![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/da14b03c900d0ad45f0198f9a8cbe6487a-sellingsunset-ep4.rsquare.w400.jpg\")
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Selling Sunset<\/a><\/p>\n A Diamond in the Rough \/ Scary Mary<\/p>\n \n Season 9<\/p>\n Episodes 7 – 8\n <\/p>\n \n Editor\u2019s Rating<\/p>\n 5 stars<\/p>\n *****\n <\/p>\n \n Photo: Netflix\n <\/p>\n This show is at its absolute best when it oscillates wildly between displays of incredible aesthetic beauty and the coldhearted, world-ending evil that makes it possible. Even the name, Selling Sunset, suggests the commodification of a beautiful end. It can be poetry when it gets there, and these episodes get as close to this as I\u2019ve seen this season. It helps a lot that we finally get a scene where everyone currently employed at the brokerage is in the same room. The Welcome Sandra\/Poor Mary dinner hits all the right notes, like the refrain of a beloved song. First, Jason toasts to the fact that their jobs are \u201cprobably more rewarding now than ever because we are helping displaced families.\u201d This is a really cute way to describe already wealthy people not charging sales commissions to wildfire victims. Then we finally get the Mary-and-Chelsea fight that\u2019s been brewing all season. But we\u2019ll get to this. First, Blake.<\/p>\n Blake has proposed to Emma, and for a whole episode the show lets us think she\u2019s considering saying \u201cyes.\u201d They did get me. Emma even goes to Jason of Beverly Hills to try on rings with Chelsea. (Blake did not propose with a ring because this would\u2019ve required the sort of planning and forethought of which he is incapable.) It\u2019s clear Emma isn\u2019t thinking straight since she\u2019s talking about marriage as a \u201cfairy-tale ending.\u201d This is alarming behavior, the sign of a woman who needs to be airlifted to safety. While Blake survived Chrishell\u2019s initial onslaught, our beloved queen keeps good company, and her lieutenant, Chelsea, swoops in to save the day. Chelsea has held back on judgment, so she can stay close enough to Emma to plant actual seeds of doubt. Though it probably helps that Chelsea likely doesn\u2019t really care what Emma does because, folks, Chelsea has an engagement ring worth one million dollars. At least I\u2019m pretty sure that\u2019s what the jeweler (the Jason of Beverly Hills himself) was insinuating when he said she could exchange her ring for a $750,000 bracelet and a $180,000 diamond ring. This is why I feel it\u2019s perfectly okay to make fun of these people all the time.<\/p>\n At an actually gorgeous home in Encino<\/a>, Emma finally admits to Chrishell that Blake has proposed. But thankfully, she said no and dumped him. I love this scene. It\u2019s a heartwarming moment between two best friends and one last delicious opportunity to watch Blake get absolutely roasted. \u201cWas he drunk?\u201d Chrishell asks, then answers her own question with \u201cOf course he was, he\u2019s always drunk.\u201d Blake, get help! You have the means. At this point, it seems things are looking up for Chrishell, who has finally vanquished her latest foe. Unfortunately, Blake was never the thing to worry about; Emma was always going to get sick of him eventually. The real villain, I think, is the far more cunning and dangerous Mary Bonnet.<\/p>\n Mary is becoming a Republican thinking of moving to the suburbs in an effort to feel \u201csafe.\u201d I don\u2019t begrudge her the impulse to move after what happened, but what she really needs is the therapy her ex-boyfriend\/boss Jason is offering to pay for. Safety is not a place; it\u2019s a feeling. Plenty of people who live in low-crime areas with tons of cameras and guns still live every day terrified that a caravan of antifa migrants will surround them and raise their taxes. Mary has let the fear in, and like Ricky Bobby, she must either tame this beast or become its servant. It\u2019s unclear which path she will choose, but because she\u2019s spending so much time with Bre \u2014 who is completely ruled by fear despite what she tries to project \u2014 this may be a foregone conclusion.<\/p>\n I completely expected the fight at the Welcome Sandra\/Poor Mary dinner to begin with Sandra, who I assumed had been cast solely to force conflict. But maybe she\u2019s just here to paint nudes because Mary is actually the one who initiates the argument with Chelsea. As I mentioned in the previous recap<\/a>, I don\u2019t think this is really about Chelsea \u2014 at least I hope it\u2019s not. There is really very little reason for Mary to hate her this much. Yes, they\u2019ve had conflict; yes, Chelsea swore at her in a text; but if her concern is that Chelsea is trying to get camera time, why guarantee it for her by making this a thing? Unless, of course, the person in question is Chrishell\u2019s most valuable lieutenant. Once again, I\u2019d like to draw our attention to the fact that two of Mary\u2019s closest friends have tried and failed to bring down Chrishell in one way or another. I no longer think this is an accident. I think Mary hates Chrishell. I think she hates that Chrishell and her friends are the stars of the show while Mary is in fact the second-in-command at the brokerage, having earned it by remaining loyal to Jason and Brett for years.<\/p>\n Mary may be a coward whose reaction to every conflict is literally to flee the production, but she isn\u2019t stupid. She knows enough to know she cannot challenge Chrishell directly herself; she doesn\u2019t have the clout. So she sends her minions \u2014 Nicole, Christine, and Jason\u2019s first cousin Jenn \u2014 to take shots at Chrishell and her first base of support, Emma. Now she\u2019s going after Chrishell\u2019s newest banner woman, Chelsea. This is also why I think she\u2019s been cuddling up to Bre: Whe\u2019s recruiting her, hoping to flank and ultimately destroy Chelsea, weakening Chrishell\u2019s overall influence. This is not just a fight, it\u2019s a war.<\/p>\n \u2022 Once again, the house in Encino is stunning<\/a>. I have notes, of course: I will never understand why the wealthy want furniture that looks as if it were bought at a failed tech start-up\u2019s office-liquidation sale. But it has real grass, real trees, cool accent walls, beautiful windows, and the thing that really got me: a whole wall filled with books. What makes a lot of these houses so ugly is that they were built for evil billionaire money men who do nothing but scroll Raya and bet on sports. This is a home for evil billionaire artists who scroll Raya and read books \u2014 it really does make a difference.<\/p>\n \u2022 Just a few episodes after Amanza announces to the world that they all used to do cocaine together, it\u2019s pretty funny to see Mary talking about going to parties at the house of a man named Smilez<\/a> and claiming not to remember it has a lazy river because she was \u201ctipsy.\u201d Sure, Jan<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2022 I was really excited to roast New York City Realtor Eleonora Srugo from Selling the City, who comes to town to meet up with Bre and learn what a house is (we don\u2019t have those here in NYC). Oh, what a rant I had prepared! But she recently decided she will not actually be helping Eric Adams sabotage Mamdani\u2019s rent-freeze plans<\/a>, as previously reported. For this, I must reluctantly temper my rage because I understand that to help the overall movement, I must take what I can get, even from my opps.<\/p>\n \u2022 The house Alanna and Chelsea meet up in is actually pretty nice<\/a>! With the exception of the obviously fake grass that makes me deeply sad, I like the design! Good job, everyone!<\/p>\n \u2022 C-List Celebrity Sightings: Chrishell shows Tinashe a house<\/a> with one of those evil-looking narrow fireplaces<\/a> the devil invented to remind us he exists.<\/p>\n \u2022 Chrishell and I both got shit on by birds this year. Twins!<\/p>\n \u2022 During Chrishell\u2019s big scene with Emma in Encino, she says, in regards to how much she made fun of Blake, \u201cThat was me trying.\u201d I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s because this is a show populated mostly by basic white women or if this is my own hyperfixation on Taylor Swift lyrics, but there are so many Swift references this season. It\u2019s starting to freak me out. Eleonora wearing a snake, Nicole\u2019s Reputation hair from earlier in the season, the use of the word savage constantly and from out of nowhere. If I find out Taylor and Travis have been to one of those music industry parties at Smilez\u2019s house, I will lose my tiny mind for good.<\/p>\n \u2022 My big hot take is that I think it\u2019s actually nice that Sandra lets Jason mansplain to her. I have recently come to believe that finding the patience to tolerate this in reasonable doses<\/a> is the cure to the male-loneliness epidemic. Inconvenience is the cost of community, folks.<\/p>\n VULTURE NEWSLETTER<\/p>\n Keep up with all the drama of your favorite shows!<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n