‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ Recap: "Who Is Josh's Soup Fairy?" and "When Do I Get to Spend Time with Josh?"

Ivy Sears ’19/ Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer
Spoiler Alert: This review contains spoilers for Season 2 Episode 8 and 9 of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

Rebecca (Rachel Bloom) and Paula (Donna Lynne Champlin) mend fences, Josh is a male model, and Mrs. Hernandez (Gina Gallego) can talk!  “Who Is Josh’s Soup Fairy?” kicked off the two-part mid-season premiere of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and it’s everything you have been waiting for.
The episode begins on a somber note, with Paula’s husband, Scott (Steve Monroe), telling her that he cheated on her. Paula immediately kicks him out of the house, leaving her scared of what she is going to do on her own. After Paula has an outburst in the office, Rebecca apologizes for the time the two were apart, but not before Mrs. Hernandez yells at her (yes it turns out Mrs. Hernandez can talk). She calls Rebecca selfish. Partly because she missed Paula and partly because she doesn’t want to be selfish anymore, Rebecca agrees to take care of Paula’s kid, Tommy (Steele Stebbins), so that Paula can go on a field trip to Sacramento to see the supreme court. This leaves Rebecca with a newfound maternal instinct, leading to the song “So Maternal.”
During an outing with Tommy, Rebecca runs into Josh (Vincent Rodriguez III). They have a very pleasant conversation and Rebecca hugs Josh, despite him having a cold, an act that Josh’s own girlfriend, Anna (Brittany Snow), refused to do. When Rebecca returns to Paula’s house with Tommy, she decides to send Josh some soup. She has the delivery boy write a long note to Josh, but when the soup arrives the note has been accidentally destroyed. Josh, believing Anna had given him the soup, writes a thank you to her on social media. Rebecca sees this and immediately wants to make it clear that she had given him the soup.

Rebecca tracks down Josh’s whereabouts, and, with Tommy (and his new fake ID) in tow, goes to Spiders’ (yes that is the punctuation as seen in this episode) to find Josh. While there, Rebecca sees Josh with Anna and hides in order to avoid Anna seeing her, as she thinks Rebecca’s name is Madge. While attempting to hide from Anna, Rebecca loses Tommy and spends the majority of the rest of the episode trying to track him down with Heather’s (Vella Lovell) help.
Meanwhile, Josh has a big career surprise for everyone, one that he is sure Anna will love. He has become a male model and struts his stuff for everyone at Spiders’. Anna is horrified by Josh’s new career move and dumps him on the spot, leading Josh to realize that she wasn’t the caring person he thought she was and that it was not her who gifted him the soup. Hector (Erick Lopez) and White Josh (David Hull) figure out that Rebecca had been Josh’s soup fairy and when they tell Josh he realizes that it is Rebecca he should be with. He sings the song “Duh!”, describing every reason why he and Rebecca should be together.
Rebecca, on the other hand, is not feeling quite so optimistic. She returns to Paula’s home, practicing what she is going to tell her best friend, only to find both Paula and Tommy safely at home. Tommy has lied to his mom and told her of the nice weekend they had building a model volcano, only to have a bully mess the whole thing up. Paula buys the story and the two of them agree to be sad together. It is at this moment that Josh knocks on the door and professes his feelings for Rebecca. Rebecca is excited about this but decides that she has to stick by Paula. She tells Josh to leave. Josh does, but not before telling her that he is not giving up on their relationship. After he leaves, Rebecca comes clean to Paula about losing Tommy. Paula forgives her because of the selflessness she had shown. The two end the episode as best friends again, and everyone can breathe a sigh of relief. Rebecca can obsess about Josh again and Paula will be there to help her. Everything is right with the world, at least for now.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend returned from its mid-season break with two weeks worth of episodes. Which means that any happiness gained in the last hour is about to be ruined. The second episode, “When Do I Get to Spend Time with Josh?”, is set several days after the end of the first. Rebecca has been staying with Paula and acting as Paula’s wife. Josh has been sending presents to Rebecca and standing outside Paula’s house every day, all day, with the exception of going home to shower. Rebecca stands firm that she doesn’t want to date Josh again, until Paula gives her permission, telling her that dating Josh isn’t selfish.
Josh and Rebecca spend the next few days in a blissful love bubble. Josh even admits that he is in love with Rebecca, making them even happier. On day four they are planning a day trip to a waterpark, Josh even calls in sick to his job, when Heather tells Rebecca that Darryl (Pete Gardner) has been trying to track her down. Rebecca decides to stop by the office before her trip with Josh. When she arrives at the office she discovers that Darryl has sold half of the company to a shark (Scott Michael Foster) from LA, who threatens to start firing people if they can’t come up with 25K by Friday morning at 8 am. This forces Rebecca to work overtime to get a rich client to agree to work with them in order to not see Paula and her other friends get fired.

Working as much as she does puts a strain on her new relationship with Josh, including walking out on a dinner with Josh and his parents. Their relationship is only mended when Rebecca manages to win the case and save everyone’s job. She does this only after attacking the new boss with a ball point pen. The episode ends with Rebecca and Josh reconciling, however, we see a glimpse that Rebecca may be more attracted to the shark then she is letting on.
Overall the first episode was much stronger than the second, but both were a perfect way to open up the second half of season two of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
Combined Grade: A-