UnReal - Truth - Review “Free To Be Who You Are”

Sometimes people can surprise us and in a raw moment all their bravado and defenses fall to reveal the true person hiding underneath. Tonight I feel like many of the characters had breakthroughs and for a brief moment in time they remembered their humanity and reconnected with their hearts. We were given a front row seat to these beautifully human moments, so stunningly portrayed by these gifted actors. Of course, some characters backtracked a bit, but in those cases some interesting stories were setup.

The episode starts with the Everlasting story of the week which is a hometown date with Adam. While Grace was accounted for this week, in the group shot, Anna is still oddly missing. Johanna Braddy must have been unavailable for these episodes, likely for shooting the pilot of her new ABC series, Quantico, but she has been missed. It’s time for Adam to make his choice and he very wisely chooses to take Faith on the date. Faith seems utterly stunned, but she shouldn’t because she’s an amazing person and Adam can see that.

While all that is going on Rachel is in her, back of a truck, bunk and has her hands full, literally, while trying to bring herself pleasure to the tune of a tiny phone sized porn video. It doesn’t seem to be doing much for her as she gives up and decides it’s time to get to work. They showed a bit of the tiny porn and it was surprising that Lifetime let them leave that in. This show really is breaking new ground for Lifetime in terms of changing the networks image.

In the control room, Quinn is pleasantly surprised that Adam picked Faith, because Everlasting fans, just like UnReal fans, consider Faith a “crowd favorite” and Quinn being Quinn wants to capitalize on that. Rachel has built the storyline around a rodeo and a church dance, but Quinn is more interested in Faith’s virginity and she wants Faith to give it up to Adam. Rachel doesn’t really seem comfortable with this storyline, but we all know she’ll do her best to accomplish this for Quinn, especially with ten grand on the line.

While Adam is away with Faith the other women have to put together a video inviting Adam to meet their families. Shia is watching the monitors while making adjustments to the boards. Oddly I noticed that Mary is now considered one of Shia’s girls, which is weird, since I’m fairly certain she’s been Rachel’s girl up until this point. Either way, Mary has landed herself on Shia and Quinn’s radar this week, so she’d better be on her game to protect herself. Dr. Wagerstein does Mary no favors by letting Shia get a look at her psychological evaluation. Quinn assigns Shia to work on the video invitations and Jaya volunteers his services to look after Rachel’s girls while she’s away. This leads to one of my favorite sass moments of the episode.

Jay: “I can cover Rachel’s girls while she’s gone.”
Quinn: "You’re not going to be too busy trying to get your entire head up Chet’s asshole?”
Jay: “Nah, I’m a born multitasker.”

Constance and Jeffrey nailed the timing and sass that scene required. It’s nice to see the show follow through on Jay’s attempts to cozy up to Chet. Surely he must realize this is not going to end well for him.

Dr. Wagerstein is worried about Rachel and the fact she is going away with Jeremy overnight is worrisome. Given Rachel’s track record a little worry is probably a good thing. Rachel brushes the doctor off and tracks down Adam. She had wanted him to cut Faith, but because he isn’t her “meat puppet” he did his own thing. You do have to admire him for having his opinions and sticking to them. He may not be the most moral character, but he is doing a good job of becoming his own man. To add to Rachel’s man problems she also has Jeremy throwing snarky comments at her regarding Adam.

Rachel decides to change tactics and tries to have a conversation with him about Faith’s virginity. That is until Faith ambushes them and excitedly jumps on Adam’s back. Breeda and Freddie looked like they were having far too much fun filming that scene. I couldn’t tell how much was acting and how much of it was just two friends goofing around and that realism made it play very well on screen. It’s time for Rachel to go to work, so she pulls Faith away for a little girl talk while Faith packs. She’s trying to sell Faith on Quinn’s plan for her to lose her virginity to Adam. Faith reminds Rachel that she can’t do that with him, but Rachel is very persuasive and she gets Faith to agree to at least think about it.

The crew lands in Faith’s hometown where they promptly meet her Gran and her best friend, Amy (Malea Mitchell). Faith and Amy share a very tight and long embrace as Adam waits in the wings. Adam presents Gran with a bouquet of flowers and, like the good gentleman he is, he wheels her into the house. Amy and Faith share a brief exchange about Gran before heading inside. There are little touches and looks exchanged between the two best friends that suggests a very long history between them.

Back at the Everlasting estate Shia is trying to produce Mary and Mary isn’t having any of it. She’s surprised to still be on the show and all she really wants is to get home to her daughter. Shia points out how stunning Mary is just before blatantly asking Mary if she’s an alcoholic.

Shia: “I noticed that you haven’t been drinking. You like an alcoholic or something?”
Mary: “No, Shia, I don’t drink. Those are two very different things.”

This exchange is sold perfectly by the way Ashley Scott and Aline Elasmar play off of each other. It was obvious from the start of this scene that Mary wasn’t into this whole interview thing with Shia and it would have been smart to just let her walk away, but instead Shia keeps pushing her. Mary has been through to much in her life to deal with Shia’s nonsense, so when Shia brings Mary’s daughter into the conversation the confrontation is on. Mary’s eyes go dark and she forcefully removes Shia’s hand from her arm before leaving without pursuit. Shia is no Rachel and the sooner she learns that the better. At least Rachel finds some level of compassion in her manipulation.

In Mississippi, Rachel is snooping around Faith’s room and sees a lot of pictures of Faith and Amy together, including one of them at a kissing booth. She also spies a rather intense confrontation taking place outside between the two of them. It is in this moment that Rachel begins to piece together some things and she’s starting to get a fair understanding of just how close they are.

Quinn and Bill are going forward with the lawsuit and they’ve even brought in a lawyer to represent them. She doesn’t want to let Chet get away with stealing her idea, so she is on board for the fight. The lawyer reviews her look book and points out to them that this case can’t be won based off of just that evidence. However, he has a different angle for them to take. He start to quiz her about her relationship with Chet, and tells them that he has another idea for them to move forward with a more solid case.

It turns out Shia did not like Mary shutting her down earlier so she pulls the cameras in Mary’s room and starts to snoop around. It’s in that snooping that she discovers Mary’s bipolar and mood balancing medications and takes them. She proceeds to pull apart Mary’s pills and replace the medication with probiotics. A line was just crossed that goes beyond anything Rachel would have even thought of doing. To mess with someone’s critical medication is as unmoral and as reprehensible as someone can be. When this backfires I hope Shia will face some real world consequences.

Rachel is interviewing Faith and trying to get something to build this episode of Everlasting around. She’s pieced together the Amy connection and tries to get Faith to admit to something, but Faith is hard set in her ways and tells Rachel that she loves Adam just before agreeing to give him her virginity. Rachel is happy she finally got Faith to say that on camera, but you can tell she’s pushing for a different angle to this story now.

During a chat in the barn Adam is surprised when Faith embraces him for an awkward kiss. Faith confesses to him that she is a virgin and that she wants him to be her first. When Faith excuses herself Adam seems genuinely annoyed at Rachel for putting both himself and Faith in this position.

Quinn and Bill are still fighting for their share of Everlasting and with the change in tactics the lawyer is arguing that as Chet’s mistress she is due his financial support and a forty percent share in Everlasting. Chet seems hurt by all of this, but he lets his lawyer do most of the talking. The looks Quinn and Chet shoot towards each other are mixed between anger and hurt. This storyline is finally giving Craig Bierko some meaty material to bite into. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy hating Chet when he is being a womanizing drug addict, but he finally gets to let his heart peak out and Craig does an amazing job controlling Chet’s emotional crescendo throughout this episode. The evidence, once again, does not go in Quinn’s favor and Chet’s jerk of a lawyer wants him to file a restraining order against her. Things are not going well for Quinn, but she’s not one to give up easy, so don’t count her out yet.

In Mississippi Rachel is trying to calm Faith down after the awkward kiss. She’s latched onto the notion that Amy and Faith have a connection beyond that of friends. It leads to a beautifully delivered and very timely exchange between them.

Rachel: “Um, I don’t know, have you…have you ever thought that you and Amy, you know, that you might be in love with Amy?”
Faith: “That’s disgusting.”
Rachel: “No, it’s not. It’s beautiful.”

Rachel may be a lot of things, but she understands the world in a way that most people can’t. She sees through people to their cores and sees the truths that they try so hard to hide away. It is this gift that makes her so good at her job, but this week it’s that gift that allows her to open Faith’s eyes to a truth that is eating away at her. She gets Faith to admit to her and Amy having “unholy thoughts”, but it has never gone farther than that. Faith was hoping Everlasting would help clear up her confusion by getting her away from everything and opening her up to a life with a prince and crazy amounts of money. She’s terrified of God striking her and Amy down for being in love with each other and more than that she fears her family disowning her and her church kicking her out.

In a superbly written, and expertly acted, scene Rachel guides Faith through her bottled up fears. She suggests that declaring her feelings, even just once, would do wonders for the anguish and misery the secret is causing her. Faith breaks down and Rachel supports her in a way we haven’t seen since she comforted Anna in that bar bathroom. In some ways I think Rachel is being even more honest and truthful this time as she seems to genuinely support Faith.

Back in the barn Adam is waiting to continue where they left off. He’s in for a surprise when Faith declares she is attracted to someone else. She stumbles over the words before declaring she is attracted to Amy. I can’t say enough good things about the way Breeda handled her portrayal of Faith during these pivotal scenes. She proves why she is an UnReal fan favorite and why Faith is an Everlasting favorite. Breeda pours her heart and soul into Faith and it shows through so brilliantly as Faith says the words she’s been running from her entire life. The waiver in her voice and the tightly closed eyes really sold the fear Faith was experiencing in this moment.

I can’t move on from talking about this scene without commending Freddie and Shiri for their performances as they both respectfully supported Breeda in this intense scene. The moment when Faith realized she wasn’t going to be struck down and started to laugh was the perfect way to end this sequence. I don’t know if the tears in Rachel’s eyes were scripted, or if it was a natural reaction from Shiri, but it played so well on screen. It was in that moment that this become about Faith and less about the story. I’ve struggled to declare Rachel the hero of this story, but tonight she earned the title. Freddie couldn’t have done a better job either as his smile seemed genuine and so natural. Adam’s embrace and acceptance of Faith was a great choice by the writers.

Quinn is trying to drown her sorrows by finding her way to the bottle of a bottle of liquor. This is a bad time for Rachel to be away and all Quinn is left with is Shia. Surprisingly Shia delivers some good advice about how Quinn should be producing Chet instead of fighting with him. In exchange for this advice Quinn agrees to talk to Mary and get some usable material out of her.

To protect Faith, Rachel tries to get Jeremy to shelve the coming out footage, but since it’s already uploaded there isn’t anything he can do. So, she reaches out to Jay to help her, but that may turn out to be a very bad idea. This guy is only looking out for himself right now and no one else matters.

True to her word, Quinn goes to confront Mary. She uses her own experience with Chet to try and motivate Mary. Surprisingly her words aren’t hurtful or all that manipulative. Quinn states how things are and leaves Mary to think about the wave of things she just set upon her. By the end I was left wondering why we only now got a scene between these two, because Constance and Ashley have an unusual dynamic that worked so incredibly well in this scene. Constance is a force to be reckoned with in a scene and Ashley’s Mary could have so easily been lost, but Ashley held Mary in place and didn’t let the moment get stolen from her. Any actor sharing a scene with Constance that is able to hold onto their place opposite her deserves major respect because Constance does not fool around. She hits every scene at a hundred miles an hour and if her scene partner isn’t strong she’ll easily blow them away. Kudos to Ashley for holding her ground against Hurricane Constance. The scene leaves Mary to battle her demons as she turns to a bottle of wine left in her room.

Rachel and the guys are sitting around a fire ecstatic about all the good Faith’s coming out could do. For once Rachel isn’t talking about benefiting herself, but she’s happy to help others in the world. Rachel keeps reaffirming the hero status I’ve bestowed upon her. She maintains this even as Faith declares her love for Amy and her desire to leave the show. At that comment fans all over the UnReal fandom were likely screaming at their TV’s, because we can’t lose Faith from the show, and Rachel doesn’t want to lose her either. Rachel then switches into protector mode as she tries to guide Faith to make a better plan. Amy is praying on everything and instead of waiting to see what Amy’s conclusion is Faith starts to plan a coming out during the dance the next day. She wants everyone to see that the love she shares with Amy didn’t get them struck down. Rachel agrees to help her and even states that she’ll try and find them some money to move away with, but Faith is determined to change the minds of all in her small town. I loved the swagger Faith had in this moment as she comes to accept herself and her love for Amy. Rachel has her hands full if she intends to protect Faith from all the bigotry likely lurking in this small southern town.

Rachel is busy interviewing Gran when Amy pulls her aside. As a Sunday school teacher Amy is terrified of how the town may turn on them. She puts Rachel in a very tough spot as she has to figure out how to protect both women. Faith is at the microphone struggling to get out her confession with Amy nervously watching on. Amy is far from ready, but things are at a point where she can’t do anything to stop Faith. Rachel worked through the situation and game up with a plan. She races to Adam with a bag in her hand. She thrusts it into his hand and sends him on a rescue mission. He races up onto stage and on bended knee he asks her to continue on the Everlasting journey with him. When she accepts he secures a necklace on her and Faith thanks him for coming to her rescue. With one crisis under control Rachel wastes no time calling Jay and leaving him a message to get rid of all the footage of Faith coming out. Now she has to figure out how to salvage a story for this episode of Everlasting.

It’s time for Mary to do her invitation video, but instead of staying on script she tosses the cue cards and chooses to do this from the heart. Mary is ready to take charge and that means playing by her own rules now.

As per usual, Rachel has come up with a plan to protect Faith and save the episode. They are going to stage a fake cherry popping via silhouettes and moaning noises. It’s a desperate move, but Rachel is willing to take the risk to protect Faith and Amy. Speaking of Amy, she isn’t far away during all this planning. She is okay with Faith going through it all and finishing the show. When it’s all over, she’ll be waiting for her and they’ll figure everything out together. Faith seems relived and starts to walk away before being overcome and turning back to Amy to embrace her in a passionate kiss. Amy is caught off guard at first, but she quickly recovers to return the kiss. It is a quiet and genuine moment and tenderly handled by UnReal and the actors tasked to bring this story to life. I can’t tell who is happier about the kiss, Faith or Rachel, and since the kiss was not filmed it was a truly genuine moment of happiness from Rachel. If that wasn’t enough, Rachel even takes a moment to embrace Amy and show her support to her as well.

UnReal decided to give a whole new meaning to a roll in the hay when Jeremy and Rachel reconcile old feelings in the middle of the barn. He is impressed by Rachel and her selfless act. They begin to talk and she helps him understand a bit of what she went through while she was away. Discussing things leads to a passionate make out session that almost goes farther than Jeremy was ready for. He breaks off the encounter because he knows how things with Rachel end. That’s very unfortunate because I think Rachel and Jeremy could be good together if given a chance.

Quinn takes Shia’s advice (never thought I'd be typing that) and tries to produce Chet as they have another meeting with their lawyers. She has an old cast where he signed that he loved her. It turns out Chet not only has a heart in that chest of his, but he also has a sentimental side as well. The sight of the cast leads him to the decision to kick out the lawyers and talk honestly with Quinn. This is the first time I think Chet has shown signs of actually loving someone. He finally realizes how much he has put Quinn through and he agrees to her terms. She is now the proud owner of forty percent of Everlasting and both of them are now the unlucky owners of broken hearts. I still don’t want them together, but it was a great moment of humanity for both of them.

Adam is back at the Everlasting set and reviewing over the invitation videos. He comes to Mary’s and it was a poignant and heartbreaking message delivered flawlessly by Ashley. Mary explains her past and how she fought to protect her daughter. She invites Adam to either send her home to be with her daughter or to pick her so her can finally meet the little girl we’ve all heard so much about. By the end of the video Mary is in tears and Adam is very impressed so he chooses her.

Just when it looked like things were going good for Rachel she learns from Jay that Chet has come across the Faith coming out footage. Rachel and Adam go to try and protect Faith from a premature outing only to learn it was Jay who screwed them all over in the first place. She can’t reason with Chet and when Rachel tells him he can’t use the footage he turns on her. I get the impression Chet isn’t told he can’t do something very often. He is determined to use the footage until Adam intervenes and pulls Chet aside to save Rachel from the inevitable end to Chet’s rage. Rachel confronts Jay and lets him know that he crossed a line that not even Perez crosses anymore. Rachel may see herself beyond saving, but little moments like this prove otherwise.

Rachel tries to drown her sorrows in pastry until Quinn finds her and drags her into her office to watch the promo for the episode. Adam orchestrated a fake sex video to give Chet the drama he was seeking. His act put another ding in his reputation with the populous, but through this act he selflessly protected Faith in the process and gained the respect of UnReal viewers. Rachel goes to Adam and thanks him for what he did. All the footage is now safely in their hands to be disposed of. Faith is now their “baby bird to protect” and protecting her they are. They nearly kiss before Rachel declares them friends which means she’d like to be friends for at least a little while before they find their way to a bed.

The episode ends with Rachel finally finding her pleasure at the end of a video of her and Jeremy. She’s torn between these two men and neither is attainable, at the moment, but I do believe Jeremy is the key to her salvation. If they can find their way back together her soul may still have a chance.

When the writers were breaking this episode they must have been aiming for a record for the number of actresses made to cry in a single episode. It was serendipitous that this episode aired so soon after the big Supreme Court news of last week. The show and network couldn’t have asked for better timing or worse. Had they not handled the story so respectfully the timing could have been their downfall. Instead the show chose to make the characters rally around Faith and shield her from the bigotry of the world. They took on the topic of religion and sexuality and while Rachel and Faith wanted to change the status of things sometimes it takes baby steps to illicit change. Faith is learning who she is because of this crazy show and I believe, as I believe Amy does too, that when Faith emerges she’ll be strong enough to support them both through the obstacles they’ll have to face. She knows Adam is not her one and he’s in it to protect her. Neither Adam nor Rachel ever tries to sway Faith from her truth and that was a refreshing change from a lot of other shows who have tackled this topic. The show doesn’t want to turn Faith straight and that is a beautiful thing. It will be curious to watch how Faith handles these coming weeks knowing she has to act for the cameras while her heart resides back in Mississippi.

The MVP of this episode, without question, is Breeda Wool. In an episode filled with outstanding performances she stole this episode with her raw and powerful performance. She took Faith on a hell of a journey this week and brought us all along for the ride. Her emotion was real and raw and it broke the barrier between screen and viewer. In those moments we were all beside Faith cheering her on and embracing her for her courage. Breeda was supported by some incredibly talented and giving actors, but her performance stood on its own.

The show has already tackled many topics important to society and next week they take on domestic violence as we meet Mary’s daughter and her ex-husband. If the show handles this topic as well as they handled Faith’s coming out then this could be one of the most important shows to ever grace Lifetime.

This episode saw a much needed surge in the ratings, but we can’t stop pushing people to watch this show. Get all of your friends to watch next Monday at 10pm on Lifetime. After the episode ends be sure to return to SpoilerTV for my in-depth review of the episode.

What did everyone think of this emotional episode? Are you looking forward to Mary’s story next week? Drop your thoughts in the comments.

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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