SurrealEstate Review: Roman Six (Season 1 Episode 6)

It’s time for real estate to meet Final Destination on SurrealEstate Season 1 Episode 6, “Roman Six.”

This week, visitors to an open house are meeting horrifying ends three days apart. The work of a watchmaker named Catherine Owens, who is in prison for killing her tenant. 

The thing about “Roman Six,” is while it’s suspenseful, it’s still predictable.

It has an interesting plot, the story unfolds at an even pace, and the second thread doesn’t distract that much. 

Catherine Owens is a nice touch and she has an interesting dynamic with Tim Rozon. It’s enjoyable to watch if something of a side quest outside of the show’s main beat.

The fact that Rita and Luke go into this thinking the house is the culprit makes sense. It does feel like the house is marking them, and if they can’t go inside without fearing for their lives they’re trying to solve this case with their hands tied behind their back.

The episode is suspenseful to a point until we get to the list and the idea that there’s an order to this chaos. There’s a reason the Final Destination franchise spanned five moves over the course of 11 years: the idea works.

However, it also feels overdone, and the realization that they could defeat Catherine doesn’t feel like a payoff undercutting all the suspense from before. 

The reason this idea of people dying in a specific order that’s been preordained is because it’s faceless. Death is the ultimate enemy and the original movies always made a point of it being undefeatable. 

It doesn’t matter how many sharp objects you hide because death will find you. Giving this a specific methodology is an interesting idea, but it takes away that suspense and fear if we know something sharp is coming for a character’s eye. 

The slight of hand the Roman Agency pulls with Meghan at the end works well in this instance, mostly because we don’t expect it. 

I was ready to eulogize Meghan in this review, until those last five minutes. However, I also should have expected that Luke and his team had something up his sleeve, cos they need to finish the story with his mom.

Now let’s talk about Susan’s client that ends up being a ghost. Knowing what the Roman Agency is about, it should be no surprise that a ghost would hire them. It is 100% on brand. 

However, the static-y and glitchy video call gives the mystery away.

Susan introduces the story by saying he left some static-y voice mails, but when we see him on the screen it gives away the illusion. After all, we are living in a world that has become accustomed to remote meetings and learning.

All the clues that Callabasis is dead are in his words. The way he talks about Susan being right for the job, referring to the college boys as parasites, and then saying he can finally move on before telling Susan to call his lawyer. 

It’s another story that feels something like a side-quest until you start putting the pieces together.

SurrealEstate really is trying to find a voice for itself, but it hasn’t shown anything consistent yet episode to episode. It has a solid thread through it, but “Roman Six,” doesn’t quite fit into that lore except for some references to Meghan’s house.

In the end, it may be that “Roman Six” is the episode that exists primarily as filler, meant only to get Luke and Meghan together. 

Stray Thoughts

• The episode isn’t without its comedy, but it feels formulaic. We could all see the sharp-tipped stylus sitting by Father Phil. 
• Watching Zoey and Susan team up to get the photos of the house is one of the highlights of the episode. The way that Zoey tricks them is absolute perfection. 

What did you think of this episode of SurrealEstate? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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SurrealEstate airs Fridays at 10/9c on Syfy.

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