Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Trent?! (3x12)

Well, I suspect everyone will be tired of reading this by now, but... another great episode!

Cons:

I will say, that I probably rank this one just a tad bit lower than most of the ones we've gotten this season. In the scheme of things, that still makes it a great hour of television, but there were some qualms here and there. The main one is that we have a pretty trite and cliche moment where Rebecca shows up at the office with Trent, faking that she's his girlfriend, and Nathaniel sees them, and is heartbroken that Rebecca has moved on. This is too close to one of those "misunderstanding" plot threads and feels like the sort of thing that could be easily explained away. Nathaniel takes this as a sign that he really does need to move on and dedicate himself to Mona. I'm not sure how I would have done it differently, but I guess I wish there had been a less predictable way to get to this same point.

I also felt like Rebecca and Paula's song "Back In Action" was one of the weaker ones. Again, this is all comparative - it's not like I thought the song was bad, by any stretch of the imagination. Usually I feel compelled to go re-listen to the new songs immediately after an episode, and this one just had me shrugging. I think part of it is that Paula's lack of enthusiasm was a bit catching. I think that part of the point of this plot thread was that the whole "caper" idea is pretty ridiculous and un-funny when put into the harsh light of reality. So it makes sense that the song would capture some of that depressing atmosphere. Unfortunately, that also makes for a song that's not all that exciting to listen to.

Pros:

The other song, which in its uncensored version is called "Fuckton of Cats," is really fun. I was actually a bit concerned when the song started, because I think the idea of lonely spinster women with a bunch of cats is actually pretty sexist. (I say this as someone who has every intention of being a "spinster", with great excitement at the prospect). But as always with Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, the presence of a damaging trope is subverted immediately. During the song, Rebecca goes into a lonely lady cat store to buy a "fuckton of cats," but while she's there the proprietor and one of the customers fall in love and leave holding hands. She's upset because they're all supposed to be lonely together, and here they go defying the trope by finding another person who wants to discuss cats all day. Cats are awesome, by the way.

Trent as a mirror for Rebecca was everything I never knew I needed. There were so many recurring jokes and little things that made it special, like Trent being afraid of clowns and trains, and the opening sequence with Trent singing "I'm Just a Boy in Love," and all of the crazy things he said and did that are really just slightly altered versions of Rebecca's own past behavior. He mentions "love kernels" and puts Rebecca through a "love test" and it's all so scary and creepy. I think this made me realize truly how sexist the "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" trope can really be. Obviously this show took great care to show how Rebecca's behavior was abusive and wrong, but because she's a woman, she was able to go a lot longer and do a lot more damage without anybody considering her a real threat. The minute a man is pursuing a woman in the same sort of deranged way, it's instantly way more alarming.

There's also the fact that Trent is obviously in the wrong, but Rebecca does some bad stuff in this episode as well. Notably, she lies to Paula and says that Trent is planning on blackmailing both of them. Paula spends the episode really scared about her future and about what will happen to her career if Trent tells the police about some of the stuff she's done. It's heartbreaking to watch, and it shows that while Rebecca has made some real progress, she's still able to turn on a dime and lie and manipulate her best friend in a really hurtful way. Before long, Rebecca is going to have to face down her past actions and hold herself truly accountable.

The subplot features Valencia and her girlfriend (!) Beth planning a teenage girl's birthday party. They hire Josh as the DJ. Valencia is obsessed with getting noticed by more elite circles and making a name for their company, so she plans a sophisticated 20's themed party that the guest of honor and her friends do not enjoy at all. Beth encourages Valencia to stop being ashamed of coming from a small town, and just embrace it, leading her to do a dance with Josh that they did when they were crowned prom King and Queen in high school. It's a wonderful moment. I'm happy to see Valencia get some focus, and then to have this whole story where her girlfriend helps her take ownership of her past is just so sweet. Plus you've got some good ol' Josh and Valencia bonding time, which is something we haven't seen in forever. It can be easy to forget that these two have a very long and complicated past. Clearly, they were both meant for other things, but that doesn't mean that history disappears. Their dance was really fun and crazy, too.

Throughout this show, we've seen Valencia go from someone who was very territorial about her place at the top of the pecking order, to someone who wants to work hard to achieve success in an area she hasn't conquered at all. In doing this, she has shunned her hometown in a way that's really damaging and hurtful, especially for someone like Josh, whose identity is so closely tied in with his town. It was so nice to see Beth help Valencia realize all of this, and make positive strides towards reconciling these disparate pieces of herself. I also like the simplicity and ease of Beth and Valencia's relationship. The time jump means that we didn't see any of the exciting and stressful "start of relationship" stuff, and skipped right to a place of comfort and genuine happiness. There are all of these little hints, like Beth thinking Valencia is funny, that tell you exactly how much Valencia has grown as a character, and also how good this relationship truly is for her.

I'm always talking about how the side characters on this show don't have enough to do, and that does still seem to be the case. However, I will note that even when they don't get a lot of screen-time, each character has an inner life that feels complex and fully fleshed out. We see that Nathaniel and White Josh's friendship was not just a one-episode thing, but that they still meet to hang out and discuss their lives. White Josh seems to have bonded with his dog, which is cute, and Nathaniel is still moping about Rebecca and wondering what to do about Mona. By the end of the episode, Nathaniel has decided to make things serious with Mona. We'll see how that shakes out in the long run.

You also have a scene where Rebecca hangs out with the girls and discusses her future loneliness. I loved this scene because Paula, Heather, and Valencia are all so supportive. There's a great moment when Paula tells the other two that Rebecca and Nathaniel are over, and she mimes slitting her throat as a way to say it. Heather points out that maybe there's a better mime to use around someone who "survived a suicide attempt." That phrasing really stood out to me. The line could have read "tried to kill herself" or something like that, but instead the phrase really highlights just how respectful this show is when dealing with sensitive subjects. The three girls as Rebecca's backup singers during "Fuckton of Cats" made me laugh, as did Rebecca putting a tiny square of unfinished needlework on a woman's shoulders and telling her sagely "it's an afghan."

Well, there you have it. This was still a great episode of a great show, even if it did have one or two weak points. I 'm really excited but also incredibly scared for next week's finale. I don't know if we've gotten final word yet on this show getting renewed, but I really hope it does. I'm not ready to say goodbye to these characters yet - not by a long-shot.

8/10