UnREAL 1.03

Mother

- Rachel goes to visit her parents after Quinn kicks her off the set because she looks like she needs some rest; the visit with her parents isn't exactly relaxing; her mother is a psychiatrist; when Rachel asks her for money she agrees under the conditions that Rachel gets back on the medication she has prescribed and resumes sessions with her; from everything that Rachel says and the way her mother responds it is clear that isn't a good idea but Rachel agrees and gets a check from her mother only to rip it to pieces once she has left the house
- Quinn takes a stab at getting Chet to impregnate her but then he starts experiencing chest pain and has to go the hospital; what seemed like it was a heart attack turns out to be something not quite so severe; when Cynthia, Chet's wife, shows up at the hospital she pulls Quinn aside and lays her cards on the table: she knows Quinn is sleeping with her husband and she is fine with it, it makes her life easier; Quinn is left feeling powerless
- on the set of the show Adam's friend Roger visits to help Roger pick one of the 10 remaining contestants for a date; he forces himself on one of the contestants when the cameras are elsewhere; Roger and Adam get into a fight, also off camera, before the night is over; Adam's anger at his friend isn't entirely noble, his number one concern is improving his reputation, he sees the show as his ticket to achieving that goal and Roger's antics aren't helping his cause
- Rachel and Quinn return to the set separately and discover the chaos that has ensued; it isn't something they can use; Quinn pushes Rachel to do something about it so Rachel pushes Anna just enough that she goes and picks a fight with Grace, on camera; the episode ends with Quinn and Rachel sharing a cigarette as they watch the fight from a distance

- much better than the previous episode, possibly my favorite episode so far
- the scene with Rachel and her mother was very revealing, as was the one with Quinn and Cynthia; both were deliciously dark and disturbing
- also loved the two scenes with Rachel and Quinn, before and after Anna picks a fight with Grace

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a few more thoughts...

- when the first episode began Rachel was wearing a t-shirt that had written on it: this is what a feminist look like; in the second episode she turns it inside out; there has to be some subtle message there
- there was more to what Cynthia said to Quinn; she told Quinn "you're all he's got, I've got the rest, the house, the car, etc"; that may not be an exact quote but the point is that Chet stands to suffer quite a bit if Quinn deserts him; Quinn cares for him on a level that Cynthia does not, or at least that's my read of the situation, although she doesn't like being backed into a corner the way she is by Cynthia; who would? but she needs more from Chet than to be his "side wife"
- the show (UnREAL, not Everlasting) is about the people that work on the set, mostly Quinn and Rachel, but the Everlasting is already down from 50 to 5 contestants and they aren't even halfway through the 10 episode run of season 1 of UnREAL; will this season of Everlasting end at the same point as the season of UnREAL?