The Resort Review: A History of Forgetting (Season 1 Episode 4)

The Resort Season 1 Episode 4, “A History of Forgetting,” switches up the narrative in a mind-boggling, time-juggling flashback.

During its first few episodes, The Resort has only followed Emma and Noah and Sam and Violet. Sure, there have been side characters sprinkled in, but for the most part, they are the guiding force of the story. 

That changes on “A History of Forgetting,” and we are introduced to the quirky character of Alex: the owner of Oceana Vista. 

Introducing a new character and giving them such a big narrative part with only four episodes left in the season is a bold decision, but if there’s one thing The Resort excels at, it’s character building.

Alex is actually a character we’ve met before, (he’s the man in the Santa costume who stole Sam’s skateboard), but up to this point, he was simply a nameless, strange background character used to help drive the mystery.

On “A History of Forgetting,” he’s shown to play a much deeper part in the seedy underbelly of this mystery. Alex tells Baltasar that he suffers from memory leakage, explaining that his memories leak from his ears, causing him to forget things.

This explains the abundance of post-its that Emma and Noah find on The Resort Season 1 Episode 3, “Tempus Exhaurire,” and the sprawling mural across the wall of the same room — they’re both products of Alex’s loosening memory, a way for him to remember little details and never really lose them. 

But is Alex really losing his memories, or is something deeper going on? 

A quote from Baltasar early on in the episode may be our biggest hint that we aren’t dealing with a typical mystery anymore. 

Baltasar: What happened to Sam and Violet is just one thread in a tapestry of interconnected stories. 

However, there are plenty of moments throughout “A History of Forgetting” in which The Resort implies that Alex may have psychic tendencies. 

After all, he predicts the hurricane changing course and coming straight for Oceana Vista. But the biggest tell comes in the form of “A History of Forgetting”’s jaw-dropping cliffhanger: Emma and Noah are included in Alex’s mural, painted just inches away from where Sam and Violet are.

It seems as though Alex’s mural holds many clues and secrets just waiting to be uncovered. But it also begs the question: are we now dealing with time travel?

It certainly seems plausible as the series comes from Andy Siara – the mastermind behind 2020’s Palm Springs, a time-bending rom-com, which also coincidentally stars Cristin Milotti.

Adding to this theory is how every episode so far, has opened and closed with luminescent, aura-like, squiggly lines that, at first, simply seem like an artistic choice but now potentially hint at something more whimsical. 

Could they be the tell-tale sign of a portal? Is the hurricane a portal? Is the ocean that Alex dove into a portal? Are Sam and Violet trapped inside said portal? Am I reading too far into this?

Whatever is going on, with every new episode of The Resort, it becomes more and more clear that there is something bigger at play. Perhaps this isn’t the cut-and-dry comedic mystery show I thought it was. Though, that’s not a bad thing.

What The Resort has planned for the rest of its run is to be discovered but it seems like one thing is for certain: we’ll be delving into supernatural phenomena. 

Stray Thoughts: 

• I really enjoyed seeing more of Luna, she’s such an intriguing character. 
• Sam’s family is great comedic relief, especially his dad. 
• So Baltasar isn’t the villain we were led to believe he is? Or is he playing Emma and Noah? 
• The mural is gorgeous and I love that it’s being included in the mystery, I wonder what other secrets it may hold. 

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

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The Resort airs Thursdays on Peacock. 

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