Diksha Sundriyal
In Shudder’s ‘Hell Motel,’ a group of ten people finds themselves at the mercy of a serial killer who has returned after thirty years to finish what he/she started. As the story moves forward, each episode delivers the gruesome death of at least one character, crossing off the suspects for the killer, while also intensifying the mystery. The third episode delivers two deaths, one of whom is more shocking than the other, but both do an equally good job of showing up where the group stands now and what horrors they must expect going forward. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Ruby Falls Victim to Mob Mentality
The third episode opens on a horrifying note for Ruby. The previous night, she went to sleep after taking a sleeping pill. But on waking up, she found Portia murdered right next to her. If the heartbreak of losing the woman she loves wasn’t enough, Ruby also has to suffer the accusations of being the murderer. She tries to assure others that she has nothing to do with Portia’s death, but the evidence is too clear for everyone to ignore what seems to be right in front of them.
On Crow’s insistence, the group bands together, with some opposition from Paige, and ties Ruby to a chair while figuring out what to do with her next. Despite the concern of people like Paige and Andy, Crow says that whatever is being done to Ruby is to protect others. But then, Ruby escapes captivity and hides in the basement. This act stokes the bloodthirst of the group, which pulls out all the knives to fight and contain Ruby, not thinking about how there is a chance that she could be innocent. When cornered in the basement, Ruby tries to wiggle her way out. She even holds Paige at knife-point to scare others, but this turns out to be a bad move, because it gives them the license to attack her.
Adriana makes the first cut, which encourages others, excluding Paige, Andy, and Kawayan, to get in a few stabs. By the end, no one knows who stabbed her how many times, or who was the last to draw away, but in the end, Ruby has been killed, and everyone is responsible for that. This act should have stirred things up, but all it does is divide the survivors. The ones who didn’t attack Ruby are now scared for their lives, while the others feel validated because they did not kill Ruby alone. Adriana particularly feels a change coming over her, seeing that this is the feeling she had been chasing all those years when she slept with serial killers. Now, it seems she is ready to be one herself, all thanks to Ruby.
Crow is Found by What He Was Looking For
The invigoration of murder does wonders for all parties involved, especially Crow, who realises that he is back in connection with the spirits. He can feel the vision coming back to him, the same one that came to him about a decade ago when he talked to Caitlyn’s ghost. She told him about two people performing a ritual to open the gates of Hell and please a demon. This information made Crow so confident that he went to the cops, got them to reopen the case, and bring in an old suspect for questioning, and terrorise him so much that he ends up killing himself in the police station.
Now, Crow thinks back to that, but at the same time, he is also adamant about finding the killer. He wakes up in the middle of the night, holding the same knife with which he killed Ruby, whose blood is still on the blade. He goes back to the basement and discovers that someone has lit the candles and left some nails on the floor. It is clear that the killer is preparing for another leg of the ritual. What Crow doesn’t realise is that he has walked into the middle of it and is bound to become the next sacrifice. Before he can even think about running away, the killer hits him, rendering him unable to move.
While Crow remains immobile, he is conscious through the entire process as the killer hammers one nail after another into his skull. He feels the pain of each hit, but what’s worse is that when the killer is done, Crow is still alive. His cry of pain eventually echo through the building and attract Paige’s attention. She leads the rest of the group back into the basement, where they find Crow barely holding on to whatever life he has left. When asked who did this to him, he names the demon for whom the ritual was performed rather than the person who performed it. With this, he breathes his last while the killer remains at large with none the wiser about who they really are.
