Cecil May Finally Get His Comeuppance in 'Hotel Portofino's “Contortions”

Well, well, well, it seems like Cecil might finally (finally!) get his comeuppance in this week’s Hotel Portofino.

Our not-so-favorite snake in the grass has gotten himself into quite a predicament. His Italian business partners from Detroit (a nice euphemism for the mafia) are tired of waiting for their illicit import/export liquor business to be expanded. But Cecil has a problem. Lord Ross Cannon, who owns the distillery, is busy with grouse hunting season (aren’t we all Lord Ross Cannon, aren’t we all) and won’t be available to even discuss an expansion of the business until September. Luigi, not surprisingly, doesn’t care one bit about grouse hunting season. “You find a way to expedite our business and get my employers what they want,” Luigi tells Cecil.

Meanwhile, Cecil and Danioni still need to find a way to launder the money. Danioni’s big plan is to deny Bella the permits she seeks to expand the hotel with a solarium and use that as leverage against her. “The only way my wife can build her wretched solarium is to hand over control of the hotel to me,” Cecil says of this “ingenious” plan. Cecil would rather get rid of Marco the architect right away, but Danioni tells him the ability to launder money is the bigger problem. Danioni tries to convince Cecil they can make something approximating scotch from leftover grapes, but Cecil spits it out, declaring it “absolute filth.”