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Shudder's horror-crime series Hell Motel premiered its Season 1 finale (Episode 8) titled Grand Guignol on July 29, 2025, which featured the chilling reveal of the real mastermind behind the Cold River Motel killings.
The events of Episode 7 saw Paige and Andy manage to escape the Motel after successfully calling the police and killing both Shirley and Floyd. The finale featured a time jump, where Paige is gearing up for the premiere of her Slasher movie Doomed Service reboot.
As the identity of the third killer is revealed at the premiere, a new cycle of Slasher movies is set in motion, based on the experiences of Andy and Paige. The Hell Motel finale ends by reiterating people's obsession with true horror-crime and how someone's tragedy is fictionalized for monetary gains.
Here is the complete Hell Motel Episode 8 recap.
Hell Motel Episode 8 recap: A fresh start for Paige and Andy
Hell Motel Episode 8 opened with a time jump of a few months, and Paige and Andy have finally moved forward from the horrific events at the Cold River Motel. While the massacre was traumatic, it made Paige and Andy into celebrities as they are the only people who survived the killings at the Motel.
Paige is back on the sets of Doomed Service, a reboot of the in-universe Slasher film franchise, where she plays Caitlyn. She discusses a disagreement about her character with her director, Aaron, and he is thankful that the crew can blend her real-life experience at the Motel into the film.
On the other hand, Andy is also monetizing his experience at the Hell Motel and is now teaching classes on genre-specific storytelling to a group of students. Episode 8 saw Paige and Andy finally deciding to reconnect after the incident, and they met for dinner at Paige's house.
Hell Motel Episode 8 recap: Paige receives a shock at her movie premiere
Paige and Andy meet at the former's home at night and discuss the events of the massacre. Andy is still curious about the human heart left for Paige (which suggests that she is the third killer), but she explains that Shirley likely kept it to frame her.
Their pillow talk shifts to Paige's movie and the actual events of the night when Caitlyn died. Andy keeps fixating on the fact that Doomed Service fictionalized the events at the Hell Motel, and while Caitlyn's first husband was cleared of all the murder charges, he was still harassed until he died. But since Andy cannot do anything about this, they end this discussion.
Later, the couple attends the Doomed Service reboot premiere, and after the movie starts, Paige realizes that she was axed from the film and her character was killed. When she confronts Aaron about the same, he reveals that he shot the part with a CGI dummy, and Paige was used as a nostalgia clickbait (and her popularity) to make space for Paula, the new face of the franchise.
As Andy consoles Paige about this betrayal, Doomed Service comes to an end. However, instead of rolling out the end credits, the movie cuts to footage of the real Caitylin and Joey, shot from the perspective of a child. Seeing this as a technical glitch, Aaron rushes to the projector room to stop the reel.
Hell Motel Episode 8 recap: The vicious cycle of true-crime continues
The movie cuts to all the people who died at the Cold River Motel, following which Paige and Andy also rush to the projector room. Things go out of control at the premiere when Aaron is struck by an unknown killer, and he bleeds to death in front of the movie screen, creating a mass panic.
Paige accuses Andy of being the third killer and the one who killed Aaron, which is when he finally reveals his true identity. He reveals that he is Caitlyn's real son and was trying to protect his mother's final moments and memories by killing anyone who was trying to gain money by fictionalizing her tragedy. Andy was the real mastermind who killed everyone excet Shirely and Floyd.
As Paige strikes Andy with a machete and the police arrive at the scene, Andy uses his final moments to frame Paige as the third killer, following which, she is shot dead on the scene. Both Paige and Andy die and promise to meet in Hell.
While the mystery of the killings came to an end, all the events in Episode 8 were recorded on somebody's phone, resulting in another meta movie. Another actress is cast in the role of Paige, and the vicious cycle of monetizing from true crime continues.
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