MTVP So Cal Summer 2016: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend 1.13: "Josh and I Go to Los Angeles!"

“My advice to the two of you is to stop obsessing about Rebecca. Nothing good can come of it.”
-Greg

“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” was originally given a thirteen episode order by the CW, and it’s pretty clear that the creative team was planning for this episode to serve as a season or series finale if need be. It’s got big moments in the Josh/Rebecca/Greg triangle, and Rebecca faces none other than arch nemesis Audra Levine in the courtroom. There was also quite a lot of music in this episode, from a Hamilton-style rap battle, to a Les Miserables homage (and reprise), to a brief reprise of “Settle for Me” by Heather of all people. There is also a classic rom com moment to end it all. It would have been a very satisfying season finale, for sure. I maybe would have been a little dissatisfied if it was a series finale, but I’m not ready for the show to end in general, so there’s that.

This episode picks up right where the previous one left off. Rebecca is at Josh and Valencia’s apartment, and she’s been confronted with the real life Trent, her “boyfriend.” Rebecca decides to keep pretending he’s her boyfriend, and Trent goes with it, surprisingly. They even both go back to Rebecca’s house. It turns out that Trent had a huge crush on Rebecca when they were in school, so he really has no problem with keeping up appearances that he’s her boyfriend. In fact, he threatens to tell everyone the truth if Rebecca doesn’t let him do some boyfriend-like things such as cook a romantic dinner. And draw her a bath (which is okay, Rebecca says, because she was wearing a bathing suit). Trent is being super creepy, but Rebecca’s kind of half-enjoyment of it gives the macabre aspect a bit of a candy coating.

Anyway, Rebecca tells Josh that she has uncovered what could be a huge conspiracy to divert water from the San Gabriel Valley to Hollywood, and over Valencia’s objection, Josh agrees to help her take down Greater City Water. He knows people in “all the places” in the San Gabriel Valley, after all, so he can help Rebecca put together a class action lawsuit. Greg decides that he needs to just remove himself from the Rebecca craziness for a while. While Rebecca, her coworkers, and Josh are in in the Whitefeather conference room working, opposing counsel arrives on the scene. The team representing Greater City Water is led by none other than Rebecca’s almost life-long rival, Audra Levine. Also part of the team is the always fantastic Curt Mega, who can also be seen in Spies are Forever (It’s a Musical!) and Edgar Allan Poe’s Murder Mystery Dinner Party. Mega is more of a background character in this episode, but he steals the show with the faces he pulls in the rap battle that ensues when Audra and her team arrive on the scene. The rap battle (or “JAP Battle,” I should say”) is a lot of fun in general and a great way to give us some insight into Rebecca and Audra’s deep history.

There are two sort-of secondary romantic plots going on in this episode, too. First, Greg has decided to recommend Heather for a job at Home Base. Heather (she of the “wise reprise” as we’ll see soon), thinks this could either be fun or a really, really bad idea. Greg reassures her that working together will be great, and so Heather decides to roll with it. Kevin, since he’s the super nice guy boss, also agrees to the arrangement. Darryl and White Josh are also figuring out their relationship. Darryl wants to take White Josh out to dinner, but not in West Covina. White Josh isn’t about to go back in the closet. After all, he was closeted before until the ripe old age of twelve, and he’s not doing that again. This leads to quite a lot of awkwardness between the pair as the episode progresses.

Anyway, with Audra on board, this case is never going to settle, so there is going to be a hearing in court that Rebecca needs to prepare for. When it’s actually time for the hearing, Rebecca is petrified that none of her clients (other than Josh) are actually going to show up. Rebecca doesn’t want to look like a fool in front of Josh, after all. Just as she’s convinced the whole thing is really going to be a no show, clients start arriving, and they sing a “Les Mis” parody song called “Flooded With Justice,” complete with waiving red flags. Josh sings too, and the seriousness with which Vincent Rodriguez, III takes his marching is pretty adorable. They all march right into the courtroom.

Rebecca makes a valiant effort to win the case for her clients. She gives impassioned opening and closing statements, and she calls Burt the former DPW employee as an expert witness. Her case falls apart, however, when Audra brings up Burt’s schizophrenia diagnosis. Rebecca wishes she had that one perfect piece of evidence that would just put the case away, and Trent tries to deliver that to her. He hacks into Greater City Water and prints out a bunch of incriminating emails. Rebecca is torn over whether or not to enter them into evidence since they were stolen – does she want to win the case at all costs, or does she want to be a better person than Audra. The attorney in me would just like to say that Trent hacking shouldn’t be necessary for this evidence to be produced. Plain old discovery should have taken care of it. But sending interrogatories and doing depositions isn’t as dramatic. Or the interrogatories aren’t as dramatic, at least. Ultimately, Rebecca loses the case, but she comes out of it a better person, and she slips the e-mails to a journalist so the fight won’t be lost for good.

The hearing was broadcast on TV, and thanks to Heather, the whole crowd at Home Base was watching it. At first, this made Greg very peeved – he didn’t really want to see Rebecca at all, let along with Josh on his TV screen. As the drama unfolded, however, Greg got more and more absorbed, and he was especially proud of the closing statement. Heather can see that Greg still isn’t over Rebecca, so with a reprise of “Settle for Me” called “Don’t Settle for Me,” she encourages Greg to follow his heart and go see Rebecca. Unfortunately for Greg, following the case, the clients all do a “Flooded With Justice” reprise complete with slow clap, and afterwards, Josh tells Rebecca he’s proud of her, and they kiss. Greg arrives at the courthouse just in time to see the kiss. Darryl and White Josh fare better, though. Darryl shouts on the courthouse steps that he’s bisexual, and they kiss again.