Selling Sunset reunion drama

The Selling Sunset reunion aired on Netflix yesterday and the overwhelming verdict is that people are…disappointed. At everything. From the too-soft-spoken-and-at-times-cringey host, Tan France, to the lack of transparency, closure and resolution on some of the season’s most pressing issues and storylines, it’s clear that people were left wanting more, and not in a good way. 

But perhaps the most confusion and disappointment is stemming from rumours that are swirling about what actually unfolded after the finale we saw, which, according to this TikTok creator, was not the true finale. Instead, she says it was a heavily edited version in which we didn’t get to see the moment O Group real estate agent Mary Bonnet and O Group owner Jason Oppenheim fired Chelsea Lazkani, the only dark-skinned Black woman on the show, in the office, after an ongoing feud between her and Mary, who is also Jason’s ex-live-in-girlfriend and his current employee. Talk about a conflict of interest. And when Chelsea alleged she was the target of racism, Jason demanded production stop rolling and threatened that he would pull the plug on Selling Sunset and Selling the O.C. if the footage aired. 

Before we get into the dumpster fire happening behind the scenes, let’s dive into what people were so disappointed with from a reunion that, based on all the drama this season, had the potential to be fantastic.

Starting with Tan France, the host, who, for some reason, continues to land this gig year after year, much to the disappointment of people more accustomed to the pace and vigor of a Real Housewives reunion. In fairness, it’s a difficult job – this we know. Moderating this many big personalities is no small feat, which is why there’s almost an unspoken rule that Andy Cohen is the gold standard of reunion hosting. After this, we better understand why. 

One of Tan’s most obvious weaknesses is that he has proven himself incapable of asking the right questions. And though a team of producers is almost guaranteed to be helping to inform the line of questioning going into the reunion, the true magic is in the follow-up questions – the ones the cast can’t prepare for. And that’s where he drops the ball. 

It’s an incredibly difficult line to toe – not offending or upsetting the cast, wording it as perfectly as possible, and strategically framing the question in a way that is most likely to get the honest answer out. But his inability to stick the landing often leaves the cast getting off too easily instead of being pressed for the truth, which is what reunions are all about. 

Tan had ample opportunities to call out some of the hypocrisy we saw with Bre, like why it was okay for her to skip out on events and establish boundaries over what she would and wouldn’t talk about on camera, like the lawsuit we now know she’s involved in, but she expects everyone else to bare it all on screen. And him not discussing the racial undertones – or overtones, really - of this season was a glaring omission. 

When the group began revisiting some of the most scandalous moments, which included Nicole’s infamous remark about Chrishell’s late parents, which I touched on here, three of the women skipping out on Bre’s Galentine’s Day party and that catastrophic group dinner towards the end of the season, nothing seemed to be resolved. Nicole didn’t offer a full, unfiltered apology to Chrishell despite receiving one from Amanza for saying she had done cocaine. Bre was never questioned about why Emma was expected to attend her party when she skipped out on Emma’s empanada event. In fact, there were so many things that came as news to the audience that the conversations unfolding on screen just seemed like a proxy for other things happening that we didn’t know about. 

This is where long-standing franchises like Real Housewives differentiate from Netflix reality shows. We’ve seen countless instances of housewives asking production not to use footage and have that request go ignored because the production team knows that they are the ones who determine which footage airs. That doesn’t seem to be the case with Selling Sunset, and that’s why the reunions are always patchwork jobs that leave everyone with more questions than answers. Which brings me back to the dumpster fire happening behind the scenes – and Jason possibly overstepping his role.

The first question I had was: Can he do that? And based on what I’ve seen, I mean, yes. Not only is he the part owner of the Oppenheim Group, but he is also listed as an executive producer on the show. That’s a pretty powerful combination, even when the show creator, Adam Divello, is responsible for hit (pre-housewives) shows like The Hills and The City. Needless to say, what Jason Oppenheim lacks in height he makes up for in wit and strategy. The second question I had was: Would he do that? But as that TikTok creator points out, this is the same M.O. he had at the last group dinner of the season. He demanded the cameras stop rolling to avoid looking racist. 

And what about Mary? Why would she be involved in someone’s firing? Especially when she and that person have the same status – professionally, at least, personally is a different situation entirely. Can she do that? Would she do that? Based on what we’ve all seen this season, yes! Her personal relationships with Jason and Brett put her at an unfair advantage in the office – and the favoritism shown to her is obvious. For the most part, that typically means that she gets brought on to sell additional houses or gets gifted two Rolexes after a break-in, which we saw this season. But in other cases, Mary being the favourite is coupled with her white privilege and manifests in more sinister ways.

One of the big storylines this season was the fallout from her home being targeted by robbers. She lost a lot, including invaluable family heirlooms. Despite her ongoing feud with Chelsea, Chelsea, having also experienced a break-in as a child, sent a bouquet of flowers to her home and Mary was enraged, accusing production staff of working with Chelsea to have the flower delivery happen on screen to ‘look good’ for the audience. Bre, who was visiting Mary at the time, tossed the flowers in the garbage.

Despite the support of Chrishell and Emma who attested to the fact that it was a genuine response from a place of genuine concern, and production airing conversations that happened in Mary’s absence where Chelsea made her concern for her clear, Mary still refused to believe she was being sincere.

Mary then went on to claim Chelsea had no idea what it’s like to lose something as a single mother, saying her rich ex-husband was taking good care of her. This prompted Chelsea to reveal that she receives absolutely no financial support from her ex during the reunion. And even then, Mary pressed her about it. And Chrishell had to go on social media to reveal that Mary said she felt ‘threatened’ by being in the same room as Chelsea, which is a very loaded claim to make. 

All of this points to Mary doing a lot to discredit Chelsea, including painting her out to be an insincere, hard and potentially violent person. And it’s been especially interesting to see how Mary keeps leaning on her years-long friendship with Amanza, who is biracial, as some sort of proof that she is not racist. But Amanza is a) white passing and b) currently getting dragged on social media for not better supporting Chelsea. People have also called out Bre for not addressing the microaggressions on display by Mary considering she has a Black son.

Despite shows like Selling Sunset and Selling the O.C. being massive hits for Netflix, there is a huge transparency problem – and that’s stemming from the waters being too muddied between what the roles are for people on and off camera. If Jason wants to take more of an EP role, he has to step back from being directly involved in the office politics. He has to pick a lane. Because you cannot curate the stories being told, only tell them partially, and expect the audience not to complain about the difficulty they are having putting the pieces of the puzzle together. And with people threatening to not watch the next season if Chelsea is, in fact, gone, they’d better figure it out quickly.