Friday, May 06, 2016

7 Posts: Greg and the Friend Zone in "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend"

[Season One spoilers ahoy.]
Greg told us and himself early on that Rebecca was his type in kind of the worst way - "you're smart and you're ignoring me, so you're obviously my type." He upped the ante by singing (singing!) "Settle for Me". Basically Greg likes Rebecca and has continued to like her even when this has not been the best choice for him.  He dated Heather for her ability to see past some of his BS about his family, and then lost her when he couldn't quite quit the Rebecca habit.  And then he spent the day at the grocery store helping a grocery store clerk try to woo his fellow clerk who had been ignoring him in favor of the flashier guy.  Grocery store clerk did not get his girl.  And while grocery store woman realized the error of her ways, Greg was on his way to fully accepting the thing that we often forget in long romantic story arcs on TV shows.  Sometimes being the guy (or girl) that waits in the wings silently liking does not mean that one day that person were realize you were there all along.  Sometimes it just means you stopped looking at other people.  And just as Rebecca has pinned all these romantic hopes on a guy she kissed when she was a teenager, Greg has pinned his romantic hopes on a woman who went on a date with him because he was friends with the guy she was after.  And while that would make and adorable how we met story to tell the grandkids, it could just as likely be the story of the guy who misses the truth.  Who pines after a woman who doesn't really want him while ignoring a slightly more stable woman.   
Again, I'm not saying that any or all of these characters couldn't grow or change into people who deserve each other, because they could.  But people don't always like you back just because you really like them.  Especially not because you've liked them for a long time.  And yes, Rebecca has lacked consistency to say the least.  And in a case of terrible timing, she showed up right in the middle of Greg's revelation that if the liking isn't reciprocal then it doesn't matter how much he likes her. 
So, he got the girl again.  But then they were both trying to hard to keep their feelings in check that they ended up making each other a little, well, crazy.And so whenever Greg sleeps off that drunkenness and realizes that trying to be cool and feelingless turned out to have just as many consequences as being open and honest about his feelings, I hope he looks around and tries (again) dating people who like him back.