'Hotel Portofino' Recap: Season 3 Episode 4

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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As the stock market continues to tank, taking the money of Cecil, George, and Cecil’s stockbroker with it, Cecil’s stockbroker – and prospective father-in-law – tells Cecil all they can do is ride it out. Needless to say, he can’t afford to give Cecil a dowry at this moment, so he advises Cecil to stay married for now in order to keep the money he just cashed out as a settlement payment to Bella. Cecil’s lover, Nellie, is returning to England, and Cecil promises her that he’ll wrap up everything up quickly and join her soon.

The reversal of fortune leads one of the stockbroker’s colleagues to jump from the eighth floor of their building, while George had a minor heart attack upon learning the news.

Part of George’s distress is because he took out a loan secured against his company in order to invest with Cecil. He has to pay back the principal next year or the company will be sold – so he needs Bella to repay his loan to her, as demanded as a condition of her divorce, now more than ever.

Bella may have to sell the hotel to repay her father. Danioni knows this, and pays an unwelcome visit to tell a horrified Bella that he wants to buy it. He’s also putting the squeeze on Cecil, telling him that their mob partners want the money they invested in the stock market back within a week – at the initial investment value, not what it has now dropped to. Desperate and angry, Cecil tries to attack Danioni and is roughed up by his thugs in exchange. Danioni cuts Cecil’s neck in warning, and demands Bella’s wedding ring back as well.

All of Cecil’s debts are coming due at once. The American Jack Turner, who was kicked out of the hotel in a rage after a painting he was selling with Cecil disappeared from his room, noticed that the painting has appeared in an auction. He did some digging and discovered that Cecil was behind the theft, and now wants Cecil to pay up. He points a gun at Cecil – and Cecil tells him to kill him. Cecil owes too much to too many people; he may as well die.

But Cecil does still have an instinct for survival. Jack brings him at gunpoint to the hotel in the middle of the night and demands money, but Cecil tells him Bella doesn’t keep cash there. When Jack socks Cecil in the face, however, Cecil hands over Bella’s wedding ring. Jack tells him it’s a down payment – Cecil has 24 hours to find more money.

Bella at least has a plan to find the money she owes. She’s hoping to launch a soap and lotion line with Claudine, and is preparing batches of her product at Vito’s pharmacy to pitch to Claudine’s fashion house when they arrive at the end of the week for a party launching Claudine’s perfume. But Claudine and Paola botch a batch when Bella is called away – and use up all her rosewater in the process.

Fortunately, Bella comes up with a solution. She’ll make a new product with oranges, which are being harvested now, so she won’t run out. She asks Constance to work with Vito to ensure the products come out well.

Lucian has decided to tell Constance he loves her – but he’s finding it difficult to do so. Alice has told him that their parents are getting divorced, and also pointed out that he doesn’t seem all that happy. His mother discerns the same sadness, and tells him he has to forgive himself for Rose’s death. Bella offers her own example: Lucian sees her embrace Marco and tell him about her troubles, and Lucian is happy for her that she’s finally getting away from the caddish Cecil.

Marco is helping Lucian and Virat track down news of Anish. Finding only dead ends, he resorts to interrogating Antonio Costa, a weak Fascist whom Danioni only tolerates because of a friendship with Antonio’s father. Virat doesn’t want to use violence, but Marco says that’s all the Fascists understand. Marco is helping Lucian despite not knowing Anish because any anti-Fascist is a friend of his.

Before joining Marco and Virat to kidnap and interrogate Antonio, Lucian goes to speak to Constance – and sees her smiling and joking with Vito, so he doesn’t interrupt. Perhaps this frustration contributes to the loss of his temper when Antonio, tied to a chair, won’t talk. Lucian takes over from Marco and begins beating Antonio, despite Virat’s objections. Marco initially tries to stop Lucian, but ends up simply holding Antonio while Lucian punches him. The Fascist finally admits that he heard Danioni went into the forest with Anish and Gianluca. Only Danioni came back.

On a more lighthearted note, Betty and her fiancé Salvatore’s mother meet before the wedding to set some ground rules for when Betty moves into her future mother-in-law’s home. Betty chafes at the restriction, “No English bread,” and the two women end up having a bake-off. They ask Salvatore and Billy to judge whose bread is better, and both men wisely refuse. The women instead sample each other’s bread and are quietly impressed – although they try not to show it.

Billy is busy trying to teach Alice to get over her fear of horses in order to better connect with the horse-loving Count Albani. After an initial failure, Billy encourages her not to give up, and she returns on her own to visit the horse. It calmly eats sugar cubes out of her hand, and she smiles.

Bella also makes a breakthrough, with Claudine’s help. She explains that she hasn’t been close to her sister Amelia since they were children and Amelia got sick. Amelia was told to miss school to recuperate, but disobeyed and caught pneumonia. Their mother tended to Amelia, contracted pneumonia herself, and died. Claudine suggests that Bella still unconsciously blames Amelia and Amelia picks up on it, thus treating Bella coldly in turn.

Bella also makes a discovery about Cecil while cleaning his room: she finds the photo of him kissing Nellie with which Danioni is blackmailing him. When she finds Cecil rinsing blood off his face in the kitchen after his encounters with Danioni and Jack, she tends to his wounds and asks him what happened. He tells her debts are being called in, and he can no longer give her the divorce settlement she needs to keep the hotel and pay back her father. Cecil has changed his mind about the divorce.

But Bella hasn’t. She shows him the photo of him and Nellie and tells him that she is now filing for divorce – and he will be the one to admit adultery and take the blame.