Finding your mate is not an end, or some essential part of your identity.
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Rebecca Bunch is in love.
Thatstheir happily ever after.
But how did Rebecca get hers?
This interview has been compiled from separate conversations, and has been edited and condensed for clarity.
How did you bring that about?
Its not about auditioning for the missing puzzle piece.
We wanted to show that its about getting everyone to a place where they can healthily prioritize someone else.
Brosh McKenna:Yes, that was cut.
And Skyler was mad about it!
Which is pretty funny.
The guys all got kind of competitive about it.
[Laughs]
What prompted that change?
And it could be that too.
So thats sort of one of the points that the episode is making.
There isnt a destination.
Were there other changes with regard to the love quadrangle?
Brosh McKenna:That was the only line we took out with respect to that.
The whole point of the ending was [that] its not going to be ending up with someone.
But I think she probably explained something similar to Nathaniel.
No Josh, huh?
Josh always seems to bring up the rear a little bit?
Hes going to therapy, and trying to understand himself.
Thats what makes her realize that the choice is not about them.
The more typical romantic-comedy trope is,Is it this guy or that guy?
I could see it going any direction.
Brosh McKenna:We did a bit of refining of those scenes.
And then each of the guys realizes,You know what?
Through her Ive realized something.Like Josh realizes hes ready to settle down.
Nathaniels realizing,I do want to go off on an adventure.
And Greg is really realizing,I am happy with who I am.
What do you see in Rebeccas future, romantically and otherwise?
And the answer is, I dont know.
She knows who she is.
Everyone else is in a different place.
She could move to Paris for two years to study music and meet a guy there.
And its nice, letting her be free.
Its an aspect of your life, and it can be a wonderful aspect of your life.
I have generally positive thoughts for her.
Its like,All right, youve got this.
Youre in a good place now.
Theres still gonna be ups and downs, but now you have free will.
[Laughs] Its godlike.
Ending with This is a song I wrote has been in the plan all along, is that correct?
Its telling your own story, and taking charge of your own destiny.
Brosh McKenna:This is a song I wrote is something we pitched to people in 2014.
Literally, that was the end of the pitch.
Every writer I know, it took them a while to find their exact niche.
For Rebecca, its that she loves songs.
She knows thats in her soul.
Bloom:We landed on that line really early on.
And then they become almost this like legendary thing in your head.
Even the choice to set it in West Covina, I remember that moment.
And Aline was like, Oh my God, the show takes place in West Covina.
Thats where it is.
Rachel, is experiencing something musically different for you than engaging with it intellectually?
Thats also true of lyric writing.
Theres definitely a lot of this show that was written by feel.
I was surrounded by guys.
So everything I wrote was probably subconsciously trying to, like, be acceptable to the male gaze.
That sort of mirrors Rebeccas journey.
But for me, I always was on the path of the arts.
So, when Rebecca says that last line and opens her mouth, what comes out?
Bloom:I was making jokes on the day that its like, ragtime electronica.
Rebecca knows shes imagined songs in her head, but she doesnt think theyre funny.
She just thinks theyre songs about her, in the way that she would interpret those genres as herself.
Rebecca doesnt become Rachel Bloom.
If there are jokes in her song, she doesnt quite realize it.
Rebecca doesnt do comedy.
Thats the difference between Rebecca Bunch and Rachel Bloom.
Like, kindly dont be a murderer.
Or with West Covina, shes so infatuated that shes overlooking crappy things.
There are a couple of beautiful, poetic lines it it.
Then some clunky stuff.
Theres a lot of potential, but its not fantastic.
And it really made us laugh very hard.
But we decided not to do it.
[Laughs] It might undermine the point.
Adam Schlesinger (songwriter, executive music producer):Smoke on the Water.
Jack Dolgen (songwriter, writer, executive producer):That was what it was.
It was always Smoke on the Water.
Schlesinger:This whole show was leading up to Deep Purple.
Dolgen:It couldnt be anything else.
But in all seriousness, we, and by we I mean the audience, dont see it.
So we dont know.
I think Rebecca would write similarly to Rachel.
Rachel writes from an emotional point of view.
She approaches songwriting kind of like she approaches playing a character.
Wheres my emotional starting point?
Rachels great at combining that with an intellectual overlay.
So theres an intellectual concept, but she writes from an emotional place toward that intellectual concept.
I would say Rebecca might do something similar.
I think Rebecca might not be as good a songwriter as Rachel.
Schlesinger:Shes just starting out.
We dont want to be too hard on her.
Give her a second.
Gabrielle Ruiz (Valencia):I think West Covina comes out.
I would love for that to be her first song.
I think it would be something different.
She would have finally found her own voice.
Danny Jolles (George):West Covina!
It has to be, right?
Itd take her best experiences and roll em into a nice little song.
One hundred fifty-seven songs, cut down to about three minutes.
David Hull (White Josh):Well theres that running joke that Rebecca cant actually sing.
So our thought was that it was just absolutely atrocious.
I appreciate that you dont hear it, because your imagination can take care of it.
Hull:Shes been becoming Billy Joel this whole time, and no one knew.
