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The Resort: Mystery in Mexico

• Niq & Jess • Episode 21

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Have you ever wondered what would happen if your anniversary vacation turned into a hunt for two missing people? The Resort takes this premise and transforms it into something far more surprising than any standard mystery.

When we meet Emma and Noah, they're celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary at a luxury resort in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Their marriage feels stale, their interactions awkward and distant—casualties of fifteen years together and unspoken traumas between them. But everything changes when Emma discovers an old Razr phone from 2007 during an ATV excursion, pulling her into the unsolved disappearance of two young adults from a nearby resort on Christmas Eve fifteen years ago.

What makes The Resort truly special is how it morphs before your eyes. Starting as a marriage drama with mystery elements, by the fourth episode it has transformed into something magical and unexpected. The show introduces us to a mysterious place called "Pasaje," memory leakage, and the possibility that time itself works differently in certain spaces. We meet a colorful cast of characters including a novelist whose book contains hidden meanings, a security guard with a grudge, and a woman searching for her deceased mother through a portal described in that very book.

The storytelling techniques are refreshingly innovative—what initially appears to be parallel timelines of different resort guests reveals itself as past and present overlapping in unexpected ways. The show doesn't hold your hand, instead trusting viewers to piece together connections and draw their own conclusions. By the end, you realize this isn't just about solving a disappearance—it's about connection, loss, and rediscovering what brings us together.

While The Resort only received one season, it manages to tell a complete story while leaving enough mysteries unsolved to spark conversation. It's the rare show that becomes more interesting after it ends, as you find yourself replaying scenes and considering alternate interpretations. If you're looking for something that breaks the mold of typical mystery dramas and leaves you thinking about it days later, The Resort is waiting to be discovered.

Contact Niq & Jess

Niq:

Good morning, guys, and welcome to next episode with your host, Niq, and I'm Jess, and today we're going to be discussing the Resort. So, jess, you originally saw the show when it came out.

Jess:

I saw it. I want to say it was like in no, not when it first came out, because I guess it came out in 2022. I saw it in 2023. So it's been a couple of years since I first watched it, but I really did enjoy it. I was recommended to me by one of my friends and I was like I felt like the storytelling was really interesting. So, yeah, I figured it would be an interesting one for us to talk about.

Niq:

So this is another show where I'm like, hey, Jess, can we get something light? Is another show where I'm like, hey, Jess, can we get something light? So our last light suggestion is one of your comfort shows and I'm like this didn't feel light to me at all. I will say that this show actually is very light.

Jess:

Okay, I was like okay after watching it again, because again, when we talked about it, I'm like'm like, okay, I hadn't watched it in a long time, but I don't remember it feeling particularly heavy, I think mainly because, like, like you know, it wasn't really hitting home. But then I watched again. I was like, oh, I don't know how she's gonna feel about this.

Niq:

you know, honestly, uh, there, a lot of the thematic elements are things that I can definitely relate to, but the story is so different, it's so interesting, like the show. It wasn't until the show was over that I was sure what the show was about, because, as I'm watching the show, I'm like wait a minute, what are we? What story are we telling? What are we doing? And so that was very interesting. I've never had a show where it had to end for me to understand what the show was actually about. So that was different and it was not triggering for me and I wasn't like it was. It wasn't, it wasn't super deep, and so I thank you for a light show.

Jess:

Okay, I was worried about that. So I was like, oh, it feels light to me, but maybe, maybe what feels like to me is a little bit off.

Niq:

I think right now, like your, your life is so light, you can handle like deeper things and it's like, oh, it doesn't matter.

Jess:

There's truth to that. There's truth to that. Cause, when my life does feel heavy, I stay away from heavy shows, but like yeah.

Niq:

But no, I did. I did also enjoy the show. So let's give, let's talk about the story. Let's kind of give a synopsis, but it has to have a little detail to it because, like I said, the show at first glance seems very simplistic, but it just kind of gets more and more and more complicated and then it ends. So let's let. Can you give us a sense?

Jess:

I will do my best. So the story surrounds a couple, emma and Noah, who are on their 10 year anniversary in Mexico, in the Yucatan Peninsula. I want to say they're in the Riviera Maya, cancun area.

Jess:

So they go to this resort like an all-inclusive resort and they're just trying to have a good time for the anniversary. But it's very clear that they have some significant marital issues. It's not clear what those issues are at first, but just they seem very distant and cold with each other. Something feels off. So in that it also to me seems like they're kind of avoiding those marital issues.

Jess:

So the wife gets really involved in a mystery. She finds they go on an ATV ride. She finds a phone from 2007. Like, it looks like a really old looking Razer phone and then for some reason she just kind of completely engulfs herself in figuring out the things about this phone, which leads to her finding out that there was another resort not too far away from them where two children not children, I don't know why I keep calling them kids they were like young adults, college age kids. They disappeared on the day after Christmas in 2007 and yeah, they disappeared on Christmas Eve.

Jess:

There's a lot of weirdness kind of surrounding their disappearance and then a once-in-a-lifetime hurricane comes in and wipes out all of the information that the police could have used to solve their disappearance. So she sets out to solve this mystery and her husband gets pulled into it and in a weird way it starts to bond them together. And then we start meeting a lot of different characters that were involved at the time A security guard who was there, a person who works at the current resort that they're at, one of the hostesses she used to be a maid at the former one and they start meeting all these different characters who are involved in this mystery and then it also brings them into sort of this kind of magical world that is also going on at the same time in the same area.

Niq:

So what's interesting about this story is we can both agree that this show is set in like a magical realism, like world.

Jess:

Yes, absolutely.

Niq:

But I did not figure that out until halfway through the show. Did you know before then?

Jess:

No, no, no, and I think like that's part of like it slowly unveils, like you don't realize that there's something magical going, that there's a magical element, so like, yeah, so the show is eight episodes long and I want to say it's like the fourth episode before you realize like something else is going on here with their disappearance, something's a little bit off. There's so much happening Like it's hard to kind of give like a succinct synopsis of what happened. But yeah, around about the fourth episode, like I said, you find out that there are other characters that you already met who did know the two missing young adults. You also find out that the girl who's missing her name is Violet is searching for this place called Pasaje, which was in a book that her deceased mother gave to her, and so part of their disappearance is that they're looking for this magical place, and she believes that she'll be able to see her mother again if she can find it.

Niq:

So we talked about when we reviewed Kevin Can F himself. We talked about how much we enjoyed the story because of how different it was told. And we've seen magical realism before, but we've never seen magical realism like this, where it sneaks up on you, like the show starts off firmly planted in the real world with very normal people who are having very normal problems. They've been married for 10 years, they've been together for 15. And you feel that kind of stagnation that can come in a long relationship. So you're kind of like gelling and vibing with them and you're like, oh, this story is about them finding their way back to each other.

Niq:

And so, like you're very comfortable in the direction that the story is going, you're like, oh, okay, well, she's found this phone, she wants to solve this mystery, her husband is willing to go along with her and they're going to use this situation to bond themselves back together. And then, like the story just completely shifts halfway through and there's all of these magical and mystical elements and it's so unexpected and it's so interesting the way that they did it, so much so that I literally called you during the fourth episode and I'm like, hey, trying, trying to watch this show, but we're losing the plot here. What's going on? All of a sudden? We're talking about memory leakage and I don't understand what's going on. You're like, just push through, just watch, because you really feel that kind of tonal shift, like you're stepping out of one world into another.

Jess:

Yeah, and I will say this there's an eerie feeling from the, from the first episode that's going, but you just don't know where that eerie feeling is going. So I do think like that kind of pulls you.

Niq:

You're like, okay, something's off here, something's off with the couple, something's a little bit off with the response, you know well, well, and I think that, because one of the things that we did not mention is the way that they tell the story in the beginning, and what you don't realize is you're meeting the character. So you're meeting this couple, the married couple, and then you're also meeting the characters that end up going missing, but you don't realize it immediately. You think that you're just meeting people at the resort, different people that are at the resort on vacation, and within the first couple episodes, though, you realize that the younger people that you're seeing their story is actually the kids who end up going missing. So that was the first interesting way that they were telling the story. They were telling flashbacks that you didn't know were flashbacks. Right it it did feel like timelines. It did feel like you were like on two different, two. You're watching two different timelines, but you, you had to get there, it wasn't immediately told, and so that was really interesting. So you think that that's like the interesting thing that they're showing with the story and then, all of a sudden, like it just like kind of steps in from like the normal world into a more magical world, and so I will say that it's like this. I've never seen a story told this way. So I love when people do things that are different and that are innovative and that keep you like on your feet.

Niq:

So currently I'm very deep into the world of severance, and severance is kind of like it's a it's a big mystery, and it's one of those shows where everybody comes up with theories and you have to watch each episode, and several times, so that you can look at the background, so that you can look at the background, so that you can look at the foreground. And so in my mind, when I'm watching this show, I was like oh, I wonder what's going on with this mystery? Am I going to be able to solve it? Because I'm already in critical mode because of Severance and as I'm watching this show, I'm like wait a minute. This is not the same kind of show, but it is interesting and it is different and I honestly wish that writers would take more chances. I know the show only got one season, yeah. So I guess, like people would say, well, if you're taking chances, your show is not going to be successful, but I just think that the more shows where people take chances, the more people can appreciate it.

Niq:

I literally did not hear about this show when it came out originally. I didn't hear about the show when you watched it. The only reason why I knew about the show was because you told me and there are shows that need that time to get that word of mouth you know audience. Because it wasn't full of superstars. Like Nick Offerman is in the show and he's well known, like he was on Parks and Rec. And then Chidi from the Good Place was in the show. I don't know his real name and he will forever be Chidi to me.

Jess:

Hold on, let me find this answer. It is so simple. It is William Jackson Harper.

Niq:

Are you serious? Yeah, chidi fits him better. I am. You don't think Chidi fits him better?

Jess:

It's hard to not see him as Chidi, even in this show.

Niq:

Right, but he didn't have the worst qualities of chidi in this show he had the best qualities he did have the best qualities of chidi in this show but it was still like that because there's like a genuine like goodness. You know about both it comes across with this particular actor.

Jess:

Yeah.

Niq:

Yes, yeah, I'm like, I'm fully he could be a monster. I would never believe it.

Jess:

Right, it would be. Yeah, you would really have to fight to get me convinced, because there's something like wholesome and innocent that comes from William Hartman.

Niq:

Yes, it does come across as very, very. He does come across as very, very wholesome.

Jess:

I enjoy him so it wasn't like a, that's just it. He needs to play a villain in something.

Niq:

Right. So it wasn't like a star-studded cast, because I'm, it was like people you've seen in other things but you can't name. But the cast was good, the performances were great. I really think that, like, given time, this show could have done really well.

Jess:

I would have definitely like to see where they would have taken it in season two, just like where they would have gone with the characters, because I think there's so many different ways that they could have gone, because the show is so kind of mysterious and there's a lot of elements to it. So, yeah, I really wish it had gotten a second season too.

Niq:

Why do you think that people are so hesitant to get creative when it comes to shows? Because there's a million versions of NCIS and I'm not going to pretend like I have not watched most of them, even though the original is my favorite. There's so many Law and Orders.

Jess:

I don't know that. I think writers are hesitant to get creative. I think that this is what happens. I think them getting a first season probably since the show is so different is probably magical in and of itself is so different. It's probably, um, you know, magical in and of itself. I think that it's probably like the people who fund it are not willing to take chances.

Niq:

More so than that, writers are not being creative you get such a there's such a small window, like I feel like in previous like decades of television, they gave you time to build an audience, even streaming platforms like Netflix. They will create a great show and cancel it after one season. There's a list, there's a ton of shows that I'm so angry about and, honestly, it makes it. Here's the ironic thing it makes it hard for you to be willing to try a new show. Yeah, because you get frustrated and like, well, it's only going to be for one season and now I'm invested in these characters, I'm invested in this story and I'll never get my like resolution, and so a lot of times, I may wait until the show has two or three seasons before I check it out, because one season is not enough. It's a tease, right? Yeah?

Jess:

that's true, that's true. Now, there are definitely times where I was like, okay, I'm going to watch a long show, let me see, let me make sure it's already got like five seasons before I even start this, because I don't have time to play with y'all today. Absolutely.

Niq:

So the what y'all been Absolutely so the resort. So we were talking about the storytelling and the pacing of the show and so, like I said, the first half of the show is paced one way, with the flashbacks and the telling, the timelines, and then season I mean episode four everything changes and to me the show becomes a lot more fast-paced okay and yeah, I thought yeah, the first few episodes are like they're definitely slow moments that feel slow yeah, I didn't feel it in the beginning because I thought I knew where the story was going.

Jess:

You didn't feel it until you hit Alex.

Niq:

Alex, alejandro. Oh okay, I'm sorry. Yes, in my mind he was Alejandro. Yes, right, because I thought I knew where the story was going. And then, yes, once you hit Alejandro, first of all it's a shake up, because that's when you kind of step into the magical realism and you're like something's weird here. First of all, why are we focused on this person?

Jess:

that's what pushed you off. You're like why are we all of a sudden?

Niq:

focused on him. I'm like who is he? He's not one of the missing people. He's not one of the missing people. He's not one of the people searching for the missing people. Why are we spending time with this character, is what I called you and said. I'm like I don't know and he's in his health problems because he's like I've got memory leakage and I'm like why are we talking about this random person in his health problems? And you're like no, he's, he's actually important, keep, keep going. And I'm like okay, and so at that point, like the story to me kind of speeds up because all of a sudden we're like in so many different places and doing so many different things and they're traveling and like you meet a new character Like every like twice an episode, you're bringing in new people, and so it's very much like you really feel it shift gears in episode four and I wonder if they were trying to pack things in just in case the show didn't get another season.

Jess:

Well, let me tell you, okay, so when I first watched it I didn't even realize it was like a series in that way, I thought. For some reason I thought it was like a limited series so I was not expecting a second season. Um, but now realizing that like no, they were expecting the second season and they just like didn't get renewed, I'm like, yeah it. It's kind of the show's kind of made in a way to where it can be contained, like it can be, it could be everything in one season and maybe that is just in case they didn't get a second one. But there's still plenty of room if y'all want to give us a second season, because I would like one.

Niq:

There's so many unanswered questions.

Jess:

Which is part of it, though I feel like like you know, like okay, so if we okay, so, like now getting into the um, the way that the story is told, so part of the story is um balthazar frias is the head of security at the oceana vista, which is the original 2007 um resort. Right, and he is, when he's a child, and this is my favorite scene gets into this back and forth with this author, um Ilan Ibarra, because he does not like his novel. He doesn't like the novel because he feels like it's supposed to be a crime mystery novel, but he's like there's no crime, there's no ending to the story, it's just left. He calls it a pamphlet and he goes back and forth with the writer. But I felt like that was a lot of foreshadowing for this story too, like, and it's kind of calling into question, like what makes a story and like, what elements do you need in a story?

Jess:

Because this one, very much so, is like a mystery, but technically now we know there's no at. It's like a mystery, but technically now we know there's no real crime. It looks several points in time you think, okay, alex might've done something to these kids. Ilani Barta is kind of off his you know off, and you think he might've done something to. And I keep calling them kids, but they're young adults, they're like college age, right, you know, and you're just like who did something? Why did they disappear? What happened to them? And only to find out that they kind of did this to themselves. They, you know this mystery. They just kind of they disappeared because of their own choices. So, and in that way, that's what the show too, you know what I mean there's no crime and there's no clear ending and there's no meaning.

Niq:

And that's why I said like I've never seen a show where I got to the end and then had to like kind of review and like wait a minute, what is the? What is the actual story? Like what, what actually happened? And is it over? Are we done? What happens? What happens now? Because where do we go from here? Because also and we can get more into this in the next episode when we talk about the thematic elements but did the married couple, did they resolve their issues?

Jess:

no, no, they didn't. Yeah, nothing is resolved, and because stuff doesn't get resolved that quickly, but what I do think that they, that they had lost and and what they found was that that, what made them a couple, that thing. So when we meet them because we also get a flashback of when they met they met in 2007 too. So while all of this is going on at the resort and the kids are going missing, they are meeting. It seems like maybe a year or two post-college age. They're young adults too, right At that time, and they have this weird, really quirky, really like corny sense of humor, but they share it.

Jess:

You know what I mean. And as you see them, and when we first see them, they're in such a bad place as a couple because they've gone through so much. We don't know what they've gone through, but we eventually find out what they've gone through, but they've lost that, and so I think by the end of the story, no, all their problems aren't fixed, no, it's not clear whether or not they're going to stay together, but they found that they're starting to joke with each other again, like that. They start to like they have that, that little I don't even know what to call it that little something that makes it clear that you're a couple chemistry, chemistry.

Niq:

there we go because they did not have it in the beginning. You know what the funny thing is and I've seen this in shows where I saw the same thing in Average Joe. So in Average Joe, when you meet so it's been so long I cannot remember the name Kathy, kathy, and is it Joe? No, kathy, and who? Leon, kathy and Leon, you're like why are they together? Why, yeah. And so you, in the beginning you feel the same way.

Niq:

And it's not that either one of these people are bad people, but they don't vibe together. They say they don't fit. Why? What? What is it like? How, how were they ever a couple? But then, in the flash, you get to see what they've lost. You get to see that connection. They did have a connection and they did get each other and understand each other. Because it's not that you don't doubt that they love each other, you never doubt that they love each other. But you're like, how did they even fall in love? Because they just don't seem to have any chemistry. But you can see it and see that it that they lost it, which is very true to life, being in long relationships. It's huge. It's just not all lovey-dovey. Sometimes it's just not there. So if I, I, I like that we got to see them at their best, so that we can understand that what they, what they're going through now, is worth pushing past.

Jess:

And I do like the element of the way that they told that story too, just like I did like it in Average Show too, like meeting them at their lowest, getting glimpses of their past and then seeing something lowest. Getting glimpses of their past and then seeing something else. I don't know why I like this, but like we just hyper focus on something else, but it ends up bringing us back together as a couple.

Niq:

A group project, I will say, like there is something about working with your partner and accomplishing something that will give your relationship a boost. And accomplishing something that will give your relationship a boost, like during Christmas time, my husband and I we gave our daughter a toy kitchen but like we've renovated it. So we bought like two toy kitchens and we put, added like counter backsplash we did, we went full AC TV, like working sink and backsplashes and you know, countertops and all of this stuff and it was like very beautiful and very organized with all of these different things and it looks nothing like that now because she's a one and a half year old. It's it's not giving HGTV until, like we do resets, but we we like worked on it together and it was so enjoyable because, like you, there are things that were hard for me that he would do, and then, like I'm like showing him my plans and my visions and so you get to see your partner at their best and doing something they're good at, and you get to put your heads together and and work something they're good at.

Niq:

And you get to put your heads together and and work together and then at the end it turned out so gorgeous and we were like standing back, like, oh, we did that and that that is it's a. It's a, it's a great feeling, honestly, and so, yes, a, a project, a a situation, problem-solving situation, where you're working together against something else, yeah, it, honestly, is like one of the best things. It's better than like a date. You know, like when you're trying to reconnect, a lot of times like you like, you like, oh well, let's go on a date, and then the date is like awkward because you guys have so what you do is to solve a murder, and I get that yes.

Niq:

You need something where you two are working together against something else and that will bring you close together Common enemy. I had a way way, way long ago. I had an ex who would get upset when we would argue he could never win. And I'm like, if you want to win an argument, you can team up with me and we can go argue with somebody else. You're never going to beat me in an argument. If you want to have that feeling, let's team up and we can go argue with somebody else. She meant that, yeah, teaming up against somebody is a great way to connect with your partner. Yeah, I'm okay. But yeah, this show, I enjoyed it, but it just left me. I wanted more. I do want more.

Jess:

I really wish, but it just left me. I wanted more. I do, I do want more. I really wish they had gotten a second season, but at the same time, there's a part of me that like, like I said, I think they did make itself contained, just in case.

Niq:

They did, they did and, like we were talking about, they are pulling strings with storytelling and saying you know what? I don't have to wrap everything up in a neat little bow, I don't have to explain. I don't have to explain everything. This is what happened. How you feel about it is how you feel about it, but these are the things that happen and it's like you know what is a story what is a story.

Jess:

So I do want to ask you something about okay, so like towards the so the end, like the very last episode, and they, you know, they found the kids in this giant pool of interesting looking water that has preserved them for 15 years. So that's what actually happened. They wandered into the cave. They found Pasaje. They ended up contained in that pool for 15 years, completely preserved, like it's 2007 for them. You know what I mean. And then when they get out of the pool and they're kind of adjusting to realizing that they've lost 15 years of their life, basically, what is Sam? Sam, the boy is messing around with his ear, just like Alex was, and I'm like do you think he now has memory leakage? Ooh, because when Violet's asked questions about what happened in there, she saw her mother. It still hurts or what have you, but she has memories. When he's asked, he says I don't know, he may, he may. So does it cause memory leakage with some people and not with others?

Niq:

Because Violet seems like she's at least right now with what we saw at the end and he's messing around with his ear like he might be having some leakage and he's, his memory is already a little off so what you found out in the beginning of the story is that violet lost her mom a year ago to cancer and so in, like the, the book that ibera wrote um was, the mom had that book and she had put all these copious notes in the book and she told Violet meet me in Pasaje, like this mythical place that's in the book, and we can see each other again. So Violet is going to Pasaje with a plan, with a mission, with something to accomplish. Sam is just going along, and so my question is is it because she had a purpose and a mission when she went in? There is the reason that you know Sam. Maybe he had memory leakage because he wasn't focused. So he's just there. He's just there and the same thing.

Jess:

Alejandro is just there because he's just wondering, but what I think is is there's a everybody is connected, and I know this is like one of the things we're talking about by loss, but a violent loss. He went in there to find it Right, you know what I mean, whereas Sam just went in there, and so the same thing with Alejandro. He, you know there's no indication that either of them had lost anything before they went in there.

Niq:

Well, sam did lose something because he lost his girlfriend, because he found out his girlfriend was cheating on him. But he had already found something. Even though he had lost something, he had already found the thing that he had lost. So he went in there I agree, not in the same state that Violet went in, because what we learned? The author also went to Pasaje. He went with Alex, and so my question is when the author went in because he didn't experience memory leakage did he lose something? He didn't get in the pool?

Jess:

Oh, he didn't. No, sam called him out about that and he never, answered oh, he didn't get in. He was like you didn't go in, did you? And he just stood there. He didn't say anything. Alex, they got to the end, just like he took them to the entrance. They got to the entrance, I think Alex went in and Elon did not.

Niq:

I don't blame him, because I'm not really sure I understand what Pasaje actually is and what it's for. Because, like initially, when, what is the wife's name? Why am I so always so terrible with names? Initially, when Emma went in and she saw their bodies floating, my first thought was, oh my god. She found their bodies and I'm like why are they not like more bones? I'm like you. Why are they not like more bones? Like I'm like. I'm like you, know I them being alive.

Niq:

Never occurred to me, never occurred to me. But when you look and Emma is looking in the water, what does Emma see? Because they don't tell you. They don't tell you that they don't Like galaxies and cosmos. But I wondered, I'm like, did she see the face of her child?

Jess:

I think so, and the reason why I say so is I watch it with the subtitles on and it just says baby giggling at the bottom.

Niq:

Right, because she saw, she heard her baby giggling in the jungle or something.

Jess:

She heard her baby giggling like when she was getting close to the actual like magical waters and it's kind of letter in there. And then when she was looking, the baby was still giggling as she looked. So I think she saw the face of her baby. I was hoping that's what she saw, but I wasn't and, knowing this story, it's not going to explicitly tell you it doesn't. I want to end what the resort is not going to do is answer any of your questions. That's not what it's there for.

Niq:

I want to end this episode because I honestly want us to get into the loss and the themes of loss, and I think we need more time for that, and so I think this is a good stopping point. We've given a very chaotic introduction, but it's because it's a chaotic show. Guys, watch the show and you will understand why the conversation is so frenetic. Because the show, the show is so chaotic and you. It introduces so many concepts and it does not solve any of them. It just introduces you. It's just there to open your mind and expand your mind and have you think about things. There will be no answers. No, it's so open. It's a choose your own adventure, in the sense that you're going to spend the next few days making your own meaning of it. Right, you're like okay, so what do we think happens with Sam? What happens with Violet and her dad?

Jess:

There's so many open-ended questions and then is you making your own meaning of it, part of the story, the story, I think.

Niq:

I think so I I can't say, because we didn't get a season two, so we don't know if they had plans or if they only ever plan to give us questions in order for us to search ourselves and say what does that mean to you? What does that look like to you? How are you interpreting that? So, guys, please catch us on our next episode. We're going to continue to talk about the resort and, honestly, the themes are so interesting. We're going to explain more about some of these chaotic characters and I think you'll really really enjoy it. But thank you so much.