For only a 10-episode season, there’s been many, many plotlines in season 2 of UnREAL. One of the most coherent and probably best written (despite some of the new central characters) has been the fallout of Mary’s murder from season 1. As UnREAL goes into the home stretch, it appears that this will be the central storyline for season 2.
There are other storylines that still need to be resolved, but Mary’s death and Yael’s investigation of it (with Coleman) are at the head of the conga line of convoluted plots. Everything’s coming to a head, and while it might not be as tightly constructed as the end of season 1, the end of season 2 of UnREAL certainly looks to be explosive and dramatic — if this penultimate episode is any indication, anyway.
UnREAL: 10 Wicked Quinn-isms from “Fugitive” >>>
“Love” or “Friendship”
If you need a reminder — and I don’t know why you would — Coleman is the absolute worst character on UnREAL. While no viewer of the show needs to knows this again, it doesn’t stop UnREAL from opening the episode with three hardcore reminders. The first is that Coleman goes over the footage of a seriously sedated Rachel. Coleman is watching with a glee that is analogous to a teenager in the midst of puberty finding Internet pornography for the first time. It’s not the most flattering look for someone who professes to love Rachel.
It’s the second example, though, that makes things increasingly clear that Coleman’s interest in Rachel is clearly professional (i.e. she can forward his own career). Coleman is still going about his new partnership with Yael and that means some heavy flirting and one extremely steamy — or, at the very least, breathy — kiss. So much for loving Rachel.
The thing that plummets Coleman to the depths of true mustache twirling awfulness is that he gives Rachel an ultimatum. According to Coleman, Rachel has to choose between himself and Quinn. It takes Rachel all of five seconds to make the right choice — Quinn. Yeah, Quinn is maniacal, manipulative and quite possibly evil incarnate, but at least she is upfront about all those things. Coleman is the worst type of person; he is awful and thinks he is amazing. It doesn’t help that he is terribly written, and Michael Rady has done nothing to imbue a scintilla of humanity into the character.
Rachel Gets Her Groove Back
That’s enough about Coleman (sadly, just for now) because we should move properly to Rachel. Rachel realizes that something is up between Coleman and Yael. She doesn’t know what exactly, but she decides she is going to take on Hot Rachel once and for all. It’s not even a contest. Rachel works his producing magic, something that has been sadly missing the entire season, and destroys Yael.
Rachel gets Yael to wear a white dress and go on a date with Darius, where Yael eats very raw sushi. This poisons Yael, and you might see where this is going. Yael goes to the bathroom in the white dress … on national TV.
UnREAL Recap: Coleman Makes a Sneaky Alliance >>>
Coleman Cements His Plot
Quinn calls it the worst thing they have ever done, conveniently forgetting that whole thing where they inadvertently killed a woman last year. Coleman has no plans to forget about that, though. Coleman taps Rachel’s phone and gets a whole conversation of Quinn admitting to both Mary’s death and getting Rachel off from the law for wrongly reporting a stolen car.
An ecstatic Coleman goes to Rachel to tell his girlfriend that he tapped her phone. At this point, I’m not only concerned that Coleman has never actually had a girlfriend before but that he may not even be human. At the very least, he is sociopath. There is no one who would conceivably think that this is a way to properly act. Then I remember my previous point that Coleman is a terribly written and acted character, and the idiocy of the whole situation makes sense.
Luckily, Rachel finally realizes what kind of a monster she is dating. Rachel agrees to Coleman’s plan, but it’s all a ruse. Rachel can’t take down Everlasting or Quinn, so she tells Coleman that she will go along with his plan and thanks him for finally saving her. This could not be further from the truthm but Coleman’s oblivious. Coleman’s way of celebrating is to sleep with Yael.
It really makes no logical sense that I’m supporting Rachel in all this because she is trying to save a job she herself called “Satan’s Asshole.” Still, this is what is happening. It’s probably a quality of good writing and excellent acting that I care about Rachel, and it’s a quality of truly bad writing and mediocre acting that I think Coleman is a human dumpster fire.
Reunited and It Feels So Evil
Meanwhile, Quinn is ending her relationship too. It’s just not happening in quite the way she wanted it to happen. Quinn gets a call from the doctor, and they tell her that she is too old to have children. Quinn, in a fit of rage and depression, breaks up with John because she won’t hold anyone back from what they want.
While I’m overjoyed that this dumb plot and poorly drawn character, John, is ending, Quinn is not as happy. Though the circumstances behind Quinn’s subsequent breakdown are very, very stupid, Constance Zimmer‘s acting is fantastic. Even in this second season of UnREAL where the show is just off the mark of what made it excellent in the first year, Zimmer consistently kills it.
Rachel discovers Quinn in the middle of her breakdown. Quinn tells Rachel that she wants her to leave Everlasting and save herself, but Rachel refuses. Rachel talks Quinn down and comes clean. Rachel confesses to Quinn that Coleman knows everything, and they need to stop him. The only thing that can bring Quinn out of her depression is the thought of destroying someone else. Quinn controls herself and agrees. She embraces Rachel as they vow to take Coleman down.
UnREAL airs Mondays at 10pm on Lifetime.
(Image courtesy of Lifetime)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
Derek is a Philadelphia based writer and unabashed TV and comic book junkie. The time he doesn’t spend over analyzing all things nerdy he is working on his resume to be the liaison to the Justice League.
