UnREAL Review: Oath (Season 3 Episode 1)

UnREAL Season 3 Episode 1, “Oath,” comes out of the gate sprinting, taking first place in the race for real AF feminist commentary.

It is filling the empowerment vacancy left by Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and I am not at all sad about it.

Rachel is yanked from her truth-telling cult camp by a simple plea from her best friend and soul mate: I need you.

Quinn and Rachel are the pounding heart of the show. It is refreshing and invigorating to see them, front and center, calling the shots on this season of “Everlasting,” and by extension, UnREAL.

The third season of UnREAL is smartly focusing on the best characters: Quinn, Rachel, and Jay, and to a lesser, but still meaningful extent, on Madison, Chet, and Jeremy.

There is a character who is jockeying for a primary spot — and no, it’s not Norman.

New Shrink is exciting and surprising and seems to be a carefully chosen addition to the crew — not so much a love interest as a mental health interest for Rachel. That is probably the kind of attention she really needs, so I am enthralled with this dynamic.

Of course, suitress Serena and the contestants are adding much flavor and drama. But their characters are all in service of developing the real protagonists.

When Serena opens up to Rachel about her loneliness and the pain of showing up to Sunday brunch alone, the real juice is what the interaction reflects about Rachel.

Rachel thrives on controlling chaos. She can’t relate to something as mundane as a high-society brunch.

But she understands loneliness.

Rachel finds the connection, the foothold into her suitress’s psyche, and she pulls the reigns.

The toilet-level scene between Rachel and suitress Serena reveals that lying was never her issue. It has always been — and perhaps will always be — about control.

And this is one of my absolute favorite things about UnREAL. For Rachel and Quinn, it has never actually been about finding love. That is such a pithy aim compared to the complex, tragic, and infinitely more interesting quest they are on.

Quinn, Rachel, and Jay don’t need to find love; they need to find the power that has been stolen from them throughout their lives.

“Oath” never shies away from brashly presenting a woman’s experience.

Rachel is all about the truth, and after she handily annihilates the simple and spineless Chet, she announces that her period’s wrath is upon us.

But it is NOT a period joke. It’s more a liberation, where we find the idea of someone jerking-off to “Everlasting” ridiculous in the same episode where having a bloody situation in your pants is just part of business.

It’s a comeuppance of the finest sort.

Jeremy is back for another season, and he is soberly looking for redemption (and love) from Rachel. That is what Jeremy wants, but UnREAL sets us up for a more layered and intricate question: can a toxic relationship ever be recovered and made into something healthy?

For many couples, there is no path forward after abuse. But for other couples, a commitment to sobriety and recovery means a new avenue to relationship.

UnREAL gingerly presents this question of what is possible for Jeremy and Rachel, and then leaves it to simmer on low for, hopefully, the duration of the season. Quinn isn’t the only showrunner who knows what she’s doing.

Rachel seeks out situations that will mimic the traumas of her past. This is a common, albeit devastating, reaction to sexual trauma.

A person like August represents the ideological purity that she could have had if she hadn’t been victimized as a child. On “Oath,” Rachel begins to try to prove herself worthy and whole by pursuing the Peace Corps-joining, outdoor-sleeping, man bun-wearing contestant.

But reality is reality, no matter how much producing goes on. That’s the sobering truth of the episode.

Constance Zimmer is achingly powerful as matriarch puppet-master Quinn. The interplay between Quinn’s pussy-laden assertions and New Shrink’s reaction could be a whole series in itself.

Indeed, Quinn is complicated.

She has many stand-out moments on “Oath.” One of my favorites is when she decides to keep Serena’s boner-killer speech that she is good at her job, and won’t apologize for it, in the tape.

At first glance, the inclusion seems like an effort to claim that Quinn too is not ashamed to admit that she is good at her job.

But Quinn doesn’t need Serena as her avatar.

Rather, I think what that scene is showing us is that Quinn has always been fifty steps ahead of Chet. He says he wants an Emmy, but he has no idea how that actually happens. Quinn does.

When Quinn uses her editorial skills to craft a more complex and feminist version of Serena, she does it because she’s competing with Chet.

Quinn does it because she is going to get that Emmy. 

“Oath” is UnREAL at its strongest: a soup of unrealistic escapades that highlight how real the battle is for women in the entertainment (and every other) industry.

Real Talk:

• The font on the rolling credits looks like it’d fit right in on Murder She Wrote. That attention to detail and satire is going to earn this show an Emmy.
• New Shrink is more sexy and appealing than any of the contestants so far. Deal with it.
• “Graham, just put on the spanx!” is a brilliant line.
• The oath of the episode title is an interesting parallel to the tattoos of the first episode of Season 2. I love that Rachel basically ditches out in the middle of the solemn oath. I don’t know what that means yet, but I love that it is complicated.

What did you think of this episode of UnREAL? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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UnREAL airs Mondays at 10/9c on Lifetime.

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