'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend' (Sort Of) Goes Back In Time

Much has been made of that one magical summer when Rebecca met Josh at camp on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend . Now that Rebecca has finally said the phrase "I love Josh" out loud, she thought that if she could just somehow rekindle the feelings she and Josh had when they were briefly an item while at camp together all those years ago, he'd finally realize that he's really in love with her, too. Fortunately for Rebecca, an opportunity arose in Monday night's episode that allowed her and Josh to go back to camp together. Unfortunately for Rebecca, she should have never tried to recreate the past.

When Josh told Rebecca that he volunteers with a camp for underprivileged teens every year, you better believe that she was going to do whatever it took to join him there. It turned out all that meant was donating a rather large check to the program, and Rebecca became its new director of female empowerment with the intention of delivering a rousing speech about feminism and sisterhood at the end of the day.

However, as most situations that Rebecca gets herself in, that proved to be much more difficult than she had anticipated. The female campers didn't revere her as a mentor but heckled her as an outcast. You know how people say you never really leave high school? This is exactly what they mean.

But believe it or not, that wasn't even the worst thing that happened to Rebecca at camp. She tried and failed to get Josh's attention all day, only to lure him with the promise of an epic, crowd-pleasing selfie if he met her at Blowy Point, named for what goes down there if you know what I mean, when the sun went down. In that romantic spot with that mood lighting, Rebecca read Josh a letter she had written to him when they were 16 years old, full of natural imagery and Tristan and Isolde references. Unfortunately, Josh thought Rebecca's passionate note was just dramatic and weird, much like Rebecca was as a teen, and just burst out laughing.

Of course, this was devastating to Rebecca, but there was no time to cry as she had to deliver her female empowerment speech right after this ordeal. But actually, the teen mean girls' bullying drove Rebecca to the edge and made her burst into tears anyway. And Rebecca's vulnerability in this moment inspired the campers to comfort her instead of tease her, which goes along with the show's recurring theme that being honest with your emotions fosters human connection.

However, I was sad to see that the thing that bound these ladies together was not the motivation to build each other up for the sake of sisterhood but to put back the pieces after a man has destroyed a sister. Luckily, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend was totally aware of this, immediately cutting to a makeover montage accompanied by a Fifth Harmony-like contemporary girl group with a song that encouraged women to make themselves sexy for themselves, but then the real message of putting "yourself first for him" came through loud and clear.

Rebecca did actually end up empowering someone: Josh. Before he went away to volunteer at the camp, he had a bit of a tiff with Valencia over the fact that he wouldn't be making money in this post. She even made him promise that it would be his last time at the camp. However, reading Rebecca's letter over convinced Josh that she's the only one who really gets him, and it gave him the confidence to confront his girlfriend and tell her that he's going to continue to volunteer at the camp because he loves it.

Oh, and he also gave Rebecca a peck on the cheek for making him feel so good about himself, which, in turn, made her feel good about herself, or "quenched," as she put it in the episode. Part of me wants to be happy for Rebecca since she is one step closer to getting what she wants. However, the other part of me is thinking that it's just another instance of a woman being used to build a man up, which I'm assuming is all part of the master plan of this oft-feminist TV series. So in the end, going home again may have worked out for Rebecca, at least temporarily. But as Paula said during Monday night's episode, a kiss on the cheek could mean nothing or it could mean everything. We'll just have to wait and see what it means for Rebecca and for the type of story Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is trying to tell.

Images: Greg Gayne/The CW; ruthiemiles, kingdollophead/tumblr