On this week’s powerful episode of SYFY’s SurrealEstate, The Roman Agency takes on a haunted master-planned subdivision where a large group of homes share an eerie connection. Meanwhile, Susan deals with extremely high-maintenance influencers who find everything wrong with their new property. Written by Duana Taha and directed by Danishka Esterhazy, here’s what went down on “A House is Not a Home.”
Bae Views | From million-dollar ocean views at their new home to clicks, hits, and views on their social media accounts, Susan (Sarah Levy) quickly learns that her new clients, “influencers by the sea,” Duncan (Patrick Kwok-Choon) and Sophie (Laci J Mailey), are very nitpicky when settling into their new home. The couple tell the new agent that “arctic dove” is not the same color as “cloud white,” and that the “atrocious” water pressure, incessant pounding noise, water pooling on floors, and “wobbly walls” are not acceptable.
Susan tells Duncan and Sophie that she will get a contractor to the home to fix some of the issues right away — just not at 8:30 at night. The rest of the stuff, however, she brings to the team. “It may be the property itself has some eccentricities,” she says. “We’ll get some experts to sort them all out, okay?” Shortly after leaving the seaside property, Susan nearly drives into a mysterious horseman. At the office, Luke (Tim Rozon) suggests that Phil (Adam Korson) and August (Maurice Dean Wint) head to the property to investigate, but Susan is opposed to the idea. Luke then decides to have Susan offer the seaside couple a mini vacation so she and Zooey (Savannah Basley) can try to figure out what’s going on. Road trip!
Home Wrecker | The agency takes on Somerset Estates master-planned communities, where family live, work, shop, and play. The developer of the subdivision contacted Roman for help, as a lot of the units are having quality control issues like crazy — issues that can’t be explained away by shoddy workmanship. Windows shattering and floorboards splintering are just some of the unexplained happenings that have been causing much concern to homeowners within the community.
As Father Phil and August wandered through the neighborhood looking for wandering souls in a soulless environment, the technology specialist noticed a spike in their analysis in multiple locations, but whatever it was vanished as quickly as it appeared. At the office, the team look at the layout of the subdivision and its different models (all named after famous forts): Halifax, Delaware, Independence, Sumpter and the McHenry. They discover that all the houses where unexplained stuff happened are the Delaware model homes.
Girl Power | Zooey and Susan head to the influencers’ home and the office manager shares that she can’t fathom how or why their new hire was brought onto the team. “Why you?” she asks. The duo do their work at the home, and before it gets late, Zooey mentions that they should start heading back. Susan gives her the bad news that most of the weird occurrences at the property happen at night, so they’re not going anywhere. “It’s a sleepover, girlfriend.”
Over drinks, Susan reveals her telekinetic powers and fire abilities to a very skeptical Zooey. The subject of soulmates arises and Zooey opens up about a happier time when she was in high school and met the love of her life, Kyle Summer. Unfortunately, he broke his back working construction, got addicted to oxy, and died not long after. “If he was my soulmate,” Zooey says, “I’m pretty much out of the game.”
Zooey calls it a night and invites Susan to the car to sleep in, but Susan chooses to stay in the home because “there could be some spookies I need to observe,” she says, fumbling her words. After a horrifying night with a visit from some dead pissed off sailors, Phil heads to the village historical society to find what he can in the history books. Phil calls Susan in a panic and tells her that the home used to be a lighthouse that was torn down in 1887.
During a foggy day in 1811, the lighthouse keeper went into town to see his wife. He must have fallen asleep because he wakes up with her in the middle of the night and realizes that he’s got to light the lamp. He rushes to the lighthouse on his horse and hears the most awful sound. The ship comes in too close and crashes on the rocks with nearly 100 souls lost. The sailors want revenge on the tardy horseman, but will settle for Susan and Zooey.
RELATED | “SurrealEstate” Episode ‘For Sale By Owner’ Recap: Fake It Till You Break It
Susan refuses to leave the home, and Phil instructs her to find a very big and bright light in the house and get it up on the roof as high as she can. “You need to look like a lighthouse right now!” he shouts at her. Zooey finds a ring light in the house, but with such a short electrical cord, it’ll never make it to the top of the roof. Susan tells her to wait in the house, as an idea has sparked in her mind. Much to Zooey’s disbelief, Susan conjures up a massive fireball and raises it high enough for the ghost ship to see and avoid crashing. “Wow! That was impressive,” Zooey says, smiling.
Master Plan | Luke learns that the designer of the Delaware had his blueprints ripped off and died not too long after. The real estate agent heads to the original Delaware home and finds its deceased owner in the sun room out back. The dead homeowner, Bernard Nightingale, shares that he designed the home for his fiancé. Bernie reveals that six months after he and Lucy moved into their forever home, she ran off with his brother. He says that not only did he have to live in that place alone, but his “bastard” old partner stole his design plans from the trash and built a whole bunch more. Whatever happens in Bernie’s house will also happen in all the copies.
Later, Luke returns to the Nightingale home and finds Bernard, once again in the sun room. “It was her room right?” Luke asks. “The room you built for her.” Luke has a video meeting with the developer of the subdivision and tells him that his company had unlawfully acquired the plans of the sun room and exploited it. The company could owe Mr. Nightingale’s estate millions of dollars in royalties and penalties.
The solution they propose is a retrofit to every Delaware standing. Bottom line: no more places like the Delaware on the face of the earth. The developer agrees to the deal as Luke warns him to be careful when he sleeps at night. Luke turns to Bernard to celebrate their success, but the man has disappeared. He turns over the two chairs on either side of the round table now that Bernard is at peace and has moved on.
SurrealEstate airs Fridays at 10pm on SYFY.