The latest, and final, season of Unreal debuted on Stan on Tuesday, and since I’m someone with too much time on her hands and it’s a short season at only eight episodes, I finished the whole thing in two nights. And boy, do I have some Feelings and Opinions on it. Strap yourselves in! And, it goes without saying, this article contains spoilers.
The way the trailers for the season framed things, I, and many other people, were under the impression that Rachel would actually be the suitress this season. That is not the case. That misconception is thanks to the trailer’s inclusion of one throwaway line from Quinn that refers to how Rachel is trying to find herself a husband by sleeping with most of the suitors on the show, as well as a brand new coworker, played by François Arnaud of The Borgias fame.
Viewers of the show are already familiar with Rachel’s mental health problems and self-destructive habits, and sleeping with several men who are living in close proximity with each other while telling each man he’s the love of your life can certainly be self-destructive, but it isn’t the worst thing she does in the season.
The worst thing Rachel does in the short season would be the way she orchestrates a confrontation between Maya and Roger. To refresh your memory, Maya was a contestant on season 1 of the show, when English playboy Adam was the suitor. Roger is Adam’s best friend who ends up assaulting Maya when she is near-blackout drunk and unable to consent.
In true manipulative producer fashion, Rachel managed to convince Maya that they would able to expose Roger for who he really is. Instead, Rachel manages to frame Roger as a feminist hero, which ends up upsetting Maya so much that she tries to tell the other contestants the truth. Roger walks in as she’s trying to tell them and manages to manipulate the situation in his favour. (This still isn’t the worst of it.)
The whole situation comes to a head after a bizarre carnival where Quinn fakes a pregnant woman’s water breaking. One of the other contestants, Noelle, is extremely drunk, and Rachel convinces Roger to ‘make his move’. Roger walks Noelle back to his room, and Maya follows them. Roger being terrible tries to do to Noelle what he did to Maya, and the producers are watching all of this happen from the control room. Just as Jay decides to interrupt, Maya bursts in and tries to castrate Roger.
Maya gets arrested, Roger goes to hospital, and Rachel thinks she has an amazing episode on her hands. But Quinn and Jay are both incredibly disturbed by the turn of events, and Quinn even tries to quit. But the season ends with Quinn and Rachel turning on Rachel’s brief-fiancé, François Arnaud’s character, and blaming him for the horrors of the season. We then see Quinn and Rachel cuddling in bed.
So I guess my question is…where is the justice? The show ends with Maya being released from jail and Noelle announcing her decision to report Roger to the police, so in that sense, justice may yet be served, but when it comes to Rachel’s disturbing and dangerous behaviour, there don’t seem to be any repercussions heading her way. Why?
I spent eight episodes watching Rachel become further and further removed from reality and basic human decency only for her to get off completely scot-free.
Maybe that’s the point. Maybe the takeaway from this final season is that bad people get away with doing bad things all the time. Is that much of a message to leave your viewers with, though? Most of us knew that already. I can’t speak for everyone, but I don’t personally watch fictional television shows only to be reminded of the bleak nature of reality. I’d watch actual reality shows if I wanted to be reminded of that.
