Ravens, Coffee, and Presbyterians
SURREALESTATE – Season 1 Episode 2 – SPOILERS
Luke and his deceased father Carl
Let’s get to the important stuff first. We learn Zooey’s usual coffee order: “quad long shot medium-in-a-large-double cup half caff salted caramel mocha latte with two double pumps of vanilla and extra foam”. By contrast, Phil Orley (Adam Korson) takes his coffee black, with no room for cream. Phil (we find out) is married to handyman Anthony Tamblyn (Paul Ewan Wilson).
Phil and his husband Anthony in their very symmetrical living room
Luke’s father (Art Hindle) asks, during a game of miniature golf, if Luke and Susan are a thing. (Luke tells him they are not.) The miniature golf takes place at Funland (the same place where Luke used the batting cage last episode) and Luke turns the lights off before he leaves. He might actually own the place. Susan (Sarah Levy) thinks that Luke is into Megan Donovan (Tennille Read), and he does seem to be, but even if he is, Luke says he insists on separating his work life from his personal life.
Zooey (Savannah Basley) and Augie (Maurice Dean Wint) play video games in the office after hours.
This week’s stigmatized property belongs to Tom and Patty Quincy (played by Patrick Dempsey and Allison Moira Kelly) (Quoth Patty: “We don’t believe in anything. We’re Presbyterians.”) Their son Jamie (David Kohlsmith) has become afflicted with a Harvey (an invisible friend, not necessarily a rabbit or six feet tall, though the name is taken from the Jimmy Stewart film).
Luke stops by to visit the Donovan house. Is he visiting Megan, or his mother’s ghost?
Luke and Augie discuss whether it might also be a doughboy (a still-undefined term) or an LRG (Little Red’s Granny). They decide it is the latter and Augie is asked to build something called a 30 Angstrom M.E.D. to destroy it. (According to Augie, the LRG is very old and “it only exists to inflict pain and sorrow”. It seems to be sentient, though. Augie also says it has an ego.) Nonetheless, they are determined to destroy the thing at the molecular level. Augie’s device only works when the Harvey drops it’s innocent-appearing disguise and reveals its true form. Luke provokes the beast into doing that and the LRG is no more.
One might ask: Why does the creature need to inflict pain and sorrow? Does it feed on human emotions of that sort? Luke had a very bad experience with another such creature only eight months previously and in the same area, so these creatures might travel in packs. If so, will the rest of the pack be ticked off by the destruction of one of their own? Despite Augie’s obvious proficiency with gadgetry, the team’s approach to the LRG problem seems somewhat hurried and unscientific.
Susan’s mother’s house.
Last week, the Donovan house was afflicted with, among other things, a hellhound. This week, the Quincy house has a large blackbird in the attic (which escapes through a window it induces Susan to break). In another (possibly totally irrelevant) coincidence, last week a homeowner said that a neighbour grew a potato that looked like John Quincy Adams and bled on national holidays. This week’s homeowner is named Quincy. And that blackbird (which Augie is certain was a raven) might have been more suited to last episode’s poltergeist-afflicted family — Lauren, Herb, and Elsa Lenore.
next episode For Sale By Owner