UnREAL Finale: Boss Marti Noxon Reveals "Things Go Really Off the Rails"

Marti Noxon teases what's coming up for Rachel and Quinn in tonight's jaw-dropping finale

By Sydney Bucksbaum Aug 03, 2015 3:00 PMTags
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How much darker can you get after killing someone while filming a reality TV show? For UnREAL, the answer is...a lot.

Every character makes horrible decisions, and things get so twisted that you'll forget who you're supposed to be rooting for. And by the end of the jaw-dropping hour, fans will be left wondering how this Lifetime show can even come back for a second season (even though it's already been renewed).

But we're jumping ahead! As we head into the season finale, Rachel (Shiri Appleby) has a choice to make: should she stay with good, dependable boyfriend Jeremy (Josh Kelly) and keep her job on Everlasting or should she run away with hot-but-flawed "suitor" Adam (Freddie Stroma), thus ruining the show and any chance of taking back control over her career?

"Rachel has probably never been more conflicted in her very confused life," executive producer Marti Noxon tells E! News. "She is really at a crossroads. She knows that whatever decision she makes is going to change her career and her life."

While Jeremy is definitely a safer choice for Rachel, he doesn't understand her darker sides like Adam does. But if Rachel chooses Adam, will she get a happily ever after ending?

"Oh hell no! Hell. No," Noxon says with a laugh. "She's projecting so much on the idea of him, but she knows he's not a reliable person. He's not honest, he's got a lot of terrible qualities. He's a bad bet! Bad bet. But what she is in love with is the fantasy that he comes with, the fact that she can just run away with him and leave all her problems behind. Jeremy is a great guy but he's not perfect for her either, so what should she choose?"

As for Quinn (Constance Zimmer), the head of Everlasting is going into the finale thinking she has her two-timing fiance Chet (Craig Bierko) backed into a corner. But of course, things do not go as planned.

"You know that saying, ‘Tell god your plans and watch him laugh?'" Noxon says. "That applies here in a big way for Quinn. I love characters who are really dedicated to a really bad plan. Things for Quinn go really off the rails and she has no idea what's coming."

And Chet's idea to bring eliminated villain Brittany (Arielle Kebbel) back to the competition may seem like a dramatic twist, it's really only the tip of the iceberg of Everlasting's most dramatic finale yet.

"So many reality shows have that twist, when they bring in a surprise that they tease and tease and tease but it doesn't actually have much effect," Noxon says. "They do it all the time: ‘This is going to shake everything up!' But it doesn't. We wanted to play around with that but also show how Chet—because it was his idea to bring her back—is so out of the loop on everything. He thinks it's so ingenius but Quinn and Rachel know it's not going to do anything."

UnREAL's season finale airs tonight at 10 p.m. on Lifetime.