Jail won’t keep Rebecca from doing some wild things on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, but it will prevent her from putting on a production of Cats.
Rebecca Bunch went to jail on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend… well, kind of. In the season 4 opener, we saw Rebecca deciding that she needed to serve time for her wrongdoing and, in doing so, chose to go to jail. It’s fun for her for about five minutes until she realizes that she’s going to jail … and then she’s crying in her cell.
Though she doesn’t stay in jail very long, the episode does seem to promise that Rebecca might start to understand her privilege and the need for her to grow out of whatever “phase” she’s in and start to make amends for her actions. While season 3 mostly focused on her diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder, season 4 seems to be delving deeper into Rebecca’s psychology to remind Rebecca, and the audience, that she still has to be accountable for her actions.
Throughout the episode, Rebecca still continues to be Rebecca: Erasing the narrative of the other women in jail, reminding Heather just how privileged Rebecca can be by stating facts that she should already know, and demanding that she stay in jail even though she’s actually innocent. But what is important to note is that Rebecca is starting to realize whom she surrounds herself with and how they affect her life.
For example, Nathaniel spends the episode on his own journey, trying to get over Rebecca and, in doing so, realizing he actually misses her. So when she’s set free, he instantly wants to take her away. When Rebecca declines, he calls her selfish. It’s not the most subtle moment, but it does show that not everyone is going to be quite so much on Team Rebecca this season.
Truly, the fact that Rebecca’s entire case is dismissed without even a second thought should have been all the “privilege” wake up call that Rebecca needs, especially after her brief experiences in jail. After all, the women she’s in jail with tell her stories about how they’ve been put away for years for stealing a sweater, all while someone else was there for a few weeks for the same crime. Rebecca’s case is just like the latter, but on an even bigger scale considering her charges.
Still, Rebecca wants to “repent,” and to her, that means staying in jail. It takes Heather, Valencia, and Paula to show her that she’s acting out rather than actually doing something productive to show that she wants or feels the need to change.
What is going to happen now that Rebecca is free though? We’ll have to wait and see what West Covina has in store for her (and the rest of the cast) this season.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend airs every Friday at 9 p.m. ET on The CW.