UnREAL Review: Up Her Sleeve (Season 4 Episodes 3-5)

On UnREAL Season 4 Episode 3, “Wild Card,” UnREAL Season 4 Episode 4, “Cold Call,” and UnREAL Season 4 Episode 5, “No Limit,”  Rachel finally crosses the line and goes too far, by about a mile.

There are a couple of morsels of feminist edge and thought-provoking content, but overall the episodes try to reach too far into storylines that don’t have time to develop and fail to lean into the premises set for this final season.

Quinn’s doctor tells her that she needs to set aside her pride and lean on her girlfriends for support during her geriatric pregnancy.

I actually find this awkward and presumptuous for a doctor to say to a pregnant person, but I think the point is decent. Quinn is never vulnerable and pregnancy forces a certain vulnerability that she can’t afford.

Quinn seems to realize, once again, how unlike other women she is. But now, Quinn has fully embraced Chet as a partner and is actually very sweet and one of my favorite things about the episodes to see how they come together and openly discuss their needs in the relationship.

The hallway confrontation between Quinn and Chet where it becomes very clear that communication is key and that Quinn is pretty much the least judgemental person to exist is a masterful moment of television. The writing of this scene is very strong and propels the characters to a new level of intimacy.

It is a moment of excellence in an otherwise brow-furrowing set of episodes.

Rachel voices being “on board” for the pregnancy, even if she doesn’t agree with it, and then proceeds to undermine Quinn’s choice at every opportunity. It hurts my heart because all I want is for them to take on the world together, but Rachel can’t.

She has never treated her mental health issues and they are still severely limiting her ability to have a real relationship.

Rachel is one of the most narcissistic characters out there. She could probably be diagnosed with a number of personality disorders. I wish Season 3 had been able to go there with a diagnosis from New Shrink, rather than a love confession.

Unfortunately, Season 4 doesn’t seem particularly interested in Rachel’s inner struggles, but more with how she plays her hand.

She lets go, more or less, of her quest to get a proposal, and replaces it with a confusing, rather discombobulated, effort to “save the show.”

I think Rachel is trying to be the “wifey” Quinn wants, while totally missing the fact that Quinn just wants Rachel to be in her life, by her side. End of story, no other requirements.

The effort to save the show gets mixed in with Rachel’s effort to have Maya act as a proxy for her younger self and confront her rapist.

I actually like this storyline. It’s so twisted the way that Rachel sets up Noelle to be raped, but always believing that this would allow Maya to take back the experience and get her revenge.

It’s an entirely broken attempt at justice from an entirely broken person.

From Rachel’s vantage point of a person who took her experience with sexual assault into her adulthood and didn’t confront it until 20 years later, there was nothing so terrible about what Noelle experienced. To a certain extent, she blames Maya, as she blames herself, for not being strong enough to do something immediately.

It’s so messy and out of control.

But, that rings quite true to me. Rachel has never actually dealt with her trauma.

The way that Quinn looks at Rachel as she’s making the 911 call is how others see Rachel. They don’t get her. How could she possibly be so dark? How could a woman be so callous? Certainly, no woman that twisted could ever find someone to accept her.

Yet, she makes sense too. Rachel tried to give Maya empowerment without any violence or further victimization. Victim blaming got in the way.

Our culture, even after the #metoo movement, still questions women and makes them answer for their behavior. Date rape remains a murky territory. Rachel was raped at 12, but if she had been 19 when that happened, it would be much less clear, for many people, if what she experienced was rape.

The path that led to Rachel looking on gleefully as Maya Lorainna Bobbeted Roger, was paved with the victim-blaming assumptions and rhetoric that Maya had heard throughout the show, and likely throughout her life.

Rachel, as a producer, fed those hurtful ideologies to Maya and Roger to elicit the eruption, but really only after her attempt to give Maya a big confrontation failed.

Again, these episodes are not a beautiful example of justice or overcoming a sexual assault. But, perhaps they were never meant to be?

If the aim is to show how tragic, messy, hurtful, and absurd it is to get justice after a rape, I think UnREAL may succeed. It just succeeds in that carnival mirror distortion kind of way.

Tommy continues to be a fascinating and sexy addition to the producers’ room. Especially because I still can’t bring myself to care two rubles about Alexi’s storyline, the inclusion of a banter-happy newbie is awesome. His personality remains a mystery to me. RIght when I think I understand his purpose on the show, it is subverted by his choices.

He is playing the game and has great chemistry with Quinn. But, he seems very interested in being a partner to Rachel. He also seems clearly interested in banging Rachel. He looks on at tape of Rachel having sex with Good Guy with a mixture of desire and competitiveness. It’s almost as if it’s game on.

What that game is, though, remains unclear.

I like the mystery, but because the season is so short (WAY, WAY, too short!) I need the mystery to clear and for Tommy’s intentions to be known. We just don’t have time for a slow burn.

I continue to adore the acting stylings of Francois Arnaud. He brings the heat.

I wish he also brought good game, but as a supposed “games guy” he is no Matrix. I am a huge fan of MTV’s The Challenge. So, I know a good game when I see one.

A simple go-kart race? That is a lame game.

I want to see the contestants eating bugs and jumping off of cliffs to do complex puzzles. I want to see a rose ceremony that has a competition in it! I think, ultimately it is a matter of time and budget. But, I am very disappointed in the lackluster games that Matrix creates for the contestants.

The carnival sequence had literally NO group games.

The contestants are fighting for a MILLION dollars, and yet the only motivation that comes up is relational. That doesn’t make any sense!

People will do a great deal for a million dollars and that is a fascinating issue to explore. How does the pacifist August respond when something as powerful as full funding of a new company is on the line?

Kindergarten teachers make terrible money. UnREAL misses a great opportunity to examine how the possibility of winning money can change someone from acting like a villain into an actual villain.

Season 3 did a fantastic job of considering what it means to be feminist. Season 4 doesn’t lean far enough into what greed means to contestants.

The costuming of UnREAL is on point. I love that Candy Coco wears white in her interaction with Chet, subverting the idea that white is for “pure” people. Quinn is embracing new colors, as she embraces her new identity as a mom.

Even though the middle episodes of UnREAL Season 4 are far from my favorites, I believe the show continues to stretch our understanding of what it means to be a woman. People should be watching this dramatic, disturbing, somehow erotic, take on the reality of women in the entertainment industry.

Real Talk

• Graham is gorgeous in a pink racecar driver jumpsuit. I can’t ever get enough of Quinn’s ribbing of him.
• That Candy is the one to stop the brutal egg game is really telling. She is a stripper whose integrity is automatically questioned, but who continually proves herself more brave and moral than any of the other contestants.
• I cheer when Maya stabs Roger. He deserves it.
• I cheer when Jay finally lets Alexi have it. I also tear up at their beautiful scene in the hospital. I’m not invested in their arc, but the performance was lovely and it is always hard to lose a dream.
• Rachel’s attempt at nanny-sabotage is somehow kinda sweet. Like a twisted parent trap.
• I want more of Noelle and Rodrigo and less August. I’d LOVE a flashback montage of Noelle and Rodrigo from their season on Everlasting.

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

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The final season of UnREAL is streaming now on Hulu.

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