SURREALESTATE – Season 2 Episode 4 – SPOILERS

Susan (Sarah Levy) is sulking at home after her recent verbal sparring match with Luke, so newly minted real estate agent Zooey L’Enfant (Savannah Basley) gets to do Susan’s job, which is to show houses to Lara and Frieda Dunn-Herberts (Lonni Patey and Heather Phillipps). Zooey is cautioned that the couple are lookey-loos, chronically displeased with whatever property they are shown.

They are in sharp contrast to Luke’s client, Eric Toft (Brad Stone), who seems desperate to acquire the property neighbouring his own. Toft hopes to build, among other things, a guest house situated far enough away from his residence to keep him from ever seeing visiting family. When he discovers another small house adjacent, he insists on buying both lots or none at all. Money is no object, says Toft, and Luke should just buy the things. One wonders just who or what might be buried on that property he is so determined to obtain. Luke (Tim Rozon) leaves his card on the door of the second house Toft wants.

Zooey has little success with pleasing Lara and Frieda until Rita Weiss (Alison Brooks) stops by the office. We learn that Rita has a Masters degree in Philosophy and after a while, discovered that sales is a profession better suited to a psychologist than to a philosopher. She tells Zooey the secret of her success, which is to give customers what they actually need, not what they think they want. This strategy enabled Rita to pay off her student loans, divorce her husband, and to indulge her eco-insensitive materialism by buying a Cadillac Escalade that gets seven kilometers per litre. Zooey takes this information to heart, and soon the Dunn-Herberts have purchased a house that works well for them. (At least Zooey tells them that.)

The owner of Mr. Toft’s second target property is Kay Bozer (Tara Yelland), and she stops by the Roman Agency to tell Luke she does not want to sell. Luke points out that she could have thrown his card in the trash, and she agrees to further discussion of the matter. Down the hall, Augie (Maurice Dean Wint) tests some new ghost-finding tech that detects infrasound (something often associated with suspected hauntings) and the device appears to react to Bozer’s presence. They warn Luke that Ms. Bozer might be other than what she seems to be. Luke is not without his own suspicions.

LUKE: “You know, I could have sworn there was something in that house, watching me.”
AUGIE: “You think maybe it was your, um… your mojo coming back?”
ZOOEY: “Ah! Maybe it’s growing back, like a starfish leg.”

Luke’s behaviour over the last few episodes has been peculiar. When a ghost threatened the life of a client, his primary concern was for the reputation of the Roman Agency. His insensitivity to Susan’s complaints resulted in her taking personal time off, something she had never before done. Now, he praises Zooey for making a sale her first time out. “All it cost was my soul,” she tells him. His response to that was: “It is a sale that us grownups make every day. You did good.”

Augie doesn’t offer a literary quotation this week, but he perhaps should have repeated to Zooey something Jules Verne once said: “What you do for money, you do badly.”

Phil (Adam Korson) uncovers a Hungarian legend about the Boszorkany, a shapeshifting witch who keeps herself young by bathing in the blood of a living man under the light of the blood moon. Since young men have been disappearing in the area; a lunar eclipse is scheduled for that evening; and the name Bozer is somewhat similar to Boszorkany; they correctly conclude that Bozer is a threat to Luke. The pair rescue their boss (and a couple of other folks) from Bozer, who bears comparison to (Countess Bathory, she who allegedly bathed in blood to preserve her youth. (And was also Hungarian).

At a bowling fundraiser organized by Susan, Zooey meets (and is horrified by) Rita Weiss and two other members (Judy Hancock and Yasmine Majchrzak) of the “Listed Sisters”, which Rita describes as “an organized group of powerful female real estate agents that aren’t at all sad, or trying too hard.” They are drinking something Rita calls a “white wine shandy” to which they add Elderflower. (A shandy is made with beer, not wine. It is clear from looking at the pitcher that this one is also made with beer.) Luke runs into his old rival Greg Chisholm (Colin Furlong) whom we first met in “A House is Not a Home” (Episode 1.4). The two seem to no longer dislike one another.

Susan didn’t make it to the fundraiser because her house apparently ate her. Also the picture in her hallway has changed to (probably a print of) François Courbin’s “Salon 1800” poster.

next episode Art & Science

---

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