Relationship Spotlight: Josh Chan & Rebecca Bunch (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend)

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s love triangle is interesting to me because, with either Rebecca/Josh or Rebecca/Greg, both participants are at present definitely wrong for each other, but in my opinion, either could be very right given some growth on the part of the characters in question.  We’re looking at Rebecca with Josh today, but I’ll also cover her and Greg before the show starts up again this Friday (some spoilers.)

Starting with the major elephant in the room:  at the moment, Rebecca and Josh should not be together because she’s obsessed with and has been stalking him and that’s not healthy for either one of them.  Instead of a person, Josh has become a symbol to Rebecca, a perfect specimen of perfect love that will “fix” her life.  She can’t see him objectively, because really, she’s not seeing him at all.  She’s only seeing the role she’s assigned for him in her head.  Meanwhile, Josh doesn’t know who Rebecca really is, either, because she spends so much of the first season hiding her “crazy” from him and trying to be the sort of person she thinks he would want.  Josh is working under the assumption that Rebecca grew out of her “dramatic and weird” tendencies after summer camp and has no idea of the heavy stuff Rebecca struggles with.

As such, any relationship between them hinges on both learning to see the other as they actually are.  Rebecca has to stop idealizing Josh and start to get comfortable letting him see the real her, and once Josh sees that, he has to recognize that a relationship doesn’t have to be “easy” to be worth it.  After an initial, major flame-out on a relationship attempt (because their issues and this disconnect between fantasy/appearance and reality will seriously mess things up, and that’s assuming everything doesn’t immediately crash and burn the instant season 2 starts,) I think it’d be cool to see them learning to be a couple as they really are instead of as each perceives the other to be.  Online, I see Rebecca/Greg shippers predicting that, when Rebecca learns to see Josh not through her infatuation-tinted lenses, she’ll realize that he’s wrong for her and that’s when she’s wind up with Greg.  Personally, though, I’m rooting for Rebecca/Josh in part because I think there’s a neat story to be told in forging a stronger, deeper relationship after the imagined perfection has been swept away.  (Granted, this would be way down the line – again, issues.)

So why, for me, are Josh and Rebecca worth the hard work it would take to be together?  I have two major reasons.  The first is fairly basic, but I still think it’s important; they simply seem to enjoy one another so much.  Over the course of the first season, we see them hanging out a ton, making each other laugh, helping each other out, and just having fun together.  One of the first scenes that comes to mind when I think of Rebecca/Josh in a romantic context is their adorable dancing in “California Christmastime,” because they both look like they’re having such a blast.  My second reason is that I love how they build each other up and believe the best in one another.  On the surface, Josh is cool and confident, but he has his insecurities like any other character on the show, and he places so much value on the fact that Rebecca believes in him.  And so often, when Rebecca has been self-doubting or self-berating, just when she thinks she’s lost her last shot with Josh, he responds with kindness and understanding.  Although this aspect of their relationship would change a little once they start relating to one another in a more clear-eyed manner – Rebecca wouldn’t have the same dreamy adoration for Josh, and Josh would have to contend with the full extent of Rebecca’s insecurities – but I think the core of it would remain the same, which is something both of them need.