Tonight, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend fans will finally make another trip to West Covinaaaaaa, Californiaaaaaaaaaa, as the series returns for its sophomore season on the CW. With several intriguing new story lines and a brand-new time slot on Friday nights, there’s a lot to get excited about—though, from what Vanity Fair gathered from conversations with the Emmy-winning show’s cast and creative team, you could say everyone’s a bit of a mess this season. But then again, the situation’s a lot more nuanced than that.

Curtain Up

A new season means new beginnings, a new theme song, and a whole lot of characters with some serious issues to sort out. There’s a lot of change happening, and according to Rachel Bloom—who co-created the series and also stars in it as neurotic lawyer Rebecca—you can basically blame it all on her character.

“I think that Rebecca arriving in West Covina created a ripple effect,” Bloom said. “It caused people around her to ask, ‘What makes me happy? This person is pursuing happiness—what makes me happy?’” But while last season was all about Rebecca’s extreme denial—it took her episodes and episodes to admit that she had moved cross-country to be with Josh (__ Vincent Rodriguez III__), her old summer-camp fling—this season sees our favorite anti-heroine admitting to herself that she wants love . . . and actively, openly pursuing it.

This has never been a comedy that just wings anything: Bloom and her co-creator, screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna, have been focused on plot since the very beginning. “The idea of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend was an idea [McKenna] had for a movie,” Bloom said. But because McKenna’s background is in 90s sitcoms, “she was like, ‘I have no interest in making a show that’s just going to spit out copies of itself. I’m a screenwriter; I want to do a show with plot.”

Their plan brought with it one limitation: the show’s own potential longevity. “This is about a young woman in a very specific time in her life, going through a crisis,” Bloom said. “And that just doesn’t sustain itself for nine seasons. I’m an avid TV watcher, and I feel like a lot of shows peak around Season 4, Season 5, and just last way too long.”

To avoid that issue, the two mapped the whole series out using Breaking Bad as a template—and pitching it as four “cycles,” Bloom added. (“We didn’t want to say seasons. They were kind of like four sections of this person’s story.”)

A Chorus in the Spotlight

So, what else can we expect from the next cycle? Prepare for a much closer look at the inner lives of characters who are not Rebecca, for one thing. Ever wish you knew more about Paula’s marriage, or wondered why she’s so relentlessly obsessed with Rebecca’s love life? This season, you can explore those questions. Valencia will also get her due as the series’s newest single lady—and watching her navigate the dating world should prove interesting. Actress Gabrielle Ruiz explained to Vanity Fair that originally, her character was actually only supposed to appear in two episodes. Now, Ruiz is a series regular, and says you can expect to see a lot more of her character in the season to come.

“Last year, [Valencia’s] purpose was strictly to be the girlfriend,” Ruiz said. “To be, I guess, one of the biggest problems for Rebecca Bunch.” Initially, Valencia was portrayed as a villain—but as the year wore on, it became clear that things wouldn’t stay quite so black and white.

“You will definitely see that in Season 2—where everyone is their own antihero in their own story and journey,” Ruiz said. And as for Valencia specifically? Prepare to see her interacting with a lot more characters as herself—not Josh’s Girlfriend. “It’s scary for everybody in her life,” Ruiz said. “Watch out!”

Meanwhile, Josh Chan, whose inner thoughts we explored somewhat in Season 1—largely thanks to his conversations with Father Brah—continues to entertain with his trademark combination of warmhearted optimism and sheer obliviousness. “Like Rebecca, they’re both these stunted children,” Bloom said. “In many ways, they actually do go together really well, because they both haven’t grown up. . . . There is a world in which they would work as a couple. I actually really do think that. And Josh will kind of be dealing with that this season, the idea of ‘what does adulthood mean?’”

When asked whether her character’s longtime boyfriend actually deserved her—and/or Rebecca—Ruiz defended Josh’s honor.

“You know, Josh Chan is a little dim upstairs, and sometimes doesn’t understand everything . . . but he’s kind of O.K. and comfortable in that way,” Ruiz said, adding later, “He’s just so darn sweet, my goodness. You just want to be his friend.”

And then there’s Greg, Josh’s competitor for Rebecca’s heart last season—whom nobody would ever accuse of being particularly sweet. Greg’s journey may be the most fascinating aspect of Season 2. Gruff as he may appear, actor Santino Fontana tells V.F. that Greg’s relationship with his father—whose emphysema stymied Greg’s plan to leave West Covina for grad school—“really sums up that, deep down, he’s incredibly, not only decent, but also a really good guy. That he sacrificed his potential, in a way, to take care of his father. And yeah, it can be self-defeating, but it’s also, I think, really sweet. . . . No matter how sarcastic or sardonic he is, at the end of the day he’s the one staying home with his father.”

It does become increasingly clear, though, that Greg might not just be staying behind for his father; he’s also scared to make a change. This season, he faces his problems head on.

“I think there are definitely happy days ahead of Greg,” Fontana said. “I think he realizes that he has to take care of himself. And in order to do that, he has to kind of—or, he wants to remove himself from the crazy so that he can get better and then be happier.”

Once More, with Feeling!

While the love triangle between Josh, Greg, and Rebecca will definitely remain a factor this season—at least early on—it seems more important that each character is also turning inward, assessing themselves and their behaviors. This could lead to some very dark places—but luckily, this is still a comedy, and its signature absurdist, dark wit is still on full display. This is particularly true of the show’s musical numbers. Case in point? The season’s first is a Lemonade spoof for the ages. As Bloom described it, the video is dreamy and heavy on the “poetic symbolism.”

“It was really interesting because it feels different from anything we’ve done in many ways, and it was very expensive. And very hard to put together. But I’m really proud of it,” Bloom said.

Many times, what could be the show’s heaviest emotional moments actually arrive in the form of an incongruous song and dance number. Last season, songs like “Sexy French Depression” and “Settle for Me” were both catchy and quietly tragic. Sadcoms are all over television, but Crazy Ex skirts that label largely because of its musical element. As Kathryn Burns, the show’s Emmy-winning choreographer—who also trained with Bloom at the Upright Citizens Brigade—points out: “The great thing about musical comedy is you can talk about depression and suicide and really dark things. Like the boy-band number: the guys are her psychiatrist, telling her not to kill herself. . . . She goes down a deep, deep spiral, but it’s in the form of a 90s band.”

As Bloom’s more ardent fans know, she’s actually been making goofy music videos since long before she got her own TV show. Her 2010 video “Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury” even earned her a Hugo Award nomination. Burnss’ job is to come up with the movements that will punch up the lyrics—or, as she put it, “heighten the story and not distract from the jokes.”

Bloom’s favorite songs the series has done so far include “Heavy Boobs,” “Where Is the Bathroom?,” and “Settle for Me,” which she describes as a “cynical Fred and Ginger song.”

The hardest task the songwriting team—Bloom, Jack Dolgen, and Adam Schlesinger—faces, Bloom said, “is to land on, ‘O.K., what is the kernel of the joke of this song?’ And then everything kind of falls into place once you have that.”

Beyond the Lemonade parody—which does indeed highlight how the show spent its entire production budget on this one segment—Burns says you can expect “a really adorable, classic 1920’s showgirls moment” and “a Marilyn Monroe moment with 10 male dancers” à la “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.” (Spoiler alert: Bloom’s Monroe impression is pretty impressive.)

And going into Season 2, Bloom said she’s most excited about the way the show continues to do new things. “This show is so weird and specific, and I never know how people are going to react,” Bloom said. “All I can do—and all we can do—is make the show that we want to make. And make the show that if we were viewers, we’d be excited to watch.”