Is this the end of the “selling sunset” as we know it?

This post contains spoilers for Sell ​​sunset Season eight.

Season eight can be a death blow for even the best television series, and early on in the latest episode of Sell ​​sunset— all 11 episodes of which came out on September 6 — I was worried that the Netflix series had reached its expiration date. After dozens of episodes of Oppenheim Group real estate agents strutting their stuff in ever more outlandish fashion, one agent has the audacity to question the ultra-miniskirt another wears to an open house. A little dress code drama would have done the first or second season of this show good, but that time is long gone. Still, I was bracing myself for hours of hemline-length battles when something wonderful happened: the show's most shocking plot twist in years.

In the third episode Bre Tiesi agrees to meet with an agent from another brokerage firm, Amanda Lynne, and hear some gossip about Chelsea Lazkani, who joined the series in season five. Tiesi learns that Lazkani's husband Jeff, with whom she has two young children, was allegedly seen “multiple times” making out with another woman at the W Hotel. Tiesi, who became an enemy of Lazkani after joining the show in season six, keeps this information a secret until episode five, when she makes the accusation over a glass of red wine.

“I just wanted to come to you from woman to woman because I have experienced this before. I was married. My husband did the same thing with several women,” says Tiesi, referring to Johnny Manziel, a former NFL star who appears this season as a potential client of his ex-wife. “I know you don't necessarily like me, but I wouldn't wish that on you or anyone else,” she continues. “I've actually experienced it myself and it's horrible. But regardless, it was brought up and I think you have a right to know.”

Although Lazkani previously criticized Tiesi’s family on the show and her unconventional relationship with Nick Cannon, with whom Tiesi has a two-year-old son, is “quite disgusting” – the revelation about her own private life is handled with care. When Lazkani asks if she trusts Lynn, Tiesi replies that she does, but she would not call her a “best friend”. At the end of the episode, Lazkani trusts her co-star Chrishell Stause: “I find myself in a state of vulnerability that I have never been in in my life.”

The scene seems painfully familiar to me. When Stause's marriage to this is us star Justin Hartley imploded in the middle of filming Sell ​​sunsetIn the second season, she tearfully dealt with the separation from her castmate Mary Fitzgerald. Three seasons later, a similar scenario played out after Stause's separation from boss Jason Oppenheim. The show got the necessary momentum from Heather Rae El MoussaRomance with HGTVs Tarek El Moussa after the divorce from his Flip or flop Co-host Christina Hall. And then Tyler Stanaland from Sale of the OC Separation from the actor Brittany Snow, Rolling Stone Hypothesis that the relationships of the actors are under a “Sell ​​sunset Curse.”

The show has never Really It was about luxury real estate. When I was in a recent episode of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Josh Flagg by Bravo Million dollar listing snapped: “No, I just like to watch licensed Real estate agents.” Instead – as macabre as it may sound – breakups have become the franchise’s livelihood.

Nevertheless, season eight of Sell ​​sunset playfully combines real-life and real estate dramas. Fitzgerald and Oppenheim mourn the loss of Niko, the dog they shared years after their separation, while attending their spectacular new offering: the sale of the TikTok star's family home Charlie And Dixi D’Amelio. During the season finale, Oppenheim tells the brokerage firm that he plans to Kanye West's Malibu Villa – a property designed by a renowned Japanese architect Tadao Ando– for a whopping $53 million. The only catch? West has stripped the house of all basic functions and removed the plumbing, heating and air conditioning, as well as most of the doors. “It's like a Picasso,” Oppenheim tells his speechless employees. “Perhaps an abstract parking garage,” jokes the agent Amanza Smith. (Last month, Business Insider reported that home renovation firm Belwood Investments was looking to buy West's house for $21 million – less than half the original asking price.)