Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: I Will Help You (4x07)

Guess what? I liked this episode.

Cons:

There were great things about the songs this week, for sure. I liked Naomi's song, I liked the joke start to a song that Darryl and Josh had, and I liked Naomi and Elayne Boosler's camp song. All that said, though, this season has not delivered with quite as many winning songs as seasons past. In all of the first three seasons, I can only think of a handful of songs that didn't interest me enough to go back to several re-listens. This season, there are already quite a few that I thought were just... fine, but not really worth repeating. I think this is a product of the longer episode order. Maybe they only have the budget for one full production number per episode.

I've seen another reviewer complain about this in the past, and it's always bothered me a little bit too, so I thought I'd say something: everybody being on Josh's case about moving out of Hector's mom's house feels a little strange to me. Clearly their relationship is meant to be comedic and inappropriate, but whenever the rest of the gang starts telling him to move out, I always think about the money question. Nobody ever seems to put together the idea that Josh might not be able to afford a change in circumstance. That feels like an odd misstep on this show, and it highlights the degree to which money is not really examined as a moving force in people's lives. Sure, we all know Nathaniel is rich and he is judged for that because it enhances his privilege. But other than the necessity of having roommates as adults, we don't see the characters ever struggling or worrying about paying the bills. Remember when Rebecca was totally broke? Well, since then, she hasn't exactly been bringing in a steady income, and yet she seems to have no trouble staying afloat.

Pros:

I love that we haven't seen Naomi since Rebecca's suicide attempt, and I love that when we see her now, she hasn't really changed. There are plenty of stories out there about evil abusers, and there are plenty of stories out there about complicated people who get redeemed. Here, we have something a little unique - it's a story about a complicated person who is not getting redeemed. I think this is an important point for many people who have been victims of abuse from their parents. Naomi does love her daughter, and we see her express real concern on several occasions for Rebecca's well-being. But just because Rebecca has started to heal and make progress towards living her best life, doesn't mean that Naomi is suddenly going to change as well. As the episode progresses, we see that Naomi is the same interfering, manipulative, and abusive mother she has always been. The change comes when we see Rebecca stand up to that.

In a less brilliant show, Rebecca's constant backslides into bad behavior would feel like an excuse to keep retreading the same familiar ground again and again. Here, I trust this show, and I know that Rebecca's sometimes questionable or unhealthy behavior is simply a realistic representation of mental illness. She can't suddenly flip a switch and be better, and yet we see how much better she is, how hard she's working all the time to improve. At the end of this episode, Rebecca tells her mother what her boundaries are, and for the time being, it seems Naomi will accept that. Huge and important progress!

The New York plot thread had a lot of good laughs, especially the scenes with Audra Levine and her mother. I loved that Elayne Boosler showed up, and instead of being a moment where Naomi expressed real gratitude to her daughter, the emotional core of that moment was between Valencia and Rebecca.

I'm so glad that we got so much of Valencia and Beth! Their tiny apartment with the fridge/bed hybrid made me laugh. And more than that, Rebecca gets so much moral support and genuine affection from both of them. Rebecca knows she needs help, and she makes sure to ask for it. She has great friends who are willing to be there for her and support her throughout her difficult moments. They are there for her as she struggles to be honest with her mother about her new career, and they're also there to support her when she finally has a moment of triumph.

Just as Rebecca is successful in establishing boundaries with her mother, our two subplots also involve moments of success, albeit much smaller ones. I like that there are some thematic resonances between the three stories.

Paula and Nathaniel spend the episode helping out the women that Rebecca met in prison, and Nathaniel realizes that doing nice things makes him feel good. He also spends the episode being nice to Jim and Tim, which confuses and frightens them a bit, but Paula sees that he really does seem to have changed. With Nathaniel, it's not that he's never done anything kind before, it's just that it never felt like anything more than an exception to the rule. Here, Paula flat-out asks him if his newfound generosity is a ploy to get Rebecca back, and Nathaniel admits that this was part of his original motivation. But now? He really does want to do the right thing.

Josh is staying at Rebecca's while she's away, and while he at first makes a mess of things, he later learns how to take care of himself and live on his own. This is a small thing, but it fits with Josh's ongoing thread of becoming a responsible adult. Also, Darryl's "song" about how to clean the house was hilarious. As the episode ends, Rebecca makes the rash decision to offer Josh the second bedroom in her house. Remember what I said about Rebecca making mistakes?

As the episode ends, Rebecca confronts the fact that she just felt glitter exploding inside of her about Josh, and also Nathaniel. She has put the idea of romance on hold for quite a while, even counting the messy back-and-forth between her and Nathaniel. And now, she's feeling good about her life, she's doing good with her recovery, and she is thinking about her exes. Cue... Greg's re-entrance into the story next week? Maybe? I'm very skeptical about this whole new actor business by the way. We'll see how it goes.

Like I said, I loved this episode a lot. I am missing the songs that just blow me away and make me want to re-listen again and again, but I bet we'll get some more good ones soon, and for the time being I can just play "The Group Mind has Decided You're in Love" over and over.

9/10