S3E2 "To Josh, With Love"
Rebecca and Paula work on their lawsuit, but Rebecca is disappointed that this is too small. After Nathaniel decides to go back to being cold and uncaring, Rebecca decides that he would be the best person to work with to take down Josh. To persuade him, Rebecca promises Nathaniel that she will let him do anything to her, which is a very Rebecca way of convincing Nathaniel to work with her, and it obviously works considering how attracted to Rebecca Nathaniel is. It actually doesn't make much sense that Nathaniel doesn't immediately confirm that he will help Rebecca.
Rebecca and Nathaniel go to a party where they wear masks, and Nathaniel talks to people who will rain Josh's life while Rebecca distracts their wives. This leads to some hilarious comedy, as Rebecca tries to get along with the women despite completely disagreeing with their political positions. Rebecca discovers what Nathaniel's plan involved, harming Josh's family, including killing his grandfather, which Rebecca is opposed to. She tells Nathaniel that she wants Josh to feel the same humiliation that she did when he ditched her. Rebecca finally comes up with something, she confronts him in church.
In the moment, she feels great. She has taken revenge, she has humiliated Josh. However, when she gets to her car she realizes what she has done and how she will be viewed. Josh realizes the same thing when she leaves, instead of being humiliated, he is excited. The title of the show was somewhat applicable in the first two seasons of the show, as Rebecca is crazy, and she is Josh's ex, but her and Josh's romance was at a summer camp when they were teenagers, so this wasn't exactly the crazy ex-girlfriend trope. Now, however, the show has dived directly into what the term "crazy ex-girlfriend" applies to, and that is what Rebecca realizes when she gets back to her car. She is the crazy ex-girlfriend.
The B-story follows Josh at priest school. The priest there immediately realizes how little thought Josh has put into becoming a priest, and it's entertaining when he tells Josh that becoming a priest requires a lot more than it actually does. White Josh and Hector visit Josh (who hilariously tells them that he thinks he will major in Christmas), and they tell him that he needs to talk to Rebecca, in person. The rest of Josh's story goes to show even more clearly that being a priest is not for Josh, which creates for some comedy, though it does start to get old somewhat quickly.
In the episode's C-story, the women at the law firm cause Tim to realize that he isn't satisfying his wife sexually. Tim's naive beliefs about what is going on with his wife, are kind of funny, as well as when he realizes that his assumptions are wrong. This story isn't the funniest, but it isn't unfunny either. There is a strong ending here though, when Paula tells Tim that the fact that his wife never told him that she wasn't satisfied means there are communication issues in their marriage. This is easily the funniest moment of this story.
And now for my thoughts on the songs of the episode...
Season Three Theme: The season three theme is fun, and it shows Rebecca's conflicted emotions and many sides.
"I've Got My Head in the Clouds": This isn't my favorite song, but it's kind of fun, and it shows Josh's obvious delusion. Just like he and Rebecca thought that love would solve all of their problems last year, Josh now thinks that becoming a priest will solve all of his problems.
"Strip Away My Conscience": I loved the tone of this song, it made the song very enjoyable. The innuendos were also very funny.
"The Buzzing from the Bathroom": Since Tim has already realized that he isn't satisfying his wife, this song isn't very funny. His realization was only mildly funny in the first place, so him dwelling in it doesn't get any laughs out of me.
"After Everything You Made Me Do (That You Didn't Ask For)": I absolutely loved this song. First of all, it is a reprise of one of my (many) favorite songs from the show, "After Everything I've Done For You (That You Didn't Ask For)" from the first season finale. It also did many great things: it provided comedy, it served as a recap of many of the things that happened over the course of the first two seasons, and Rachel Bloom's performance was very powerful, both her vocal performance and her acting. Every moment where Rebecca took a step forward forcing Josh to take a step back was great.
This episode wasn't perfect, the C-story definitely didn't stand out, the dumb, uncommitted Josh jokes got old, and the songs "I've Got My Head in the Clouds" and "The Buzzing from the Bathroom" were certainly not the show's strongest. This is really disappointing, because the episode's ending was perfect. The last act of this episode brought out the essence of the show, and it was magnificent.
Score: 9/10
What did you think of "To Josh, With Love"? Leave your thoughts in the comments!