‘Selling The OC’ Season 2 Could Have Ignored Tyler Stanaland And Brittany Snow’s Divorce. Instead, It Leaned In. Hard.

Despite not appearing in a single episode of the Netflix reality series or being employed by The Oppenheim Group, actor Brittany Snow lives rent-free in Selling The OC.

When the Selling Sunset spinoff premiered in August 2022, one of The O Group’s Orange County realtors, Tyler Stanaland, made headlines for being the John Tucker Must Die star’s husband. Snow and Stanaland started dating in 2018 before marrying in March 2020, and though Snow didn’t appear in Season 1 of Selling The OC, the topic of Stanaland’s marriage came up quite frequently as his friendships with co-workers Polly Brindle and Alex Hall were criticized for being overly flirtatious. Less than a month after the reality show came out, Snow and Stanaland announced they were separating, and Snow filed for divorce (citing irreconcilable differences) four months later. Yikes!

The timing was suspicious for sure, but Season 2 of the real-estate reality series didn’t have to address the divorce beyond a passing comment. I assumed Snow’s celebrity would encourage Stanaland to keep things classy and quiet to avoid any further damage. But the 34-year-old fully embraced the drama of reality TV — not only by opening up about his marriage ending, but (Season 2 spoilers ahead!) by hooking up with the very co-workers he was accused of flirting with in Season 1.

From the first scene of Selling The OC Season 2, it’s clear the series is about to lean all the way in to Stanaland’s newly single status; a decision that results in delicious TV drama, but will undoubtedly have messy real-life implications.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Brittany Snow (@brittanysnow)

Season 2 opens with Stanaland and Hall touring a house, flirting, and addressing his recent personal struggles. He tells her he’s “surviving” and “getting through it,” then elaborates in a confessional, saying, “I was married for two years, and as of recently I’m going through a public divorce. It’s still being finalized. It takes some time. But it is difficult and heartbreaking — but it doesn’t have to be a negative thing as well. I think there’s a stigma with divorce and change that it all has to be bad, but that’s not necessarily true.”

While Stanaland told Hall he was doing OK, he also said, “It’s not easy. I think there’s a lot you can learn from a successful relationship, and even more from a divorce.” Hall, who’s also been divorced, said hers “literally almost killed” her. Stanaland thanked her for helping him get through it, but as the season progressed, their tight-knit friendship came under fire again.

Hall and Stanaland’s colleague Brandi Marshall repeatedly took issue with the fact that Stanaland and Hall were flirting with each other before his divorce was officially finalized, however, Stanaland argued he was already a single man. Even when his divorce wasn’t being directly discussed, as a viewer, when scenes centered on him sharing a “drunken snog” with co-worker Brindle or testing the limits of his friendship with Hall, it was impossible not to think of his ex, Snow. Would she be watching this one day? Would she see her fears and all the online rumors play out right before her eyes?? Even if she didn’t watch, surely she’d hear about her ex husband’s streaming shenanigans, right?! Chaos!

Stanaland opened up about his divorce again to pal Austin Victoria, saying, “I know I made the right decision. I know something good is coming. I just had to get through hard shit. For me, right now, I’m getting older. I would love to find somebody to have a family with and somebody that I can call my partner and travel around the world with and do all of the things that you want to do.” And by the end of the eight episodes, he may have found that special someone.

After two seasons (and many more years of off-camera friendship), Stanaland and Hall’s slow-burn, will-they-won’t-they relationship finally burst into full flame during a steamy hot tub scene in the Season 2 finale scene. “We’ve always had like a very flirty relationship. And maybe there’s always been something there that I didn’t know, and maybe you didn’t know. But I would be lying if I said that I didn’t think about us being more than friends,” Stanaland told Hall. When Hall reminded him she had children and a relationship with her would carry more weight, he reflected on his divorce for a final time, saying, “It is different, but I wanted kids 10 years ago. Even now, the biggest loss that I felt in my divorce was the fact that I was starting over; the fact that I would have to meet somebody and date and fucking get engaged…and get married.”

Though we’ll have to wait until Selling The OC Season 3 to see what the future has in store for Stanaland and Hall, Season 2 offered viewers unexpected insight into Stanaland’s divorce from Snow, while simultaneously proving the concerns over his Season 1 flirting were warranted to say the least.

Selling The OC is now streaming on Netflix.