SURREALESTATE – Season 2 Episode 2 – SPOILERS

Susan (Sarah Levy) and Augie (Maurice Dean Wint) deal with the haunting of a bed and breakfast owned by Ted and Diane Baumgartner (Brian Paul and Vickie Papavs). The place is afflicted with raucous spirits who only manifest on Saturday nights. The realtors soon learn that Captain Jurgen Schroeder, who built the house for his wife Gisela around 1870, is responsible. Jurgen was lost in a shipwreck on a Saturday night, and Gisela spent the rest of her life in the house waiting for her love to return. Every week their souls are reunited in their old trysting place, doing what Augie colourfully describes as the “hunka-chunka”.

Susan decides to turn the situation into a positive. “Jurgen and Gisela are real,” she tells the Baumgartners. “Their love is elemental, authentic. It’s exactly what millennials are looking for – experiences, not just destinations. Jurgen and Gisela’s story nails all the key touch points this premium-focused demographic demands of a bespoke travel experience.” She then suggests that Kit Rampart (Brian Marler) and his crew might provide publicity. There will be more about Rampart later in the post.

Since Luke’s return, Augie has repeatedly enabled conversation with the spirit world with the use of technology. Up till now, tech could be used to detect the presence of spirits, but not to communicate with them. This week, Luke converses with a ghost using what appears to be a modified satellite phone and last week Luke used another of Augie’s devices to speak with the spirit of a serial killer. In both instances, it is only Luke who does the talking. (Last week Susan chimed in, but she has powers too.) Perhaps Luke has not really lost his ghost-whispering power. He just needs a prop from Augie to convince himself he can do it.

On the other side of town, one of Luke’s clients, Doug Pederson (Andrew Legg), has decided to take desperate action to sell his house after the legendary ghost of Grace Wexford (a relative of a former owner) slashes his back with her talons. Mr. Pederson decides to turn the situation into a positive and bring in TV personality Kit Rampart and his Spirit Stalkers. “Some people,” Pederson opines, “like the idea of moving into a haunted house” and points out that Spirit Stalkers is seen all over the world. “Some Bulgarian prince,” he continues, “could see this on the TV and say: ‘I must have that house!'”

Kit admits to faking paranormal phenomena for his show, but tells Luke (Tim Rozon) that when he started out, the things he investigated were real.

In a memorable scene, Luke and Kit compare scars.

KIT: [removing his shirt] “Terranova Cemetery, Savannah, G.A. A poltergeist tossed a broken pop bottle… Huh? Three inches from my aorta. Yeah. Don’t see that kind of excitement and danger in real estate, do ya? “
LUKE: [rolling up a pantleg] “Four-bedroom Craftsman. Minute hand shot off the grandfather clock, cut me here. Four-point-seven inches closer to my femoral artery, I’d never dance professionally again.”
KIT: “Ooh! A ghost did that to you? [exposing his right calf] Emily’s Bridge, Stowe, Vermont. This gnarled old hand with claws grabbed my leg. Hurt like hell.”
LUKE: [rolling up his sleeve] “Split-level bungalow, Palo Alto, California, gourmet kitchen, original built-ins on a lush third-acre. Demon with the head of a pig tried to pull me into a convection oven.”

Was Luke joking, or did he once dance professionally?

Legend has it that, in 1880, Grace Wexford dug up her father’s recently buried corpse and ate it. Phil (Adam Korson) learns the true story of Grace from Willa Stans (Kate Trotter) an expert on local history. (Stans wrote a book called “Naming Conventions for Pubs in the Northeast“, which impressed Phil greatly.)

It turns out that Grace did attempt to dig up her father’s remains, but her purpose was to put a locket in the coffin, something he wanted to be buried with. Her uncle called the sheriff who slapped Grace hard enough to cut his hand on her teeth. The cut became infected; the sheriff died; and ever since that the ghost of Grace has been trying to “die up” to the legend that grew around her memory.

After Zooey (Savannah Basley) leads the Sprit Stalkers on a wild goose chase, Luke uses verse to invoke Grace’s spirit and enable her to join the afterlife. He does this without any technological assistance.

We don’t know in what year Captain Schroeder was shipwrecked, but it could have been about ten years after he built his house, in 1880, the same year that Grace Wexford’s father, John Wexford, died.

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Miscellaneous information

The scary version of Grace Wexford’s ghost was played by Heather Phillips, who was also Naomi in “Lips” (Episode 7 of Astrid and Lilly Save the World.)

The notion of a Spirit Stalkers spinoff on SyFy seems to be gaining traction on Twitter. An account has been created for “Spirit Stalkers, Paranormal PI“, and Danishka Esterhazy, who directed this episode of SurrealEstate, tweeted “Who wants to see a #SpiritStalkers spinoff? I do!!!”

Brian Marler is one of the founding artists of XCHANGE THEATRE WORKS, and their website has an excellent biography of him.

When Luke asserts that “Bulgaria is a parliamentary democracy. No princes,” he is almost right. The last Tsar of Bulgaria, Simeon II, abdicated in 1946. (Many years later he became Prime Minister.) In 2002, Princess Kalina, Simon II’s only daughter. married Kitín Muñoz, and the royal wedding was the subject of a television documentary. The Princess has a son, Simeon Hassan Muñoz, who might well be considered a Prince.

next episode The Butler Didn’t

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Season 3 of SURREALESTATE premiered 3 April on SyFy in the US, and on CTV Sci-Fi Channel in Canada. New episodes drop Thursdays. Seasons 1 & 2 are available from HULU in the US, and from Crave TV in Canada.