The Stakes are High in the Penultimate Episode of 'Hotel Portofino'

For a show that on the surface seems so idyllic (The sun! The Italian coast! The fashion!), this third season of Hotel Portofino has been extraordinarily stressful. The season’s penultimate episode, entitled “Revelations,” took no prisoners. Are you sitting down? I think you should sit down.

Let’s start with the most uncomplicated storyline first. Thanks to Billy, Alice has finally learned to ride a horse. She goes off to find Carlos. “I know better than to come between a man and his pleasures,” she tells them before they take off riding together. But, just as I feared last week, Alice falls off her horse. Thankfully, she’s fine, but the fall makes it impossible for Count Albani to deny his feelings for Alice any longer. “For a moment, I thought I lost you,” he tells her. The two kiss and canoodle, and everything is right in their little world. That is until he tells her, “A thoroughbred horse must be handled like a headstrong woman. You must pretend to ignore her to attract her and make her come to you.” Alice does the math and realizes that’s exactly what Carlos has done to her. She storms off, and their romance is over before it even begins.

After having a breakthrough with Claudine last week in realizing she may hold Amelia responsible for their mother’s death, Bella and her sister have a heart-to-heart. “I think a part of me still blames you for taking her from me,” she tells her sister. Vito delivers Bella’s lotions to the hotel. Bella shares them with Amelia and asks for her sister’s help in developing a product name and trademark. “They’re certainly more than passable,” Amelia tells her sister, who is about as enthusiastic as Amelia gets about anything.