Who Needs Josh When You Have a Girl Group?
I have to admit this is more than likely my favorite episode of the season thus far and I think you probably know the reason why. It was Josh-lite. I still hate the fact that all of the episode titles revolve around Josh because for me to title the episode, "Who needs Josh When You Have a Girl Group?" when Rebecca doesn't even mention his name in the episode just seems weird. What was most important about this episode aside the blessing that was the return of Trent and the reprise of the 'Sexy Getting Ready Song' was that this episode finally decided to address the hard truth about the most important relationship on the show, Paula and Rebecca's friendship.
Basically the main plot of this episode in nutshell goes something like this... Rebecca, knowing but not wanting to admit that she has pulled away from Paula since she denounced scheming, decides that all this hanging out with her new squad must be hard on Paula. So Rebecca decides to try and totally force(Despite what everyone including herself says about forcing friendships) her new friends and her old friend to mingle at sex toy party at her house hosted by Angelique aka Crazy Karen from the office. Rebecca lures Paula there under the guise that it will just be the two of them, and after talking with her new law school buddy, Sunil, (Who hits the nail on the head about Rebecca's selfish and neediness hindering Paula from opening up to her) decides that maybe this is the chance she and Rebecca need to repair this friendship and she can come clean about her abortion. Once there Bex gives Paula the tour and then just kind of springs the whole it's a group sex party thing on her, but Rebecca being selfish as usual begs her to stay for at least an hour because she really wants this to work. It's evident this isn't the scene for Paula anymore and she's really not into it and Rebecca is trying to rally the other girls to make Paula feel included. Paula finds herself trapped in the bathroom(Trapped in the Bathroom is one of the shows finer song parody moments) and when Bex tries to be a good friend and text Paula's husband from her phone to let him know what happened while they wait for the First Responders to come help, Paula starts to protest very loudly. Bex then goes through Paula's phone and finds out she's been texting Sunil about how awful the night is and asking him to come rescue her. Rebecca is hurt because these are the exact kind of texts that Paula used to send her and all this time she'd been feeling bad(again this wasn't really about making Paula feel included but soothing her own guilt) about the idea that she may have been replacing Paula with her squad, but really it's her who has been replaced by Sunil.
There's a whole subplot about Trent, the guy that Paula and Rebecca lied about being Bex's boyfriend last season who turned out to be stalker level crazy, coming back to town and changing his persona and then trying to force a friendship with Josh and his bros in order to win over Rebecca (It really looks so insane when you write it out, but it was kinda funny). It's a silly plan, and it doesn't work because it turns out that no amount of free chicken or paid tables at HomeBase is going to make Trent likable. (We do learn that Josh and Anna have been texting non-stop, and she even calls him boo. White Josh is just about as over serial monogamist Josh as I am) With some encouraging from a cashier that he bought his surfer duds from, Trent heads to the house to just force Rebecca to love him. Trent manages to free Paula from her bathroom prison, but before Paula can exit, Rebecca wants to confront her to get things out in the open, which they do and it was a conversation the two needed to have. Rebecca finally learns about Paula's abortion and she's believably heartbroken that Paula didn't tell her. Unfortunately, both of them are standing pretty solid in their opinions of their friendship so when the episode ends, Paula and Bex are walking past each other in the office and not saying anything at all. (Also, Darryl and Maya plot to be in Rebecca's friend group and Darryl admits he doesn't like her because she reminds him of himself. They crash the party with a dance routine, which Valencia ends up posting online and it gets 1800 views. Darryl names the dance "The Maya" and they do it for some of the employees at the office who find it cool-Yes. This was an actual plot....)
I really love this show when it focuses on other relationships aside from Rebecca's unhealthy obsession with Josh, so you can imagine how excited I was to see this episode. By trying force Paula to mesh with her new 'squad' that she formed with Heather and Valencia, Rebecca finally gets to hear some truth from Paula. "I give, and You Take and that is how it works" I think one of the biggest faults of the show up to this point is that Paula has never really told Bex how selfish she really is when it comes to their relationship. Paula, especially this season, has been presented as more mature and sane person than Rebecca so at times I have found myself asking, why is she really even friends with her. I've been friends with people like Rebecca and it's not fun being the Paula in this situation. I think their relationship was overdue this type of honesty, so I'm glad that it finally came. This show really only can work in the long run if Bex starts to show some growth and I think losing Paula is enough of catalyst to put her on that course. Of course that doesn't mean that Heather and Valencia can't still hang with her. I find myself loving the dynamic between the three of them and the humor it brings. In my life, I have friends that I hang out with, that don't like my other friends, so instead of trying to mesh them together I just hang out with them separately. If Rebecca had not been trying to squash her own guilt she might have seen that, but I say that now having done exactly what Rebecca has done. That's why I love this show when it's not focused on the Josh Chan of it all, because in the situations that occur outside of Josh end up being hilariously relate-able.
B
Grading The Songs
'Friendtopia'- Nice Spice Girls parody...Who wouldn't want to live under a rule where you were forced to watch Hocus Pocus? British accents were a nice touch.
B
'Trent Is Getting Ready Song' - YASSSS! The original is still my number one CEGF song, so this reprise was everything to me. Please, just give Rachel the Golden Globe.
A
'Stuck In The Bathroom'- This was fantastic, even though it wasn't quite the 'Trapped in the Drive-Thru' levels of funny, it was so unexpected and took me off guard. Plus, ANYTIME Heather gets a chance to shine is a good time.
B
Who's the Cool Girl Josh is Dating?
"You guys just went in a loop-de-loop" said by Heather during this episode just about sums up what happened from the last episode to this one. After spending two episodes getting both Valencia and Rebecca's focus off of Josh and onto female bonding, this episode spun us right back into Josh Chan's orbit. Normally, I'd be flat out annoyed at an episode centered around Bex's antics over Josh, but I actually found myself laughing out loud at this episode and it was able to soften the blow.
Basically this episode in a nutshell goes something like this... Paula has decided to throw away all of her fun desk ornaments in favor of some more serious ones. Not only does Darryl notice this but he also notices the way that Bex is awkwardly trying to jab at Paula, and notes they should just make up. Bex corners Paula at the copy machine and they both agree they've got to do something about this riff, but Paula doesn't have the time right now. Which is kinda Paula's motto right now, Scott's Quartet the Brovinas are performing at work Friday and Paula seems half interested when he reminds her while she's studying law. She hasn't done the laundry and the night of the show, she's too caught up talking law with Sunil to notice that's he's trying to share stories about his late wife and that she's late to Scott's show.(Scott's Co-worker Tanya is front and center though) Scott is pissed and at the end of the night chooses to go out with Hank than stay and talk things out with Paula.
Josh goes on a coffee date with Anna and it's super awkward and weird. She does eyebrows for celebrities and goes to hipster coffee shops where they make Frieda Pinto in the foam and Josh just...works out. I know I give Josh a lot of grief, but I think that solely lays on the writers who even here make him look even crazier than Rebecca the way he jumps at Anna when he thinks she says she loves him. Meanwhile, the squad is just chilling online and both Valencia and Rebecca end up checking his instagram after announcing how free they feel since they've unfollowed him. (it was super hilarious watching this scene play out. I think Heather is such a great character for them both to play off of and I wish she was in more of this episode, but let's be honest...she's about the only sane person on this show.) Soon, they find a picture of Josh kissing Anna and have to know everything about her. They end up losing 3 days stalking Anna online finding out everything they can about her and ask themselves the same question I'm asking myself, 'How does Josh end up with her?' Of course that leads them to reminiscing about Josh, and Heather wisely calls them out for going into that loop-de-loop. Valencia and Bex go to Anna's eyebrow shop just to check her out and just as they are outside Anna comes out on the phone talking about waiting on the next supply and then they see woman coming out with little bags of powder. They assume that she's dealing drugs and wonder how they should break the news to Josh just before they run over her cat, Gravy. Anna comes out, and they lie about who hit Gravy and then offer to take her and Gravy to the Vet. Gravy's going to be okay since they reattached his tail, but the girls won't be. They lie about their identities and then try and grill Anna for personal details (She doesn't measure herself...lol) Anna tells them about her new boyfriend Josh and how he described his past relationships as toxic. She seems to really like how sweet Josh is and vows that she and Josh will find the guy who ran over Gravy by looking at the security camera footage outside the store.
The girls later try and sneak into her brow shop in order to destroy the tape and find proof that she deals drugs to Josh. I loved that Valencia stole Anna's keys and then called herself the victim in the scenario and Bex's response was that they need to have to talk about consent. Once inside, they try to use all the details they uncovered to figure out the alarm code (It was her goal weight and Valencia's satisfaction that she weighs herself was hilarious!) They delete the tape and use Bex's lip reading skills to watch footage from the tape to reveal that the powder is just something Anna uses to grow brows that probably isn't on the market and that Josh really cares about Anna and feels for her something he has never felt for anybody else. They don't get caught surprisingly and end up at HomeBase and Valencia wisely says they need to move on and picks up a stranger to get laid. Rebecca isn't so quick to move on and really just needs someone to talk to so she stares at her phone at Paula's contact while across town Paula does the same for Rebecca. Unfortunately though neither one of them calls the other and things are still left as is as the episode ends.
I thought this was a really fun episode and I liked that in the end the Josh loving antics ending up leading us back to the real issue at the moment which is the rift between Paula and Rebecca. I will say that I am really loving Valencia this season and while initially I thought the relationship between her and Bex came a bit too easy, I really loved the two of them working together to stalk Anna. We all know that in this scenario, V was just a replacement Paula, but it was still so much fun. I am really annoyed at the Josh of it all still. I really wish these two amazing women weren't so weak over such a man-child. It's maddening trying to figure out why theses girls, Anna included, want Josh Chan. This episode while Josh lite in terms of presence, still was fueled by Josh. Though one could argue that in show that is living to turn tropes on their heads, that is the point. Too often women in film are merely used as plot devices and have no real development, so maybe it's purposefully done here by writing Josh that way. As honorable as that may be, it doesn't make Josh any less annoying though. What's really been driving this last string of episodes was the bond and truth shared between the female characters and I hope the show doesn't lose sight of that.
B
Grading The Songs
'Research Me Obsessively'- I have mixed feelings on this one. I liked the whole situation only because I've done my fair share of cyber stalking and found the whole rabbit whole scenario amusing but at the same time I wasn't really a fan of the execution of the song.
C
'You Go First' - Epic. Brilliant. Can my two faves just get back together already. The hair, the lyrics, the scenery changes. This was gold. As in give Rachel the Golden Globe.
A.
Stray Thoughts
Sunil is great. I need more banter between him and Bex.
Not enough Heather. I need more. Can Vella Lovell do a real AMA in character as Heather doing one?
As much as I thought Trent was eek. I kind of like him and I think it'd be cool to see him and Karen hook up.
Do they hate us White Josh-Darryl Fans? Two episodes in a row with no interaction between them? For Shame.
Will they ever dare to give us a full version of 'Period Sex'?
What were your thoughts on these episodes? Sound Off Below! And don't miss the back to back return of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend January 6th on The CW!
About the Author - Winston Mize
I always have the most trouble coming up with a blurb to describe me. Which is really weird for someone who wants to make a career out of writing. If you think I'm awkward online, it's just because you haven't met me in person. I'd like to think I have other interests outside of TV, and maybe I do, but TV is the one that gets me most excited. I live a pretty boring life so TV's the way I get my fix, and I'd love to chat about it with you. I'm also always looking to guest or start my own podcast, so if you've got the opportunity, I'm in there like swimwear. You can check me out with different previews of various shows or read my reviews of iZombie, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Legends Of Tomorrow here on the site. If you're a fan on One Tree Hill you can check out my podcast about as well by checking out our twitter page @OnlyOthPod.
