Pepper Mostly

hahaha, yes phoenics, I agree! Madison will have a sleeker look and will have perfected her, um, techniques in other areas!

For eight years Quinn has been the mistress, the other woman. Realistic person that she is, she accepted the fact that she had no exclusivity rights and got on with it. But once Chet left his wife, and she became his fiancee, she expects fidelity and commitment. Now, she may have been silly and short sighted in expecting them, but she did. She was hurt and humiliated, and Quinn is the very wrongest person on earth to get on the bad side of. Chet is pretty secure in his sleazy charms, but he's in for a rude awakening! hee hee.

Oh, I think Madison is more Eve than Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. She's exercising her budding producer chops. (Remember Rachel with Brittany, the first girl cut? She was utterly convincing. All the times she was working with girls or Adam, she is utterly convincing.) Madison is very far from there yet, but I think she is nowhere near as naive as she's letting on. She's ambitious and she is keeping her eyes open. She knows how to take advantage of an opportunity. And speaking of opportunities, Chet. I'm willing to bet five American dollars that he no more thought he was cheating on Quinn than he thought he was going to the moon. It was just an opportunity to get his rocks off, no thought at all. He has no interest in Madison, personally or professionally. She was just close by and willing. And second to the horseback riding sequence, Chet lugging that dog around was also everything. So funny.

My theory is that Rachel went to pieces because she couldn't reconcile being a normal, happy person with what she does for a living. How can she be a good partner to someone and still be brilliant at manipulating people and treating them like soulless props? She was ok with being a badass producer and being great at her work, accepted herself as a successor to Quinn--ruthless, successful, absolutely cynical. Bam, along comes love. How can she be all that and be a loving person? I ship Rachel and Adam and I love their scenes together. They both know at some level they're full of shit but they can't deny that they belong together. (one of my son's friends lives with us, and he was watching this with me--after Adam's "let's lie on the beach neck deep in Bellinis" speech, he looked at me and said "I want to run away with this guy!" He's a completely straight 25 year old man) Adam was absolutely right about how bored she'd be, folding Jeremy's underwear, marooned out in the country. I loved how everyone made his or her bid for what they really wanted. Faith, Anna, Grace, Adam, Jeremy, Quinn, even the doctor. Awesome. Rachel's the only one who doesn't know what she wants. Two weeks ago Quinn's offer would have been it. Domestic bliss with Jeremy isn't it. San Tropez is calling but that's not it. Rachel needs to work, I think. I want Quinn to emerge victorious. I just love how focused she is on her vengeance. Chet gave up 50 million to his ex wife, and Quinn is going to leave him and take all her ideas (and future millions) with her. He'll have nothing. He'll regret that bj for the rest of his life. The horseback riding scene was everything.

I think Anna just wants to WIN. She may have the idea that she and Adam could really develop feelings for each other, but I think once she's out of the fishbowl she's the only one realistic enough to see things clearly, but still play the game. AND I think she's the only one who could pull off the charade of being "newlyweds". I was on edge of my seat during the car scene. I believe I even let out a small scream. Holy moly. I just knew that the intern was going to show that she was willing to go there. She's probably just what Rachel and Quinn were like when they were green. Observant, ambitious, ubiquitous; watchful, and taking it all it. She knew Chet was the power. I don't know what's on the USB but I am content to wait and see what other seedy delights this show has to offer. I love every second.

This was a great episode for Chet. You could really see him in action, see what makes him successful. And agreed on the scenes with the network guys--great exposition. So well done! All the hugging and good wishes, meanwhile everyone is seething. And I think Chet, like a lot of married men who have affairs, likes to have a stable home life and a non-challenging spouse, who takes care of his home, gets his stuff to the cleaners, keeps him organized, attend social events and provide warm food and a warm body when needed. When Mary killed herself he had to confront the notion that he is actually in love with Quinn. Again, Chet is shown to be more than the slovenly, bearded, slightly ridiculous figure he seems to be. I LOVE that he's not a cartoon villain. I adore his character. "hey, home slice!" had me cracking up.

Yes, this was my read as well. He says "was she the black girl?" and Quinn says, very quietly, "the mom". As if it came alive to her in that moment that these women aren't people to them, just commodities, empty dresses with labels. I love how Quinn has these moments when her tough as nails mask slips.

I have loved sloppy, frowsy, skeevy Chet from day one. He looks like an unmade bed but he's really smart and savvy beneath it all. I love that we were able to see that--it would have been easy to make him a buffoon. I've never seen the actor before--he is wonderful. The acting is great in this show--Rachel, Quinn, Adam, all stellar. Jeremy is a douchebag of the first water. He doesn't know what he wants, so he's prepared to hurt two women who care for him and have their own shit to deal with so he can get his rocks off. I hate him. Shia and Jay's scenes were awesome. You can see that he's smart enough to see how the game is played. He has more native talent for it than Shia will ever have. Shia had a will to succeed and the raw desperation to do whatever it took. She was probably a high achiever in school and a teacher's pet. You can see the hurt in her face when Quinn doesn't acknowledge her efforts. So she went further and further out on that limb. But Jay has a real killer instinct. He was cold as ice.

hahaha, I remembered--in fact I screamed "UMEBOSHI! Tastes so sweet, you'll swear its candy!!" Good times, good times..... I didn't get Aemilia's bit at all. The audience didn't know her fellow contestants, so it wasn't like she was giving them behind the scenes dirt. She was just talking smack about people they didn't know. If she'd poked fun at Bobby or Giada, it still would have been in terrible taste (unless it was good natured and, you know, actually funny), but would have made more sense from the perspective of the audience. Eddie ftw. He was great.

That's pretty clever! I like the notion that it was a meta joke! I'll cling to that. I don't think Mary broke Lilybelle's arm. And I think its pretty common for abused women to apologize for "making" their abuser hurt them. I think Mary's story was pretty straightforward. She was abused, traumatized, and suffered from mental illness. She made a terrible decision to go on reality TV. A perfect storm.

Last week Shia told Quinn "you could talk a perfectly happy person into jumping off a bridge". I wonder if Quinn was remembering that. I got the raging heebie jeebies when I remembered it! And Chet made sure it was a bunny for a reason. So he could make bunny boiler jokes. He is crass and crude. But I love to hate him. The actor is awesome!

Agreed. I don't know Rachel's opinion on children at all. Maybe she doesn't either. She agrees with Adam because she has to be on his side. When the kids came in, she was all sappy smiles and cooing "aDORable". It made me laugh. She's a mirror and she is great at reading a room. She does what will make other people like and trust her.

Oh, I think there is no doubt that he is playing Anna. He has a vested interest in making sure that Anna stays interested and thinks of herself as a contender. He has to string her along. But I don't think he really likes her. I don't think he really likes anyone, he's doing the show for cynical reasons, and certainly has no expectation of "finding love". And to keep from getting too bored, he's doing a little producing of his own. Adam loves to think of himself and Rachel as co-conspirators. Bet he was positively gleeful about bringing his rendezvous with Anna to Rachel, like a gift! I do think Shia was spooked, and we were allowed to see her getting more and more uncomfortable as the episode went on. I don't think she expected things to go south so fast, or to such an extent. I think she just thought fucking with Mary's meds would make things more interesting--she'd be more uninhibited and maybe a little crazy. But I don't think she was being honest with Mary's sister. She was desperately trying to convince herself that things weren't as bad as they were. She was lying about the drinking. I was surprised that Mary's sister bought it so easily. Shows how much we are willing to swallow when we want to believe something. She really didn't put up much of a fight at all. The actress was the real skunk in the rosebush for me, too. She was way too over the top, not subtle. and the botox was distracting. One bad actor among all the good ones really stands out. Rachel and Quinn are excellent and Chet? Oh my god that guy is fabulous! "she's a sad old saggy sack"! with that positively gleeful grin. "get me a bunny!" Gold.

Love this, tennisgurl! Especially if we get to see Faith and Amy moving to a gay friendly city and moving into a duplex with Gran.

Well, my position vis a vis Adam and Rachel has evolved! Last week I was all "don't do it Rachel!" But now....in a weird way I think they could help each other. Each one knows where the other is coming from and they don't have to front at all. I even caught myself thinking "wow, you know, Rachel would be great in the hotel business! She knows what people want and is a genius at de-fusing a situation...." holy moly, show! She was kind to Faith and I really appreciated that. Chet was kind to Quinn, too! Huh. But now Jay is outed as another horrible person, and Shia--oh my god. Her ambition has gotten in the way of her judgment and good sense. Oh, and yes, Jeremy is a douchebag. Dude, leave her alone.

I knew she genuinely loved him when she crawled into his lap and curled up like a little girl a couple of episodes ago. She was looking for comfort and that's where she went. Who knows the history? But she loves him. That's the only way he'd have the power to hurt her so much.

See, I think he kept Faith mostly to fuck with production. Once he found out that he doesn't really have any control, he wanted to do something to mess around with the story production wanted to tell. He's got enough human kindness to feel bad about how the production views Faith as comic relief. But once he picked her, I kind of sensed a "oh, shit. now what?" vibe from him. He picked her to be a thorn in production's side, and now she has expectations, and he has to remember that she's a person. And he's trying to draw Rachel in to his story--he comes across to her as if they co-conspirators, with his sly glances to her and his flirtyness. She knows it, too. Sometimes she lets him believe it, since it suits her purposes. I don't think any other suitor has been able to go toe to toe with her in a battle of wits (probably most of them took the gig at face value, enjoyed hanging out with a bunch of beautiful women and did as they were expected to do) and that throws her off balance a little. I don't think either one of them is evil. I think Adam is very accustomed to getting what he wants, and knows how to work the charm. He's spoiled and narcissistic, and and opportunist, but I'm sure if asked, he'd wink and say he's a good boy, but sometimes he's naughty. Rachel knows what she does is terrible, but she is good at it and while she knows she's messing with people, she can't help but be proud that she's good at it. I'm sure they both tell themselves that its a cynical world and to get ahead they have to play by those rules.

It wasn't very clear, but I think only some of the women were picked for the winery date--they showed Faith getting an envelope with the invitation, but her roommate didn't. so some of the women were left behind? So the women eliminated were chosen only from the ones who went to the winery. I didn't have an issue with Anna not being featured this episode--its pretty common in reality shows for a person to be highlighted one week and barely shown the next.

I didn't necessarily think he'd kiss Maya, but Mary was the last person I thought he would choose! I think he picked her because he knows that the showrunners have cast her as the desperate single mother, not as a sexy contender, and he wants to mess with their paradigm. Poor Adam wants to feel like he's in control. He keeps getting put in his place pretty soundly, but he keeps trying. That's why I think he's playing Rachel. Its a game to him. He doesn't respect any of the women on the show. He thinks he can win any woman. Rachel's a challenge, he can't resist trying to win her (think of Valmont and Mme. de Tourvel). Not because he wants her, but because she says she doesn't want him. Anything like a romance between them would be a disaster, though. I hope for the sake of Rachel's tenuous sanity, she stays away. Nobody is going to come out of this unscathed!

Sooooo, Veeral's sister is a producer on a reality show, then? She must do something in TV, she was very practiced and smooth in her hosting responsibilities. I felt bad for her husband, though. He was probably told to sit there and look supportive, but not talk! He spoke up, what--once? All kinds of wrong having Christian's parents there. Why? He can't check in to a hotel but did they really feel that he and Maria needed their protection at the dinner? Maria works? She sells flowers full time now? Maria seems like a sweet kid and I think she definitely has a spine. I was glad to see her stick up for herself. Of course she wanted to get married--she was probably virtually in purdah at her parents' house. Getting married is probably a ticket to the world for a Gypsy girl. Once married, she can go out and have fun, either with her husband or her girlfriends or sisters. No wonder she was upset, she thought she and Christian would go out to eat, or to the movies, or to the mall. (like my young 20-something son and all his friends do, all the time!). Not just clean and sit around watching Christian play XBox. Oh, yay--Josh's poisonous mother again. What a horrible horrible person. "We train Meghan, we correct her" She's not a puppy, you nasty old hag.

Chet cracks my shit up, he's SUCH a slimeball. The fact that Quinn seems to actually truly love him humanizes her for me. Chet doesn't give a shit about her or anyone--he's all about being on top, being the king of all her surveys, even if all he surveys is a crappy reality show. He continually extracts his pound of flesh, even if he doesn't benefit or couldn't possibly need it, which is why I found him demanding a quid pro quo from Rachel credible. He has to let everyone know who's boss. He does a lot of coke so he's even more of a legend in his own mind. I agree with this. When you're watching a real reality show, different people are highlighted at different times. We caught a glimpse of Maya, and Faith, and Shaniqua. I love that attention to the the little details like that. Great moments: When Athena grabbed that magazine out of the trash my heart stopped and I was all "oh fuuuuuuuck....Rachel is done for" but of course not!! Like she'd ever be that careless. The look of disgust on Adam's face as he was "doing his duty" with Kelly. Man. He thinks he's in charge and gets put in his place repeatedly. You have to give the lad points for confidence but every single time he thinks he has the upper hand he gets snapped back. The women vying for his attention are the only ones he seems to be able to influence. I think he was positively gleeful at eliminating Athena. And picking sad Mary for the onscreen kiss. He knew she'd be the most grateful.

I KNOW. I watched the whole show with my mouth hanging open. "I loved him. I still love him. he's dead". How is it ok in anyone's world to marry your molester and have kids with him? How do the mother and daughter have any kind of relationship? Where was the boyfriend/husband all those years? Were they having Saturday night suppers at the family home? Movie nights? my blood runs cold, really. There is enough fucked-upedness there for a slew of Lifetime movies. Ruthann's affect was really strange. I mean, most hoarders have a strange affect, but hers was especially so--she ducked her head and giggled like a middle schooler. She did that flirty, sidewise glance. She was like Bette Davis in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. Creepy.

This is an excellent point. The contestants and the workers in the trenches are all hosed. Equal opportunity exploitation.

Thanks to all of you for the great discussion! I've been playing catch up all day. I have just one tiny thing to add--as I was watching I was musing, while watching Ryan D. in action "I bet Goodfellas is his favorite movie." then Jess confronted him with the mystery Valentine's card, and he answered JUST LIKE Ray Liotta does when his wife confronts him about his girlfriend visiting him in jail! "I can't control who comes to see me!" he protests. Ryan says "I can't control who sends me mail!" in the exact same tone and inflection. I laughed like a hyena. Oh Ryan. I'm firmly team Davina right now. I think she's gotten a bum deal. She behaved like a lady and never lost her cool. If she has high expectations, well, so what if she does? Many a single woman has heard "You're too damn picky" more than once. She has a right not to settle. She has a lot of loyal friends and that says something. Where are Sean's friends? Jaclyn is still my fave. What a great girl, I wish her the best.

And that was what Rachel was expecting and she engineered that exchange so that Anna would ask for them. Rachel is very, very good at her job. Sadly her job is being an absolute moral cesspool. No wonder she's messed up. She's not a bad enough person to glory in it. She at least sometimes realizes that the contestants are real people.