UnREAL Review: Clarity (Season 3 Episode 3)

The through-line plot point of UnREAL Season 3 Episode 3, “Clarity,” is Quinn’s UTI. It is so subversively and brilliantly feminist, I’m still shaking my head in admiration.

In the final scene of “Clarity,” Quinn writhes in pain while peeing on the toilet, directly paralleling the final scene of UnREAL Season 3 Episode 2, “Shield,” where Quinn writhes underneath August.

I posit this: both images represent a triumph.

Where is the triumph in sitting on the toilet, shifting uncomfortably so the pee stings less, you ask?

First, Quinn may be in pain, but her psyche is more at ease than it has been since the season began. She said no to August’s request to have sex, proving to herself that she has the power, in the relationship and on the show.

Quinn is as bold and strong sitting there on the toilet as she is in a power stance getting fitted for a power suit. That is something to behold.

It’s a credit to the brilliance of Constance Zimmer that she can make burning urination a power stance. 

From a pulled-back perspective, UnREAL is allowing an older woman to have copious amounts of sex with the most attractive man around, and then it allows the woman’s body to react. 

Women are objectified in the media. Rather than having agency and inherent worth, women and their bodies are treated as mere recipients of a man’s desires, personalities, and conflicts.

UnREAL gives women vaginas that bleed and burn; they are alive and reacting to (not just receiving) stimuli. The show thereby gives the women themselves worth, substance, and power.

Quinn’s UTI is not silly or a gag. Rather, it is an expression of UnREAL‘s resistance to objectification.

Rachel: “Vag still burning?”

Quinn: “Only when I breathe.”

On “Clarity,” Rachel begins to face the vastly challenging task of taking on her relationship with sex. The celibacy calendar is a reminder that, for Rachel, control is everything. If she can X out one more day, she is okay.

But the control is an expression of fear.

After her fight with Quinn, Rachel tells New Shrink that her heart is racing and she can barely talk. I think the real reason for Rachel’s reaction has less to do with the obvious (Quinn’s drinking and their confrontation) and everything to do with Quinn’s UTI.

Rachel has childhood sexual trauma. Often, when a young girl is being sexually abused, she gets UTIs. It is a red flag.

Rachel only needs to see cranberry juice to know Quinn has a UTI, and she instantly connects UTIs to sex. Rachel’s senses seem heightened and a panic sets in.

It seems that Rachel is triggered by Quinn’s ailment. Her fiercely protective actions and deep fear show how Rachel is still living in her trauma.

Rachel cries in the confrontation when her very best friend, the only real person in her life, rejects her help and yells at her.

We have seen Rachel be tough and stand up for herself in similarly intense exchanges. What is different with Quinn is that Rachel internalizes what is happening to Quinn’s body as a threat to her soul mate’s safety.

Rachel will do anything to protect Quinn, who represents herself as a child.

It is deeply complex, just like real-life trauma. But UnREAL is going there, digging deep into the realities (and masks) involved with being a victim.

And a UTI is at the heart of it all. I’m burning with love for this show.

UnREAL is never simple and plastic. Like Serena herself, to put the show in a costume typical of “olden days” would be to lose out on its real beauty.

UnREAL is telling a story as layered and disconcerting as its premise. It really is a veritable symposium on gender politics.

Real Talk:

• Madison is sneaky AF, and she learned everything she knows from the show’s matriarchs: Rachel and Quinn. They are going to have to face the creature they created.
• Graham as Merlin on the “Game of Thrones puked up Snow White” set is quality entertainment. Loved every shot.
• Jay’s arc is getting very interesting. I would watch a spin-off of UnREAL based on Jay’s travel show in a heartbeat.
• The different answers to “Would you say you are a feminist?” are absolutely fascinating, and I hope we get a bit more time to explore those perspectives.

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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