After a pretty choppy first half of a season, I’ll admit I
was a little apprehensive about “Casualty”. This time last season, Mary was
pitching herself off a roof, and though that moment is a defining one for
UnREAL, it certainly epitomizes a lot of its problems. Sure, it’s shocking and
adds weight to the constant meddling of the producers but manslaughtering a
contestant without any real consequences for those involved is also super dark
and makes one wonder what exactly this show is trying to accomplish. “Casualty”
didn’t exactly answer that question, but it was a really excellent episode that
felt much more in line with the heart of UnREAL, however cold and black and
dead it may be.
I have to mention that Shiri Appleby directed this episode,
which is especially impressive considering how much heaving lifting she had to
do in front of the camera as well. I don’t think anyone expected Rachel to deal
well with the trauma of Jeremy’s attack, not that anyone would, but rather than
leave her simmering in the background, Rachel’s instability is shoved front and
center. “Everlasting” is featuring a visit to a contestant’s home town and
Rachel convinces Darius to visit Beth Ann’s family in Alabama, assuming
bringing a black suitor to a southern white girl’s family will be explosive.
The family is disappointingly nice and normal, turning the episode into a “commercial
for the post-racial South”, but Beth Ann comes through with a surprise
pregnancy. It’s incredibly sad that the first person Beth Ann tells about her
baby is Rachel, by the way.
Most of the cast spends the episode revolving around Rachel
while she tries to hold it together. Quinn is called away from her father’s
funeral/first date with Booth to contain Rachel’s tailspin (Chet affectionately
calling Rachel “Little Weirdo” pretty much sums up their relationship.), and
she smugly spills the whole ordeal to Coleman, who is ever oblivious. Coleman
is baffled no one has gone to the police, and though Quinn and Chet severely
disagree, all three want to bench Rachel for the episode. In spite of this, Rachel
manages to produce a great episode, again with little to no regard for the
damage it’s caused. She convinces Beth Ann Darius might be interested in
raising her baby (!) and that she should tell her whole family about the
pregnancy on camera (!!), setting up the baby’s father to crash the whole thing
with a wedding proposal, buying him an engagement ring to give her and
everything. The best part of all this is how Coleman seems to be worried about the
plan and how callously Rachel executes it, but she correctly points out the
TOTAL HYPOCRISY in that by ticking off all the other horrible things they’ve
done this season that apparently weren’t of issue until her own mental health
was in question. They’re both right and they’re both not.
After just one measly funeral date, Quinn and Booth are an
instant couple. I personally thought this was weird- no dashing billionaire remains
single without leaving a closet full of dead hookers in his wake (I watch a lot
of SVU), but Wagerstein is apparently whole-heartedly #TeamQuooth (#TeamBooinn?
They won’t last if their names don’t fit together, sorry Wags). When Wagerstein
tried to scold Quinn after she sent Booth home I honestly thought she was
judging her for rushing into a relationship, but apparently she sees Booth as
Quinn’s last chance to not die alone. I mean, she’s probably right, but that
doesn’t change the fact that Booth is a true manic pixie dream girl. He is an
improbably handsome billionaire with an accent
(and ACCENT, my friends) and has
waltzed into Quinn’s life out of nowhere to embrace her quirky sadism and teach
her to love again. Like, come on.
Now that there are only five girls, it’s a bit easier to
flesh them out. With Beth Ann and Darius off in Alabama, Jay and Madison set up
a segment for the remaining four to keep them in the mix. The focus on the
girls this season has been very much like an actual reality show- the girl who
gets the most attention is the one who is getting kicked off, so there hasn’t
been much room to explore who they are or get attached to them at all. The cop
contestant, Jameson, has had like one line before this episode, but she’s still
around apparently. I thought it was a little obvious that the girls’ arguments
ended up split cleanly between racial lines (though it was hilarious that Yael
tried to *defend* Tiffany was she was outed for hooking up with Romeo), but it
was great to actually see them interact without Darius or Rachel dominating the
scene.
The last act of “Casualty” is very plainly setting up the
next episode, and doing it well. Coleman does seem to be a genuinely good guy,
and he supports Rachel in a way that is so earnest I can’t help but raise an
eyebrow. They hash out their trust issues: Rachel admits Quinn’s got it into
her head that Coleman could be her Chet. Coleman promises he would never leave
her to rot on “Everlasting” for 10 years like Quinn has, and he promises he’ll
get her out of that world at the end of the season. The opening shot of the
episode is a close up of Rachel’s tear-stained face post-assault, and her last
shot is a close up mid-O (Can you imagine have to direct yourself through an
orgasm?? That was terrifyingly impressive, Appleby). Of course, no one can be
happy for more than five seconds on this show, so this does not bode well.
Quinn sees Coleman as a cancer to her “Everlasting” family, so she calls Adam
to come back hopefully shake things up hard enough to break them.
Post Script:
This is my favorite episode title so far- the implication of a being a victim of something beyond your control versus the root "casual" as Rachel tries to do her job like nothing's wrong.
“Can
I be honest with you for a second?” “I don’t know, can you?” -the perfect comeback from Darius
The deal Chet made with Tiffany, what does it
meeaaan???
I know Quinn can be beyond awful, but that last scene where she
calls Booth to ask him to dinner hurt my heart.
Am I seriously the only one who's apprehensive about Quinn and Booth?
