We got some early intel that, in the second season of UnReal, there would be a major power struggle between Rachel and Quinn. Turns out: It's worse than we could have imagined.
In "Insurgents," the second episode of this season, things kick off with some major tension between the besties, who had matching tattoos with the phrase "money dick power" inked on their inner wrists not long ago. Quinn isn't convinced of Rachel's ability to be the showrunner since she lost track of their leading man, Darius Beck, at the beginning of filming. So she's back in the driver's seat, which means Rachel is left trying to prove herself again. And that's going to be harder than ever to do this season since she basically doesn't have any allies left.
As for the Everlasting drama, Rachel is working the Southern racist angle to try to fire up some controversy between two of the contestants. But once Jay gets wind of what she's trying to do — namely, pit Black Lives Matter activist Ruby against Confederate-bikini Southern belle Beth Ann — he decides that he's going to get back at Rachel and help Ruby's cause all at the same time.
Jay tells Ruby exactly what Rachel is trying to do, and that he'll help her advance through the rounds and not just get written off as a "Black bitch" stereotype. She agrees and keeps her mouth shut when Beth Ann trots out her offensive bathing suit, although the ensemble definitely creates a stir among the other contestants. Rachel is super confused about why her plan to stir up trouble didn't work, and Quinn is infuriated that they aren't getting good clips.
All of this is made worse by the fact that Chet is trying to film his own show on top of the footage that's already being created, in order to prove to Quinn that he can make a better series than she can. But even Chet knows that he can't beat Quinn without engaging in some major sabotage, so he isolates one of her "wifey" picks and tries to ruin her continued participation in the show. Tiffany is a beautiful blonde who has spent her life in the NFL world because her father is a big-time team owner — and the last thing she wants to do is to date a (football) player.
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With that knowledge in mind, Chet manages to convince Tiffany that her dear old dad got her on Everlasting in an effort to manipulate Darius into joining his team, and that the only way she can get herself out of this situation is to ruin her chances at advancing through the next round. That's how she winds up getting busy with Darius' buddy Romeo (who also, by the way, is the guy Rachel had sex with in Las Vegas). But when Rachel sees Tiffany about to go down on Romeo on the live feed, she rushes in to stop it, fully knowing what Chet is trying to do. Rachel manages to break things up and also explains to Tiffany that her dad had nothing to do with her being on the show. Knowing Rachel, that may or may not be the truth. But Tiffany decides to stick it out and give Darius a chance: Turns out, they totally hit it off.
The only problem with that? Chet knows about what happened between Tiffany and Romeo — and now he has a wild card to play when it comes to his battle for control of the series.
Chet and Quinn aren't the only ones battling it out, though: The tension between Quinn and Rachel hits an all-time high when Quinn tells Rachel that maybe she doesn't have what it takes to run the series. "Maybe your mother was right," she says, while Rachel starts to tear up. "You're great, until you're not." Of course, it's completely possibly that Quinn is trying to light a fire under Rachel and use this comment as a twisted mode of motivation.
But — whatever Quinn intended — her crticism actually ends up backfiring, and making things worse for everyone involved. Rachel hits a new low and goes to see the network president, Gary, on her own, and rats out Quinn and Chet for their on-set tug-of-war. She positions herself as the right person to be handling the series while her mentors get their squabble sorted out.
But apparently, Gary has a different plan for putting things in order. Instead of handing the reigns to Rachel, he decides that he's going to bring in a new showrunner — Coleman Wasserman, who definitely seems like the kind of guy it would be dangerous to cross.
Gary wants to take a more salacious angle with the series, and Wasserman is going to step in to helm things, which means that Quinn, Rachel, and Chet will all be taking orders from him now. Clearly no one is thrilled about this, but it's possibly going to be the worst for Rachel, since Coleman knows she was the one who went and complained to Gary and now he has that secret to hold over her head. Yikes, on all counts.
Oh, and as for the contestants who have — for now — stolen Darius' heart? Beth Ann, Ruby, "Hot Rachel" a.k.a. Yael, Southern debutante Chantal, Tiffany, and a handful of others remain on the quest for true love. But what Tiffany doesn't know is that Chet told Darius about her hookup with Romeo. We can't imagine that steamy secret will stay under wraps for long, though. This is UnReal, after all. Sooner or later, all the skeletons tumble out of the closet.