S03.E09: Codependence / S03.E10: Commitment

[halkatla]

I thought this season was okay-ish. I honestly can´t remember much of season 2... don´t know why, I don´t even remember if I hated it or not, what sticks out in my mind is Quinn and Rachel laying on lounge chairs at the end, and some orgy scene in the beginning. So I didn´t really have much feeling going into season 3. I found some episodes fun, I liked Serena sometimes. She should have either been a lot more socially awkward, or like a rough business woman. She was very wishy-washy the whole way through. Like, was she confident or not? I don´t know. She never took anything seriously, it would have been fun if she was all dead serious and allowed Rachel to produce everything to the max, just to get someone good to marry her. Bland is too strong a word to use for the ending of the season. And they totally wasted all the stalker potential with the doctor, which is unforgivable.

And actually, I´m not very fond of the Rachel character at all, but I love Chet and Quinn, they´ve got silly super-villain vibes. For me the best part of the show has always been the Everlasting non-sense, so hopefully by Rachel being the "suitress" (ugh) that will take center-stage and make Unreal great again.

ETA: I really hope the pilot that Madison did won´t be mentioned ever again. I hate the word "adulting", it just sounded awful and really crap.

Edited April 29, 2018 by halkatla

[KaveDweller]

9 hours ago, halkatla said:

ETA: I really hope the pilot that Madison did won´t be mentioned ever again. I hate the word "adulting", it just sounded awful and really crap.

It sounded awful, but I felt kind of sad for Madison in her last scene.  She's asked to pitch her pilot and the first thing she does is start taking her shirt off? It's like she truly doesn't believe it's possible to find success in any other way but exchanging sexual favors.

[guilfoyleatpp]

So many instances of bad acting in the last episode...Dr. Creepy professing his love for Rachel and using exactly the same words as her mother...and WHERE THE FUCK did that come from? I'm glad to see I'm not alone here. I wasn't sure if he was a really good actor trying to play a bad actor so we would know he was trying to trigger Rachel into having another "breakthrough," but it resolved for me. Just a bad actor who also didn't understand the motivation for him to be professing his love for Rachel. 

Serena being totally wooden in her "revelation" moment with Rachel. They were so unnatural. I thought for sure she was going to just pick one of the guys anyway because other than this show's love of showing Rachel's manipulation skills, there was no acting in her face to show what Rachel said hit her. And then recalling her job offer to Rachel. Because...why now? Rachel did to her what she'd been doing all along. And Serena admired her for it during most of the season. 

And Jeremy telling Rachel off. I guess I can see why she would have feels about that given everything else that had just happened. but also wooden.

IDK, maybe I'm just grumpy. 

[Neurochick]

On 4/24/2018 at 8:42 AM, BusyOctober said:

The lesson from this show: women are almost as good at being loathsome as men! Quinn screws over anyone in her path because she is laser focused on career over domesticity.  Rachel plays mind games with everyone she comes in contact with thanks in part to a whack-a-doo mother. Madison is a dumb slut who will go down on anyone who can move her up the very tempory show biz ladder.  Fiona is as much a misogynist as Chet.  Serena is a 'success' in the business world, but hey, not really because she is a manless, childless spinster with a side of crazy.  All of them use sex for immediate gratification or as a weapon.  Yay feminism?

Sometimes when I read this board, I feel that I'm watching a different show.  I loved the finale.  To me, everybody basically got what they wanted.  I don't look to TV shows for morality.  I thought season two was interesting because in real life, everything doesn't get resolved, or it doesn't get resolved when people think it should.  Maybe Jeremy will get his in another ten years.  Sometimes life is like that.

[jhlipton]

5 hours ago, Neurochick said:

To me, everybody basically got what they wanted. 

I would have preferred it if they didn't show Serena in the limo swiping on the dating app.  I would have liked it if she realized that she didn't need a man, or if she had realized that Owen was a good start, and looked for someone like him.

[Joimiaroxeu]

Did the showrunners not know they were getting a fourth season when this episode was filmed? This seemed to me like a show finale instead of a season ender.

Per the teaser it looks like the Aussie guy is coming back next season? Hope he gets his odd physique fixed by then. He could stand to eat a couple of sandwiches. And a pizza.

Quote

how do they have enough male contestants to complete an all star lineup?

Perhaps the fourth season is a flash-forward or a dream, or maybe the suitors are all-stars in the sense that they're stars of their particular fields. Whatever, it'll likely be insane.

[Catfi9ht]

I'm really disappointed by the writers' decision this season to make Rachael a full-on sociopath. The only way the character worked for me was when she would feel guilty about her uncanny ability to manipulate people.

 

It looks like Quinn and Rachel will be at odds next season. To me, the number one theme of the show when it started was that women stick together. Now, it seems It's devolved into typical drama bullshit.

 

At least next season will be its last. Thank God for that!

[chaifan]

I also felt like this felt like a series finale, not a season finale.  My biggest issue with this season is how they ended with Dr. Simon.  That seemed just so out of character for him and served no purpose, unless he is going to return to blackmail the whole bunch.  And I really don't want him back Season 4, so I hope that doesn't happen.  But I like how they wrapped everyone else up.  Honestly, if Season 4 wasn't on Hulu and available right now, I probably wouldn't bother.  But it's summer and there's nothing else on, so why not, right?

Overall, I liked this season.  Not as good as Season 1, but much better than Season 2.  I agree the whole childhood rape storyline was useless, from start to finish.  I really liked "essentially honest" Rachel.  I thought that provided some much needed levity and good one liners. 

Here's what I want for Season 4 - A clean, well dressed, showered Rachel.  If she has to live on/near set, get her a vintage Airstream at least.  And put her in therapy with a real, ethical therapist so the personal drama is cut by 90%.  A decent storyline for Jay.  A total absence of Madison.  More on the initial selection of contestants and convincing them to appear - that was the one part of Season 2 I liked.  A credible foil for Rachel.

And, since I've got nothing better to do for the next hour, I guess I'll hit play on 4.1.  Here goes...

[aradia22]

LOL at the multiple condoms. And at least he left her a note? With a heart AND a smiley face. 

Ooh, job offer from Serena. I'm not sure WHAT she would be hiring Rachel for but this seems like a less loaded version of Adam offering her an escape route. How will she screw this up?

Wait, is that actually a sweat lodge? It doesn't seem like a good idea to have Serena in there four times. Is that healthy?

I don't know how August being naked helps anything. That's like some Naked and Afraid cable stuff. Not the network show Everlasting is supposed to be.

I liked the virginal saint/teenager thing. It was funny.

Wait... why can't Quinn give Fiona a job? Or at least the promise of one once everything is settled with Gary? 

Are you KIDDING me? She didn't back up the emails? This isn't the dark ages where we only have one VHS tape as a MacGuffin. Christ. Why did she go to her computer anyway? Why wasn't it on a flash drive? 

Also, WHAT? Why did Quinn run to Rachel to create a distraction? That should not be the plan. Why not run to weird editing guy? Files NEVER really disappear. Maybe he could find them somehow. Good Lord, the writing on this show. Everything has to be about Rachel.

Well, it was sure easy to get all of those soundbites out of August.

LOL, what? Now Jeremy is an idiot and Rachel can have him do her dirty work? OK, fine, whatever.

Camera phone out. Oh, yeah, Ellie from Degrassi. You're a real journalist. 

LOL, poor Dan. They didn't have to be so obvious about the therapist being right with Rachel just latching onto him like that.

I don't know if it's because Serena is a poorly defined character but I can actually see an argument for how all of these guys could be right for her (the personal baggage stuff like who slept with whom aside). She says she couldn't be with August... but she could. She could be with any one of the top 3.

Oh, so that's why Fiona was there... Lame.

SHUT UP, JEREMY. No one made you a murderer.

[aradia22]

It doesn't need to be said but Jay has no right to blame Rachel for hooking up with someone who said he wasn't into him. Also, no one even knew that Jay and Alexi were hooking up. 

If Rachel was really stable she would have taken the money to go back to the Essential Honesty farm. Or gone off with Serena. But she isn't really sure what she wants. A check from Quinn wouldn't have destabilized a regular person so easily.

Jesus Christ, WHAT!?! Goddamnit. I thought they'd finally found the one dude who wouldn't get a boner for Rachel's dirty hair and crazy behavior. Is it the white knight thing? I'm so over this. I thought at worst he'd be a reporter and at best he might have been so broken up over his last patient that he crossed the line making sure Rachel didn't hurt herself.

Oh, so they're pulling metoo on Gary? Well, at least it's at the end of the season so they can't do too much damage. Oh, UnREAL. You're not as smart as you think you are.

WTF was that weird moment with Rachel and Jeremy? I thought maybe she was doing it so Charlie would overhear but nope. God, show, you have to know no one cares about this anymore.

Is this just misery loves company? Why is Rachel trying to fuck up the finale?

LOL, WHAT? How did Rachel get Crystal ready that quickly?

I mean... meh. I would rather have seen Serena finally just pick one of them than to see Rachel blow it up. We've already seen two failed finales. This is BORING at this point.

Ohhh... so THAT'S why they got Tracie Thoms. Again, kind of meh. I like being in on the scheming and UnREAL has a more haphazard week to week nonsense approach. But the end game is solid.

So Serena's back on the equivalent of Tinder. Is it good because she's making a lot of matches now? (Though really shouldn't she be on the celebrity version or that weird one for highly educated or rich people?) Or is it sad because she's all alone? It would have been a better ending if she'd pulled out her phone and talked to one of the guys from the show. Like after that finale, they'd talked and realized they didn't want to get married but they wanted to try dating in the real world. 

Jesus Christ, Madison. Have some self respect.

Damn. Where is that cabin? And is that what $50,000 gets you there? It was huge and gorgeous.

[aradia22]

Quote

But, most importantly, why is it always raining on the Everlasting set?

LOL. I was noticing that too. Where do they film this show?

I thought it was a different house that she ended up in. 

[dubbel zout]

15 minutes ago, aradia22 said:

Where do they film this show?

Vancouver, British Columbia.

[queenanne]

2 hours ago, aradia22 said:

Jesus Christ, WHAT!?! Goddamnit. I thought they'd finally found the one dude who wouldn't get a boner for Rachel's dirty hair and crazy behavior. Is it the white knight thing? I'm so over this. I thought at worst he'd be a reporter and at best he might have been so broken up over his last patient that he crossed the line making sure Rachel didn't hurt herself.

...

So Serena's back on the equivalent of Tinder. Is it good because she's making a lot of matches now? (Though really shouldn't she be on the celebrity version or that weird one for highly educated or rich people?) Or is it sad because she's all alone? It would have been a better ending if she'd pulled out her phone and talked to one of the guys from the show. Like after that finale, they'd talked and realized they didn't want to get married but they wanted to try dating in the real world. 

For #1, I beg everyone's indulgence for (I think) repeating it here, but that's just how much I think it would have been a much better argument/plotline, if terrible shrink had turned out to be a plant maneuvered into working on the show specifically by Rachel's Svengali mother, considering they've already gone this far with the concept of her pulling Rachel's strings.  At least it would have possessed a coherent story sense.

For #2, I agree that it would have been better to have a resolution where Serena had sort-of double-crossed the show, even, by agreeing to date one of the guys who didn't work out.  I do think that we were supposed to think it was sad, and that she was back to the starting line as if she had never bothered to be on the show, 'cuz Everlasting ultimately sucks and is doomed to be unfulfilling in the eyes of the Unreal showrunners.

Edited August 8, 2018 by queenanne

[IDreamofJoaquin]

I know this is the silliest thing to complain about but the way they have evolved the host Graham into a joke kind of bothers me. Chris Harrison is a joke to us as viewers but on the show they seem to take him very seriously. They have him sit down and "counsel" the Bachelors/Bachlorettes.  

The whole Fiona storyline is so dumb. 

[ashleylm]

On 4/24/2018 at 9:24 AM, meep.meep said:

why is it always raining on the Everlasting set?

Because it's filmed in Vancouver.  We're a temperate rainforest.  It makes for lush gardens, but unconvincing supposedly-L.A. sets.

[scrb]

At least no deaths this season.

Not sure the isolated cabin in the woods is really Rachel’s paradise.

Of course she will be right back on the next season of Everlasting so cabin fever must be a real thing.

So Quinn and Chet are back together?  Is he going to lose weight again?