As the fourth episode of Hotel Portofino begins, Vincenzo Danioni (Pasquale Esposito) and his gang try to track down Lucian Ainsworth (Oliver Dench), Anish Sengupta (Assad Zaman), and the others. When Anish stops, Gianluca Bruzzone (Rocco Fasano) urges him to keep moving because they’ll depart him. They watch as another man is beaten a short distance away from them before they begin running again. Soon, they get split up leaving Lucian alone. Lucian manages to hide for the time being while Vincenzo’s men begin closing in on Gianluca and Anish. The guards don’t find anything by the water. When they leave, Gianluca and Anish get out of the boat where they had been hiding. At Hotel Portofino, Pelham Wingfield (Dominic Tighe) gets out of bed and leaves his wife, Lizzie (Bethan Cullinane), sleeping. He goes to the desk, retrieves the key, and snoops around. While he searches for another set of keys, Lucian arrives outside.

Pelham opens a small chest on the desk and finds a wad of cash. He takes some and puts the rest back. Lucian visits Paola (Carolina Gonnelli) and knocks on her door, but she turns the light off and won’t let him in. Pelham puts the key back in the front desk as Lucian comes inside whispering for Anish. They say good night before Pelham exits and Lucian continues waiting for Anish. Seconds later, Gianluca and Anish make it back to the hotel’s back entrance. Anish tries to shake his hand, but Gianluca kisses him instead. Anish stops him so Gianluca says he understands. As Gian walks away, Anish tells him he doesn’t understand. The next day, Constance March (Louisa Binder) and Bella Ainsworth (Natascha McElhone) serve the guests outside.

Lady Latchmere (Anna Chancellor) looks at the card in her flowers and shows it to Melissa (Imogen King) before telling Bella it was very kind. The card has Ernest’s name on it. Robert Albani (Lorenzo Richelmy) greets Claudine (Lily Frazer) as they walk by. Rose Drummond-Ward (Claude Scott-Mitchell) runs up the stairs past Lady Latchmere and Bella. Bella approaches Latchmere and tells her she hopes last night’s hijinks didn’t seem to disturb her too much. She says no and they seemed to have a much better evening than they did so she is sad that Melissa didn’t get to stay behind. Latchmere goes on to say she is going to follow Bella’s lead while making her outlook a little more modern and being a little less judgmental for Ernest’s sake. As they sit down, Latchmere argues they cannot blame the young for trying to squeeze as much out of life as quickly as possible.

Given the mess they’ve made of it all, she isn’t sure how much time they’ll have to enjoy it. Lucian finds Rose coming out of the bathroom while Julia (Lucy Akhurst) calls her name. He takes her into the bathroom, shuts the door, and pretends he is alone when Julia knocks on the door. Julia asks Bella if she has seen her daughter, but she hasn’t. As they step into a private room, Julia apologizes for her daughter’s behavior last night. Bella is glad she was happy since she felt she was having a dreadful time before that. Then, they begin discussing Lucian, Rose, and matters of the heart. Bella asks if it is sentimental to want her child to be happy and settled. Julia says no, but it is sentimental to put happiness above status and security. Julia begins worrying that she has offended Bella who claims Rose might be too young. Julia argues there is no benefit from waiting. She goes on to say that she and Bella of all people should never pretend that love trumps money when it comes to marriage.

Lucian checks on Rose who admits she doesn’t feel well. He hopes she is well enough to go on the boat trip that they agreed to last night although she doesn’t remember. She claims she can’t. Lucian asks whether she can’t or won’t, but she isn’t sure it matters. He knows what it is like to live in fear of a parent’s constant disapproval because his father finds fault in almost everything he does since he got damaged. He sometimes feels like his father can’t stand the sight of him. His mother encourages him to stop worrying about making his father happy and start making himself happy. Lucian can’t believe the girl he saw dancing with reckless abandon last night is too scared to tell her mother she wants to go on a boat trip with friends. She says she could ask.

They leave the bathroom together while Julia watches from nearby. Lucian encourages Rose to go ahead and ask, but she walks away without asking. Pelham approaches Lizzie outside after finding out how much she has rung up on their bar bill. He confesses they’re in trouble because he doesn’t have enough money to pay the bar bill or anything else. When Lizzie asks about the 500 his father gave him not long ago, he claims he lost it by wagering on himself in Monte Carlo. Although he has already written to his father, it has been ten days and he has heard nothing. Pelham has a plan that involves his wife being ready to leave on short notice. Betty (Elizabeth Carling) tells Billy (Louis Healy) to straighten himself up before Bella sees him. Then, Betty learns that Mrs. Turner let Constance borrow one of her dresses. She tells her to be careful wearing a skimpy thing like that. Constance asks if she thinks it is her fault what happened to her, but Betty quickly says no.

Betty just doesn’t want her to get hurt again. Constance is sick of sulking around, buttoning up, and living in fear. She is tired of having what she does and wears getting twisted and wants to let go like Claudine does. Betty believes they’ll cut Mrs. Turner down to size soon enough. She quickly apologizes while saying she is a silly old fool who has forgotten what it is like to be young. Constance tells her she is the wisest woman she knows. Before Con leaves, Betty tells her to go enjoy herself. Constance takes the basket outside where Lucian tells Bella he doesn’t think Rose is going to join him. Bella suggests Julia thinks he is a bad influence although he says it is him and everyone else. Instead, he is set to go out on the boat with Robert, Claudine, and Lizzie. Alice Mays-Smith (Olivia Morris) watches through the window as the carriage pulls away from the hotel.

Cecil (Mark Umbers) checks on her and asks if she is going to the ball. Alice says nobody invited her since they never do. He recommends she start inviting herself and putting her best foot forward. She argues she is too old to go out gallivanting, but Cecil doesn’t think so. Bella enters in time to hear them arguing about whether Alice should let herself have fun from time to time. Alice leaves. Bella finds out what she said from Cecil and suggests he should be matchmaking for Alice instead of Lucian. Meanwhile, Lucian and the others go out on the boat while Bella leaves the hotel to visit Vincenzo Danioni. She gives him a gift from one friend to another but insists it will be the last. Bella explains she is not a woman of means since every penny she owns is sunk into the hotel. She insists she can’t afford to keep paying him. Vincenzo argues she is a resourceful woman who will find another way. Bella says he is a resourceful man and will find another way too before she leaves.

Anish enjoys a drink at a restaurant. He receives a note asking him to follow someone. As he looks around, he spots Gianluca in the distance and begins following him. Before long, he is pulled into a building and he begins making out with Bruzzone. As they go at it, we return to the boat and see Claudine and Roberto relaxing. Constance sits by the water while Lucian shows Lizzie something in the water. Roberto watches as Claudine dives from the boat before he jumps in and swims after her. When he catches up with her, Claudine asks him to leave her be. He keeps going after her until Claudine pushes him into the water. She tries to get him to understand that it was a one-time thing so he begins swimming away from her. Anish finds out from Gianluca that this place belongs to his father who is a lawyer and landowner. He rents it out while the growers give him half of what they harvest. His grandfather bought it from the church in the last century.

Gianluca has tried to convince his father to give it away, but his dad calls him an anarchist. He plans on going to Torino since he is needed there. When Anish claims he is needed here, Gianluca explains they need to take the fight to Mussolini in the cities. Gian encourages Anish to come to Turin where they will learn to resist. Meanwhile, Cecil tells Julia that she might be a little too harsh on her daughter since the idea was to bring the two of them together. Julia doesn’t want to cost her daughter’s good name and reminds Cecil that nothing has been agreed to yet. She explains there is the question of money before mentioning Ivor’s mother’s house in Bayswater. Julia thought they could have the top two floors of the house and the whole thing over time. They’ll also have to discuss the wedding and what they’re going to live on although Cecil was hoping the boy could settle into some suitable employment.

After Julia says you can’t run a household on hope, Cecil admits he’d be happy to give them an income until they get on their feet. He is waiting for a few things to fall into place before finding out how much. She suspects he is trying to muster up the courage to ask his father-in-law for money, but he says he wouldn’t lower himself. She tells him not to wait too long because they don’t want it to go too far until they know what price they’ll have to pay. When Bella checks on Alice, she learns they made money on the tea party and it’ll be even bigger next time. Bella gives her a package that has already been opened because she didn’t know who it was addressed to. She wonders if money from Alice’s widow pension or from the annuity George left should go back into running the hotel instead of spending it on jewelry. While showing her mother the jewelry in the package, she insists she hasn’t spent money on jewelry.

They quickly suspect the gift came from Count Carlo Albani (Daniele Pecci). Claudine and the others compliment Constance when she shows them her swimsuit. Constance approaches Lucian to see if he’ll swim with her and show her the cave. Lizzie and Claudine watch as they get into the water before swimming toward the nearby cave. Inside the cave, Constance reveals she learned to swim in Scarborough in the summers. Lucian learned in school using the terrible lake thing they called the “spinney”. As for drawing, he always knew how to do that. They talk about the beauty of the cave. When she turns around, she is awkwardly close to Lucian. Instead of kissing, they decide to race back. Meanwhile, Alice approaches Count Albani outside to tell him she cannot accept the jewelry because it is inappropriate.

Carlo says he understands and will tell Roberto. She didn’t know the gift came from Roberto as a token of his admiration. Lizzie tells Claudine she has tried to convince Pelham to give up tennis because losing is so bad for his self-esteem. She says he can sulk for weeks over a stupid tennis match causing Claudine to say they’re all the same. Lizzie will let him deal with it on his own if he’d just give her what she wants which is a baby. Claudine asks if they’ve been trying for long, but Lizzie says they’ve barely been trying at all since he shows little interest. Claudine agrees that men are babies although they can teach them how to behave with a little pampering and cajoling. Constance walks up behind Lucian as he pulls his swimsuit down. She gasps when she sees the wounds on his back before apologizing and walking away. At Hotel Portofino, Cecil asks Bella to open a bottle of champagne because they’re going to be celebrating.

Next, Lucian runs into Bella who says Cecil is about to make an announcement as the guests hang around outside of the hotel. Cecil gets their attention and begins talking about the painting that Jack Turner (Adam James) helped him with. It took Cecil and his brother a long time to figure out they had a masterpiece, but Turner’s man came to authenticate it in a jiffy. Vincenzo pays particularly close attention to Cecil’s words. Cecil prepares to unveil the previously unidentified work by the Old Master Peter Paul Rubens. Julia realizes this is what is going to stop Cecil from bumming from his father-in-law while he admits they’re not going to settle for a penny less than a hundred thousand.

Pelham looks at it and repeats a hundred thousand to himself. Claudine approaches Lizzie to see if they’re still on for tonight. Lizzie says they are so they agree to meet at ten thirty in the first floor bathroom. Lucian looks at the painting and praises it, but Rose seems bored and walks away. Constance joins him and says it looks luminescent. Lady Latchmere isn’t a fan of the painting because nudity is something she’ll never become accustomed to. When Alice asks Bella if she is going to let Cecil hang the painting in the hotel, she says no since it’d clash with the décor. Vincenzo talks to Roberto about the painting before learning it is supposedly worth a hundred thousand dollars. Moments later, Cecil goes inside with Vincenzo who wants to return the Hotel Portofino towel he retrieved earlier. He explains it was found on a bicycle at an illegal gathering held by enemies of the Italian state.

One of the undesirables was arrested and confessed he was asked to steal the bicycle by William Scanlon. He has fallen in with criminal elements, but Vincenzo is going to let Cecil handle it. Before he leaves, Vincenzo gives Cecil a letter directed to Mr. Bowater Esquire while claiming it was found in the street. Cecil says the letter is a private correspondence to her father’s accountant. Since he doesn’t have a head for sums, he has decided to leave all that to Bella. He is told a man should always be aware of his wife’s affairs. Jack interrupts and takes Cecil away. Outside, Billy serves Anish and gives him a note with a Torino address on it. He follows Billy inside to ask who gave him the note, but Billy only says it was a friend. Billy gives him a package too and instructs him that he is supposed to bring them when he comes. It looks like anti-fascist material although neither of them can read Italian.

Billy doesn’t think he should leave them there so he offers to hide them for a price. Anish is warned being caught with them could lead to jail time. Constance enters as Anish leaves. She looks at the paper and tells Billy he is asking for trouble. He doesn’t think so unless she tells on him. He reveals he is going to hide them under Lady Latchmere’s bed while they’re all busy with dinner. Someone eavesdrops on their conversation. It might be Francesco. Constance runs into Lucian who asks her if she liked the painting. She admits she did and although it was painted 300 years ago it still seems fresh. He admits she has a good idea. This was the first time she was close enough to a painting to touch it. He mentions her seeing something else today and apologizes for her being exposed to that, but she says he has nothing to apologize for. After he says it must’ve repulsed her, she admits it took her breath away.

She goes on to say it made her yearn to know what he must’ve been through to get it and what it must be like to carry it still. She says they all have scars although he didn’t see any on her today. He confesses he looked and looked but couldn’t find any imperfections. She smiles before walking away. Jack approaches Cecil to see if he has a minute to talk. He gives Cecil a check for $50,000 while Cecil says they can only hope it sells. Jack wouldn’t worry about that and says the real question is how much they’ll get. He asks Cecil if he can take the painting with him. He promises it’ll be well protected since he is carrying a handgun. Francesco helps Jack take the painting to his room. Once Francesco is gone, Jack puts the gun on the bed while telling Claudine to stay put and not let anyone in. Roberto finds Melissa playing cards with Alice. Alice tells him that his father is upstairs sleeping.

Then, she thanks him for the bracelet which was very beautiful and generous. He says nothing before grabbing her hand and nearly kissing it. He whistles as he walks out of the room. Alice sits down and explains to Melissa that she couldn’t accept the gift because she thought it was from the Count. Melissa wonders if he needs his father to speak for him since he doesn’t know any English. Claudine puts the gun in the dresser and leaves the room anyway. She meets with Lizzie and gives her the supplies. It looks like someone enters the room with the painting before the episode ends.

 

Hotel Portofino Review

Overall, I think this was one of the strongest episodes of Hotel Portofino this season. Things are starting to happen quickly so we can easily see where the story is going in the next two episodes. Hotel Portofino is a cheerful place, but the episode proved there are many bleak things going on behind the hotel’s closed doors. Lucian’s storyline and how he is quickly developing a relationship with Constance are quickly becoming my favorite aspect of the show.

However, each character has its own unique storyline and it sincerely feels like each character matters in the bigger scheme of things. I am genuinely interested in seeing what is going to happen next. Although it can be a bit slow sometimes, Hotel Portofino is a worthwhile series that has interesting characters, beautiful scenery, and meaningful stories. The episode scores a 7.5 out of 10. All recaps of Hotel Portofino can be found on Reel Mockery here. Learn how to support the Reel Mockery project by following this link.