More evidence of the show's brilliant writing is what it reveals in conversation among viewers.
People watching on one hand are able to identify terrible aspects of the rich characters' elitism, such as END HOMELESSNESS tee shirts—even as they say a woman who graduated from a non-elite public university and has a struggling career to earn a living is valueless and should shut up and make her husband happy since she has no worth otherwise.
The observations and interpretations are remarkable.
It seems like the consensus here about Rachel is that she's dumb as a rock, her life is an embarrassment and all she has to offer in life is her body.
Another way to see it would be to listen to Rachel as she describes herself. First, she was grateful to be at the resort and excited to be on her honeymoon. Her husband was ungrateful from the beginning, and eventually his complaints wore her down. Nothing was good enough. She later admitted that his attitude made her doubt their future—will she be good enough as years go by? He dismissed her, leaving her hanging. She tried to confide in two random girls and they were cruel to her. So she approached Nicole out of admiration and flattered her (genuinely; she was impressed with Nicole), and Nicole, too, told her she has no worth.
She told both Nicole and her husband that she didn't come from money, acknowledged that her job is not what she had hoped for but that it has gained some traction recently and therefore a source of a sense of identity, income and independence, and both Nicole and Shane laughed at her. She did find out from Nicole that the "repackaged" articles she does are poor journalism, which she seemed not to understand, so that represents an actual failure and weakness and not only rejection.
So she has gone from feeling bad about her decisions and relationships to now losing confidence in her abilities. It's a major wake-up call.
At the end of the last episode, she woke up and said "I've made a terrible mistake." (I expect this to be subverted somehow in the next episode...)
I don't think she is a total idiot or someone who believes herself to be a worthless human being except for exceptional boobies. She told others (and us) that her life has been a struggle and she has done what she can to make a life for herself, and now she's got a pathway to the easy life but recognizes it's a deal with the devil.
I don't think she is stupid and incompetent. I think she's naive and ignorant (regardless of her age) and this honeymoon is forcing her to determine what kind of woman she is going to choose to be. She could go this way and become her mother in law whose future is clear (miserable life, miserable husband, flaunting wealth to compensate for lack of self-worth, certain to become a divorcée) or she could go another way and use this experience as a kick in the ass to learn what she never learned about proper journalism and combine that with the networking skills she has proved she has (she's getting job offers regularly) and earn herself a better life.
This show is way too layered and nuanced for this character to be nothing but a stock "bimbo with nice boobs" type. And I suspect we may find out she and Nicole have more in common than meets the eye.
