Rescue, Fair Lord, Else the Day Is Lost
SURREALESTATE – Season 3 Episode 5 – (speculative recap) ⁓
Jan Lowry
Jan Lowry (Kirsten Comerford) and her husband Paul (Sergio Di Zio) are selling their house. Paul is not happy, and suggests selling is “like leaving a painting unfinished”. Jan doesn’t want to talk about it. “Look,” she tells him, “the agent said we could sell faster if we just upped our curb appeal. Why don’t you take inside, and I’ll clean up out here.”
She begins work on the garden. Unseen, a man (Nick Londoรฑo) watches from the shadows. He pricks a finger with a pocket knife, and a purple flower springs from the drop of blood that falls from the wound. Next morning, Jan returns to the garden and finds the flower. The mysterious man returns, and introduces himself as Blake, saying he lives ‘not far’ away. They chat for a while, and his parting words are: “Enjoy the garden, Jan. It’s as close to creating the world as we will ever get.”
The Gardener (Blake)
A day later, more of the purple flowers have appeared. After sniffing one, Jan seems intoxicated and her eyes briefly change colour to match the flower. Susan (Sarah Levy) shows up do do a walk-through about which Jan has completely forgotten. Susan’s allergies make her decline to sniff the purple bloom, but she pockets a sample. The two have tea, and Susan asks “How are things between you and Paul?” Jan’s response indicates a recent major change in the relationship. “We used to be so, like, absorbed in each other. Wherever we went it was Jan and Paul, like one entity. I’m sure you’ve had relationships like that.” Susan hasn’t, but says “sure”.
Jan feels underappreciated, and Susan, who has given up on dating entirely, tells her there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be fought for. Back at the office, Susan offers Luke (Tim Rozon) some unsolicited advice, suggesting he should call a woman named Shannon McConnell instead of “waiting for something that’s never going to happen” (meaning Megan Donovan). Luke does not seem interested in Shannon, but we may yet meet her.
Walter and Luke
When Luke goes by the Lowry house, only Paul is there and Luke tells him the gardens look great. “Yeah, it’s Jan,” Paul says. “She’s totally obsessed. It’s so weird, like, she never liked flowers and she was always, like, ‘give me something you can use'”. Paul is clearly baffled as to why his wife is leaving. “She says she wants to stay friends,” he continues, “but can you stay friends with someone that you love so much?”
Augie (Maurice Dean Wint) identifies the Lowry’s mystery flower as Puya chilensis, a carnivorous plant native to Chile, and says this particular variety contains traces of human DNA. The plant has an alias, ‘the sheep-eating plant‘, because its spiny extensions ensnare large animals who starve to death when they can’t escape. Puya chilensis then feeds on their decomposing bodies.
Kirsten Comerford as Jan and Nick Londoรฑo as Blake — Comerford also stars as Natalie in the Lifetime movie PLAYING WITH FIRE
Recently hired researcher Tag (Alex Ozerov-Meyer) relates a relevant folk legend. “One day,” Tag explains, “a poor farmer was walking in the woods and got snared in a sheep eater. After absorbing his body, the plant began to change. It learned to speak and lured in more humans to eat. Then it would go dormant for six years only to awaken again it emerges for one week only for six years.”
Tag also locates a newspaper account of the disappearance of a 28-year-old woman from the Lowry’s vicinity six months previously. (Lana Bateman is listed as the article’s author. Lana Elizabeth Bateman is SurrealEstate’s graphic designer for Season Three.)
Jan and Paul
It takes three men, Luke, Augie, and Paul, to rescue Jan from the hot carnivorous gardener. (Susan tags along, but is not instrumental in the rescue.) Afterward, Jan and Paul’s relationship seems to be restored, though their house remains on the market.
At ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’, Luke tells Megan (Tennille Read) he doesn’t want to be just friends anymore, but he fails to define what he does want, so Megan leaves. “If you figure it out,” she says, “let me know.” It seems possible that Megan (or Luke) will need to be rescued to get them back together.
Nessie and the Corpse
Walter and Cora Lomax
Elsewhere, Lomax (Elena Juatco) visits her parents Walter (Tim Progosh) and Cora (Lisa Kovack), who call her ‘Nessie’, and want her to take over the family business. Clytemnestra decides to help prepare one of the bodies for burial while she’s there. “Bless you,” says her father. “We’ve kept your old makeup kit. Nobody contours a reconstructed eye socket like you.”
That Cora is preparing lamb for dinner seems uncannily synchronous.
Rita Weiss
The conflicted Lomax has a conversation (of sorts) with the corpse on which she’s working. The dead person (Holly Jade Balmer) defines her own conversational function: “I’m your subconscious, remember?,” she explains. “Subliminal coping mechanism to help you sort through the thoughts that you can’t share with the living.” The two list the pros and cons of taking over the mortuary, and this is worrying, but, thankfully, she decides to remain a realtor. Her parents do not seem terribly unhappy about her decision.
At the funeral for another of the mortuary’s clients, Rita Weiss (Alison Brooks), who last appeared in “Set Your Flag on Fire” (episode 2.6), turns up. Rita has been trolling the recently bereaved for listings, which she calls DNDs (Desirable Neighbourhood Deaths). Lomax calls her a ‘hearse chaser’ and kicks her out.