The cast of 'Selling the OC' breaks down the Tyler-Hall-Polly triangle, the mysterious video tape and where their relationships stand.
Spoilers ahead! If you've yet to finish binging season 2 of Netflix's Selling the OC, save this link for later.
Selling the OC is back! The agents of the Oppenheim Group -- Alex Hall, Tyler Stanaland, Polly Brindle, Brandi Marshall, Kayla Cardona, Alexandra Jarvis, Alexandra Rose, Gio Helou, Austin Victoria, Lauren Shortt, Sean Palmieri and newcomer Ali Harper -- bring bigger business and deeper drama in the Newport Beach-set Netflix docu-soap's sophomore season.
Many of the just-dropped episodes center on Tyler and Hall's chemistry, after Tyler separated from his wife of two years, the actress Brittany Snow. Flirty advances chalked up to friendly fun in season 1 started to look different to some of the cast in retrospect, sparking a snowball of suspicion that pivots into love-triangle territory and what looks like a burgeoning romance before season's end.
Read on for answers to unanswered questions from season 2 about the Hall-Tyler-Polly saga, and click on over here for more postmortem updates, including the latest on Jarvis and Rose's falling out.
Where do things stand between Hall and Tyler after that kiss?
While the season ended with Tyler and Hall seemingly giving things a shot, signaled by a steamy make-out session in a hot tub, the pair isn't willing to define their relationship beyond "friends," at least not publicly.
"We are navigating our friendship right now," Hall tells ET. "That's our priority."
While Hall's recent social media activity shows her vacationing with a different mystery man, she does promise fans will get answers about her and Tyler in season 3, currently winding down production.
"You guys get to have a first look at what we went through," she teases. "I think one thing about this show, and this cast is, we are all -- most of us -- we wear our hearts on our sleeves and we're not afraid to give you guys 110 percent of us, and that also plays into season 3 and where the finale of season 2 left off with Tyler and I in the hot tub."
"I'm excited to see season 3," she adds. "I was very excited to watch season 2 and our moments, and the whole season and, altogether, I think was great and I think our friendship is cute. We have little time capsules now, sweet moments."
Have Hall and Brandi repaired their friendship?
Much of the friction surrounding Tyler and Hall's "are they or aren't they" would-be romance came by way of Brandi, Hall's one-time close friend, who found Tyler and Hall's flirty nature off-putting in the wake of his divorce.
"I was definitely thrown off by how strong of opinions people had based on rumors that were not true," Tyler says of Brandi. "And it was just one of those things where, you just have to kind of put your head down and bear it and navigate it, and I was fortunate enough to have some really close friends on my side to kind of help me get through that time. But it just is what it is. People have their opinions. Everyone's got one, and you just got to learn to trust the people you trust and ignore the people you don't."
Brandi admits to "absolutely" having some regret over how she handled everything, but stands by her statement that the tabloid-level attention surrounding the brokerage was a threat to gaining and maintaining client trust.
"I almost wish ... that I never said anything about anything and just minded my business," she confesses. "However, some of the allegations were starting to bleed into my business. I felt so-- also in my friendships, I'm not a fake friend. So, if I'm friends with someone and they're doing something that is, in my opinion, not good, I'm gonna say it. So it's like, it's weird. I don't regret it, but at the same time ... it’s a weird space to be in. It was a very, very uncomfortable space to be in. I cried a lot, actually, about that."
Things came to a head on the cast's trip down to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, with Hall and Brandi getting into what would be a friendship-ending fight.
"I think I fought really hard for that friendship, and it was a difficult position," Hall reflects. "For me, I can't speak on her behalf, but I think if you watch season 2, you see the struggle and just, difficult to communicate, and when you can't communicate, there's never a resolve. And when you can't resolve something, it eventually just either fizzles out, or blows up, or explodes, or something-- something's gotta give, and I think we put a pin in it."
"I've kind of mourned the end of that relationship," she adds.
"Hall's right, we don't have a relationship at all," Brandi confirms. "Polly and I don't either."
Where's the video of Tyler and Polly's kiss?
Polly got roped into the Tyler-Hall drama after a proved-to-be-true rumor circulated around the office that she'd made out with him at an Oppenheim Group party.
"I was never part of this 'triangle,'" Polly clarifies. "I think that's pretty clear that, you know, we have a moment, we laugh it off. It was nothing more than a drunken kiss. That has nothing to do with what's going on [between Tyler and Hall] and, you know, our circle very much knows that and are happy with how we are, you know?"
Polly didn't deny the kiss, but an alleged recording of the moment made waves within the group, as some agents claimed to have seen it, with blame being bounced between Brandi and Kayla for spreading it around, but not owning up to it. That all blew up with an in-office confrontation, Tyler and Polly cornering Brandi over whether or not she really saw the video. Brandi wouldn't give a straight answer, leading Tyler to assume she was lying about it. Just after, Brandi got emotional outside the O Group office with Tyler and Lauren, where she seemingly didn't realize she was being filmed. Tyler called the video "blackmail," and Brandi said she "f**ked up" when she even mentioned it in the first place.
"There is a video," Kayla clarifies. "The reason why Brandi said what she said, that I supposedly was showing people this video, is because she was trying to protect the person that has the video. ... Brandi and I were both protecting the person that has the video."
According to Kayla and Brandi, that person is not part of the cast. "There is a video," Brandi reiterates. "A lot of people have seen it."
Is there any hope for Kayla and Polly after the "hypocrite" drama?
Kayla inserted herself into the Polly-Tyler kiss drama, as she felt Polly was a hypocrite for getting intimate with Tyler on any level after shaming Kayla for flirting with him in season 1. Much of the group ostracized Kayla for her advances toward Tyler, a divide Kayla now likens to being "crucified."
"It was just really quite bizarre that she kind of made a comparison to her behavior last year," Polly fires back. "I mean, for me-- and it wasn't just me, it was a lot of people had issues with her behavior, which was the year before; Tyler was married, and it was multiple unwanted advances versus me and Tyler."
Polly points out she and Tyler only kissed after he split from Brittany. She made her stance on infidelity well known in season 1, recounting her own divorce in the wake of cheating. "So those two comparisons side by side?" she scoffs. "There's no apology that needs to come from my mouth to Kayla for what I did."
"I have zero regrets, but I think the timelines are very off," Kayla counters. "I don't think the viewers actually know the real timelines, but that doesn't take away from the truth that she was being a hypocrite, and her actions were far worse than mine. And, you know, I think it was also a matter of just me sticking up for myself."
For the record, Tyler and Brittany separated in September 2022, just after season 1 debuted, but nearly a year after it was filmed. Tyler and Polly's kiss supposedly occurred at a Christmas party, seemingly three months later, in December. However, Brittany did not file for divorce until January 2023, and the dissolution of marriage wasn't finalized until July.
"I took a lot of heat in season 1," Kayla continues. "I bit my tongue a lot and I closed my mouth about a lot of things, and it really wasn't until after I watched back on season 1, and I'm like, 'I don't know who that is.' But I am no longer going to care and I'm just going to stay real and authentic to myself, and I'm going to call people out on their s**t. So that it is what it is."
While the two were never close, Kayla says any chance of a friendship is out the window. "She won't even look at me in my eyes," she claims.
All episodes of Selling the OC are now streaming on Netflix.
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