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Usually, CEG is very subtle in portraying Rebecca’s obsession and the darker parts of her past but in last week’s episode, subtlety was thrown out the window in exchange for full out horror-movies style suspense and creepiness.
We pick up right where we left off, with everyone Rebecca has ever known in West Covina showing up to her apartment to talk about Robert and everything Paula learned in her ex-files. Rebecca assumes that they’re all there to yell at her and lock her away and that they all hate her so she approaches the whole thing with animosity. It’s understandable considering everyone stormed in and stopped her from running away with Nathaniel. If that many people cock-block you, you don’t assume it’s from a happy positive place.
Robert Voets / The CW
But in fact they’re all here because they’re concerned for her and because they love her and want her to feel safe and protected. While their intentions are good, it does not come across well and Rebecca disappears into the night. Before doing so though, she tears into each and every one of her friends, being downright cruel and using some real critiques to make her words sting. She criticizes Paula’s parenting and all the borderline illegal she’s done in the name of love. Next she hates on Heather for continually avoiding her adult life and refusing to not be a student. Bunch also says that Valencia pushed her dream wedding onto her, which is extremely unfair because Valencia genuinely only wanted to help. Lastly, she criticizes Darryl for being blind to the fact that WiJo doesn’t want kids.
Becks ends up in a hostel with Hamilton’s Rory O’Malley to support her ideas of revenge and craziness. Although in the end, even he tries to talk some sense into her, reminding her that the villain in the slasher flick always dies. It doesn’t work though, Rebecca sets off to scare Josh and make him feel the way she did. She wears a shrub costume and haunts his backyard while he’s having dinner, calls him on the butt phone under his bed, and does more terrifying things, all framed by director Joseph Kahn in the perfect horror movie lens.
Robert Voets / The CW
The last scary thing she does involves Josh’s mom. She invites Lourdes out to a carnival and shows her a good time because she isn’t actually evil and she’d never hurt this delightful woman. But Josh doesn’t know that, he starts freaking out and runs after them to protect his mom. When they finally come face to face, shit gets tense! He confronts her, tells her she’s crazy, and basically comes at her with all his anger and resentment. It physically moves her closer and closer towards the edge of the cliff, and for a second you don’t know if she’s gonna fall, but then Josh saves her, tells her to never get in touch again, and leaves with his mom.
While all this is happening, the group is wandering through the West Covina and trying to find their friend. It’s great because many characters who don’t usually hang out solo finally got some time together. For instance, Valencia and Paula are teamed up to look for Becks and some real shit is revealed. Paula tells V that before they became friends, in the season 1 of it all, they were trying to sabotage her relationship with Josh and she even tells her about some of the crazy weird shit that they did, tracking chips and all. Valencia is shocked and feels betrayed but she seems to forgive the actions, for now.
Darryl is also processing the fact that WiJo doesn’t want kids. He knew deep down but having Rebecca yell it at him made it real. As they walk together (with Hector who saves himself when the fighting starts) they try to work it out but can’t quite get there. Eventually White Josh admits that he’s not ready and Darryl realizes that might be a dealbreaker and they hold hands and wonder what the future will be for them now. THIS SUCKS I AM SAD DO NOT TAKE WHITEJOSHFEATHER FROM ME!
Hector, who ran away from the couples drama, starts walking with Heather and they HELLA BOND! They’re also HELLA CUTE together and I ship them very deeply. @ writers please get these two perfect souls together thank you.
The most disturbing part is coming up now guys. Rebecca heads to Greg’s study bar, where she runs into his dad. Papa Greg tells us that Greg has fallen in love with one of his classmates and that he’s super happy and doing better than he’s ever done. This is the last straw for Rebecca, this is the guy she though would always be around and she just found out that he really won’t be anymore. AND THEN IT HAPPENS. She has sex with Greg’s father. I can’t. I really can’t. Such poor decision making. Such a bad idea.
In musical moments I forgot to mention, there’s a perfect fake scary movie opening song, and a credit sequence at the end of the episode that’s worth watching in slo-mo. It’s reminiscent of the Leslie Knope meme where every name in the credits are hers. Rebecca Bunch does the same thing and throws in some fun other credits in there like “stand in: broom Darryl” and “special thanks to: literally no one.” AND JOSH GROBAN! He shows up to sing the final song and convey what’s in Rebecca’s head better than anyone can.
Alas, here we are, with the bad idea having become the bad reality. Tune in tonight at 8/7c on the CW to see the fallout from everything that went down last week!
