Sorry, Christine Quinn, But Selling Sunset Is Just Fine Without You

When Christine Quinn announced that she was leaving Selling Sunset after Season 5, it was unclear how the show would go on without her. For the first five seasons, she was the icy core of the series, someone who was unafraid to fight with any and everyone, scored multimillion dollar deals, and fired off some of the show’s best quips, all while confidently wearing six-inch heels. In short, Quinn was reality TV gold — she seemed impossible to replace. But Season 6 proves there is a way to fill that Christine Quinn-shaped hole in the heart of O Group.

As befits Quinn’s larger-than-life presence, it does take two people to fully fill the void she leaves behind. The first is new broker Bre Tiesi, a model who just happens to have a child with Nick Cannon (her first, his eighth). Her connection to a man who is frequent tabloid fodder and a prime target for criticism is juicy enough to reinvigorate the potentially stale conflicts carried over from past seasons. Tiesi’s association with Cannon makes her a spectacle to the other women in the office who aren’t afraid to say exactly how they feel about the couple’s arrangement, but from her first moment on screen Tiesi channels Quinn’s energy, quick to toss out biting remarks to cut down anyone who looks at her sideways. When Chelsea Lazkani invites women from Tiesi’s past to one of the season’s first events, Tiesi has no problem dressing Lazkani down for doing so in the office the next day, and in front of the Oppenheim brothers themselves.

And Tiesi has connections that allow her to bring some fantastical real estate porn and starpower to this season. Her multi million-dollar properties have double-decker, clear-bottom pools and yoga rooms with living plant walls. She works with clients like rapper Saweetie to help them find homes in “Billionaire’s Row.” Throw in her impractical but stunning fashions, and she’s the triple threat that the show desperately needs in Quinn’s absence.

But in a surprising twist, it’s Chrishell Stause, Quinn’s sworn enemy, who makes somewhat of a heel turn this season, and is all the better for it. It wouldn’t be fair to explicitly call her a villain, though there are certainly people this season who she seems hellbent on tearing down. No, it’s more that Stause has finally become confident. In the final moments of Season 5, she was beat down and distraught over her breakup with Jason Oppenheim, unsure if she would return to a job she loves because she would have to see him every day.

At the start of Season 6, she couldn’t care less about Oppenheim. She’s in a new, much happier relationship with Australian musician G-Flip and has been avoiding the office to focus on selling real estate from home. The ease with which she talks and jokes about her life as it stands shows a side of Stause that hasn’t been seen on Selling Sunset before. Suddenly she’s embracing the same attitude of not giving a f*ck that Quinn exemplified.

Better yet, Stause and Tiesi end up at odds with almost everyone but each other. They’re not necessarily best friends, but they’re definitely not enemies. And because they’re each able to harness their powers separately instead of turning them just on each other, there are even more petty disagreements, blown-out dramas, and entertaining insults to enjoy. Stause and Tiesi might not be able to do it all in quite as towering a heel as Quinn would, but it hardly matters — even in flats, they’re quickly scaling the same heights of reality TV antagonism.

Selling Sunset Season 6 is streaming on Netflix. Join the discussion about the show in our forums.

Brianna Wellen is a TV Reporter at Primetimer who became obsessed with television when her parents let her stay up late to watch E.R.