User blog comment:Mattalamode/The Rachel Problem/@comment-30307603-20170427220507/@comment-31194372-20170430091618

I honestly think that Molly is a decently strong character in the grand scheme of things. It's incredibly difficult to make a character that's intentionally mind-numbingly boring while still being enjoyable, but she works well in her episodes. (That being said, she serves usually to set up the punchline and not fulfull it, but I digress.) The thing about Molly is you can heighten her weakness and actually get something unique out of it. Heightening Rachel, tripe with cliche and already unpleasant, would make her completely unbearable. Also, I'm like 90% sure that Ben Bocquelet was just pulling a classic, "Yeah, okay, whatever, can we stop talking about this," so I'd take his word in this instance lightly, especially since the tweet was prior to the airing of "The Matchmaker."

A lot of Season 1 (and Season 2 a bit towards the end) felt like "filling a quota." I don't really think "The Party" was a bad idea on paper if the intention was to give Rachel a spotlight to help guide future integration (in the same way that Banana Joe got "The Banana" or William "The Voice"), but an unwillingness to find a new approach in the material and, of course, Rachel's existence, means we won't be getting much out of it.

And don't kill yourself with the AP prep, you'll do fine. Potentially.