MTVP So Cal Summer 2016: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend 1.05: "Josh and I are Good People!"

“Bye liars and terrible people!” -Greg In the aftermath of ditching Greg on their date to sleep with hipster taco dude, Rebecca falls deeper into her spiral of self-loathing and begins a desperate quest to convince Greg that she’s not really a terrible person after all. Of course she makes the number-one mistake you can make when intentionally trying to be a good person – she makes it all about her instead of the people she is trying to help. Rebecca is extremely concerned with Greg not thinking she’s a terrible person, which is a tall order, considering the terrible thing she did to him in the previous episode. By the end of the episode, though, she actually finally does something nice for the right reasons, and against his better judgment, Greg softens a bit. To be honest, I should have seen Greg’s self-loathing, which becomes even more clear later in the season, even in these early episodes, as you have to have quite a bit of self-loathing to continue pining for someone who continually does such horrible things to you. At the beginning of this episode, Rebecca and Josh are enjoying some boba while reminiscing over a summer camp photo album Rebecca (shocker) kept for all these years. Greg sees them there, and understandably, he’s not pleased. He’s angry with Rebecca for ditching him to sleep with hipster taco guy, and also for continuing to pine for Josh, and he’s angry with Josh for sneaking around on Valencia to spend time with Rebecca. He makes it clear that he thinks both Rebecca and Josh are terrible people. Rebecca is used to being called terrible (her mom is pretty evil, after all), but she’s still upset by it. Josh isn’t used to being called terrible, so he is understandably also upset. He takes a different approach to dealing with his feelings than Rebecca does (which we’ll talk about in a minute), and he pays a visit to confession. Luckily for Josh, the priest taking confession that day is the awesome Father Brah, a nickname Josh came up with by changing Father Joseph to Father Broseph to Father Bro to Father Brah). Anyway, once Josh starts going into more detail about exactly why he’s feeling troubled (he’s attracted to someone not Valencia), Father Brah thinks that Josh’s problems could be best worked out over a game of basketball. Father Brah, who is similar in age to Josh and his friends, is actually a pretty great basketball player, which is quite amusing. I think Father Brah is one of my favorite peripheral West Covina characters on the show. He’s always entertaining, for sure. Father Brah tells Josh to make a list of all the thoughts he has in the next day that make him feel guilty. When they meet for a follow-up, Father Brah points out that Josh hasn’t actually acted on any of these thoughts, and that’s really the important thing. By the end of the episode, Josh tells Rebecca that although he’s very attracted to her, he’s committed to Valencia, so nothing is going to happen between them. Rebecca just latches on to the “very attracted” part, of course! Anyway, when Darryl confesses to Rebecca that the custody battle with his soon-to-be ex-wife over their daughter Madison is getting messy, Rebecca sees her way to convince Greg that she’s a good person. First, though, Darryl has to sing a super creepy song about how much he loves his daughter (but not in a creepy way). It’s meant to parody country songs of a similar theme, like “Butterfly Kisses.” It didn’t really work for me, though. I’m not a fan of more typical country music (I love the music on “Nashville,” though), so I didn’t get the reference without outside research, and without understanding the source material, the song just seems a bit creepy and superfluous. Anyway, Rebecca announces her intention to represent Darryl in his divorce to the entire office. Darryl isn’t thrilled that Rebecca made his personal life so public, but he’s thrilled that Rebecca is going to represent him. Rebecca immediately drags him to Home Base so that Greg can see her helping. She’s a little taken aback when Greg leaves without telling her, and the new barmaid says Greg keeps a photo of her (Rebecca) on the dart board in the back room. Rebecca decides it would be a good idea to take into account what Madison actually wants in a custody arrangement, so she, Madison, and Darryl have a chat. Madison says she’d rather live with her dad, and she reveals that her mom regularly leaves her at home alone to go on dates. All of this is documented on Madison’s YouTube channel. Rebecca has hit paydirt. At a hearing, Rebecca reveals all of this to the judge, and Darryl is easily granted temporary custody. When Rebecca tells Greg about her achievement, he’s not super impressed, so Rebecca thinks this means that to finally win Greg’s approval, she needs to get Darryl permanent custody. She sings an awesome song called “I’m a Good Person,” where she basically threatens all the Home Base patrons if they don’t say she’s a good person. What can I say? It’s a catchy song. Meanwhile, back at the office, Paula is suffering from all sides. Rebecca keeps running out of the office to deal with her Josh and Greg related issues. The other attorneys make fun of her constantly since she actually tries to get work done. Her case assistant, Karen, is also completely incompetent. She has a pet snake with fang cancer and regular tampon issues. Rebecca suggests Darryl leave Paula in charge while they are working on his divorce case, and Darryl agrees. Paula relishes the idea of finally shaping up the office, since now all the slackers have to listen to her. She spends quite a lot of time yelling at Karen, which is quite understandable. Also the subject of Paula’s ire is an attorney named Tim. He’s especially obnoxious and always rude to Paula. Tim, surprisingly, is Canadian, and Paula discovers that he used a forged work permit to get the job at Whitefeather. Paula confronts Tim about this, putting him on edge. Eventually, though, she looks at a family photo and sees how adorable Tim’s kids are, and she decides not to hurt them by turning Tim into ICE. Tim is incredibly grateful and is now fully Team Paula. Anyway, Rebecca has a completely whacked out idea (surprisingly it didn’t come from Paula) to get Darryl permanent custody. She’s going to withdraw $10,000 in cash and plant it in Darry’s ex, Stacy’s, luggage, so that when she heads on an upcoming overseas trip, she’ll get in serious trouble. Rebecca runs into Stacy when she’s trying to plant the cash, though, and with Greg’s voice in her head saying this is about a child, not about Rebecca, she has second thoughts about her plan. Rebecca ends up sitting down with both Darryl and Stacy (at Home Base, of course) and helping them hash out a custody deal they can both live with. And Stacy ends up keeping the $10,000. Later, as Rebecca is watching a baseball game, Greg sits down next to her and says that, while he can’t say she’s a good person, she does seem to be a good friend.