Grand Hotel Review: A Perfect Storm (Season 1 Episode 13)

Grand Hotel Season 1 Episode 13, “A Perfect Storm” has it all!

Hilariously awkward hookups, tender family forgiveness, murder mystery reveals, topless Mateo, and a big cliffhanger all are elegantly included in the summer show’s final night.    

It is the perfect finale to an exhilarating, emotional, and just plain entertaining first season. 

There is so much to praise on the episode. I want to focus that starlight on how Grand Hotel manages to give the meaty relationship development to the parent generation of ships. 

Javi and Ingrid are my favorite ship on the show. And the finale gives me the flirty goodness I was hoping for and a very special little something extra, (more on that later), between the two rebels. 

However, the ships that face deep emotional conflict are not between the young and single. They are those between the middle-aged and married Santiago and Gigi and Helen and Malcolm. 

The emphasis on these relationships is important for at least two reasons. One, they are all outside the 20-something age bracket typical of a show’s main ships.

By allowing the marriages to have turmoil, passion, loss, and lust, Grand Hotel is discarding the false belief that romances are only worth watching if they are a “will they/won’t they” between young adults. 

Even though there is cheating in the relationships, there is never a second where you doubt Helen’s commitment to Malcolm or Santiago’s commitment to Gigi. 

That’s actually kind of incredible. 

Soapy dramas often rely on the lure of infidelity to make relationships interesting. 

Grand Hotel doesn’t have time for that. Instead, they utilize issues of loyalty and betrayal, secrecy and protection, illness and growth to keep us hooked on the couples. 

It works and it reduces ageism in the process. 

The other reason the emphasis on Helen and Malcolm and Santiago and Gigi is important in the representation it provides. There are two Black characters and two Latinx characters in these ships. 

This is significant.

Helen is a character who could have easily been soaked in stereotypes and one-dimensional development. The writing and the performance by Wendy Raquel Robinson push the character to one of the most well developed on the series. 

Gigi is such a pure braveheart. (I have to believe she would be a Griffidor on our 20 Television Characters and Their Hogwarts Houses list).

She starts on the series as a mean girl who criticizes the clearly perfect Yoli for her size. Over the course of the season, we learn that this evidence of vanity and cruelty is actually related to Gigi’s past pain.

She is a person who can admit fault, ask for forgiveness and then prove that she deserves it. 

Wow, what a character.

Only the skilled and powerful actor Roselyn Sanchez could silently break my heart as much as Santiago does when he says this line, using just her facial expressions. 

SANTIAGO: Gigi, mi amor, I love you more than life. But I don’t know how we’re going to get past this. 

Quick tangent here on the costuming. Gigi’s clothing this season has been incredibly beautiful, but also a pivotal part of her characterization.

Her blood-stained white outfit with the asymmetrical neckline on “A Perfect Storm,” is symbolic of the off-kilter innocence that she has. 

Looking back at her costuming on Grand Hotel Season 1 Episode 7, “Where the Sun Don’t Shine,” and Grand Hotel Season 1 Episode 11, “Art of Darkness,” reveals a thread of costume design that is a part of the characterization and storytelling. 

Grand Hotel is detailed and masterful in its storytelling, down to the clothing. 

Gigi and Helen both get representation far beyond what is typical of the Black hotel manager and the new Latina trophy wife. 

I rejoice at this representation because it means that women of color can see themselves as the leading lady, the flawed mother, and the comic relief. We need that.

I need that. 

That they are in couples with people of color proves that you don’t need a white person in a ship for it to be primary and that there can be a romance between Black and Latinx characters, without any commentary. 

I love that there is no issue with Jason being AfroLatinx. That is believable. Race and ethnicity don’t look one way. 

On the Grand Hotel finale, we get to see that there are mixes of identity in all of us and we get to see that message delivered by non-white characters. 

I rejoice. 

I wouldn’t necessarily call it rejoicing, but some loud and passionate noises definitely come out of my mouth as I learn all the shocking answers to the season’s mysteries. 

I need more than one jaw because mine is on the floor after the first shocking reveal and I don’t have time to pick it back up before the next jaw-dropper hits. 

Malcolm is the killer! What a brilliant twist. He is so kind and unassuming. He is also fighting cancer.

HOW COULD WE HAVE POSSIBLY SUSPECTED HIM!?

Danny’s reaction to Malcolm is perfection.

DANNY: I think the universe found a way of paying you back.

It’s at once ruthless and compassionate. Danny’s justice isn’t in revenge, but in getting closure for his sister. There is also a bit of justice, or at least karma, to the fact that his investigation led him to Alicia.

The beautiful scene between D’Alicia in the tide is a sweet and salty hug for all of us who have found love in the midst of grief. 

The most shocking reveal is hands down Ingrid’s mom.

Especially because we get to feel the delicious sexual tension between Javi and Ingrid beforehand, the dirty twist Ingrid’s mom puts into play is fun and intriguing.

I dare anyone to keep their beverage in their mouth when Ingrid says, “Mom?” Impossible.

Even though there is the glorious cliffhanger of who shot Santiago, I don’t think it is Mateo. Not even for a second. 

Shalim Ortiz’s performance makes it clear that even though Mateo is saying harsh things out of his mouth, he has a gooey center for the hotel family he has at Riveria Grand. 

He is basically begging Santiago to let him stay. 

I think the mistake he wants to make is to go and grovel for his job back. 

AM I RIGHT?! 

We NEED another season so our speculations don’t fall into an abyss. 

I know I’m not the only one ready to book my room at Grand Hotel for next summer. I’m hitting up hotels.com right now!

Seriously, though. I am not ready to say goodbye to Santiago or Grand Hotel. I will be holding out hope that this was not just a summer fling, but a long-term relationship in the making!

What did you think of this episode of Grand Hotel? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Grand Hotel airs Mondays at 10/9c on ABC.

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