SurrealEstate 1×9 Review: “White Wedding”

The penultimate episode of SurrealEstate Season 1, titled ‘White Wedding’, gave us a look into Susan’s childhood. The Donovan house also acted up in a sinister manner.

The main plot in ‘White Wedding’ focused on the Roman Agency trying to figure out what paranormal being didn’t want Susan’s friend Priya to get married to Leon. With Priya’s father Dev being dead and Priya’s mother Kamala wanting to sell the family house, there’s a lot of suspicion thrown at Dev’s likely unhappy ghost. And while I understood why Susan and the rest would think Dev was creating issues for Priya, I think not considering Leon’s Aunt Ruby from the beginning was an oversight someone as experienced as the Roman Agency shouldn’t have made, especially with Aunt Ruby muttering ominous statements left and right.

‘White Wedding’ shared that Susan practically grew up with Priya and her family. They also knew about Susan’s powers and they never made her feel bad about being different. With ‘Baba O’Riley‘ showing us teen versions of Luke, Zooey, August, and Phil, it was nice to see this week’s episode sharing how a young Susan used to be. I’m glad to know young Susan had a friend she could trust and herself around. 

Susan’s childhood was different from Luke’s. With Susan’s powers being something she could hide when needed, Luke’s powers were different. From my understanding, even if he wasn’t willingly using his abilities, someone near him could still end up seeing or hearing a ghost or two. No wonder kid Luke kept everyone at a distance. Being able to communicate with the dead can lead to having a very lonely childhood compared to someone like Susan who has “cooler” abilities such as pyrokinesis and telekinesis.

The narrative also revealed Aunt Ruby’s special ability. I think her gift was similar to Luke’s, meaning that she too could communicate with the dead or at least sense supernatural presence around her. Seeing her and Luke being able to talk to each other telepathically was nice.

Due to the world of SurrealEstate having a bunch of people with various abilities, I’m still not sure why a government organization hasn’t been rounding up such folk for experiments or keeping them under surveillance. Also, why isn’t there a group of superpowered criminals running around and wreaking havoc? With my fingers crossed for SyFy deciding to renew SurrealEstate for a second season, I would like to see more of how the superpowered or gifted folk try to blend in with normal society.

The mystery behind who or what was trying to stop Priya’s wedding was interesting even if it wasn’t the most original idea. As stated by Aunt Ruby, a broken promise could be a very powerful thing if something paranormal was involved. The curse on Leon’s family meant that the first love of every man in his family had to die before the wedding day. It was Priya’s turn to die and seeing Susan, Luke, Phil, and Zooey trying to save her life made for an intense battle with the vengeful curse. Even the ghost of Priya’s father stepped in to protect his daughter.

While at first I was a bit confused about why Leon hadn’t talked to Priya about his family curse, upon further thought, I think his behavior made sense. Not everyone is willing to believe in supernatural stories until unrefutable proof is presented to them.

As for the rest of the episode, Rita reached out to Luke. She wanted his team to handle a handful of houses that were presenting paranormal problems. I enjoyed Rita’s interaction with Luke. Even though he forced her to clearly state she wanted his help, in Rita’s mind that was a step she was okay with taking because it meant her agency was going to make a lot of money. Also, in a way, in Rita’s mind she was doing the Roman Agency a favor by giving them more work to do after the bad PR the business had recently received.

The houses the Roman Agency got from Rita were revealed to be connected to the Donovan house. I’m not sure, but to me it seemed as if the paranormal presence in the Donovan house had started leaking into nearby properties. And while I appreciated August going to check on the Donovan house, I would have liked for him to bring someone along. Here’s to hoping he’s okay after being kidnapped by the demonic house. His texts mentioned he’s afraid and I don’t like that.

We also got to see a nice little interaction between August and Megan. He really has a fatherly vibe when it comes to his coworkers. He was glad to see someone like Megan deciding to spend time with Luke. Not many people are willing to have Luke near them. We also got to learn that August’s a father to four married daughters. I wouldn’t mind seeing August’s daughters appear down the line.

Some other thoughts and questions:

• Megan finally stood up to the Donovan house and even defended Luke while dragging Victoria. However, I have a feeling that the house wanted her to leave. And with her now having moved to a new place, the house can do what it’s been planning to. I have no idea what the said plan is, but it can’t be anything good.
• Susan pronouncing Dev’s name as one would ‘Game Dev’ instead of going the ‘Devdas’ or ‘Deva’ route and saying ‘Hindi’ traditions instead of ‘Hindu’ traditions felt weird. She grew up with Priya’s family. She should know these things.
• So, no one is going to see the footage that was being recorded in the previous episode?
• I continue to be a fan of the diversity that continues to be showcased in SurrealEstate.
• I can’t wait to find out what Phil learned about Luke’s family history. I wouldn’t be surprised if Luke’s family was connected to the Donovan house in some manner.
• The Donovan house throwing Luke away caught me by surprise. I wasn’t expecting the house to hurt him like that.
• So, what’s up with the portal? Is it a way to summon something very dangerous?
• The production team really comes through with the articles and similar content appearing onscreen in this series. Unlike certain other shows, the text is fully readable and makes sense (if you decide to pause a scene to read stuff).

What did you think of ‘White Wedding’? What do you think the Donovan house is planning?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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