S3E1 "Josh's Ex-Girlfriend Wants Revenge"
Two weeks have passed since the wedding, and no one has heard from Rebecca. It seems weird that the season wouldn't pick up immediately where the last left off, but Rebecca's disappearance leads to a great song. Also, Paula has put up a sign explaining that she doesn't know where Rebecca is, but knows she is alive, and it's hilarious when she reads it aloud with Maya. Rebecca returns, and it's dramatic, fitting her. I love when she explains that she arrived at 5:00 am to do this, and when Paula acts like a mother. Now it's time for the girls to work on their revenge on Josh, however Rebecca's supposed best plan is awful. She ends up having one idea that isn't extremely terrible, but it is still very bad.
The girls put into action Rebecca's plan of making a fake sex tape where someone pretending to be Josh says he hates Jesus. They find a man who looks a lot like Josh, and they prepare to film. Rebecca wants to go farther than the others are comfortable, and she has a hilarious line:"If I'm going to have fake sex with fake Josh, it has to be real." Rebecca says that she doesn't care what happens to her as long as she brings down Josh, which causes a great moment where the girls assure Rebecca that while they will help her take down Josh, they won't help her take down herself. They end up coming up with a plan, suing Josh, which is great because it incorporates the fact that Rebecca is a lawyer, which season two didn't really do much with.
Paula is still getting over the fact that Scott cheated on her, and she is making him pass three lie detector tests to be able to sleep in the bed again. However, it's obvious that Paula really doesn't want Scott to sleep in the bed again. It's great that this damage to their relationship is still causing problems, and hasn't just been washed over. That's always been Paula's story, her marriage is in trouble, to her love is messy, as she sung about in "After Everything I've Done For You" in the first season finale. She finally lets Scott into the bed, but makes him call her Tanya when they have sex. It's great when Heather suggests why Paula did this (she really should be a life coach), and when Paula returns home and she and Scott agree no more calling her Tanya.
Darryl keeps pressuring White Josh into thinking about having a kid, but White Josh isn't interested. After a funny scene where Darryl dresses up as an anteater to see WhiJo's protein bars, they decide that they do need to see a therapist. The therapist they go to is Dr. Akopian (the husband of Rebecca's Akopian), which is a funny thing. They talk about their issues, and White Josh ends up realizing how judgy he is. I like that the show isn't pretending that even its healthiest relationship has its flaws.
And here are my thoughts on the songs of the episode...
"Where's Rebecca Bunch?": The first song of the season is an ensemble song that is a lot of fun and has a lot of great rhymes (and jokes about rhyming). Rebecca also gets a solo portion in the song, which is really good. This was a great way to essentially start things off.
"Let's Generalize About Men": This song just keeps getting funnier as it goes along. I love it when they start thinking about gay men, and then it gets even better at the end when the other girls tell Paula that her sons are going to end up becoming rapists.
This was a strong return for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. The non-Rebecca parts of this episode focused on relationships, and it did a great job with that, acknowledging their complexity. The songs of this episode were great as well. I didn't love Rebecca's parts of the episode as much as I usually do, but it was still funny, and gave the season a clear direction.
Score: 9.5/10
What did you think of "Josh's Ex-Girlfriend Wants Revenge"? Leave your thoughts in the comments!