Crazy Ex-Girlfriend – Getting Over Jeff

By: Stacy Miller

Rebecca (Rachel Bloom) is very excited about all the books she has for her BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder) assignments.  Heather (Vella Lovell) comments how much of a good student Rebecca is and how she (Heather) misses being a student. “Is there something you can sign when you’re no longer a student?” Heather asks. “It’s called a job application,” Rebecca answers. Later, she goes to Dr. Shin’s (Jay Hayden) office pleased with herself for doing all the reading. Dr. Shin reminds Rebecca that the road to therapy isn’t about assigning yourself homework and completing it in record time. He wants Rebecca to not put pressure on herself with her therapy. He wants her to go out into the world, feeling this is the quickest way on the road to recovery.

Paula (Donna Lynne Champlin) tells her sons Tommy and Brendan (Steele Stebbins and Zayne Emory) that as their grandmother is going on a church retreat, she will be going to stay with grandpa for a while. Scott (Steve Monroe) thinks that his wife seems to view things in life as chores. “You go through phases. There’s always something you’re obsessed with and it’s never us,” Scott says. Paula reminds that her life is chores, from being a wife and mother, working, studying and trying to get finished a season of Outlander.

As Josh (Vince Rodriguez) has been fired from Aloha, he needs another job. His friends suggest bartending.  Meanwhile, his daughter Madison (Olivia Edward) urges Darryl (Pete Gardner) to break up with his boyfriend White Josh (David Hull) if they aren’t in the same place in their relationship. But when White Josh approaches, Darryl can’t go through with it and pretends that what he has to tell him is about Madison.

Nathaniel (Scott Michael Foster) comes to see Rebecca.  Although he is very sexy to her, Rebecca tells Nathaniel that she doesn’t know what her books say about having sex. Paula tells Rebecca that she’s going to look after her father in Buffalo and invites Rebecca to come along.  When they arrive, Paula’s father Bob (Eddie Pepitone) calls Rebecca the girl that failed at killing herself, which embarrasses Paula. He also says that because Paula has no personality, she doesn’t have any friends. Wanting to get away from her disapproving dad and also needing to pick up some food, Paula decides to go to the market where she sees Jeff (John Gatins). “Who’s that?” a grocery store attendant asks when she sees Paula staring at the man in the freezer section.  “That’s my Josh Chan,” Paula answers. She explains that Jeff was the one she never got over. “So he was your first love?” the woman asks. “He was my first everything,” Paula answers, which leads into a rousing rendition of a song called “Very First Penis I Saw.”  Jeff notices Paula and after catching up briefly, invites her to see the classic cars that he works on.  When she returns back to her parents’ house, Paula wants to talk with Rebecca about running into Jeff.  But Rebecca is too busy bonding with Bob. Rebecca is also busy sending suggestive texts to Nathaniel.

Josh shows off his bartending cocktail moves to a girl named Theresa (Zoë Hall) and the two decide to go out on a date. Of course because he has a date, Josh discovers a huge zit on his face.

Paula pretends that she is going out with a girlfriend for a Saturday night church meeting, as she decides not to tell Rebecca about Jeff after all.  Rebecca’s bonding time with Bob grows as she plays darts with him. Then she sings the song “My Friend’s Dad,” which basically talks about how she’s able to have a good relationship with her friend’s dad because he’s not her dad and they don’t have a lifetime of baggage to deal with.  It’s interesting how Bob appears to be so judgmental with his own daughter, but is able to have a relaxed relationship with Rebecca.

Although it is difficult, Darryl finally admits to White Josh that he hasn’t been happy in a long time because the issue over whether or not to have a baby together is tearing them apart.  Despite their love for each other, Darryl and White Josh break up. As they are deciding on what they should do next, Hector (Erik Lopez) enters and takes Darryl and White Josh’s minds off their relationship but suggesting that watch Josh “do his thing” as Chan seems to think that he is in the movie “Cocktail.”

Meanwhile, Rebecca tells Bob that Paula is out at a Saturday night church meeting with a girlfriend with a cool Camaro. But at the mention of the car, Bob knows what is really going on and drags Rebecca off with him. At Jeff’s garage, he and Paula share a slow dance and she asks him whether he ever thinks about them and their breakup. Jeff admits that he does and adds that breaking up with her is one of the worst mistakes of his life. This is actually what Paula needed; now she can close this chapter of her life.  Suddenly, Bob and Rebecca burst in.  Bob is holding a rifle and points it at Jeff, demanding that he get away from his daughter.  Paula manages to talk her father out of doing something stupid. She asks her dad to give him his car keys, but Rebecca thinks that Bob drives really well when he’s drunk.

Heather thinks that Josh has an infection from his zit…did he touch a dirty glass then try to pop it or something?  Josh insists that he knows not to do something so stupid. Theresa arrives for their date.  Noticing his face, she too thinks it’s an infection because she’s a nurse.  When Josh has a drink mishap relating to his zit, Theresa makes a quick exit.

Paula tells Rebecca how she realizes that she (Paula) has always treated Scott like second best because she secretly never got over first love Jeff. But now that she was the one who got to do the rejecting, Paula feels that her marriage to Scott will be stronger than ever.  Rebecca feels guilty for being preoccupied with her own problems that she failed to notice what her friend was going through.

Josh tells Heather that he has ten more days of antibiotics left and can’t believe that he was taking other people’s germs and spreading them all over his face. He sadly realizes that he is spiraling with no job, no apartment and no relationship.

Before they leave Buffalo, Bob comments how Rebecca told him that Paula was first in her law school class; he didn’t realize that she was so smart. It looks like there’s a lot of things Bob doesn’t know about his daughter, maybe he’ll take the time now to get to know Paula.

When they arrive back in West Covina, Rebecca makes a beeline for Nathaniel.  Forget what the books says, if she wants to have sex with Nathaniel, that’s what she’s going to do. Meanwhile, Paula tells Scott that if there was some sort of magical wall she could go through and pick any man in any time period, she’d pick Brad Pitt. “And after he turned me down, I’d pick you,” Paula says.

Rebecca goes to Dr. Shin and tells him all she’s done this weekend to get out of the therapy bubble.  All her life, she’s only known how to be good or bad.  But Rebecca realizes that living life is about that space in between. Dr. Shin congratulates Rebecca on her breakthrough and gives her an ‘A’ as well as a scratch n’ stiff sticker that smells like grape.