MTVP So Cal Summer 2016: Crazy Ex Girlfriend 1.14: "Josh is Going to Hawaii!"

“Holy Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Paula. Am I broke?”
-Rebecca

“Josh is Going to Hawaii” deals with the aftermath of Josh and Rebecca’s courtroom kiss at the end of the previous episode. As you might expect, Josh and Rebecca are not on the same page about the kiss. At all. There’s quite a bit of material about applying romantic comedy tropes to real life in this episode, which seems appropriate, considering the events of the show overall. Rebecca naturally wants to believe her life could be a rom com, and Paula encourages that fantasizing. She fancies herself as the quirky best friend who always gives the best relationship advice. Josh, on the other hand, realizes that he is not in a romantic comedy, and he needs to make things right with Valencia. Witnessing this brings Rebecca back down to earth, and she makes a series of rash decisions because, you know, she’s Rebecca.

The episode opens with Rebecca and Josh each driving home from the courthouse in Los Angeles, contemplating the kiss that just happened between them. Rebecca is ecstatic, as if she’s in some sort of dreamland. Josh, however is horrified at how he has hurt Valencia. Both turn to their biggest confidantes – Rebecca frantically knocks on Paula’s door, and Josh frantically knocks on Father Brah’s. Paula tells Rebecca to keep cool and wait for Josh to talk to her. That’s how it goes in all the rom coms, after all. They share several-year-expired sparkling apple cider to celebrate. Josh confesses how guilty he feels to a very stoned Father Brah, who responds by telling a story about when he accidentally drowned his class’ pet bunny and blamed it on his little brother. The upshot of Father Brah’s story is solid, though. Josh needs to ask forgiveness of the one he has wronged, just like Father Brah asked for forgiveness from his now cult-member, heroin-addict brother. They both agree this is easier said than done, however, considering we’re talking about Valencia.

We next see Rebecca at home, trying to do some work, but she’s too distracted. Just as she’s about to crack and send Josh a cute red panda pic (which I think is a solid move, since red pandas are adorable), Josh appears at her door. They sit down and have a conversation about the kiss. Josh says the kiss was a mistake, and while he’s attracted to Rebecca, what he did wasn’t right, and he needs to confess to Valencia. Rebecca is upset at first, but when Josh points out that Valencia will probably break up with him, she’s more than okay with it. Josh also mentions that after he confesses, he’s going to be on a plane to Hawaii. Rebecca tells all of this to Paula at work the next day, and Paula insists Rebecca needs to buy a plane ticket to Hawaii too. After hesitating just a bit, Rebecca agrees.

The next day, Valencia is practicing yoga when she is thrown off by Josh going to CrossFit for the second time that day. Josh is just generally acting off, and something is clearly wrong. When prompted, Josh admits that there is actually something he wants to talk to Valencia about, and they decide to talk about it the next day, since Valencia wants to go to cryotherapy after her evening yoga class. When Josh leaves, Valencia happily wonders what he is up to. Clearly she thinks he’s about to propose. Meanwhile at Whitefeather, Darryl has called a staff meeting. The new receptionist, Mya, thinks that the meeting is to introduce her, but it is actually so Darryl can announce to everyone that he’s bisexual. It a rather awesome, Huey Lewis-sounding song called “Gettin’ Bi,” Darryl both comes out and tries to dispel many of the common myths about bisexuality. The staff is totally cool with it, although they wish Darryl hadn’t sung about it.

Rebecca wasn’t in the staff meeting because she was trying to purchase her plane ticket for Hawaii. When Paula comes to check on her after the meeting, though, Rebecca seems confused. She tried all her credit cards and her debit card, and her bank account (which she hasn’t checked in years) is showing a negative balance. She asks Paula if she is broke. We’re treated to a montage of all the frivolous spending Rebecca has been doing while she explains to Paula that she never had to think about money before (Paula, naturally, can’t even contemplate this). The conversation is cut short because the local newspaper ran with Rebecca’s water conspiracy story, and the mayor of West Covina wants to give Rebecca the keys to the city. Rebecca accepts his offer, even if it doesn’t come with a cash prize. Once the mayor leaves, the conversation returns to Rebecca’s finances. It turns out Rebecca doesn’t even know how much she makes or when payday is. As she is explaining this to Paula, her car gets repossessed because she hasn’t been paying her lease. And it turns out she also didn’t realize she didn’t own her car. Paula, understandably, is astounded by this.

Meanwhile, at Home Base, Greg and his favorite kid patron Chris discuss Greg and Heather’s breakup. Greg is convinced that it’s not going to be awkward that he and Heather still work together, because Heather is tattooed and totally cool. When Heather first walks into the bar, she isn’t openly hostile, but she makes a bee-line right for the back room. Greg takes the lack of open hostility as a good sign. Later, however, Heather is “touching all the cherries” instead of serving customers. Heather and Greg have a very awkward conversation about how things between Greg and Rebecca didn’t work out. Heather says she’s rooting for Greg, and by the time the conversation is over, Chris has run off due to embarrassment squick. Speaking of awkward, Darryl takes White Josh on a first date at a super fancy restaurant. So fancy that they make White Josh put a jacket on over his usual beach casual-wear. White Josh tells Darryl that he thinks they should act like normal people who have kissed twice and be a bit more casual. He encourages Darryl to check out some dating websites, which just makes Darryl even more tense.

Rebecca is on a mission to make enough money to buy that plane ticket to Hawaii. She’s so desperate that she sells her couch to a guy who is willing to pay an extra $25 if she sits on it naked. After making the sale, a rather dejected Rebecca opens the box her mother sent her (her mom had read an article about the water case and was actually proud of Rebecca for once). Rebecca was just expecting some rugula, but it is actually the Garfinkel ring. The Garfinkel ring meant everything to Rebecca back during the holidays, but she’s so obsessed with going to Hawaii with Josh that she immediately pawns it. She swears she’s going to buy it back, but the pawn broker doesn’t believe her. A very happy Rebecca buys the plane ticket and some resort wear. She’s about to celebrate with donuts from the Chinese place (we have a donut shop/Thai restaurant in my town, so that amused me) when she overhears Valencia on the phone with her mother. Valencia is convinced Josh is about to propose to her, and knowing the news Josh is actually planning to deliver, Rebecca starts to feel a bit guilty.

As she is getting ready for the Key to the City ceremony, Rebecca tells Paula about her guilt. She thinks she should tell Josh not to tell Valencia about their kiss. Paula is, of course, completely against this and goes so far as to steal Rebecca’s phone to prevent her from contacting Josh, but Rebecca one-ups her and steals her car keys. As she is about to knock on Josh’s door, she hears him and Valencia fighting about the kiss. Eventually, Valencia asks Josh if he loves Rebecca, and when he says “no,” she decides to forgive him. Josh even decides he’s not going to go to Hawaii so they can spend some time together reconnecting. Rebecca is devastated, partly because she just heard Josh say he doesn’t love her, and partly because she just realized that she is, as the song she sings puts it, “the villain in her own story.” The song itself is pretty great, by the way, and plays on a witch and princess theme. I think Josh comes to regret his decision pretty quickly, though, as after some make-up sex, Valencia almost immediately goes back to bossing him around as per usual.

Wrapping up the other relationship plots of this episode, Greg eventually confronts Heather and asks her what is wrong. She admits that telling Greg to go after Rebecca was a test that Greg failed. He was supposed to want to stay with her instead, and now she’s heartbroken. Greg realizes that he was a jerk, and he apologizes. Heather accepts the apology, but she also says that she’s going to be sad and angry for a while, and Greg is going to have to live with that because she’s not quitting her job. Greg tries to not to disagree with her when she says she’s actually good at her job. As for Darryl and White Josh, they happen to run into each other at the boba stand. Darryl says he tried dating a few other people, but he doesn’t like any of them as much as White Josh. White Josh is charmed and suggests they start over and have some boba together. That Darryl needs to pay for, since White Josh left his wallet in the jacket at that fancy restaurant.

Rebecca shows up at the Key to the City ceremony in a daze. She can barely get through the ceremony because all she can think about is Josh saying he doesn’t love her. She can barely get out a “thanks” when the Mayor asks her to say a few words. Then she bolts for the airport. Paula cheers her on, thinking she’s going to Hawaii to have her big rom com moment with Josh. Rebecca does indeed get on a (rather comfortable looking) plane, and she happens to be seated next to Dr. Akopian, her therapist that she keeps blowing off. At first, neither is thrilled to see the other, but then Dr. Akopian suggests that if they’re going to be sitting next to each other for six hours, maybe they could try some therapy. Rebecca finally agrees.