If The Bachelorette isn't enough drama for you, then Lifetime's UnREAL is there to fill the ultra scandalous-shaped size hole in your heart. The show is about the making of a reality love show, and it returns on June 6. But, you may need a recap of UnREAL Season 1 before embarking on Season 2. With so many twists and turns, it's hard to remember all of the outrageousness that producer Rachel Goldberg (Shiri Appleby) and showrunner Quinn King (Constance Zimmer) managed to make happen on their hit dating show, Everlasting. But, you honestly don't want to forget any of the foul movies these master manipulators created on their "reality" show or in their real lives.
Before the events of Season 1, Rachel had a breakdown on the set of Everlasting and wasn't going to return to the show. However, Quinn brought back her mentally unstable, but all-star producer to create ratings-gold drama for suitor Adam's season of Everlasting. While Season 2 will have a whole new cast of contestants for Everlasting , the majority of production crew will still be around to pull the strings on the TV series. Even with a new suitor and new contestants, it's important to know what Rachel and Quinn went through in Season 1 to give you insight on how the pair will be handling things for Season 2. Here is a refresher of Season 1 of UnREAL to get you geared up for the summer's best not-so guilty TV pleasure.
Rachel Was A Hot Mess
Being a TV producer sounds fun, but Rachel is a significantly troubled character, which makes her utterly fascinating. She causes destruction wherever she goes, while still being tremendously capable and talented at her job — even to her own detriment. Since she does suffer from some mental problems, she sees her psychiatrist, who happens to be her own mother. Rachel's mom had caused significant damage to her daughter's psyche, including the fact that she medicates her, and considering Jeremy visited Rachel's mom at the end of Season 1, expect more mother-daughter drama to come in Season 2. Plus, it's good to remember before Season 2 that you should never underestimate the levels of deceit Rachel will go to.
Faith Embraced Her Sexuality
While this most likely won't matter in Season 2, I can't completely ignore the contestants on Everlasting from Season 1. One of the more poignant story lines dealt with contestant Faith, who was a virgin, but also a closeted lesbian. Rachel helped Faith become more aware about her sexuality and in a rare considerate move, Rachel didn't make Faith's sexuality public on the show to let her deal with coming out to her community on her own terms. And this is one of the many reasons you root for Rachel.
Mary Killed Herself
On the flip side, Rachel also helped to destroy one contestant's life on Adam's season of Everlasting. The producers kindly brought on Mary's abusive ex-husband on the show and that, coupled with the fact that competitive producer Shia switched out the medication Mary took to manage her bipolar disorder, was too much for Mary. The oldest contestant ended up taking her own life by jumping off the roof of the house, leaving behind her daughter Lily Belle. Rachel was on the roof with Mary when she jumped off and to save the show, Rachel wrote a fake suicide note that Mary's sister read on screen to help Everlasting's ratings. And this is one of the many reasons you can't understand why you root for Rachel.
Quinn & Chet
The married, awful, drug-using executive producer of Everlasting, Chet, has a longstanding affair with Quinn. He seemed to genuinely care about Quinn and he finally left his wife, who was pregnant, in Season 1 and proposed to Quinn. But after Quinn caught Chet getting a blow job from production assistant Madison, it led to power plays from both Quinn and Chet, with Quinn ending the relationship and coming out triumphant in the eyes of the network during the season finale of Everlasting.
Rachel & Jeremy
Camera operator turned director of photography and all-around seemingly nice guy Jeremy used to date Rachel and still had feelings for her even though he was engaged to makeup artist Lizzie. He ended the engagement and got back together with Rachel, but Rachel was not as invested in their relationship as she was pretending to be. Jeremy finally came to terms with Rachel's true colors when he did his own bit of scheming to figure out that Rachel was sleeping with none other than the suitor of Everlasting himself.
Rachel & Adam
Not only did Rachel have sex with the main attraction of Everlasting, the pair also planned on running away together. The relationship went up in flames, though, when Quinn stopped Adam from ditching the show for the producer by telling him about Rachel's struggles with mental health. To top it off, Jeremy figured out that Rachel was cheating on him with Adam and embarrassed her in front of the crew by ending the relationship and saying he'd never let her hurt anyone again. As a way to seek revenge for Adam pulling a 180 on her emotionally, Rachel took down Adam in the final moments of his season.
Adam & Anna
So, how did Rachel manage to leave Adam with nothing on Everlasting? She faked a tear-filled breakdown asking why Adam chose not to runaway with her while ensuring that Anna — the contestant he chose to marry — was listening. Adam told Rachel how his marriage to Anna would be fake and so Anna decided to leave him stranded at the altar. Not only did Rachel embarrass Adam for ratings, she also damaged him financially since he had been banking on a spin-off. Adam is shown calling Rachel in previews for Season 2 and co-creator Sarah Gertrude Shapiro told Bustle that Adam actor Freddie Stroma did film an episode, so while Anna may have walked off of the set of Everlasting, expect to see Adam again.
Despite all of the different romantic dynamics between characters, the number one thing to remember from Season 1 is that the most important relationship on UnREAL is between Quinn and her protégé Rachel — and nothing's going to change that in Season 2.
Images: James Dittiger/Lifetime; Giphy; lifetimetv (2), alittlelights, cocoabuffster, cordcliachase, shelbwyatt/Tumblr
