'Hotel Portofino' Recap: Season 3 Episode 3

Hotel Portofino airs Sundays at 7:00 pm and is available to stream by WTTW Passport members. Recap the previous and following episodes.  
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In the wake of his outburst at Bella’s sudden announcement of divorce from Cecil, George has calmed down – but he won’t apologize, as he is disappointed in his daughter. He attaches a condition to her divorce: she must pay back all of the money he has loaned her to buy and run the hotel within a month of the divorce’s finalization.

To raise the money, Bella may have to sell the hotel. But she’s desperate to find another solution, and has an idea when Claudine praises the lotion she makes for hotel guests. Bella suggests a business deal, and Claudine proposes that they discuss it in Genoa.

In the city, Bella has Claudine sample some of the beauty products on offer there, and Claudine finds them lackluster. So Bella makes her pitch: Claudine could connect Bella with the fashion house that is making the perfume she is about to debut, and they could manufacture Bella’s superior lotions at scale. Claudine’s star power could market them.

Claudine loves the idea – they just have to settle on profit-sharing. Bella haggles Claudine to a 60-40 split in Bella’s favor.

Now Bella only has six days before representatives from Claudine’s fashion house arrive for the launch of her perfume. Her basement equipment might not allow her to make all the products she needs quickly enough, even with the help of Claudine, Paola, and Constance. So Paola suggests that Constance ask her admirer Vito, who is a pharmacist, to use his facilities. He happily agrees.

Cecil takes advantage of Bella’s outing to Genoa to invite Danioni to the hotel, as Danioni insisted. Cecil is blindsided when Danioni arrives with his wife, Letizia, who only speaks Italian. Danioni insists on showing Letizia the hotel and enjoying lunch there with her before he and Cecil talk business, to Cecil’s frustration. While Cecil prepares, Danioni overhears George and Amelia talking about Bella’s possible need to sell the hotel.

Danioni begins by telling Cecil that the American mob, of whom he is now a representative in Italy, wants to follow Cecil’s lead and invest some money in the stock market – but they’re wary of the markets, as they well should be: it’s October of 1929, and stockbrokers are beginning to panic. Cecil reassures Danioni.

But Danioni also wants to earn 40% of the profits from the whiskey export business he and Cecil facilitate for the mob – which would leave Cecil only 10% after the mob’s cut. Cecil is apoplectic, but Danioni has blackmail on him: a photo of him kissing his young lover Nellie, whom he intends to marry after the divorce.

Danioni and his wife are still at the hotel when Bella returns. He mentions rumors of the hotel’s sale, to both Bella and Cecil’s shock. As Bella chastises Cecil in private for inviting Danioni, Cecil asks about the sale and she explains her father’s demand. Cecil offers to pay her the 100,000-pound divorce settlement up front if she admits adultery in a signed affidavit he has requested. She can’t believe there’s not a catch.

As the Danionis are leaving, Cecil notices Letizia’s ring – it looks just like one Bella has from her mother. Letizia and Cecil are both confused, and Letizia insists on an explanation. Bella reluctantly tells her in Italian that the ring is hers, and Letizia apologizes and returns it to her before scolding Danioni as they leave.

Cecil asks Bella how her cherished heirloom ended up with the Danionis, but she won’t explain. She agrees to his deal and signs the affidavit – but he insists on knowing what happened with her ring before giving her the money. She explains that Danioni blackmailed her with her letters to a lover, which Danioni eventually showed to Cecil anyway. Cecil is aghast and blames Danioni for the breakup of their marriage. He’s starting to regret asking for a divorce and apologizes – but Bella is ready to move forward now.

Billy doesn’t want things to progress. He has returned and is upset to see that Salvatore has taken his job – and is engaged to his mother. He refuses to engage with the kindly Italian. He at least finds some work teaching Alice how to ride horses – she has been afraid of them since falling off one as a child, but wants to take an interest since Albani now owns and adores horses. Amelia has offered to bring Alice back to London with her to find a new husband, but Alice is still set on Albani, for now.

Billy was off with Lucian in India, both of them working for a British artist there. They have returned to Hotel Portofino with a new acquaintance, Anish’s brother Virat. Lucian has been searching for news of Anish to see if he managed to escape Italy along with his fellow antifascist and lover Gianluca. Lucian sought out Anish’s mother in India, but she hadn’t heard from Anish for longer than Lucian. He’s now convinced Anish and Gianluca didn’t make it to the border and are languishing in prison somewhere in Italy.

Bella suggests that Lucian contact Gianluca’s father, Bruzzone, for news. She asks Marco to translate. But Bruzzone recently died, and so has Gianluca and Anish’s trail.

Virat is less comfortable amongst the upper-class wealth of the hotel than Anish. His family could only afford a good education for one child, Anish, although Virat does speak excellent English. He is apprenticed to a carpet seller, and skips a dinner at the hotel because he fears he does not have suitable clothes. Bella reassures him – she’s worried he’s not eating enough, since he is also vegetarian, as a Hindu. He wants to sleep in the servant’s quarters, or at least to continue sharing a room with Lucian: it reminds him of being a child and sharing a room with Anish.

Virat accompanies Lucian to visit Rose’s grave, and Lucian explains that her death and the ensuing grief prevented a romance with another woman – Constance – from developing, even though Lucian still loves her. Virat tells him he should express his feelings to her.

But Lucian is trying to drive Constance away. He barely acknowledges her and treats her like any other servant, leading her to purposefully spill tea on him. In private, he tells her that their relationship was a mistake, a fling – and warns her not to stir it up again. His profession of love for her was simply made in the heat of a moment, he insists.

News from the outside world soon intrudes upon the Eden of the hotel. Nellie arrives with her cousin, demanding to see a surprised Cecil. She thrusts a newspaper at him, which he then shows to Bella and George, white-faced. The stock market has crashed, launching the Great Depression, and wiped away his money and the money he invested for George. George collapses from the shock with a heart attack.