'Hotel Portofino' Season 2 Says Its "Farewells" with a Bang, a Deceit & a Long-Awaited Reveal

I’ve watched enough TV to know not to believe a character is dead until we see the body (and maybe not even then). So I’m using that knowledge to comfort myself that Nish and Gianluca aren’t really dead in Hotel Portofino. Yes, Danioni, who caught the pair trying to escape Italy, took them out into the woods and made them get on their knees. Yes, we heard two gunshots ring out. But we never saw Danioni actually shooting them. Has Danioni had a change of heart? Is he not as evil as we have assumed him to be all this time? Is this the beginning of our beautiful friendship with Danioni? I’m clinging to that hope.

Much of the season’s final episode, “Farewells,” takes place on the opening night of the casino, where all the plot lines that have been brewing for five episodes come to fruition. Let’s start with poor Rose. After getting very drunk at the casino opening, she asks Lucian what is wrong with her. “You don’t want to dance with me. Touch me. Talk to me,” she says. “There’s nothing wrong with you. I’m just not in love with you,” he blurts out. It’s not Lucian’s finest moment, but, in his defense, he is consumed with worry about Nish and his escape.

Bella makes the mistake of telling Rose that she has talked to Lucian and her mother about their marital problems. A devastated Rose can’t take it anymore. She leaves the casino party, standing precariously on the railing overlooking the ocean, recalling her mother’s horrid advice (“Lie back. Think of England and let Lucian have his way.”) Her dastardly mother told Rose if her marriage didn’t work out to not come crawling back to mummy because “Mummy will have disowned you.” Rose has nowhere to turn. Not to her mother, her husband, or her mother-in-law. Rose is such an afterthought that no one notices she is missing until the next morning. Sadly, our last shot is of her lifeless body floating in the ocean.