After last week’s season premiere in which Chet takes Darius, Everlasting’s suitor, from Quinn and Rachel and only gives him back after Quinn compromises on the Everlasting girls wearing bikinis instead of gowns, tonight’s episode, “Insurgent”, starts with Everlasting host, Graham, telling Quinn he didn’t prepare for bikinis (you need to prepare for that?). Quinn lets him know he has Chet to thank for the changes on the show and he tells her he has some thought of his own regarding taking the show in a new direction saying, “you know, I can sing…”, her response, “you know, and I can shoot ping pong balls out of my vagina but no one wants to see that either.”

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Rachel is in hiding, still reeling after feeling screwed over by Quinn who took Rachel’s showrunner position. She finds a care package from her mother, which contains medication and she throws everything in the trash.

After Rachel resurfaces, Quinn tells her she will give her the show back if Rachel helps her out first. So Rachel goes off to do what she does best, be a puppeteer. She finds Beth Ann and notices that she’s not wearing her confederate flag bikini, she obviously successfully manipulates Beth Ann into changing bikinis. While Beth Ann is getting the bikini, Ruby passes by, sees it and is understandably pissed off, of course a discussion (to say the least) arises and Rachel immediately calls for the cameramen.

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Jay, the moral compass of the show at this moment, swings and says: “Stop Rachel, you really need to stop trying to out-Quinn Quinn. She’s back you know?” Rachel thinks Quinn running the show is temporary. How can someone as smart as Rachel be so gullible? It is obvious that Quinn will never let go of Everlasting, right?

Ruby talks to Jay and asks him if she can trust Rachel or if everything Rachel told her, including that the suitor asked specifically for her to be on the show, was a lie. Jay spills the beans and lets her know it was all a lie to get her on the show. Ruby freaks and Jay tells her “if you really want to make a difference, win this bitch.” Jay promises to help her if she listens to him instead of Rachel.

The suitor is about to arrive and they start counting down to begin filming, as the countdown ends, Beth Ann takes off her robe unveiling her bikini, to the dismay of almost every girl surrounding her. Ruby stays silent. Darius makes his entrance and Beth Ann bolts.

Darius’ friends – or as Quinn calls them “sidedicks” – show up and while Quinn yells cut, Chet wants the cameras to keep rolling. Quinn and Chet continue bickering over the things they want done differently, the crew asks who is in charge and they both say they are. So they compromise: they will shoot two versions of the show, each one will get part of the crew, and they’ll show both versions to the network to see which one the executives prefer.

Beth Ann ran when Darius showed up because she loves him, she tells Rachel that she’s a big fan of him and now she doesn’t want him to think she is racist. “Racism is so confusing, isn’t it?” says Rachel. Ha! Beth Ann goes to meet Darius and takes off her bikini top, because that’s one someone does in those kinds of situations, right? He, ever the gentleman, gives her his own shirt to cover up. The Everlasting girls who see this are, obviously, not on board.

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Ruby is also nearby, she sees this and can’t take it, she tells Jay she needs to say something, “I stood there like a good, quiet, little Negro for you, but that shirt business is just too much.” She says if she gets cut, at least she’ll go home with some dignity. Go Ruby! She puts on a t-shirt with the words “I can’t breathe” written on it and goes to give Darius a piece of her mind.

Chet sees Tiffany who doesn’t want to be there because she thinks her dad, a team owner who knows that Darius has a contract negotiation going on but can’t talk to Darius directly, spoke with someone to get her on the show. Her plan is to wait until she’s cut. Chet – who knows that Quinn needs “wifeys” like Tiffany in order to make the show she wants, and obviously plans on sabotaging Quinn – tells Tiffany that she won’t get cut because she’s a “wifey.”

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Tiffany tells Chet she’s not like that, even if everyone thinks she is. So he tells her to prove it by doing the one thing that no guy could forgive. Tiffany says “What is that? Screw their friend?” Chet’s answer, “Go big or go home, babe.” So she of course takes the bait and gets down to business with Romeo. Luckily Rachel finds her right on time and gets her out of there. Rachel lets Tiffany know that her father had nothing to do with her casting. Tiffany agrees to talk to Darius and to get to know him, even if she doesn’t want to be a “football wife”. The two hit it off instantly.

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Quinn and Rachel are watching from the control room and they get into an argument, when Quinn says “Maybe your mother was right” and, “You’re great until you’re not.” Ouch. This is when Rachel’s facial expression (props to the great Shiri Appleby) shows us that she’s realizing that Quinn is never going to change. Rachel will always be Quinn’s pawn. Quinn is obviously not helping her, but is always putting her down to get exactly what she wants from her. It’s a really disturbing psychological game that Quinn is playing with Rachel.

Jay then puts the final nail in the coffin. He and Rachel get into an argument and Rachel asks him if he’s jealous because she got promoted over him, Jay tells her that he’s not jealous because he thinks she didn’t get promoted at all. He ends the argument with this wise remark, “Wake up Rachel, because Quinn is never leaving this place.”

Elsewhere, Yael, a.k.a. Hot Rachel – a nickname Quinn takes giddy pleasure to use, even if Rachel hates it (something that once again shows Quinn has a complete disregard of Rachel’s feelings) – who previously asked and failed to get Rachel to help her out with Darius, falls into the pool and Darius jumps in to save her from drowning. Yael then tells Madison that she’s a swimmer, she wasn’t drowning at all, she just wanted Darius to notice her. So I think we found our conniving villain of the season.

It’s time for the first Everlasting elimination. Darius picks Yael first, he continues and also picks Chantal (the “blifey” – black wifey according to Rachel), Beth Ann (the topless racist), Ruby (the blacktivist) and last but not least, Tiffany.

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After they wrap up for the night, Rachel goes to see Gary, the network president. She says sorry for breaking rank and tells him about Quinn and Chet’s idea to make two different versions of the show. She tries to convince him that she’s the person for the job.

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The following day, after Gary sees the two versions of the show (Everlasting vs. Everblasting… huh?), he says neither Quinn nor Chet will be in charge anymore, because there is one person who can give the public what they want. As soon as we see Rachel smiling from ear to ear we know that it’s not going to be her, but she’s totally oblivious. Quinn asks who that person is and Gary introduces Coleman Wasserman, a “Blink-er” (similar to a YouTuber) who will now be in charge of Everlasting. Coleman – who says he wants to go with Everblasting, Chet’s version of the show – is left alone in the control room with Rachel, and he tells her he knows it was her who went behind Quinn’s back to complain to Gary. He also knows that things didn’t turn out the way she expected because the network hired him instead of promoting her. He smiles, says “this is going to be fun” and leaves the room.

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Oh boy, this is a game changer for sure, at least for Rachel, and it certainly sets up conflict for the rest of the season. We’ll see how this all plays out. What did you think of “Insurgent”? Let us know!

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