Three hours into the new season and we’ve been treated to
ghosts, vampires and serial killers both alive and dead. The “sane” are quickly losing their minds the
more time they spend in the crimson halls of Hotel Cortez.
Tristan wanders down the “time loop” floor looking for Mr.
March. The air is filled with dust motes
and Tristan baits the ghost by saying, “I know who you are, you were the
greatest serial killer in history!” Mr.
March appears, a bit shocked at Tristan’s knowledge of his life story. Tristan
explains, “I Googled you!” Mr. March
explains, “That sounds obscene!” (Indeed!) The young man explains to the ghost how he’s
found “killing is awesome!” and he hopes to learn the hotel’s secrets for
consuming its victims. Mr. March is
proud of his hotel and shows him the “black closet.”
Drake speaks to fashion editor Claudia about his plans to
remodel the bizarrely built hotel. (Maybe akin to the Winchester Mystery
House?) They come upon Tristan and ask
him to leave the hotel. Mr. March and
Ms. Evers look annoyed at these living people who would destroy their hotel. Tristan assures the ghosts, “I’ve got this!” He is excited kill again after the death of
the “lumberjack” hipster last week.
The scene shifts to Alex, whom we see treating the measles
kid. She notes her bad childhood as the
reason she became a pediatrian. The
child is on his way to the hospital with fever and pneumonia. Alex recalls the birth of Holden, and how she
loved him even more then her husband John. She remembers how his newborn skin smelled
like lavender. She felt guilty she was
unable to love her daughter as much. Alex recalls the awful day she lost Holden
and how her hope died over the years. She’s simply surviving now. There is a flashback to John finding Alex in
the bathtub with her wrists slit. She’s
moved on, but just to a state of numbness.
Alex is present in family therapy session. Both parents are concerned about the Scarlett’s
“fantasy” about her brother living in the Hotel. She describes the room with Nintendo and
jellybeans and it does sound like a child’s vision of heaven. Alex is angry with her daughter stating she
is trying to hurt her with this fantasy. Scarlett mentions Holden smelled like lavender
and it takes Alex aback. Maybe, the girl
is telling the truth?
Claudia is attempting to talk on the phone in her room, but
the hotel is a “dead zone.” She washes
her face and catches a glimpse of a white face in the toilet bowl. A shadow passes behind her. She shrugs off these images and goes to lie
down on the bed. Out of the mattress, Gabriel’s hands come up through the
mattress and stab her! (Beat Tristan to her demise!)
Detective Hahn and John survey another homicide scene. This time the victims are gossip bloggers at
some office building. John immediately
connects the scene with the “Ten Commandment” murders, siting “Thou shall not
bear false witness.” The female victim
has a nail through her tongue to literally keep her tongue from wagging.
John runs through the lobby and finds Gabriel bloodied and
begging for help. Is he really still
alive?
Upstairs in the penthouse, Will Drake is surprised by
Tristan. Tristan boasts about his
criminal past including a short stent in prison for burglary. Drake is bewildered by the model’s appearance
and is puzzled by the disappearance of his facial scar. Tristan apologizes for
his erratic behavior at the fashion show and claims he’s clean and sober now. Tristan comes on strong, flirting with the new
owner. As the sexual tension rises
between them, Tristan removes a knife, ready for his next kill. Luckily for the
Drake, the Countess appears in the doorway and signals for her young protégé to
stop. He obeys, leaving the aroused
Drake bewildered by their encounter.
Gabriel is rushed to the emergency room. He makes a puzzlingly confession to John, “I
didn’t mean to kill her, but that junkie whore!” (Sally) John tries to press the man for more information
but he loses consciousness and dies. Is this the last we see of Gabriel or will
he return to pop out of another mattress?
John returns to the hotel to find Ms. Evers and Sally. Sally is explaining the fashion editor has
“checked out.” John asks her if she
knows anything about the man who just died at St. Vincent’s. She asks, “Why are you wasting time on
junkies, it’s not like we’re breaking one of the Ten Commandments!” John is
shocked and counters, “What about ‘Thou shall not kill’!” Sally explains that commandment is
misunderstood, it’s really “Thou shall not murder.” Adding, killing can be righteous.
John accuses Sally of sending him the mysterious text and of
being behind the Commandment Murders.
John cuffs Sally and she resists him by kissing him and
crying. Behind John, the creature is
seen for an instant. Sally purrs, “Can’t
you see, you and I were meant to be?” Suddenly,
John is alone in the elevator. Does
Sally merely represent the desire for drugs? (In John’s case, alcohol?)
Iris is working in reception and calls out to her son. She’s been looking for a new place they can
share, maybe the Santa Monica apartment where they arrested Whitey Bulger? Donovan states there is no way in hell he’d
live with her. Iris counters she knew
“the snake” (Countess) would tire of him eventually. Donovan rails against his mother for leaving
his father and making him eat so much fiber he pooped his pants at school. (I find this hilarious!) Iris defends her actions were done out of
love for him. Donovan calls her pathetic
and adds she should kill herself! Ah, family!
Under a freeway, Donovan feeds on a young blonde junkie. He leaves her, strolling through a homeless
camp until he comes across an attractive woman standing near a car with the
hood up. He inquires if she’s having car
trouble and needs assistance, his knife at the ready. She turns and tases him and loads him into
her trunk! Welcome to Hotel, Angela Bassett!
John waits at the elevator for his wife Alex. They meet at the bar, tended as usual by the
huffy Liz Taylor. Liz serves John a
ginger ale and Alex suggests that he may want something stronger. John is upset, “Why would you say that?” Alex slides an envelope towards him containing
divorce paperwork. John pleads they need to stay together for
Scarlett. Alex explains they are better
apart, and it’s not his fault but the person who took their son. John cries and begs her to stay. He feels he’s going crazy, seeing things.
(Just ghosts and vampires!)
The Countess works her charm on Drake. She asks, “What if I told you Will Drake had
to die?” Of course, he thinks she means
in the artistic sense. He confesses the
move west hasn’t been the inspiration he’d hoped. Just yesterday he sketched Bermuda shorts with
marijuana leaf pattern! (I’ll take any comic relief this show can give!) The Countess tells him he needs to burn so he
can rise again as a phoenix. Drake is bewildered by his attraction to her since
he’s gay. Tristan interrupts the
romantic moment. “Call you later, by the
way, you’re hard!” declares the Countess.
Once alone, Tristan confronts the Countess for moving in on
his “prey.” The Countess explains she
WAS rich but lost all her money investing with Bernie Madoff. Her plan is to
marry the new owner then, “Take him for every penny he’s worth!” They both
laugh at the prospect of this scheme.
Alex accompanies her distraught husband back to room
sixty-four. She looks at his “crazy
conspiracy” board regarding the murders. Alex gives him some sleeping pills as he
apologies to her for what happened to Holden. They begin to kiss and embrace and John says
passionately, “Let’s have another baby!” Alex pulls away flustered and exits down the
hall. She waits impatiently for the
elevator then turns to find the stairs. A
bloodied Claudia stands before her asking, “Is this hell? If it is, I would be
the one wearing that horrible Zara knock-off!” (Cattiness in the afterlife, charming!) Alex runs away and sees Holden at the end of
the hall with his head down. She
approaches him and he looks up at her and says, “Hi Mommy!”
In Iris’s room, Sally is fixing a needle to help her kill
herself. Sally thinks she is being too kind; she should
push her out the window as Iris did to her twenty years before. Iris blubbers she’s not lovable and she doesn’t
want to live if her son hates her. Sally
makes Iris promise, “Not to haunt my hallways, bitch!” Iris expresses her desire to be wholly and
simply dead.
Donovan wakes in an opulent room, restrained and on a
dialysis type of machine. Ramona (Angela Bassett) chastises him for feeding on
too many junkies. Donavon asks, “Who are
you?” She scoffs, “The question is, who
WAS I?”
Ramona recounts her life as an actress like Foxy Brown who
starred in a series of “B-movies” in the mid-seventies. She wanted more money and better roles. One night she was having a drink with a
producer when she met the Countess at the Hotel. She was instantly drawn to the Countess’s
charisma and they became lovers and she was made a vampire. They had a passionate and mutually beneficial relationship,
which lasted for decades.
Finally, Ramona met up and coming rapper Prophet Moses. (A contempary of Tupac!) Ramona fell desperately in love with Mo and
decided to turn him into a vampire. The
Countess reacted by shooting Mo in the head, and killing his entire production
crew. “She took the one thing I cared
about! So I want to take what she cares
about, those babies she’s made!” She
explains she needs Donavon as way of destroying her enemy from within. Donavon confesses, “She dumped me last
Tuesday!” Livid, Ramona yells at him to
leave.
Donavon returns to the Hotel to find Liz who snaps, “I
thought you left us for good!” He admits he had no place to go. Liz isn’t letting him sulk in pity, stating
how lucky he is to have eternal good looks and be an actor. She tells him no matter where he goes or how
long he lives, he will never know love like his mother’s.
Meanwhile, Iris has yet to succumb to the heroin. Sally is upset, and places a plastic bag over
her head and secures it with a belt. The
bag rises and falls as Sally waits nearby, smoking in a chair.
Donavon knocks on the door.
Sally calls to him, “She’s resting!”
Donavon bursts in and sees what she has done. He screams, “She can’t be dead!” In a moment
of desperation, he cuts himself and places his bleeding wrist up to his
mother’s mouth. Sally cries, “Now there is some twisted poetic justice!”
What will next week bring?
Will Donavon and vampire mom conspire together to defeat the
Countess? Will Alex follow her son to
his lair and learn what he has become?
What is the next Commandment murder?
What is Ramona’s next play since she can’t use Donavon? I continue to be
impressed by this season. I believe Lily Rabe will be in the next episode as
mysterious at the Hotel continue…
No comments:
Post a Comment