Pop-Culturalist.com

Now that the shock of UnREAL‘s season 2 finale has finally worn off, we can focus. In the follow-up season to the critically-acclaimed Lifetime TV drama, UnREAL has been examining women, power, and relationships (oh, and, the fine art of emotional manipulation). Watching Quinn and Rachel work–albeit as awful people a lot of the time–is something you can’t look away from.

This season had many “highs”. For instance, Rachel pushed for the first African-American bachelor, Darius (B.J. Britt), on Everlasting and Quinn becomes the show runner on it (a coup in a male-dominated field). The season also had a few “lows” in not so great plot lines. Adam returned (weakly, in my opinion) pointlessly and the shooting was hastily resolved/not addressed. Despite the story lines that just didn’t work, there were a fair number of moments this season that proved why we can’t turn this show off.  **Spoilers ahead!**

First and foremost, Jeremy’s shocking actions have to top this list. In season 1, we were kind of rooting for Jeremy (Josh Kelly) a little bit. He was a stable, normal guy that loved Rachel. In season 2? Not so much. He went full on cray-cray. First, he physically attacked Rachel (we actually applauded when Chet intervened). Then, he potentially MURDERED TWO PEOPLE because he still loves Rachel. Yes, Coleman (even though he was pretty great “intellectual man”-type eye candy before he turned out to be awful) and Yael (who, from the beginning, was annoying) were not who we were rooting for. However, Jeremy’s messing with the car to cause their potential deaths was definitely not the right path to take. Let’s hope they’re still alive next season so there are more deaths hanging over everyone’s heads.

Quinn getting a seemingly happy love story (for a little bit). When a very suave, wealthy British man (Ioan Gruffudd) professes his love to you, and his desire to have babies with you, you say “yes.” This was a big moment for Quinn (Constance Zimmer). When she slowly lets her guard down and allows herself to be vulnerable, it’s hard to look away.

Rachel’s past is revealed. Many people were not super surprised that Rachel (Shiri Appleby) had an awful traumatic past. What was incredibly shocking was that her mother/therapist knew about the traumatic event (getting raped at the age of 12) and covered it up because the rapist was her mother’s patient. HORRIBLE. The moment of the reveal–and the scenes leading up to it of Rachel being hospitalized–were very fine acting on the part of Shiri Appleby. I’m still bummed (and surprised) that she did not get an Emmy-nomination for her performance this season.

The moment Quinn tells Rachel she is perfect. Ok, everything else I’ve mentioned have been larger than just one specific moment, but this really IS just one moment. Rachel apologizes again to Quinn about betraying her to Coleman (Michael Rady). Then, Rachel remarks that she was stupid for trusting Coleman by telling him details about her childhood–especially because her mother was right about her being a damaged thing no one would want. Quinn swiftly responds by telling Rachel that both Coleman and her mother are terrible; in the most loving expression Quinn can make, she tells Rachel that she is perfect as she is. It was such a good, brief moment of feeling.

Darius and Ruby get their happy ending. Who wasn’t rooting for these two the whole time? (Plus, I had a feeling they would end up together because, if not, UnREAL would really have no heart.) For a show that is generally not full of happy emotions, giving two characters a really wonderful moment of love was, in short, a “best” moment.

Now, we can’t wait to see what season 3 might hold…!

Photo Credit: Limetime/A&E Networks