- He's discerning; he's refined,
Eats French cheeses, drinks French wine.
He travels all the time
And at the airport cuts the line,
And when he checks his leather luggage
No extra charges are incurred
Written by Sono Patel, directed by Larry Trilling. Original airdate 11/23/2015.
"Rebecca has a tough week after learning some news about Josh and someone surprising shows up to help her =- Dr. Phil. Paula is pursued by an important new client Calvin (guest star Cedric Yarbrough) and not just professionally."
Songs:
"Sexy French Depression" (sung by Rachel Bloom)
- Affectionate Parody: Of mid-20th century French chansons, as sung by Édith Piaf, Juliette Greco, etc.
- Deliberately Monochrome: Like an artsy French movie.
- Everyone Looks Sexier if French: Rebecca imagines this due to seeing a French film where the woman goes "I'm so depressed." French depression looks so much sexier than real depression in her head.
- Everything Sounds Sexier in French: "Oui. Je suis garbage."
- Chroma Key: This song has the most obvious bits of green-screening, where Rebecca imagines she's in France.
- Little Black Dress
- Smoking Is Glamorous: Parodied. Rebecca appears to be smoking while lying in bed and watching porn, but then she tears the paper on the cigarette.Rebecca: Ooh. Chocolat.
"His Status Is Preferred" (sung by Donna Lynne Champlin)
- The Chanteuse: Paula as the singer in a smokey jazz lounge.
- Eating the Eye Candy:Paula: And I have to stop my eyes from drifting downward towards his crotch!
I can peek, but I have to be discreet! - Lady in Red: Paula is wearing a stunning red dress.
- Pastiche: Of jazz/blues songs, especially Kahn & Donaldson's "Makin' Whoopee".
Tropes in this episode:
- Alice Allusion: The "don't drink me" vodka, the bathroom with chess-board tiles and bunny-rabbit wallpaper... and the trippy perspective when Rebecca picks up the bathroom-floor pill is similar to Alice's growing and shrinking.
- Double Meaning: When Josh's friends help him put together a dining room table for his new apartment for Valencia, they start making negative comments about the table that are clearly intended to refer to his relationship. ("There's still time to bail... on the table, I mean" "The truth is, none of us really even like the current table"). It's not entirely clear whether Josh ever picks up on this.
- Easily Impressed: Paula is absolutely dazzled by Calvin, who's basically a successful local businessman who she thinks of as almost royalty. She even has an extended jazz number lauding his 'Preferred Traveler' status.
- Innocent Innuendo: When Josh's friends have a Double Meaning conversation about his relationship (see above) one of them doesn't pick up on it, and goes off on a rant about parking issues that comes of as an extended sexual metaphor.Hector: Then I got to park it in back, I don't even get why there's a spot back there. It's so tight, feels more like an exit.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Calvin is a huge deal in West Covina... but as it turns out he's really not as prominent a business man in the world at large.
- The Cameo: Dr. Phil shows up as a hallucination of Rebecca's, and shows up in real life in the end.
- Replacement Goldfish: Implied to be the reason Calvin develops an instant attraction to Paula, she appears to remind him of his dead wife.
- Third Wheel: Darryl, despite being the owner of Whitefeather & Associates, is the third wheel at the dinner to woo a client.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Josh has no idea how far he accidentally pushed Rebecca to a depression.
