UnReal - Fly & Savior - Review: “Heartbreak And Turmoil”

The first episode, Fly, starts off innocently enough with Jeremy and Lizzie having sexy time in the back of a truck. On a side note, UnReal likes trucks as much as Everlasting likes pools and bikinis. Lizzie isn’t happy with Jeremy for the way he manhandles her. He got his women mixed up and seems to have mistaken Lizzie for Rachel, who does like it rough. Could this be the beginning of the end for this couple?

In the control room Chet is being his typical jerk of a self as he declares that there is no way Mary can win the competition. Rachel and Quinn disagree with him and after a bet is made the two women begin to scheme on how to keep Mary on the show. To give them a fighting chance Quinn tells Rachel to work with Shia to Co-Produce Mary’s family day. Upon hearing this news Shia flips out. At some point, off camera apparently, Mary became Shia’s girl as part of some deal. Shia does not like having her territory infringed upon.

While they work out the strategy for the day Mary is busy greeting her daughter, Lilly Belle (Bailey Skodje), and her sister, Louise (Chelah Horsdal) as they arrive at the Everlasting compound. Mary is overjoyed to see her family and is overjoyed to have her daughter in her arms. Ashley Scott is a mom to a young daughter in real life and her maternal instinct really shines throughout the episode as she interacts with the little girl playing her daughter. While the reunion is beautiful and heartwarming Quinn isn’t happy because neither of those things makes for an interesting hour of “reality” television.

As Mary catches up with her family they are brought drinks to which Louise looks concerned. Mary promises her that her drink is a virgin, but Louise knows her sister and seems skeptical. For someone who is supposed on mood stabilizers she’s acting way out of character.

Elsewhere Shamiqua and Anna are annoyed because they have nothing to do and no access to the outside world. Chet capitalizes on this and gets Anna to join him on a dastardly plan. First Rachel and now Chet, you would think that by now Anna would know not to trust anyone behind the scenes of Everlasting. She has not learned her lesson and is willing to go along with his plan.

Shia is trying to produce an interview with Mary and Adam, but Quinn isn’t getting the material she needs to make a good episode. Quinn needs more action and drama and Shia needs to find a way to get it for her. Shia is able to pull some better material from Mary before her bipolar kicks in and she goes off on a rant about her ex, which is not what Quinn or Shia wants. The mood swings are happening rapid fire and it’s becoming quite obvious how dangerous things are getting because of what Shia did.

The family day seems to be going great for Mary, but Adam hates kids and this is not his idea of a good day. Rachel promises to get him on a date and back in his romantic element where he can romance Mary. She tries to coach him on how to handle kids, but it instead the moment almost turns into a romantic encounter between them. The more these episodes go along the more I’m rooting for Rachel to end up with Adam as I think he gets her better then even Jeremy does.

Chet gives Anna a rabbit to use to interfere with Mary’s date and get in better with Adam. When she shows up with the rabbit we see a whole new side to Mary as she flips out on Anna. It’s what Chet wanted, but Shia is starting to see the negative results to taking Mary off her medications. Louise notices the change in her sister as well and is rightfully concerned when she confronts Shia. She’s seen Mary off her meds before and it never ends well. If only she knew how bad this was really going to end.

With this season of Everlasting winding down it’s time to pitch the next season. As part owner of the show Quinn wants to make the pitch. Chet is hesitant, but he lets her do it anyway.

Quinn and Rachel are worried about how not well things are going for Mary. They need her to win and Quinn comes up with an extreme plan to bring in Kirk (Ty Olsson), Mary’s ex-husband, to try and shake things up. Rachel is hesitant to agree until she realizes that this could be a great moment for Mary to take control of her life and move on from her past with Kirk so she can pursue Adam.

Anna is finishing up an interview when Adam confronts her over the rabbit situation. He knows what she was doing and she confesses to being jealous when it comes to him. She really likes Adam and just wants to ensure she has a place with him after all this is over with. He notices her and tells her he knows a place where they can go for some alone time. Well, if Grace finds out about Adam taking someone else off for special time it’s not going to be pretty.

Shia has learned about the plan to bring Kirk in and she confronts Rachel about it. Rachel has convinced herself this will be an empowering moment for Mary, but Shia knows how dangerous this could become since Mary is off her meds. She can’t convince Rachel to back off this plan because Rachel believes this confrontation can help all the other women out there being abused to confront their abusers. Under different circumstances this plan may not have been quite as horrible, don’t get me wrong in no scenario is this a good idea for any “reality” TV show to undertake, but under these circumstances for them to put this on a contestant with known mental health issues they should have been more cautious and considerate of her well being. Kirk should never have been brought into the equation given Mary’s mental history and his history of abusing her.

Kirk is on set and he is under the impression that Mary wanted him there. When Mary sees him she freaks out and tries to get him removed. Somehow Lilly Belle got away from those watching her and she runs to be with her dad. This causes everyone to freak out and Rachel grabs Lilly Belle away from her father. Kirk freaks out on Mary and slugs Adam when he tries to intervene. When Kirk turns his anger on Rachel she calls for security, but before they can arrive Jeremy jumps into action, discarding his camera, and taking Kirk down in order to protect Rachel. Lizzie doesn’t look impressed that Jeremy put himself in danger for Rachel.

At the pitch meeting Quinn is freaking out and, for once, Chet is handing out some decent advice as he tells her how to handle the executives. His best advice is to “tickle balls”, which Quinn feels she’s fairly proficient at. That doesn’t help her anxiety going into her first pitch meeting. Okay, so he may not be the best at giving advice, but at least he tried.

After the fight Lizzie is tending to Jeremy and Rachel to Adam as both men are nursing injuries. Adam is annoyed with Rachel after he realizes she’s the one that put them all in this position. Mary shows up to thank Adam and confronts Rachel for bringing Kirk to set. It is a strong defining moment for Mary, but it also shows how fast she is spiraling out of control. She can’t control her mood swings anymore, thanks to the switch Shia did, and because she’s in the dark about the switch she’s not sure what is happening to her either. With that said I can’t disagree with anything Mary said. She was right to confront Rachel and put her in her place over her involvement.

The normally cool and collected Quinn succumbs to nerves at the pitch meeting and Chet steps in to help her. He is an expert at knowing how to speak jerk to another jerk and he gets Brad (Martin Cummings), a network executive, listening to the pitch again. Ever since Quinn confronted him last week he’s actually been trying to be a somewhat better man. Granted he’s failing at it, but at least he is attempting to try. I’m still not a Chet fan, but he does come through for Quinn in this moment.

Adam confronts Rachel and realizes that after everything he now has to keep Mary. She’s a little too much for him to handle and I think he was prepared to kick her had Quinn and Rachel not come up with this horrible plan. Every time these two are in a scene together the chemistry between them is intense. It really is only a matter of time before they get together.

During an interview Adam asks Mary to stay with him for another week. He puts on his best act and tells her that he can see a future with her. Since we’ve seen all the behind the scenes stuff we know how untrue that is, but to be honest I think they only one he sees a future with is Rachel, so things could get awkward. Shia is closing out the family day with an interview with Mary which quickly falls apart as Mary goes into a rant about Kirk. The looks on Shia’s face throughout the interview indicate she knows what is happening to Mary, but she makes no attempts to correct any of her sins. At this point she should have confessed to someone what she did so they could get Mary back on her meds, but alas she does not which leads into the tragic final moments of this episode.

Mary confronts Kirk, who is restrained, and tells him she never wants to see him again. Restrained or not he is still a danger to her as he says horrible things to her. He tells her that their daughter would be better off without her. In a different mental state she may have been able to brush this off, but since she is, unknowingly, off her meds she can’t compensate for what he says. Ashley does a fantastic job of showing the emotions flood through Mary as she makes up her mind on what she is going to do. This scene goes to show just how dangerous a weapon words can be in the wrong hands.

As Mary’s family leaves she hugs them all and gives them each a loving goodbye. It is at this moment that it is painfully obvious what Mary has decided to do. She even says goodbye to Adam, in a discreet way.

Back at set Chet and Quinn are ecstatic at how well things went with the network. They have the next season approved and just as they are preparing to celebrate Chet gets a call from his wife. She found out the sex of their baby and the world should prepare because it’s a boy which means there will be another little Chet running around to try and take over the world. Quinn is not happy at this news and quickly leaves Chet to finish the call.

Their relationship isn’t the only one on the rocks as Lizzie finally confronts Jeremy about his feelings for Rachel. He doesn’t seem to understand what he’s done wrong, but Lizzie is over the whole situation. The scene leaves off with what may very well be a breakup, but there are other more important things to cram into these final minutes.

Rachel is showing Quinn the footage of the fight when Madison runs in to tell them Mary is on the roof. Quinn runs to call the cops and Rachel takes off to try and save Mary. Chet comes in to admit defeat when Quinn brushes him off while trying to get a camera on the roof. It is telling that in this moment Quinn seems to care more about the footage then a woman’s life, but I guess this is her own twisted way of being able to deal with the situation.

On the roof Rachel is doing her best to talk down Mary, but Shia’s intervention with the pill switch has made it impossible for Mary to know if she is good or a monster. It is too much for Rachel to overcome and she almost goes over too when Mary steps off the roof. I can’t talk about this scene and not commend Ashley and Shiri for their heartbreaking performances. This is a hard subject to deal with and they both handled it with grace and courage as they gave the moment real life implications. Their performances were raw and real and they both deserve major respect for the courage that it took to pull off those performances so flawlessly.

In this moment the show has no heroes or villains. As Mary hits the ground all this show has is painful truth. The worlds of UnReal and Everlasting will be forever changed by this moment. Quinn, Rachel, Shia, and the whole group will be changed and forever haunted by these events. It was a poignant and heartbreaking way for Everlasting to lose Mary and even harder for UnReal fans to lose Ashley. The moment when Quinn realizes Mary is gone and she turns to look up at Rachel shows how truly affected both of these women will be. No one will escape this event unscathed.

When I watched this scene I was shell-shocked. UnReal is known for pushing the envelope, but they went to a place I didn’t think they would go. I thought for sure Rachel would find a way to save Mary, but alas it wasn’t meant to be. Now we get to watch the repercussions of what has happened.

Speaking of what has happened, it is time to move on to the aftermath of Mary’s horrific death in the next episode, Savior.

Jeremy races up to the roof to get Rachel down. She is rambling about how she had Mary’s hand when Jeremy grabs her by the back of her pants and pulls her into his arms. He helps her get down to the ground where chaos has erupted. Quinn orders Shia and Jay to get the girls into their rooms and Madison is tasked with getting Adam back to his room. Just then Jeremy walks by with his arm protectively around Rachel. After a plea from Rachel Adam finally relents and goes back to his room as the paramedics arrive.

Quinn grabs Rachel from Jeremy and tries to calm her down. She realizes how bad this situation is and she needs Rachel to be strong. The embrace they share shows that Quinn does actually care for one person on this plant, other than Chet, and that person is Rachel. The entire show is in a horrible position since they believe it was them bringing Kirk to Everlasting that drove Mary to her breaking point. Constance and Shiri do stunning work as they show the humanity both characters possess under their complicated exterior personas.

The girls are in a room freaking out about what is going on. Faith realizes that Mary is missing and they all realize that there are no cameras in the room with them. More importantly there are no cameras outside either. The women quickly become aware that something insidious is going on and the level of concern ramps up.

Quinn and Chet have the responsibility of letting Brad know what happened. He orders production shut down, but all Chet really cares about is how long this will put them off the air for. Brad cares more about the legal implications and won’t let anything else be shot until their legal team assesses the damage.

Feeling guilty, Shia seeks out Rachel to confess. Before she can say anything a cop shows up to get a statement from Rachel. While I do not agree with what Shia did and have lost all respect for the character I have gained immense respect for Aline Elasmar. She was handed a tough storyline, that she had to know would not sit well with fans, and she has embraced it and done a great job of showing the human within Shia. The character did a horrible thing, but she did it for reasons she was able to justify within herself. Shia crossed a line that not even Rachel or Quinn would have and now they all have to deal with the consequences.

Adam is angry about being locked away in his room. Rachel shows up and tells him that Mary took her own life. Adam is stunned and doesn’t know how to react. That’s all made worse when Rachel tells him he has to be the one to tell the girls. He doesn’t want to, but Rachel doesn’t leave him with much of a choice.

Back in the control room Shia is waiting, in the dark, for Rachel’s return. Finally she confesses what she did and Rachel is stunned. She realizes how truly screwed they are with this new information. Shia wants to leave, but Rachel makes her stay and face her mistakes.

The next morning the girls are gathered, but still don’t know about Mary. While they are waiting for Adam to show up Rachel urges Shia to talk to Quinn. When Quinn tries to brush her off Rachel expresses the importance of them talking so Shia and Quinn go off to talk. This is definitely not going to go well for Shia once Quinn finds out the truth.

Adam is left to break the news to the girls. They all react with shock and tears. Maya embraces Adam and Anna sits quietly with tears running down her face. They may have all been competitors, but none of them wished this on Mary. It is heartbreaking for all of them, and in a show full of fake reactions these tears were real. Chet steps in and tells them that they are going to have to stop shooting while everything is dealt with.

The girls are sitting around in disbelief and trying to rationalize what happened. Anna is remorseful for the way she acted on Mary’s date while Faith is in shock over why Mary did it. Maya is devastated and when she sees Grace sitting by so calmly she goes off on her. Death is nothing new in Grace’s life and she’s learned to deal with things her way. Natasha Wilson (Maya) and Nathalie Kelley (Grace) do a phenomenal job portraying this confrontation as each women tries to process the situation. I do look forward to finding out more about the past Grace hinted at in this scene. It seems like she has quite a hard story in her past. Faith calls the group together to pray as Rachel is called away to join Quinn and Shia.

In the control room Shia is distressed and upset over the part she played in Mary’s death. I’m not sure Shia can be forgiven, but owning up to her mistakes is a step in the right direction. Quinn may be a stone cold bitch most of the time, but she does protect her people. Quinn orders Jay to take Shia to a hotel and guard over her while she and Rachel try to clean up Shia’s mess.

Rachel wants to go to the cops, but Quinn is more interested in protecting the show and all the people it employees. Both women have valid points, but I can’t help but side with Quinn in this argument. That even surprises me as I thought for sure I’d side more with Rachel’s opinion, but they will never know why Mary really did it and Quinn has a lot of other people to protect. Before they can finish their conversation they are called away to meet with the network lawyers. Quinn looks nervous that Rachel has been asked to attend the meeting.

The lawyers start to interrogate Rachel about why she brought Kirk onto the show. Rachel says she wanted to get them to talk again, but the lawyers realize that a fight would have been better for the ratings. Just then Brad gets news that they have made the tabloids. Kirk has posted bail and he’s going after Everlasting for Mary’s death. The lawyers are ready to cave and just pay him off, but Rachel doesn’t want to see that scumbag get a penny. Rachel is going off on the lawyers, so Chet kicks her out of the room and Quinn tries to defend her. Brad realizes Rachel was the girl from last season that had the meltdown. Quinn tells him that Rachel is worth every penny and then the lawyers go after her since Rachel reports to her. When Quinn is questioned if anyone knew Mary was unstable she holds firm and protects both Rachel and Shia. Say what you want about Quinn, but the woman is beyond loyal to her people. If the truth comes out she has painted a massive target on herself.

After being kicked out of the meeting Rachel finds her way to a group meeting with the girls and Dr. Wagerstein. They are sharing memories about Mary and Faith remembers how Mary taught her to do a braid she used to do on her daughter. This leads Grace to wonder if they can do something for her daughter. Anna says they should take up a collection, but Maya isn’t buying into anyone’s sincerity. She states that no one cares about anyone else, which is true on a lot of levels in the world of Everlasting. Grace tries to argue with her, but with all Maya has been through she has no interest in listening to Grace or the others. Rachel agrees with Maya and gets gratitude from the other woman. Between being raped and the whole situation with Mary, Maya has had enough. She tells Rachel that she is done with the game. I feel bad for Maya because she really had it rough on this game. I have a huge amount of respect for her decision to walk away from the whole nightmare. The world of Everlasting is not a healthy or safe one.

At a hotel Jay sits guard over Shia. She believes she is being held prisoner, which to be honest she kind of is, and just wants to go home. Jay has his orders and Shia isn’t going anywhere.

Jeremy goes to check on Rachel when he finds her in her makeshift home in the back of the truck. His attempt to console her turns physical when they finish what they started during Faith’s hometown date. When they wake up together the next day Rachel describes their evening together as “grief sex”, but when she mentions Lizzie he doesn’t comment on his fiancé which is interesting because he usually brings her into all their conversations. He does encourage Rachel to not let Kirk win and encourages her to find a way to fight him in Mary’s honor.

Rachel takes this to heart and goes to Quinn to try and scheme up a plan. Quinn is willing to let the network pay Kirk off, but Rachel convinces her that they can get some footage and prevent the network from paying off Kirk. Rachel makes a compelling case and gets Quinn on board with her plan. With Jeremy’s help they violate Brad’s moratorium on no filming and get all the girls on camera. When it comes to Adam he rebels and makes sure Rachel knows he lays blame with her and the show.

After the interviews Rachel tries to talk to Adam, but he has no interest in talking to her. He calls her a monster and storms off, leaving Rachel in his wake to think about what happened. If only she could tell him everything he’d realize he was calling the wrong person a monster. Granted Rachel is no saint, but she would never have taken things this far with Mary had she known the whole truth.

Chet is trying to decompress with a joint, but his lighter won’t work. He gets a light from Madison and more then that he gets some good advice from her. She thinks that something good may still come from all of this. He seems to take that to heart and who knows, maybe she is right, and something good can still come from this whole mess.

The next morning Brad busts in with Mary’s toxicology reports. Not only was Mary drunk, but she was off her meds. To top it all off he finds out that they are shooting new footage to use against Kirk. This leads to a massive confrontation between him and Quinn when Brad tries to tell her she has no say in what happens. Quinn is part owner and she makes that known to which Brad points out she just slept with the right guy. Chet comes in and gets between the two. He takes Brad off for a little man to man conversation.

In Quinn’s office Rachel interrupts Quinn’s plans to get drunk and enjoy the last days of being employed. Rachel still wants to send the footage, but Quinn tells her she can’t. The authorities are onto the meds issue and Quinn is ready to throw in the towel and head for the border. Thanks to Quinn Rachel doesn’t really have a backup plan, so she has to motive Quinn to keep fighting. This is an odd change since it’s usually Quinn trying to motivate Rachel. I liked the switch up as it shows that the women are willing to support each other in a crisis.

To try and connect with the situation, and formulate a new plan, Rachel spends some time in Mary’s room. A picture of Mary’s daughter and a stuffed animal give Rachel the motivation she needs. A plan is formulated and the show may not be doomed just yet.

While Chet and Brad are arguing over Quinn, Rachel shows up with a note from Mary that she supposedly found. Chet reads the note and by that evening they have Louise on set to read it. When Louise showed up I expected her to be angry, but her first reaction is to embrace Rachel. They go off and Louise gets to read the note and insists that the world must know about it. Rachel suggests it should be read on camera and Louise insists that she be the one to read it. After the reading Louise thanks Rachel and confesses that she knows the note was not written by her sister. She supports the plan in order to keep Kirk from getting Lilly Belle and to ensure the jerk doesn’t get a penny from Mary’s death. Rachel tries to play dumb, but Louise knows better and is grateful. Adam overhears everything and makes sure Louise is okay with situation. Louise is just glad the show is helping her to protect Lilly Belle and this seems to go a long way to help Adam change his mind about Rachel.

Jay brings Shia back to set, but she’s not inclined to trust anyone right now, not even Jay. He is still in the dark because he won’t let her tell him what got her into trouble with Quinn. Jay believes that the truth would have affected their friendship and as long as he doesn’t know they are still good.

After the video Louise made Brad is ecstatic and happy with the product Chet produced. Brad even makes good with Quinn, but as soon as she walks away he warns Chet to not let Quinn go up against him again.

In Quinn’s office she and Rachel are drinking to drown away the memory of the events since Mary’s death. Shia comes in and Quinn sends her home with the reassuring news that it’s better than going to jail. Quinn and Rachel embrace when Quinn offers herself up to talk if Rachel ever needs to. Both women agree to never talk about any of this ever again.

As the day, and the episode, draws to an end Rachel sends Maya on her way home. As she turns to head back to her own makeshift home she sees Jeremy. She is about to go to him when she sees Lizzie show up and pull him away. I’m guessing these two didn’t break up after all. Jeremy does seem like he’d rather be with Rachel, but he goes off with Lizzie much to Rachel’s dismay.

Chet brings Quinn a dandelion as a gift and confesses to her that Mary’s death made him appreciate the important things in life. He tells her that he left his wife and the look on Quinn’s face is that of both shock and relief. I don’t really want them back together, but Chet did protect her many times this week. He may not be a total bastard, but he’s still a long ways away from being a good guy.

After everything that has happened Rachel can’t settle to sleep in the truck. She tosses around a bit before making up her mind and going to Adam’s room where she crawls into bed with him. He doesn’t seem to mind and even apologizes for calling her a monster. He may not think that anymore, but she still does. She’s good at her job, but it is rapidly destroying her soul.

These two episodes were an emotional rollercoaster ride and the cast brilliantly tackled the tough story thrown at them. UnReal stayed true to reality and the harshness of death and the value of life. These episodes were tough to watch because of how real they were and how attached we have all become to the characters. It is never easy to watch a show kill off a character you love, but Mary’s death was especially hard given how it happened. I believe the show handled this storyline with grace and dignity and the realism required to make the story hit home for viewers. I look forward to seeing what happens next for all the characters. This was a catalyst event for the series and nothing can ever be the same again.

Two MVP’s for two episodes. Ashley Scott easily gets the MVP for Fly as she brilliantly showed Mary’s out of control spiral. Her final heartbreaking scene was raw and made Mary’s death all that much harder to watch. I hope we’ll see her again, maybe in a video montage at the end of the season? The MVP for Savior has to go to Aline Elasmar who skillfully showed the pain Shia was experiencing over her part in Mary’s death. It will take a lot for Shia to be redeemed, but I hope Quinn will let her back on set soon so she can have the chance at redemption. Aline has been given good stuff to do this season, but nothing like in these two episodes. I hope the show took notice of how hard she worked and the performances she gave because she deserves more gritty work like this in the future.

Where do UnReal and Everlasting go from here? How has this changed all the characters? Can Shia be redeemed in the eyes of UnReal fans? Should Quinn trust Chet to be loyal to her if they make their relationship official? Who is best for Rachel? Adam or Jeremy?

Tune into Lifetime at 10/9C on Monday to see where the characters go from here.

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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