S02.E10: Friendly Fire

[Lurky McLurkerson]

4 hours ago, NutmegsDad said:

*slow golf clap*

Bravo. Bravo, Jeremy-loving FanBoy Network Executive. You got your fanfic. The abusive asshole who blew up Rachel's life in front of everyone at the end of Season 1, and got fired after beating her up, was brought back at YOUR insistence to turn good guy at a moment's thought, save the day, expose Yael as a hidden mole and "take care" of her and Coleman.

I almost feel like this is the showrunner's middle finger at the execs who required them to keep the Jeremy character on the show, and it feels like cutting off the show's nose to spite it's face. I don't know if it's SGS or some other creative "genius" who feels their vision got shit upon by having to keep the guy they didn't want on the show, but it seems to me that it was mostly their decision on the direction in which to take the character and to flush UnReal down the toilet rather than work around the obstacle.  It feels very tantrum-y -- "You want me to keep this asshole?  Fine, I'll make the show a parody of itself!"

Overall, there were some bright spots in this episode -- Quinn's reaction to the the way Everlasting ended, Darius/Ruby, and (my personal favorite) Romeo's, "You got me shot, we don't talk."  But I'm not sure it's enough fire extinguisher for the dumpster fire of this season.

I'm undecided on returning for next season.  The first season was so good that I hold out hope for recovery from the sophomore slump, but that soap opera-y shot from the smoldering car to the ham-fisted exposition from Jeremy that he was somehow responsible?  Not confidence-inspiring nor are SGS's self-aggrandizing inteviews.

Edited August 9, 2016 by Lurky McLurkerson

[dubbel zout]

3 hours ago, Pepper Mostly said:

And what is it with everyone's obsession with the Utter Destruction of Everlasting and All Associated with it? Its a TV show, not the Evil Empire.

I buy this to the extent that destroying Everlasting will also do deep damage to Quinn, Rachel, and Chet. Those three are so strongly connected to the show that it going down in flames will affect them, too. The women more than Chet, most likely, given how Hollywood works.

I thought this season ended in a total whimper. Killing off Coleman and Yael was such a cop-out (assuming they are dead). I'd have liked to have seen Quinn try to produce something she couldn't entirely control.

[okerry]

32 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

I'd have liked to have seen Quinn try to produce something she couldn't entirely control.

But she has. She tried to produce and control True Love, and found out she couldn't control that at all. That's why she was so shell-shocked at the end of this episode.

[Charm]

I'm sorry but I love this show! It's dark and so what if there are a few open-ended or unexplained situations. It's not a documentary. The 4 damaged characters are forever linked by their evil secrets. Graham and Madison provide comic relief, Jay is the romantic and Dr. Wag throws in a comment here and there. Chet, Quinn, Jeremy and Rachel's back stories all get revealed over time thus explaining why they are so damaged and feel little remorse for hurting others.  Quinn's scoffs, one-liners and her laughter are priceless. When each one of them suffered personal hurt, (Quinn:no baby, lost love/Booth) (Chet:rejection from Quinn & Tiffany) (Rachel:betrayal by Coleman, Yael) (Jeremy:lost Rachel, job)...they project that hurt by hurting the stable of contestants who are all willing to take it as they are blinded by the glitz and glamour of being on tv. I'm willing to gloss over any fault to listen to Quinn's maniacal laughter. I love it!! 

[dubbel zout]

46 minutes ago, okerry said:

She tried to produce and control True Love, and found out she couldn't control that at all. That's why she was so shell-shocked at the end of this episode.

True, but that ended up working to the show's advantage despite what she originally was going for. And that's always her goal—a successful show.  

I meant not being able to produce something outside the show. Coleman and Yael were beyond the structure of the show, so Quinn couldn't just keep them locked away in a room. There were a ton more issues to deal with. 

(That probably doesn't explain it very well; sorry.)

[Pepper Mostly]

And oh yeah--if Coleman's ex knew about his shenanigans with his famous documentary, and was willing to blab about it to the first person who called her up and asked her about it, how does that get kept secret? This whole thing makes demands on my willing suspension of disbelief that are causing my eyes to cross.

The more I think about how much I was looking forward to seeing this season, and how woefully short it fell of my expectations, the madder I get. What a waste. The acting talent is simply outstanding and to see it frittered away on this dreck.....

[Wings]

I love this show and so glad the finale ended well and brought things back to a starting point for season 3.  Everyone is on a new track.  

The ending was poignant and fitting.  Best Everlasting ending and Quinn saw that, too.   It made her sad because she wants love, too.  Nicely done.  

I think Jeremy was chasing after Coleman and Yael and witnessed the accident but didn't cause it.  Or he was far behind and came upon it.   Either way, Jeremy did not kill them.  We don't know if they are dead either but that is my assumption and the plot device to lose that story line.  

Edited August 9, 2016 by wings707

[Phebemarie]

Do you think the theme they're going with is 'absolute power corrupts absolutely'?  Maybe they're stealing from Shakespeare, and Rachel is turning into Macbeth, who started out fairly honorable but sunk to depravity to gain power.  

Earlier in the season when they brought in the fake mom of one of the contestants, I thought that was about as low as anyone could go and still not become mustache-twirling villains.   Guess I was wrong.  

[guilfoyleatpp]

Soapy.

Not what I was expecting of this show, but not entirely unwatchable. I thought it would have a teeny bit more current social commentary (not in the form of "RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES") and not feel so much like the 1980's era All My Children.

I might give it another go next year, although like others here, I found the short cuts to be somewhat offensive to my intellect. But then, it's a soap, so I knew what I was getting in to.

Torn.

[Isazouzi]

It was pretty bad but still watchable. I think I'll give a go to season 3 in case it gets better.

Nonetheless, 2 things made me laugh out loud in this episode: first, when during commercial, the 2 brides, Darius and Romeo all started yelling at each other but abruptly stopped and put on a fake smile when they were on air again. It was so sudden, it cracked me up. And then when Graham laughed while telling Darius he had a choice to make. It was refreshing to see him amused at the stupidity of the situation.

[tennisgurl]

So...this season happened. There were some good moments, really there were. I am happy that Darius ended up with Ruby. Predictable, yes, but it was still a nice ending. As Ruby was pretty much the only woman with a likable personality (or any personality), I am glad we got a happy ending for her. I liked the reaction from Quinn, and her shock that True Love actually happened, basically by accident. The acting was good all around, and there were some good shots and music moments, especially in this last episode. That all being said...

That season was a HUGE let down after the brilliance of the first season. This was basically the season where plots go to die. Chet becoming an MRA asshole? Done. Jeremy goes evil? He disappears, then pops back up, still in love with Rachel, but also still evil. Quinn suddenly wants kids all of the sudden? Then she cant? Ruby the Black Lives Matter girl clash with Confederate Flag girl? Had like two quick conversations. Rachel was raped and her mom covered it up? Romeo was SHOT? NOTHING! It was ridiculous! They kept throwing out this "Ripped from the Headlines" issues, and tried to come up with all these "hot topics", but its now clear that the writers and show runner just skimmed whatever the Huffington Post was writing about one day, and decided to throw it into an episode, without any real thought to the greater implications what they were doing. 

Also, who the hell was I supposed to be rooting for this year? Darius was kind of a blank slate for most of the show, as were most of the other girls, Rachel and Quinn are basically Saturday Morning Cartoon villains, and Yael and Coleman were clearly supposed to be the villains of the season, and now they have probably been murdered by Jeremy (who might actually be the most fucked up person on this show, and that is REALLY saying something). 

I am sure I will come back next year, to see if they can untangle themselves from this mess, but, after this season, my expectation are so low, you can step over them. 

I would really love for the show to do a spin off Batchelorette type season, to see if the gang can try their same manipulations on guys instead of women. 

Edited August 9, 2016 by tennisgurl

[Wings]

8 minutes ago, guilfoyleatpp said:

I might give it another go next year, although like others here, I found the short cuts to be somewhat offensive to my intellect. But then, it's a soap, so I knew what I was getting in to.

Best to put your intellect in the freezer as you are getting ice for your cocktail.  This season lacked the brilliance of the first but it will take a turn for the better in 3.  All interviews point to that.  

It is black humor and not to be dissected.  It is intended to shock!  

[Tara Ariano]

In case you missed it, here's the Previously.TV post on the episode!

In Its Season 2 Finale, UnREAL Builds A House Of Cards And Then Drives An Ostentatious Car Through It

A bummer of a season reaches an ending that befits everything that came before it. Unfortunately. Can this show be saved?

[dixiecricket]

5 hours ago, okerry said:

I am a little confused at how the car ended up in the ditch - it sure looked like we're supposed to think Jeremy made that happen, though on second watching I'm still not sure exactly when.

Following soap opera protocol, my assumption was that he 1) knew the canyon roads leading away from the house and 2) cut the brake lines. It's not like Coleman's car would blend in with others so Jeremy would know which car was his. Any basic accident forensic team would see what caused the accident but outsiders wouldn't have any idea as to who, on the 100+person set would have a motive. And shockingly, no one outside of the show's central characters seem to have any idea what really goes on, even though they are there day in/day out for all of it.

 

Suffice it to say, I liked the episode. A little hammy with the two brides who willingly stood there with their complicit families just watching everything go down; but whatevs.

[BingeyKohan]

Parting thought on a sh*t season:

Can you even imagine how the New York Post would headline the cover story of a dating-show contestant who, first, craps herself on national television then, second, has the terrible misfortune to die in a car crash a week later?

RUNS OF BAD LUCK

SKID MARKS

GOING GOING GONE GIRL

It's been fun wading through the muck with y'all. And now I fade to black. Or at least brown.

[cali1981]

That last scene with Quinn, Rachel and Chet casually laying on the lounge chairs with Jeremy knowing that, in blunt terms, he had just murdered Coleman and Yael was probably the most chilling one in the whole series.  These people aren't immoral.  They are amoral sociopaths who have virtually no concept of right and wrong.  

6 hours ago, xaxat said:

Jeremy isn't smart enough to sabotage a McLaren. 

My assumption is that knowing the twisting nature of the road going out of the set Jeremy punctured the car's brake fluid line.  Now whether he knew enough to get the size of the hole just right so that the loss of braking wouldn't be obvious to Coleman immediately, is questionable.  Jeremy may be a good camera man but in all other matters, he isn't the sharpest tool in the shed.

Edited August 9, 2016 by cali1981

[StaceyNotStacie]

I enjoyed the show, although I preferred the first season. I am curious as to where they're going with next season. I'd love to see one of the two final girls become the female suitor just to see a different perspective. 

Mid they have to bring back Jeremy, I'm hoping Josh Kelly looks more like he did on One Life to Live. That beard did nothing for him. 

Also, this show has ruined Brennan Elliott for me. I enjoyed him in the Hallmark movies, but now I can only see him as skeevy Graham. 

[Ms Blue Jay]

What's the resolution of Romeo being shot?  Did I miss it?  He was shot - hospital - totally fine?

[allonsyalice]

2 minutes ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

What's the resolution of Romeo being shot?  Did I miss it?  He was shot - hospital - totally fine?

Yeah, basically. Also, he isn't talking to Rachel. But that's about it, because the entire plot was basicslly to fuel Rachel and no one else. 

[Sparger Springs]

3 minutes ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

What's the resolution of Romeo being shot?  Did I miss it?  He was shot - hospital - totally fine?

He's fine. Just angry at Rachel for getting him shot. I'm guessing it was only a minor wound made at point blank rage.  

[Ms Blue Jay]

What part of the body was he shot?!

[CalamityBoPeep]

1 hour ago, cali1981 said:

 Now whether he knew enough to get the size of the hole just right so that the loss of braking wouldn't be obvious to Coleman immediately, is questionable.  Jeremy may be a good camera man but in all other matters, he isn't the sharpest tool in the shed.

Heh. I see what you did there... 

Anywho. After pretty much agreeing with what everyone else has already said, I only have one more thing to add. Why in the world was Jay saying "you did it, Rachel"? As if she deserved the credit for the thing finally coming together in the end. I'm pretty sure Jay would have been the one to convince Ruby to come back, since he's the only one who likely had time to go fetch her while everyone else was busily trying (and failing) to pull their bacon from the fire with Yael and Coleman. Basically Jay is the one who saved the season. Rachel just let it happen.

Was Jay's "you did it" with the proud-of-her look meant to be SGS patting herself on the back for this crappy season? So much meta-commentary going on there. Bet she's surprised her season's getting panned all over the place.

[ElectricCityy]

The producers of The Bachelor at laughing at this show right now. None of this would ever happen. Completely ridiculous. Season 1 was a much more realistic take. 

[nara]

I do like the idea of Rachel being forced to date Jeremy because he killed 2 people for her. She annoys the heck out of me.

[skotnikov]

I just don't know how this can be a letdown. I think this season was way better then anything else this summer. And it's on Lifetime for God's sake! 

[Cranberry]

I found this season entertaining for the most part, but Coleman and Yael turned into cartoon villains at the end there, and I thought the show was better than that sort of lazy writing. Everyone else has always been painted in various shades of grey, but those two didn't have a single redeeming quality between them by the end of the season (like Tara said in the recap, the way they offhandedly dismissed Rachel's childhood rape was especially bad).

I hope that Rachel doesn't end up drawn back to Jeremy now because he killed for her or because he showed a shard of decency when he talked about her shitty childhood. I do not want them back together, ever.

I still ship the hell out of Quinn and Rachel. Friend-ship, that is; I don't want them together romantically, but their toxic yet oddly supportive dynamic is one of my favorite on TV right now.

[topanga]

7 hours ago, BingeyKohan said:

SKID MARKS

My personal favorite for the headline. Funny and tragic at the same time.

 

The finale was a happy, though unsatisfying, end to a crappy season. I liked that Darius and Ruby have their fairy tail and Darius redeemed himself by telling Ruby and the rest of the world that a choosing a black woman is a love story.

I'm another one who is SMDH that Romeo was there at all, much less helping out with the finale. And the only person he has anger for is Rachel? 

I'm in for Season 3. Expectations will be much lower than they were for Season 2. As another poster said, this will be my guilty pleasure. 

ETA: Quinn has been knowing Chet since she was a P.A. Meaning she started out as a Madison. And Chet seduced her back then and gave her an ankle bracelet. I don't know how many years ago that was, but the two of them have worked together for a long time. Hmmm... this was Everlasting's 15th (?) season, so they've worked together for more than 15 years. Wow. 

--I like that he comforted Quinn at the end of the episode. Even though he's a prick, and he isn't good for her (or anyone, really). 

Edited August 10, 2016 by topanga

[Fable]

I didn’t think this episode was the worst.  Sure it was nice to see Darius get with Ruby, even though it was expected and clichéd, but overall, for me, almost everything else in season 2 fell flat.  The difference between season 1 and 2 is that last year I believed most of what happened could realistically go on behind the scenes in reality TV.  This season was almost utter bullshit.  Oh sure, deliberately get your suitor injured, lock someone in a room until you can get someone to claim to be her mother and discredit her, try and have the suitor arrested and so on, but the straw that broke the camel’s back was Jeremy killing someone or, at the very least, seriously injuring them and no one seems to give a flying fuck (it’s all in a day’s work).  I believe The Bachelor/ette will stoop to some low things, but no way do I believe they would go half as far as UnReal has gone this season. 

Edited August 10, 2016 by Fable

[Josiah Bounderby]

I was largely disappointed with this season.

B. J. Britt as Darius certainly didn't help matters. Darius was a well-written character. But here we had an actor who ran the gamut of emotions from A to B.

[skotnikov]

1 hour ago, nosleepforme said:

The let-down here is that the season could have been this really smart satire on reality tv show and Hollywood, tackling race, sexism and mental health issues in depth in an appropriate, sensitive manner. However, instead the show decided to be a melodramatic soap opera and handle these topics in the most shallow, sensational way possible. I mean, sure it was a fun ride through the season, but the show should have had higher aspirations than just be a soap.

If you need smart reality TV satire just watch The Bachelorette or The Bachelor in Paradise, this season it's so hilariously meta it's almost ridiculous.    

[NutMeg]

22 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

True, but that ended up working to the show's advantage despite what she originally was going for. And that's always her goal—a successful show.  

I meant not being able to produce something outside the show. Coleman and Yael were beyond the structure of the show, so Quinn couldn't just keep them locked away in a room. There were a ton more issues to deal with. 

(That probably doesn't explain it very well; sorry.)

For me, that's the biggest irony of this season. Quinn has worked for years at giving "true love" to viewers, and when it finally happens, it's not under her watch. For all we know, this might be the most talked about Everlasting season E-VER - but the script was not hers... She failed at seeing the potential... She (as she sees) failed at "true love". On screen but off too. After years of waiting for Chet, she realises it's not gonna happen, then she meets someone who really gets her and it's all a big fail at the end because of her biology. She didn't want kids in the absolute, but when the right guy came along and wanted them with her she realized she wanted them too - but that's one area where she had missed her chance... She's been a very tragic character this season, all she had was taken away from her, first her show, then her dad (ok, maybe she didn't miss him much, I wonder what the story is there), then the hope she didn't even dare to have (but she had - love! kids! with a man who gets her and like who she really is!), then the best ever show finale that she had been working towards from season to season, but ultimately achieved with her not at the helm.  

20 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

So...this season happened. There were some good moments, really there were. I am happy that Darius ended up with Ruby. Predictable, yes, but it was still a nice ending. As Ruby was pretty much the only woman with a likable personality (or any personality), I am glad we got a happy ending for her. I liked the reaction from Quinn, and her shock that True Love actually happened, basically by accident. The acting was good all around, and there were some good shots and music moments, especially in this last episode. That all being said...

That season was a HUGE let down after the brilliance of the first season. This was basically the season where plots go to die. Chet becoming an MRA asshole? Done. Jeremy goes evil? He disappears, then pops back up, still in love with Rachel, but also still evil. Quinn suddenly wants kids all of the sudden? Then she cant? Ruby the Black Lives Matter girl clash with Confederate Flag girl? Had like two quick conversations. Rachel was raped and her mom covered it up? Romeo was SHOT? NOTHING! It was ridiculous! They kept throwing out this "Ripped from the Headlines" issues, and tried to come up with all these "hot topics", but its now clear that the writers and show runner just skimmed whatever the Huffington Post was writing about one day, and decided to throw it into an episode, without any real thought to the greater implications what they were doing. 

Also, who the hell was I supposed to be rooting for this year? Darius was kind of a blank slate for most of the show, as were most of the other girls, Rachel and Quinn are basically Saturday Morning Cartoon villains, and Yael and Coleman were clearly supposed to be the villains of the season, and now they have probably been murdered by Jeremy (who might actually be the most fucked up person on this show, and that is REALLY saying something). 

I am sure I will come back next year, to see if they can untangle themselves from this mess, but, after this season, my expectation are so low, you can step over them. 

I would really love for the show to do a spin off Batchelorette type season, to see if the gang can try their same manipulations on guys instead of women. 

Yeah, Romeo was a prop. It's only now that I understand why he was included at all. The suitor being shot would have been much bigger news that someone linked to the shooter (Everlasting viewers probably never knew him) being shot. 

17 hours ago, CalamityBoPeep said:

Heh. I see what you did there... 

Anywho. After pretty much agreeing with what everyone else has already said, I only have one more thing to add. Why in the world was Jay saying "you did it, Rachel"? As if she deserved the credit for the thing finally coming together in the end. I'm pretty sure Jay would have been the one to convince Ruby to come back, since he's the only one who likely had time to go fetch her while everyone else was busily trying (and failing) to pull their bacon from the fire with Yael and Coleman. Basically Jay is the one who saved the season. Rachel just let it happen.

Was Jay's "you did it" with the proud-of-her look meant to be SGS patting herself on the back for this crappy season? So much meta-commentary going on there. Bet she's surprised her season's getting panned all over the place.

Jay is still idealistic, and buying the true love story as end game. I like Jay, but his apparent naïveté means that, even when he seems on his game (the Darius/Ruby combo in the coffee shop), he's always working with only part of the picture. He thinks he's cynical, but he's not. He thinks he's seen it all, but he only sees a tenth of what goes on, and that's why he remains the voice of the Everlasting viewer (because he can! because he's somehow protected from knowing the worse - he doesn't have any idea of what goes on behind the scenes. He's the pure golden angel, he's us viewers who from random exposés think we know what it's like - we don't - he doesn't.

Lastly, the big contrast to me between seasons 1 and 2, in terms of color, is that season 1 was amazing in its shades of greyness - we never knew is someone was bad with good moments or good with bad moments. This degree of good and bad disappeared as season 2 to become more soap opera-ish good OR bad. I think that's what hurt the show the most, in comparison with season 1, more than the script etc.  Luckily, the actresses playing Quinn and Rachel are good enough to give depth to their characters, which somehow makes up for the weaknesses in the script. I'm definitely turning up for next season. 

[Eolivet]

I hate to rehash what's been said, but words cannot express how much I hated Deus Ex Ferrari. They wrote themselves into a corner by having Coleman and Yael escape and the show's response is to kill them? It absolutely stunk of laziness. There were other ways to deal with them, if they'd kept them semi-realistic. But by going over-the-top with their super-villain-ness, they both might as well have been Dr. Evil or one of those early 24 villains who liked to cackle about how much he wanted to "get Jack Bauer." Absolutely ridiculous.

I swear, I'd forgotten Jeremy existed prior to tonight's show. He just lifts right out. And...what was the point of him hurting Rachel again? So it would pale in comparison to what Coleman did, psychologically? Did the show really use a time-honored fandom argument as characterization: "Well my fave is so much less problematic than your fave!" Ay yi yi.

Look, I get this is a dark show. I enjoyed the darkness last year and this year...when it related to the show: locking contestants up, casting fake mothers for them, switching their meds, editing their breakdowns about their dead fathers to look like they were psychotic villains. Even the stunt with Beth Ann, the pregnancy and the proposal. I could almost forgive what they did with Ruby and her dad. That's classic Everlasting -- it's all about how far they can jump over the line for the show. I'm there for that. I want to see just how far Rachel and Quinn bend the rules to make good TV. Sign me up.

What I did not sign up for is all the personal darkness. While well-acted by both women, I just couldn't have cared less about Rachel's traumatic childhood or Quinn's barren uterus. Neither had any bearing on the show, and both were time-sucks that cynically seemed to be designed to make us care more about both women. Newsflash, show -- I liked both women fine. You making them into sad victims (of circumstance or otherwise) didn't make me like them more. It made me wonder why you had short-term memory loss about their likability.

I want a completely outrageous, dark show (since that's clearly what the show wants to be) that weaves the drama of the producers through the behind-the-scenes drama. I want to say "That's messed up," and have it be about what boundaries of television the show has pushed and not about another tragic happening in the lives of the staff.

I want the not-so-true story of 10 contestants picked to live in a house and have their lives taped to find out what happens when producers stop being polite and start getting UnREAL.

[aradia22]

Well, the Coleman reveal came out of nowhere. When did Rachel find out?

The Coleman-Rachel fight was weird when he was walking out to his car. It wasn't vicious or angry enough. It felt very fake to me.

Oh, that's really not fair. Who could ever root for Team Coleman/Jeremy?

Look, I get that Rachel and Quinn and Everlasting have done terrible things to Darius. I get that football was his livelihood. But him whining about never being able to play again is not that compelling. You know what? He made the choice to keep staying on this show. And before that, he came onto the show with that injury and almost didn't tell anyone about it. And also, most people don't get paid millions of dollars forever to play a game. I know it's difficult and there's the risk of concussions, etc. but come off it. He's not really breaking my heart here.

Beardy McOneLine got so many lines! Not in a row, but still...

This was finale was pretty boring until... RUBY!!! Now it was all fake as hell. I swear I've seen that scene in so many Disney/Hallmark/Lifetime movies but I don't care. I love the twist of Everlasting having a genuine Cinderella fairytale happy ending.

But yeah, it was a real boring episode. Coleman and Yael are two of the lamest TV villains ever. They could not have telegraphed Jeremy intervening any harder and even when it did happen, I wasn't sure what the hell he'd actually done. What was that? If we were going to end on romance and tragedy, make it romance and tragedy. Not cliched fairytale ending dialogue and then... bleh. It felt limp. This was a very limp finale, like they didn't even bother to fight to justify a season 3.

[aradia22]

Quote

I just taped it and fast forwarded to the end. Are we supposed to think Jeremy tampered with the car to save Rachel?

On my second watch (of the end, just from Ruby coming back before I deleted it from the DVR), yes, I think so. Nothing else makes sense for how he could have gotten their car to crash without leaving the set. Though I'm not sure the timeline checks out. Still, I don't believe Jeremy has some secret survivalists buddies who could put booby traps in the road. Chet, maybe, but not Jeremy.

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You can tell SGS took over after the second episode when the other show-runner left because the stories became scattered, none of the characters were flushed out

It was a very strange thing that happened. It was like they assigned everyone's roles but they didn't cooperate. Except... they're fictional characters so they do whatever the script says. They could have been more layered but there's no reason they couldn't have fallen into their stereotypes. These characters just made the most random choices.

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Based on the episode title and the *repeated* references to explosions and fire and whatnot, I was expecting the mansion to blow up in a big boom and fireball. I am disappoint.

They couldn't. Devious Maids did it already.

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 If this had been a different, cleaner, better-shaped season, I would have loved the Darius/Ruby ending. We don't have the heartstrings left to pull, though, because Unreal sliced them off episodes ago. True love means nothing on this show, so the true love poor/happy ending lacks the emotional impact it should have carried. 

THIS. You need to earn your sappy ending. I still liked seeing Ruby come back because she was one of the few compelling actors/characters but that didn't mean it worked the way they wanted it to.

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I thought the car accident at the end was lame.  I expected Rachel to whip out the pictures of her bruises after Jeremy attacked her and claim to the reporters that Coleman was the one who attacked her and that, as her boss, he coerced her into sex.  The public might forgive him for faking a documentary, but hitting a woman who worked for him and sexually harassing her would be less likely to be forgiven by his liberal (I assume) fans.  I felt like actual murder was jumping the shark.

OH MY GOD. I think you win for the darkest timeline. Though given how they mishandled race this season, I don't think I would want them to delve into rape and physical/sexual abuse and false reports/not reporting crimes more than they have this season.

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The only way that her story makes any sense is if she had briefly worked in journalism, but hadn't managed to get a career in it and was shopping this exposé to various outlets. Or she was in witness protection. Or the idiots at Everlasting didn't know how to Google or check Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. 

Piecing some things together, I think she told Coleman something about an editor so she doesn't sound freelance. But Rachel mentioned something about a tabloid. If I'm being extremely generous maybe she wrote under a pseudonym at a shitty tabloid rag while waiting for the big break to really prove herself and get hired to a reputable publication.

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If anyone on Unreal had any sense, they would make Tiffany the bachelorette next season.

I was with you until this. No Tiffany. Please someone more interesting. PLEASE.

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I guess they want the viewer to be able to follow what's going on in Rachel's head, but it gets to the point where it's laughable that anyone buys it. It's always the same thing - she rambles, she throws the word "like" into every sentence, and Shiri does this thing were her eyes frantically dart all over the place as though she's losing her mind. Whoever is making this happen needs to stop.

I'm not bothered by Shiri's performance as much as the camera work. The last few times it's been really obvious when it shouldn't have been there's been a little tic. Maybe we zoom in for a closeup. Maybe the camera pans quickly to her face. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but it's a very obvious visual cue. I wish they would give us some more credit.

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The ending made me think this show is making a hard right turn into Scream Queens territory.

I was thinking Pretty Little Liars, but then I couldn't get past the Scream Queens pilot.

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Oh good grief. The smart, dark show from season 1 just went full-on nighttime soap. A car accident to dispose of the liabilities? Such a trope.

Yeah, but what if there's a twist and it turns out Coleman is a vampire and Yael is a zombie and they get a cw spinoff?

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I didn't believe they'd really let Darius and Ruby sail off into the poor but happy sunset and I did not think they were going to go with straight up murder. 

I have no idea why but I thought someone Darius and Ruby were going to be involved in the car crash... like some kind of collision.

Oh, I was reminded reading this thread that Romeo was there and he was real weird this episode. Remind me why we were supposed to care about him again? He's been a nonsense person all season.

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Everything about Everlasting was barely fleshed out and that's really what the finale should have been all about instead of Yael and Coleman as external threat to the Everlasting system.

You know, barring the normal season 2 we should have gotten in the vein of season 1's skewering of the actual Bachelor franchise, I wouldn't have minded so much if Yael (well, maybe played by a better actress) was really Hot Rachel. But also Idealistic Rachel. Imagine a Yael who wasn't incompetent and had Rachel's skills for manipulating people. Imagine she turns Everlasting inside out, manipulating the girls from the inside and screwing up some of the storylines they'd planned (instead of the contrivances like Chet and Quinn filming different shows, and Chet convincing the girls to tackle Darius, etc.). Imagine she gains the confidence of many of the girls who continue to live on the set because of course they would. Imagine she tries to film an expose of Everlasting from the inside using her new friends and confidants only to be thwarted by Rachel (without the use of laxatives). Imagine they do it in such a way that we don't just side with Rachel because we want UnReal to keep going but because on some level we like Everlasting the way that it is.

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The car crash at the end was way too much, bringing Jeremy back into the fold as a murderous lumberjack was also not an inspired move, because who is really interested in seeing Jeremy at this point?

Haha. Murderous lumberjack.

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Suffice it to say, I liked the episode. A little hammy with the two brides who willingly stood there with their complicit families just watching everything go down; but whatevs.

I enjoyed how both of their families were like oh, he loves Ruby, well, standing ovation then, even though I thought my daughter/niece/cousin/etc. was going to get married today. Heck, maybe they were just grateful no one was getting married after knowing each other for 9 weeks.

This is not so much a prediction but what I fear might happen. It becomes a Bachelorette show. And to keep Jeremy and Chet involved and because they know the male psyche so well, they somehow become producers. And we get more Chet MRA talk and Jeremy abusive nice guy talk except we're supposed to take it seriously. And feminism slowly washes down the drain because this is Lifetime.

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Was Jay's "you did it" with the proud-of-her look meant to be SGS patting herself on the back for this crappy season? So much meta-commentary going on there. Bet she's surprised her season's getting panned all over the place.

I think that was Graham saying "good job, Rachel."

[Cekrypton1]

Not a good look, show: Last minute heel-turns and heaping evil behavior after evil behavior on the antagonist just to make your protagonists look like a better choice.

Good look, show: Rachel's costuming for this episode. Top half: Black blazer and silk tank like Quinn; bottom half: Jeans and Chuck Taylor's like Rachel. That is how you effectively use costuming to represent a character's journey.

[Phebemarie]

Does anyone think Jeremy may not have tampered with the car?  It seems too obvious with all the cutaway shots of Jeremy looking both guilty and creepy to make him responsible.  His body language on the lounge chair didn't indicate someone who had something to hide or was guilty of something.  Of course, he could be a complete sociopath, so there's that.

[candall]

I wasn't sure about Quinn standing there, frozen, as the Darius/Ruby ending played out.  At first I thought it was supposed to be regret because "true love, but not for me."  That didn't really work, since Quinn's true love is the show and the show went out on a high note.

Now I think she was experiencing a mind melt that she's turned into this person who can't think past feces, humiliation and betrayal.  I think she was stunned because it never entered her mind that a real happy ending could be the ultimate crowd pleaser. 

Oh well, I'm just gathering wool, temporarily burned out on Rio.

***********************

They can't have a Suitorette next season because all the men would just be following Rachel around, in love with Rachel, hoping for sex with Rachel.

 

ETA:  I'm on Team Not-Murder.  If there's one line you can't cross and sneak back behind, it's murder.  Probably just Jeremy trying to score brownie points so he can get a chaise lounge by the pool with the big kids.

Edited August 11, 2016 by candall
wasted 90 seconds on Jeremy.

[Pristine]

On 8/9/2016 at 7:55 AM, dmc said:

Jeremy looks terrible... Any time I think he couldn't look worse...he does:(

I didn't even recognize him, in the bar scene.

[Isazouzi]

5 hours ago, Phebemarie said:

Does anyone think Jeremy may not have tampered with the car?  It seems too obvious with all the cutaway shots of Jeremy looking both guilty and creepy to make him responsible.  His body language on the lounge chair didn't indicate someone who had something to hide or was guilty of something.  Of course, he could be a complete sociopath, so there's that.

Well, he did say "I told you I'd do anything for you", so I took it to mean, "yeah, I murdered them, like I implied".

 

4 hours ago, candall said:

ETA:  I'm on Team Not-Murder.  If there's one line you can't cross and sneak back behind, it's murder.  Probably just Jeremy trying to score brownie points so he can get a chaise lounge by the pool with the big kids.

OK, maybe. SO what's craziest and creepiest? Killing 2 people for a woman that doesn't love you anymore, or pretending you did it to make her love you again?

[candall]

30 minutes ago, Isazouzi said:

 SO what's craziest and creepiest? Killing 2 people [...]

That one?

 It would be a hard sell, even for these dramaturgs, to B-plot the Everlasting Scoobies covering up for their pal, the lovesick homicidal maniac.

(Unless they decide to go full Ryan Murphy batshit bonkers and every time the suitor has a date, she's dead the next morning.)

[NutmegsDad]

22 hours ago, Phebemarie said:

Does anyone think Jeremy may not have tampered with the car?  It seems too obvious with all the cutaway shots of Jeremy looking both guilty and creepy to make him responsible.  His body language on the lounge chair didn't indicate someone who had something to hide or was guilty of something.  Of course, he could be a complete sociopath, so there's that.

That would be Season One interesting, plus it would allow the Lifetime execs to keep Jeremy around (but, no, execs, you can't say the rape/assault didn't happen. Jeremy did that).

Jeremy contacts the network, who sends out the Ninja Crazy 88 to do the job. Yes, it would imply that a network has a crack legal squad AND a crack assassination squad.

I will confess that, by the time the finale came around, I had forgotten that Ruby was the Black Lives Matter activist. That's an example how they just put characters in roles and not have the roles grow from the characters.

[HunterHunted]

On 8/10/2016 at 1:07 AM, Josiah Bounderby said:

I was largely disappointed with this season.

B. J. Britt as Darius certainly didn't help matters. Darius was a well-written character. But here we had an actor who ran the gamut of emotions from A to B.

I agree that this was a disappointing season, but I don't think that Darius was a well written character. Darius would espouse something as his guiding ethos and 2 seconds later do the exact opposite. At no point did he or the show indicate that it was aware of the contradiction or Darius' hypocrisy. I think Darius was as badly written as every other element of this season. I really liked Britt on Agents of SHIELD, but UnReal didn't give him a lot to work with.

[TAG42481]

I think the season would have much more interesting if there had been some focus on the actual contestants.  I like the central cast, but watching them snipe at each other the whole time just got boring.  I felt that season 1 had a good balance of contestants and crew.  If they hadn't "changed the formula" so much for season 1, I would have liked it.  Wouldn't have need to worry about a sophomore slump.  I watched episodes 1-5, read the summaries for episodes 6-9, then watched the finale.  Eh.  Still deciding whether I'll watch next season or not.

[Oberon]

What I most hated about the finale was that it made Quinn into a vulnerable woman who underneath it all really wants love and (probably) children. Why? Why do so many awesome shows (e.g., Damages) turn villainous women into piteous creatures whose villainy is seen as a mask for their unfulfilled "femininity."

[dubbel zout]

19 hours ago, Oberon said:

Why do so many awesome shows (e.g., Damages) turn villainous women into piteous creatures whose villainy is seen as a mask for their unfulfilled "femininity."

A desperate lack of imagination.

[phoenics]

I finally finished the last 2 episodes.  I was actually riveted by the finale - but the Yael-Coleman-Jeremy stuff jumped the shark for me... Actually Jeremy going full on douchebag bothered me too because there weren't enough breadcrumbs that he was a cheater, etc..  It just ... didn't work.  I felt cheated that we didn't get to see Rachel "win" through manipulating things in a way that wasn't her manipulating Jeremy to take care of Coleman-Yael.

I feel like SGS without Noxon led to a very rushed "Empire-style" season where stuff was crammed in, plots were dropped and a lot of the realism that was in S1 was lost.  They pushed too far this season and instead of being shocking it was soapy/predictable.

I did cheer when Ruby showed up - that made me super happy - I felt like the rest of the crew - surprised and happy that genuine love managed to triumph even with all of their manipulations... I'm a sap.  That part got me.

I actually found Quinn's storyline and exposed soft heart really great - her feelings around not being able to have kids, having the perfect guy, but feeling like she would be a disappointment to him and letting him go, etc.. and then her shock at seeing real love play out in front of her... the wistful feeling around "true love" actually even happening at all because she clearly had given up on it... Given some personal stuff I'm dealing with right now, I really identify with her whole storyline in the last 2 episodes (minus having the perfect guy at all, lol - if I had him I'd leave Everlasting behind so fast)... I've always thought that Quinn represented the woman who frittered away her chances at "true love" and a "family" for the Evil Empire that is Everlasting and that's actually behind some of her cynicism.  She actually didn't believe in True Love - so she produced a fake version of it that she could control and then when the real thing happens and she didn't control it, she's flummoxed and then unexpectedly touched and then devastated because it's a small reminder that she did have dreams like that ... once upon a time.

Hence her attempt to fire Rachel to get her out of there so she could have a chance at true love and a normal life.

The shot at the end of Chet, Jeremy (I still hate him, but was glad he didn't betray them after he found out what happened to Rachel at age 12), Quinn and Rachel at the end on the chaise lounges was basically a clue to them now being connected with this even bigger secret... apparently Jeremy offing Coleman/Yael.

The story could have been told so much better - I see what the "vision" was and some of that was good, but the contestants/suitor were props to the behind the scenes stuff.  Race was also a prop too.  The story could have come together better (but maybe that was the point - maybe they could have produced something beautiful with Ruby/Darius if they'd just let it happen - maybe that was also a nod to SGS pushing too much?  Maybe it was her mea culpa that maybe the show doesn't need to be "over produced"?).  

I'll be back next season just to see if they can pull out of the nosedive - largely because S2 was STILL worlds better than S2&S3 of Sleepy Hollow and I don't feel like SGS is trying to stab me in the back the way the Sleepy Hollow writers (namely Metzner) gleefully shanked Abbie/NB/SleepyHollow/Diversity-loving fans and seemingly stabbed them vindictively with racist writing when they killed Abbie off.  Yeah I'm still not over it.

The show definitely has some things to work out and some work to do on plotting and the fine line between realism/fantasy, but it's an interesting summer show and I love Shiri and Constance.  

Edited August 26, 2016 by phoenics