Hotel Babylon (Series 3, Episode 5)

Well… that was unexpected!

Charlie has only been the manager of Hotel Babylon for a few episodes now, but he’s already feeling the strain. The latest reports from the home office show that the Babylon is hemorrhaging money – especially when compared to the Hotel Babylon franchises in New York, Paris, Rome and Barcelona.  The home office is really tightening the belt on Charlie, which makes it all the more difficult to attract the high-end clientèle that Babylon relies on. And sadly, the Babylon’s latest big event can’t be publicized: an auction of extremely high-end jewelery. We’re talking about top-shelf stuff here, with single stones costing millions of pounds. Tony is a bit wary. He’s heard through his concierge network that someone is planning to rob a London hotel in the near future. Charlie – who has been in prison, remember – is wary too, but tells Tony to keep working on it and get back in touch with him is something concrete shows up.

As part of the cost-cutting measures, Charlie tells James that a “independent sommelier” is coming in to rate the Babylon’s wine cellar. James is adamantly opposed to an outsider coming in and rating “his” cellar… until he meets the sommelier – the sultry Heidi. After some initial friction, James and Heidi really hit it off. Really. You can almost smell the sexual tension between the two.

Meanwhile, the housekeeping staff are in an uproar, as they haven’t been paid. Is this a simple mix-up, or is there something sinister happening at the home office?

Charlie goes off to investigate the screw-up, just as Hutch (Kwame Kwei-Armah), a diamond merchant that’s become friends with Charlie over the years, shows up, slinging cash in every direction. The staff are happy to see Hutch – who wouldn’t be happy to see a customer throwing £20 notes all over the place? – but there’s something “up” with Hutch. He wants to get out of the diamond trade, you see, and the auction is his last big hurrah. One of the stones up for sale was stolen from a Jewish family during WWII. Hutch has lined up a deal with the family, who now live in New York. They will pay him £10 million for the stone, so if Hutch can buy it for £5 million, he’ll instantly double his money – which will allow him to go and do “bigger and better things”.

However, it’s not entirely clear that the auction will take place at all. Mr. Murray, owner of the auction house, has been lurking around the hotel, sneaking in to guest rooms (and even Charlie’s office!) and, generally, poking huge holes in Babylon’s security. He accosts Charlie about the lack of security, who really doesn’t have an answer for him. The new guy – Jack Harrison – offers to look into getting some extra security for the auction. Which he does… but that will cost £20,000, and the home office has frozen the hotel’s “contingency fund”. Oh, and while they sent a memo about changing the dates the housekeeping staff get paid, they can’t promise that the housekeeping staff will be paid the next day.

With the fate of the auction up in the air, the housekeeping staff ready to quit, and his friend Hutch leaning on him to make the auction happen, Charlie calls his old cell mate Terry McCaffrey (Alan Ford):

Terry is a loan shark. He offers Charlie £50,000 at 10% interest (for a single days’ loan!). Charlie, feeling that he has no other option, takes him up on his offer.

As you might guess, things go downhill from there. Terry’s men infiltrate the hotel, and start harassing staff about getting their money back. When Jackie goes to investigate after a maid is attacked, she is attacked too. This causes her to freak out… and kill one of Terry’s men! As you might guess, this is just too much for Jackie… so she quits! I had no idea that Natalie Mendoza was quitting the show! What a shame! Also, although the auction goes off without a hitch, it turns out that “Heidi” wasn’t an “independent sommelier” but a con artist. She arrived at Babylon the day of the auction, knowing that the staff would be busy keeping the diamonds secure. She claimed to have a delivery of wine for James, but instead rolled a pallet of empty wine cases into the cellar and made off with Babylon’s wine collection (valued at £500,000!).

Luckily for the hotel, Jack suspected that something was “up” when he checked Heidi in. She’s Australian, you see, and she used the word “super”, which Australians apparently never use. Whatever. She set off his “spidey sense”, and he managed to save the hotel’s valuable wine collection. And Hutch won the diamond, so he’ll be able to start his new life. And when Terry comes back to the hotel for the final “leg breaking” time, Hutch comes through with a check for Terry. Charlie was apparently wanting to quit Babylon anyway, but Hutch’s gesture endears Charlie to him, and so our hero is conflicted. Charlie finds Anna and asks her if she’ll drop her boyfriend to be with him. When she says no, Charlie makes his decision. He calls a quick staff meeting before riding off into the sunset:

 

I knew that Max Beesley (Charlie) was leaving, but I had no idea it would be so soon! So – how’s Hotel Babylon going to be without Charlie? Pretty piss-poor if you ask me.  It’s not like Beesley is Laurence Olivier and Babylon is Hamlet. But still, without Charlie, the show lacks a central character. Jack is all well and good, but he’s hardly a Charlie, is he? Oh well, season 3 of this show will be my last, if it’s not the last for the show in general. It’s still entertaining, but it’s lacking… something. Just for kicks, though, here’s a cap of Anna trying on a dress that Ned bought her: