White Lotus

Theo James on what he thinks really happened between Cameron and Harper in season two of 'The White Lotus' and whether his children with Daphne are actually ...

There are videos making the rounds of you all dancing behind the scenes and generally having a good time. We wanted to make you think, Is it just a combination of Ethan’s paranoia and jealousy? But then I even forgot about the yogurt, so when you just said that, I was like, Jesus Christ, he’s unapologetically such a bad person. That’s why we ultimately wanted that fight to come from a place where Cameron gets confronted and is like, No, what the fuck? They’ve evolved away from each other as friends and now have basically polar opposite visions of the world in front of them. I haven’t seen the episode yet, but Cameron doesn’t give a shit. We did that scene toward the end of the shoot, and we did different versions. He does love his friend, even though he’s competitive with him and wants to dominate him, and he does love his wife. He’s trying to own his friend and own his wife in a search for control. Is that why Cameron was pushing Ethan to get with Mia and Lucia? Although Cameron has elements of being controlling and domineering, he is also loving in his own way, which, for me, made him compelling. “When you do a character, you have to find some way to identify with them,” he tells Vulture.

In an interview with NPR's Fresh Air last week, the writer and director Mike White suggested that his hit HBO series The White Lotus had less in common with ...

The impulse to follow in the footsteps of high-status people, emulating their experiences and then, by sharing, being emulated in turn? Week by week, The White Lotus achieved what only HBO series, [Taylor Swift ](https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2022/10/taylor-swift-midnights-album-review/671811/) [album drops](https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2022/10/taylor-swift-midnights-album-review/671811/), and Florence Pugh’s Instagram seem to be able to manage these days: taking over the discourse and leaving very few unsatisfied. (Even Mia and Lucia walked down a busy shopping street arm in arm, jubilant in floral dresses, waving at the notably nonviolent Alessio, just as they had in the first episode.) Meanwhile, Jack, the muscle-bound Essex boy charged with distracting (and possibly doing away with) Portia while Tanya was being dealt with, dropped her on an empty street by the airport instead, his COCK baseball cap seeming to linger unnervingly in one’s memory like the Cheshire Cat’s smile. [Season 2](https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2022/10/white-lotus-season-2-review/671938/), including the questions of why Lucia and Mia, the sex worker and the wannabe pianist, seemed physically stuck at the hotel, sleeping on sun loungers instead of going home; why every guest at the White Lotus went to Sicily—Sicily!—only to eat all their meals in the same anemic on-site restaurant; and what happened to Tanya in the finale. Season 2 of The White Lotus, in particular, felt like an aggregation of different source materials, many as fascinatingly cerebral as they were delightfully familiar.

Early in the episode, Ethan accuses Harper of cheating on him with Cameron. After confronting Cameron—and nearly drowning him in the process!—he finds Daphne to ...

Maybe just the thought of Harper sleeping with his friend (which, for the record, she swears didn’t happen) was enough to reignite the flame. Do Ethan and Daphne go there to decompress, or do they sleep with each other in a fit of revenge? The camera cuts away before we see what happens next, but boy, do they leave a lot to the imagination. Maybe she simply feels for Etha—who is experiencing that level of betrayal for the first time? After confronting Cameron—and nearly drowning him in the process!—he finds Daphne to deliver the news. Early in the episode, Ethan accuses Harper of cheating on him with Cameron.

The White Lotus Season 2 finale shocks and delights us with crazy twists and a wicked violent ending.

She gives Bert a big hug for his vote of confidence (“When that girl hugged me, I was aroused,” he confesses to his son and grandson later). This was a perfect farewell to Tanya and another season might run the risk of feeling gimmicky). In one of the most hilarious shots in the episode, all three men gawk at a beautiful young woman as she walks by at the airport, proving that no matter their attested values and beliefs, Bert’s words ring true across generations. Ethan doesn’t want to hear it so he storms off, down to the beach where he finds Cameron and accuses him of trying to sleep with his wife. She asks him what the matter is and he finally tells her. The captain (who earlier revealed to Tanya that he is also one of The Gays) freaks out and hides. The only one of The Gays Tanya didn’t kill (besides the captain) leaps up at this point and leaps into the sea. She uses it to call Tanya and tells her what Jack told her in his drunken stupor: That Quentin is broke but is about to come into a windfall. At this point, because she is Tanya, she does none of the following: She makes a run for a nearby bedroom, locks the door, and unzips the bag. The photograph of Quentin and Greg she finds also doesn’t tip her off entirely, though you can see she’s close to dragging two and two together as she boards Quentin’s yacht and heads back to the White Lotus. Greg (Jon Gries) married her, signed a prenuptial agreement, and then set to work with his old pal Quentin (Tom Hollander) on a plan to kill the heiress and inherit her money.

Season 2 of The White Lotus came to a chaotic ending and managed to finally answer some vital questions, and most importantly, it revealed who died.

In the finale, the Palermo group and Tanya hop into the yacht to go back to the hotel. While it’s sad to know that Tanya dies, seeing as she was also in the first season, how she died is somehow on brand for her character. Portia, a not-so-responsible assistant, calls her and that’s when it just clicks for the both of them: They are both in a dangerous situation. When Tanya saw Quentin (Tom Hollander) and his “nephew” Jack (Leo Woodall) doing it during their time in Palermo, she started to grow suspicious. After Cameron gives her the money and Albie transfers the money to her account, she’s seen pondering. In the finale, we see Ethan losing his mind just thinking about the possibility of Harper and Cameron hooking up to the point where he gaslights his wife. In the morning, when Albie is still sleeping, she quietly leaves his room before he can wake up. But at the last minute, Jack drops her off at an airport and warns her not to go to the hotel and just leave Sicily right away because Quentin’s group is very dangerous. [Daphne knows about Cameron cheating on her](https://collider.com/white-lotus-season-2-daphne-storyline/) with many women, but she just ignores it, refusing to be a victim. However, the biggest mystery is trying to find out who Daphne saw on the waters in the first episode. But Albie convinces his father to give it in exchange for helping him out with his mom —and, desperate to connect with his wife and daughter again, Dominic agrees. There’s Cameron (Theo James), Daphne (Meghann Fahy), Harper (Aubrey Plaza), and Ethan (Will Sharpe) who went on the trip together; Bert (F.

Other times, they seem to warn people to stop talking. In the season finale, when she speaks to Ethan (Will Sharpe) about their respective partners, her eyes ...

[the show.](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/the-white-lotus-season-2-deaths-ranking) She doesn't need to say much, but when she does, the subtext is loud. [The White Lotus](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/the-white-lotus-season-3). In the [season finale](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/white-lotus-season-2-finale-who-dies), when she speaks to Ethan (Will Sharpe) about their respective partners, her eyes appear to calculate a situation in real time and covertly offer him a [slice of revenge](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/the-white-lotus-season-2-reviews). In the final episode she tells Ethan there's a part of her husband she'll never know, but rather than become consumed by paranoia she acknowledges this is key to her attraction to him. At points, they appear to [observe](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/the-white-lotus-books-season-2) more than she lets on. Inviting him into her philosophy, she then walks off with him to a deserted bay across the water. The inference is that they slept with each other, and, if appearances are to be believed, her school of thinking saves Harper and Ethan's marriage. Has Mike White pulled the rug on us again? [Theo James is done being put in a box](/culture/article/theo-james-the-white-lotus-interview) Rather than fight these truths, Daphne has opted for finding her own happiness and version of justice. [good time](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/the-white-lotus-season-2-horny-old-man-2022). But the only fool in writing her off was us.

"The White Lotus" costume designer Alex Bovaird discusses the "Godfather"-inspired dress Tanya wore in the Season 2 finale, which hinted at her death.

“It’s my favorite look on her, and we did her hair like Audrey Hepburn.” “Portia is not nearly as cool or self-possessed, and the idea was that she wouldn’t always succeed with her styling,” Bovaird explains. When she starts to unwind, her costumes get more lively,” the costume designer says. “We were towards the end of the show, and it got sent back to Rome the previous night by mistake! But some of those clashing graphics held deeper meanings; the Custo Barcelona face-printed top she wears in one scene, for instance, was meant to [echo the Testa di Moro head statues](https://www.glamour.com/story/portia-style-white-lotus-season-two) seen throughout the season. In Episode 3, viewers got a close-up look at the frock on a mannequin during Bert, Dominic and Albie’s “Godfather” sightseeing tour.

Elsewhere, Daphne (Meghann Fahy) helped Ethan (Will Sharpe) get over his suspicions about Cameron (Theo James) and Harper (Aubrey Plaza) possibly having sex.

First, the plot. In L'Avventura, Vitti plays Claudia, who joins her friend Anna and Anna's boyfriend on a yachting jaunt in the Mediterranean. During a brief ...

And while we don’t know if Greg is cheating on her, we know that Tanya’s preoccupied with that question even after she’s discovered he hired people to kill her for her money—tragically, they are too full of the bullets she’s just pumped into them to answer—which does seem like a kind of madness, perhaps even enough to distract her when she makes her slip-and-fall plunge off the boat and kills herself. You don’t have to let your partner sleep with someone else, but you can’t expect them not to want to, and if you can’t handle the answers, there’s nothing wrong with not asking the questions. In the finale, tensions between the season’s two married couples come to a head as Ethan, whom Harper suspects of having had sex with a prostitute while she was away for the night with Daphne, comes to suspect Harper of having had sex with Cameron. [Eros is sick](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/100-lavventura-cannes-statement)” and humanity was in the grip of a “rigid and stereotyped morality.” For all of their intellectual ideas and formal majesty, Antonioni’s movies have endured in part because of—not to put too fine a point on it—the extreme hotness of their leading actors. Daphne has some experience in these matters, and she gives Ethan the same advice she gave Harper: Do whatever you need to do to feel as if you’re even. But the shift from her customary passive aggression to open hostility—she calls Cameron “an idiot” over dinner—sets Ethan on edge, and he presses Harper until she confesses: The two did get drunk, and they did go back to their rooms, and they did kiss. (Tanya, as well as a bunch of “these gays.”) We find out that Lucia (Simona Tabasco) was definitely playing Albie (Adam DiMarco) and the man who played the part of the pimp she needed 50,000 Euros to escape is just a doorman at a nearby hotel. [hot to trot](https://slate.com/culture/2022/10/white-lotus-season-2-aubrey-plaza-jennifer-coolidge.html), but they can’t seem to get on the same page, sexually speaking. Uncertain whether their spouses have had sex but knowing for sure that they came close, Daphne (Meghann Fahy) and Ethan (Will Sharpe) walk across the low-tide sand to Isola Bella, disappearing into the forest as the camera watches from a distance. It’s Plaza’s Harper who gets the charged looks in that L’Avventura pastiche and Tanya who ends up disappearing off a boat, even if it doesn’t take that long for her body to be found. The scene in which a woman walks through a Sicilian courtyard and is menacingly leered at by a gathering crowd of men was re-created in the same location and reenacted shot for shot, with Aubrey Plaza standing in for the iconic Monica Vitti. As she and Anna’s boyfriend search for Anna, who it’s speculated may have died by suicide, they develop an attraction to each other and eventually have sex, although Claudia is consumed with feelings of betrayal toward her missing friend.

Spoilers ahead for The White Lotus season finale. And the victim in the finale of The White Lotus turned out to be…Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge). Cause of death: ...

We identify with their initial resistance, disdain, and skepticism for this world and its inhabitants, and yet are also seduced by the pleasures of this world alongside them—taking casual day trips to nearby Noto to stay in palazzos, nitpicking over which fish to order, and marveling at the wine list. I have long viewed the sexless, newly rich Ethan (Will Sharpe) and Harper (Aubrey Plaza) as stand-ins for the audience, who hem and haw over whether they’ll cross over to the dark moneyed side. In the finale, Dominic may have made inroads with his angry wife, but the airport scene shows he—and his familial trio—will always have a wandering eye. And yet, because we’ve seen their misery, pain, and inability to experience deep connection, we have to ask the question: Does money do that to everyone? We may have sort of hated Tanya, but we also didn’t want her to be murdered for her money by a fraudulent husband. Making matters worse, the woman we’ve seen barely take care of herself for two seasons was able to somehow unload a round of shots into the gay cabal plotting her murder on a yacht, only to be unable to successfully get herself into an escape boat, thereby falling to her death.

Here's who lives, who dies, and who leaves Italy changed forever in The White Lotus season 2 finale.

But, Mia at least seems to genuinely like Valentina and promises that she and Lucia will take her out to clubs and help her meet women. Ostensibly, this money is meant to help her get away from the abusive and dangerous pimp that seemingly chased her and the Di Grasso family through the countryside in the season’s penultimate episode, but that shadowy figure never actually existed and there was never any real threat to Lucia’s life or safety. He warns her that she doesn’t want to mess with these powerful people and drops her missing phone out the window as he drives away. After a first season that saw locals and service workers repeatedly forced to suffer at the hands of the White Lotus’s uber-rich guests, it’s wildly satisfying to see the non-elites notch some significant wins this time around. Was he supposed to kill her on the way back to the resort? Yes, he was clearly supposed to keep her busy and out of the way—he steals her phone, brazenly lies about it, and repeatedly delays their return to Taormina—but he also seemed to genuinely like her, which makes his decision to let her go feel extra murky. With some help from Portia (Haley Lu Richardson)—who’s having her own problems trying to figure out the reasons for Jack’s (Leo Woodall) extremely suss behavior after he steals her phone and refuses to take her back to the group—Tanya figures out that Greg and Quentin have been plotting to stage her murder. She tells her husband Ethan (Will Sharpe) that yes, Cameron (Theo James) came on to her and, yes, she accepted her suggestion that they go upstairs together. The rest of the season’s deaths—sorry everyone who was predicting one of the Di Grasso men was a goner—are basically the gays who were part of the plan to kill Tanya, including Quentin (Tom Hollander), Didier (Bruno Gouery), and her hook-up from last week Niccolo (Stefano Gianino). (I’m still so mad that Tanya essentially never interacted with the Sullivan/Spillar quartet.) But Coolidge gets several of the season’s best lines—prepare yourself for the inevitable memes!—and ultimately goes out as the result of a freak stupid accident rather than getting murdered by a man. He apparently has a lengthy history with Tanya’s husband Greg (Jon Gries), whose prenuptial agreement means he won’t get any money if the pair divorce, but who stands to inherit it all if she dies. [The White Lotus](https://www.denofgeek.com/the-white-lotus/) has come to an end, filled with suspicion, betrayal, and a variety of rich people behaving badly.

Valentina (Sabrina Impacciatore, in a pink suit) and her staff turn out to greet guests in the second season of HBO's “The White Lotus.” (Fabio Lovino / HBO).

And it depends as much on the open-mindedness of the traveler as on the magic embedded in any given location. And the second season wastes the talents of Impacciatore as the tough Valentina, a sexually frustrated woman who takes out her anger on everyone around her — until she comes to terms with her lesbian desires in the arms of a kindly prostitute. The protagonist in this stage play, of course, is the traveler. [her review](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2021-07-18/the-white-lotus-hbo-tourism-colonialism) of the show, “The White Lotus” does a far better job managing the storylines around the resort’s guests than it does with the staff members who must serve them. expat once summarized the country’s appeal to me over a beer and a stuffed ashtray: “It’s all about fishing and f—ing.” And what “The White Lotus” gets right is that tourism is theater, the ultimate immersive experience in which everyone and everything has a role to play. The travel industry contrives all manner of ways to objectify the locals for the benefit of tourists on a quest for the extraordinary or the “authentic.” In Belize, I once wrote about a hotel on a private island where I was greeted on a boat dock by smiling staff members all decked out in matching pith helmets — so colonial! The country is regularly billed as one of the happiest places on Earth, based on [studies](https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/01/sun-sea-and-stable-democracy-what-s-the-secret-to-costa-rica-s-success/) that purport to rank national contentedness. Functioning as stage is the locale — which the travel industry set-designs into a hyper-quaint version of itself for the purpose of tourist appeal. “Across the United States, towns devastated by capital flight, technological shifts, or union-busting make spectacles of themselves desperately framing and reinventing their histories to make the picture appealing to those who might buy a hamburger, T-shirt, suntan lotion, Indian jewelry, a plastic sea gull, a shell ashtray, or a boat ride.” But I have been intrigued by the ways it depicts tourism — especially the high-end part of the business. “Greet them together,” she commands, “with the same right hand.”

Jennifer Coolidge sits on ornate bench by luggage. Jennifer Coolidge plays Tanya, a hapless heiress in a loveless marriage. As in Season 1, Coolidge is a comedy ...

1, and that she is perhaps the worst assistant in the history of the job.) At the airport, however, we see his head—and Albie’s, and Bert’s—swivel in the wake of a pretty young woman who is passing by. (“The motivation of sex is always primary, I think,” White told me when I spoke to him, earlier in the fall for the (Daphne: “You just do whatever you have to do not to feel like a victim of life.”) Later, Ethan and Harper, each recharged with the sexual attention of someone other than their spouse, finally fuck. In the fifth episode, we discover that Jack is hiding a secret; Tanya catches him in bed with Quentin. The first season of the show focussed on class, and the conflicts that emerged between the haves and the have-nots at the White Lotus resort in Maui. (Fahy is fantastic in the role, but especially in this scene.) “You spend every second with somebody, and there’s still this part that’s a mystery. Still, to my mind, the central point made in the series is that no relationship is detached from the transactional and that power always plays a role in how people deal with one another. [New Yorker Radio Hour](https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/russell-moore-on-christian-nationalism).) Ethan and Harper are experiencing bed death; Cameron and Daphne have a de-facto don’t-ask-don’t-tell cheating policy; Albie is horny but doesn’t want to be like his father, whose marriage is in ruins owing to his sex addiction. [the second season](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-television/more-deadly-decadence-in-the-white-lotus) of “The White Lotus,” Mike White’s hit HBO dramedy, a bright-eyed, slim-hipped strawberry blonde named Daphne (Meghann Fahy), a guest at the White Lotus luxury resort in Sicily, decides to take one last dip in the Mediterranean before her vacation ends and she heads back home, to the U.S. Certainly, in the course of the season, we saw no shortage of conflicts that could have yielded perpetrators and victims: there was the newly rich Ethan (Will Sharpe), seething with jealousy over a possible dalliance between his wife, Harper (Aubrey Plaza, brittle and excellent), and his dick-swinging finance-bro friend, Cameron (the brutally handsome Theo James), who is married to Daphne; there was Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge), a hapless heiress in a loveless marriage who, along with her assistant, Portia (Haley Lu Richardson), had fallen in with a number of sinister, Palermo-based gay men seemingly intent on stealing her fortune by any means necessary; and there was Albie (Adam DiMarco), a wide-eyed, romantically minded Stanford grad travelling with his philandering father, Dom (Michael Imperioli), and still amorous grandfather, Bert (F. But as she swims in the perfect azure waters, her dreamy immersion is shattered by the sight of a dead body, floating on the waves.

After 'The White Lotus' finale, “Arrivederci,” we know who died and who killed, but all the guests behaved badly during this Sicily vacation.

How guilty is she? How guilty is he? Her dress is awful. Of kidnapping/abducting Portia, aiding and abetting Tanya’s murder-that-turned-out-to-be-an-accidental-suicide, of “uncle”-fucking, and also of running out on that check that time, which is rude. Is Bert slipping her a $50 for that hug? Well, according to Dominic, Bert is guilty of setting the mold of womanizing and delinquent husbandry that has doomed generations of men in this family to misery. I guess it’s good for her that she gets to be the piano girl at what is apparently the only hotel in all of Sicily? Is he guilty? And I could’ve happily gone my whole life without hearing the phrase “Achilles cock.” He seemed to have a really lovely time on this trip, didn’t he? The speed with which Albie transferred the money to Lucia’s account is totally implausible (he just had her routing number??) but the fact that he was so eager to do it, and not even in installments, made me write “He actually deserves to die for the crime of being such an idiot.” It’s also funny that he is so bent on being a good person who helps a damsel in distress that he could not recognize the actual vulnerability of Portia (going to an island with her psychotic boss and a drunk she’d never met) because he was too distracted by the over-the-top performance of helplessness Lucia put on for his benefit. [It was only a kiss](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGdGFtwCNBE)” confession, do you?) But I have a hard time with this whole thing where Ethan, with very little evidence, gets to have the moral high ground, while Harper, who found the condom wrapper, is scrambling to regain his trust. Like, I don’t want to tell someone how to be abducted, but I sure wouldn’t do my big confrontation after I was trapped in a car with my assailant.

Lucia and Mia really turned things around for themselves. HBO. Well, so much for Tanya being the connective tissue between the two seasons of anthology series ...

It was a super satisfying end to an even better season of the genius show, Italy's fountains and volcanoes erupting in perfect climax. Best friends Lucia and Mia swirl down the cobblestone streets Elena Ferrante-style, basking in the glow of their accomplishments. Resting in each other's arms at the airport, they look a picture of peace and solidarity. This is all after Ethan and Cameron have their inevitable showdown in the sea, but maybe it would have been too obvious and extreme if one or both of them died. In a truly frightening sequence, a shaking Tanya loses Portia on the phone and has to face a boatful of people who want to kill her. Seizing her one opportunity to save herself, Tanya brazenly grabs her killer-to-be's duffle bag and locks herself in a room.

The White Lotus season 2 finale features the death of Tanya, dovetailing nicely into what creator Mike White has said he wants to do in season 3, ...

Such annihilation is the albatross of The White Lotus, the ostensible framing for each season so far being a mysterious death that usually takes on a deeper resonance once you’ve seen the season. None of this is much to go on for season 3, which doesn’t even have a release date yet. “The first season kind of highlighted money, and then the second season is sex,” White said in HBO’s inside the episode featurette for the finale.

The show has experienced a ratings boom since its Oct. 30 Season 2 premiere, which garnered just over 1.5 million viewers across HBO and HBO Max on its debut ...

For Season 2 Episode 6 of “The That’s up a whopping 46% from the series’ previous best, which was the sixth and penultimate episode of the Sicily-set second season on Dec. The first season of “The White Lotus” closed with 1.9 million multiplatform viewers for its August 2021 finale. Discovery’s proprietary viewership data for streaming on HBO Max. Mike White’s dark comedy has experienced a ratings boom since its Oct. 30 Season 2 premiere, which garnered just over 1.5 million viewers across HBO and HBO Max on its debut night, up 63% in comparison to the “White Lotus” series premiere’s audience in July 2021, which also aired on HBO and HBO Max.

Jennifer Coolidge sits on ornate bench by luggage. Jennifer Coolidge plays Tanya, a hapless heiress in a loveless marriage. As in Season 1, Coolidge is a comedy ...

1, and that she is perhaps the worst assistant in the history of the job.) At the airport, however, we see his head—and Albie’s, and Bert’s—swivel in the wake of a pretty young woman who is passing by. (“The motivation of sex is always primary, I think,” White told me when I spoke to him, earlier in the fall for the (Daphne: “You just do whatever you have to do not to feel like a victim of life.”) Later, Ethan and Harper, each recharged with the sexual attention of someone other than their spouse, finally fuck. In the fifth episode, we discover that Jack is hiding a secret; Tanya catches him in bed with Quentin. The first season of the show focussed on class, and the conflicts that emerged between the haves and the have-nots at the White Lotus resort in Maui. (Fahy is fantastic in the role, but especially in this scene.) “You spend every second with somebody, and there’s still this part that’s a mystery. Still, to my mind, the central point made in the series is that no relationship is detached from the transactional and that power always plays a role in how people deal with one another. [New Yorker Radio Hour](https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/russell-moore-on-christian-nationalism).) Ethan and Harper are experiencing bed death; Cameron and Daphne have a de-facto don’t-ask-don’t-tell cheating policy; Albie is horny but doesn’t want to be like his father, whose marriage is in ruins owing to his sex addiction. [the second season](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-television/more-deadly-decadence-in-the-white-lotus) of “The White Lotus,” Mike White’s hit HBO dramedy, a bright-eyed, slim-hipped strawberry blonde named Daphne (Meghann Fahy), a guest at the White Lotus luxury resort in Sicily, decides to take one last dip in the Mediterranean before her vacation ends and she heads back home, to the U.S. Certainly, in the course of the season, we saw no shortage of conflicts that could have yielded perpetrators and victims: there was the newly rich Ethan (Will Sharpe), seething with jealousy over a possible dalliance between his wife, Harper (Aubrey Plaza, brittle and excellent), and his dick-swinging finance-bro friend, Cameron (the brutally handsome Theo James), who is married to Daphne; there was Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge), a hapless heiress in a loveless marriage who, along with her assistant, Portia (Haley Lu Richardson), had fallen in with a number of sinister, Palermo-based gay men seemingly intent on stealing her fortune by any means necessary; and there was Albie (Adam DiMarco), a wide-eyed, romantically minded Stanford grad travelling with his philandering father, Dom (Michael Imperioli), and still amorous grandfather, Bert (F. But as she swims in the perfect azure waters, her dreamy immersion is shattered by the sight of a dead body, floating on the waves.

Yet again, this show has proved that it is possible to make outstanding TV that both plays to the crowd and refuses to sing the classics.

Jack became the villain he was always going to be, and it was frightening and tense, though perhaps his warning to Portia, to flee and not ask questions, was a sort of kindness. The marriages of Ethan and Harper and Daphne and Cameron found their way towards a sort of chosen and hard-won contentment in the end. It is surprisingly invigorating to watch a drama and know that it is not going to end in easy resolution or happiness. They’re trying to murder me!” – but it was a chef’s kiss to have her almost get away, having shot her way through her enemies, only to be undone by her own poor aim, and possibly the fact that she didn’t take off her heels before jumping. It wrapped up its storylines with decreasing levels of subtlety, from Albie being “played” by Lucia, moving through the resilience of Daphne’s determined denial, ramping all the way up to Tanya the destroyer, and ultimately the destroyed. Wanting to preserve the magic for another season, it ekes it out just enough to satisfy while dangling a carrot for the next go around.

Did a couple of those paintings catch your eye as you were vibing to the music? There was a lil' bit of foreshadowing there. Let's break it down. Spoilers, if ...

- A bleeding man falling down the stairs and a woman holding a knife. ](https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/a42175309/the-white-lotus-tanya-portia-outfit-death-theory/)They just weren't in in the credits. - The very sexy torso of a broken statue. This, as a couple of people noticed and tweeted about, is foreshadowing She got her money (her prize, like a bird) and got to slink away happily. There are a lot of images in this section that are just horny, like a man sucking on a woman's bare breast, a very phallic fountain, three holes in the side of a building, naked women picking water lilies, or goats mating. The first painting is of a man bowing to a woman. If you look closely you see that the woman dropping the necklace is accompanied by a men on his knees, bowing or begging. Then Beatrice Grannò's (Mia) name appears with the image of a sexy sphinx. Next is a woman daydreaming by a lamb, and Haley Lu Richardson's name. Meghann Fahy's (Daphne) name is over two cherubs—like her two children at home who may or may not be the product of adultery. Then the camera zooms in to reveal a woman spying on the two of them—because everything is more complicated when you take a closer look.

Leo Woodall talks about the life-changing moment he found out he landed the role of Jack in Mike White's award-winning series 'The White Lotus.

“He did the right thing, but he’s not that nice of a guy. Woodall also explained that Jack's decision not to kill Portia is about who he is as a person, more than his feelings for her. Though Jack decided not to kill Portia, he dropped her off in a deserted and dangerous area. The series will return for a third installment following a new group of guests at another White Lotus property. The fans don’t know much of his backstory other than Quentin helped him when he was in a dark place. He does the right thing in the end.” He gives you just enough so that you are fulfilled and satisfied.” When it got to that bit, I started to think about his backstory, but there’s something so genius about Mike’s writing that I didn’t want to compromise what he’d done.” In one scene, he told Haley Lu Richardson’s Portia that she was his “job.” It was terrifying for her; she even asked if she’d been kidnapped. White doesn’t spoonfeed his audience, and though he answers many questions, he still leaves some things unsaid and undone. For Leo Woodall, who portrayed Jack in the second season, landing this role was life-changing. He had been through a few rounds of Zoom auditions and had battled Covid more than once.

Season 2 of The White Lotus is rich with visual art references that provide clues and symbolism to the deeper meanings of the show.

Clues to her fate are linked to the tragedy of Madame Butterfly. Her tears are symbolised in the painting of a hunched over weeping woman grasping a dagger. It’s clear the artworks personify the characters in the show, serving as an entry point into their inner turbulent worlds. The placement of art in the show is both masterful and purposeful. She is the drama’s ultimate tragedy and her vulnerability and mortality connect most powerfully with art historical references. We see the painting in the background of a scene where Albie is being brought to orgasm by a woman, Lucia, who he doesn’t know is a sex worker. As Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) says to Quentin in the final arresting episode, “What a life you have. The legend is amplified in a scene when Harper’s husband, Ethan believes his wife to have cheated on him in revenge for his own close encounter with sex workers. While there has been intense focus on the Renaissance art in the show, there are also filmic and literary references. There are also references to Elena Ferrante’s novels adapted to television show, [My Brilliant Friend (2018)](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7278862/), through the “escorts” Lucia and Mia (Beatrice Grannò) who bear striking resemblance to the “good” and “bad” girl characters, Lenù and Lila. While packing her bag to leave, she notices her namesake, Saint Lucy in a painting by Domenico Beccafumi (1521). In season 2, it’s the artworks that have drawn attention.

Haley Lu Richardson, the actor behind TV's most chaotic personal assistant, discusses the finale, Portia's clothes and manifesting a Season 3 reprise.

And then a couple months later, I got the audition for Season 2, and then I got the job. And he was like, “I want you to dye your hair blond.” And he was like, “Well, I think Portia is a mini Tanya in a lot of ways.” And I think Portia saw glimpses of that, too, even if it was the last thing she wanted to admit to herself. I was like, “Oh, wow, I hope to experience that kind of freedom in my career at some point because it looks just like a blast.” And then as totally unhinged as the final outfit at the airport is, with her disguise with the hat and the big sunglasses, it just makes so much sense for me. So within the confines of that and this worst-case-scenario situation, I really think that she is doing the best that she can. And the costumes were a huge part of that for Portia, figuring out this eclectic ... I had to just think about Portia and her fear and how scary that is for her. Something that’s such a helpful part of the process for me as an actor is creating what this person looks like — the hair, makeup and costume. And I think that was really intentional. I understood her deepest insecurities, and that’s all I really needed to bring her to life. By the end of Sunday’s finale, Portia had narrowly escaped a kidnapping and made her way to the airport, where she learned that others were not quite so lucky. She makes some very bad choices, like getting in the car with Jack, and clearly seems to be ignoring her accurate intuition that something is very wrong.

In the first-season finale of The White Lotus, Tanya McQuoid tells Belinda, the manager of the spa at the show's titular hotel, that she's determined to ...

Instead of getting played or demeaned like the staff and locals in season one, the locals team up with White Lotus staff to stick it to the Establishment. Only those who understand that they could be a mark as well as a beneficiary in their own transactional relationships get to live to see another day and, presumably, another stay at a White Lotus. Then there’s the person who doesn’t emerge at all from the events that happen in Sicily: Tanya McQuoid, whose story is evidence all by itself of the importance of understanding the transactional nature of relationships. The characters who enjoy the most notable moment of triumph in the finale are Mia and Lucia, and it’s not an accident that they also happen to engage in the most blatantly transactional relationships. They both get what they came for, so to speak, and stroll happily through the streets of Italy as if their cares have completely dissolved, which, for now, they have. Ethan was never really friends with Cam in the first place; he was just engaged in a yearslong competition to prove his own worth. But it also signals that these men are on the same page now, incapable of hiding their sexual desires but also more comfortable with their similarities in that regard. And when we last see the two couples in the airport, they are sitting separate from each other as if they are two sides of the same dysfunctional marital coin. White communicates the idea that Harper and Ethan have something akin to real intimacy through visual language. While one might assume naïve Albie still doesn’t grasp that Lucia took advantage of him, he disabuses us of that notion when he reconnects with Portia at the airport and tells her that he got played. But when you consider which of the guests comes out of that weeklong experience unscathed — you know, relatively speaking — it’s the ones that have accepted that partnerships involve negotiation and are honest with themselves about that. “The Best Things in Life Are Free” is the song we hear as the season-two finale concludes, and it is definitely deployed ironically.

Now that we know who dies in the finale, let's go over the clues laden in the opening titles.

- A woman being seduced by a swan -- this seems to be a reference to the story of Leda and the swan in Greek mythology, where the god Zeus transforms into a swan and rapes Leda, the queen of Sparta. In episode 4, he buys his wife a piece of jewellery as a gift and in the finale, he's willing to pay 50,000 euros in exchange for his son putting a good word in for him with his wife. It also looks like the maid has her back turned to the lamb -- the lamb could represent Albie, the man Portia found overly gentle, innocent and unexciting in comparison to Quentin's charismatic and cheeky nephew Jack (Leo Woodall). This could be interpreted in a couple of ways -- if the woman is meant to represent Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge's name appears in this section of the credits), then the monkey could be her husband Greg (Joe Gries), who feels indebted to Tanya after she paid for his medical bills and essentially saved his life. Here, we also see a dog peeing on the statue -- a show of disrespect toward everything it represents. Then the camera zooms in and reveals a woman spying on the lovers. Maybe Mia's innocence is supposed to be the little dead bird in the cat's mouth. Actor Michael Imperioli's name appears here -- his character Dominic, a sex addict and father of Albie, has been desperate for the forgiveness of both his son and wife, who are disgusted by his affairs and betrayal. [opening credits](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fN7JGL0Pzc) shows a man bowing to a curtseying woman -- a scene of what appears to be traditional Renaissance lovers (the style of art that [emerged in Italy in the late 14th century](https://www.history.com/topics/renaissance/renaissance-art)). It's not hard to deduce which three men are being referenced here in The White Lotus -- the Di Grassos. In the other: two wedding rings run through by a dagger. In the bottom left corner, a shield shows two rings connected by healthy branches.

Which characters came out on top in The White Lotus Season 2, and which suffered worse fates?

Based on the final moments of the season, it’s clear that Daphne is the one with the power in their relationship; she would be willing to hang him out to dry if he was ever truly threatened. Bert passes off his sexism as a “family curse,” and is just ignorant enough not to realize he’s been a thorn in the side of everyone he’s encountered. The final shot of the season is them fittingly strolling out into the Italian scenery; they’re still not quite adjusted to this gorgeous landscape, and they’re able to appreciate it in a way that the wealthier guests aren’t. While it seems like Portia might have to pay the ultimate price for her romantic encounter with Jack (Leo Woodall), the young man claiming to be Quentin’s “nephew” ends up surprising her and letting her go. While Daphne Sullivan (Meghann Fahy) initially seemed to be a clueless aristocrat, she proves to be one of the more surprising characters in the season based on her comments to both Ethan and Harper. [The White Lotus](https://collider.com/tag/the-white-lotus/) was somewhat of a minor miracle when it debuted as a limited season in the summer of 2021; produced and conceived amidst the COVI-19 pandemic, Mike White’s haunting social satire was the rare story about “eating the reach” that managed to add something new to the conversation.

As we collectively process the season finale of 'White Lotus,' the show's theme song has gotten a house edit from Los Angeles-based producer Enamour.

As we collectively process yesterday’s season finale of The White Lotus — What happened between Ethan and Daphne on Isola Bella? “You were sort of the instigator. I really believe that. — the show’s theme song has gotten a house remix from Los Angeles-based producer Enamour. 12). “I’m curious if you know that when people ask about how my life has changed …

The question of whose body is floating in the water turned out not to be the biggest rug-pull of season 2 of The White Lotus. Instead Mike White left a ...

[How Daphne won The White Lotus](/culture/article/daphne-white-lotus-winner) [being disgustingly horny](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/the-white-lotus-season-2-horny-old-man-2022). Being stinking rich for the most part makes you miserable, we were repeatedly reminded, and watching from the sensory deprivation chambers of our homes in the (second?) lockdown of 2020, that was reassuring. Instead, the biggest surprise is that at the end of a week around the shared buffet of misery, most of the guests are checking out somewhat happy. This totally avoidable suffering is the little chocolate on our TV pillow at the end of a long day. That money doesn't make you happy has always been the bottom line on Mike White's HBO and Sky Atlantic miniseries, The White Lotus.

There was certainly plenty to talk about after the White Lotus season two finale aired; I'll refrain from going too deep into plot synopsis here for the sake of ...

To honor your privacy preferences, this content can only be viewed on the site it There was certainly plenty to talk about after the White Lotus season two finale aired; I’ll refrain from going too deep into plot synopsis here for the sake of those who are still catching up, but consider this a spoiler warning (unless, of course, you’ve already been brave enough to log on to Twitter today). Twitter content

The mystery of The White Lotus was there from its start. In the second series opener, Daphne, the slender, freckled trophy wife, tells new arrivals on the beach ...

For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the “Settings & Account” section. Compare Standard and Premium Digital For a full comparison of Standard and Premium Digital,

Following the dramatic White Lotus season 2 finale episode we still have a lot of unanswered questions about the series.

But was he actually in on the plan? She explained she was angry at Ethan for lying to her and Ethan looked distraught. I reckon Jack was always just there to distract her and keep her away from Tanya long enough so that Niccolo could kill Tanya. Was he going to kidnap her and murder her? I don't think she would have let him near her long enough for them to kiss, even if it was to get revenge on Ethan. Or was it going to be used for blackmail? [TikToker ](https://www.tiktok.com/@thoughtswgracie/video/7176165898317860138?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1)said they thought this was the early clue Tanya was going to be killed. Speaking of Greg, what is going to happen to him? There were a lot of clues that indicated this was the case. Early on in the episode Quentin (Tom Hollander) reveals Matteo will not be joining them on the yacht, claiming he had to "look after" the house. He was super sad to see Tanya go and was downcast at breakfast. Despite finding out who died, and resolving a number of the storylines, there were still a number of questions which were left unanswered.

HBO series 'The White Lotus' was renewed for a third season last month. Here's what we know about the premiere, setting, cast members and storyline.

A piece of casting didn’t work in the second season and we’re hoping to [do] that in the third season. When season three of The White Lotus does eventually drop, your best bet is to head to HBO Max where the episodes will be released weekly. [$9.99 per month](https://prf.hn/click/camref:1101lqHR9/pubref:--/destination:https://www.hbomax.com/subscribe/plan-picker?utm_id=1011l5669&utm_source=skimlinks_phg&utm_medium=affiliate&clickref=1101lwttPFHQ) or $99.99 for the year. [Los Angeles](https://www.lamag.com/culturefiles/it-looks-like-white-lotus-season-3-will-be-set-in-kyoto/) [ magazine](https://www.lamag.com/culturefiles/it-looks-like-white-lotus-season-3-will-be-set-in-kyoto/) and not-so-subtly hinted that there’s a good chance the next season could be set in Japan—or even Kyoto, specifically. And I think the third season it would be maybe a kind of satirical and funny look at death and eastern religion and spirituality. “He wanted me to be in the second season, and there was an idea that I loved for the character,” Britton told “The first season kind of highlighted money, and then, the second season is sex. [Deadline](https://deadline.com/2022/10/the-white-lotus-creator-mike-white-hints-at-season-3-location-cast-1235151661/) that [Asia](https://robbreport.com/tag/asia/) isn’t off the table for season three after season one took place in Hawaii and season two was based in [Italy](https://robbreport.com/tag/italy/). The first season of The White Lotus made its debut back in July 2021. Theo James recently told [Rolling Stone](https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/theo-james-on-hbo-the-white-lotus-season-2-finale-twists-aubrey-plaza-meghann-fahy-blond-kid-1234645618/) that the cast spent about six months in Sicily filming season two, so there’s at least some sort of timeline for production. According to the network, the anthology series will return with a fresh set of vacationers checking into another White Lotus hotel. HBO officially renewed The White Lotus for a third season back in November.

The actor's performance as the deceptively cynical, perennially zen housewife was the standout of the dark comedy's second season.

Instead, Fahy performs Daphne as both seemingly open and guileless and the most opaque of all the characters. An over-the-shoulder smize, as she leads Ethan to an isolated peninsula, of someone getting what she wants. [The White Lotus](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/the-white-lotus) where Daphne is a milder side character or a complement to Plaza’s Harper instead of the most intriguing of the bunch. It’s not just because her incarnation of Daphne is fascinating to watch – bubbly and seemingly aloof, inner calculations briefly rippling beneath her smooth-brained surface. The season finale, which aired this week (spoilers ahead), stuck the landing and [confirmed](https://www.theringer.com/tv/2022/12/12/23505968/the-white-lotus-season-2-finale-recap-review-analysis) creator, writer and director Mike White’s vision of “ [a bedroom farce with teeth](https://www.vulture.com/article/the-white-lotus-season-2-set-visit.html)”. [best (and horniest) examinations of sexual politics](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/nov/23/the-white-lotus-season-two-sex) on TV.

The White Lotus season 2 ended this Sunday with a finale that I'd consider living up to expectations, albeit it sacrificed a major character to do so.

In terms of the focus of the show, White said that season 1 focused on money while season 2 focused on sex, though there was both sex and money in both seasons, certainly. The only immediate suspects are Greg and Portia, given that storyline, but I’d really like to see Cam and Daphne again, out of season 2’s group. In terms of the storyline, while season 2’s main returning character, Tanya, was killed off attempting to escape a plot to…murder her, showrunner Mike White has indicated we may not have seen the last of this storyline, where now Tanya’s scheming husband Greg should have inherited her fortune as a result of her death. So, if the spacing the same, we are looking at probably January/February 2024 for the return of the series, unless production is sped up a bit, or HBO wants to shuffle things around. So, what do we know about season 3 of The White Lotus? The White Lotus season 2 ended this Sunday with a finale that I’d consider living up to expectations, albeit it sacrificed a major character to do so.

Ranking the characters who could take Tanya's place as the next link between seasons of The White Lotus.

We’ve selected a few characters who could be the new link between seasons (leaving out the ones we’d be fine never hearing from again), and ranked them by how excited we’d be if we heard they were coming back. Creator Mike White has said that the next resort location may be somewhere in Asia, and in HBO’s look behind-the-scenes of the finale, he even talked about a potential theme: “ [a satirical and funny look at death and Eastern religion and spirituality.”](https://www.avclub.com/mike-white-new-details-the-white-lotus-season-3-1849881842) That still leaves a lot to speculate about, including which former cast member (if any) may be coming along for the journey. [The White Lotus](https://www.avclub.com/tv/reviews/the-white-lotus), we already know about a few things that could be coming in season three.

'The White Lotus' star Haley Lu Richardson defended her character Portia's season 2 finale outfit in a new interview, reminding viewers that Portia wasn't a ...

The actor also defended her character against online hate, calling the intense dislike “weird.” She explained to Variety, “Portia, of all these people, is the one that you’re labeling the villain of the season? She literally just almost died,” the actor told [Variety](https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/white-lotus-finale-haley-lu-richardson-portia-1235458418/). And now that the season has come to an end, actor [Haley Lu Richardson](https://www.thecut.com/2022/11/haley-lu-richardson-white-lotus-crochet-craft-interview.html) is defending Portia’s fashion choices, specifically her final outfit. “I just think that it’s very uniquely her — for better, or for worse.” [Halloween costumes](https://twitter.com/ZaraRahim/status/1602174989523947520), [E.T.](https://twitter.com/BulkPepper/status/1602179245463441409), [Scooby Doo](https://twitter.com/books530/status/1602168596318273537), even [Angela Lansburry](https://twitter.com/emmylanepotter/status/1602141911154069504)), but Richardson thinks fans are being a bit harsh. [White Lotus](https://www.thecut.com/2022/12/where-did-tanyas-heels-go-in-the-white-lotus-finale.html) have made some questionable fashion choices — Albie’s white socks, Tanya’s ode to Peppa Pig — but none has been as viciously ridiculed as those of Portia.

Please, don't let it be Tanya. Heading into the gripping finale of season two and the unveiling of the body in the ocean, my main feeling is one of not ...

Completely redeemed from her character’s harsh beginnings, the softer Valentina (Sabrina Impacciatore) is rescued by Mia (Beatrice Grannò), who utilises her sexual appeal with whoever she can to fulfil her ambition of landing her dream job as a singer at The White Lotus hotel. This beautiful hope, her unwavering naivety, is not only what makes her the most likeable character on the show, but it is ultimately what kills her. The injustice of being punished by Harper for something he didn’t do, and her eventual revenge, leads to the explosive show-down between the two men in the sea and the revelation that ultimately, Ethan believes that he owns Harper. He describes gender as a ‘construct’ in conversation with Portia (modern day dirty talk) and diligently asks for consent (after-the-fact) for a kiss by the pool. But no study of misogyny on the show is more effective than the trio of Di Grasso men, holidaying alone because of Dominic’s infidelities, which have led the women of the family to elect to stay behind. Yes, he treats women appallingly, he cheats on his wife relentlessly and appears to have little to no interest in his own children, but the morally superior Ethan is by far the more interesting depiction of the modern misogynist. And what of the college buddies, Cameron and Ethan (Will Sharpe)? Her willingness to look the other way while Cameron (Theo James) plays away, hints at a lack of depth for her feeling (and her personality). However, you soon realise those weren’t butterflies, that was anxiety, and he isn’t just a bad boy he is a bad man, and you really should have taken your heels off and run full-speed in the other direction as soon as the first bar of 'I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles' left his lips. (Ironic, since Tanya really wasn’t ready to, and shouldn’t have, let go of that yacht railing.) Yes, she’s vulgar, she’s disgustingly rich, she let Belinda down at the end of season one, and she’s mean to her assistant Portia, but she’s somehow the most likeable character of The White Lotus, despite being the least relatable. She doesn’t belong in the fancy hotel with the rich people, but she is trying to fit in and overcompensating by wearing mad clothes and drinking too much champagne, while attempting to figure out what the hell she is doing with her life. Pride comes before a fall, and Harper takes quite the crash down to earth as her relationship with Ethan crumbles, (though their relationship was arguably already quite crumbly when they arrived in Italy).

Is Mike White already planning a return trip? Here's everything we know about 'The White Lotus' Season 3, including its potential plot and international ...

Following that pattern, it seems probable that The White Lotus Season 3 could premiere either at the end of 2023 or early 2024. So any of those days could wind up being the release date for The White Lotus Season 3. Harper (Aubrey Plaza), Ethan (Will Sharpe), Daphne (Meghann Fahy), and Cameron (Theo James), all met similar fates, leaving The White Lotus Season 2 with their respective marriages still intact, albeit barely. Capitalizing on the series’ success, HBO officially renewed The White Lotus for a third season in November. While little is known about Season 3’s cast and plot, creator Mike White is expected to return as the show’s writer and director. [The White Lotus Season 2](https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/white-lotus-season-2-who-dies) has officially come to an end.

As the credits rolled on a satisfying story, there were still more than a few questions left unanswered, such as … Cheating. Harper (Aubrey Plaza) and her ...

Halfway during the finale, I was convinced that the murder plot was one big fake-out, as Tanya spent a paranoid evening on a boat with Quentin and his friends, becoming convinced that they intended to kill her. It’s a tragic, uncomfortably realistic end to the one of the best characters on the show. "I think the third season would be maybe a satirical and funny look at death and Eastern religion and spirituality. We have no idea what the two did on that island, but we do know that Ethan didn’t walk away, and Daphne knows how to keep a secret, for her own sanity. The pair do not know the extent of the other’s cheating, and likely never really will; like the audience, they are left to draw their own conclusions. After a lengthy interrogation, Harper admits to kissing Cameron, framing herself as something of a passive participant.

The resort destination is a key contributor to the vibe of each White Lotus season. Hawaii was a tropical paradise with dark political undertones in the first ...

She won’t be returning in the third season unless she relocates to a different resort, but we now know there is a common theme that the person who runs the White Lotus front desk is going to be someone of importance no matter what hotel we visit. Much like the way Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) returned from the first season, Daphne could be the one who books a second stay in a White Lotus. The series loves to dedicate some of its discourse to the political environment of its setting, such as when Olivia (Sydney Sweeney) and Paula (Brittany O’Grady) from the first season were bothered by the imperialist tactics the United States used to capture Hawaii. How will the writers of the show decide where to go next time? With quite a while until the release of new episodes and with the just-finished set of episodes clear in our minds, it’s a great time to discuss some ideas surrounding what creator Mike White will serve up for our next television vacation. Now that [season 2 has closed with “Arrivederci”](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/the-white-lotus-season-2-episode-7-review-arrivederci/), people are hotly anticipating the already-confirmed third season of the HBO hit.

In Western art history, a mise en abyme is a technique of placing one image inside another, or a story inside a story. To say this technique is being used ...

Her tears are symbolised in the painting of a hunched over weeping woman grasping a dagger. Clues to her fate are linked to the tragedy of Madame Butterfly. It’s clear the artworks personify the characters in the show, serving as an entry point into their inner turbulent worlds. The placement of art in the show is both masterful and purposeful. She is the drama’s ultimate tragedy and her vulnerability and mortality connect most powerfully with art historical references. As Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) says to Quentin in the final arresting episode, "What a life you have. We see the painting in the background of a scene where Albie is being brought to orgasm by a woman, Lucia, who he doesn’t know is a sex worker. The legend is amplified in a scene when Harper’s husband, Ethan believes his wife to have cheated on him in revenge for his own close encounter with sex workers. While there has been intense focus on the Renaissance art in the show, there are also filmic and literary references. There are also references to Elena Ferrante’s novels adapted to television show, [My Brilliant Friend (2018)](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7278862/), through the "escorts" Lucia and Mia (Beatrice Grannò) who bear striking resemblance to the "good" and "bad" girl characters, Lenù and Lila. While packing her bag to leave, she notices her namesake, Saint Lucy in a painting by Domenico Beccafumi (1521). In season 2, it’s the artworks that have drawn attention.

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for Season 2 of “The White Lotus,” now streaming on HBO Max. Sitting with her husband Ethan (Will Sharpe) in ...

But I have a kind of fantasy that Harper divorces him and takes all his money.” After Meyers said he believes Harper when she said they only kissed and “maybe each of you grabbed the other one’s butt,” Plaza replied, “Just a kiss? When Harper admits to Ethan that she and Cameron (Theo James) kissed, her husband doesn’t believe she’s telling the full truth, and it sends him into a jealous spiral.

Portia in a striped sweater and a zebra bikini top. To some she is a style tyrant, to me she is an icon. Credit: Fabio Lovino/HBO ...

Portia shows up to her first dinner with Jack and the gays ready to impress in a purple and green House of Sunny dress with a saucy slit. Portia starts out the trip strong in a House of Sunny sweater vest that perfectly matches her lime green nails and beige sunglasses. The most Portia thing about her outfit is her long, beaded phone chain in lieu of a purse. Portia's look for her night out in Palermo is by far her most cohesive outfit of the show. She wears a boxy, black shirt with green and orange checkers, unbuttoned over her bikini top, with black pants to her second breakfast with Albie and company. The shirt is presumably a souvenir Portia picked up on her The Godfather tour with the Di Grasso boys. It's a pretty basic summer outfit and almost left me missing the mayhem of her other looks. Over the course of her stay at The White Lotus, Portia wore a lot of head-turning ensembles, and I'm here to rank them all. Portia's "off to Palermo with Jack and the gays" dress is giving early 2000s rom-com. The combination of textures and patterns is a crime against crocheters everywhere. She just wants someone "totally ignorant of the discourse" and longs for a time "when the world had more," while simultaneously being addicted to her phone. She overdoes it with the jewelry and once again wears her lifted Converse.

Haley Lu Richardson has some thoughts about people's criticism of how her character, Portia, dressed on the second season finale of “The White Lotus.”

I just think that it’s very uniquely her — for better, or for worse.” “I think they’re exactly what they needed to be for this person,” she said. And then we picked the biggest pair of sunglasses because I feel like she would want to cover a lot of her face. Because I think that it makes sense for her — like, she is off.” She’s been in the same outfit for two days. “The people s------- on that outfit in particular — it’s like, she literally has been kidnapped.

By now you probably heard that Tanya McQuoid, the ditzy heiress played by Jennifer Coolidge, didn't survive. In a devastating (... but also kind of funny) ...

I’m thinking Greg was on the boat waiting for Tanya to be taken back to the hotel so he could stay the night on the boat and celebrate with Quentin while his wife floats away to her demise. [Season Three.](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a41969073/the-white-lotus-season-3-date-cast-episodes/) Speaking of, if the next chapter of The White Lotus is anything like this one, we can expect one returning character. The captain was on the top of the boat so he was one of the footsteps. He would have had enough time to escape to shore before the morning when Tanya’s body was discovered...Absolutely furious Greg won in this situation. The closed captioning said Greg yells, “Tanya,” while she is locked in the room on the yacht. [explosive finale](https://www.esquire.com./entertainment/tv/a42208727/the-white-lotus-season-2-ending-who-dies-recap/) of [The White Lotus](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a42201732/michael-imperioli-the-white-lotus-finale/).

Some theories proved to be correct; Tanya did perish after being betrayed by Quentin (Tom Hollander), Lucia (Simona Tabasco) did end up conning Albie (Adam ...

While there are not many references to the first installment of The White Lotus, the return of Tanya allowed Coolidge to create a more tragic arc for the character that had earned her so much acclaim. Some fans had suspected that the Di Grassos might have been even more in line with the Corleone dynasty; could Dominic’s “Hollywood career” be a front for a mafia organization? Similar to the first season, The White Lotus: Sicily opened with the aftermath of a murder, which teased that some of the characters that we will be introduced to won’t make it to the end of the season. Cameron (Theo James) is perhaps the most unlikeable character in a show that centers on exposing the sins of the upper class. However, some of the wildest theories out there among viewers ended up being false; check out some of the interesting predictions that didn’t actually happen. While the first season of The White Lotus only resulted in one death, the opening moments of season 2 teased that there would be some sort of larger-scale tragedy within the next few installments.

Creator Mike White has shared he wants the third season to be a satirical look at "death and Eastern religion and spirituality."

The only thing working against them (with the exception of the Bangkok location) is that they seem to be tropical resorts, similar to the first season of the White Lotus. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at [Hey Alma](https://www.heyalma.com/), a Jewish culture site. Japan seems like the most likely candidate for a number of reasons: The practice of Shinto and Buddhism, and how death in Japan is linked to its religion. Maldives, in South Asia, is a possible candidate due to Daphne (Meghann Fahy)'s line in the finale where she says, "Next year, the Maldives." (Indeed, on the red carpet for the premiere of season two, White said, " I think it’d be fun to maybe go to a whole different continent. It’s fairly safe to assume the third season will also film at a Four Seasons.

SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers for Season 2 of “The White Lotus,” now streaming on HBO Max. The majority of the characters on Season 2 of ...

Read a recap of the season finale [here](https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/white-lotus-finale-recap-who-dies-1235457287/), and its series-high ratings [here](https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/white-lotus-finale-ratings-season-2-1235457986/)! No, I don’t think any of the people on the show knew that I sang! We were so excited to be there that we wanted to go explore and there wasn’t a lot that was open. So I I trust that she’s going to find her way. And like I said, Will was so lovely that I just felt very connected to him. I totally get why they would say Mia, because she’s the one who came in and was like, “What I want is to play the piano,” and she’s the one that left being like, “I am now playing the piano.” It felt so good that she achieved her thing. I think that at the end of it, what you basically have is Ethan, who’s like, “What did you do?” Before that, you’ve got Harper who’s like, “What did you do?” Then they fight about it, and it is sort of the thing that brings them back to each other and reconnects them in this way that they’ve been craving to reconnect. So, I do think that was part of the experience of it but yeah, I don’t know that I can say exactly what happened, but I think definitely something sexual for sure. It was always just like a few takes and then a different size on the lens and then we’d be moving on. You have to have a little bit of that in order to maintain interest in somebody over a number of years. So when I watched it the other day, I thought that was really spooky and cool that he kind of paints a smile on his face before he comes out. That whole speech and that photo and all of that, I think was very deliberate.

As we continue to sort through our feelings about the White Lotus finale, I'm left with one blazing conviction: Tanya won. Yes, the floating feet that Daphne ...

Instead of the caricature of her that both Greg and Portia have bought into, she proves she is not helpless. In fact, her final surge of confidence may be what propels her over the railing—she actually thinks she can swing over and jump into the motorboat 20 feet below. While it feels as if Tanya is still wrapped up in her old insecurities, I’d argue the line’s genius is that it shows, to the very last, her being true to herself. The only way Greg gets the money is if she dies. Since last week’s reveal that Quentin and her husband, Greg, knew each other from way back, there has been feverish speculation that Greg was setting her up to violate a lifestyle clause in her prenup—basically that by sleeping with Niccolò at Quentin’s drug-fueled party, she would forfeit part of her fortune to him in a divorce. Tanya would never in a million years allow that into a legal document—she’s too paranoid and would figure that if she did ever cheat on Greg she’d have good reason to do so. It’s not that Greg is plotting to murder her that’s most upsetting; it’s that he might be cheating on her. Tanya puts the pieces together during Portia’s call, the yacht anchored tantalizingly close to shore, in one of the most compelling sequences of television I’ve ever seen. It feels arbitrary, for sure, and a bit undignified that she drowns because climbing over a railing in high heels proves harder than shooting her way out of a deathtrap. Portia is smart, and she understands that things are going sideways before Tanya does; she even manages to warn her boss. But unlike Tanya, she is denied agency, stuck in the car with a guy with neck tattoos whom she actually chose over Albie. While it may feel as if her heroics don’t matter because she still drowned in the end, they matter deeply.

In the season two premiere "Ciao," Harper and Ethan are eating dinner with their friends, Cameron and Daphne. Harper takes the lead and tells Ethan what ...

Showing up to the home of people whom you are not sure are your extended family members and trying to force yourself inside to fulfill a fantasy. The hope drains from her face immediately and you can see the joy extinguished in her eyes. [cocaine](https://www.businessinsider.com/airline-exec-sentenced-to-prison-smuggling-cocaine-in-carry-on-2022-7?_ga=2.53921576.1428591941.1670276732-1996747788.1647018266) in a long time, but that means she's done it at some point in her life and probably knows what to expect. It made total sense that the matriarch of the family would grab a knife and chase them away. He hushes her and chastises her as if she is out of line by approaching him within earshot of his wife, Daphne. It was really weird to see Bert insist on making this warm moment happen against the wishes of these women. Also in episode two, Portia describes what kind of guy she wants, telling Albie she would be open to dating a "caveman." People are allowed to have sex with who they want and desire who they want. Watching Tanya offer the new Vanity Fair as an incentive for Portia to stand by like an emotional night nurse was really pathetic. In the season two premiere "Ciao," Harper and Ethan are eating dinner with their friends, Cameron and Daphne. There are few things more annoying than someone who tries to flex a name-brand alma mater without simply telling you the name of the school. Cameron and Daphne watch as Harper and Ethan have a mini squabble over if the dish will be too fishy.

After consulting with her assistant Portia (Haley Lu Richardson), Tanya pieces together that Quentin (Tom Hollander) and his pals she's been traveling around ...

"When I [saw the Evan Ross Katz tweet](https://twitter.com/evanrosskatz/status/1600250698339213312) showing Tanya’s death dress on the 'Godfather' dummy, I was very impressed." As the show unfolded, TikTokers raced to find the answer to the finale. In another reference, Portia wears a "Godfather" shirt in Episode Six as Tanya tries to tell her that she doesn't think Quentin and his nephew, Jack, are actually related. Murray Abraham) went on a sightseeing tour of filming locations for "The Godfather." In Episode Two, when Greg takes Tanya on her dream day in Sicily, he rents a Vespa, much to hotel manager Valentina's despair. Fans caught on immediately the cowboy might have been Greg, and that Quentin could be in on a plot to cash in on Tanya's fortune if she dies. The photo shows a younger Quentin in a cowboy hat, with a man who looks a lot like Greg. "And the amazing thing is after 30 odd years, I still would." "I was thinking it’d be so fun to bring Tanya back because she’s such a great character, but maybe the journey for her is like a journey to death,” White said. In the opera, the main character dies by suicide once she realizes her husband isn't going to come back to her. After Quentin manages to break down the door, Tanya goes on a full-on shooting spree, killing him and several of his associates. In an interview with the

Now that The White Lotus Season 2 has concluded, we break down the four main mythology stories that were at play throughout.

Likely to be one of the most prolific memes to come out of Season 2 of The White Lotus, Bert tells his son and grandson, "Our Achilles heel is our Achilles cock." On its own, it is a captivating image that evokes purity and innocence, until you learn that it is the basis of another Greek myth involving rape. But in the end, she learns that he was incentivized to do so, withholding the fact that he had been commissioned to kidnap her away from her boss Tanya, [Michael Imperioli](https://collider.com/tag/michael-imperioli/), this myth also can be applied to the situation that Ethan and Cameron find themselves in. He explains that in the legend the god of the underworld, Hades, kidnaps Persephone, the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. When recounted to Harper ( [Aubrey Plaza](https://collider.com/tag/aubrey-plaza/)), Daphne (Meghann Fahy), Ethan (Will Sharpe), and Cameron (Theo James) in the first episode, Daphne is quick to add her commentary siding with the betrayed woman. After all, in the myth, despite the abduction and rape of their daughter, both Zeus and Demeter eventually forgive Hades of his behavior. In the legend, the swan is actually the Greek god of Zeus who has transformed into the white bird in order to seduce and rape the beautiful Leda. He takes her to the underworld and rapes her, imprisoning her in his realm as his queen. But this legend transcends The White Lotus as a real-world myth exclusive to the island of Sicily. Unsurprisingly, since the central themes of the newest season of [Mike White](https://collider.com/tag/mike-white/)'s acclaimed series revolve around sex, the mythology introduced largely focuses on infidelity, rape, and sexuality-based power dynamics. [The White Lotus](https://collider.com/tag/the-white-lotus/) opted to dip into the vast tomes of ancient mythos in order to enrich its storytelling.

The actor went on to explain that he felt the “heaviest” and “emotionally tough” scenes, including the hotel room interrogation of his wife, Harper Spiller ( ...

In terms of Ethan and Daphne, the way I thought about it was whatever sort of physically happens on that island, what has happened between them undeniably is a moment of intimacy and a moment of kind of mutual vulnerability and connection.” From a performance point of view, with Harper and Cameron, I felt like I didn't need to know what had happened because Ethan doesn't know.” “What a bold move from Mike, and I really felt like it played out at times very funny, there are moments of tragic comedy through all those scenes, but also very poignant and kind of loving of that character.” “That's what Daphne is saying to Ethan in that scene on the beach: maybe you don't need to know everything about one another to love each other and to be with each other. The actor, who plays Ethan Spiller on the Emmy award-winning series, believes the finale was “rewarding,” revealing what he thinks is in store for his character in the future. A lot of the scenes in the final episode, weirdly, were the most rewarding.”