Doom’d For a Certain Term to Walk the Night
SURREALESTATE – Season 3 Episode 2 – (speculative recap) ⁓
Audrey
The new office temp at the Roman/Ireland Agency is Audrey (Daniella Dela Peña) and she seems to know what she’s doing. She spent two years temping at Leland Properties which she describes as “high volume but lacking the personal touch that a boutique agency provides“. Audrey is efficient and not at all intimidated by Susan’s filing system with its 109 colour codes. She is interested in what exactly a “Metaphysically Engaged Property” might be, and will get an intense illustration of that later in the story. She also switches the office coffee maker from pod machine to pour over.
Susan Ireland
Susan (Sarah Levy) visits Mitch Valmy (Kristopher Turner) and his son Jaylen (David Webster). Mitch wants to put his house on the market and move later in the month (the 23rd to be precise). Susan notes that Jaylen, who is at school when she visits, has a bedroom with bars on the windows, and Mitch explains that his son sleepwalks. He shoos Susan unceremoniously out of the house, and tells her to accept the first offer on the property, an idea that Susan finds appalling.
Jaylen is horrified after watching a video of his nocturnal self
Tyler MacNeil (R Austin Ball) phones Luke (Tim Rozon) to put his house at 712 Riverwalk on the market. Luke is pleased and tells Audrey that “a big fish just jumped into the boat“. When Luke goes to look at the property, MacNeil holds a kitchen knife behind his back while they talk, but before that, Mr. MacNeil has an encounter with Alex (Sean Connolly Affleck) from St Andrew’s church who is dropping off a flyer for next weekend’s church barbecue.
MACNEIL: “Ah, I see. A man of God. And he told you to come over here and invite me for a little wine, wafer, and ribs?”
ALEX: “Not exactly.”
MACNEIL: “What does he tell you, then? I assume he speaks to you. Comforts you, tells you you’re his favourite little helper? I will personally pay you $100,000 to leave the church — that corrupt, rotting old relic — and never return. What do you say, Alex? Can I get an amen and a hallelujah?”
Since MacNeil was possessed while fishing, it’s worth noting that St Andrew was, like his brother Simon, a fisherman.
Jaylen (David Webster) and his friend Quentin (Ceylon Crossfield)
Alex calls MacNeil crazy and walks away.
When Susan next visits the Valmy’s property, the bars on Jaylen’s window are bent outward and Mitch is escorting his son back to the house. She informs Luke of the situation, and Luke cuts the McNeil interview short. As Luke is leaving, MacNeil raises the knife to stab him in the back, and at that moment, Alex returns and says he’ll take the money. The frustrated demon puts the knife away and tells Alex that it was a ‘limited time offer’.
MacNeil’s conversation with Alex suggests he is possessed by a creature opposed to the church, though which church is not specified. Alex’s timely arrival suggests that Luke might have something otherworldly guarding him against harm.
Rochelle Decker
When Jaylen got cancer some years previously, Mitch located a man in Northern Iraq who had immortality for sale. Luke calls what the man sold Mitch a demon, but it behaves a lot like a djinn. (It grants wishes and was housed in a bottle.) The demon possesses Jaylen, cures his cancer, and possibly makes him immortal, but once Jalen hits puberty the beast takes over Jalen’s body each time he falls asleep. Before the windows and doors were barred (we are told), Jaylen dismembered an adult male deer.
The demon may also be responsible for Mitch’s financial success. He was once an airline pilot, but quit and has been day-trading since with considerable success.
Lloyd (James Allodi) the possibly clairvoyant bartender at The Tell-Tale Heart, serves Augie a beer.
Augie (Maurice Dean Wint) had explained to Luke that he could not provide any more anti-demon tech because Decker (Joy Tanner), with whom he is cohabiting, has been promoted and will be under intense scrutiny. Luke calls him anyway, and Augie comes through, borrowing a next-generation defibrillator which, he says will chase the demon from the boy. Augie tells Decker what he did and is forced to resign his position at ASDRA, and probably is forced to leave Decker as well. He seems not to mind either of those things, and is the first of the Agency’s lost lambs to return.
Tyler MacNeil aka Elvis the Elephant
The entity possessing Jaylen is, with Augie’s help, banished, and the only casualty is Audrey, who faints at the sight of the possessed boy, and shortly thereafter sends Susan a polite note of resignation. Audrey was unconscious when the boy’s possession ended and one wonders if the djinn might have jumped into her.
At the graveyard where Luke’s father is buried, MacNeil addresses Carl Roman’s gravestone. “Hey Carl. Surprised to see me? Of course you are,” he says, “since I’m not at the bottom of a lake where you and your sniveling ratfink of a son dumped me thirty-five goddamned years ago. Yeah it’s me, Carl. Elvis the elephant. Still Alive.”
Miscellaneous Info
Tim Rozon and Emily Alatalo in HUNTING GROUNDS, the story of a woman (Alatalo) who flees her mafia-connected husband and holes up in a cabin with Jake (Rozon), a reclusive drifter who may not be exactly what he seems. HUNTING GROUNDS can be streamed on Amazon Prime Video.
Jennifer Stroud is Costume Designer for this season of SurrealEstate, and is probably behind the new and improved appearance of Luke, Susan, and pretty much everyone else on the show. Stroud won a CAFCAD Award for her work on Nora Unkel‘s 2020 Thriller A NIGHTMARE WAKES. She also designed the costumes for Bryan Bertino‘s horror feature VICIOUS, due to be released on 10 October.
Rouzbeh Heydari makes his TV acting debut as the Iraqi demon dealer. He directed the 2024 drama A HUNDRED LIES, about a the trials and tribulations of a young Toronto musician.
next episode – DEATH DOES A REFI