“Million Dollar Listing NY”: We’ll always have Paris

Recap of Season 6, Episode 10

Steve Gold (with an extra special magazine on his desk), Fredrik Eklund and Ryan Serhant
Steve Gold (with an extra special magazine on his desk), Fredrik Eklund and Ryan Serhant

On this week’s “Million Dollar Listing,” Ryan goes back to his roots and works on a modest $2 million listing, Steve loses a listing but gains a new employee, and Fredrik heads to Paris to lure buyers for his new development project (and wishes random people on the street “Bonjour”).

Here’s what our three heroes were up to.

Fredrik

After his devastating failure last week, Fredrik is back and ready to do what he does best: sell a new development building. This time, The Project Is 75 Kenmare Street, where the units were designed by Lenny Kravitz.

The building’s developer, Dan, wants big sales for the building and Fredrik has a somewhat out-of-the-box idea for how to get them: launch in Paris.

No one was expecting that, but Dan eventually agrees to the proposal, so long as Fredrik can promise he returns from Paree with 25 percent of the building sold, including one of the penthouses.

Fredrik believes he can make it happen (he also just really wants to go to Paris because it’s his 40th birthday soon). He takes a meeting with the brokerage firm Knight Frank, whom he is teaming up with, and presents them a list of demands for the launch party. He requests: 500 brokers, 10 supermodels, the best champagne in France, 10 Russian and Chinese billionaires – flown in privately — and to host it on top of the Eiffel Tower. No pressure.

While we don’t know yet which of those demands are actually going to be met (we’re thinking maybe half of them), Fredrik does allow his buddy Steve Gold to take a short – and we do mean short – sneak peek of the project before any other New York brokers in case he has buyers who might be interested. Steve does think he has some buyers – but for the penthouse unit, which Fredrik doesn’t want to show him yet. “What you think you’re fancy now?” He asks, rolling his eyes.

Steve does manage to finagle himself an invitation to the Paris party – though Fredrik makes it clear they will not be flying together.

Meanwhile, Fredrik flies to Paris, where he checks into the Plaza Athénée hotel (and slips into quite a risqué robe). He calls Derrick, who says he has some baby news to report, and Fredrik tells him to fly to Paris to tell him because he can’t possibly hear it over the phone. Derrick agrees, and so we must all wait another week to learn what’s happening.

Steve

Unlike Fredrik, Steve did find a buyer for his $12 million listing last week – an insane, bedazzled Soho loft with an actual golden shower. Unfortunately, the seller, Sam, is not so interested in leaving the apartment he poured so much love into renovating.

“I do my job so well I get punished!” Steve exclaims in anger. Alas, it appears so. Steve says he is less upset for himself and his lost $360,000 commission, and more upset for his driver, Bradley Cooper, who just got his broker’s license and was the one who found the buyer. He breaks the bad news to Bradley in the car, wisely counseling him, “In the end, we can’t control people.” They go for drinks.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

By signing up, you agree to TheRealDeal Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy.

Fortunately, Steve has another reward for Bradley. He calls him into his office and fires him as his driver … and hires him as a broker! It’s time to grow the business, he decides, and that starts with surrounding himself with good agents. Mazel tov!

Steve is excited for his upcoming trip to Paris, but first he makes a pit stop at his parents’ house in Connecticut. There, we see some embarrassing teen photos of Steve, and learn about an essay he once wrote entitled “The Future Me”(a sampling goes: “I want to be successful, happily married, and to stay athletic.” Two out of three ain’t bad!). We also meet Steve’s sister, Laura, who has a learning disability and whom Steve says he wants to help more than anything else in the world.

“I hope she knows how much I do love her, and maybe that’s why I work so hard, because I want to make sure I can provide an environment that’s good for her,” he says.

It’s just too sweet.

Ryan
Ryan continues to suffer from existential angst, and decides to take his therapist’s advice and give himself a bit of a break. He passes sales at his new project, the Jacqueline, on to his colleague Amy Herman (though don’t worry, he’s keeping his commission), and decides to spend his time instead sitting on the sofa, eating chips and staring at the sunset.

That plan goes about as well as you expect it does. A shocked Emilia returns home to find Ryan in this state, and tells him he needs to get his act together and figure out another solution to his malaise. “This is not going to do anything,” she says, “You don’t give a crap about the sunset.”

Fair enough. Instead, she advises him to return to where it all began, and take on a small, modest listing that he would normally pass along to a member of his team. Ryan loves this plan, and the listing he decides to take on is a two-bedroom unit in Midtown East, with an eccentric owner named John.

John has some unusual decorating taste – think Buddhas and paintings of butts – and also uses some colorful words to describe his home like “fenestration” and “angularity.”

“I have never described real estate the way John does,” Ryan says admirably. John becomes a lot more like a typical seller, however, when it comes to discussing the price. He wants $2.5 million; Ryan thinks $2 million is more realistic. They settle in the middle at $2.25 million — though John’s expecting a bidding war.

Ryan figures the buyer for the apartment is “someone who is no longer young,” and so sets up appointments with people who fit that description. The only problem? John has moved out! And taken all his weird art and furniture with him!

Never mind that. Ryan is a professional, and he soldiers through the showings with his elderly buyers – including one who serenades him in the bathroom and another who gives him life advice.

Maybe he’ll take it, maybe he won’t. But one thing we can rely on is that next time we see Ryan, he’ll be in Paris for the season finale, along with his other real estate bros—from both the present, and the past.