Wow. Three episodes into Season two and we’ve covered so much ground. I don’t know where we’re going in the next ten episodes but I’m betting we’re going to slow down and focus on characters outside the central ‘triangle’.
It would greatly help the show as this was undoubtedly the most manic episode the shows ever had and at only forty minutes, it packed in an awful lot.
The key thing to gather from it is that Rebecca and Greg both need to be apart to heal. Funny how you could so want two characters to get together yet not just yet. Firstly, because Rebecca has never been so damaged. Her actions in this episode are on the brink of breakdown and she almost detonates everything in her life.
The writers use this as their focus as they posit Greg and Rebecca reuniting but pretty much spend the whole episode saying how it would be a bad idea. Greg is still in recovery and with some help from his dad, he’s got the money to go back to school. Rebecca is, as observed by her therapist (the returning Dr Akopian), dealing with some serious mental health issues and any relationship is a bad idea.
Even her dancers in the episodes only song (If you don’t count Period Sex) ‘The Math of Love Triangles’, say that they’re worried about her. She’s hyperactive, overexcited and delusional. She briefly breaks out of it but is only drawn back into it when Greg makes a mistake and kisses her.
Their bridge rendezvous is a sweet scene and reminds us why they’re so good yet it only makes Rebecca worse in the end. She became so obsessed with love triangles and ‘signs’ that she couldn’t see clearly. She thought her, almost, pregnancy was a sign and when telling Josh, then discovering she actually wasn’t, gave Josh the motivation to break up with her.
As much as Josh has been also in a bad place this season, he was at least partly in tune with reality in this episode. He and Rebecca are never going to be good together and his goodbyes to Greg at the end are rather touching.
Greg’s choice to leave, whether permanently or not, is surely the best thing for him and I hope we get to see him return in the future.
However, it’s Paula’s story that continues to surprise. By the end of the episode, she’s discovered that she’s pregnant and after some help from Daryl will also be going to law school. Now she’s in crisis as she worries that she won’t be able to do both and that maybe she’s not meant to do it.
There’s, of course, plenty of options. She can go to law school and be pregnant or just get an abortion, it’s not completely over for her but I’m glad that her story is so focused compared to the craziness of the Rebecca story.
All in all, it’s another great episode that is shorter than usual, has only one song, and is more manic for it. However, it’s the simple message at the beginning that appeals to me.
Rebecca consults a polyamorous three who tell her that just because she can’t choose between two men it doesn’t mean she’s polyamorous. I’m glad that show made mention of this but was even more pleased when they didn’t just liken polyamory to a classic love triangle like this.
It was a solid episode, with a sudden ending and one great song, which was a wonderful parody of Marilyn Monroe. Apart from that everyone got some great stuff, from Daryl to to Chris.
Verdict
