5.12 Be Our Guest Much like Liz Taylor is the beating heart of Hotel, she’s also the beating heart of the hotel. With the death of the Countess and Will Drake’s empire in a shambles with the death of its sole creative force, the hotel is in trouble. The fact is, a fresh coat of paint and some new carpet won’t really boost the reputation of your hotel when everyone who goes there dies in graphic, brutal ways at the hands of a murderous ghost. That interferes with Liz and Iris’s attempts to put a new spin on the old hotel, but don’t worry, the show’s most downtrodden women tend to be the ones most who are the most resourceful, and given just how good a friend Liz has been to the folks of the Cortez, it’s not surprising that she’s able to call a town meeting. The ghost meeting is one of the better moments of the show, as all of the familiar spirits, from Marcy the erotica-reading realtor to the bearded gay lumberjack man, show up for the meeting, assuming they were able to adjust to their new life and aren’t wandering the hallway looking for kale. Surprisingly, the ghosts are all aboard with this not-killing plan once March reminds them that if the Cortez goes, they lose their home and thus might have to actually pay for their horrible crimes at the hands of their maker. The only hold-outs are the permanently unhappy Sally and a sullen Will Drake, who takes to killing like a duck to water. The way Liz and Iris manage to reach out to Will and Sally is also really well done, with Liz connecting to Will’s love of fashion and their shared past in sales and Iris and Sally bonding over their shared loneliness and a late-bloomer’s love of technology. It makes sense to keep the episode centered on the show’s stronger relationships (aside from Will Drake, who never had much of a relationship with Liz or Iris), and it’s only natural that Liz and Iris would become the central figures of the hotel. The forgotten women slowly rose in prominence as the season progressed, and the pair assumed a rightfully high place and significant screen time. One of the big criticisms leveled against Murder House was the ending. People didn’t like the way things ended on a fairly pat note, with the family gathered around a Christmas tree with a ghost baby while Tate watched from the hallway and Constance scraped up what was left of the babysitter. However, the ending of Hotel feels much the same. A bunch of relatively terrible people get to have a happy ending, but it feels more earned, or at least better-presented. The difference is, for the most part, the changes in the characters feel earned. Sally had to make peace with the world by becoming a social media star. Will Drake was able to find satisfaction in his work once more, as well as becoming a hipster Howard Hughes, without the crazy. Liz reconnected with her family and Iris got closure with Donovan. Even Countess and Ramona appeared to make peace, at least slightly. Given the expanded run time of the episode, John J. Gray’s script helps put all the pieces back together of the season, by giving everyone a reason to pull together and help one another out, rather than working at cross purposes. Call me a sucker, but I like a happy ending when it feels like it’s deserved. For whatever reason, March and the gang feel like they deserve a happy ending, if only for demonstrating a little emotional maturity and self-restraint by, er, no longer killing everyone who comes into the hotel, no matter how much of a strange person they might be. Not murdering is a good step in the right direction, and between Liz and March, they’ll keep everyone in line. US Correspondent Ron Hogan had kind of forgotten about Billie Dean the psychic, and he didn’t recognize Sarah Paulson at first without the crimped hair. Find more by Ron daily at Shaktronics and PopFi.
