Headscratchers / Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

• Are the songs "really" happening within the world of the show, or are they all (or mostly) in Rebecca's head? "I'm So Good At Yoga" is very easy to see as Rebecca projecting her own feelings of inadequacy onto Valencia, but on the other hand, Valencia is also very full of herself, so it's in character for her to sing that. On the other hand, "Face Your Fears" makes sense if it's not in Rebecca's head, because she would want Paula to be giving her useful advice, whereas in reality Paula's advice to Rebecca (which usually boils down to: behave as though you are the sane and deserving leading character in a romantic comedy) is not very good. Of course, part of what's funny about the song is that Paula sings it as though it's inspiring and Rebecca listens to it as though it's just weird and baffling, but then decides to go along with it anyway.
  • "What'll It Be" is sung by Greg alone and Rebecca is not in the scene at all, so that answers that question.
  • According to the dream ghost of Dr. Akopian, they're in Rebecca's head. What this means for songs that don't involve Rebecca is unclear.
    • Word of God says that Rebecca's madness is spreading to the other people in the town, which is why they sometimes get to sing songs when she's not there.
    • Also some numbers could be retroactive and are more so how Rebecca imagined them as musical numbers after hearing what happened from Paula or anyone else who would have thought to tell her (e.g., “Gettin’ Bi,” “His Status Is Preferred,” “Who’s The New Guy?”).
  • The season 2 finale reveals that the musical numbers are actually dissociative episodes.
  • Not only are they confirmed to be in Rebecca's head, there are actually several scenes in season 1 where Rebecca sings diegetically, and she is terrible.
  • The songs being in Rebecca's head raises a question, though. Throughout Season 2, there are mini-reprises of "Period Sex", which happen diegetically. Most of them are sung by Rebecca, such as when she realized she wasn't pregnant with Josh's baby or when she and Valencia had to accompany Anna to the veterinarian. However, one of them, in the episode "Will Scarsdale Like Josh's Shanya Punim?"is sung by Naomi of all people. How does she know the song if it only happened in Rebecca's head?
    • Rebecca's shown singing her made-up songs (generally to herself) outside of the musical numbers, so it's likely something she thought of a long time ago and her mom overheard it at some point.
• How is it that Rebecca doesn't know who Vampire Weekend are while Valencia does? They're an arch-hipster band founded by Ivy League students from New York—much closer to Rebecca's background than to Valencia's So Cal yoga instructor life.
• In the final episode, why didn't Rebecca screenshot the Instagram story Trent sent her and send the screenshots to the police? Is it because her phone had too much data? Or is it because she was in a panic?
• Why would Josh and Rebecca attend a Summer Camp together as teenagers if they live on opposite ends of the country? Most summer camps, with the exception of space camp in Alabama, are regional entities because parents don't want to pay for expensive plane tickets.
• Do any other tropers think that Valencia's friendship with Rebecca is unrealistic? Didn't Valencia have her own friends before becoming friends with Rebecca? Did they disappear?
  • No, because in her first episode she reveals that he doesn't really have any female friends. Both Josh and Greg say she doesn't bond well with women, before it cuts to her and Rebecca bonding. Valencia is beautiful, a bit stuck up and kind of bitchy, which has left her mostly friendless in her adult life, with Rebecca being one of the only genuine friends she has ever had.
• Why did someone as savvy as Heather not ask for money for carrying Daryl's baby?
  • She's just that nice?
  • It was also a pretty impulsive, poorly-thought-out decision.
    • He probably was paying for not only all medical expenses but would be there to help out at the drop of a hat should any pregnancy-related inconveniences come up. Darryl wouldn’t not take care of the woman carrying his future child.
• Why haven't they had an Obligatory Bondage Song for a musical number?
  • It seems Strip Away My Conscience in Season 3 was the closest we got.
• Why didn’t Dr. Akopian ever bring up borderline personality disorder earlier? Granted, she did consult with Dr. Shin first and BPD may be more so his area, but considering how long she had been working with Rebecca, wouldn’t she be able to gather enough information to diagnose her, or at least refer her to another doctor who could?
• Ok this has bothered me ever since I first saw it: late in season 3 when Rebecca is messed up from hormones she tries to have Mona assassinated. Aside from being pretty extreme even for her, the main problem is it was she who broke up with Nathaniel, out of fear she might go crazy again and hurt him. Now, she suddenly gets mad and does the very thing she broke up to avoid doing? WTF sense does that make?
  • It’s borderline personality disorder paired with hormones, it never would make sense.
• Why is the first season opening so terrible? The songs in the first few episodes are some of the best of the series, probably because Rachel Bloom had years to work on them. Whereas the opening song... isn't.
  • That's subjective, it's clearly supposed to be a cheesy TV intro jingle and it succinctly sets out the premise of the show, Rebecca's denial about her motivations and the heightened comic tone of the show.
• Why on earth would Michelle Obama of all people sing a song as sexist as “Etta Mae’s Lament” on TV?
• How is West Covina read in-universe as a backwater? It's only 40 minutes or so from downtown Los Angeles for god's sake!
• What was Josh doing in New York? Did they ever say? He had a business card, was that because he was trying to start a career there or because he just thought people in New York have business cards? Also how did someone as naive as Josh manage to survive there for eight whole months?