SURREALESTATE – Season 3 Episode 1 – (speculative recap) ⁓

The first of three spirits in this episode finds Tyler MacNeil (R Austin Ball) after his fishing line snags on a submerged tackle box. Inside is a stuffed elephant with x’s on its eyes. Tyler collapses, and when he stands again, he is possessed, likely by whatever had been confined in that tackle box. He says: “I’m out, Carl,” and walks away cuddling the stuffed animal like a favourite childhood memory.

Tyler works for Luppington Villages, a “luxury retirement lifestyle alternative”, where he is in charge of choosing carpet. At his office, the first thing he does is google Carl Roman, and is disappointed to discover Carl is dead. Then the spirit possessing Tyler googles Luke. “Little Luke,” he says. “All growed up. And he sells houses too.”

Later, a co-worker named Judy (Valerie LaLonde) tries to talk to Tyler and is surprised when he summarily shoos her from his office. Later Tyler tells his significant other, Vonda Banks (Jessica Mathurin), that he plans to sell their very expensive house that he built only a year ago. He has a particular Estate Agent (probably Luke) in mind, and it seems clear he wants revenge against Carl Roman, possibly for confining him in that tackle box.

The second spirit haunts a property The Roman/Ireland Agency sold to Todd and Janet Kravetz (Christian Bellsmith and Sarita Van Dyke). Under the mistaken apprehension that the spirit of Mrs. Cheever, deceased wife of the home’s former owner, was involved, Lomax (Elena Juatco) delivers the ashes of Mr. Cheever to reunite the couple on what would have been their 100th wedding anniversary. Then a woman falls from the ceiling and explains that she is Bernadette (Dani Klupsch), the Cheevers’ housekeeper. Mr. Cheever got her pregnant, then killed her and stuffed her in the chimney, but she wasn’t dead when he put her in there and she ‘burned for a long time’. Now she wants Cheever to burn.

After learning that the villain died in a warehouse fire in 1931 and was subsequently cremated, Bernadette pours his ashes over herself and vanishes dramatically in a cloud of Cheever remains. A relieved Lomax suggests: “It’s a good thing they didn’t bury the son of a bitch.”

Perhaps Mrs. Cheever would have showed up on her 100th wedding anniversary, but Luke’s presence made Bernadette materialize instead.

Spirit number three, Cowboy Rick, visits young Joey Barnett (Jack Dylan Greig). His parents, Marian (Monica Rodriguez Knox) and Ned (David Miller) are concerned because in the Joey’s drawing, the Cowboy has a gun and a threatening smile. The previous owner, Kirby Yurth (Dylan Mask), is an accountant and it turns out Cowboy Rick is the ghost of Mr. Yurth’s father who died three years previously and has gone to an afterlife where folks can live the lives they wished they’d lived. Rick always wanted to be a cowboy, but became an accountant to please his father, and he returned to urge Kirby to do what he really wants to do before it’s too late. Young Yurth actually wants to be a sailor.

The Roman/Ireland Agency sold that house as a ‘normie’ after carefully searching it for signs of paranormal activity and finding none. In all the time he lived there, Kirby Yurth never had a hint that it was haunted. Cowboy Rick only arrived after Luke and company sold the place.

All three spirits are connected to fathers. Whoever possessed Tyler was (probably) imprisoned by Luke’s father. Bernadette was imprisoned by Mr. Cheever because he didn’t want to be a father. Cowboy Rick needed to tell his son not to make the same mistakes he made.

Augie, Phil, and the rest of the gang

Three years have passed since the events of Season Two. (The fact that Cowboy Rick died three years ago might be just a coincidence.)

Augie (Maurice Dean Wint) is cohabiting with Rochelle Decker (Joy Tanner), who last appeared in “Letting Go” (episode 2.10). He is designing weaponry for Decker’s company ASDRA and is not happy about that. Augie agrees to provide Luke with something stronger than usual to deal with the Cowboy (before Rick’s benign nature is discovered and the device becomes unnecessary), and Luke likely retains that device for future use.

Luke (Tim Rozon) feels left behind by his former associates, all of whom are trying new and different things. No mention is made of Luke’s mother Victoria, who last appeared in “Let Sleeping Dogs Lie” (episode 2.8).

Father Phil‘s new job has him traveling for The Vatican. His husband Anthony is restoring an old church in Rome, and their daughter Felicity is in the midst of her ‘terrible twos’. None of those three appear in this episode.

Megan Donovan (Tennille Read) meets Luke on the third Tuesday of each month at a pub called “The Tell Tale Heart“, which has a painting of a raven on the wall and a waiter named Lloyd who is spookily able to anticipate his customers’ drink orders. Megan is currently dating a urologist named Hunter Manderly (to whom we have not yet been introduced), and plans to travel to Rome next spring.

Megan says she needs to draw up a will, and needs to talk to Zooey (Savannah Basley), who has spent the last three years in law school. Zooey drops by Roman/Ireland occasionally to train their replacement receptionists. Many have tried to fill Zooey’s shoes, and none have succeeded. The latest trainee, Brandon (Connor McMahon), talks Zooey into going on a date with him even though (she tells Luke) the guy is “dumber than undercooked meat“.

Susan (Sarah Levy) and her mother Constance bought a house just before Constance died, intending to fix it and flip it. Now Lomax is helping Susan do that. Susan seems dissatisfied with her social life, and we have been told nothing about Lomax’s personal relationships, but the two of them seem to work well together.

next episode NIGHT TERRORS

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All episodes of SURREALESTATE can be streamed on HULU in the US, and on CTV Sci-Fi Channel in Canada.