This episode was all about power plays behind the scenes of Everlasting. The contestants and the crew both wanted to come out on top by taking control of the situation. And by the end of the episode a lot of the loose parts shifted even further, thanks to the president of the network coming in and shaking things up.
This week’s episode was all about the first meetings between Darius and the contestants. After Quinn managed to convince Chet to bring him back, the two are in their own face off. They decide to shoot their own versions of what they think the show should look like, Chet thinks the show should be more of a frat party show while Quinn thinks that the show sells when it makes the audience believe in love. Quinn’s idea makes more sense, since it’s gotten them this far. But Rachel is tired of watching the show she was promised all to herself being ripped away from her, so she goes to the head of the network. This has to be a betrayal, right? Well it’s not like it matters since her plan to gain control of the show again backfires, with Gary assigning Coleman as the show’s producer for the time being.
Chet showed us that he could play just as dirty as Quinn when he tricked one of her potential winners into giving Romeo a blowjob. Tiffany didn’t want to be on the show just because her dad is someone important in the football business, so when Chet tells her that it was a setup she tries to do something that would get her kicked out. But Chet doesn’t understand who he is messing with because Rachel tells Tiffany that it was all a lie and gets Romeo to keep quiet about what happened. There is a moment though where we see Chet trying to push Romeo to confess to Darius, and it can’t be a coincidence that Tiffany was the last girl chosen to stay on the show in the end.
Something we should see more of has to be Romeo and Darius. Romeo is not only Darius’ cousin but also his manager, there has to be some tension behind all of that, right?
Rachel and Quinn’s relationship takes a hit this week, with Quinn telling Rachel that her mother was right
about her. Now Quinn is more of a metaphorical mother to Rachel, but she was the one person in Rachel’s life that didn’t throw her breakdown back in her face. Her mother, Jeremy, Adam and the crew on the show always treated Rachel as if she was a ticking time bomb. Quinn on the other hand, treated Rachel just like she always did until this season when she calls her out in an emotionally charged scene. We can see Rachel falling apart when the person she thought was in her corner turned around and agreed with her mother, the one person who has damaged her the most, in her mind.
The Quinn/Rachel moment is what spins everything out of control. Not only does Rachel betray Quinn by outing whats happening on set to Gary, she also goes back and fishes out the pills that her mother sent her. While before Rachel just threw them out, the significance of her going back and taking them with her is not lost in translation. We didn’t actually see her take them yet but I’m sure that this will play a big role this season.
I have to warn everyone that I will probably praise Jay after every episode. Because last season we saw Jay as the piece of a bigger puzzle, but this season we see him standing up more. He can’t change what is happening behind the scenes of the show, but he can work it around to fit his contestants and him. This week he took the power away from Rachel, by admitting to Ruby that everything she was told is a setup. They work together to not give the network the ”angry black girl” image, but instead create a possibility for Ruby to not be eliminated in the first two episodes.
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The one part of the episode that I didn’t like has to be Jeremy. He switches from Quinn’s team to Chet’s and while Chet is dramatically interesting, Jeremy isn’t. I don’t get why we are supposed to want to see more of him because for now he seems like a petty ex who is there just to remind us about what happened last season. He doesn’t have a prominent role otherwise and when he teams up with Chet it’s just a mess, because two dudes trying to make good television when there are women in bikinis involved never ends well.
Rating: 9/10
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