Sell-offs and buy-backs
Dec. 20th, 2025 09:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessHotel Portofino - 3.3 Realizations
The pre-credits scene was all about what most people would remember 1929 for, a take on what Cecil’s stockbroker refused to believe would be the Wall Street crash.
But Portofino was a different world, with Lucian breakfasting with the fam while staring at Constance, who was staring right back while serving them. Alice picked up on this even if his aunt, grandfather and guest didn’t. We learned that Lucian had been a painter’s assistant and Billy a flunky in India. He’d eventually got a day of to go to Nish’s family home and learned his mother hadn’t heard from him for two years, and that was why he'd returned, bringing Nish’s younger brother along as well as Billy.
Billy didn’t take well to Salvatore taking his job, and it gradually became clear that Betty hadn’t yet confirmed to her son that she was engaged to ‘Salvo’, though she definitely had a point when she said she hadn’t been able to write because he never gave an address. But overall he was acting like a sulky teenager.
Bella lectured Cecil for not hanging out with his son, he said he was going to Genoa to get some money, and he must have done, though we never saw it. Bella all but forced Lucian to go ask Constance to cut his hair. She was just finishing off with Billy, with whom she had an easy, sibling-like rapport. She didn’t at all with Lucian.
But later, the newly shorn Lucian (who’d kept his tache and baby beard) had changed from his gap year clothes to look more like an English gent, was acting like a toff around the waiting Constance. Who proceeded to tip tea all over him, while acting like it was an accident, though he and we, at least, knew full well it wasn’t. They had a bit of an encounter in the kitchen, where she was angry, he told her their relationship should be over and buried, even though their interaction made it fairly clear that it wasn’t.
Bella had some UST with Marco when she went to ask him if he’d help Lucian follow up any clues about Gian-Luca and Nish. Possibly filmed on an entirely different day to every other scene because it was raining.
More stress in Bella’s life came from her father admitting she didn’t need his permission to divorce her titled husband, but saying if she went ahead with the divorce, he was calling back his loan a month later.
She did get to go full mother on Nish’s brother, who’d avoided coming downstairs, not because he was afraid they’d heap meat on him as they had at breakfast, but because he didn’t have the right clothes. His father had been all for education, but had only been able to afford to send Nish off to an English boarding school, and his younger son was feeling all sorts of class consciousness. Bella continued to insist on mothering him as she had Nish. I had thoughts about how this show depicts class but they basically boil down to me thinking that the anachronistic POV muddies a complicated picture. And I really doubt that the show is going to do anything about caste and the Hindu religion.
The next morning, Nish’s brother joined Lucian in a brief visit to Rose’s mausoleum, where Lucian admitted to his latest confidante that he hadn’t loved her much, but had loved someone else. Nish’s brother pointed out that he should be telling his lady love all this. Lucian got all repressed and English.
Marco talked to someone in Portofino and announced that Gian-Luca’s father was dead, and the family were being informed. Lucian felt he had come to a dead end and then kind of disappeared for the episode – does he even know about his parents’ divorce or have an inkling of why Marco might want to be on good terms with him?
Auntie Amelia told Alice to forget Carlo, dismissing him as a horse-loving farmer, and saying should come to London (Amelia was being exceptionally breezy about running her father’s business), where her title was guaranteed to pull her a more eligible man before she got too old. As we saw in a scene between the sisters, Amelia is still bitter towards Bella, although she doesn’t know her well enough to know that if she really wanted to hurt Bella, she should try to steal her remaining son away from her side. We learned that Alice’s hatred of horses came from an accident when she was a child and Cecil’s bad parenting over it.
Later Alice would ask Billy (who I suddenly remembered had a crush on her) to teach her to ride horses. As Salvatore had taken his job, he had nothing better to do, so he agreed.
Claudine praised Bella’s body lotion, and Bella, who’d been doing up her sums about how to repay her father, started scenting a business opportunity. Claudine said they’d talk over lunch. Later, Bella would explain her straits, ask if she could talk to the fashion house’s head of cosmetics AND negotiated Claudine into taking a minority stake if they agreed to scale up and sell her lotions. (This is a cockamamie enterprise.)
Because Bella was gone, Cecil phoned up Danioni and said that now would be a good time to come over to discuss their business. Danioni turned up with his wife (who had her hair down, which really bothered me. She may also have been recast from whoever we saw back in the day.) She seemed nice and blissfully unaware that her husband was a toerag, so I didn’t think highly of her brains. Danioni overheard Papa and Amelia discuss Bella potentially selling the hotel. There was some stuff where Cecil claimed that investing in Wall Street was as safe as houses, and Danioni wanted to increase his stake in the booze smuggling operation, which would reduce Cecil’s.
Bella and Claudine returned, and Bella learned about Danioni’s visit. She was not impressed to learn that he thought the hotel was up for sale and had a whisper fight with Cecil, who offered to give her the £100K upfront if she’d sign the divorce papers on his terms. When they said arrivederci to the Danionis, Cecil was surprised to see Bella’s mother’s ring on Letizia’s finger, which led to Letizia (who had next to no English) wanting to know what was going on. Danioni tried to get away. Bella admitted that it was her heirloom, Letizia handed it back, and Danioni was probably going to get an earful in the car, so maybe Leitizia is not as stupid or unaware of how awful he is as we were first led to believe.
Claudine got to see Bella’s lab, there was some blether about her running low on essential oils. Paola said that Constance should ask the local chemist Vito, because she had some influence there. Constance tried to downplay said influence, but Bella asked her to ask. Which she did, and Constance does have some influence on him, because he agreed. The chemist’s shop and lab were beautiful with the coloured glass.
Bella agreed to sign the divorce papers for Cecil, but he, going through some complicated feelings after having been her husband for many years, really wanted to know what had been going on with the ring. Bella fessed up to the blackmail, Cecil realised that Danioni had passed on the letters anyway and tried to reframe his losing his temper about them and hitting her. But like she said, they had issues anyway. (And he had attacked her.) She got her money (although it may be important as to whether it was in the form of a cheque or cash), he got the divorce papers, and her ring went into an envelope because she couldn’t bear to wear it again (give it to Alice or Lottie…)
Their complicated exchange was interrupted by what sounded like unexpected guests, but turned out to be Cecil’s mistress/would-be second wife, waving a newspaper around. Cecil, Bella, and finally Daddy-o read it, and thus learned about the stock market crash. Bella’s father had what looked like a heart attack, because he had, of course, taken Cecil’s advice because he was a toff and men knew best.
The pre-credits scene was all about what most people would remember 1929 for, a take on what Cecil’s stockbroker refused to believe would be the Wall Street crash.
But Portofino was a different world, with Lucian breakfasting with the fam while staring at Constance, who was staring right back while serving them. Alice picked up on this even if his aunt, grandfather and guest didn’t. We learned that Lucian had been a painter’s assistant and Billy a flunky in India. He’d eventually got a day of to go to Nish’s family home and learned his mother hadn’t heard from him for two years, and that was why he'd returned, bringing Nish’s younger brother along as well as Billy.
Billy didn’t take well to Salvatore taking his job, and it gradually became clear that Betty hadn’t yet confirmed to her son that she was engaged to ‘Salvo’, though she definitely had a point when she said she hadn’t been able to write because he never gave an address. But overall he was acting like a sulky teenager.
Bella lectured Cecil for not hanging out with his son, he said he was going to Genoa to get some money, and he must have done, though we never saw it. Bella all but forced Lucian to go ask Constance to cut his hair. She was just finishing off with Billy, with whom she had an easy, sibling-like rapport. She didn’t at all with Lucian.
But later, the newly shorn Lucian (who’d kept his tache and baby beard) had changed from his gap year clothes to look more like an English gent, was acting like a toff around the waiting Constance. Who proceeded to tip tea all over him, while acting like it was an accident, though he and we, at least, knew full well it wasn’t. They had a bit of an encounter in the kitchen, where she was angry, he told her their relationship should be over and buried, even though their interaction made it fairly clear that it wasn’t.
Bella had some UST with Marco when she went to ask him if he’d help Lucian follow up any clues about Gian-Luca and Nish. Possibly filmed on an entirely different day to every other scene because it was raining.
More stress in Bella’s life came from her father admitting she didn’t need his permission to divorce her titled husband, but saying if she went ahead with the divorce, he was calling back his loan a month later.
She did get to go full mother on Nish’s brother, who’d avoided coming downstairs, not because he was afraid they’d heap meat on him as they had at breakfast, but because he didn’t have the right clothes. His father had been all for education, but had only been able to afford to send Nish off to an English boarding school, and his younger son was feeling all sorts of class consciousness. Bella continued to insist on mothering him as she had Nish. I had thoughts about how this show depicts class but they basically boil down to me thinking that the anachronistic POV muddies a complicated picture. And I really doubt that the show is going to do anything about caste and the Hindu religion.
The next morning, Nish’s brother joined Lucian in a brief visit to Rose’s mausoleum, where Lucian admitted to his latest confidante that he hadn’t loved her much, but had loved someone else. Nish’s brother pointed out that he should be telling his lady love all this. Lucian got all repressed and English.
Marco talked to someone in Portofino and announced that Gian-Luca’s father was dead, and the family were being informed. Lucian felt he had come to a dead end and then kind of disappeared for the episode – does he even know about his parents’ divorce or have an inkling of why Marco might want to be on good terms with him?
Auntie Amelia told Alice to forget Carlo, dismissing him as a horse-loving farmer, and saying should come to London (Amelia was being exceptionally breezy about running her father’s business), where her title was guaranteed to pull her a more eligible man before she got too old. As we saw in a scene between the sisters, Amelia is still bitter towards Bella, although she doesn’t know her well enough to know that if she really wanted to hurt Bella, she should try to steal her remaining son away from her side. We learned that Alice’s hatred of horses came from an accident when she was a child and Cecil’s bad parenting over it.
Later Alice would ask Billy (who I suddenly remembered had a crush on her) to teach her to ride horses. As Salvatore had taken his job, he had nothing better to do, so he agreed.
Claudine praised Bella’s body lotion, and Bella, who’d been doing up her sums about how to repay her father, started scenting a business opportunity. Claudine said they’d talk over lunch. Later, Bella would explain her straits, ask if she could talk to the fashion house’s head of cosmetics AND negotiated Claudine into taking a minority stake if they agreed to scale up and sell her lotions. (This is a cockamamie enterprise.)
Because Bella was gone, Cecil phoned up Danioni and said that now would be a good time to come over to discuss their business. Danioni turned up with his wife (who had her hair down, which really bothered me. She may also have been recast from whoever we saw back in the day.) She seemed nice and blissfully unaware that her husband was a toerag, so I didn’t think highly of her brains. Danioni overheard Papa and Amelia discuss Bella potentially selling the hotel. There was some stuff where Cecil claimed that investing in Wall Street was as safe as houses, and Danioni wanted to increase his stake in the booze smuggling operation, which would reduce Cecil’s.
Bella and Claudine returned, and Bella learned about Danioni’s visit. She was not impressed to learn that he thought the hotel was up for sale and had a whisper fight with Cecil, who offered to give her the £100K upfront if she’d sign the divorce papers on his terms. When they said arrivederci to the Danionis, Cecil was surprised to see Bella’s mother’s ring on Letizia’s finger, which led to Letizia (who had next to no English) wanting to know what was going on. Danioni tried to get away. Bella admitted that it was her heirloom, Letizia handed it back, and Danioni was probably going to get an earful in the car, so maybe Leitizia is not as stupid or unaware of how awful he is as we were first led to believe.
Claudine got to see Bella’s lab, there was some blether about her running low on essential oils. Paola said that Constance should ask the local chemist Vito, because she had some influence there. Constance tried to downplay said influence, but Bella asked her to ask. Which she did, and Constance does have some influence on him, because he agreed. The chemist’s shop and lab were beautiful with the coloured glass.
Bella agreed to sign the divorce papers for Cecil, but he, going through some complicated feelings after having been her husband for many years, really wanted to know what had been going on with the ring. Bella fessed up to the blackmail, Cecil realised that Danioni had passed on the letters anyway and tried to reframe his losing his temper about them and hitting her. But like she said, they had issues anyway. (And he had attacked her.) She got her money (although it may be important as to whether it was in the form of a cheque or cash), he got the divorce papers, and her ring went into an envelope because she couldn’t bear to wear it again (give it to Alice or Lottie…)
Their complicated exchange was interrupted by what sounded like unexpected guests, but turned out to be Cecil’s mistress/would-be second wife, waving a newspaper around. Cecil, Bella, and finally Daddy-o read it, and thus learned about the stock market crash. Bella’s father had what looked like a heart attack, because he had, of course, taken Cecil’s advice because he was a toff and men knew best.
