The Greatest Mystery at El Gran Hotel [Spoilers] - Gran Hotel (2014) Discussion

[–] guersonweb 9 years ago

I don't think it would have occurred to someone from Diego's position to suspect the waiter; it's how Andres explains at the beginning: the waiters are invisible. Notice that Diego got very jealous of every man of higher status that approached Alicia but never noticed Julio... And Javier only knew because he asked her and then happened to be in Diego's room when Alicia went to break-up with him in season 2.

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[–] Avatar19 9 years ago

I think a large subtext of what causes Diego to ignore Julio and be paranoid about Gonzalo and Ignacio stems from the fact that women have no power in their society, and rely on men to achieve their agenda. Dona Teresa married Alicia's father because her father had no sons to pass on their property. It's repeatedly mentioned that Sofia uses Alfredo as a proxy for her desire to be hotel director. Julio has almost nothing in terms of money or influence, which Diego was constantly vying for, so it would seem absurd in their world for Alicia to notice Julio.

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[–] wendycscott9 9 years ago

I agree. He was also egotistical enough that he couldn't imagine Alicia could possibly prefer a mere waiter, a nobody, to himself, especially given how various doncellas seemed to find him so desirable (go figure). I have to say, having watched the entire series now, Pedro Alonzo is a terrific actor. He really had to play a whole range of emotions, and I thought him pretty believable if sometimes completely over the top with his temper. 😱

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[–] guersonweb 9 years ago

Having seen him be a completely different person in Bajo Sospecha, I have to agree, he is a terrific actor!

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[–] wendycscott9 9 years ago

I'd love to see him playing some other role, a nicer guy, for example. I have a feeling if I ever saw him on the street, I'd be unable to face him out of fear. He really gave me the creeps. Unfortunately, my Spanish isn't good enough to watch anything without subtitles so I haven't seen Bajo Sospecha.

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[–] guersonweb 9 years ago

Yes, and even Javier makes comments about the fact that he is very surprised to see his sister with a simple "camarero"

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[–] veganvenus 9 years ago

I thought the greatest mystery is how they managed to have a baby who didn't age.

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[–] wendycscott9 9 years ago

LOL! True. Of course, the show actually took place over a period of about a year-and-a-half, and the baby was born at least six months after it started as Sophia was only just pregnant in the first episode, so it couldn't really age that much even though in our time more time had gone by. But I felt sorry for the baby as it was always in either a bassinet or a carriage. Didn't they ever let him out to crawl or try to walk? Well, after the first two seasons, the baby wasn't all that important in the plot line, so perhaps they thought people wouldn't notice.

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[–] wendycscott9 9 years ago

For me, the greatest mystery was how the main puzzle of the first season (when, why, and how Don Carlos died) happened on my birthday! 😮

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[–] BB-15 9 years ago

Lots of mysteries in this series.
- Andres is suppossed to be dead with a hole drilled in the back of his head. No one notices for days (except his mother) that he is fine.
- Julio came to the hotel to find out how his sister died. We learn that Sofia killed her. But Julio never discovers this and in the end doesn't seem to care anymore about how his sister died.
- Teresa had the woman who was going to buy the hotel killed (using one of the staff). Ayala suspected Teresa but never followed up on the invesigation.
- Sofia fell in love with Jesus (Samuel). Jesus is the person who tried to have Teresa's daughter, Alicia, killed. Ayala figured out that Jesus (Samuel) was behind many horrible events at the hotel including the bombing. But Teresa lets Jesus go out of love?
- Jesus and his sister are never found by the police. The viewer does not see an investigation to find them.
- Did father Grau ever leave town? The lover priest story seemed to just be dropped.
- And I agree that the baby does not age after months of time.

But the actors, costumes and setting looked nice.
Overall an enjoyable series, often in a so bad its good sort of way.

BB ;-)

it is just in my opinion - imo - 🌈

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[–] wendycscott9 9 years ago

- Sofia fell in love with Jesus (Samuel). Jesus is the person who tried to have Teresa's daughter, Alicia, killed. Ayala figured out that Jesus (Samuel) was behind many horrible events at the hotel including the bombing. But Teresa lets Jesus go out of love?

I think you meant Teresa fell in love with Jesús, right? Just sayin'...

I know there were a few loose ends and unanswered questions. I think everyone was sort of hoping for a fourth season during which some of these could have been answered. As I recall, however, in answer to your first question, I think his mother was in on Ayala's plan, so naturally she didn't say anything. Once it was known Andres was still alive, there was no need to investigate that hole since it hadn't actually been made.

I was amazed that they could do 50 hours of programming and only have these few questionable issues. Well, there were a few I had, too, but I didn't care. It was all for fun, and it was gorgeous to watch and listen to. Such lovely Spanish inspired me to try to learn it. Of course, that may be the bane of my existence! LOL

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[–] jlprizm86 8 years ago

I also found this more and more unbelievable as the show went on. I can understand before when Alicia and Julio didn't see each other as much but when they started trying to solve the murder of her father and they seemed to be together practically all the time Diego still didn't have any clue. And he was supposedly watching her like a hawk. I guess he wasn't as observant as he thought it was. It did happen to him once before with his late wife so maybe he can't see what's right in front of him when it comes to his significant others.
My biggest mystery at the hotel funnily enough is how Julio kept his waiter job. Not only did he pretend to be someone else more than once but he was constantly off doing god knows what and the staff would keep asking where he was half the time. Yet he was supposed to be this good waiter and I swear it doesn't seem like he ever got in trouble. This never really bothered me that much but it would kind of amuse me every episode when he still would be working there somehow.

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[–] wendycscott9 8 years ago

I had to assume that he was working at the times we didn't see him. A lot of allowances were made for him just because he was young and handsome. Even Lady didn't mind his trying to fool her with his Julio Molins persona, which she knew was a ruse from the start. You really can't spend too much time trying to make these people more like real people. This was a work of art, not a documentary. 😏

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[–] JKMerengue 8 years ago

And my biggest confusion was how none of the many pregnant women on this show, at least in the first season (not done with the whole series yet) ever "show"! Belen is supposed to be four or five months pregnant at the top of S1 and after two to three months is romping around her marriage bed with a 20 inch waist! The effect of rue, no doubt...certainly didn't make her lose the baby.

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[–] wendycscott9 8 years ago

Well, that's one of my complaints with most actresses playing a pregnant woman (and delivering their babies, for that matter). They never look quite right. Even in Poldark, my favorite show these days, the main leading lady had a nice large belly at term but was still the same rather small size in the bust. Not possible! LOL In Gran Hotel, Belen never started to show until she was supposed to be almost due. Also not possible! And Sofia, of course, wasn't pregnant enough to show before she lost her baby and didn't really look it when she was faking it either. Then Belen had the baby and was supposed to be nursing but also didn't have even the least increase in her small bust size. ::snicker:: I guess you can't have everything.

—
"How was the war, sir?"
"As any war, ma'am, a waste of good men." (Poldark)

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[–] christinedlynch 8 years ago

Lol I think the biggest surprise when I watched this the first time was how Alicia never got pregnant until the end.

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[–] wendycscott9 8 years ago

Have you seen all three seasons?

—
"How was the war, sir?"
"As any war, ma'am, a waste of good men." (Poldark)

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[–] christinedlynch 8 years ago

I have and I'm watching all three over again right now. It was strange to me. You didn't find it strange?

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[–] wendycscott9 8 years ago

Well, I thought it might be symbolic of how her husband was so icky he didn't have it in him to father a child, and then it turned out she got pregnant when she and Julio first made love. Lots of time went by if you saw this show once a week, and it took about three years to produce it, but I figured the timespan from beginning to end of the story was only about 18 months, so that worked for me. What was stranger was how Alfredo and Sofía's baby never seemed to grow much. I suppose this was a plot detail they didn't have time or money to really deal with.

—
"How was the war, sir?"
"As any war, ma'am, a waste of good men." (Poldark)

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[–] christinedlynch 8 years ago

Well that's the thing...she didn't even get pregnant then...she didn't get pregnant until the very end after the 2nd time they made love which I'm all for...thank God it was Julio's and not that horrible excuse for a man Diego

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[–] wendycscott9 8 years ago

I don't think so. Not that much time actually passed between their first time and their second. And I don't think enough time passed after the second to know if she were pregnant if that was when it happened. But you could be right. It is one of the problems with the show that the timeline is a little confusing at times. Well, I don't know how they made all these various characters and plotlines make any sense at all, so I was pretty impressed. I certainly couldn't have figured all this out if I were the writer.

—
"How was the war, sir?"
"As any war, ma'am, a waste of good men." (Poldark)

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[–] christinedlynch 8 years ago

You're right so technically we don't even know if it really was Julio's or if it could be Diego's...I think the way the writers did it, they wanted us to believe it was Julio's but in real life...idk

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[–] christinedlynch 8 years ago

Well that's the thing...she didn't even get pregnant then...she didn't get pregnant until the very end after the 2nd time they made love which I'm all for...thank God it was Julio's and not that horrible excuse for a man Diego and yeah you're right lol that baby didn't grow at all LOL

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