S02.E09: Espionage

[formerlyfreedom]

Quote

Coleman tries to coerce Rachel into helping him destroy Quinn and the show, but Rachel has her own plan. Meanwhile, Darius and Jay join forces to ensure their ideal contestants make it to the finale; and Quinn receives perspective-changing news.

 

 

[earlbny]

We're at the home stretch and their pulling childish high school pranks. One of the best parts of season 1 was Rachel and Quinn working together. It only took them 9 episodes. I was a bit bored tonight. The poop prank/jokes was stupid. The ending was intense. 

Edited August 2, 2016 by earlbny

[FormerMod-a1]

I actually felt bad for Yael in the food poisoning moment.  And how cruel to set that up?  I know worse things have happened on this show (hello Mary), but ugh.  I don't know who was worse there, Rachel for setting it up or Quinn with her cackling about it.  But then Colemen really showed himself to be a dick, more so than previously (if you previously thought he was a dick).  I loved Rachel turning the tables and playing him though, or at least not taking his load of BS but not letting him know.  Then I felt for Quinn with the news from the doc, but loved the ending with her and Rachel.

[earlbny]

That scene with Rachel and Coleman reminded me of the scene in the confessional last year. Cue the fake tears. Loved the ending but very predictable.  I knew that the minute she got the phone call it would be bad news and she would break the TV. Rachel and Quinn are the stars so I knew they would kiss and makeup. It didn't feel like the 2nd to last episode of the season.

Edited August 2, 2016 by earlbny

[okerry]

THANK YOU, Show! That was more like it! More! More!

"This may be the worst thing we've ever done!" I'm so ashamed of myself for laughing at what they did to Yael - but I did laugh! And Quinn and Rachel are finally back!

[Knuckles]

I do not care for sad, victim Rachel...I like tough, pro-active Rachel. And finally, she is clear that Coleman is a major dick. Finally. As for Yael, thinking she was so clever, working Jeremy, Coleman, et. al to further her agenda...she had it coming. Sure it was childish, but the whole premise of these shows is intensely childish. They are playing at being adults in high heels and evening wear, but the emotional level is middle school, and lunch room power plays.

That said, watching Jay and Madison amp up their game is amusing, but poor Darius is getting lost in the cross fire. Hard to remember that he is the prize here, as he is more lost than the contestants. No surprise that Quinn ditched her lover...there is no way she is going to wander off and embrace domesticity.

Quinn and Rachel may both be damaged goods, but together they have real firepower. Watching them blow up Coleman should be fun, but the collateral damage should include a high body count.

[earlbny]

27 minutes ago, okerry said:

THANK YOU, Show! That was more like it! More! More!

"This may be the worst thing we've ever done!" I'm so ashamed of myself for laughing at what they did to Yael - but I did laugh! And Quinn and Rachel are finally back!

It's about time Rachel and Quinn kiss and made up. 

Observation. Rachel got physically abused, then the whole cop incident happened followed by Being drugged up and spending some time in a hospital. Now all the sudden she looks really hot. 

 

21 minutes ago, Knuckles said:

I do not care for sad, victim Rachel...I like tough, pro-active Rachel. And finally, she is clear that Coleman is a major dick. Finally. As for Yael, thinking she was so clever, working Jeremy, Coleman, et. al to further her agenda...she had it coming. Sure it was childish, but the whole premise of these shows is intensely childish. They are playing at being adults in high heels and evening wear, but the emotional level is middle school, and lunch room power plays.

That said, watching Jay and Madison amp up their game is amusing, but poor Darius is getting lost in the cross fire. Hard to remember that he is the prize here, as he is more lost than the contestants. No surprise that Quinn ditched her lover...there is no way she is going to wander off and embrace domesticity.

Quinn and Rachel may both be damaged goods, but together they have real firepower. Watching them blow up Coleman should be fun, but the collateral damage should include a high body count.

ITA 110%. I could not have said it any better. I tweeted out a bunch of times does it really matter who Darius picks.

Edited August 2, 2016 by earlbny

[StaceyNotStacie]

I didn't have much sympathy for Yael. I'm surprised that Coleman didn't tell Rachael that she was a reporter. 

The last five minutes of the show were the best part of the show. I am really looking forward to the finale next week. 

[dbell1]

Constance Zimmer was amazing in this episode. Just fabulous acting.

Not surprised Coleman turned out to be a dick, and can't wait to see him ripped up piece by piece by the dynamic duo. And with cameras in every room, there's no way his fling with Yael will stay a secret.  

[voiceover]

Yeah, I'm fine with Coleman going down, and not in the good way.

Most interesting thing about him: I finally figured out (sans cheating on IMDb) how I know him: as Alexis Bledel's Greek bf in "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants".

Still not figuring out Tiffany's m.o.  Is it as one-dimensional as it seems, or have I missed something?

And I still don't get the whole baby-rush subplot.  Too much too fast.  Just seems to be a way to inflict damage on Quinn --  like Rachel & the rape.  Fer crissakes! if you're going to wow us with all that MoneyDickPower stuff, then don't drown those women in the Lifetime Movie syrup.  Why would you think it makes them suddenly "relatable"??

[Madding crowd]

I liked Quinn acting like a real person and I liked that Rachel and Quinn made up. What I keep coming back to though, is that nothing about Everlasting seems like a real TV show and that continues to bother me. No one would want to watch a bachelor contestant crap herself on TV, cry and act emotional yes, but things like crapping themselves, getting found out by their enraged dad, jumping off roofs, none of it fits into a show people would watch about a bachelor.

I still don't understand Darius and what he wants. I know he is there is improve his image, but why would he stay after what happened with Romeo? Does he really like anyone on the show?

I also think there are still too many people around and would the show actually provide some kind of income for numerous people who seem to switch off who they are handling weekly? And Quinn breaking up because of the phone call was a bit over the top, there are such things as fertility treatments, surrogates, adoption etc. 

[HunterHunted]

Even though Yael is manipulative and awful that was terrible. The show made it seem like Rachel tampered with the food to get Yael sick, which is funny because there is a much simpler alternative to get the same outcome. A fair number of sushi restaurants have white tuna or white maguro aka escolar on the menu. Portions between 4 - 6 ounces or more will cause explosive diarrhea.

31 minutes ago, earlbny said:

ITA 110%. I tweeted out a bunch of times does it really matter who Darius picks.

It really doesn't matter who he chooses. Except for Yael, Tiffany and Chantal are interchangeable. Last season at this time, we had the manipulative Latina, Anna, the calculating black woman who knew she wasn't going to the finale, and Faith. The contestants were so much more sharply drawn last season. We know that Yael wants to stay in the running so she can complete her exposé and that being off in sequesterville would limit her access to the people who know where the bodies are buried. What are Tiffany's and Chantal's reasons for staying in? Tiffany wanted out when she thought it was a set up by her football team owning father, but now that she knows it's not she wants to stay because....? And Chantal? What is her motivation?

Also as an aside, there is no way that either Kate or Rooney Mara could have been on The Bachelor even before they became famous and it wouldn't have been an enormous news story. I find the Tiffany storyline to be ludicrous.

Edited August 2, 2016 by HunterHunted

[FrancesL]

Rachel and Quinn are no better than Coleman.  I miss the days when I enjoyed watching watching these characters.  

[earlbny]

I can't wait to get the big over the top shocking finale over with. So I can turn my attention to season 3.

[basically]

It doesn't matter that there were glimmers of season one in this episode because they FINALLY reunited Quinn and Rachel - it doesn't matter at all because despite Zimmer & Appleby being the queens they are (and Completely blameless in all of this) this season they have been shoveled nothing but shitty, completely shitty, off the wall, over the top, out of character, makes no fucking sense at all if you really think about it writing.

More than anything though it doesn't matter because for the second week - No Romeo. Proving how utterly unnecessary the shooting was. Proving that it was just a despicable and cheap stunt and that the subject of race was not taken seriously by these writers whatsoever. This was not their story to tell. Especially since it seems at this point they'd much rather sweep it under a rug and pretend it never happened. They couldn't explore racism on this show in any other way, if THIS was how they were going to handle it? Disgraceful. 

Thanks SGS for the complete fuck over of season 2! 

[earlbny]

I had no idea Coleman could hack phones? I learned something new.

Whatever happened to Chet's baby? I think Romeo is watching him off set.

Edited August 2, 2016 by earlbny

[LittleIggy]

If the show was trying to make me feel sorry for Quinn, didn't happen. Won't ever happen.

I missed Chet's dog.

[Artsda]

I felt so bad for Yael. Rachel did that just because she was jealous over something she had no idea what was really going on about. Rachel's psycho and I do hope the news report of Yael's goes out.

I also think Quinn's sudden children wanting happened out of nowhere after her reaction just episodes ago of Chet's baby. 

[Chris Burgess]

I hated that the writers have turned Coleman into complete slime by having him cheat on Rachel with Yael! UGH!!!!! I also laughed at Yael pooping in her dress after Rachel gave her poisoned sushi! I think that Chet is hooking up with Tiffany so that he could still try to get in the NFL business with her father. Constance Zimmer did some really terrific acting in her performance as Quinn after she found out that she couldn't have children and dumped John because of that reason! And I'm really glad that Rachel and Quinn are back together again to take down Coleman!

Edited August 2, 2016 by Chris Burgess

[earlbny]

I keep thinking that Rachel and Quinn are the stars of the show and unless they want to leave the world of everlasting it won't be exposed.

[backformore]

I never liked the idea of giving someone food poisoning as a prank.  It's not funny, you can kill someone.  

[RachelKM]

This show is so contradictory and uneven.  On the one hand Shiri Appleby and Constance Zimmer are wonderful together, so much so that when Rachel and Quinn are together I love and root for them even as I despise them.  On the other hand, this season is an utter shit show (no pun intended - seriously, I couldn't come up with a more apt term and a regret that).  

Everlasting was presented as a ridiculous circus in Season 1.  But it was a circus that seemed to have a direction and could almost be a show.  This season has been utterly bizarre.  I'm not demanding realism, but from what we've seen there didn't seem to be any sort of plan and there is no way Everlasting could have anything like a narrative or more than 20 min of usable footage.   UnREAL has stopped even pretending that what its characters are doing is putting together anything like a TV show or anything even remotely air-able.  Instead it seems more like sleep away camp, complete with mean and disgusting pranks, for very pretty sociopaths and codependents. 

Edited August 3, 2016 by RachelKM

[Xazeal]

Quote

On the one hand Shiri Appleby and Constance Zimmer are wonderful together, so much so that when Rachel and Quinn are together I love and root for them even as I despise them. 

There really is some kind of crazy magic going on there. I think the characters are terrible, terrible people - which I'm fine with - but when they get together, their chemistry is explosive. Despite how uneven this season has been (and I don't think it's been as bad as most people seem to) this episode pretty much had me yelling "FUCK YEAH!" at my television with that final scene. Shades of Nikita and Alex, although I could actually root for those two even when they were on their own.

I was surprised by the direction the show went with Yael. It wasn't until Coleman kissed her that I realized they were actually the villains. With Rachel and Quinn being openly terrible, I thought we were meant to root for Yael to expose the show, and I thought it would actually happen in the end. But now we're very, very clearly meant to root for Rachel and Quinn taking Coleman down. Didn't expect that, but I'm fine with it. On another note, Coleman had so much more chemistry with Yael than he ever did with Rachel. 

[candall]

My optic nerves are loose from rolling my eyes so much.  I thought the writing was TERRIBLE. 

--As if anyone who ever met Rachel would believe she'd turn on a dime and be all teary and grateful that someone arranged a "rest cure" for her.  Oh, you really ARE the only person who cares about me! *sniff*  Coleman's not an idiot, so that was a cheap shortcut.

--Same with Quinn's man.  They could have spent 45 extra seconds on the standard "It doesn't matter, darling" speech and shown both of them knowing it DID matter and he was gone.  Those two actors are good enough to convey all that without pages of dialogue.  It sounded like he was hemming and hawing about maybe he could just buy her a new womb.

--Really?  Explosive diarrhea in a white dress is the big gut buster?  A show and a team based on dramatic manipulation has suddenly become Jackass Everlasting?  Are there whoopee cushions in the chairs now?  And is it even possible to convince someone who's that desperate for a toilet that "the show must go on"?

--I don't like Tiffany being a clueless squiff out there on the putting green in her stilettos with the Roman sandal straps, whining about her love connection with Darius.  Why can't they just both be shrewd calculating ambitious people who understand their interests align?  That gives a bachelorette something of a distinguishable personality and makes Darius' emotional inclination to Chantal a stronger conflict story.

 

Yes, good to see Quinn and Rachel back together.  It'll be great if the finale is the two of them in scorched earth mode.  But it was barely enough payoff for tonight's mess.

[earlbny]

As much as I can't stand Yael, I wanted to see her run into Rachel's office and poop all over the place. That stunt was childish. Did they really need to make jokes for 10 minutes? ITA that it was  like a stunt on Jackass. I like Jackass just not when I am watching UnREAL. SGS and co we're hoping that the poop scene would trend on Twitter and everyone would be talking about it the next day. They failed. I didn't find that scene funny. What I did find funny is the promo talking about how UnREAL is the show everyone will be talking about. That's false advertising.

One prank gets a man shot and almost killed and another makes a girl poop.

Rachel and Quinn on the same team was the best  thing about this episode.

Most of last nights episode didn't feel like the 2nd to last episode of the season.

If I hadn't watched the last few episodes I would have no idea Rachel was beat up, drugged up and put in a hospital. She was looking hot last night. No sign of trauma.

Edited August 2, 2016 by earlbny

[FrancesL]

Quote

I never liked the idea of giving someone food poisoning as a prank.  It's not funny, you can kill someone.  

Causing physical or serious emotional abuse to Darius or the contestants has been a recurring theme this season.  It also happened last season when Mary committed suicide due to one of the producers tampering with her meds) but at least in that instance, there was a much bigger fallout. The producer was fired and the  effects of what they did are still being discussed this season.   In this season, there seem to be no repercussions for going too far.  So far, they've set up an unstable contestant to hurt another contestant during an obstacle race, then locked her in confinement so she could reveal personal information about her past in foster care. Then they discredited her on national TV by hiring an actress to pretend to be her mother. During the incident, the contestant attacked Darius.  Quinn got the contestants to tackle Darius in order to worsen his injury. Rachel made the police think that Darius stole a car which resulted in Romeo being shot and Darius injured.  And now Rachel maliciously poisons a contestant that she thinks is sleeping with her boyfriend. What made the food poisoning even harder to watch, was the way Rachel forcefully stopped Yael from getting to a bathroom.   It was like something out of a high school mean girls playbook except these aren't teenagers.

I know this is a fictional show, but I can't see any reality show deliberately putting their suitor or contestants in situations that could get them hurt.  And are we really expected to believe that Rachel cares about race issues, when her tactics of bringing racism to light always involve putting Darius in racially charged situations that can end badly? Had Beth Ann's parents turned out to be as racist as Rachel had hoped, Darius' home date with Beth Ann could have ended almost as badly as the police incident, especially when the pregnancy issue came up and when Rachel invited Beth Ann's ex to show up.   It's also frustrating is that the producers don't take the time to properly explore what Darius is really feeling during this entire mess of a show. He gets annoyed with Rachel and continues on his dates, which isn't a realistic reaction, especially given that their manipulations caused his cousin to be seriously injured. The Ruby incident with her father would have been enough for any suitor.  After seeing what they did to Yael, I kept hoping that he would select Yael in the final 2 to show that he could not be manipulated. But I guess since the producers don't seem to give a crap about Darius, I shouldn't be surprised that they put very little effort into giving him a plausible character development. At the end of the day, he's just another plot device. 

[SillyOldClothCat]

For next week's finale, I predict Romeo will be back on set to help Darius navigate these shark-infested waters. Nobody else is able to see past their own self-interest to be trustworthy in their advice to him.

[Primetimer]

Not as tough as the one Coleman's about to learn about trying to turn Rachel against Quinn. But tough!

View the full article

[earlbny]

Here's something I find hard to believe. Rachel is known as a master manipulator, yet she does not know how to delete a video off of a computer? my Niece and Nephew who are 7 and 3 can delete a video. I don't buy that for one second. SGS must have gotten jealous at all the attention Mr. Robot gets so she made Coleman a hacker.

Edited August 2, 2016 by earlbny

[dixiecricket]

1 hour ago, FrancesL said:

Quinn got the contestants to tackle Darius in order to worsen his injury.

I thought Chet coordinated the tackle?

 

How can someone, in real life, seamlessly keep up with who is playing who as Rachel seems to do in this episode?

 

RE: Madison - I am starting to like her awfulness

[BusyOctober]

So, yes this show stretches the limits of credibility...but at first I thought they were trying to make us think Quinn and whatshisname had an IVF procedure done. It must have been testing only b/c it takes at least a few months to get to an actual IVF stage.  And at her age, I'm sure Quinn would need a few rounds of hormones to boost egg production before any could be harvested for the actual procedure where they inject sperm into the eggs to create the embryos.  I went through 5 IVF's over 2 years and it is not a situation where you decide on Monday "Hey! I want a baby!", Wednesday you're legs up in the stirrups & you're preggers on Friday.  Plus if Quinn was incubating an implanted embryo, she wouldn't be tottering around on 5 inch heels and swigging back tequila on the same day.  When she got the call that she can't have a baby, I felt real sympathy.

Coleman needs the next round of explosive diarrhea.  I knew he'd turn out to be a dick from the jump.  I hope he goes down in flames.

[Pepper Mostly]

9 hours ago, Madding crowd said:

I liked Quinn acting like a real person and I liked that Rachel and Quinn made up. What I keep coming back to though, is that nothing about Everlasting seems like a real TV show and that continues to bother me. No one would want to watch a bachelor contestant crap herself on TV, cry and act emotional yes, but things like crapping themselves, getting found out by their enraged dad, jumping off roofs, none of it fits into a show people would watch about a bachelor.

I still don't understand Darius and what he wants. I know he is there is improve his image, but why would he stay after what happened with Romeo? Does he really like anyone on the show?

 

Agreed! They are supposed to be selling "true love, people!".  Even if Yael was supposed to be the bitch who got her comeuppance (and we have seen nothing to support this), why? It had nothing to do with Everlasting-it was about Rachel, getting her revenge, in a spectacularly juvenile and cruel way. I can't imagine anyone watching a dating reality show wanting even the biggest bitch villain in the world to be humiliated like that. Its so crude. 

Darius has been a cipher the whole season. He's like a prop. But so is everyone. No one is a person. They're just a crew of deus ex machinas who exist to advance some ridiculous, convoluted plot, then vanish.

8 hours ago, basically said:

It doesn't matter that there were glimmers of season one in this episode because they FINALLY reunited Quinn and Rachel - it doesn't matter at all because despite Zimmer & Appleby being the queens they are (and Completely blameless in all of this) this season they have been shoveled nothing but shitty, completely shitty, off the wall, over the top, out of character, makes no fucking sense at all if you really think about it writing.

More than anything though it doesn't matter because for the second week - No Romeo. Proving how utterly unnecessary the shooting was. Proving that it was just a despicable and cheap stunt and that the subject of race was not taken seriously by these writers whatsoever. This was not their story to tell. Especially since it seems at this point they'd much rather sweep it under a rug and pretend it never happened. They couldn't explore racism on this show in any other way, if THIS was how they were going to handle it? Disgraceful. 

Thanks SGS for the complete fuck over of season 2! 

Yes. I agree 100% and share your disgust. 

3 hours ago, candall said:

My optic nerves are loose from rolling my eyes so much.  I thought the writing was TERRIBLE. 

--As if anyone who ever met Rachel would believe she'd turn on a dime and be all teary and grateful that someone arranged a "rest cure" for her.  Oh, you really ARE the only person who cares about me! *sniff*  Coleman's not an idiot, so that was a cheap shortcut.

--Same with Quinn's man.  They could have spent 45 extra seconds on the standard "It doesn't matter, darling" speech and shown both of them knowing it DID matter and he was gone.  Those two actors are good enough to convey all that without pages of dialogue.  It sounded like he was hemming and hawing about maybe he could just buy her a new womb.

--Really?  Explosive diarrhea in a white dress is the big gut buster?  A show and a team based on dramatic manipulation has suddenly become Jackass Everlasting?  Are there whoopee cushions in the chairs now?  And is it even possible to convince someone who's that desperate for a toilet that "the show must go on"?

--I don't like Tiffany being a clueless squiff out there on the putting green in her stilettos with the Roman sandal straps, whining about her love connection with Darius.  Why can't they just both be shrewd calculating ambitious people who understand their interests align?  That gives a bachelorette something of a distinguishable personality and makes Darius' emotional inclination to Chantal a stronger conflict story.

 

Yes, good to see Quinn and Rachel back together.  It'll be great if the finale is the two of them in scorched earth mode.  But it was barely enough payoff for tonight's mess.

Recycling Rachel's fake cry with Adam in the confessional was stupid. Of course Coleman fell for it. Everyone on this hot mess of a show acts and reacts in completely idiotic, baffling ways to advance the screwed up narrative.

I take all the points above and add:

What about Chet's MRA stuff? That's gone, and we don't have gross, slovenly, brash Chet from last season either. Just some clean shaven guy who appears from time to time to be a foil for Tiffany. Why? We don't even hear about his football ambitions any more. What about Tiffany's backstory with her father?

What about his baby? What happened there? Why isn't he in jail for kidnapping? Does he no longer care about his baby then? He's never mentioned it again.

Where's Jeremy? Is he still boffing Yael? Does he have a vested interest in taking down Everlasting? Is he participating in the scheme? What's he doing?

And Rachel's mother just went away quietly?

Adam? why even bring him back?

Why is everyone plotting to bring down Everlasting like its some evil wizard in a fantasy novel?

None of this drek makes any sense at all.

[sacrebleu]

Well, I was waiting for Rachel to offer her eggs/womb to be a surrogate for Quinn-- so I'm glad that didn't happen. 

[KateeBar]

I was watching the episode this morning, and found myself thinking - in season 1, I was really impressed with how they handled the story line of Faith's sexuality. I don't recall it all exactly, but I remember it being interesting and touching how Rachel was, at least momentarily, a kind person in the way she handled Faith. Right? Is my memory totally off? 

Now, it's like a nighttime soap. And really, I enjoy a good soapy show. But when you're telling me how smart you are and how smart your show will be and then you pull an explosive poop prank? That drags on for longer than it should? Come on. Not to mention that in season 1, the contestants on Everlasting were given backstories and were featured as complex and interesting people for the most part. Now, they are essentially cardboard cutouts, and someone has taped cliched character traits to the cutouts like cartoon thought bubbles, and I really don't care about them. 

I'm so disappointed. As an aside - I really loved Yael's white dress and was very sad to see it defiled. I want that dress.

Edited August 2, 2016 by KateeBar

[earlbny]

10 minutes ago, KateeBar said:

I was watching the episode this morning, and found myself thinking - in season 1, I was really impressed with how they handled the story line of Faith's sexuality. I don't recall it all exactly, but I remember it being interesting and touching how Rachel was, at least momentarily, a kind person in the way she handled Faith. Right? Is my memory totally off? 

Now, it's like a nighttime soap. And really, I enjoy a good soapy show. But when you're telling me how smart you are and how smart your show will be and then you pull an explosive poop prank? That drags on for longer than it should? Come on. Not to mention that in season 1, the contestants on Everlasting were given backstories and were featured as complex and interesting people for the most part. Now, they are essentially cardboard cutouts, and someone has taped cliched character traits to the cutouts like cartoon thought bubbles, and I really don't care about them. 

I'm so disappointed. As an aside - I really loved Yael's white dress and was very sad to see it defiled. I want that dress.

ITA 110% with everything you said. Faith's story was beautiful. You remembered it correctly.They even gave Faith a  spin off. Before the episode aired Constance tweeted that she laughed for almost 10 minutes during a scene from last nights episode. After watching it I responded to her tweet and told her I didn't laugh. I don't particularly care about anyone this season. I also responded to a tweet about who Darius should pick by saying does it even matter who he picks. Darius should pick Chet's dog boo and run off into the sunset.

Edited August 2, 2016 by earlbny

[BingeyKohan]

I feel as sick as Yael when I think of all the things we were told would matter this season that came to nothing: Chet having a child at all (nothing) then kidnapping it (nothing); having a Black Lives Matter activist AND a Confederate flag-waver AND an African-American police officer in the cast during such a fraught time (nothing, nothing, nothing), Romeo getting shot by a police officer (nothing), having Quinn sign an over-all development deal with the network, meaning she should be developing several new projects to get off the ground (nothing), then having her date the head of her network, who could provide the fast track for those new shows (less than nothing; rather than finding a way to make the remains of the relationship work for her she tells him to get the hell out of her life). The penultimate episode takes a left turn into Bridesmaids gross-out territory. I'm choosing to interpret Yael's white dress as a metaphor for the narrative clean slate season 2 represented before SGS came and...sashimi'd all over it.

[earlbny]

[Lovecat]

I did enjoy the juxtaposition of Darius telling Yael, "I'm not down with the raw fish" with the shot of Chet uh...servicing Tiffany.  I see what you did there, Show.

[dubbel zout]

8 hours ago, backformore said:

I never liked the idea of giving someone food poisoning as a prank.  It's not funny, you can kill someone.  

Same here. As for Yael being manipulative, everyone on the show is manipulative. She shouldn't be singled out and punished like that for it.

[backformore]

2 hours ago, FrancesL said:

Causing physical or serious emotional abuse to Darius or the contestants has been a recurring theme this season.  It also happened last season when Mary committed suicide due to one of the producers tampering with her meds) but at least in that instance, there was a much bigger fallout. The producer was fired and the  effects of what they did are still being discussed this season.   In this season, there seem to be no repercussions for going too far.  So far, they've set up an unstable contestant to hurt another contestant during an obstacle race, then locked her in confinement so she could reveal personal information about her past in foster care. Then they discredited her on national TV by hiring an actress to pretend to be her mother. During the incident, the contestant attacked Darius.  Quinn got the contestants to tackle Darius in order to worsen his injury. Rachel made the police think that Darius stole a car which resulted in Romeo being shot and Darius injured.  And now Rachel maliciously poisons a contestant that she thinks is sleeping with her boyfriend. What made the food poisoning even harder to watch, was the way Rachel forcefully stopped Yael from getting to a bathroom.   It was like something out of a high school mean girls playbook except these aren't teenagers.

For me, what made it difficult to watch was the control room full of "producers" watching it on a tv screen and laughing.  At this point, they don't even know that she's a journalist who wants to do an expose on their show.   They just enjoy being mean because "She kissed my boyfriend!" 

I have always disliked diarrhea as a comedic thing.  I recall some kids who actually spiked their teacher's coffee or snack with a laxative, and the kids having disciplinary actins.   when asked, they said  they had seen similar "pranks"  on TV and in movies, giving them the message that this is a hilarious thing to do.  Messing with someone's intestinal tract and laughing at the results is disgusting.

Edited August 2, 2016 by backformore

[Phebemarie]

If they wanted the audience to feel Rachel was justified,  they needed to make Yael a more obvious, scheming villain.  She came across as a little snotty when she asked Rachel to fetch her dress, but I can't think of other times when she pulled that mean girl attitude.  Insisting Yael wear the white dress made Rachel come across as the moustache-twirling villain in that scene.  

As disappointing (understatement) as the show has been this season, I keep wondering if next week's big event will be Rachel waking up after a horrible dream (season 2) and turning to find Adam in the shower after they'd run off together at the end of season one.  

[HunterHunted]

I wish Darius would have somehow gotten wind of Yael's investigation, but not clue her in that he knew. Mostly because she is the only contestant that he can reasonably choose to come out of this mess of a season with his reputation intact and with him situated to look like the hero when Yael's story comes out. Yael as the ultimate ultimate winner allows Darius to feed information to her about how the show has fucked with life, his health, and the life of his cousin. Additionally when Yael's story comes out, she becomes the girl who wasn't there for the right reasons. This redeems Darius' reputation and allows him to pivot to broadcasting. Through Yael, his story of being manipulated by Everlasting and Yael makes him sympathetic and softens his image.

Both the contestants and the suitor this season are so ineptly written. Except for Ruby and Yael, all of the rest are interchangeable. We got much better characterizations last season. Even Darius is sort of poorly sketched out, we know that he's a decent guy who is supporting a lot of family and is concerned about living up to his image. I would have loved an episode where Darius just rails at the fact that he always has to adhere to this idealized depiction of himself. Where he talks about how he can't just take a 4:20 pot break or wild out at a club. That would have made him taking off in the Bentley so much more understandable. I also wish that Darius would have objected more to Chet's oversexed show running in the beginning of the season not because Darius isn't into it, but because he's on the show to rehab his image in relation to women and it doesn't help him to mix with the women when they're in bathing suits and he's in a suit. If he's really trying to rehab his image and is so concerned about how he's depicted, he should have been much harder to produce in the beginning. He should have been saying "no" left and right, day and night, and 24/7.

[dixiecricket]

If memory serves, Darius has done nothing this season that would make him villainous. He has been one of the only ones to consistently remember (and point out) that he is trying to rehab his image.
 You would think that would make him a sympathetic character; but this season's writing has been so chaotic that I've got nothing for him. I had more sympathy for Romeo (even BEFORE he was shot) as the throwaway cousin/manager then I do for Darius.

[CalamityBoPeep]

5 hours ago, candall said:

--As if anyone who ever met Rachel would believe she'd turn on a dime and be all teary and grateful that someone arranged a "rest cure" for her.  Oh, you really ARE the only person who cares about me! *sniff*  Coleman's not an idiot, so that was a cheap shortcut.

--Same with Quinn's man.  They could have spent 45 extra seconds on the standard "It doesn't matter, darling" speech and shown both of them knowing it DID matter and he was gone.  Those two actors are good enough to convey all that without pages of dialogue.  It sounded like he was hemming and hawing about maybe he could just buy her a new womb.

 

It almost seems pointless to even remark on the show, since it's become such a train wreck, but seriously! How did Coleman's red alert alarm system not go nuts seeing Rachel's reaction to his suggestion about putting her in care for a month? She was all over the place emotionally, in that little scene. It doesn't even work with the characterization of Coleman that they've had, up until now, since he's been portrayed as being somewhat aware of where her emotions are. Much less Rachel... she used to be more subtle and her emotional plays didn't seem so out-of-the-blue, since they had something to ground them.

But he didn't twig onto the fact that she's playing at gratitude? Really? Crappy, crappy writing there. And totally agree re: Quinn's reaction to the baby news. It makes sense that she'd be so upset, and it was kind of fun watching her trash the control room, but this guy that she's with is supposed to be a big media mover and shaker. He's supposed to be the kind of guy who's observant and thinks on his feet. And he couldn't come up with "You know what? There are alternatives... surrogacy, infertility treatments, adoption." Really? He just is like "oh, well then."

2 hours ago, earlbny said:

Here's something I find hard to believe. Rachel is known as a master manipulator, yet she does not know how to delete a video off of a computer? my Niece and Nephew who are 7 and 3 can delete a video. I don't buy that for one second. SGS must have gotten jealous at all the attention Mr. Robot gets so she made Coleman a hacker.

And honestly, in today's tech world, the whole thing of having all these recordings is kind of a massive Chekov's gun for the rest of the run of the show. Anyone who cares about any data on their computer or phone has it uploaded to the cloud automatically. Every photo I take ends up in 3 places... my phone, the cloud, and when I log onto the desktop... it moves there too. Without my having to do anything, other than set up the process.

If I was going to do a takedown on a show, I wouldn't have a recording just sitting on a phone, or the video on a laptop, for damn sure. The fact that Rachel's phone was hacked means that recording was already in more places than just Coleman's phone, for Pete's sake. It's a ridiculous plot point that Rachel doesn't know how to delete a video, but it's also ridiculous to think that video (and Coleman's audio) doesn't exist elsewhere too. Stupid. But of course, that will be utterly ignored going forward.

1 hour ago, Pepper Mostly said:

What about Chet's MRA stuff? That's gone, and we don't have gross, slovenly, brash Chet from last season either. Just some clean shaven guy who appears from time to time to be a foil for Tiffany. Why? We don't even hear about his football ambitions any more. What about Tiffany's backstory with her father?

What about his baby? What happened there? Why isn't he in jail for kidnapping? Does he no longer care about his baby then? He's never mentioned it again.

Where's Jeremy? Is he still boffing Yael? Does he have a vested interest in taking down Everlasting? Is he participating in the scheme? What's he doing?

And Rachel's mother just went away quietly?

Adam? why even bring him back?

Why is everyone plotting to bring down Everlasting like its some evil wizard in a fantasy novel?

None of this drek makes any sense at all.

God, yes. Ditto to every question you've asked. And one more from me: Why in the hell was Coleman wanting to boff a woman who had just had a serious, serious issue with food poisoning? It doesn't end that freaking fast! She'd still be iffy on the state of her intestines and really would not be in any shape to get romantic. It was the same night! She might not be exploding any more, but she'd sure be feeling the effects. Just no.

21 minutes ago, Phebemarie said:

As disappointing (understatement) as the show has been this season, I keep wondering if next week's big event will be Rachel waking up after a horrible dream (season 2) and turning to find Adam in the shower after they'd run off together at the end of season one.  

At this point, I'd just heave a big sigh of relief, if they did that. We liked Rachel and Quinn at the end, but we've decided here, after last night, that if Marti Noxon comes back for season 3, we'll watch. If not, then no. SGS has proven two things over this season: 1) she is a child; and 2) she doesn't know how to build a story.

[candall]

30 minutes ago, Lovecat said:

I did enjoy the juxtaposition of Darius telling Yael, "I'm not down with the raw fish" with the shot of Chet uh...servicing Tiffany.  I see what you did there, Show.

Difficult to miss it.  Since they just couldn't resist the raw fish joke, they lose any bonus points for women getting oral sex two-to-one this season. 

Text me the deets on the candlelight vigil for Marti Noxon's return. 

[Pepper Mostly]

1 hour ago, Phebemarie said:

As disappointing (understatement) as the show has been this season, I keep wondering if next week's big event will be Rachel waking up after a horrible dream (season 2) and turning to find Adam in the shower after they'd run off together at the end of season one.  

hahahahaha! Oh god that made me laugh, a lot. White curtains blowing in the Mediterranean breeze, the blue blue ocean visible through the French doors, a pitcher of Bellinis on the table, and Adam all sudsy. Hee.

[Ms Blue Jay]

12 hours ago, HunterHunted said:

Last season at this time, we had the manipulative Latina, Anna, the calculating black woman who knew she wasn't going to the finale, and Faith. The contestants were so much more sharply drawn last season.

If the characters were so 'sharply drawn' then can't you use their names?  Using women of colours' races to define them is a turn off.   And you didn't do it with the white actors.

Quote

Zimmer & Appleby being the queens they are (and Completely blameless in all of this)

I agree with a lot of what you said, but I don't think actors are completely blameless.  Everyone has different limits to what they will do.  I assume actors don't have MUCH power but they have some.  They can also make decisions.  Anyways, I just feel a little differently here.  I've quit jobs where I didn't agree with what I was doing ethically.  I'm not saying it needs to go that far, but..... a lot of actors grab ahold of more power in a show (the cast of Friends) or become Exec Producers (The Office, Sex and the City, The Good Wife....)

Edited August 2, 2016 by Ms Blue Jay

[DanMSchro]

What did Rachel give Yael to practically poop on command? Did she go all Medea and soak that dress in ex-lax? I know someone mentioned escolar, which can definitely cause diarrhea, but even if it were laxative coated escolar, the digestive system takes a little time. There's no way she went from chowing down to butt explosion so quickly.

[CalamityBoPeep]

3 minutes ago, DanMSchro said:

What did Rachel give Yael to practically poop on command? Did she go all Medea and soak that dress in ex-lax? I know someone mentioned escolar, which can definitely cause diarrhea, but even if it were laxative coated escolar, the digestive system takes a little time. There's no way she went from chowing down to butt explosion so quickly.

Good point. Seems like she'd be more likely vomit quickly, for the amount of whatever it was that she'd had. To have that kind of butt explosion, that quickly, you pretty much have to down a triple dose of Miralax... but it still takes about 15 or 20 minutes. (Er... yeah, this is getting gross. But anyone who's had to do a pre-GI-test cleanse knows what it's like. :-P )

[Save Yourself]

Apart from the other many many problems with this season I wish they didn't have Coleman hook up with Yael. I thought it was more interesting that he could 'think' he had the best of intentions towards Rachel but was blinded by wanting to get the big scoop on Everlasting and boost his career thus screwing her over in that fashion. To me that's a better story than him cheating on her, the two-timing storyline is a dime a dozen. He's been such a cipher this whole season and now they've just added another boring element to him. 

 

My biggest problem was this episode is I am 7 months pregnant and LOVE sashimi and I've been dying to eat it so watching Yael chow down was really frustrating! Even the aftermath hasn't stopped me fantasising about my first post-baby sashimi ???