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UnREAL - Casualty - Review: "One Step Forward"

16 Jul 2016

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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?


About the Author - Lindsey
Midwest native, Los Angeles transplant. Reader, writer, bartender, and film/TV nerd. Salad bar enthusiast. Watch this space!
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