Crazy Ex-Girlfriend – Josh Is Irrelevant

By: Stacy Miller

Glenn Willow Medical Center. Paula (Donna Lynne Champlin) goes out into the waiting room at the hospital to update Heather (Vella Lovell) and Valencia (Gabrielle Ruiz) on Rebecca’s (Rachel Bloom) condition. “She’s going to be fine, she’s out of the woods for now.” The three friends share a hug of gratitude and relief. A nurse was assigned to be in Rebecca’s room at all times, but Paula decided to take the nurse’s place. Heather and Valencia offer to do it as Paula has a family at home.  Paula assures that her family will understand.  But she does need for them (Heather and Valencia) to contact all of Rebecca’s friends who have been asking about her. “I can do it, I can get in touch with everyone. I want to help,” Valencia says. Just then, Josh (Vince Rodriguez III) arrives.  He heard about Rebecca and asks whether she’s okay. “Josh, you need to leave,” Paula tells him, “I can’t have Rebecca seeing or hearing you. I don’t want her to be upset.” As the last time he saw her he asked Rebecca to go away, Josh wants to talk with Rebecca. At least, could they tell her he was there?  No, says Heather and Valencia.  Josh leaves and Paula goes to check on Rebecca.

In her hospital bed, Rebecca is apologizing to Dr. Akopian (Michael Hyatt) as she feels like she (Rebecca) was a coward for trying to kill herself and let Dr. A. down.  Dr. Akopian assures Rebecca that she was brave to ask for help and promises that they will get her the best psychiatrists and treatment. After Dr. Akopian leaves the room, Rebecca asks Paula whether the girls are still there.  Paula tells Rebecca they are because ‘gurl group 4evah’ would never leave her. Rebecca sadly says that she didn’t want to kill herself, she only wanted the pain to stop.

Meanwhile at Plimpton and Associates, Nathaniel (Scott Michael Foster) is trying to choose the right words for the card he is enclosing with the flowers he is sending Rebecca.  But he is having difficulty. George (Danny Jolles) enters Nathaniel’s office. He tells his boss that the whole office is going in on a cupcake basket for Rebecca and wanted to know if he (Nathaniel) would like to join in.  Unless he’s doing his own thing.  Nathaniel tells George that he is doing his own thing and gets back to his note after George leaves his office.

Back at the hospital, Valencia records a Facebook video update on Rebecca. Heather comments that she thought that Valencia was just going to do an email. But Valencia felt that emailing was so impersonal. “I asked Paula, she said Rebecca thought it would be a good idea.” She is surprised when Hector (Erick Lopez) enters with a grocery bag; he brought the chips. Heather tells Valencia that it was supposed to be their (Hector and Heather) third date when she got the word about Rebecca. “I didn’t realize a friend’s suicide counted as a plus one event,” Valencia says sarcastically. Hector comments how Valencia used to treat him when they were younger. And when Valencia tries to record an update on Rebecca’s condition and Hector almost ruins her shot, he tells her he’ll crawl on the hospital floor to get to the bathroom.

In her hospital room, Rebecca worries about Paula because her friend hasn’t been home. “I’m right where I should be, by your side,” Paula assures. Rebecca wonders what will happen when she gets out of the hospital. Paula tells Rebecca that she will be fine, especially with the doctor who is treating her, Dr. Daniel Shin (Jay Hayden).  Dr. Shin enters Rebecca’s room and when Rebecca asks how many meds she’ll be on this time, he tells her that her treatment protocol will be something different because he has a new diagnosis of her condition. This leads to a rousing Broadway rendition by Rachel Bloom of “My Diagnosis.”  Dr. Shin tells Rebecca that she exhibits many of the symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder. Once Rebecca leaves Dr. Shin’s office, she immediately looks up BPD and is shocked by what she reads.

Rebecca returns home and is upset over her new diagnosis as she reasons that having a personality disorder says that something is wrong with who she is. Paula suggests that if Rebecca doesn’t like her diagnosis, she should go for a second opinion.  They decide to ask Dr. Akopian.

Nathaniel finally finishes writing the card for the note with Rebecca’s flowers. He glances over at a photograph with his mother when he was a child. Later, he goes to see Mrs. Plimpton (Susan Blakely) and asks her point blank whether she tried to kill herself when he was ten.  Nathaniel remembers finding his mother passed out in her room with her eyes rolled back in her head. His father (David Grant Wright) came and got him and made him go back into his room. Then, Mrs. Plimpton was gone for a month and he (Nathaniel) was told that she had the flu and went sailing for a month with his aunt. Nathaniel realizes that they told him a terrible lie when he was growing up and now that his friend (Rebecca) tried to kill herself, he needs to know the truth so he’ll know how to help her. An upset Mrs. Plimpton retires to her room while Mr. Plimpton orders Nathaniel out of his house for upsetting his (Nathaniel) mother.

Valencia is recording another Facebook message in which she thanks Slimmer Glimmer Cosmetics for the free lip gloss samples they sent for Rebecca. When Heather accuses her of it being not about Rebecca and more about her selfishness.  Valencia tells Heather that this is more than about her. Thus, we get Gabrielle Ruiz singing the song “My Movement.”

Paula and Rebecca interrupt Dr. Akopian’s session with another patient. Rebecca tells Dr. A. about Dr. Shin’s diagnosis. She (Rebecca) wants Dr. Akopian to give her a better diagnosis.

Meanwhile, Josh is still feeling guilty over Rebecca attempting suicide and asks Hector what they (Paula, Heather, Rebecca and Valencia) have been saying about him. Hector tells Josh that he’s been in the inner circle every day and no one has mentioned him (Josh) once.

Dr. Akopian knows that even though Dr. Shin told Rebecca not to look up BPD, knowing Rebecca like she does, Dr. Akopian is sure that Rebecca didn’t listen. “In order to receive a diagnosis of BPD a person has to have at least five of the nine tendencies,” Dr. Akopian tells Rebecca. And the tendencies are: severe mood swings, profound fear of abandonment, instability in relationships, unstable sense of identity, paranoia, excessive fits of anger, feelings of emptiness, impulsive behavior, occurring suicide threats or attempts. Rebecca realizes that all those things are her as she doesn’t have five but all nine.  Rebecca returns home and tells Heather and Valencia that she didn’t get a new diagnosis and the one she was given was correct. Sadden, Rebecca goes to bed.

The next morning, Nathaniel comes back to apologize to his mother for the way he acted last night. “I know we don’t say this stuff in our house but I love you mom.” Nathaniel assures his mother that if she ever needs him, he’s there for her.  As Nathaniel is about to leave, Mrs. Plimpton tells him to wait.  “When you were ten I was going through a rough time. I made a mistake with my sleeping pills.  And then I went to a place where I learned to sleep without my pills,” she says. So without really admitting it, Nathaniel’s mother confesses to attempting suicide.  Mrs. Plimpton asks Nathaniel not to tell his father that they talked.  Then, she asks whether he’s like to take some of her roses to his friend. “I’d think she’d like them.”

Rebecca wakes up to find that Paula, Heather and Valencia slept outside the door of her bedroom. She tells her friends that she has to go to the bathroom.  And no, Paula can’t go with her. When Valencia realizes that she left her heavy duty toe nail clippers in the bathroom and Rebecca doesn’t answer the door when Paula knocks on it, the girls panic that Rebecca is in there attempting to hurt herself again. What they can’t see is that Rebecca is sitting on the toilet watching a ‘Crazy’ video. In a clever move by the writers, we see that Rebecca is watching the Crazy Ex-Girlfriend theme song. Heather grabs her intruder ax in order to break down the door when Rebecca comes out. “Hey girl, how was your pee?” Heather asks sheepishly.  Her friends admit that they were afraid she was in the bathroom killing herself. Valencia finally breaks down.  She’s been trying to assure everybody through the Facebook videos when she was afraid of losing Rebecca, the best friend she’s ever had.  Valencia asks Rebecca to promise that she won’t try to kill herself again.  Rebecca can’t make that promise because she doesn’t know what the future holds. Suddenly, a badly sunburned Darryl (Pete Gardner) arrives. When he got all the urgent texts about Rebecca, he borrowed a shirt and convertible (after his car broke down) and drove three hours from the desert in the sun.  Rebecca apologizes for all the horrible things she said to him before she left for New York.  Darryl says he could just kill Josh Chan for what he did, but Rebecca assures that it’s not about Josh, maybe it never was.  She admits that she hasn’t thought about Josh in days. “Josh is irrelevant,” Rebecca says. Standing outside Rebecca’s house with a little dog with a red bow around its neck, Josh just heard what Rebecca says and leaves.

Rebecca tells Dr. Shin she’s ready to begin group therapy. When she returns home, Rebecca finds Nathaniel leaving roses on her doorstep. He also returns stuffed alligator, Ruth Gator Ginsberg. Rebecca reads his touching note.  He tells her he meant every word and is there if Rebecca needs him.