S02.E06: Casualty

[Black Knight]

On July 12, 2016 at 5:00 PM, Bama said:

Alabama is 27% black.  California, where Rachel is from, is 7% black.

BethAnn has probably lived in and amongst more black people than Rachel has.

Percentage isn't necessarily the best way to judge the probability of that. Alabama's percentage of black people (sixth in the nation) is higher, but Alabama's total population of 4.85 million is significantly much less than California's 39 million, meaning that we should take a look at the specific numbers. As of the 2010 census, Alabama had 1.25 million black residents, good for 15th in population count, while 28th-ranked %wise California was just shy of 2.3 million, placing it fifth. But since any state has wide variation within it - cities, towns, rural areas - I think the better way to judge the probability is to look where Rachel lives/works vs. where BethAnn lives/works. BethAnn is in a rural area, Rachel is not. Even if we granted BethAnn's rural area a 27% black population (which is unlikely given the concentration of black people in cities), the number of black people is going to be way lower. (BethAnn not wanting to room with a black woman also suggests minimal interaction up until now with any black people.)

That said, I agree the whole "taking a black man to Alabama" thing was ridiculous - not so much on Rachel and Coleman's side because I'd expect them to be ignorant of things like Alabama's high percentage of black people, but on Darius's side. I don't remember where he grew up or played in college (has the show said?), but as a no doubt top-ranked college player and now a professional football player he must know tons of fellow black players from the south and have played games there (maybe quite a lot of games, depending on what college he went to). I think he would have enough familiarity to know not to write the whole state off as a no-go zone. In Darius's case, instead of just being "It's Alabama!" they should've had him clarify that he was nervous about going to BethAnn's area in particular due to her Confederate-flag-wearing ways, especially as a black man supposedly courting a white woman.

[candall]

On ‎7‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 11:21 PM, portfino said:

I thought this was a good episode overall. The show had gotten a little loose. We got back to the fundamental journey of the compromises Rachel has made to her soul and what she can live with, but still using the vehicle of Everlasting effectively. 

Right.  I've never even seen any of the Bachelor shows, but I was fascinated by the clever/horrible manipulation of "we make things happen and then we point cameras at them."  Kind of like Leverage or The Sting--run by people with less pure motives. 

Of course they're going to develop the personal lives of the instigators, but wow, when some 15 of the 20 suitor-ettes have been eliminated and viewers are still asking "Who's that?" there's been a radical shift in focus.

I perk up when the Everlasting bits are on.

 

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 >lost my quote about Rachel acting out as a symptom of her clinical behavioral disorder.<

I think Rachel's mother's lack of professional ethics and Rachel's meds and Rachel's diagnosis yadda yadda are boring, extraneous plot points and really don't do anything but muddy up the works. 

I could see any ambitious young woman being tormented and conflicted by the requirements of Rachel's job, but still stop short of walking away.  She could get her soul-searching face on and turn up the dial on her inner rationalization and obsess over her love/hate relationship with a maternal figure mentor who opted for the dark side a long time ago--maybe even get the word "dick" tattooed on her wrist--with no chemical imbalance necessary.

 

On ‎7‎/‎12‎/‎2016 at 3:24 AM, RCharter said:

 

I'm all about a man making a visit south of the border, but how often does Rachel shower/groom herself?  If I were him, I might have taken a raincheck on that.

I really like Coleman. I think he's important as a character with some power, who hasn't totally lost perspective on right/wrong after multiple seasons of orchestrating the shenanigans of Everlasting.

But then I lost all respect for him.  FFS, can't there ever be a man who doesn't think getting laid will cure whatever ails you . . .wait a sec, what's this now?  

Okay then, good job, Coleman.  Rachel does look like you took her mind off her problems and you're back in my good graces as well.

**********

Whew, another week with Darius' spinal column still in one piece.

[hatchetgirl]

I believe Rachel has a history of this.  At the beginning of the first episode she had done something complete out of control the season before and everyone was all tip toes around her for a few episodes.  I do think she has mental health issues, but I have no idea what they are.  She was definitely being very strange in Alabama - especially when she ran and jumped up onto Coleman and kissed him as if she wanted sex right then and there.  I do believe she's losing touch with herself.

[dubbel zout]

34 minutes ago, hatchetgirl said:

especially when she ran and jumped up onto Coleman and kissed him as if she wanted sex right then and there

I was kind of surprised Coleman didn't stop things romantically after that. How much more evidence does he need that Rachel is troubled? Though maybe he has a savior complex, and all of this turns him on.

[gik910]

I think they have hinted at mental illness with Rachel before- but it is incredibly muddy.  Based on what we have seen of her mother- there was certainly abuse of some sort.  I do not think we have enough to say "yes- she suffers from x"."

In this particular instance it could be how she is processing the trauma.  That manic need to be back in control of something because something wildly out of her control just happened to her in her safe place.  That is what the show is for her- despite all of the horrible things that have happened to her there- it is her home and she should be safe there.  Jeremy took that away so she was trying to take it back.  

We all know that John Booth is just Henry's newest alias (still miss Forever so much...)

Ioan Gruffudd is just so handsome - and another one of those men that get frustratingly better looking as they age.

I am looking forward to Adam next week (although I did not see the preview for next week so I reserve the right to be irritated).

[snowblossom2]

On July 12, 2016 at 0:06 PM, TiffanyNichelle said:

Other Random Black Lady has a name and lines and a career and everything. Wow! Of course she was only kept so they could have that drama of "will Darius cut Tiffany or Racist Beth Ann" but whatever. Finally Beth Anne is gone even though I'm still not sure how she lasted this long. That's one of the biggest problems with this season. The contestants are such an afterthought other than maybe two or three. Activist Ruby was an interesting character but to find out that Jameson was a cop? Could have been nice to explore some of that. Instead of trying to force fights between Ruby and Beth Anne (which went nowhere) I would have also liked to see how Ruby felt about Jameson being a black cop in Chicago.

Nice to see Jay do something other than bitch at Rachel.

Chet this episode felt like Chet from last season which makes me hate the MRA version we've had to suffer through for every episode until this one.

To be fair we learned she was a cop in the confederate bikini episode, though I don't think we learned her name until this episode.

 

thats one of the disappointing Ines about this season - not getting to know the contestants

[romantic idiot]

I don't know, I think I side with Quinn in saying there's nothing wrong with Rachel. She may have some issues, growing up in that family and in doing to terms with her view of herself and her skills. But chemical imbalances - dunno.

[Marsupial]

I agree, romantic idiot. I think lots of things, including most especially her mother, have messed with Rachel's head, and I agree with Quinn that she is "fine."

I also tend to think that Rachel uses her "craziness" as a cover for her rotten personality and lack of any moral conviction, and it could be because she reminds me of  my brother's ex-wife, a monster of narcissism and nastiness who has recently declared that she is "bipolar." Whenever my mother and I discuss her and my mother says, "well, you know, she is bipolar...' I always say, "No, she's that other B word."

It's not fair to real bipolar people that their legitimate illness gets used as a cover this way. Rachel reminds me of my brother's ex a great deal in their self-centered worldview and their smug superiority. My brother's ex doesn't have the meltdowns that Rachel does, and unlike Rachel she is always perfectly put-together and "held tight;" she's more subtle about how she gets attention and sympathy, but the motivations are similar IMO.

[Nowhere]

On July 12, 2016 at 8:49 PM, nara said:

I actually thought Beth Ann's family came off as kind and generous and welcoming, with the big exception being the Confederate flag painted on the wall. One guy even put himself between Brock and Darius to prevent Brock from attacking him.  Even Brock wasn't so bad. I thought the real joke was that Rachel and company's stereotyping did not play out. Luckily for them the pregnancy drama happened.

I think Darius's generosity to Beth Ann was based on her incredible vulnerability at the time. He was shocked when she said she loved him to her family and she appeared to be going off the deep end during the key ceremony. He may have been worried that she would harm herself if she thought her future was hopeless.  I know that I was thinking that. Plus he had recently seen Rachel yelling at him for no reason, so his concern was probably heightened. 

Not sure why Beth Ann suggested Darius could be the father. Could be that she's an automatic liar in tough situations, or she constructed a fantasy romance between her and Darius, or she was trying to force him to pick her, or she was trying to deflect attention from herself.

Totally shipping Quinn and John Booth. 

The sex scene between Rachel and Coleman seemed out of place in this episode. It felt like he should be giving her emotional support, not physical comfort,  especially after the trauma she's been through and her erratic behavior that day. The way he behaved in the meeting with Chet and Quinn led me to believe he understood that. 

My impression was that Beth Ann knew her family hated the father of her baby and was afraid of the reaction, so she tried to put the focus on somebody that they liked and respected. She and Darius both knew they hadn't slept together so it doesn't make sense to claim him as the father. I think she was just trying to avoid family backlash at that moment. Plus, she didn't say he was the father. She just looked at him, I assumed to create some reasonable doubt as to who the father was. That was my thought as I watched. 

[aradia22]

On the one hand, yay, they didn't screw it up! Rachel didn't crash and burn and mope like a sad gerbil. On the other hand, it was mostly just another blah episode. I do think there's a bit of nuance to the acting which is nice... but I'm also not entirely convinced that the actors or the writers know where they're going with the characters. If they do, the ambiguity (for instance, what is Coleman up to) will seem brilliant. If not, it's just going to be like on Nashville when Luke seemed hella creepy and then they dropped whatever they'd been about to do.

Speaking of weird anger issues, what's up with Darius? Yeah, I get that a lot's been going on but he went from 0 to 60. It's a justified resentment but it should have been a festering resentment. He's been playing it cool too much.

Not loving the psychiatrist and Quinn at the end. That was dumb. Quinn was really dealing with work, not pushing him away. And besides, she doesn't need a man. How did this suddenly become about her loneliness? Wasn't she supposed to be pitching him for a network?

Not a 100% into Freddie Stroma's new look. I wonder if it's for his new show. Either way, I knew it was coming but I still had a big smile on my face when Adam got out of the van. I'm not a big fan of "let's reset and forget about all the mistakes we made" but if that's what it takes to get this show back on track then bring it.

[aradia22]

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I was really disappointed that Rachel deleted the pictures of her bruises.  I was so proud of her in the moment for having the foresight to take them, and document her bruises so thoroughly, so it was sad to see her definitively give up on the idea of reporting her assault.  Even if she didn't do it now, she should have left the door open to do it at a later date.

My hope is that she didn't delete them all (she was taking a lot of them in that scene) because Coleman interrupted her or the show will write in some shenanigans where the IT department can magic the photos back. Hey, technology is still basically magic on TV. It could happen.

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Nice moment with Darius, offering the scholarship.  Proof that his reset button is taking care of people by throwing money at the problem (his family, his buddies, BethAnn) -- but as reset buttons go, it's rather a sweet one.

I'd be curious to see him around his family, besides Romeo. He's a relatively cool customer and he can turn on the charm but there have been few instances of genuine emotion. So far his reset buttons seem to be money... and kissing. It might be part of the reason he rejected Ruby.

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We don't need to vote for Trump because now that Quinn brought Adam back America is already great again.

You had me at "we don't need to vote for Trump" but also, yay, Adam!

By the way, now that it's come up a bunch I started thinking, how was it OK for Quinn to confront Jeremy in the trailer? It was a great moment but if they were so concerned with not firing a horribly disrespectful Jeremy at the beginning of the season because of sexual harassment (still don't get that one), and they can't file a police report over Rachel's assault because he knows where the bodies are buried, then how is Quinn grabbing him by the cojones not an issue? It feels like sexual harassment, some kind of assault, and unnecessary provocation if they do want to keep Mary and all their other secrets out of the public eye.

[aradia22]

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We have to remember production would have gotten there first, and made sure there was watermelon on the table and guns to be shot.

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Rachel, Darius and Coleman all had expectations of what Alabama is like, and the show made it clear that none of those expectations were met.

 

I think they really pulled their punches with Beth Ann. I'm talking about Everlasting and UnReal. Some of it was Jay's fault for getting Ruby to (mostly) back down. But UnReal did set Beth Ann up with the bikini and not liking her roommate and all the little comments throughout. I know watermelon and fried chicken/BBQ came up. Was it when Beth Ann filmed the video trying to convince Darius to go to Alabama? Basically, they gave us everything to imply that Beth Ann is racist and then they didn't follow through and sidestepped it for this pregnancy story. The fact that Beth Ann's family wasn't racist isn't an example of a post racial America or subverting expectations. It's an example of the show giving us a boatload of evidence of one thing and then doing something completely different and contradictory. I don't know if they changed their minds or they just wanted to surprise the audience but either way, it's bad writing.

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And I'm a little over Rachel, for all her talk of feminism, she tends to constantly lean too heavily on men in the workplace.  The very idea that she would even get involved with Coleman after the disaster of Adam/Jeremy is just.....not great to me.  As much as she will pick on the contestants and talk down to them, I don't particularly think she is any better than any of them.  And the fact that she seems to be under that impression, makes her even less likeable.

To me this is a problem of all the soap opera drama getting in the way of the social commentary/character building. The two parts worked together better last season but as the drama started to take over it torpedoed Rachel's character. You can imply all the... what Coleman was doing to Rachel at the end of the episode... it doesn't magically solve a mess of a character.

[aradia22]

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If he were putting on the usual Prince Charming act I think that would ring rather false (and the show is already taking a lot of liberties on other things as it is).

[dubbel zout]

9 hours ago, aradia22 said:

By the way, now that it's come up a bunch I started thinking, how was it OK for Quinn to confront Jeremy in the trailer? It was a great moment but if they were so concerned with not firing a horribly disrespectful Jeremy at the beginning of the season because of sexual harassment (still don't get that one), and they can't file a police report over Rachel's assault because he knows where the bodies are buried, then how is Quinn grabbing him by the cojones not an issue? It feels like sexual harassment, some kind of assault, and unnecessary provocation if they do want to keep Mary and all their other secrets out of the public eye.

It's definitely an issue. Quinn was waaaay out of line. But for either side to file a suit would mean mutually assured destruction, and they know it. 

Edited July 20, 2016 by dubbel zout