Crazy Ex-Girlfriend S3E10 Review

Rebecca has focused recently on her life not going the same way as it was when she was obsessed with Josh. Last week, she avoided falling into old patterns when it came to obsessive love, but she is still making impulsive decisions, as seen by her decision last week, deciding to help Darryl, not thinking about the potential consequences.


S3E10 "Oh Nathaniel, It's On!"

Rebecca isn't really taking care of herself this week. Not only has she decided to start taking hormones without consulting her doctor, but she decides she wants to go back to work, also without consulting him, and when Nathaniel won't let her return, she returns to her old ways, becoming jealous of Nathaniel's new girlfriend. Rebecca has been doing a lot of the same things that she did in season one recently, and this episode has her returning to the type of manipulation she once frequently did.

She convinces Darryl's ex-wife to sue Nathaniel for his shares of Whitefeather, which gives Rebecca an opportunity to argue in court, which is always a great way to show how smart Rebecca is. Nathaniel confronts Rebecca, and it is brilliant that the show then used an excerpt from the season theme. Once Rebecca wins in court, she aims to get the money for the shares, but she ends up discovering that the Garfinkel ring is fake, and as a result not worth anything.

Rebecca desperately tries to find the money for the shares, which leads to both some hilarious callbacks, and Rebecca feeling like she failed everyone when she can't get the money. Rebecca is devastated, and Rachel Bloom communicates all of the emotions that Rebecca feels in this moment wonderfully. The combination of Rebecca's feelings of failure and the hormones she has been taking lead her to head to the dark web and order a hit on Nathaniel's girlfriend. In the morning, she realizes this was a mistake, and she talks to the other members of her BPD group about what she has done, but she doesn't realize that she needs to talk to Dr. Shin about this, instead convincing the group to not say anything to him because she is worried about how he will react. Kevin, who is part of her group, gives her the money she needs to buy the shares.

This is both a good and a bad thing. Rebecca believes that she is doing the right thing, fighting for the people who work at Whitefeather, and she somewhat is. However, Rebecca's motivation through a lot of this was revenge more than anything else, and getting this help keeps her from reflecting on how her decisions may not be the best for her health. This is the kind of thing that Crazy Ex-Girlfriend does brilliantly. Rebecca convinces herself that her motivations are pure, and while what she convinces herself of isn't completely untrue (for example, she somewhat did move to West Covina to be happy, but her primary motivation was Josh). Rebecca succeeding here is bittersweet. She bought the shares from Darryl's horrible ex-wife, but she also kept up her delusion that she is doing just fine, when she really, really is not.

This episode has one subplot, focusing on Heather's story of the season: figuring out who she is when she isn't a student. I always love having a Heather-focused subplot, because Vella Lovell is a wonderful actress, especially comedically. This week, she struggles with the fact that she likes working in Home Base, but has great ideas for corporate and wants to improve the Home Base stores. This is an interesting struggle, and Heather is funny the whole way through. In the end, she ends up becoming a regional manager, so she can help, but spends time in the stores. It's great to see Heather succeeding and utilizing her skills in a way that makes her happy. Also, her second scene with Kevin where he thinks she's Indian is hilarious.

And now for my thoughts on the songs of the episode...

"He's the New Guy": Like the original song, "Who's the New Guy," this song had a lot of great lines where, in this case Rebecca, would say something as if she existed outside the show. They were all very enjoyable, and I loved how she didn't even try to explain when she referred to her song as a reprise. I actually found this more enjoyable than the original, thanks to Rachel Bloom's strong performance.

"Horny Angry Tango": This song was enjoyable, though not as much as the first one of the episode. It shows how attracted to each other Rebecca and Nathaniel are, despite fighting right now. It isn't a stand-out song, but it's a fairly fun one.


This episode did an excellent job of showing how Rebecca would fall back into her old patterns, despite the conscious effort not to in recent episodes. I also loved how, once again, her motivations were complex, and the things that happened were not entirely good or bad. This is something that Crazy Ex-Girlfriend does extremely well, and that's what makes it such an outstanding show. However, I feel that the way that Nathaniel behaved toward Rebecca, especially at the beginning of the episode, was a stark change from how he behaved before. He is completely aware of Rebecca's mental health issues, and he has been shown to be selfish before, but not that selfish.

Score: 9.5/10

What did you think of "Oh Nathaniel, It's On!"? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

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