Diksha Sundriyal
In Shudder’s ‘Hell Motel,’ a group of true crime enthusiasts find themselves trapped in a terrifying situation where they are trapped in a motel while being picked off by a serial killer from three decades ago. The first two episodes lay the grounds for the horror, but it is the third episode that shoves them into chaos, bringing out the worst in them, and innocent people have to pay the price for it. The episode picks up in the immediate aftermath of Portia’s horrifying murder, with only one question on everyone’s mind: how did Ruby sleep through that? SPOILERS AHEAD.
Ruby Becomes the Prime Suspect
At the end of Episode 2, Ruby takes a sleeping pill and falls into blissful slumber, only to wake up later and discover that her partner, Portia, has been brutally killed. She is so shocked and aggrieved by this tragedy that when she sees Portia’s heart out of her body, she tries to put it back in, believing that it would bring the corpse back to life. Her screams bring the rest of the people into the room, and they are all shocked to see Portia dead and Ruby holding her heart. While everyone tries to make sense of the situation, Crow points out that Ruby is the only one who could have committed this murder. He finds the knife still there and questions how she couldn’t have woken up while her wife was being butchered right next to her.
A heartbroken Ruby leaves the room, but it seems that almost everyone is convinced that she is the killer. Paige tries to speak on her behalf, but her words hold no weight. When she leaves the room to find and comfort Ruby, Crow convinces everyone that Ruby should be found and tied up lest she kill someone else. While Paige tries to calm her down, the group storms in and ties Ruby up to a chair, forcing her to face Portia’s dead body still on the bed. While she cries for help, Paige tries to speak up for her, but the others are too adamant about it, and there is nothing the actress can do.
Left alone in the room, Ruby cries for help. She tries to speak for her innocence, but no one is interested. The blood on her hands, which hasn’t dried up yet, allows her to slip her hands out of the ties, and she finds a way to slip out of the room and into the basement. When Crow and the others enter the room and find her missing, their paranoia gets the better of them as they decide to find and neutralise her as soon as possible.
The Group Shows Its Wild Colors
As Ruby slips into the shadows in the basement, the rest of the group, led by Crow, looks for her. Previously, Andy had a talk with him about how the group seems to naturally follow his leadership, which means that he should be more careful about what he leads people into. Andy shares his doubts about Ruby’s guilt and tying her up, but Crow justifies it by saying that they are not exactly harming her. They are just trying to make sure that if Ruby really is the killer, she doesn’t get to hurt anyone else. This fear is stoked further when she goes missing, such that when the group finally finds her again, they are much angrier and bloodthirsty than the last time they saw her.
The group’s search leads them to the basement, where Ruby carefully watches them. She tries to slip away, but when Paige comes in her way, the others see her, which forces Ruby to hold Paige as her hostage. In hindsight, this seems like a normal reaction, considering that Ruby wanted to flee the violent mob out for her blood. But in the moment, it becomes the confirmation of her guilt. Adriana makes the first move when she stabs Ruby with the knife, forcing her to let go of Paige. Once Paige is out of the way, everyone, except Andy and Kawayan, jumps at her and stabs her with whatever they have in hand until she is dead.
With this act, the group is divided into two. There is one group that is shocked and devastated at what has happened to Ruby, and there are others who feel invigorated by murder. Paige, Andy, and Kawayan belong to the first group, and what makes it worse for them is that, because they didn’t partake in murder, they are also in danger of being killed. Meanwhile, Blake, who also stabbed Ruby, is shaken by his actions and is on the verge of breaking down. The rest, which includes Crow, Adriana, Shirley, and Floyd, talk about how killing Ruby has sparked something in them.
Crow’s Quest to Find the Killer Leads Him to Terrible Things
As Crow leads the charge of an increasingly frenzied group, we also get a flashback from ten years ago. It turns out that this is not the first time he tried to find the killer, killing an innocent person in the process. A decade ago, he showed up at the police station because his ability to talk to the dead allowed him some keen insight into the case. At first, the cop tried to shrug him off, but then his curiosity got the better of him, especially after Crow’s words validated his suspicion about a man. In the first investigation, this man was let go because he had a proper alibi, but on Crow’s insistence, the cop brings him back for questioning.
It turns out that the decade has not been kind to the suspect. He reveals that he lost his family and his job after being accused of being the killer. When asked why he has Satanic books in his house, he says that he wanted to know what it was all about when he was accused of it. This doesn’t mean that he is a Satanist. When the interrogation comes to a dead end, Crow coaxes the cop to inflame the suspect by asking him about the demon for whom that ritual was performed. The very name of the demon terrifies the man so much that he kills himself by slitting his wrist with his teeth.
It later turns out that the man was innocent, as his alibi checked out again. But it doesn’t look like Crow learned his lesson, given what happened to Ruby. He relishes in the fact that others, like Adriana, are excited by the kill. Meanwhile, Shirley and Floyd wonder who killed Portia, and they seem convinced that it wasn’t Ruby. They decide to go ahead with their killings, especially now that they have tasted blood again with Ruby. The problem is that when Floyd goes out with the mask and the robe to claim a victim, he is attacked by another person wearing the same mask and robe. He would have been killed if Shirley hadn’t shown up just in time.
While Floyd is lucky enough to escape with his life, Crow is not. In his bed, he starts to have visions and weird feelings again, but before anything can be done about it, the killer finds him. He is dragged to the very basement where Caitlyn was killed thirty years ago, and Ruby was butchered a few hours ago. He has Caitlyn’s vision again, but as she tells him about his death, he is already experiencing it. The killer hits a few nails into his skull and this brings Crow’s story to an end.
