Hell Motel – Season 1 Episode 2 'Night Orchid' Recap & Review

The Review Geek

5 hours ago

Night Orchid
Episode 2 of Hell Motel starts with a flashback, as we see Portia and Ruby buying the motel. Portia is more sceptical compared to her girlfriend, although the True Crime goldmine they could be sitting on is too alluring to turn away from.
Back in the present, the group argue out in the rain next to the burning RV. The weekend is quickly going from bad to worse, especially as the group point fingers at the motel owners as the killers.
Tempers are flared, and suspicions are high. In the middle of this, our RV owners, Shirley and Floyd, encourage the group not to flee into the woods. This is for their own nefarious schemes of course, but Crow seems to be the only one unsure whether they can be trusted.
Alone though, Floyd and Shirley mull over what's happened. Apparently they're not responsible for Hemmingway's death, given someone got to him before they could. They theorize that there could be a Satanist here, someone looking to finish the job that this couple started all those years ago. Caitlyn was a ritual sacrifice, whose death was supposed to help open a gateway and complete the ritual to release Baphomet.
While Floyd and Shirley work to root out exactly who this killer is, we do know that these two are definitely behind the RV blowing up.
While Portia and Ruby look to clean up the mess in the basement, each of the true crime gang buddy up for the night. Andy confesses his fear about being next in this horror series, while Crow offers him words of encouragement.
Crow admits to also being afraid but he's pretty chill about the whole thing. He can't just sit around and do nothing though; he's going to run into town and try to get them some help.
Shirley notices Crow running and decides Floyd should go stop him. Apparently they need 9 sacrifices for the portal to open so Crow going walkabouts doesn't do their case any favours.
In the bedroom, Portia lashes out at Ruby for talking her into buying the motel. She brings up the grotesque obsession Ruby has with true crime and how this has twisted her love into repulsion.
Their argument can be heard across the motel, as their loud voices filter through the vents to Paige (who's on her own) and Blake, who finds himself in the presence of Adriana who wants to get freaky. It's a bit too freaky for Blake though, who winds up handcuffed and at Adriana's mercy. When he pleads to be let go, she simply cuts him across the forearm and then has sex with him anyway.
Back outside, there's an unnerving conversation between Crow and Floyd as the latter catches up to him in the woods after a tense encounter with a wolf. Crow doesn't trust Floyd and admits that he's suspicious of everybody. Before things can take a turn for the worst though, Andy shows up and they all head back to the motel.
In private, Crow warns Andy that Floyd is definitely a killer and can sense it, believing they need to stick together. Andy is more sceptical though.
As for Shirley, she catches up with Kawayan, the art guy. He's starting to lose his mojo, having seen a murder first-hand himself and believing he's a fraud. Kawayan winds up questioning himself and Shirley takes advantage of this. She believes he should indulge in murder himself to fully become wrapped up in his work.
That night, Crow begins to lose control in his room, pacing around and raving madly, while Portia is killed in her sleep by the killer. Ruby is sleeping beside her when this happens, so we know this killer is definitely not her. When Ruby wakes up in the middle of the night though, she looks over and finds her partner dead, letting out a bloodcurdling scream.
The Episode Review
So Hell Motel's double-bill rounds out with a clearer picture of how everything slots together. Floyd and Shirley are trying to open some sort of hell dimension to let this Baphomet free. The cultists are clearly part of this Satanist cult but we don't know if there are more of them lurking around the area.
With Paige having taken most of the focus in episode 1, episode 2 actually relegates her to the back (quite literally, with her sitting in her room) while we get to focus on everybody else.
We learn a little more about Crow and Andy here, and their 'bromance' is one of the more surprising aspects of this chapter. However, it's also quite telling that Crow, underneath that façade of calmness, is actually struggling and clearly worried.
Shirley and Floyd aren't the only killers here though, which adds a nice little twist to proceedings, and there's somebody else out there picking people off one by one. Maybe it's an outlandish theory but given how much emphasis has been placed on 'everybody's a suspect except Hemmingway', maybe Hemmingway himself is the killer.
The food he cooked up was suspiciously grotesque, and he's unhinged enough to potentially stage a dead body and pick the group off one by one. Still that's just my theory so don't take it as gospel!
Although it is a bit rough around the edges and somewhat cheap with its production design and simple fade cuts between scenes, there's enough in this to whet the appetite and come back to see what happens next.
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