What I’m Watching: The Resort (Season Finale)

The Resort: Season 1, Episode 8 “The Disillusionment of Time” (B)

I had the benefit of talking to showrunner Andy Siara after watching this episode and before writing this review, which I think turned out to be helpful in processing my feelings about it. Our conversation - which you should absolutely listen to - had a lot to do with feelings of nostalgia and also with Baltasar as a Batman-like character, which I found very interesting. While Emma was really the protagonist of early episodes, and did leave that meandering voicemail for Murray recently, she’s faded into the background a bit in the back half of the season. That made her getting stuck in the cave as she was so close to finally getting answers all the more poignant and intense, just before she got to the pool of water to find the most devastating sight. Leaving things there, of course, would have been miserable, and so instead we got a much happier ending, one that does defy explanation aside from a simple one that they were merely preserved in time. They don’t know what to make of smartphones and Sam’s family thinks that he’s scamming them, but they’re alive and Emma is the one who found them. What happens to Emma and Noah isn’t all that consequential, as it turns out, but this was an important journey for them as a couple. I do agree with Siara that both Baltasar and Luna were initially introduced as potential villains, and I like the way that they’ve been revealed to be something completely different. I’m curious what a theoretical second season would look like, and Siara has said he has ideas, but maybe this is the best place for this show to wrap given the closed-loop nature of its arc.

Season grade: B
Season MVP: Luis Gerardo Méndez as Baltasar

What I’m Watching: The Resort

The Resort: Season 1, Episode 7 “La Pubertad Matrimonio” (B)

This show is leaving a lot to be tied up in the final episode of the season, presumably hoping for a renewal so that all this can be explored more. Or maybe they’ll just find Sam and Violet and realize that there is a place where time doesn’t pass the same way, but it’s hard to imagine it all wrapping up in a coherent and satisfying way. On the positive side, I was thrilled to see Nick Offerman return as Murray since I had almost forgotten all about him, and that slew of voicemails from Emma as she wandered through the jungle fortunately also included detailed directions on where to go to find them. Having the helicopter land in the jungle as Emma and Noah both ran towards it was an exciting scene, something that happens all too rarely on this intriguing but slow-paced show. Taking a picture by the helicopter felt like a momentous occasion, one that might help them mark the passage of time if things get crazy. Murray wasn’t happy that Emma was manifesting hope on his behalf, a rare bit of optimism from someone who doesn’t see the same merit in relationships that others, like her husband, do. Noah saying that he would want to travel a year into the future to see how they’re doing suggested that he is invested in making things better, while Emma couldn’t stand the idea of living until the age of 96. It took Sam and Violet a considerable amount of effort to figure out how to have sex in the jungle, so them still being alive isn’t promising, even if Murray did just find something important while he was popping a squat.

What I’m Watching: The Resort

The Resort: Season 1, Episode 6 “Hunch Fo Club Seeth” (B-)

While this episode overall didn’t really retain my interest, I do love an unexpected guest appearance from an actor I really like. Luis Guzmán was an excellent part of a truly unusual and terribly underrated series, “Perpetual Grace, LTD,” that I wish had gotten more attention. Casting him as author Illán Iberra was a terrific choice, and I especially appreciated the moment where he realized who Baltasar was and then proceeded to have a heart attack after stabbing him for all the childhood criticisms he had given to the much more established author. Baltasar has learned plenty from Alex in terms of trying to understand the metaphysical and assign meaning to random happenings, like the idea of allowing yourself to live in memories and then being able to discover important clues. Luna isn’t having any of it anymore, unhappy that Baltasar invoked “emotional debt” as a concept somehow comparable to actual monetary debt, and eager to let Emma and Noah get back to their vacation. Baltasar is spot-on about one thing, however, which is that their vacation is this mystery, or at least that’s true for Emma, who’s still obsessed with finding Pasaje. Noah, on the other hand, is ready to stop playing this game, but he’s also opening up and reckoning with his trauma, something that doesn’t interest Emma because it’s much easier to get sucked up into someone else’s drama. I’ll admit I am curious about Sam and Violet’s fate, though I’m not sure I can count on this show to provide linear answers.

What I’m Watching: The Resort

The Resort: Season 1, Episode 5 “El Espejo” (B)

It was strange to see Alex look past Sam and Violet when he opened the closet and then just close the doors right after that, but then he made it clear to them that they weren’t going to be able to leave when they tried to make a run for it. He was more aware than they thought when Violet tried to whisper to Sam to get the sword, and that he focused on what they liked most about the resort in his interrogation was definitely peculiar. But when he found the book, he became fixated on that, and he thought it was all about him, which wouldn’t be that hard to believe given the inexplicable and fantastical nature of much of what happens on this show. The trippiest thing of all was how, after being prodded by Baltasar to open up about his own relationship with Emma and the loss of their child, Noah tumbled down in the same place where Emma had earlier fallen and found the phone that, just moments before, Alex had left. It seems like there’s definitely something up with the space-time continuum, which may mean that Sam is still out there if there’s a way for Baltasar, Luna, Emma, and Noah to travel back through time and figure out what happened to him after Alex drove off with their phones. Hearing Noah talk about what the high point and low point of his marriage was turned out to be quite enlightening, and he and Emma definitely don’t see their dynamic in the same way.

What I’m Watching: The Resort

The Resort: Season 1, Episode 4 “A History of Forgetting” (B)

This episode dove fully into Balthazar’s backstory and what happened at the resort just before the hurricane, and the end also introduced an undeniable supernatural element that suggested that Emma and Noah have been part of all of this much longer than they realized. Alex was definitely eccentric, and I knew I recognized the actor from somewhere, likely Ben Sinclair’s similarly offbeat, if otherwise quite different, turn in the upcoming comedy “Spin Me Round,” which debuted at SXSW. The apocalyptic visions he was having and his claims of “memory leakage” were cause for concern, though Balthazar didn’t seem quite as upset about it as Luna did. It does explain the post-its and the mural, though the big shock at the end of the episode was that Emma and Noah were both part of it even though they hadn’t entered that room until just before then. The timing of the hurricane felt very dramatic and intense, as he noted that there was a shelter prepared to a worried guest and he went to speak with Sam’s parents and Hannah about Sam being missing and that penis photo on the phone. That Alex was the Santa in the penthouse doesn’t bode well for anyone, and Alex wasn’t willing to remember anything about it when Balthazar did confront him. Seeing Murray sit with Balthazar and Luna in the lobby because they all had nowhere to be right before the waters burst in was an ominous way to transition back to the present, with plenty of unanswered questions still sitting right there waiting to be addressed.

Take Three: The Resort

The Resort: Season 1, Episode 3 “Tempus Exhaurire” (B)

I’m trying to be into this show since I do like the actors involved and I think that there is some value to the story, but the pace at which it’s proceeding, especially in the present, just isn’t all that inviting. Noah was right that he and Emma should probably go to couples’ counseling when she insisted on climbing down an elevator shaft in an abandoned resort, not thinking until much later about how they might get out of this particularly trepidatious situation. There is something intriguing about how they ended up in exactly the same situation as Sam and Violet did years earlier, hiding in the closet after thinking that they were alone, and there are so many question marks raised by the infinite number of post-its and that very detailed mural that had Balthazar, Luna, Sam, and Violet in it. Now that Balthazar showed up, grabbed the phone, and tried to run, he’s unconscious and possibly dead, and the phone, which started vibrating because a call was coming in, has fallen down, likely never to be found again. We did get to see Sam’s parents and Hannah again, which was fun, and it’s always a treat to have Nick Offerman around, especially in a more dramatic one like this when he was drinking alone by himself on the anniversary of his wife’s death. These first three episodes were presented all together, and so I suppose it’s worth seeing what a second week with a single installment has to offer.

Round Two: The Resort

The Resort: Season 1, Episode 2 “A Noxious Toothworm” (B)

It’s interesting to see the two different time periods play out here, but there’s no denying that this show has a seriously strange vibe to it. Emma and Noah were horrified to read what they thought were texts recounting a graphic, sticky situation related to sex, and only later realized that Violet was actually literally applying glue to Sam’s head in the wake of his unfortunate collision with a tree. They formed a warm relationship but then the episode ended with Violet texting him and then looking up to see him sitting very cozily with his girlfriend Hannah, and then there’s the presence of her happy-go-lucky father Murray, who seems entirely oblivious to the fact that she’s met someone else on their trip. In the present, Emma and Noah got into a lot of trouble when they tried asking the wrong people questions and were almost on the hook for a very expensive dress, and Emma is all about solving this case, even if local law enforcement is warning her that it’s a very bad idea to keep pressing. It was a weirdly optimistic and haunting ending with them going swimming before going to find the room the next day, and Emma pulling a clue out of her own mouth. There’s also the matter of this Balthazar, who is now very much aware of the fact that they have Sam’s phone but doesn’t seem quite as threatening as his reputation would make him seem, not that it won’t still make him intimidating to Emma and Noah.

Pilot Review: The Resort

Check out my one-minute take on every new pilot, which is embedded below and you can also watch by subscribing to movieswithabe on YouTube.