When the going gets tough, the tough humiliate people on national TV (or something like that). The Monday, June 20, episode of UnREAL began with Chet (Craig Bierko) and Quinn King (Constance Zimmer) at each other’s proverbial throats. Chet was pumped to implement his obstacle course — which involved the ladies bouncing around on trampolines and climbing walls in hot pants and sports bras to win a date with Darius Beck (B.J. Britt). Chet tried to entice Darius to run the course once himself, but the pro NFL player refused.
Quinn then decided to produce some of the most vulnerable girls herself and yanked two — Brandy, the MMA fighter who came from a broken home, and Chantal, the beauty queen with the dead fiancé — from Jay (Jeffrey Bowyer).
Quinn Sets Her Traps
With her eye on the prize (the prize being getting Chet kicked off the Everlasting set for good), Quinn approached Brandy. Taking a few pages from Brandy’s book, Quinn explained that she saw a lot of herself in the MMA athlete. At first, Brandy rolled her eyes, but as Quinn recounted her own childhood spent on a dirt road with no friends and an alcoholic father, Brandy’s skepticism morphed into compassion. “From one broken-ass little kid to another, watch your back, because everyone here wants the same thing you do, and they’re all willing to fight you for it,” Quinn sighed.
Back in the control room, Coleman Wasserman asked Rachel (Shiri Appleby) if what Quinn was saying was true. Rachel said, that wasn’t the point, but this time, it was. Coleman seemed equally impressed and freaked out.
Quinn then moved on to Chantal, complimenting her on her ability to remain calm despite the things other girls were saying about her. “If some needy fighter chick was accusing me of using my own fiancé’s death to get ahead, I don’t know what I would do, but it wouldn’t be pretty,” Quinn mused.
Meanwhile, Madison (Genevieve Buechner) did her best to get Beth Ann to continue to fill her role as “Trump with boobs,” and Jay challenged Ruby, the “blacktivist,” to slip into a dress once in a while. For the most part, they succeeded in their missions.
Rachel Produces Coleman
Taking advantage of a rare moment of downtime, Rachel began asking Coleman about his last girlfriend. “I just felt like I needed some space,” he mused before adding, “She knew we both needed a change.” Rachel didn’t buy the hotshot documentarian’s story for one minute.
“She dumped you,” Rachel said. “And for the first time, you didn’t get what you wanted.” Coleman then confessed that even if you are a successful documentarian, you hardly make any money and that he felt pressure to keep up with his fellow trust-fund friends working on Wall Street. “I would have never left her,” he said. “I loved her.”
Rachel smiled and said, “Hey, Coleman — just so you know, that’s how you make the show.” And just like that, we knew that Rachel is (still) awesome at her job, and (more importantly) Coleman is single. As a reminder, Rachel is also single.
Brandy Gets Thrown in ‘the Hole’
Coincidentally (i.e. by calculated planning), Brandy and Chantal were paired to compete in Chet’s obstacle course challenge. While climbing the final wall, Brandy grabbed Chantal’s leg and chucked her to the ground. When she hit the dirt with a thud, the beauty queen looked really hurt. Darius ran over to help — and Rachel locked Brandy in a small, jail-like room called “the hole,” where she immediately began to freak out.
“I can’t be locked up in here!” she screamed. “I can’t breathe!” At this point, Coleman agreed that Quinn seemed to know what she was doing and let her take over for the day, much to Chet’s displeasure.
Darius then visited Chantal in the “hospital” on set, bearing balloons and even a stuffed animal. “I know what it’s like to take a hard hit,” he cooed in her ear. Chantal played along perfectly, claiming that when she woke up in his arms, she saw “things a little more clearly.” She batted her lashes and sighed, “Today with you, it made me see what we could have together.” Then they made out.
Quinn paid a visit to Brandy in the hole and prepped her to pour her heart out to Darius on their upcoming one-on-one date. Yes, even though she may have seriously injured another one of the ladies, she did technically win the obstacle course challenge. So she better get ready to save herself from elimination.
Brandy Plays Right Into Quinn’s Plot
As she and Darius enjoyed a romantic dinner, Brandy apologized for what happened on the obstacle course and opened up about her tough childhood. She recounted how she bounced around in foster care, and how one of her foster dads used to burn her with cigarettes, showing Darius the scars to prove her story. Then he made out with her. Of course.
There was only one little problem, Darius later learned: Brandy was a pathological liar who had burned herself because she liked to tell that story for attention. Her mother was even on set, looking rather exhausted.
Darius Plays Right Into Quinn’s Plot
The time for elimination finally came. Even though Ruby and Beth Ann had gotten into a cat fight in front of Darius earlier on, Darius had decided to keep them both — and every other lady — except for one, and that one was Brandy.
“I’ve heard the truth, and I’ve cut Brandy,” he explained. “Lying to my face like that, you’re not the one for me.” Brandy was instantly upset as Darius pointed to her mother off in the wings. “I’ve never seen that woman before in my life!” Brandy shouted before launching herself onto Darius’ back and putting him in a chokehold that would have brought him to his knees if security hadn’t pulled her off. (Rachel was the only one who seemed to notice that Darius was in severe pain after this altercation, probably more than made sense for a pro athlete.)
Coleman watched, wide-eyed, as Quinn revealed that Brandy’s mother came from central casting.
Quinn Finds Out Rachel Betrayed Her
The next day, Gary showed up on set in a fancy car and gave the keys to Coleman as a present for a job well done. Then the network exec pulled Quinn aside and told her that Rachel came to him to urge him to send both Chet and Quinn home and let her run the show instead. “Get control of your people, Quinn,” he advised.
Rachel saw this exchange and immediately began packing up her stuff — but Coleman stopped her, saying she didn’t need Quinn at all. “You and me, we can make shows that actually mean something, shows that people need,” he urged. Then they started ripping each other’s clothes off — which is when Rachel got paged to check on Darius.
She did, and she found him in bed … looking unable to get up.
Tell Us: How will Quinn react to the bombshell about Rachel?
UnREAL airs on Lifetime Mondays at 10 p.m. ET.
