SurrealEstate 3×7 Review: “A Slice of Afterlife”

SurrealEstate season 3 episode 7, titled ‘A Slice of Afterlife’, had the Roman Ireland agents facing a very toxic mother while also dealing a heavy blow to the team.

Trigger Warning: This review of SurrealEstate season 3 episode 7 talks about Domestic Violence.

Sticking to the show’s narrative of talking about tense parent/child relationships, ‘A Slice of Afterlife’ spent most of the time with our leads trying to solve a haunting involving the ghost of a toxic mother continuing to make things worse for her pregnant daughter, Claire. Apparently, Claire and her husband Tim had been forced to move a bunch of houses ever since Claire’s mother Emma died three years ago. The hauntings would start with Emma “organizing” things around the house, Claire being pinched all over her body, and finally escalating to Emma appearing and throwing things around.  

It was nice to see an episode with prospective house buyers who knew they were being haunted and by whom. Claire and Tim simply wanted Luke to “zap” the problem away. I understood why Claire didn’t mention Emma during her initial meeting with Luke and Lomax. As Claire told Tim, she didn’t feel comfortable being the type of daughter who wanted to be so vocal about wanting the ghost of her dead mother gone. She didn’t want to tarnish Emma’s name after her death, even though she wasn’t a good mother.

Of course, Luke needed to know more about Claire’s potential relationship with the ghost to come up with the right solution. I liked how Lomax’s nose twitching played a role in her realizing something was off about Claire and Tim’s story. I want to see more of Lomax’s nose twitching ability.

The main theme of Claire’s storyline dealt with finding the courage to stand up against your abuser. Emma had been abusing Claire since she was a child to try and make her “perfect” and “strong” enough for the obstacles she would face in the world. Unfortunately, there are numerous examples of children out there suffering from physical and emotional abuse from their own freaking parents. With most of the abuse being done under the guise of looking out for said child or wanting to make things “better” for them.

Also, while some might not agree, I’m all here for badmouthing certain people even after they die. Sometimes it does feel like society wants you to forgive your abuser (especially your parents) once they are gone. Society might even turn against you and call you an unkind person if you refuse to do so. Hopefully, that changes someday, with more people becoming aware of generational trauma and how the negative impact of experiencing abuse (whatever type it may be) can continue to live on even after an abuser’s death. 

Coming to the B storyline, it involved a haunted toaster that could predict the future. No matter how many times the couple had tried to throw the toaster away after moving into their new house (it was left there by the previous owners), the toaster would always magically appear on their kitchen island.

As for whether or not the toaster predicted correctly, yeah, it sure did. From what I could understand, the toaster was a lot more interested in predicting bad outcomes instead of delivering happy news. Due to Susan delivering the toaster to Tag for research, we got to learn about the toaster linking back to Charles Strite, known for inventing the pop-up toaster. And yeah, I went online to see if I could find anything about Strite showing interest in the occult and reading futures as mentioned in the episode, but I couldn’t find anything. So, it might just be some creative liberty taken by the writing team.

While the toaster situation was easy to handle, with Luke contacting Strite’s ghost to take the toaster away, it was introduced in ‘A Slice of Afterlife’ to drastically progress things with Malec. He didn’t take too kindly to Luke declining his offer to work together because Luke and Susan felt Tyler’s deal clashed with the agency’s philosophy. Tyler needed to find a way to get Susan away from Luke. And he would have succeeded in doing so if it weren’t for Tag.

Sigh! Poor Tag. Even though he was brought in to replace Father Phil, I had grown to like him. Tag’s crush on Susan was cute. Working with the Roman Ireland Agency had given him a sense of belonging to a team that looked out for each other. ‘A Slice of Afterlife’ gave Tag a bunch of moments to share his emotions with Susan. She even visited him to pick up a delivery and recommended which kind of flooring he should go for to make his apartment look lively. Susan gifting Tag his own Roman Ireland Agency business cards was an incredibly nice gesture. She called him the “Answers Guy”. I don’t ship those two one bit, but their moments together were sweet.

Tag being involved in protecting Susan from Tyler took me by surprise. He had a slice of bread from the toaster that said RIP Susan. Not being able to reach her cell to warn her, Tag found the courage to finally leave his apartment to run after Susan. Alex Ozerov-Meyer did a good job showcasing Tag’s emotional and physical struggles as he walked out of his apartment and toward the elevator.

Tag made it just in time to push Susan away from an incoming car driven by none other than… drumroll… Tyler! 

I mean, I get that it was an intense scene, but it also made me roll my eyes. When Tyler mentioned he needed to do away with Susan to get to Luke, I was thinking of a far more elaborate plan than a hit-and-run with himself behind the wheel. I was expecting him to try and meet Susan privately and use some weird supernatural ability of his to temporarily take her off the chessboard. Knowing Tyler, he’s going to try and kill Susan again. Fingers crossed, he comes up with an actual plan.

As for Tag, while I would like for him to be seriously injured yet alive, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s dead. Tag dying would help make things grow a lot more serious with Tyler, who had been quite threatening over the past episodes, but we haven’t seen him actually kill someone. Tag could, unfortunately, be the first victim.

What did you think of SurrealEstate season 3 episode 7 ‘A Slice of Afterlife’? Do you think Tag is still alive?

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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