Unbelievable Review: Nothing Is Unknowable (Season 1 Episodes 5-6)

On Unbelievable Season 1 Episode 5, another victim surfaces, and Grace zeroes in on a suspect. Then on Unbelievable Season 1 Episode 6, Grace and Karen catch a break that leads them to two possible rapists. 

The one word to describe the overall tone of Episodes 5 and 6 is “anger” which feels long overdue.

Lilly (Annaleigh Ashford) is the first victim we meet who isn’t completely despondent from her experience.

There are similarities between how the male investigators treat Lilly and Marie’s account; they don’t lend as much credence to them as they should. Harkness views Lilly as an eccentric kook, admitting if she hadn’t sustained serious injuries flinging herself off her balcony, he’d have written her off altogether.

So, once again, a male detective lets his prejudices guide a mishandled investigation. It’s frightening to think justice may only be served for rape victims if female investigators take charge.

It’s also difficult to differentiate between Harkness,’ Pruitt’s, and Parker’s poor job performances, and who they are as people: are their professional shortcomings indicative of moral and ethical ones as well?

But unlike Marie, Lilly is angry, pro-active, and not remotely intimidated by law enforcement.

The Lilly the audience sees is some twisted hybrid or mutation of who she was before the attack. Lilly is set apart from Sarah, Marie, and Amber because she’s unlikeable. Even though this terrible thing happens to her, we don’t sympathize with her.

She’s too much, and she’s off-putting. Her demeanor makes us cringe. We’re just as guilty as Judith (Elizabeth Marvel) or Harkness who hold steadfast to their beliefs that victims should act a certain way. In spite of Lilly’s aggressive interest in the investigation, things don’t progress any faster which is frustrating for everyone involved including the audience. 

Marie even takes a moment and stops being a bystander to her suffering. She’s angry for the first time since all of this started. Unfortunately, she doesn’t direct it at the people who deserve her rage.

They aren’t standing in front of her, holding milkshakes and clueless to what it’s like not just to be raped, but to be gang banged: by everyone starting with the stranger in her apartment and then in quick succession by her foster parents, her boss, her friends, her counselors, the cops, the press, and the public.  

Watching Marie relive her rape while a well-meaning public defender spews the platitude, “You should feel really good about this” may be the most abhorrent moment throughout the entire series so far.

If not, it comes in a close second to Judith’s insightful assessment that “You know, sometimes the system works.” The anger spills off the screen and into the audience’s living rooms. 

Grace and Karen exhibit their hostility in their own ways. It radiates off Grace, who begins lashing out at everyone around her. Karen’s manifests at a diner in Kansas as she deals with unwanted male attention. She’s acutely aware, but the women who come in after her aren’t.

The glimpse of her gun and her lingering presence over the man’s shoulder seem to serve as a warning, or maybe she just wants him to feel threatened.

Unbelievable reinforces a fact most women already know: they are always being watched. Not every guy who casts a glance a woman’s way is a predator, but there’s always a chance. So if a woman lets her guard down, forgets for just a moment, and something happens, she never stops blaming herself.

Grace and Karen begin to relate to each other on a more personal level which is something that’s been missing in their partnership. The conversation in the car during their stakeout is the origin of a newfound intimacy. Women often have the gift of opening up to one another with such ease, and Collette and Wever replicate that so artfully in this scene. 

They touch briefly on religion. Grace can’t seem to reconcile the existence of a higher power with all the horrible things she sees every day, Karen’s belief in God is how she makes sense of all the ugliness.

Unbelievable doesn’t do much more than dabble in the concept of faith, and it feels like a missed opportunity. More insight into how Karen reconciles everything she sees with what she believes would be welcome. Karen breaks the mold as a Bible thumper since it’s Grace who sits in judgment of her partner and not the other way around.

Disagreements about religion can come off as combative, but these two characters have the ability to agree to disagree. It’s imperative that female characters don’t resort to bitchiness or catty behavior as a knee-jerk reaction while arguing. It’s time to stop pitting women against each other onscreen, perpetuating the stereotype all women are threatened by one another. 

Both Wever and Collette are magnetic onscreen, and we can’t help but be drawn to them. Episodes 5 and 6 infuse some jocularity and familiarity between Grace and Karen, so viewers can relate to the women as mothers, daughters, wives, and friends. Collette’s, Wever’s, and Dever’s performances have guaranteed the audience is so invested in these characters, nothing less than something resembling a happy ending will do. 

Just like Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood opened readers’ eyes to the harsh realities of murder and the men who commit it, Unbelievable does the same regarding rape. It’s not just the ugliness of the act itself. Nobody is guaranteed safety or justice.

The audience’s innate sense of right and wrong demands that Karen’s and Grace’s hard work pays off, and Marie gets a break because good things should happen for good people. 

What did you think of these episodes of Unbelievable? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

You can also catch up with our review of Unbelievable Season 1 Episodes 3 and 4 here. 

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Unbelievable Season 1 is currently streaming on Netflix.

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