UnReal - Mother - Review: “Home”

This week’s Everlasting storyline setup leads the episode as it is announced that Adam’s best friend, Roger Lockwood (Tom Brittney), is on set to help him choose three of the women for an “intimate romantic dinner”. The choice of the girls is up to Roger. From the three girls chosen one will get to spend a full day on a date with Adam. And because this all sounds like a recipe for great drama expect plenty before the episode is over.

Now we can get into the part of the episode we’ve all been waiting for and see how Rachel has weathered this racy email drama storm. Last we saw of Rachel her heartfelt, and apparently quite dirty, message to Jeremy had just been distributed to the entire crew of Everlasting. This week we pick up with Rachel not long after that moment and everywhere Rachel goes she’s getting comments and looks thrown at her. While she can take it from most people she draws the line at Adam and promptly puts him in his place with her go to threat of public humiliation on national television. Something tells me Rachel is not the kind of person you want as an enemy. In Lizzie’s case she’s also not the person you want being the ex of your fiancée. She seems none too pleased with Rachel or Jeremy over this whole situation. Turns out she learned things about her fiancée she did not know including his desires to run off to New York with Rachel. I’m not really sure why she’s so upset with Jeremy since the things in the video happened before she and Jeremy were together, but she is. I do like what Siobhan is doing with Lizzie because we’re starting to see a gradual change in her. Can she handle Rachel working so closely to Jeremy or is she eventually going to blow up at him? It’s always the quiet nice ones you have to watch out for so I’m curious to see if Lizzie has it in her to challenge Rachel at some point.

After the debacle, and success, of last week’s villain hunt the show is now on the hunt for wifey material. Grace is deemed not wife material by Quinn after Rachel found, and the sound guys heard, her giving Adam a blow. Adam learned nothing from Rachel in the premiere where she removed his mic for them to have a private conversation. He is apparently not that quick to catch onto things like that. To succeed in the business world he needs to start paying better attention to his surroundings. Quinn is already not in a good mood because of Rachel’s email drama and that does not play well for Grace. Now Grace is at risk of the boot for her indiscretions with Adam. However, Grace is a good nemesis for all the other women, especially given how close she has gotten to Adam, so I can see Quinn letting her stick around for that reason if no other. Someone who does not get to stick around for the days filming is Rachel.

Not only is Rachel dealing with Jeremy drama and Adam drama, but her very meager check is the straw that broke the camel’s back and she felt inclined to mention it to Quinn. Instead of getting any sympathy she gets benched for the day. Quinn doesn’t need Rachel making rookie mistakes because she’s too exhausted to do her job properly. In Quinn’s book losing Adam long enough for Grace to have a go with him was a mistake she can’t afford on her set, but she does need Rachel to take care of the new Anna situation first. The show didn’t waste much time in recalling the girl vomiting from the end of the premiere and it was indeed Anna.

We learn that our star Everlasting villain, Anna, does have an eating disorder and her marker food, to know when she’s purged herself, appears to be Cheetos and Quinn orders them gone from set. Rachel’s concern is that without her marker Anna will cause herself serious harm. Quinn goes stone cold bitch here and tells Rachel that it’ll make good TV if “…our girls find our villain on the bathroom floor in a pool of her own puke…” and with that Rachel has her final order of the day and Quinn has a potential future storyline. You can’t help but feel bad for Anna as she keeps finding herself on Quinn’s storyline radar and never in a good way. I have this nervous feeling that none of this is going to end well for Anna. At this point I don’t think anyone at Everlasting cares about Anna in the least.

Speaking of Anna, Chet continues to prove why I declared him the true villain of this series in last week’s review. Most of the characters on UnReal have reasons that I can use to justify their decisions and actions. Even if they seem morally compromised most of the time these characters have a baseline of goodness to them. Chet on the other hand has no good in him that I can see. Chet’s apology for Anna’s loss doesn’t even seem that sincere. It’s almost like he felt the obligation so he just went through the motions. It is fun to watch her scare him a bit by telling him that her dad was a stoner and he was only two years older than Chet. This exchange did lead us to learn that Chet is 46 years old which means he should be way more mature then he actually is. You’d think that would scare him straight, but this is Chet we’re talking about so he took off to find his nearest stash of drugs. I must give Craig Bierko credit because he has done a great job portraying how completely screwed up Chet is. He brings this adolescent nature into his character that really helps to sell the defects in the character.

Rachel is quite obviously not happy with any of the events of this day, but she fulfills Quinn’s order and gets rid of Anna’s marker food. Since Rachel hates not being around to produce her girls she sneaks in one last opportunity on her way out. She gives Grace a quick pep talk on how “sluts get cut” and that Rachel also wins if Grace does, so Grace needs to be more discrete with Adam.

With that out of the way she decides to finish off this perfect morning by adding to the Jeremy drama. When they run into each other she tries to apologize for the whole email and video situation. She explains what happened with Bethany and it’s through him that we learn that Rachel comes from money and her parents don’t live that far away. He wants to know why she just didn’t go to them for help and that could have saved them both from the drama the email caused. From her reaction I get the distinct impression she is not very close with her parents. Based on Jeremy’s reaction I don’t think he much cares because he is angry that she is yet again screwing with his life. He saw how she screwed over Anna last week and he certainly doesn’t approve of that either. Jeremy knows her and he knows that secretly she enjoys being manipulative and doing as Quinn orders her. Leave it up to Jeremy to level with her and I can’t argue with his analysis and neither can Rachel. Jeremy states Rachel’s current situation perfectly, “You’ve got a meal ticket out. You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t like the taste of blood.” The stunned look of realization on Rachel’s face was played perfectly by Shiri.

After Chet’s awkward conversation with Anna he runs off to find Quinn. After finding out about Anna’s dad he believes they work too hard and Quinn counters that she works to hard, but everyone knows that he doesn’t lift a finger to do anything around set. He somehow convinces Quinn to take a break which leads him to doing a line of coke, because that seems super healthily, and then to having sex and that combination leads him to having a possible heart attack. For reasons I cannot understand Quinn cares for this loser of a man and the look of terror on her face says more than any words could.

It is at this point that this episode divides into three very distinct storylines that play out very separate from each other. To be honest, I wasn’t a big fan of the way these three stories were cut around each other, so instead of tackling each bit as they appeared in the episode I’m going to address each individually:

Storyline A is about Rachel and her complex trip home to visit with her parents. After she finds her way back to her makeshift home, in the back of one of the grip trucks, she checks her phone and has several missed messages from her mom. She eventually takes a trip out to see her parents, who definitely look well off. Dr. Olive Goldberg (Mimi Kuzyk), who is not only Rachel’s mom but also her former therapist and her dad, Asa Goldberg (Barclay Hope), just seems chill and mellow. We come to learn that there is a lot more to this family dynamic then the shiny rich exterior would indicate

This whole storyline provides a lot of understanding into how Rachel became who she is. Since Rachel’s mom is a therapist/psychologist she thought it was okay to treat her own daughter, because that seems ethical. Rachel lists off all the different things her mom has diagnosed her with over the years and they run the gambit. To top off this fun family reunion we also learn that Olive is treating her own husband for a mental disorder and tries to convince Rachel that it runs in the family. I’m starting to get the impression that Quinn was right from the beginning, and there really is nothing wrong with Rachel. Is she manipulative? Sure, but that does not make her crazy like her mom tries to convince her. Suddenly Rachel choosing to sleep in the back of a grip truck instead of going to her parents sooner seems like a very good idea.

Rachel definitely inherited her manipulation skills from her mom, but Olive may be even better than her daughter. Rachel just wants to get some financial help then get the hell out of her parent’s house, but that request comes with a price. Olive wants her daughter to start having sessions with her again and is willing to guilt Rachel into agreeing by any means necessary. The battle of wills played out here was one of the best played moments of the entire episode. Watching how Shiri played Rachel’s eventual breakdown was a true testament to her control of her craft. Rachel makes a quick exit and smartly decides her mom’s price for the money isn’t worth it. She destroys the check and heads back to set, her only home at this point. This seems like a very smart decision on Rachel’s part. I need her to stay away from her mom otherwise she may actually drive her daughter truly crazy next time.

Storyline B is about Chet and his visit to the hospital. He has a heart condition, but not a serious one. This is one of the weaker bits of this episode, but the meat of this storyline is the confrontation between Quinn and his wife Cynthia. Chet has himself a true gold digger in his wife because she’s happy he has Quinn. With Quinn taking all of his attention all Cynthia has to do is pretend to be the loving wife while getting all the financial benefits. To add to matters Cynthia will get 40 million dollars from a life insurance policy if Quinn kills him with all the partying. Quinn would get nothing and Cynthia is very happy to point that out. I take back what I said last week about Cynthia needing to dump Chet too. Turns out those two deserve each other. Quinn needs to remove herself from this freak show threesome and find someone who actually cares for her.

Storyline C is the Everlasting story as crafted by Shia who, after the debacle she creates, may never again get to experience what it feels like to be in charge. We find out that Roger picked Grace, Anna, and Maya (Natasha Wilson) for the group dinner. The dinner devolves into each woman discussing their opinions of moms being home with their children. Each woman has their very own unique opinions and Roger simply doesn’t seem to really care. The date moves into the hot tub where Roger acts like a complete and total jerk. When the other women are sent in to join the party, an event we learn Shia stupidly orchestrated, Roger acts even more immature and irresponsible.

At this point even Adam seems unimpressed, which in and of itself is impressive given how morally challenged he is most of the time. In defense of Grace and Anna they both seem appalled by what is happening. Maya on the other hand does not share their issues as she gets some one on one make out time, but unfortunately for her it is with the wrong man. Grace and Adam both get opportunities to look completely mortified on behalf of both Maya and Roger. When even Grace is embarrassed for you then it’s time to reevaluate the choices you’re making. Apparently Maya did not get that memo because in her drunken state she is doing a very good job of making a fool of herself. None of this looks good on Shia, but she’s still not realizing how bad this whole situation is. Thankfully Rachel returns to set during the party and promptly gets things under control. Given how bad a mood Rachel is in I would not recommend anyone mess with her at this point.

Rachel gets everything shut down and tries to account for all the girls. Grace and Anna are smart to stick close to Rachel at this point as neither of them want to get caught being involved in this whole mess. I give them both major props for knowing when to tap out of the party in the name of their own dignity. Anna lets Rachel know that Maya is missing and was very plastered the last time she saw her. Rachel finds Maya in the pool house with Roger and Maya looks confused and it’s hard to define the other look, but I’m willing to guess it was terror. Whatever went on in that room with Roger does not seem like it was consensual and in this moment I feel for Maya for the first time this episode. She became yet another casualty of this morally challenge show. The big difference here is for once neither Rachel nor Quinn is to blame for what happened to her. As Rachel takes Maya away Shia seems to finally realize how royally she screwed up. Call it a hunch, but I don’t predict her ever being left in charge again.

All the storylines and characters return to the set of Everlasting and the episode poises itself to end on a strong note. I liked the overall storylines this week, but I don’t think they all played well being intercut with one another, so I was happy to see the story come back together in the last short bit.

Back in his room Adam is angry and annoyed so he confronts Roger about the events of the night. In the process he finds out that his father is the one that sent Roger after him. It seems like Adam really is trying to better himself. Granted there are better ways then going on a show like Everlasting, but for the first time I felt genuine sincerity from him. He wants to be his “own man” and take charge of his past mistakes. For that he earned a bit of respect from me this week. The punch he laid on Roger was very gratifying to watch because the jerk deserved it and he earned major respect for that. In the end Maya ends up winning the date with Adam. I’d much rather have seen Anna go on that date, as Roger had chosen, but I do think Adam made the right decision to change it at the last moment. I do love that he turned to Rachel for confirmation that what he did was right as it shows a growing trust between them. Well as much as anyone on this show can trust anyone else. Maya did not deserve what Roger did to her and while I don’t think she earned the date, in terms of the game, I’m glad all her suffering wasn’t for nothing. Rachel is not a saint, but I don’t think she’d let that happen to one of her girls. Shia needs to better produce and protect her girls.

As if Rachel didn’t have enough to do Jeremy follows her back to the control room with a request for her to help him secure the newly opened D.P. (Director of Photography) job. He feels like it is the least Rachel can do for him after everything. She brushes him off because she thinks he still wants to get out, but he kindly points out that was her dream not his. He leaves her to think on it, but given how preoccupied Rachel is at the moment he probably should have timed his request a bit better.

Now that Quinn is back on set the blame for the night’s issues somehow falls to Rachel. Quinn is not happy about what happened nor should she be. The way Constance grabs Shiri’s face in this scene was brilliant and it played so true to the relationship between these women. Quinn is definitely the more dominant and the face grab was a very controlling move against Rachel. I wonder how much of that was actually about Rachel and how much of it was Quinn trying to regain control over something after her Cynthia confrontation at the hospital. The face grab could have so easily diminished Shiri's ability to fully portray emotion, but instead it shot Shiri's performance up to a whole new level as she still manages to deliver Rachel’s vulnerable side while having her face squeezed, which would normally limit a performance.

The best thing about this friendship is that no matter what Rachel has done in the past Quinn doesn’t see Rachel as sick, but she does see that Rachel is broken. In a weird way Quinn is trying to help Rachel and in an equally weird way Rachel is helping Quinn. They have this very symbiotic friendship where they each need the other because they each fill a void in the other. Quinn fights for Rachel because without her she’s somewhat less of herself. She needs her right hand and she needs her on her game.

To get things back on track Rachel manipulates Anna to provide Everlasting with some quality villain material. Rachel uses Anna’s eating disorder to manipulate her and it’s hard to watch this scene because it’s obvious none of this will end well for Anna. It’s impressive how Rachel weaseled her way back into Anna’s good graces after the number of ways Rachel broke her trust last week. Anna is a smart woman, but for the sake of her health I hope she realizes, and soon, how she is being used. Rachel will provide Anna with her marker food, anything orange, and she’s even generous enough to tell her that Grace has been talking about her behind her back. This leads Anna to confront Grace in a fun catty attack which Mary tries to break up. Respect to Mary for trying, but that’s not one fight I think she should involve herself in. Grace and Anna have such strong personalities it’s best to just let them fight this one out.

We end the episode on Quinn ditching Chet, her first smart move this episode, and joining Rachel poolside to watch the fight play out. Quinn is happy with this great cat fight and Rachel is once again back in her good graces. She even goes as far as declaring that Rachel is “home”. For an episode about relationships and friendships falling apart and family issues it was nice to see this very surreal moment play out at the end. Granted it is screwed up and twisted that these two women define this as home, but at least they have found home together. It will be interesting to see how long Rachel can keep this balancing act going to keep Quinn happy. Eventually this job is going to break Rachel again and the big question is who will be there for her when it does. Will Quinn save her again? Will Adam dash in and try to help her? Or will Jeremy be her knight in shining armor and save her from all this mess?

This was a good episode, but as I mentioned earlier in the review I feel like the episode lost some of it's flow in the middle. The storylines individually were great, but cutting them around each other seemed to bog down that middle section. Overall it was a fun episode and it touched on some very real topics, like Anna's eating disorder and Maya's encounter with Roger. These are important topics for a show like UnReal to deal with and so far it has stayed on the right side of respectful even if it did walk a very fine and dangerous line by Rachel giving Anna back her marker instead of getting her help. I have a feeling that move will come back to haunt Rachel and Anna in the not so distant future.

Shiri was without a doubt the MVP of this episode. The way she captured Rachel’s meltdown with her mom was beautifully acted. The scenes Shiri and Johanna share continue to be some of my favorites. The way they play off of each other is brilliant and they each bring a level of humanity to two very broken women. Even when Rachel is being a manipulative bitch she does actually seem to care and hold a certain level of remorse for what she has to do to Anna for the show. Constance and Shiri are another powerhouse duo and they are doing some incredible work together. This show could not have asked for better leads. We’ve begun to see tiny bits of evolution from Quinn thanks to Chet, the only good thing he has given us, and I look forward to watching her evolve even more as she, hopefully, continues to distance herself from him.

Leave your thoughts below. Did the flow of the middle part of the episode throw anyone else besides me? Be sure to tune back in for a new episode of UnReal at 10pm on Lifetime next Monday. Then come back to SpoilerTV for another in-depth look at the episode.

About the Author - Aimee Hicks

Aimee works for a local newspaper and has a BA in Broadcasting and Cinema. She has been a TV lover since before she really understood what TV was. She has a long list of shows that she loves to watch and can be found on twitter (@ahicks83) live tweeting about each new episode whenever she can. A list of her favorite shows includes (but is not limited to) the following: 12 Monkeys, Orphan Black, Outlander, Chasing Life, Scorpion, The 100, The Night Shift, Bitten, Black Sails, 2 Broke Girls, Arrow, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, Continuum, Lost Girl, Faking It, Falling Skies, Finding Carter, Once Upon A Time, Orange Is The New Black, Switched At Birth, The Fosters, The Flash, The Originals, Teen Wolf, Under The Dome, & Z Nation. The upcoming shows she is most excited about are: Supergirl, Dark Matter, UnReal, Blindspot, Lucifer, Legends of Tomorrow, Stitchers, Recovery Road, Shadowhunters, Quantico, Code Black, Heartbreaker, and Chicago Med. She has a large and passionate dislike of ""reality"" TV, espeically ""reality"" dating shows, but has a weakness for Americas Got Talent and So You Think You Can Dance. But those two don't really count as ""reality"" shows, at least that's how she justifies those guilty pleasures. She was the original creator and co-founder of LOST Video Island (lostvideo.net) which is still operting under the management of the very capable and skilled group she turned it over to.

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