It's pretty incredible, the number of betrayals that can transpire over the course of a single episode — UnReal might actually be setting new records in this department. In the fifth installment of season two, titled "Infiltration," things go haywire pretty fast, starting with Rachel realizing that Jeremy is sleeping with one of the contestants: Yael.
After kissing Coleman goodbye in the morning Rachel sees Yael hanging out in the photo production trailer and immediately puts it together. Yael happens to be giggling at a photo of Rachel riddled with bullet holes: It seems like Jeremy's anger toward Rachel is definitely escalating to a dangerous place (more on that later in this episode). Rachel confiscates the photo and goes to dispose of it, but not before Coleman sees it. He wants to fire Jeremy immediately, but Rachel asks him not to because they can't afford to lose their photo director at this point in the game. Coleman acquiesces — but he also confronts Jeremy and demotes him from his position, which sets Jeremy even further on edge.
It's hard not to want to believe that Coleman has Rachel's best interests at heart — he's being really thoughtful, and even wants to take her to the Impact Awards party that night to help introduce her around in a way that Quinn never has in the past. But Rachel attending the awards party is another blow to Quinn: She was planning on using the two tickets for herself. Hold onto your ball gowns, folks, because things are about to get nasty: On top of everything else, Everlasting has introduced an early one-on-one sleepover date, and Darius is presented with two choices for the evening. Dominique, the basketball star, and Yael, a.k.a. Hot Rachel, are competing against one another. But to help give Dominique an edge, Rachel tells her about Yael sleeping with Jeremy.
When the cameras are rolling, both Yael and Dominique are telling Darius why he should choose them for the evening, and Dominique busts out that little tidbit about Yael hooking up with Jeremy. Darius is ticked at both women: Yael for being dishonest, and Dominique for throwing Yael under the bus. So instead of picking either of these women, he decides that he wants to spend the night with Ruby. She accepts the invitation. It's pretty clear to anyone with eyes that something real is blossoming between these two.
Ruby and Darius head to the suitor suite for the evening, thinking all the cameras are off. But when Jay stumbles into the control room and sees that there are four new cameras trained on Darius and Ruby's private time, he panics and tells Quinn that they can't use any of that footage. But Quinn reminds him that she's actually the one who made up all of these rules — so she can break them whenever she wants to. Quinn ultimately lets Jay decide whether or not to stop the cameras. He leaves them rolling and Quinn heads out to the Impact Awards party, where Coleman and Rachel are already busy hobnobbing.
In fact, it seems like Rachel and Coleman are doing a good job pitching a billionaire named John Booth on their production skills: He's a big fan of Everlasting and is looking for new up-and-comers to invest in. All is going well — until Quinn shows up, looking super hot and making Rachel and Coleman look totally amateur. John Booth is enchanted by Quinn, who has a plot boiling back at the mansion and invites her new friend along to come see the mess unfold. Rachel realizes too late that Quinn has a dirty trick up her sleeve: Turns out, Quinn has invited Ruby's father to the closed set because she knows that he won't approve of her relationship with Darius.
Quinn got that one right: Ruby's dad storms on to the set just in time to see cameras rolling on his naked daughter having sex with Darius. Rachel gets there just as Ruby's dad and the camera crew are bursting into the suitor suite to catch the action. Ruby and Darius are mortified, as is Ruby's dad, who tells her he's ashamed of her when she refuses to leave the show. She insists on staying because she says she loves Darius — and it seems like he may feel the same way. Rachel had a choice to walk away or get all of this footage on camera — and she goes with the latter move after Quinn reminds her that she's trying to make groundbreaking television. (Such a good puppet master, that Quinn. This is definitely going to stir up some loyalty issues with Coleman and Rachel.)
After that fiasco goes down, Quinn insists on a middle of the night elimination ceremony. Darius and Ruby have a private moment before all of that, and Ruby apologizes to Darius for how harsh her dad was — but also reminds him that, in some ways, her dad was right about Darius not speaking up enough on behalf of the Black community. Darius seems to want to make Ruby proud and be a better man. But when it comes down to the wire, he flakes, first eliminating Dominique and then turning to Ruby and telling her that it would be too hard to live up to her standards. It's a rough night for all — maybe with the exception of Quinn, who is really clicking with John Booth.
At the end of the night, the billionaire asks Quinn if she'd like to go home with him. She demurs, saying that her dad's funeral is tomorrow (truth) and she still hasn't picked out a casket. He reminds her that Costco actually sells caskets, and offers to whisk her away to the superstore to handle this post haste. Quinn seems really flattered and happy to be on the arm of someone who is bringing her solutions instead of problems. They ride off into the night in a limo, while Chet watches the taillights fade into the distance, looking sad and also a little mystified that Quinn might get her fairytale after all.
Speaking of Chet: He showed up on set earlier in the day, apologizing to Quinn about everything that happened with the baby and the arrest, but also insisting that he really does love her. She wasn't buying it, so Chet turned his attention to another mess: Jeremy. Chet thinks Jeremy just needs to connect with his feelings, so he gets him to admit that he's still not over Rachel, and that's at the source of a lot of his acting out. But it turns out that emotional awareness isn't going to be enough to save Jeremy from doing something stupid. At the end of the night, Jeremy sees Rachel and Coleman bidding adieu, and then follows Rachel into the dressing rooms where she's about to get changed. He attacks her, pinning her up against the racks of clothes and ultimately smacking her to the floor. Chet bursts in and sees what has happened, and fires Jeremy on the spot. He offers Rachel help, but she tells him that she's alright, she just wants to change clothes. Chet walks away, leaving Rachel alone on the floor to contemplate everything that's just happened.
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