The Resort – Season 1 Episode 8 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

‘The Disillusionment of Time’

In a flashback, we see Violet leave Sam alone to go into the cave to find Pasaje. She does leave a note in one of his shoes for him to find her. As she descends down, the scene cuts to the adventurous four in the present timeline climbing down. They use their torches to navigate the way in pitch darkness. In an almost biblical symbol, they use a pulley to lever a plank of wood towards them, which seems the only way to get across the water. They hop on, hoping to find answers for their trauma and pain. The plank reaches a certain point from where an opening is visible. They follow the light and the cave opens out to a larger area that looks like a forest opening. Another cave blocks their path ahead and they split into groups of two – Noah & Emma, and Baltasar & Murray – to check out the two different paths.

We cut right back to the time in the flashback when the hurricane was just starting to wreak havoc. The rain had picked up and the cave started filling up vigorously, trapping Violet. Sam goes looking for her and escorts her back to a point where they could get out of it. In an extremely elaborate and detailed account of his search for Violet,  Murray reveals how he had once given up hope of finding her. He couldn’t believe himself when he had a moment to himself in a shipping container and didn’t think of his lost daughter. Ultimately, he caught up with his feelings and started looking for her again. His almost monologue is only rarely interrupted by Baltasar – hilariously so only to make fun of his Spanish and correct his pronunciations.

Suddenly, they notice a bunch of eggs on the floor, and upon striking their lights upwards, discover a snake guarding those eggs. The yellow snake – get this – with four nostrils wraps itself around Baltasar. The tired Frias is just about holding him off as it hisses and stares him in the face. Murray offers to help by cutting its Jacobson’s organ but Baltasar stops him. He must face the biggest symbol of his life that he has run away from all his life. It is almost like he is talking to himself. But whatever he dies, the snake quietens down and Baltasar releases it. Noah and Emma look around but eventually reach a dead end. They do see an opening placed slightly above their reach. Only one of them can get up there, while the other boosts them. Emma takes charge; at this point, it has to be her.

Noah, for once, is supportive of his wife and helps her get up. In a flashback, we see Sam and Violet almost submerged under water, awaiting their death. They embrace as a sign of togetherness and love when Violet probably spots the same opening. As Emma goes deeper into the opening, it keeps getting smaller. The likelihood of her not fitting through gets stronger with every inch, but she trudges on. Noah keeps talking to her the whole time. There is a point where Emma gets stuck and cannot remove herself. She starts hyperventilating and panicking. It is placed sufficiently beyond Noah to be of any help. Emma must do something on her own.

“The Disillusionment of Time” Ending Explained: How are Violet and Sam alive?

The first thing she does is calm down. Slowly breathing in and breathing out – just like Noah told her on the day she gave birth to her baby. Something comes over her and Emma is able to free herself. She marches on, determined to seek out whatever is waiting for her on the other end. And she finally reaches there. Shock falls over her face as she sees the bodies of Sam and Violet floating in a small puddle of white water – Pasaje. Giggles of her dead baby call out to her from the water. The memories of her perceived past look her directly in the face. Her wish of seeing it just once comes true and it is like the burden of a thousand galaxies is lifted from her shoulders.

The water magnetically draws her to itself but Noah’s faint shrieks of “Emma!” pull her out of the trance. Emma then pulls out Violet, who turns out to be alive! She hasn’t aged a day, is wearing the same clothes, and thinks she was in there for five minutes. Sam is the same. Both of them are alive! Murray thanks Balatsar once again for saving his life and patiently waits outside the cave for Noah and Emma. But he is completely awestruck as Violet walks towards her; like it is nothing. In her head, she has only been separated from him for a few moments. But for Murray, the embrace breathes new life into him. His heart wails and melts as the flesh of his living daughter pails against his own.

Baltasar is equally taken aback and touches Sam to once again believe that his cherished friend – Alex – might be alive too somewhere. They all climb out of the cave and Baltasar narrates what happened to Sam. Murray catches up with his daughter as Emma and Noah sit together. While talking to Baltasar, Sam scratches his ear, just like Alex used to, indicating that Alex had indeed been to Pasaje once but didn’t have any memory of it. What supports this theory is Sam’s response to Baltasar asking, “How was it like in there?” “I don’t know. I don’t remember..”, replied Sam. Will this be the central storyline for season 2? Who knows?

Violet and Emma share a tender moment where the latter asks the former if she saw her mother and if going back into the past was worth it. Violet says it still hurts losing her, indicating that she hasn’t been able to move on, yet. Emma comforts her, saying it gets better, despite the memory of the scar always being there. There is a subtle nod in her direction that she has moved on from losing her child. The entire setup of how she got through to Pasaje – passage – in that tight opening where she was struck mimics childbirth. In my opinion, it was a metaphorical confrontation of Emma not giving up this time and coming out the other end, just like her baby almost did.

Emma’s inner sanctum is confirmed when she replies to Noah, “I didn’t want to lose 15 years” as Noah asked why she didn’t get in. It is a happy, satisfying ending for the couple, who, it seems, has finally saved their marriage by finding peace within themselves. Noah and Baltasar debate if the latter indeed fought a giant yellow snake. To bookend the entire series, Emma puts it perfectly in her last words on it: “It all kind of seems like a bunch of bullshit”, as she looks up at the arriving helicopter contently.

The final scene of The Resort’s season 1 is Baltasar and Luna having dinner at the resort.  Baltasar says he is leaving on a new adventure, finally comfortable in his identity as a Frias, true connoisseurs of tailoring and weaving. He has stitched himself a beautiful velvet coat with the memory of that night with Alex and Luna that he described as the best night of his life at the back. He bids goodbye to Luna and hands her a pamphlet about where he is going next: to find Alex. Luna opens it and rushes after him to join in the adventure! A final note answering how Violet and Sam were still alive. Pasaje existed out of time. They did not spend the entire time as we know it in real life down in the water because it is itself a portal.

The Episode Review

The Resort ends with a mostly satisfying element of contentment, mildly strong enough to offset some open-ended plot points. Viewers were desperate for answers throughout the series. Season 1 constantly unfolded to present us with new puzzles about the entire saga and Emma put it bluntly and plainly with her final words mentioned above. It started out as a story of a couple trying to save their marriage through adventure and the excuse of finding themselves by finding a lost pair of a girl and a boy almost 15 years ago. But it ended with a show about closure and healing.

It was a bit underwhelming in the way it all came apart in the end. Some more minutes for the characters to bid goodbye to each other would have been nice. But anyway, the subtle symbolism and storytelling dedicated to the central cause of characters confronting their own identities and past made it a finale worth watching.