Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Oh, Nathaniel, It's On! (3x10)

Yay! A focus on Heather!

Cons:

So, this whole baby-making plot thread is going full steam ahead, and while I don't mind that in principle, I'm starting to think we may have just run right past the whole "Darryl grieves for the loss of his relationship" part of the equation. After seeing White Josh cry over his breakup, I really wanted to see Darryl go through that process as well. Maybe we'll still get it, but it kind of seems like we just skipped it, which is a bummer.

The Heather subplot was great, but it made me realize even more how little Valencia has had to do this season. Even the plot thread where she was working on her event planning business didn't really have much to do with her - it was taken over by Rebecca!

Pros:

Both of those complaints are just things I wish we could have seen more of. But the good stuff... is great, as per usual.

I love the idea of Heather finding her place in the world. This episode brought a ton of changes for her. She asked Hector to move in, she got a new job and became Kevin's boss, and she agreed to have Darryl's baby after the original surrogate couldn't do it anymore. I'll be curious to see how this all plays out in terms of Heather's own emotional state. She's been stuck in a rut for so long, but now she might be going too far in the opposite direction, changing everything up all at once. I like that idea, and I'm excited to see what comes of it.

Kevin's utterly horrible attempt at racial sensitivity was pretty funny, especially given Heather's exasperated yet somewhat complacent reaction to the whole thing. She doesn't try to coach him through his awkwardness, but she doesn't berate him either. Sadly, this sort of thing is probably pretty normal for Heather. I did like how she told him that the sari was a bad idea, even if she had been Indian.

Rebecca going on hormones to donate an egg to Darryl was a horrible idea for her own mental health, and I'm not entirely sure she would have been allowed to anyway. They do a pretty extensive background check on people before they let you donate eggs. But whatever. Point is, it went poorly, but not so poorly that Rebecca has totally relapsed and all of her progress is out the window. I like that we're continuing this idea of her being... okay. She screws up, she can still fall into damaging patterns, but she goes to therapy and she tries to practice better emotional management for herself. She is realistically someone who is working hard to get better.

The songs were so funny - one was a reprise of the song the office sang when Nathaniel first showed up. The only thing is, now the rest of the office are pretty much okay with him, while Rebecca is out for revenge. All of the meta jokes work so well because they're so rare - this show doesn't make a bunch of genre and fourth-wall jokes all the time, so it's allowed to do it on occasion.

And the tango in the court room with Rebecca and Nathaniel was exactly what I wanted. They're both so hurt and angry and clearly really in to each other, and this song captured all of those emotions and more. Once Rebecca is off of the hormones, she is able to have a mature discussion with Nathaniel, wherein they both admit that they've been having a hard time with their breakup, and agree to be adults about it. Of course, they then immediately start making out, so...

I'd say this is another situation that falls under Rebecca's recovery path. She's not destroying everything, but she's not making the totally responsible, totally correct choice either. She's being a human, and I love that. I also love that she's back at the firm, and now in a position of power. She may have gone after the firm just to get back at Nathaniel, but she also did have some altruism behind her actions as well. I hope we can do a little more focusing in on the work stuff, since this show really doesn't spend enough time showing these characters do their jobs.

Just before I go, I also want to mention how much I'm loving the group therapy stuff. That whole group of characters is a lot of fun and I really appreciate the fact that we're getting to know them as distinct people, even beyond the way they bounce off of Rebecca during therapy sessions.

There you have it! Rebecca and Nathaniel should not be sleeping together, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't kind of love this turn of events. Those two are so unexpectedly sweet together...

9/10