MTVP So Cal Summer 2016: UnREAL 1.05: "Truth"

“What? No, I’m not moving. This is my home. This is where I live. I’m gonna stay here. I’m gonna make ‘em all believe.”
-Faith

I appreciate that the “UnREAL” creative team is devoting various episodes to letting us get to know the various Everlasting contestants. This week, the focus was primarily on Faith, the virgin, devout Christian rodeo competitor from a small town in Mississippi. Faith has a bit of crisis of faith (pun not really intended) as Rachel helps her come to some realizations about herself. Rachel also genuinely tries to be a good person when she comprehends what problems publicly airing these realizations will cause Faith, although it’s Adam who ultimately comes to the rescue. That boy certainly does have the whole self-sacrifice thing down. Rachel’s altruism impresses Jeremy to the point that he briefly contemplates a fling with her (shocker…that doesn’t last long, and the resolution is really twisted). There’s also continuation of the Quinn and Chet drama, and Shia continues to be the worst producer ever. Through Shia being the worst, we also get to know another contestant, Mary, a bit better too. Overall, this was a solid episode.

The theme of this week’s episode of Everlasting was hometown dates. We only get to see one of the dates in this particular episode of “UnREAL,” though. Adam is supposed to choose the first hometown date from the outset, then while he’s on that date, the other ladies will make invitation videos for him to choose from. Mostly to stick it to the producers, Adam chooses Faith for the first date. The producers all think the situation can potentially be salvaged if Faith agrees to lose her virginity to Adam, and Rachel sets about trying to make that happen. Faith is pretty shocked at the request, but she doesn’t completely dismiss it out of hand. Rachel is also going to be traveling on this date, which I don’t really think she’s supposed to be given that she’s in therapy.

In Mississippi, we meet Faith’s best friend Amy who has been taking care of Faith’s grandmother while Faith has been away. There seems to be chemistry between Faith and Amy beyond just being best friends, and Rachel notices it right away. Her suspicions seem to be confirmed when she sees that there are numerous photos of Faith and Amy in Faith’s bedroom. Rachel broaches the subject with Faith, and after some initial protesting, Faith finally admits that yes, she loves Amy. There is going to be a big town dance the next day, and Faith wants to profess her love for Amy at the event. Rachel’s first instinct is to get plenty of footage of all this mess for Everlasting. When Faith shares her feelings with Amy, however, Amy is conflicted. She thinks she does love Faith, but she has to give some thought to the best way to proceed in their small, religious town. Faith is convinced they can make their town believe being gay is okay, but Amy isn’t so sure. Rachel starts having second thoughts about her plan, and she calls Jay to ask him to intercept the tape of the footage she shot so far. She wants to make sure she doesn’t out Faith if she really doesn’t want to be outed.

Meanwhile, back in LA, Shia is trying to produce the hometown invite video of Mary, a divorced, slightly older single mom. The staff psychiatrist mentions to Shia that Mary is on a shit ton of mood stabilizers, and she’s been diagnosed with bipolar. This for some reason makes Shia think it would be okay to switch out one of Mary’s psychiatric medications and encourage Mary to drink alcohol to loosen up. Between some wine and not having all of her meds, Mary does indeed become more lively. I’m guessing she’s really just on the road to being manic, though. So, uber lively in a bad way. She starts preening in front of the mirror, and she decides to go off script for her invite video. In the unscripted video, she goes into detail about how abusive her ex-husband was. He even broke her arm at one point. Despite all that, she really, desperately wants Adam to meet her young daughter. To be honest, I’m kind of horrified they went to this place with Shia, and the consequences only get worse from here. I have a relative who lives with bipolar disorder, and even very small changes in medications can have a significant effect. You just shouldn’t mess with someone’s medications, no matter what those medications are for.

Quinn and Bill meet with a lawyer to talk about potentially suing Chet for stealing the idea for Everlasting. The lawyer says that their intellectual property case isn’t especially strong, but Quinn would have a decent sexual harassment/palimony case if she wanted to go in that direction. When Chet keeps acting heinous, Quinn decides that she does indeed want to go in that direction. Chet’s lawyers try to fight back, saying they’ll try to frame Quinn as a stalker instead of a long-term mistress. Shia, in a rare moment of clarity, tells Quinn that the way to solve this is to “produce” Chet. And produce she does. At a big meeting, Quinn shows Chet an old cast that she saved. She kept it, because when Chet signed it, he said he loved her, and that’s the only time he has ever said that. Chet is successfully manipulated, and he offers Quinn 40% ownership of Everlasting.

Anyway, back in Mississippi, Jeremy is so impressed at Rachel’s altruism in setting up the tape destruction, starts making out with Rachel. They get very close to having sex, to the point where they are undressing, when Jeremy says he just can’t be pulled into Rachel’s crazy anymore. He leaves the room, and I’m wondering what part of him thought doing what he just did would make Rachel any less crazy. At the big town dance, Faith is all set to proclaim her love for Amy to the whole town. She truly hopes that if everyone actually gets to know a gay person, they won’t be so hateful anymore. Just as she’s about to speak, though, it’s clear she has second thoughts, and Adam, at Rachel’s prompting, comes to the rescue. He gives Faith a necklace and asks her to join him in the next round of Everlasting. Faith, grateful to have a bit more time to come out, accepts. They also film some fake having sex footage to have a plotline for the show. Jay, even though he should be sympathetic, however, shows Chet the coming out footage anyway, and that’s the direction Chet wants to go. Adam has to offer Chet a juicy tabloid story about himself to get Chet to back off, which of course earns him some approval from Rachel.

Summer DVR Dump: Heroes Reborn 1.05: “The Lion’s Den”

“Like most of humanity, you aren’t willing to do what is necessary. But I am. I am giving us a future. Somebody has to.”
- Erica

This episode’s title rather appropriate given all of the drama happening. All of our characters are walking into a lion’s den of sorts. Out in LA, Carlos comes back to the shop to find his nephew missing and so he goes to the police to accuse Deering. He’s going to blow Carlos off (or maybe out him as an Evo) when some of the other cops in the Evo kidnapping ring put on the Epic glasses (remember they still work) and ID Deering as an Evo. So they get to drag his sorry butt off! They’ve got him all hooked up to those weird sedation modules when Carlos (as the vigilante) comes busting in and drags Deering off to find his nephew and the priest. The saddest part of this episode is Luke going home and wandering down memory lane about his son. It’s kind of pitiful to be honest. He’s just so weepy and mushy. He sells his part of his practice (he was clearly a doctor of some sort) and then sets the house on fire, parting ways with his past. I guess he’s supposed to be on the road to becoming a hero like the rest of the gang?

Tommy isn’t faring too well now that he’s in the custody of the government. He gets poked and prodded and photographed and fitted with a subdermal tracker. And then this really annoying agent drops a bomb on Tommy that he can’t be his mom’s biological son because their blood types don’t match (and she’s not an Evo). Tommy uses his powers to escape and Penny Man shows up to hopefully wipe the agent’s memory. Tommy is rightly pissed that his mom didn’t tell him what was going on. To make matters worse their landlord posts an eviction notice. Apparently being an unregistered Evo is grounds for eviction. This just makes the civil rights attorney in me cringe. So freaking hard! He ends up going to the hospital to confront his mother and Penny Man shows up. Interestingly, his mom calls him Nathan, and says she was trying to protect him and his father by not telling Tommy the truth. This makes me think the fans saying he’s a Petrelli by blood has some weight. I can totally see Peter having a kid and naming him Nathan after his brother. Anyway, Penny Man drops the truth on poor Tommy that he’s destined to save the world. Yeah, no pressure kid! Tommy isn’t ready to deal and so he teleports out.

Out at Renautus, Noah, Taylor and Quentin discover a bunch of seeds and wonder if maybe Erica is planning a mass extinction event. That would definitely fit with Molly’s dying words of not wanting to help kill seven billion people. And it might explain why Noah wanted to forget it all. Noah wants a face to face with Erika and so he uses Taylor (she is more than willing) to lure her into a meeting. Also on the grounds, Miko and Ren are trying to sneak in and find Hiro’s sword. Erica knows what they are after and that they are likely on grounds thanks to the massive cosplay scavenger hunt going on. But they are lucky in avoiding detection. They find one of the clones taking the sword and Ren smartly slips his phone into the gas tank so they can track it. Lucky for them, it’s heading to the same place as Erica. That will be quite fortuitous later on. Erica gets home and after she accuses Taylor of using drugs again, Noah steps in and demands to know what the hell is going on. Erica says that Claire and Hiro both died in Odessa a year ago and yet again blame Mohinder. Sure, Noah doesn’t remember exactly what happened in Odessa but he knows Mohinder. He know Mohinder wouldn’t do something like this! Things are going poorly for Team Evo when a couple of the clones show up and cold cock Quentin (dude, I get you want to find your sister but shut up!). Right about the time Noah is going to get shot in the head, Miko busts through a window, grabs the sword and delivers some whoop ass. She heads back into the video game to find her father, leaving Noah and company hanging since Erica escaped. She goes on about how she is trying to save the world. It turns out, according to her and her scientists, the big threat looming against humanity is a change in the planet’s poles (they do change every now and again if I recall my middle school science correctly) and as they are changing, the planet will be vulnerable to an oncoming solar flare. Total extinction in a few days (which explains the hording and disappearing the seeds through a weird machine). And according to the scientist, this horrible event will be happening within a week. I guess that also explains Malina’s powers and what she was doing at one of the poles. She’s been holding back the pole change and probably the solar flare.

Lest we forget Malina, she and Farah are on the run still. They have to be careful as Farah goes off to meet someone. Unfortunately, her contact never shows and one of the clones spots her and follows her back to Malina. Malina manages to use her powers to temporarily stop their attackers but they catch up the girls and wound Farah. They’ve also got The Shadow (hi Phoebe) who seems to be either negating Malina’s powers or hampering them sort of like the Hattian. Malina takes off and ends up hiding on a truck hauling lumber. I’m not sure where she’s going to end up but I have a feeling it won’t be long before she crosses paths with the rest of the heroes. And she’s been given an envelope by Farah that should explain everything she needs to do.

Summer DVR Dump: Lucifer 1.05: “Sweet Kicks”

“Fun with mortality. Bring it!”
- Lucifer

We happen upon Lucifer and Maze at a shoe fashion show run by a former gangster. Lucifer is quite excited by his brush with mortality at the end of last episode but Maze is worried about it. She doesn’t want him doing anything that would put him in danger. It looks like she is going to be unhappy for most of the episode because just as Lucifer goes to start hooking up with a model, gunshots ring out and a young girl gets trampled to death. Oh boy.

While Chloe and Dan are trying to figure out how to get the designer to talk, Lucifer pops by to talk to Chloe’s boss. He wants in on the case (thinking it is the best way to get the danger he’s craving) and he will help Chloe’s boss get the support she needs to make Police Chief. He gets what he wants and so Chloe is stuck with him. He knows the designer personally and calls in an IOU to get the guy to answer Chloe’s questions. I guess making deals with the Devil can be useful sometimes. It seems our protagonists are in the middle of a gang war. Because of course we are. And while Lucifer and Chloe stop for a drink at a cop bar where Chloe is basically despised, Maze and Amenediel have a chat at a coffee shop where Maze spills the beans on Linda (hoping Amenediel will pay her a visit and get information from her on how to get Lucifer back to Hell). Oh and Lucifer gets to punch a cop in the face because he insulted Chloe.

Amenediel’s plan to find out information from Linda is really creepy. Whereas Lucifer is charming and sexy, he is just super creepy and wooden. It is really weird that he can’t seem to be natural around humans. He does get Linda to agree to a drink though so that’s helpful for his agenda, I suppose. Alas, we don’t get to see any of this fluid exchange of information just yet.

While his brother is going off on his little digging mission, Lucifer and Chloe are still working the case. Dan shows up at Lux to read Lucifer the riot act about protecting Chloe (which he then reports to Chloe). It’s kind of awkward. Oh and the two people that the designer thinks are responsible for the shooting aren’t actually involved at least yet. They were trying to get into the show because they wanted to buy some shoes and the dead girl is family and they let her take their spot inside. But they think the real killer is some guy named Yellow Viper who ran with the designer back during his gang days. He got out of jail recently. Before Lucifer and Chloe can find the guy though, the designer calls to report the death of his pet pig. It was kind of ridiculous and stupid but it did allow our team to share the news of Viper’s release with him.

They find Viper at a community center teaching art to kids. But he refuses to talk to them and then, finally, Lucifer gets the gang war and danger he’s been longing for (having spent much of the episode lamenting the lack of good bad guys) when the duo from the show roll up with a bunch of back up and guns. Chloe and Lucifer are literally caught in the middle of things. Definitely not a good situation for our heroine and our Lord of Hell. But Lucifer is a quick thinker and manages to distract the thugs long enough for Viper to get the small children out without being harmed. And then Maze shows up (because Lucifer has called her) and she does some ass kicking in the dark. She’s not overly happy about having to save his butt when she’s mad at him for indulging the possibility of mortality.

Chloe is having another gut feeling though after they arrest Viper. Why would he attempt to shoot the guy if he was so angry for getting screwed over and then miss? Clearly we have missed the real shooter which makes sense when you think about it. The designer’s guard is an ex-Marine and the designer put him up to it. Apparently, Viper was the real artist and our little punk designer wanted to eliminate the competition. The guard sells out his boss real quick and the case is solved. I will admit the case wasn’t all that thrilling this week but I did like the character work being done with Chloe and Lucifer. It seems his experiment with mortality is over with (even if he is still vulnerable). But he had fun, although he does kind of regret almost getting Chloe killed. Maze clearly dislikes this whole train of thought (caring about a mortal) and pays Chloe a late night visit. I couldn’t decide if she was trying to kill Chloe or possess her or what. It ended kind of abruptly which sort of surprised me. I wanted more information than we were given. I’m kind of intrigued by what Amenediel is going to do with Linda, even though he is super awkward. I have a feeling he’s going to get what he needs or wants. I don’t think it will end up resulting in the outcome he wants though. If Maze can’t convince Lucifer to go back to hell, I highly doubt an angel is going to get the job done.

As I mentioned before I would like to see some more mythology and I think based on the promo for the next episode, we will be getting some of that as well as seeing Lucifer use some more of his Devilish powers to exact his revenge and met out punishment as only the Devil can. I think now that we are about halfway done with the season, the writers can start moving away from the cases a little bit and really dig into the characters some more. There is a lot of meat on these bones and I just want to enjoy all of it.

Marvel's Agents of SHIELD 3.20: "Emancipation"

“You need a beer. And some faith.”
-Elena

This episode of “S.H.I.E.L.D.” saw Daisy finally saved from Hive’s influence, but at great cost to Team Coulson. We learned a lot about Hive’s potential endgame and what may or may not be able to stop him. Team loyalties were especially tested as General Talbot paid a visit to learn more about what exactly S.H.I.E.L.D. has been up to. The Sokovia Accords, featured in “Captain America: Civil War” have just been passed, so the registering of people with powers is on everyone’s mind, and that plus Daisy’s current condition creates a lot of mistrust of and among the S.H.I.E.L.D.-allied Inhumans. Coulson has the unenviable job of trying to convince Talbot that the remaining Secret Warriors aren’t a threat, and Lincoln’s seeming continuous pining for Daisy isn’t helping on that front.

This episode was meant to have a bit of a connection to “Captain America: Civil War” (which is actually pretty decent, even though I’m more of a “Guardians” and “Ant-Man” kind of girl), and right from the beginning of the episode, we see the announcement of the Sokovia Accords. Coulson is watching the announcement on a television at a bar, and General Talbot almost immediately appears. He tells Coulson that he needs to fully disclose everything about S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Secret Warriors to the government. Coulson tells Talbot to get ready. He’s going to get a tour of S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ.

Daisy is being drained of her (partially Kree) blood to further Hive’s big scheme, and while that’s going on, she’s hacking into the camera system at S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ. Fitz has been keeping up a valiant effort, but he’s no match for Daisy. Radcliffe seems rather nervous thanks to Hive being really impatient, and he tells Daisy she has donated enough blood for one day. Radcliffe suggests to Hive that they need some volunteers to test out his human to Inhuman transformation process, and Hive assures him he has been working on just that. Hive, in fact, has a plan to “recruit” some Watchdogs to the cause. Said Watchdogs are on the hunt because they’ve gotten intel about a local Inhuman. That Inhuman happens to be James, though, and he turns the tables pretty quickly with an exploding chain. Hive then appears to finish the job, telling the Watchdogs it’s time to become what they hate.

Lincoln is still in quarantine to keep him from being infected by Hive, but he really wants out, and he’s really annoying everybody else because of it. May threatens to turn him over to Talbot, and he’s a topic of conversation with FitzSimmons as they try to protect the computers from Daisy. Meanwhile, Coulson brings Talbot to S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ, and Elena arrives not long after. Talbot wants to put Elena on the Sokovia Accords list, but Elena says that if he did, there would be a price on her head. She does, however, demonstrate her power for him. Coulson does offer that he doesn’t think anything good can come from registering for a list. Elena then goes to talk to Mack, who is very fearful that Hive could infect Elena too. Elena basically tells Mack that he needs to have faith, and if good people don’t keep fighting, evil is sure to win.

When he is by himself in his containment room, Lincoln starts calling out for Daisy, correctly figuring that she has hacked into the camera system and can hear him. Daisy sets up the CCTV so that it shows a continuous loop of Lincoln sleeping, and then they can talk. Lincoln says he wants to be with Daisy, no S.H.I.E.L.D. and no Hive. The conversation gets cut short when Coulson and Talbot approach. Lincoln agrees to register for the Sokovia Accords list and basically do whatever Talbot wants if Talbot will get him out of quarantine. Daisy resumes communicating with Lincoln as soon as Coulson and Talbot leave, and she says she has a way to get Lincoln out. Meanwhile, Coulson and Talbot have moved on to Lash. Coulson thinks Lash could be an asset at some point in the future, but Talbot is dubious.

Daisy reappears on the video screen in Lincoln’s room, and she starts talking him through how to escape. Lincoln is able to get out pretty easily, even though he has to take a guard down in the process. May approaches out in the hallway, but Daisy distracts her by blinking some overhead lights so that Lincoln can continue his escape. Fitz is in the process of explaining that Hive stole something unknown but probably important when he gets an alert that Lincoln has escaped. Fitz does his best, with an assist from Mack, to shut Lincoln out of the computer system, and that does slow Lincoln down a bit. They realize, though, that they haven’t secured the systems on board the Quinjet. When they try to, they realize that Daisy has taken it over, and that’s where Lincoln is headed. Mack tries to stop Lincoln, but Lincoln uses his powers to overtake Mack, and he appears to fly the Quinjet out of HQ.

James brings the captured Watchdogs back to Hive’s base. There, Radcliffe is to experiment on them. He puts them in the chamber, and there are screams, then silence. It’s not immediately apparent whether the experiment has worked, and Radcliffe says they will need to wait and see. Later, James opens the door to the chamber, and he sees that the Watchdogs have turned into basically primitive Inhumans. Radcliffe thinks Hive is going to be upset by this, but he’s not. He has their restraints removed, and they obey all his orders. They’ll do. Daisy informs Hive that Talbot is on the way, and Hive prepares to “greet” Talbot. He also introduced the Primatives to the rest of the gang, calling them his “children.” He wants to create more of them, which means he’ll need more of Daisy’s blood.

Back at S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ, Talbot is about to loop the President in on all this when both May and Lincoln appear. Lincoln wasn’t on the Quinjet after all. Lash is. He believes that Lash was specifically made to defeat Hive, so sending him to Hive is sending their best weapon. Lash does indeed put up a good fight against Hive. He’s actually able to injure him in a way that sticks that nobody else can. He also defeats some of the Primitives. Daisy tries to defend Hive but her powers have no effect. Instead, Lash takes the Hive parasites out of her, saving her from the infection. While Lash is carrying Daisy back to the Quinjet, he is mortally struck by James. Daisy gets Lash’s body onto the Quinjet, keeps James off the Quinjet, and radios back to HQ that she’s coming home.

Daisy, surrounded by an armed escort, is reunited with the rest of the team, and she has to deliver the bad news about Lash. Lincoln says that he now believes Lash’s purpose wasn’t to defeat Hive, but to save Daisy. Daisy goes to the med bay, and after some testing, FitzSimmons think that she’s experiencing withdrawals, but she’ll eventually be okay. Most importantly, Daisy is free of Hive’s influence. FitzSimmons also think they now know Hive’s master plan. He wants to set off an explosion that will disburse the pathogen Radcliffe developed and create more Primitives. Talbot offers that Hive now has his explosive – the device he stole from the ATCU facility was a warhead. At the end of the episode, Mack and Yoyo have a conversation about what the future will bring, and she gives him her gold cross necklace. This now brings into question who exactly is in trouble in that flash forward we’ve been seeing.

MTVP So Cal Summer 2016: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend 1.04: "I'm Going on a Date with Josh's Friend!"

“I make no sense, and you shouldn’t waste time on me. Can’t you see that?”
-Rebecca

“I’m Going on a Date with Josh’s Friend!” is one of the more painful episodes of “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” to watch. Rebecca makes such a ridiculously bad and hurtful decision out of fear that I just want to yell at her to stop the whole time it’s happening. And this is coming from a person who literally ran out of a formal event due to fear of hanging out more than she already had with a guy she was into (who later joined a religious order, so perhaps that was for the best after all…it’s a long story). I’ve had times when I was pretty hurt by the actions of people I cared about, but what Rebecca does in this episode is beyond the pale, and even though she continues to make terrible decisions, it’s probably the worst thing she does this season as far as inflicting real damage. That being said, even though parts of this episode set my anxiety and embarrassment squick into overdrive, it has one of my very favorite songs of the show thus far: the Cole Porter homage “Settle for Me,” performed by the always fantastic Santino Fontana (I swear I can’t hate Hans in “Frozen” anymore now that I know who he is and how crazy talented he is!).

An Instagram update from Josh is what sets off Rebecca’s downward spiral this particular time around. Rebecca and Paula had been goofing off at a skate park hoping to catch Josh skateboarding with his nephew (stalker, much?), when Rebecca starts seeing pictures from Josh and Valencia’s long weekend in Napa. This seriously bums her out, so she decides to go home and sulk for a while. Heather stops by and offers up a suggestion for what she does when she’s feeling sad – hunt Tinder for a booty call. Heather picks out a nice video game enthusiast with carpel tunnel named Jason, and she accompanies Rebecca to the bar where he is hanging out for moral support. Jason tries to be nice and offer Rebecca a beer, but Rebecca drags him back to her place for sex immediately (with no protest from him, I might add). We get an entertaining musical number called “Sex With a Stranger” about how Rebecca hopes her random hook-up isn’t a murderer. Rebecca finds herself downstairs watching yet another butter commercial, this time one that urges her to “make healthy choices.” She immediately throws Jason out and reevaluates her life (again).

The next morning at work, Rebecca is green juicing it and refusing to eat the delicious-looking s’mores donuts that have appeared at the office. I do have to applaud Rebecca for this, even if it’s clear that she’s taking big steps to change her life that won’t last, and Paula keeps giving her crap about it. There was a time in my office where donuts seem to appear every day, and it got to the point where I had to just take one home to eat for the next day’s breakfast because, you know, I am not a Hobbit (even if I may have played one in a game of Dungeons and Dragons once), and if you’re not a Hobbit, you shouldn’t be having a second breakfast. Or Elevensies. But enough about that. Anyway, Paula believes emphatically that even though he seems to be a “healthy choice” type (we later learn that he’s damaged enough that I’m not sure he qualifies for this label), Rebecca should under no circumstances consider dating Greg. If she did, then the Bro Code would keep her from Josh forever, you know?

Speaking of Greg, at Home Base, Greg is talking to the frequent patron sassy kid whose name I can’t remember about how they had a deal where they would each ask out the women they’ve been pining for. The kid kept up his end of the bargain, but Greg hasn’t asked out Rebecca yet. Of course Josh also has to pick this time to step up to the bar. And Rebecca arrives too, going on and on about how she’s making healthy choices now. Greg sees this as his in, and he asks if they can go talk privately. What follows is one of my two favorite musical numbers of the first season, “Settle for Me,” filmed in glorious Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers style. It’s a kind of raunchy take on this type of classic song, which fits the ethos of the show well. I also think Greg’s sentiment that he knows he’s in second place to Josh, but he’s the more realistic choice speaks quite a bit to his character. Greg Serrano doesn’t really have much self-esteem, and he’s not as well-adjusted as he seems in the very early episodes. Maybe that makes Greg and Rebecca good for each other, but in a different way than we first thought they would be? The upshot of the song is that Greg asks Rebecca out on a date, and eventually, after a lot of dithering, she accepts.

Meanwhile, Josh is feeling rather aimless, and he’s broke after that trip to Napa. His father wants him to come work at his radiology center, but Josh feels like that would be soul-sucking. He decides to go to the Aloha Tech Center, where he gets to eat poke and play the newest video games. Going there always makes him forget his problems and feel better. On this trip, he sees a help wanted sign for an assistant manager position, and he decides to apply. He finds the application confusing, though, so he asks for Rebecca’s help on the personal essay portion. She quickly pens off some thoughts on Harper Lee and “Go Set a Watchman” and sends Josh on his way. The interview, as you might expect, doesn’t end well. The store manager thinks Josh is overqualified for the job and shows no passion for technology or video games. He ends up working at the radiology center after all. Near the end of the episode, when Rebecca learns that this happened and why it happened, she marches Josh right back to Aloha Tech and gives an impassioned speech on Josh’s behalf. Josh gets the job, and he’s incredibly grateful to Rebecca and so glad that she moved to West Covina. It’s very much at odds with what Rebecca does to Greg (which we’ll get to momentarily).

Rebecca and Greg go to the West Covina taco festival for their date. It happens to be one of the few rainy days in a drought-prone area, and Rebecca is still trying to be vegan as part of her new “healthy choices” kick, but they manage to actually have a pretty good time and enjoy each other’s company. Greg is charming, and Rebecca keeps the crazy to a minimum. Rebecca is still quite prone to self-destruction, though, as we will soon see. Greg asks if they should go back to her place, and this freaks Rebecca out. She decides they should go watch a guacamole competition first. At the competition, she meets a guy who works at a very hipster taco place. After the competition, Rebecca tells Greg she needs to make a quick visit to the port-a-potty before she heads out, and in a reprise of “Settle for Me,” she contemplates whether she should “settle” for Greg, since he’s nice and they get along.

It seems like she’s going to choose Greg, but when she walks out of the port-a-potty and sees him standing there, she freaks, texts him that she doesn’t feel well and she’s going home, and goes home with hipster taco guy instead. Right after having sex with hipster taco guy, Rebecca realizes it was a mistake and kicks him out. Unfortunately, Greg sees him leave the apartment and confronts Rebecca. Rebecca says this is a perfect example of how messed up she is and how she’s not deserving of someone like Greg. Greg is still very angry, but he has a biting comeback. He doesn’t think he was wasting time with Rebecca – he’s thinking of what the evening could have been. And then he slams the door. Rebecca realizes she's made a horrible mistake, and she sits in her back yard wallowing. Heather stops by, Rebecca explains a bit of a situation, and all Heather can do is give her a "there, there" pat on the head.

Summer DVR Dump: DC’s Legends of Tomorrow 1.04: “White Knights”

“What if that girl is gone? What if she doesn’t exist anymore?”
- Sara

Well we are finally out of the 1970s. Not by a whole lot but hey, it’s a change at least. We end up in 1986 because that is where Gideon has determined Savage had landed. Their first stop is the Pentagon. There’s a heavily redacted government file that needs to be retrieved so the team can determine what their adversary is up to. The plan starts off okay with Ray and Snart posing as custodians and Sara and Kendra working as military personnel. Snart does some pretty slick con moves to get an ID badge and the girls manage to get into the records room and secure the file thanks to Rory being a tough guy. But then Jax overloads the wires to cut the alarm and it goes off anyway. The girls have to fight their way out of the Pentagon and we see that Kendra can’t really control her other half and claws a guy’s eyes out.

So yes, the mission was a little rough and it results in Jax and Stein having quite the blowout. It turns out Stein is worried about losing Jax like he lost Ronnie. The younger half of Firestorm seems to be quite driven and also tired of Stein talking in his head all the time. Jax needs time to cool off and so does Stein. But despite the tensions among the crew, they have a new location to hunt for Savage: Soviet era Russia. Oh boy. And angry communists aren’t all they have to contend with as they breach Soviet airspace. Chronos has caught up with them. Luckily thanks to some daring flying by Rip, the heat-seeking missiles crash into the bounty hunter’s ship and take him down. Unfortunately for our team, it later looks like he may have survived.

It turns out that another Time Master has come to offer Rip a deal: turn himself in and he gets to live and his team gets to be returned to their time while the Time Masters try to fix what the team has done through history. Rip is hesitant to take the offer (with good reason) and when he shows up to meet his mentor and Chronos is there, too, he feels lucky to have some of the team with him. But Jax ends up injured (which only adds fuel to the dissension in the Firestorm matrix). While the Time Masters were facing off, Ray and Snart were off trying to woo a Russian scientist at the ballet. Ray’s attempts failed miserably but Snart had better luck. I’m not saying he’s the best con I’ve seen (that prize will always rest with Mr. Neal Caffrey), but he’s pretty good.

While all of the boys are off doing various daring and stupid things, Rip has tasked Sara with trying to train Kendra. After all, they can’t risk her going all crazy hawk goddess on their next mission. That isn’t very discreet anyway to leave people without eyes thanks to an angry deity. Sara pushes Kendra but things take a dangerous turn when Kendra lashes out and then Sara responds with some bloodlust-y choking. Both are not particularly pleased with that outcome. Kendra confronts Rip about the training session (and is rather upset that he knew about the bloodlust and he didn’t warn her) but it turns out he wasn’t just hoping Sara could tame the beast within Kendra but that Kendra could coax out the human in Sara. Sara is skeptical that she has any humanity left. I do have to say I was a little confused when Kendra said that Sara had been training half her life to be an assassin. I’m pretty sure she had the same amount of training (time wise) as Oliver and that was at most five years. Definitely not half her life. Anyway, it seems the girls get back to training in the hopes of proving that Sara does still have some humanity left within her.

The scientist is working at a secret Russian lab that the team has to infiltrate. Again, thanks to Snart they have her key card. Stein insists on going in alone because he’s a scientist after all. But I think he kind of regrets that decision when he realizes what Savage is up to: creating his own Soviet Firestorm. And he’s got the first step. Stein thinks he can absorb the energy so that Savage can’t use it but the scientist shows up and threatens to shoot Snart if Ray doesn’t step away from the controls for the containment chamber. Stein is able to absorb the energy but he, Ray and Mick get nabbed by the Russians and tossed in prison. Yes I am fairly certainly this is a very big, wink and nod to Prison Break (since Snart now has to get into prison to break his partners out). I thought it was kind of amusing and a little clever. Anyway, Snart is not pleased to have left the team behind (and the fact that Rip refused to send in backup). The girls are also pissed about not being notified of the bigger plot. But hey, at least we have a fun Russian prison escape episode coming up and I have a feeling they’ll be just fine. Besides, as Rip points out, if Sara and Kendra had gone in to rescue the guys, they likely would have been caught too and then Savage would have everything he wanted: a dead Kendra and Stein. I like that Rip was a bit ruthless this episode. It makes me a little sad he had to turn his back on his mentor but he needs to stand firm in his convictions. I think the Time Masters are wrong on this front. Rip isn’t just on a mission to save his wife and child but the rest of humanity, too. Let him achieve his revenge while working for the greater good.

MTVP So Cal Summer 2016: UnREAL 1.04: "Wife"

“Yeah, but seriously? What does this douchebag not get about this business? Okay, we are selling true love here. True love, people!”
-Quinn

In this episode of “UnREAL,” we finally got to see the payoff for Adam’s demand that the vineyard he’s trying to develop be featured in the show. This week’s episode is supposed to take place at the vineyard, and it’s not at all what the production crew expected. This is also an episode that really tests the limits of what people involved in the show, both cast and crew, are willing to do to ensure their personal success. It’s not just the producers and the ladies caught up in the manipulation. Adam is determined to make his vineyard successful and gain some credibility all on his own, and he is willing to cross any line to make that happen. We’ve also still got Quinn and Chet sniping at each other, and they’re willing to go to new lows there, too. This show is just generally populated with pretty horrible people, but they’re all interesting to watch.

Like I already mentioned, back in the pilot, the Everlasting team made a deal with Adam that if he would agree to be the show’s Suitor, his vineyard would be featured prominently. It’s now time for that to happen. Several ladies are going to be chosen for a date at that very vineyard. There’s just one problem. When Rachel and Jeremy scout out the location, they find that the place is a disaster. The building itself has been condemned, there’s no power, and the landscaping is pretty much non-existent. It is going to be quite the job to get it ready for production in one day. Over Rachel’s objection, Jeremy, who has just been promoted to DP, has a bunch of his camera guys come up to the vineyard to set things right. There’s just one problem: Marin County won’t issue a permit to turn on the power at the vineyard because Adam owes back taxes. Quinn’s nowhere to be found, so Rachel turns to Chet for help. She knows he has a friend who is a Marin County politician, so she figures he can help. Chet offers to help alright, but he makes it clear that he’s going to expect something in return.

There’s a decent amount of tension between Rachel and Adam throughout this show, Early on, Rachel sees a story about Adam in the tabloids. Specifically, it’s a story about him sexting his ex-fiancée back in England from the Everlasting set. Quinn tells Rachel that Adam is going to have to apologize to the girls, and Rachel sets about making this happen. First, she makes a show of putting the tabloid in a recycling bin so that one of the other girls will see it and take it. And then show the other girls, of course. It works like a charm. Soon it’s all they can talk about. And this stuff really isn’t all that different from the show upon which this show is based. Just the other week there was an episode of “The Bachelorette” where the guys were all upset over an interview Jojo’s ex gave to a tabloid. Anyway, Rachel’s right there with some direction to Adam about how to solve the problem. He just wants to let it blow over, but Rachel reminds him that the core Everlasting audience are hardcore tabloid readers. He’s going to have to apologize, and she tells him to think about what he would say to her if she were his girlfriend. He blames missing home for the indiscretion, and the girls completely fall for it.

Later at the vineyard, Rachel instructs Adam to kiss one of the ladies. She describes exactly how hot the kiss should be, and Adam ends up kissing Rachel on the cheek (not just a peck). Jeremy happened to be filming this, so he’s all out of sorts over it. He turns the tape over to Rachel so that she won’t get in trouble, and Rachel keeps swearing there’s nothing going on, but Jeremy’s still not a happy camper at all. Adam again follows Rachel’s direction, making out with one of the ladies in plain view of the rest of them, and it stirs up the desired drama. By the end of the episode, Rachel and Jeremy have made up a bit, because Rachel says how happy she is that Jeremy got promoted to DP on his own merits (not because she said something to Quinn), and Rachel carefully deletes the tape Jeremy recorded of her and Adam.

Quinn is still extremely pissed at Chet after the events of last week (the whole Chet having heart attack symptoms and his wife basically telling Quinn that she lets Chet have sex with her). After yet another argument, Quinn thinks she has the perfect plan to get back at him. She meets up with her ex, Bill, for dinner. Bill and Quinn came up with the idea for Everlasting when they were together, Chet then stole the idea, and now Bill is encouraging Quinn to find her old lookbook from when they were pitching the show and confront Chet with it. Chet is incredibly pissed of when he finds out Quinn has been hanging out with Bill again, and to get back at her, he takes Cynthia up to Adam’s winery. Quinn decides to one-up him and take Bill to the winery, too. To make matters worse, Jay, who was one of the better producers (besides Rachel) has been seriously sucking up to Chet, helping him find weed and hookers, all in the hopes of pitching a show. By the end of the episode, he’s telling Quinn that he works for Chet now, and after this season of Everlasting, he’s going to work on one of Chet’s new shows. To say this makes Quinn unhappy would be an understatement.

Adam is the one who really finds himself in the worst predicament in this episode, though. Chet brings some investor friends up to the vineyard, and Adam already has some potential investors there. Those potential investors say that they’re only interested if Adam’s father is involved, because they know that he knows what he’s doing. They’re rather disappointed when they hear that Adam is planning to go it alone on this project. Just after that rejection, Adam meets Chet’s friends. Chet has pitched the idea (which was originally Quinn’s, of course) of turning the vineyard into an Everlasting-themed resort. They’re embracing Adam’s new identity instead of shunning him for it, so Adam is very enthusiastic. There is a catch, though. Rachel arrives on set just in time to see that catch. She peeks into a room where Adam is having sex with the investor wife while her husband and Chet watch. Chet signals to Rachel that this is her payback for his help with getting the power turned back on.