Some things take time, and it is a lesson worth remembering.
When The Irrational Season 1 premiered, its biggest shortcoming was that it did nothing for the characters. They were strangers who happened to be good at solving crimes. We knew nothing about them.
Throughout the season, the show has been trying to fill the gaps in certain aspects of the characters’ lives, and The Irrational Season 1 Episode 7 was quite different from other episodes.
For the first time, the show focused on developing relationships between characters, as Mercer went on an atypical date with Rose while Kylie and Marisa tried to rekindle their friendship.
Even if events happened on those two fronts, the art case dominated most of Rose and Mercer’s time together. We are not getting a balanced episode with character development and exciting cases.
However, as long as the show delivers good cases, it’s OK.
Mercer decided to conduct an experiment and went on a twenty-four-hour date with Rose.
I’ll iterate that even if Mercer and Marisa ended their relationship, they still seemed perfect for each other, which was an observation made in The Irrational Season 1 Episode 1 review.
While I’m sure Mercer had fun, the date with Rose was not that interesting.
They spent most of the time chasing leads. To their credit, they did work well together, which should indicate that they aren’t meant to be anything more than colleagues.
It seemed like the date was set up to be a disappointment when they agreed to do it for twenty-four hours and even extended it.
Twenty-four hours is too long for people who are more or less strangers to one another to spend time together.
Going on a short date usually makes a great first impression on the other person in the hopes that it gets you a second date, and then you can get to know each other from that point.
Twenty-four hours is too long to risk ruining the first impression you aimed to make. Case in point, Rose broke into a building by picking a lock.
While we don’t know Alec Mercer‘s moral flexibility, it wasn’t something to explore on a first or second date.
The work-date saw them work for a woman who realized that a marriage she had banked a lot on was a sham.
Maybe going on a twenty-four-hour date is not the worst idea because she would have seen her ex-husband’s true colors sooner.
He bought her a fake painting, using her own money, for their wedding gift! I’m sorry, but that marriage was doomed to fail from the word go.
Blair: Apparently, all plain air paintings completed in late 1883 must contain some residual volcanic ash.
Mercer: Makes sense. Krakatoa erupted August 1883. A cloud of volcanic ash went from Indonesia all the way to Europe.
Rose: And the appraisers didn’t find volcanic ash in the orchard.
Blair: Even though the results aren’t conclusive …
Rose: You’re concerned your painting is a copy.
Blair: A fake, just like my marriage.
Like Rose, I don’t get it. I don’t get many paintings, and why do they go for such staggering amounts of money? I’ve always thought it must be a money laundering scheme, and the idea was actually floated in the show.
I don’t get it. I mean, I get it, but $8.5 million for some shapes on a canvas?
Rose
If a painting is not of flora or fauna, I never see its beauty and would not spend thousands, if not millions, of dollars on it.
But even if I wasn’t interested in the high-end activity of brush art, the hour was not a bust as I learned how authenticators distinguish real art from fake.
Elsewhere, Kylie and Marisa tried giving their friendship another chance after it suffered severe setbacks after the divorce.
That was an interesting storyline because it highlighted an important issue about divorce’s impact on other relationships.
Marisa: You were right. I wasn’t being real with you, which is stupid because we always got along because we weren’t afraid to be honest with each other.
Kylie: I know. I told you I was Queer before anyone else in the family.
Marisa: We need to be ourselves again.
Kylie: I’m mad, Marisa. Without warning, just poof, you left us.
Marisa: I left my marriage. I didn’t leave you. I love Alec. I will always love Alec. That’s not the same as being married to him. I need to find out who I am without him.
Kylie: OK, I get that
Marisa: We were family. You were the closest thing I had to a sister, and you just stopped talking to me. I missed this.
It was reasonable that Marisa and Kylie had developed a friendship, something common among in-laws.
But when the divorce happened, Kylie was forced to choose; she chose her brother, who was hurting in more ways than one.
Divorces can be messy, and many relationships are impacted, especially between children and parents, but others, like siblings and friends of either person in the couple, tend to get forgotten.
Not only did Marisa lose her husband, but she also lost her sister-in-law and friend.
Eventually, they came to an understanding, and it was sweet to see a great friendship reigniting.
Diving into Kylie and Marisa’s past strengthened the show by giving it the personal depth it seems to lack.
The solving of the art forgery case saw Mercer and Rose’s interesting experiment end as she moved on to other things.
Sentimental value is driving the killer to extreme measures violent, and they won’t stop until they get one of Bridget’s arts in their hands.
Mercer
Here’s to hoping Mercer was unimpressed by the whole thing and Rose’s things keep her in Paris.
Seriously! There’s no spark there, as far as romance goes. They could be great as partners in investigating cases, but their relationship is doomed to fail.
Many relationships that begin in the workplace tend to fail because the parties have nothing in common apart from the job.
A job is not strong enough to keep people together.
“The Real Deal” was an okay episode of The Irrational that leaned into the personal lives of the characters, although the impact was not the same for all the storylines.
There was a slight — very slight — nod into Rizwan and Phoebe’s life.
If there’s anything to improve on going forward, it is giving these characters, who are series regulars, some screen time. Offering an occasional slip of unimportant information when there’s a little point to be made is not it.
Over to you.
What did you think of it?
Are you team Mercer and Rose?
Chime in in the comments section.
Denis Kimathi is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. He has watched more dramas and comedies than he cares to remember. Catch him on social media obsessing over [excellent] past, current, and upcoming shows or going off about the politics of representation on TV. Follow him on X.