I know a lot of people are calling this episode unwatchable or skipping it entirely, but Hotel Reverie did something to me that I honestly can’t explain and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.

It gave me a feeling I haven’t had since Hang the DJ or San Junipero… but maybe even more bittersweet. This wasn’t just another love story it felt like a dream I somehow stumbled into. One of those vivid dreams where, when you wake up, you lie there with your eyes closed, wishing you could go back… even though you know you can’t. The world moves on, but you remember. And the memory hurts, but in a beautiful way.

There’s this one line Kimmy said “Don’t worry, it’ll reset to the scorpion scene. She won’t remember a thing.” That shattered me. It made me think about how love, time, and memory can all exist in such fragile little bubbles and how sometimes, the person you loved doesn’t even know it ever happened.

I know people are saying the acting was off but honestly? That awkwardness is what made it work for me. It gave the episode this weird, uncomfortable realism, like a vintage romance trapped in a digital space. It was awkward, but still intimate like watching something that wasn’t supposed to be perfect, but wasn’t trying to be. It kept me hooked in that quiet, aching way.

I found comfort in this episode even in the sadness. I felt connected, in awe, melancholy, full of reverie… all at once. It gave me a kind of emotional ache that I almost want to hold onto, because feeling something that deeply even from fiction reminds me I’m alive.

Hotel Reverie wasn’t just an episode to me. It was a feeling. And I wish I could replay it in my heart like it was the first time over and over again.

I just truly wonder if anyone else felt this way as well with this episode.