UnREAL – Recurrent

By starrymag | April 22, 2018

By: Taylor Gates

 

 

Rachel’s (Shiri Appleby) mom calls her, gloating about how her dad (Barclay Hope) is back home and on his meds. In a fit of rage, Rachel destroys her trailer. Dr. Simon (Brandon Jay McLaren) sees this and asks if she’s okay. She tells him he’s the shrink—he should be the one answering that question.

 

Fiona (Tracie Thoms) wakes Quinn (Constance Zimmer) up, who has just finished having a one night stand. She convinces Quinn to play hooky and spend the day eating breakfast and lounging by the pool, much to Rachel and Chet’s (Craig Bierko) annoyance.

 

Chet sneaks into Quinn’s office, attempting to guess her password to get information for Gary (Christopher Cousins). Madison (Genevieve Buechner) sees this and tells him nobody knows Quinn’s password and he won’t get it unless Quinn is sitting right there next to him. She’s worried about getting fired, but Chet assures her that her job is perfectly safe, telling her to take the day and relax. Chet interrupts Quinn while she gets a massage telling her she needs to come back to set immediately. Fiona tells Quinn not to go and informs them she has to fly down to LA for the day.

 

Rachel tells Serena (Caitlin Fitzgerald) that the day is going to be all about getting to know the guys and their pasts. Serena isn’t looking forward to it but agrees to go along with things. Graham (Brennan Elliot) announces there have been slideshows put together of each person with images pulled from their social media feeds.

 

During Serena’s slideshow, the guys see her with a man named George (Colin Egglesfield). He’s a painful memory for Serena, who thought he would end up being the one before he disappeared without explanation. They all back Serena, telling her that George must be crazy to have let her go.

 

Rachel rants to Dr. Simon about how terrible her mother (Mimi Kuzyk) is acting. Dr. Simon sympathizes but warns her that confronting Olive might do more harm that good. Rachel goes against his advise and puts Madison, who is drinking cocktails and lounging in a hot tub, in charge and tells her to produce a low-key date with August (Adam Demos). In order to get Quinn back to set, Chet tells Madison that her job is definitely in jeopardy and she needs to do something awful and dramatic to save it.

 

Madison is frustrated when the date with August has little conflict. When it’s Alexi’s (Alex Sparrow) turn, he sees a picture of Natalia and gets upset, leading to a connection since Serena still feels burned by George. The conversation gives Madison an idea on how to spice things up.

 

Jay (Jeffrey Bowyer Chapman) checks in with Alexi after the slideshow, and Alexi reveals that Natalia is the one who introduced him to cocaine. Once she left, the drugs were the only thing he had of her. Jay is saddened by this story and decides to set up a candlelight dinner to surprise and cheer him up. Instead of being flattered and happy, Alexi gets angry and insists he’s not gay. She says the only reason he got sexual with Jay is because he wanted drugs from him in return. Jay is heartbroken.

 

When Rachel gets to her parents’ house, Olive tells her that her dad is out buying supplies to make pots. Rachel tells Olive her dad is scared and weak and she’s controlling him, just like she did her. Rachel demands an apology for keeping her dad from talking to her all those years, accusing her of protecting herself at the expense of her husband and daughter’s relationship.

 

Olive tells Rachel she can’t let one event in her life ruin her. She says that as a child she was manipulative and impossible to control. She’s still convinced that Rachel has narcissistic personality disorder and is a mess who doesn’t take responsibility for anything. Rachel tells her to stop talking, saying she’s done being her child. She vows never to return to their house again.

 

Quinn wants to go down to LA and Chet offers to fly her down there on his private plane. Quinn takes him up on it and brings Chet to the house she’s building. She used the same blueprints that Chet designed for the two of them except instead of having two of everything, she made every single room bigger just for her. Chet has the epiphany that Quinn is better than him and deserves better. He tells her she’s amazing and is going to be happy in the house.

 

Jasper (Bart Edwards) struggles to name all the girls in his slideshow pictures. He left them up online because he had nothing to hide. He tells Serena he doesn’t have a George in his past—Serena is the only woman he’s ever gotten close to.

 

Madison ends up bringing George onto set, which shakes Serena up. George tells his side of the story: they dated for a couple months and then she awkwardly showed up at his work conference unannounced. He tells Serena their relationship was never really that special and reveals he had to get a restraining order. Serena melts down, saying he took her on trips, cooked her dinner, and then never even returned her phone calls.

 

Madison loves all the drama, but when Rachel and Quinn get back and see what’s going down, they are horrified. Serena packs her stuff and cries, but Rachel and Quinn go to comfort and motivate her. They promise to change the conversation and reassure her that everyone makes mistakes.

 

The guys all gossip about how Serena is crazy, speculating that she’s not actually over George. When Jasper tells Quinn and Rachel that Serena seemed like a mess, they ask him why he automatically believes George over Serena. After all, it’s unlikely this brilliant, high-profile woman is secretly insane. Jasper still isn’t convinced, and Rachel pretends to sympathize and say that he does deserve a chance to react to what happened.

 

Quinn chews Madison out for destroying their suitress, saying she better hope Rachel can fix things. Rachel interviews Jasper, revealing that he once dated every single girl in a bridal party, two of which were in long-term relationships. Rachel brings up the fact he’s adopted, baiting him to say that he’s never felt truly accepted and always felt like an impostor. He gets emotional, trying to convince Rachel and himself that he’s exactly who he wants to be. Quinn, however, still thinks he’s a piece of shit and is excited to edit it in a way so the whole world knows.

 

August goes to make sure Serena is okay. He tells her he doesn’t care about what happened between her and George, as people do crazy things when they’re in love. Nothing he heard makes him love her less, and she clearly has a giant heart.

 

Mad at Alexi, Jay shows Serena a bag of coke and says they found it in Alexi’s room, and Serena promptly cuts him during the elimination ceremony. Alexi is furious and knows Jay was involved, yelling into the camera that this is bullshit. Jay tells Quinn that they can focus on getting Alexi clean before Passport to Dance now that he’s off the show.

 

Chet shows up at Quinn’s office, saying he needs to tell her something. Quinn already knows what Chet orchestrated with Madison but is shocked when Chet admits what he almost agreed to do for Gary while stoned. Quinn tells Chet the password to her computer is “kiddo”—his nickname for her. Instead of Chet simply telling Gary that he can’t betray Quinn, Quinn wants to use the opportunity to take Gary down once and for all.

 

Serena thanks August for being kind earlier that day and the two sleep together. Rachel tells Dr. Simon about telling her mom off, admitting it feels amazing to finally be free. She wants to thank Dr. Simon for being there for her. She tries to kiss him, but he stops her saying it’s completely inappropriate. Dr. Simon wants to talk about her coming onto him, but she says she’s sick of talking and goes to have sex with Alexi instead. Jay sees this on the monitors and starts crying.