UnREAL Review: Gestalt (Season 3 Episode 5)

UnREAL Season 3 Episode 5, “Gestalt,” is another breathtaking roller-coaster ride. But don’t be fooled — the ups and downs, the twists and turns, are not all UnREAL has to offer.

The reality TV satire is much more than the sum of its plot points. UnREAL is a gestalt, indeed.

Honing in on the title illuminates the episode’s central purpose. “Gestalt” is defined as “an organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its parts.”

With this title, the show pushes the audience to see beyond the chaos on the show — both Everlasting and UnREAL — to grasp its organized whole.

In past reviews, I have opined that UnREAL is a combination of different powerful purposes, whether manifesto or gender symposium.

“Gestalt” asks us to avoid enumerating all the different things the show does in favor of viewing it as a whole. UnREAL is a thing all its own.

Quinn, Rachel, Serena, and Jay are gestalts themselves. That UnREAL is able to give us complex characters who are more than the sum of their traits is an incredible feat.

A show with underrepresented leading gestalts is the zeitgeist Chet is looking for.

Gestalt Serena

As the Suitress, Serena is almost always introduced with a list of her qualities. She is beautiful, successful, confident, etc. etc.

On “Gestalt,” Serena becomes more than a list of traits that elicits envy and hatred from an audience. She becomes a whole person. She “gestalts,” if we can take the liberty to make a verb out of the term.

Serena is able to reach this level of complexity and wholeness by virtue of not being in love with any of the contestants yet.

Rather than be a part of a couple, Serena stands alone as she connects with (and then is betrayed by) several of the men. We have not yet become attached to Serena with anyone else.

This isolation serves to allow her character to be developed fully, not stunted by a ship-based identity.

When Serena spits at Jasper that he lost the bet anyway because she “slept with the jockey on the first night,” it is a keen reminder that the Suitress is unscripted and real.

It is a reminder, too, that the women on reality TV shows like The Bachelorette are also much more than the sum of their traits, and we should resist reality TV’s attempts to dehumanize them.

Gestalt Quinn

Quinn is impossible to define. She is a survivor, a bully, a teddy bear, and a cactus. Truly, she is an enigma and perhaps embodies most perfectly the very concept of gestalt.

On “Gestalt,” she withers her adversaries with truth daggers, even when she does not have the upper-hand.

“There is some shit I will not eat.” —Quinn, Quinning as always.

She shuts down Everlasting and is willing to be fired because she knows her worth. Then, within the same one-hour show, Quinn shuts down Chet’s erection offer.

He admits to missing his “Quinnie” (barf).

Quinn responds, “I know. But you chose easy.”

It is because Quinn has developed as a whole person — with faults, nuances, delights, and sorrows — that this line kills me. I die.

It’s a tiny, little, short, and simple line: “I know. But you chose easy.” I am exposed and suddenly staring at a great pain in my life — it is lonely being a not-easy woman. 

A huge part of Quinn’s powerful character is the exemplary writing. Her lines just sing with drama and wit. She gets to the point but has some fun and flair while doing it.

It’s not just the writing, though. It’s also the performance, the wardrobe, the camera angles, and the lighting. It’s all of these things together that create the enigma that is Quinn. All these things together give us this gestalt.

Gestalt Jay

Jay lives in a posh loft with oversized portraits of creepy twins adorning the walls. Jay’s sweet and colorful boyfriend Xavier makes him dinner and provides a gentle domesticity to counter the raging drama of life with Everlasting. 

The nearly poetic details on “Gestalt” paint a rich and layered version of Jay. It is the first time we’ve been given this level of intimacy with him, and it’s about time.

The domestic picture is complicated (but not entirely shattered) by the always-intruding Everlasting drama. As the episode comes to a close, we see Jay succumb to Alexi’s sexual manipulation.

It looks like sexual assault.

It looks, too, inevitable. As if Jay has resigned himself to the pressures of his ambition.

It looks like actual life, which is always a gestalt.

Gestalt Rachel

Rachel has always been a gestalt, although Jeremy uses the synonym “Rachel vortex.” He continues, sharing with New Sneaky Shrink that, “Many a man has been sucked in by that tiny dark force.”

The gestalt reference for Rachel, though, is gestalt therapy.

According to Psychology Today:

“Gestalt therapy is a client-centered approach to psychotherapy that helps clients focus on the present and understand what is really happening in their lives right now, rather than what they may perceive to be happening based on past experience.”

Rachel is done waiting. She confronts her abuser and then her father. She rescues her father and brings him to the safety of her trailer.

There is evidence that Rachel is focusing on the present.

But she is misunderstanding her reality. She says to New Sneaky Shrink that she is responsible for every bad thing that has happened to her father. So, she alone has to fix it.

Clearly, Rachel needs gestalt therapy, because this is a perception based on past abuses, not on any “essential honesty.”

Rachel is living in a diluted reality, where escaping to a remote, plumbing-less cottage with her lithium-addicted father is a legitimate possibility.

The precious love between Rachel and her father is a shining ray of hope.

But the fact is, childhood trauma does not just go away after it is confronted. It takes hard, consistent, emotional work. Perhaps, for Rachel, it will take some gestalt therapy.

It bears repeating: UnREAL is one of less than a handful of shows that gives us characters who are gestalts.

The characters who get the gestalt treatment are women and people of color in the LGBTQ community. That is even more remarkable.

Hallelujah for UnREAL‘s “Gestalt”!

Real Talk:

• In a meta-dig at UnREAL‘s less than ideal timeslot, Quinn asks for her and Jay’s new show to air at 8 PM on Sundays. We couldn’t agree more, Quinn!
• August is Sampson — without his manbun, he has lost all his appeal.
• Owen is so fun to watch. He literally shoves down a tree on the episode and then is skipped over for the “underdog.” I don’t quite ship Serena and Owen, but I love that he, too, is more than just a meaty man.
• Madison is reaching her own gestalt status on the episode but is not quite there. Her bold move to bet on Quinn, and ask Quinn to bet on her, is a wise move that earns her the mini-me title.
• Please tell me someone has a GIF of Quinn and Rachel mimicking the sound of Jasper’s balls dropping.

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

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UnREAL airs Mondays at 10/9c on Lifetime.

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