'Hotel Portofino' Crosses the Point of No Return in “Experiments”

Once again, Hotel Portofino Season 3 opens on Wall Street as what feels like the endless collapse of the stock market rolls into it's second week. (The market finally hit its nadir on November 13, 1929.) Cecil is making a trunk call (British for long distance) to his stockbroker/future father-in-law, who tells him that his portfolio has so far lost two-fifths (or 40%) of its value. There's nothing to do but ride out this crash. “We need to keep our heads,” he tells Cecil right before he’s informed that one of his employees has jumped from the 8th floor.

Bella and Amelia’s father collapsed at the end of last week's episode at the site of the headlines from America. The doctors have said he’s had a minor heart attack. Amelia is keeping Bella from her father, blaming Amelia for their father’s financial loss when it was he who decided to invest with Cecil despite Amelia’s warnings. 

Alice is still trying to befriend horses and learn how to ride them, perhaps hoping to become one step closer to a real relationship with Count Albani. (I’ve seen Gone with the Wind too often and get nervous every time Alice rides the horse.) Cecil’s fiancee, Nellie, is very upset to be heading back to London, not one step closer to being Lady Heddon. She’s also not thrilled that Bella is “more beautiful” than Cecil let on.

Betty has moved on from trying to impress her future mother-in-law to navigating the rules of her impending marriage. Salvatore’s mother insists that they will only eat Italian bread. Betty will hear none of that. The duo battle it out in a bread bake-off. The only problem is neither Billy nor Salvatore wants to judge the finished products, and neither woman will admit that the other’s bread is delicious. 

Bella is ramping up the production of her skincare items. Bella is upset when she realizes Claudine has used the last few precious drops of her rose oil until she discovers oranges, of which there are plenty, perfectly scent her products. She has to leave Claudine and Constance in charge of production because Danioni has come to the hotel and is demanding to see her. He wants to buy the hotel. She tells him it’s not for sale. “Everything is for sale. Maybe not today but one day soon,” he hisses. “I would rather burn my hotel to the ground than sell it to you,” she tells him. 

Lucian learns that his parents are getting divorced and, much to Alice’s dismay, is not upset about this turn of events. “Father is a useless cad, and Mother has put up with him for long enough,” he tells his sister. Lucian, of course, speaks the truth. 

Bella needs £10,000 to pay her father back, £80,000 total to ensure the hotel can survive. “If anyone can turn beeswax into gold dust, it’s you,” Claudine tells her. Cecil’s money problems are much more terrible. He’s about to lose the estate that has “been in my family for over 300 years.” Jack Turner, the art dealer Cecil swindled in Season 1, is back. He wants money from Cecil. “Go ahead, pull the trigger; you’d be doing me a favor,” Cecil tells Jack. 

Everyone wants cash from Cecil. The mafia wants their money back within the week. Danioni tells him they want £100,000. “Bring me the ring, too, or there will be a bloodbath. Believe me,” Danioni says. Jack Turner beats Cecil up and takes him to the hotel, demanding any money that’s there. Finally, Cecil shows him where the ring is. “You have 24 hours to come up with something else,” Jack tells him. Jack takes off, and Bella finds Cecil significantly injured. She has little sympathy for him, having found incriminating evidence against him - a photo of Cecil kissing Nellie. “It will be me filing for divorce and you taking the blow,” she tells him. 

Claudine does a little ad-hoc therapy to get to the root of the tension between Amelia and Bella. It seems that Amelia was a sickly child and, after insisting she return to school, got viral pneumonia when she was young. Their mother cared for Amelia and got pneumonia, too. She died before Bella turned 10. Claudine wonders if she blames Amelia for their mother’s death. Bella says, of course not, Amelia was just a child. When Claudine wonders if there is some resentment deep down, Amelia is shocked to realize that perhaps there is.

Lucian enters his evil era in “Experiments.” Still guilt-ridden about his wife’s suicide,  distraught over not knowing what happened to Nish, and perhaps spurned on by seeing Constance and Vito together, Lucian reaches his breaking point. Lucian, Marco, and Nish’s brother, Virat, kidnap Antonio Costas, a man whose father was friends with Danioni. Marco knows that Antonio will know what happened to Nish. Virat is hesitant to be violent. Lucian can’t believe Marco will do this for a man he never even met. “An enemy of a fascist is a friend of mine,” Marco tells him.

However, things do not go smoothly when they kidnap Antonio, who will not give up what he knows. Lucian is becoming more and more violent. “Your mother will never forgive me if I let you do something you’ll regret for the rest of your life,” he tells him. But Lucian is determined and beats Antonio within an inch of his life. Antonio finally confesses, “I wasn’t there, but we all heard what happened. Three of them went into the woods, but only one returned.”

With only two episodes left, this information does not bode well for Nish or the rest of the Ainsworth family. Can Lucian ever recover from what he’s done?

Hotel Portofino Season 3 continues with new episodes every Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on most PBS stations and streams on the PBS app and the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel. As always, check your local listings.