Written by Artie Kemper and directed by Jon Burroughs, this is the final episode of Beverly Hill Bordello, number 12 of season 2. I’m skipping ahead because it’s one of my all-time favorite episodes of the series, thanks in large part to the fact that it stars the gorgeous Gabriella Hall, one of the greatest softcore actresses of all time, in my opinion

By this point, Gabriella had replaced Nicole Gian as Veronica Winston. I never understood why they didn’t just have her playing some new character who’d taken over the bordello, since she and Gian looked nothing alike, but I guess that didn’t matter. Unlike softcore series of the 2010s, like Life On Top and The Jump Off, Beverly Hills Bordello didn’t have continuing storylines, each episode was its own separate complete story, thus you could watch the episodes out of order. Before being cast as Veronica, Gabriella had appeared in a couple of earlier episodes playing different characters.

Nicholas Grant stars as Adam, a reporter for a Christian newspaper called The Rapture Report. He’s been assigned by his editor to go undercover at the bordello in order to write an expose about it. He’s faked records and gotten hired as Veronica’s new assistant.

Manny G. plays Martin, Veronica’s outgoing assistant. We see him at a going away party that the bordello is throwing for him, and his gift is sex with Kristi, one of the escorts (played by Lauren Hayes). Afterward, as he leaves he meets Adam, assuring him that he’ll like the job because “the hours are long, but the perks are great.”

Adam meets Veronica and gets to “work.” He gets access to Veronica’s laptop as he handles the receipts, which gives him info about her clients and how they pay. We see him secretly sneaking around and taking pictures of clients coming in…including The President of The United States.

We only see him from behind, and they only refer to him as “Mr. President”, but I could totally picture Bill Clinton going to the Beverly Hills Bordello.

We see a montage of Adam talking to Kristi and two other escorts, Rachel and Selena (Linda O’Neil and Lizette Oliva) asking them questions about how long they’ve been working there, what their clients are like, etc, acting like these are just part of innocent conversations and not secretly interviewing them for his story.

Finally, he hits the jackpot when he finds the key to a locked cabinet in Veronica’s office. It contains videos of many of the sexual encounters in the bordello. This includes another sex scene of Kristi, with an older congressman (played by Ken Belsky). Although it’s not really sex. Kristi performs an erotic striptease and then basically gives the man a lapdance in the nude, while he remains in his suit and tie.

Adam now has all the information he needs and calls his editor to tell him that he’ll have his article ready in a couple of days. Then Veronica catches him watching the tapes, and he confesses his identity and purpose for being there. So before he turns in his article, Veronica agrees to let him interview her, to hear her side of the story.

This interview is more of a debate, with Adam accusing Veronica of corrupting men’s souls with lust, and Veronica explaining that lust and sexuality are good things. Veronica is wearing a sexy white robe and nightgown that she slowly strips off as she’s talking. By the time she’s naked, all of Adam’s willpower is gone, and she drags him to bed where she rides him in the cowgirl position.

In the final scene, Adam calls his editor to report that Veronica’s place is just a “private club” so there’s no story to write. And it’s implied that he’s going to be quitting the newspaper and continuing to work as Veronica’s assistant.

I could argue that the ending that the ending is a bit of a cliche. He’s supposed to be this devout self-righteous man, he’s going undercover in a brothel so you’d think he’d be better prepared to resist temptation…but, damn, Gabriella Hall in her prime could probably get the Pope into bed if she wanted to. So I won’t complain. And in hindsight, the episode makes a pretty good “series finale,” whether it was intended to be that or not. Chacebook rating: FIVE STARS

Jason Majercik is selling AN UNRATED 3-disc DVD set of Beverly Hills Bordello season 2 for $29.99. Email him at quinn_nash@hotmail.com for his softcore inventory list.