UnREAL Season 3 Episode 5: Gestalt Review

If you would like to read my review of the last episode, click here.

Synopsis: Quinn and Jay’s new show pitch to Gary doesn’t go as planned, driving a fuming Quinn to pull the ultimate power play. Rachel confronts her father about her past and rescues him from her mother’s control. Serena finds out about a contestant’s secret while Jay’s arrangement with Alexi becomes even riskier than before. (TVGuide)

Writer: Sarah Gertrude Shapiro

Director: Peter O’Fallon

Rating: TV-MA

Running Time: 42mins

Airs: Mondays at 10pm on Lifetime Canada (Canada)/Lifetime (United States)

This week’s episode was epic AF, right? After Rachel confronted her sexual abuser last week and learned that her father knew about the incident, she decides to take matters into her own hands. Disturbingly, we know her mother was the one who set up the unfortunate encounter that placed young Rachel in a horrible predicament. The episode begins with Rachel calling her house to speak with her father, who happens to be unavailable since her mother keeps him drugged up for most of his day.

Quinn and Jay prepare to head to L.A. to pitch the idea for Jay’s show. Although Rachel tries to ask for the day off, she is denied by Quinn and asked to be the person in charge during Quinn’s absence. Quinn is aware of Rachel’s state of mind and asks Dr. Simon to stop focusing on Rachel, and switch to the guys. There is another problem thrown into the mix this week with August, who is blackmailing Quinn with sexual harassment if she doesn’t fix the situation with Serena, who knows about their affair.

Despite Rachel’s attempts to stay from sabotaging, this week brings the old Rachel back in full force. This week’s task involves the boys rescuing Serena in nature as they show off their manly, rugged selves. To set August up, Rachel hires a woman to play a park ranger so she can seduce August and have Serena catch him in a compromising situation. This is enough to completely dissuade Serena from August, leaving him completely embarrassed.

Back in L.A., Quinn and Jay arrive at Gary’s office to talk about the pitch but he makes them wait for longer than expected. Gary’s secretary informs them that he is no longer able to meet which sends Quinn of the deep end and straight into revenge mode, as she tells the secretary that Everlasting is shutting down until further notice. As soon as Quinn returns to set, she shuts down production and sends all the men to their rooms. When Gary finds out what Quinn has done, he calls Madison to ask her to make a list of people that are loyal to Quinn so he can fire them. Madison realizes that this is her moment to take a stand against Gary, and that is exactly what she does.

Madison sides with Quinn and tells her Gary’s e-mail password. After perusing through his emails, they find the smoking gun to take him down. Since Everlasting is on a temporary break, Rachel gets the night off. She heads off to her parents’ home to rescue her father from her mother. Rachel tells her father that she knows he knew about the night she was assaulted and he tells her that her mother convinced him not to call the cops. In a frenzy, she whisks her dad away to her trailer on set.

So what exactly did Quinn and Madison find in Gary’s emails? They learn that he had $18 million that he was keeping from Quinn and Chet to cover his losses from shows that weren’t doing well. When Gary shows up on set, Quinn exposes his secret in front of the entire crew and makes a deal with him to give Passport to Dance a primetime slot, a deal for four more shows, and to allow her to run Everlasting according to her wishes. With no other options, Gary agrees to the deal, defeated and embarrassed. Of course, Chet sees a fiery side of Quinn and goes running back to her, but Quinn rejects him flat out. Boy, bye.

Serena and Jasper seem to hit it off this episode, but the romance is short-lived when Owen tells August about Jasper’s bet. August shares this information with Serena who is disappointed and saddened by this reveal. When the elimination ceremony comes around, she doesn’t cut anyone and decides to make her own rules. Despite the drama, the crew has a lot to celebrate with Jay’s show being picked up. Quinn even decides to hit up the club solo when everyone else rejects her offer to go out.

Jay’s relationship seems to be struggling especially as he finds himself in the middle of the awkward drug-dealing situation with Alexi. And if things aren’t already crazy enough, Rachel seems to have completely lost it. Her father is now staying in the trailer with her but she is paying no mind to how she is weaning her father off of lithium. All the while, we find out that Dr. Simon has planted a camera in Rachel’s trailer and is watching her every move. Talk about creepy, right?

UnREAL gave us a strong episode this week, although Jay’s storyline and Rachel’s inevitable downwards spiral really took away from the excitement. Quinn is killing it and finally getting what she wants. After having such a rough start to the season, it is nice to see her on top of the game, where she deserves to be. Until next week, folks!

Score: 8/10

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