When Rebecca decides to make amends for her past, she finds some unexpected challenges; West Covina awaits an important new arrival.
Songs
"Miracle of Birth" (sung by: Donna Lynne Champlin)
- Clean, Pretty Childbirth: Subverted. Paula is surrounded by flowers and sings about the "miracle of childbirth", while graphically describing all the gore-y parts of childbirth that are usually ignored on TV.
- Flowers of Femininity: Ironically appropriate to the subject matter, Paula sits on a throne made of them.
- Lyrical Dissonance: A gentle, folksy hymn that's a graphic description of childbirth.
- Nausea Fuel: In-Universe. The obstetrician is so disgusted by Paula's description of childbirth that he vomits afterwards. Bear in mind that he's an OB/GYN who's presumably delivered a great many babies in his career.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: The doctor throws up into a trash can.
"Nothing Is Ever Anyone's Fault" (sung by: Rachel Bloom and Scott Michael Foster )
- Freudian Excuse: Parodied. Nathaniel and Rebecca sing about how their childhood trauma makes their actions not their fault. They then extend this excuse to serial killer John Wayne Gacy and Hitler.
- Godwin's Law: Naturally, it only takes them a while to conclude that it wasn't Hitler's fault either.
- Insane Troll Logic: Nathaniel and Rebecca's parents messed them up, because their parents messed them up, and so forth to Adam and Eve who were messed up by God who was messed up by the Big Bang. Therefore, everything is actually the Big Bang's fault.
- Jerk Justifications: Nathaniel states that he still does bad things, but he now knows why he does them, so it's okay.
- Love Redeems: Subverted. Before falling in love with Rebecca, Nathaniel did bad things. Now that he's in love with her, he... still does bad things, but has realised that it's not his fault that he does them!
- Never My Fault: Taken to its utmost extreme. The song is all about how freeing it is to realise that no one is actually responsible for their actions.
- Straw Nihilist: Played with, swerving between this and Anti-Nihilist, declaring that "free will's an illusion, morality too", and that there's no right or wrong. But they insist that the same logic shows that they can't help being in love, and they can still take joy in that.
Tropes in this episode:
- Artistic License – Law: Both Nathaniel and Rebecca treat the Insanity Defense as a Get Out of Jail card, which, as the linked trope page explains, it isn't.
- Birth-Death Juxtaposition: Rebecca pushes Trent off the roof and the scene cuts to Darryl's newborn baby. Subverted because Trent survived, but barely.
- Callback:
- This episode is a reference to an earlier season 3 episode "Josh is Irrelevant".
- This episode also mentions that Josh's grandfather was going to be killed by Nathaniel, and how he was going to cause his father to get deported. Rebecca sleeping with Greg's father is also mentioned.
- Several previous song titles find their way into the dialogue.Darryl: It's not a group hang, I'm just having a few people over.
- The song played during the closing credits is a season 1 song I'm a Good Person.
- Falling into a swimming pool from great height is like being hit by a bus, breaking every bone in Trent's body.
- Cliffhanger: Rebecca pleads guilty for trying to murder Trent, and does this because she wants to face the responsibility for her actions.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Rebecca eventually has this epiphany; despite her terrible family and personal background, she still has to own up for her actions. So she pleads guilty.
- Karma Houdini: Deconstructed. Rebecca has come to feel disturbed by the fact that she's always getting away with everything, and in the end she pleads guilty to something she didn't actually do note just so she can finally face some consequences.
- Laser-Guided Karma: This episode sees Rebecca on the receiving end of what she put Josh through in "Josh's Ex-Girlfriend is Crazy."
- Moral Myopia: When Rebecca makes her confession, Nathaniel is suitably shocked and appalled that she'd tried to hire someone to murder his girlfriend, while casually brushing off the revelation that he'd tried to have Josh's grandfather killed.Josh: You tried to kill my lolo?!Nathaniel: Eh, I like to think I wouldn't have actually gone through with it, but... whatever, he's had a long life. But Mona!
- Screaming Birth: Discussed and subverted. Darryl expresses surprise that Heather isn't screaming and cursing like women in labour do on television. Heather tells him that it's actually not that painful - if you have the good sense to ask for all the drugs, that is.
- Soft Water: Reconstructed. After falling off the roof, Trent landed in a swimming pool... which is why he even survived. He still broke every bone in his body. Again.
