

Josh and Nathaniel’s banter in the beginning and wholesome photo shoot at the end is a snug fit and shows off the contours and strength of the two men, just like those man undies. 

Crazy Talk

• Donna Lynn Champlin as Paula continues to be the best representation of motherhood on television. More on Momma Cookie later. 
• Beth is back! I love seeing her integrated into the group. 
• I want to see a character other than Rebecca get to have a hot hook-up. So far, the kissing scenes of other couples have been cute and sweet, not a panty-changer.
• Valencia’s eyebrow deserves its own spin-off. 
• Valencia threatening harm to Hector in Spanish strangely warms my heart. I love it. 
• Paula and Scott have really become #MarriageGoals
• “Sports Analogies” is a song the finally matches Vincent Rodriguez III’s vocal talents and strengths. 
• I would have liked to see Heather and Beth play Trial by Fire. I imagine they would have knocked it out of the park. 
• Nathaniel has the killer lines on the episode, including, “We had to work together to get the little ball in the net.”

 

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.

Follow @telltaletv_https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!

30 Favorite TV Couples from 2018