S3E5 "I Never Want to See Josh Again"
The episode begins with Rebecca back in Westchester. Naomi is pressuring her to decide what she's doing, like whether or not she is going back to West Covina. Replaying everything that she said to her friends in her head, she concludes there's nothing left for her in California. So, Naomi sends in Rebecca's resignation and writes a cover letter for her to get her old job back, but Rebecca is uninterested in anything, aside from a slight interest she shows in her laptop.
The show goes straight for an emotional punch when Naomi looks at Rebecca's laptop, and discovers she was looking up suicide methods. We know that Rebecca has attempted suicide before, and that Naomi typically dismisses Rebecca's mental illness. In the pilot episode, a voicemail from Naomi recalls a suicide attempt of Rebecca's in college, which she considers a stunt.
As a result of this discovery, Naomi is extra nice to Rebecca, behaving completely differently than she normally does. A visit from Audra causes Rebecca to contemplate why her mother is behaving in such a bizarre way, and it also points out how casually people joke about suicide; Audra does it twice in her short visit. Later, Rebecca discovers that her mother has been drugging her, putting anxiety medication in the shakes she is giving her.
Feeling betrayed by her mother, Rebecca leaves. However, now she has nowhere to go. She is headed across the country, but that's where she just ran from. On the plane, Rebecca realizes her situation. In her mind, she has been betrayed in New York, and she destroyed her relationships in California, and now she has no one. As a result, she takes all of the remaining anxiety medication. It, however, doesn't kill her, and when she comes to she calls for help. This scene is both heartbreaking and very necessary, and Rachel Bloom does a great job in portraying Rebecca's hopelessness.
While Paula is upset about how Rebecca is back in New York, her family decides to spend some time with her. She has a hilarious line about how they usually don't want to play the girly game with her because they "have those dumb penises," but they play it, and they have a good time. It's really great to see Paula's family getting along and coming together, because Paula has often neglected them throughout the series to focus on whatever is going on in Rebecca's life. It's a genuine story, and serves as a nice contrast to the family dynamic going on between Rebecca and Naomi.
Back at the office, Darryl, Maya, and Jim are trying to fill the Rebecca-shaped hole in their lives, and they find a candidate in a temporary replacement that Nathaniel brings in. The three of them fight for her attention, and they are all very funny in doing so. This episode relies a lot on this story for the humor, and it does what it has to do. It also has a great ending when Paula tells them that they need to move on.
And now for my thoughts on the songs of the episode...
"Maybe She's Not Such a Heinous Bitch After All": It's amazing that this show is still doing new styles of songs, and this style was really fun. I'm also glad that we got a song about Rebecca's relationship with her mom, because it is a complicated and interesting relationship. However, the song does overstay its welcome a little bit, it feels like it goes on for a while.
"I Feel Like This Isn't About Me": It's a good thing that this song was short, because I didn't really care for it, I just wanted the episode to continue. It's not a bad song exactly, it's just fairly uninteresting and definitely forgettable.
This was a great episode, combining both emotional intensity and great humor. Rachel Bloom was also amazing this week, and so was Tovah Feldshuh as Naomi. The episode wasn't perfect though, as I disliked one of the songs and had an issue with the other. Otherwise, however, the episode was pretty much perfect.
Score: 9.5/10
What did you think of "I Never Want to See Josh Again"? Leave your thoughts in the comments!