On The White Lotus, Aubrey Plaza steals the show
In "Abductions," Harper's wry smile keeps us guessing as to whether she’s toying with her husband or getting back at him
TV Reviews Stefano Gianino
I always knew this season of The White Lotus would belong to Aubrey Plaza. But I was hardly ready for the way in which her Harper would take a chokehold on this HBO anthology series. (Can each new season be chain-linked, with us following Harper next season wherever she’s headed provided she survives next week’s finale? Pretty please!) Plaza, who’s long been known and often underestimated because of her uncanny ability to channel deadpan “evil hag” energy, has here yet again proven why she’s one of the most fascinating performers around.
Case in point: her portrayal of Harper as she both unravels herself and entangles Ethan (Will Sharpe) into her own web of suspicion. I don’t know why it took me so long to figure out that this apparently solid couple who may or may not have intimacy issues that they actually need to figure out is getting to play an Othello/Desdemona storyline of their own making. There is, of course, no Iago here to egg on either about the possible cuckolding that may or may not have taken place. But that’s because there’s no need for that. Harper and Ethan do so all by themselves—and Plaza’s decision (working off of Mike White’s elegantly structured plot) to not quite reveal what it is Harper is playing at is what keeps us on our toes.
Is Harper openly encouraging Cameron (Theo James) so as to make Ethan jealous, sowing seeds of suspicion as to whether the two actually were up to no good in their hotel room? Did she actually go through with it? Is she toeing a line but making sure she doesn’t cross it? Might it all be, as we’re also led to believe, in Ethan’s head? It’d be simpler if we hadn’t already seen Cameron making under-the-table moves toward Harper, or if we’d actually heard the conversation wherein Cameron came clean with her about that night away from the wives. But it’s obviously a lot more fun being left in the dark, with Plaza’s wry smile to keep us guessing whether she’s toying with her husband or actually getting back at him. Possibly both? Who can tell, really.
If Harper and Ethan’s relationship has the air of a Shakespearean tragedy (we are headed for what we were told were multiple deaths!), it follows that they’d be felled by their own insecurities. Once that green-eyed monster has reared its head, it’s hard to ignore it. Which is what Harper first failed to do, and now it’s Ethan’s turn. Ah, if only they’d deal with their jealousies the way Cameron and Daphne (Meghann Fahy) do: by play-acting at being okay with consensual non-monogamy while actually being in a non-consensual non-monogamous marriage.
If I’m stuck on Harper, it’s because I feel she’s the key to this season (in a way Jennifer Coolidge’s Tanya was in season one, even if here she’s been sidelined into what’s turning out to be White’s most luscious and deliciously operatic subplot). If Tanya’s grief structured The White Lotus: Hawaii, our sojourn in Sicily is being articulated through Harper’s slow motion descent into jealous-turned-scorning-wife.
It is through Harper that we’ve come to witness how issues of trust, longing, and honesty have come into focus in every single one of the relationships Mike White has sketched out for us. Whether it’s Valentina’s heartbreak over a recent engagement (and her subsequent hotel room tryst), Albie’s “romance” with Lucia (he’s getting played, right?), or Tanya’s own cocaine-fueled romp (what a final shot!), this season is fascinated with the disruptive power of desire. And, more specifically, with the way any carefully constructed idea of who you think you are can so easily be disassembled in the face of…you name it, beauty, youth, passion, even pity.
Now, as to whether White’s season-long examination of the corrosive (but also intoxicating) power of shameless desire ends in a tragedy that tries to redeem such impulses or further muddies them is left to be seen. I guess we’ll have to spend this next week figuring out who it’d make the most sense to dispense with if what you want is to keep your audience wondering what it is that happens when you sell your body, when you fear your desires, and yes, when you cannot help but sell your body in order to feed your desires.
Stray observations
- Ahem, the name of the actor you’re most wanting to Google right about now is Stefano Gianino.
- Anyone eager to watch Plaza’s most interesting work should seek out not just the recent Emily the Criminal but Ingrid Goes West, Black Bear, and Happiest Season (not to mention her stints hosting the Independent Film Spirit Awards!). Oh, and Legion, obviously.
- Oh, I guess I barely mentioned the DiGrassos but…can you blame me? The Lucia of it all aside, theirs is my least favorite subplot. Though the poetic justice in three DiGrasso men being told to get out by three Sicilian women was very rewarding. But yeah…as for Lucia and her mystery man, I don’t know. I can’t bring myself to care that much and I worry the final murderous (or deadly) twist we’re getting next week may turn out to hinge on it which…pass.
- I also didn’t much mention Portia and her drunken (and quite wounded/broken) fuckboi because, well, that final scene with them kind of wrecked me and I figured his non-disclosure disclosure was best left untouched since it got at (yet again) transactional relationships and illicit desires.
- In case you were wondering, those two Italian bangers that score Quentin’s fab party are “Ciao Ciao” by La Rappresentante Di Lista and “Andiamo” by Fiori. You’re welcome.
- Related: If you’re an Italian “uncle,” please invite me to your parties at your villa. Thanks!
- Semi-related: If you’re a masseur who looks like a muscled Timothee Chalamate, please call me. Thanks!
- Jennifer Coolidge’s physical comedy remains a highlight of this show; watching her Tanya snort cocaine alone is a master class in comedic timing.
- As much as I praise Mike White for his dialogue (he really has an ear for ordinary sentences that carry within them quite the emotional heft: “We’re too young to be this old”), I should commend him here as well for his eye. This season he’s turned establishing shots (of a window, of a door—of the ocean, even) into wonderfully baroque punctuations of the show’s visual grammar. Also, that shot wherein we see Harper looking at Ethan as he talks with the girls (in reflection) isn’t just beautiful but it’s an amazing distillation of the mirage she’s concocted for herself in her head.
- Raise your hand if you think we’ve just been shown a Chekhov’s gun. I know, I can’t wait to see how this all turns out…
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Chekhov’s photo frame! That was a younger Greg (in a cowboy hat, no less!) in the photo with a younger Quentin, right??
Was it? I think Tanya’s reaction would have been different. If Greg hired Quentin to kill Tanya, what the heck is he waiting for? Why does he keep parading around with her in public? Why not just spike the drugs and stage an overdose? If Quentin is plotting against Tanya, then I think it’s just blackmail. Quentin said that the cowboy was the love of his life, so it shouldn’t be surprising that there’s a photo of them.
It’s possible that Greg and Tanya have an infidelity clause in their pre-nup. If Quentin can get photos of Tanya with Nicolo, that could void the pre-nup, and Greg could get a shit-load of money.
I highly doubt that. Tanya holds all of the cards with the prenup — her lawyers would never let her agree to anything that would put a significant amount of money at risk. Realistically, Greg is likely the one who suffers for infidelity — he gets a payout if they divorce for any reason, except if he has an affair. Then he gets nothing.
Okay, good point. So how does Quentin get money from Tanya? Blackmail?
Except that it’s Tanya having the affair here so Greg wins the prenup. That’s the point.
As has been discussed elsewhere, not only is an infidelity clause hard to impossible to enforce, it doesn’t magically void the entire prenup. At worst, there’s an “infidelity” penalty that Tanya has to pay. Think about this for a moment. You’re worth $500 million. Would you agree to any conditions in a prenup that would void the entire thing and entitle your spouse to potentially half your assets in the event of a divorce?
I don’t it would be that much money though. Certainly not enough to save that villa.
that was definitely a photo of the two guys together…now I’m just wondering if they’re trying to play this so tight, why would Quentin leave photos with him & Greg ANYWHERE to be found while letting Tonya wonder around WHEREVER?? Maybe it’s the drugs…or a knick in the writing…the latter of which would bother me because of how awesome Mike White is haha
Because both Greg and Quentin think Tanya is an idiot. Like with the queen of Sicily remark. Why lie to her about something so easily disprovable? They think they can scam her because they think she’s stupid. I think in this episode we got some hints that Tanya isn’t as dumb as she seems when it comes right down to brass tacks — her conversation with Portia indicated she’s at least got a healthy concept of needing to be self-reliant and not just follow people. I hope Tanya turns the tables and shows she’s not just a doll to be played with.
I think that his “nephew”’s statement about how the rich aristocrats don’t actually have any money, just homes they didn’t earn, is kind of an answer to the “how could Quentin leave out a photo of him and Tanya’s husband?”. The answer being: Quentin is not as smart as he likes to think he is and show off, just like he’s not as rich as he makes it look.
It definitely was a young John Gries.
I believe so, yes.
It very well could be…
They both look like they could throw a football over a mountain, so I think so.
it was greg.
I’m guessing I’ll be in for a lot of abuse for saying this, but I didn’t find Jennifer Coolidge’s hot man candy very hot.
Agree. All the buildup with no payoff.
I dont think anyone cares enough about how hot or not hot you think the guy was. You are safe.
Fuck you!
I think fantasy was the theme of this episode. when fantasy is used as pure escape it can be dangerous (Tanya, Portia and the “nephew”) and other times it truly is the realest part of you (Valentina, who is sadly stuck in a homophobic part of the world). Albie is getting played by his very own fantasy of the wounded bird by Lucia, and he fucking deserves to be be taught that his shitty “progressive” views that all women are victims is very harmful.And Ethan is obsessive in his fantasy of Harper and Cameron, while completely being incapable of connecting that this must be how Harper feels. Everyone is about to face some version of the reality of things, and can face it or deep dive into the abyss more. Sometimes that abyss is a safer place for people like the “nephew”.*I’m rooting for Portia to leave the trip with some new clarity, she’s got a good heart, and some great outfits, and might be the hero of the story at the end of the day.
After getting a “grow up” lecture from both Tanya and Jack, it seems like she’s the one headed out of this trip with some personal growth.
And maybe more obviously, Albie’s grandfather laments his fantasy of reuniting with his long-lost family not being realized in this episode.
The grandfather’s reflection on the interaction in Testa dell’Acqua I see flew under the radar here.“You always think there’s going to be a homecoming, the embrace of a woman who tells you you’ve done all right. Well, there is no homecoming, not for me, not anymore.”This from a man who just last episode (or maybe 2 ago), resolutely refused to come to terms with the fact that everyone in his life – most of all his wife and family – knew he was a serial philanderer. Just… Flat out refused to acknowledge it when told plainly by his own son.
But this confrontation must have been kicking around his psyche until now, because there’s no obvious connection between how he’s behaved in his life and how these women reacted to him.He knows he’s a monster now and everyone knows it, even if he arrived there in a roundabout way.All 3 generations on display were shaped by this man’s attitudes towards women – I think it’s a small part of this episode, but we’ll see aftershocks in the last 2 acts of this season in how his son and grandson behave.
I haven’t seen evidence of her good heart. (She treated Albie badly,stole pills from her boss, thought it was funny to dine and dash, whines incessantly; need I go on?) And her outfits are horrible.
I think she’s alright, she just needs to actually address her depression.She didn’t treat Albie bad, she just wasn’t attracted to him but they both kept trying to be romantically into each other when she wasn’t into him that way. And she shouldn’t have taken those pills but Tanya probably has tons of it and besides she had been treating Portia like shit, too. Dine-and-dash isn’t cool but Portia ain’t too bad imo
When did she treat Albie badly? She just wasn’t all that into him in the first place. If anything Albie tried to “nice guy” white knight her and it didn’t work.
The scenes at the beach club where Albie kept saying ‘hey I saved a seat for you’ and she kept leading him on, saying she’d join him in a bit, but went off with the British guy. And even when Albie went directly up to her to see if once and for all she was actually coming, she still pretended like she’d catch up with him.
Not to mention, the bar scene! Are we forgetting this?
Her style is purposefully horrendous also.
That’s just being young and not sure what she wants. I don’t think she’s a saint but she’s not an awful person. She’s not planning to use Albie in some diabolical way, she’s just trying to find someone to spend time with in Italy and clearly she likes him enough to give it a go but not enough to commit- that’s not always an easy decision.
It’s Lucia that has diabolical plans for Albie…Oh, I need $$$ to get free of this pimp! Right.
I didn’t forget the bar scene as you’ve seemingly forgetting how he at the bar used Lucia for the same reasons too, as you’re seemingly forgetting his incelish “nice guys/wounded bird” comment that he’s now applying to Lucia since it didn’t work on Portia. Unless you’re seriously trying to argue and suggest that she should’ve mindlessly fallen for his phony, manipulative “nice guy” act?
I don’t think it was a classic nice guy act. I think White was leading us in that direction, and then moved past the trope into something more realistic and complicated. Albie never acted angry towards her, and they both mutually parted on a positive note, despite also showing some mutual pettiness at the bar.IMO they both have their issues but but both are relatively good people. Just not quite as good as they both think they are.
You should watch the trailer for the next episode where Albie’s father straight up berates him for using the nice guy/white knight act as a way to manipulate women into going out with him. That’s as clear as it gets what White is trying to say about Albie and guys like him. And in that respect, Albie is not a good person. Pretending to be a progressive feminist rescuing “wounded birds” in order to get women to sleep with you is not good.
There are a lot of self-proclaimed progressive dudes watching this show that get into a tizzy whenever someone points out that Albie dissects women academically; he read the right words but he hasn’t fully internalized them. He chose to interpret systemic sexism as all women are victims that need a progressive, forward thinking dude to be their advocate. My guess is that for many of those guys Albie hits a little too close to home, and it’s easier to call Portia a bitch than it is to reconcile that maybe your posturing is more of an act than you think.And not for nothing, while Albie’s mother has been through the wringer, the little we’ve heard of and from her indicates that she is not taking any more crap- which is why she 86d the vacation and is completely disinterested in engaging in any manipulative bullshit. If she’s a wounded bird that needs a Nice Guy, she certainly hasn’t demonstrated it.
Strong disagree that anything seen in a next episode trailer is “clear as it gets” especially something coming from Mike White, who loves subverting easy tropes and murky motivations. And it makes sense that his dad, an full on misogynist sex addict, would view anything other than his own way of life as “an act”.Agreed Albie has “nice guy” tendencies, but he also has genuine sympathy for women because of how the older men in his family have treated his mother. Albie is 100% the kind of character who has read “nice guy” thinkpieces, and also sometimes falls into those patterns, and is even self aware of that disconnect.I don’t think Albie is pretending. I think he genuinely wants to be a progressive feminist. But he also had had no good male role model for how to treat women and he struggles at navigating it.
Albie’s dad may have started out as a misogynist sex addict, but Albie’s lecturing him, and seeing Lucia and Mia take advantage of him and all the other men in the hotel, it looks like it made him serious do a mea culpa and realize how horrible he’s been to his wife and to women in general, and even confronted Bert about how bad he was to her and to women. That’s been the irony here, that Dominic is becoming truly more progressive and feminist in his approach to women, while Albie isn’t. And Albie is not seeing the disconnect and is not self-aware. He clearly does not see or care that he’s getting played and scammed by Lucia and is ignoring his father’s warnings about her. He is using the nice guy/white knight act as a way to manipulate women into going out with him. He’s not like the other men that used charm or good looks or being sexually attractive to get women.
honey you got some weird moralistic approach to what makes a good heart. she’s young and confused and doesn’t know she’s working for someone super abusive, give the girl a break. Because she didn’t fuck Albie doesn’t make her a bad person, rejection is hard to navigate, I think she did it as best as she could.
Agreed, Eeyore is more fun than Portia is. Constantly moaning until she met up with Jack and that’s not going to work out for her.
She didn’t treat Albie badly. Albie liked her more than she liked him and she didn’t know what to do because she felt like he was “too nice” and too good of a catch to be direct. She didn’t want to hurt him and ended up hurting him. It’s a youthful thing a lot of people do. All of the things she’s been doing are because she’s young and lost, she doesn’t know what she wants besides just doing whatever seems fun in the moment. But she ultimately feels for Tanya, she feels for Albie, she felt bad for Albie’s grandfather in spite of him being a creep, hell, she just realized that this guy who she’s been sleeping with is conning her and her aunt and yet she clearly feels bad for him. She’s not a saint but she’s not a villain either.
I started to like her (and Albie) a bit more, when they both managed to acknowledge the failure of their flirtation, sheepishly, but still gracefully. They were hard to watch together, but you can sort of see how it would make sense on paper, so you can’t really fault them for trying to make fetch happen, for a bit. They ultimately didn’t keep it up too long.
I see a bit of redemptive arc for Portia, if she uses her newly gained insights to rescue Tanya from the high value gays’ scheme. Tanya alerted her to the fact that her beau might not be a true nephew, and Portia might warn her about her host’s financial troubles and the dubious hopes for an imminent windfall. In some way, they are looking out for each other.
What is with the Albie hate? Oh so he made a cringey comment about wounded birds once. He’s a decent guy from everything else we’ve seen, he does not “fucking deserve” to be robbed or played.
“and he fucking deserves to be be taught that his shitty “progressive” views that all women are victims is very harmful.”What a sad way to interpret all of this.
I hate ethan and love bert
It’s come into focus how Harper and Ethan are the center of the season, and there’s a brutal authenticity to their relationship that’s simply lacking in virtual all other TV shows. With this story line, I feel like White has captured lighting in a bottle a second time. As for picture of the cowboy, I don’t think that’s Greg. Besides the fact that Tanya’s reaction would have been a lot different had she seen a photo of her husband in Quentin’s home, if this was all a setup, you’d think pictures like that would have been removed from the house. While I continue to think that this is all a misdirect by White, the best hint that maybe Tanya dies is in the opening scene — right before the flashback, the excerpt from Madama Butterfly played in this episode is played then. But I still maintain that Greg conspiring with Quentin is just too convoluted, especially with Quentin so publicly associating himself with Tanya. Maybe Quentin is just planning on blackmailing Tanya. I continue to be convinced the Lucia is scamming Albie. The storyline with the Di Grasso family feels like it’s losing steam. As for final predictions on who dies, I simply don’t know. Maybe White throws us a curveball and it’s Quentin and Jack — they were guests of the hotel, after all.
The one other hint from the first episode that Greg is plotting something is that he got to Sicily before Tanya, and wasn’t responding to her texts. And his outrage about Portia being there could be read as her disrupting his plot. Still, if it turns out that Greg and Quentin go back 30 years, and this is all a plot to kill or harm Tanya, then it feels like we’re in Scooby-Doo territory.
I mean… out here beyond the 4th wall, that photo was 100% a young Jon Gries. Not even debatable.
If there’s a misdirect in the opening scene, I think it’s that Daphne killed Cam. They’ve been laying very subtle groundwork about her general discontent, but haven’t been playing it up like every single other character. But given the fact that at least one of her kids isn’t even Cam’s, I think she’s a prime suspect to do some of the murderin’. Plus, the previews of the next ep show Ethan and Cam fighting in the water, and I don’t think they’d show that if either of them ended up being the killer.
Wait are we not mentioning the photo? If that is Tanya’s Greg in the brown hat on the right and Quentin on the left, is this show gunning for the ultimate sting by getting to Tanya’s fortune to save a palazzo? A long con in play based on seduction and murder? How? There is a pre-nup in place. And that’s a lot to wrap up in a finale.That said, this show is throwing the doors open on all varieties of transactional relationships based on sex and money Portia’s scene with Jack in drunken despair and emptiness was admittedly sad but so damn well done.Add both Lucia and Mia, as well as all three DiGrassios, that the Sullivans might end having the most solid relationship based on a mutual understanding and acceptance of their own forgivable transgressions is audacious to say the least.
How? There is a pre-nup in place. And that’s a lot to wrap up in a finale.
Some prenups have infidelity clauses baked in stating that the cheater has to pay a penalty or a settlement.Could also be that Tanya is hallucinating as she typically does and being high on coke, but considering that Jack is clearly being used by Quentin distract and keep Portia away from Tanya, something sketchy is going on here and we will find out.
The whole point of signing a prenup is to protect your assets in the result of a divorce, no matter the reason for the divorce. If anyone suffers a penalty from an affair, it would be Greg — it might void a payday he’s guaranteed if Tanya divorces him.I’m not convinced that Jack is keeping Portia away from the party. We know that Tanya wasn’t killed that night because we saw her in the next episode preview. If the setup was just Tanya having an affair, I highly doubt Portia would have intervened — she would have been partying too.
Before you reply, please go and look up what an infidelity clause in a prenup is and how Greg benefits if Tanya is caught/recorded cheating on him.And are you watching this? It’s very obvious that Jack is trying to keep Portia away from joining Tanya for the very obvious reason that she probably may stop Tanya from doing something wrong or maybe even seeing that photograph of Greg there.
Infedility clauses are often unenforceable IRL and would likely require a long and messy trial. But that aside, I don’t even know why Tanya would agree to have one in the first place. Surely she had a fleet of lawyers write up their pre-nup and had the pre-nup reflect that she holds the vast majority of assets in the relationship. All of that could be ignored by show writers, of course, but I would see the plot as contrived if that is the route they go with.
The enforceability of an infidelity clause depends on the state. If it was done in a no fault state, then that could complicate things. And no, the whole point of infidelity clauses is to prevent a long and messy trial because it cuts things to the chase and makes it clear that if you cheat, you automatically have to pay a penalty. Justin Timberlake’s makes it clear exactly how much he loses automatically if he cheats. And given that Greg has supposedly been in three previous marriages, it would make sense that Tanya’s lawyers would add that bit into the prenup just to make sure and to keep Greg from trying any funny stuff on Tanya. It actually makes sense and the show realistic, that something like this was thought through.
I don’t think you are right about it not being long and messy. Most non-amicable divorces are long and messy, especially when the parties have the resources to pay for lawyers. The onus to prove cheating occurred would be on Greg. A photograph or first-person account would help but he’d have to take it to court and Tanya would surely hire high-priced lawyers and PIs herself. And then even if she lost, the court would assess if the infidelity clause is conscionable. And this is all assuming they wed in a state without no-fault divorce, as you said.And then as to my secondary point, the clause still makes no real sense to me for Tanya to include. She doesn’t need any of Greg’s assets if they get divorced because he cheats. She needs to protect her own assets and wealth. And the fact that she has a pre-nup at all indicates she understands that and worked with lawyers to protect herself, lawyers who surely would not allow for a one-sided clause that benefits Greg way more than her to be added in without dispute. The only plausible reason to have it would be if Greg insisted as a condition to getting married. But given he was portrayed last season as a dying man looking to have a last fling before passing, that would seem odd to me too. I guess it could work if this is the route they go with, it just feels kind of forced to me.
You are way over thinking and analyzing this when it’s a fictional TV show just using a legal concept as a plot device. We aren’t here to debate the legal details, merits, and plausibility of this case and who cares really. It just makes sense for the show and plot so far that Greg and Tanya may have included an infidelity clause in their prenup, and that Greg might be trying to take advantage of that in order to con Tanya out of her fortune. It’s not “forced” or even odd and considering we still don’t know how this is going to play out and what is even happening here. It’s just a possible theory.
I was replying to a comment you made originally where you insulted the person who replied to you and advised them to Google infidelity clauses. Now you are telling me to not overthink it and just accept shoddy writing not based in reality? OK…
I didn’t insult anyone. You are being way too agitated on a Monday morning in a meaningless discussion about a fictional TV show not based in reality. Calm the fuck down and relax. If you don’t like the way the show is going, stop watching, and stop getting all hot and bothered about it. It’s that simple.
I’m not agitated or steaming mad or anythin. I don’t like it when people start a discussion about a theory they have and then hand wave away any criticisms of it with comments like, it’s just a TV show and you have to accept they wouldn’t care about minute details like that. Discussing pedantic details is the fun of discussing shows for me. But fine, I can accept that maybe the show is going to use an infidelity clause without really thinking it through and just hope that won’t be the case. And we can end this back and forth.
1. If you take your own advice and google “infidelity clause,” you’ll see that they are difficult to enforce, and in some states, unenforceable. 2. Let’s say that Jack and Quentin are working together to get compromising photos — after all of that meticulous planning and money spent, leaving the photo out threatens to unravel the whole thing. If Tanya knows it was a setup, then she can likely get out of any clauses in the prenup. And if that’s what’s going to happen, then Mike White is really phoning it in. 3. I don’t think we have enough info yet to know if that’s what’s going on with Jack and Portia. And like I said in another post, if Portia was at the party, it seems highly unlikely that she’d act lot Tanya’s mother and tell her not to do drugs and have sex — especially because Portia would be partying hard too.
1. Googling up legal blogs with opinions of attorneys is not a substitute for what can and is possible in reality. The reality is sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. It depends on the location, state, and context.2. And as I said to AKA, it’s a fictional TV show just using a legal concept as a plot device. It just makes sense for the show and plot so far that Greg and Tanya may have included an infidelity clause in their prenup, and that Greg might be trying to take advantage of that in order to con Tanya out of her fortune. 3. Yeah, you really need to rewatch their scenes. Portia repeatedly asks Jack to join Tanya and kept deflecting and kept trying to get her drunk and back to her room. Considering that we know that Jack is lying to Portia about who he really is, and Quentin’s intentions, and Jack himself literally admitting those intentions, it’s really obvious that Jack is meant to keep Portia distracted.
Nothing screams “climax to an operatic subplot” more than a conversation between lawyers about the validity of an infidelity clause in a prenup.Seriously… This development would arrive out of the blue, without any foreshadowing, which would be a huge writing flaw. No Chekov’s infidelity clause (for instance, in conversations between the other married couples) so far. It would be a long information dump that would kill the pace of that particular plot. Italian opera (as stated in this season) is a tragedy concluded by death.Besides, the infidelity clauses aren’t usually symmetrical. They’re a translation of the power balance within a couple. Greg was a nobody, while Tanya is a rich heiress. It would translate into the prenup (If Trump had agreed to an infidelity clause for himself, Melania would long be gone with a trust fund). And if Greg’s plan was to provide evidence that she cheated on him to get half her money (or wouldn’t it be a part of the money she made during their marriage?), he wouldn’t do it in Italy, as it would take years to untangle this legal mess between two different countries, and Tanya would have a field day establishing during that time that there’s a conspiracy at work, as Greg knew Quentin beforehand. The “nephew” also clearly stated that Quentin would get the money fast, which wouldn’t be the case if it was just a divorce.
Please re-read #2 which is something I’ve been repeating endlessly now. At the end of the day, the prenup/infidelity clause is just a convenient plot device. The plausibility and realisticness of it all is not really relevant. This isn’t a show about family and estate law, it’s a drama. You’re allowed to suspend belief for a bit to go along with it.
And no, it’s not out of the blue especially considering that we still have no idea what’s happening and hasn’t been thoroughly explained yet, so how about we wait until the next episode where we hope they will explain everything before you start screaming “writers flaw!!!!”
It would be TERRIBLE drama. That’s what everybody is more or less trying to tell you.Technically, it’s possible, sure. Yeah, it’s drama, it’s not supposed to be realistic. But if some writer in a seven-part mini-series decided to have part of the finale, in which it’s a fact that several people (most likely characters that we have already met) will die, switched to an explanation of the infidelity clause in a prenup, and its implications, it would fall entirely flat and everybody reading the script would tell them to change it, as it wouldn’t work. It would feel extremely contrived, as Tanya wouldn’t just be her usual self-centered but a complete idiot for accepting such a clause.So far, all the clues left in the conversations and the way the plot is depicted, point to some attempt on Tanya’s life. Sure, it could be a red herring, but if there’s a twist, it should be a little more organic. Invoking some infidelity clause would reach “ending of Monty Python and the Holy Grail” territories, except not in a comical way.
Hopefully by now you’ve seen that there was a camera in the room for the post-coke coitus.
I and most people on here and the public as a whole seem to disagree with your assessment. That’s just your opinion, man. So again, be patient, and wait and see how the last episode pans out and explains everything. As I even mentioned, this could all be Tanya hallucinating again, or some kind of brilliant twist that perfectly explains everything. Otherwise, if you don’t like the way the show/plot is going and think this is so TERRIBLE, you’re welcome to stop watching/watch something else and argue with strangers online about something else. Maybe more legal dramas that satisfy you on the minute detail on prenup and infidelity clauses.
I think the money is going to come from the Di Grasso family; otherwise their existence makes little sense. The little clues and innuendos with Tanya are there to keep you watching, guessing, and talking. Of course, Tanya will be betrayed in some way by Greg. A murder would look far too suspicious if it included hard proof of an affair. Also, for real, y’all: She flat out said she would get rid of the pre-nup to Greg—full stop. No murder or con necessary there. Also, Robot Jox, you are mean to other commentators and make this conversation wholly less fun. Chill out and be nice, please.
You really must be watching a different show. You guys are too hung up on the prenup. Quentin is trying to endear himself to/get leverage over Tanya as much as possible in the hopes she will either write him into her will (then she just so happens to die) or give him a huge sum of money to “pay his debts” (which may not even exist) or even buy the villa off of him, letting him live there rent free. Then, Quentin and Greg split the money either way. Maybe it’s not even his Villa. Maybe he just rented it…If you don’t think Jack was deliberately keeping Portia away, I don’t know what to tell you. It’s abundantly clear that the reason Greg was pissed Portia was there was because she could be a fly in the ointment of Greg & Quentin’s scheme. Portia is growing increasingly suspicious, especially after the breakfast conversation with Tanya.
I agree with your post. But on a side note, doesn’t it seem weird to concoct this long elaborate con to basically rob Tanya and not remove pictures of her husband from the room they are having sex in? It doesn’t seem like they were in that room by accident, especially if they are recording it.
Well as I mentioned below, Quentin meant to get her as coked up and drunk while also getting Portia as drunk and distracted with Jack as possible so she wouldn’t really remember any details from that night.
Right, but why would you leave the photo of her husband there? Seems like they’ve planned this long elaborate con, seems like removing the photo would be a super easy thing to remove an eliminate the odds that she see’s it and then remembers later on. Or sees it and backs out of the sex or simply escapes because she knows something is wrong.Of course this show is so well written and a lot of times the obvious path is not the obvious path.
Like I said to others here, you’re overthinking this way too hard for a scene that we don’t understand what’s happening and will happen. She could be hallucinating again for all we know. Just hold off on the pedantry until the next episode when they hopefully explain everything. Relax.
No need to tell people to relax. We are all just analyzing and discussing a show we all enjoy.
And you can do that without being overly pedantic and neurotic about it. Not every plot hole needs to be overanalyzed here. It’s just a fictional TV show that’s based on a fantasy, some things the plot can get away with.So yes, relax.
You are taking discussion of a TV show way too seriously. You can disagree without calling people pedantic and neurotic. Hope you don’t treat real life people like that who have opinions that differ from your own.
Right, prenups are for divorces. If Tanya dies, the prenup won’t do shit soooo… Greg’s having her killed? And Jack wanted to keep Portia away from the party for fear that she’d be killed too?
I’m not convinced that Jack is keeping Portia away from the party. I’m perplexed you could actually think this. Portia literally said let’s head back at least 3 times, and he brushed her off each time, and the name of the episode is literally “Abductions”. Jack was clearly told to keep her away, and she’s also the reason Greg was so pissed when he found out she was there in the first episode. Her presence clearly forced he and Quentin to change their plan.
Maybe, but she’d be a witness to whats going on at the villa and probably the only person besides Tanya that isnt “in” on whatever the con is. Doesn’t take a lot of effort to get Portia out of the way to hang with fuckboi so might as well remove all obstacles. And plus it seems clear. Twice she was shown trying to get to the party and twice she was dismissed.
You can see a red light though behind them like a camera recording.
Greg did mention he was married 3(?) times before. Maybe they were all cons?
It would be a pretty interesting move on the showrunners part to have a two season character arc and twist like this.
That clause wasn’t mentioned and it’s not common, but I suppose it would make for a good plot device. (The clause would work both ways and a case could be made for Greg’s infidelity).
It’s very common amongst the rich and especially celebrities. Most famously Justin Timberlake, Michael Douglas, and Trump.
And why would it be mentioned before Greg shows up with the “gotcha” moment?
I agree with this. White is great at presenting the audience with everything they need to know early in the show and then letting it unfold. If there was an infidelity clause, we would have seen it mentioned.
Cam says that all of these “rich” “royalty” in Italy have great homes but with no money, which the “nephew” confirms. We are seeing that play out now. Harper guessed that Cam would try to get money out of Ethan and while we have had direct knowledge of this earlier, I think we are seeing this further con play out as well. We are also given the story of infidelity and the losing of heads which I do believe will play out in this last episode. I think we will see Lucia and Mia and Greg dead at the end of the episode. One because Lucia already thought something bad was going to happen to them and they are technically registered guests of the hotel (it was mentioned that multiple guests were dead in the opening sequence.) I think Tonya or Portia will kill Greg as he is trying to off Tanya. I, also know, this guess will be wrong.
If there is a sting in play [and it looks like there is], why the hell would Quentin a] tell the story of his cowboy love and b] leave a photo of him out where Tanya could see it?
There is a reason why Quentin invited his coke dealer to the party and had lots of product around to use.
Sure, but there’s also the reason that these people having a big party would probably want to have coke at that party….
In my opinion: because this season learned all the wrong lessons from season 1.Viewers watched last season for an engaging, tangled exploration of class warfare and how people with wildly different perspectives on life would interact with each other. Unfortunately, the show runners seem to have looked at that success and proclaimed “people loved the murder mystery! Let’s double down on that! Forget character development and interaction this time around; we can just make up some dumb narrative with cheap misunderstandings and plug them into thinly-drawn characters’ comings and goings.
This.I think I fall more positive on the quality of how it’s unfolding and alot of that is likely tied to the ensemble perfomances (notably, Aubrey Plaza’s) but I wholeheartedly agree it is a shame that the subtlety the first season displayed at times was the first murder this season.
How that photo didn’t get a big mention in the review ???, pretty important reveal. So many long cons in this group.
Prenup wouldn’t matter if she’s murdered, right? I’m assuming Greg was whispering to Quinten on the phone in the earlier episode. They’re in it together… Q handles the killing, G gets the money as her beneficiary.
Reading all the comments on this thread, this is the only one that makes any sense for the show. Debating the enforcibility of infidelity clauses is laughably a waste of time, because they’ll be as enforceable as the show wants to make them. But the only clean way that Greg gets the money is if Tanya dies, especially if it looks like she was on a coked-out bender. And… Obviously you can’t just show the gun without it coming into play later.
Forgot about that picture of Greg in the cowboy hat. Once Tanya finds that old VHS tape Greg made of himself trying to throw a football over a mountain, things are really going to hit the fan.
Maybe with the money, he can finally make State…
Given Tanya’s conversation with Portia, and the fact that she observes the picture and doesn’t freak out — I think she’s smarter and shrewder than we’ve all been led to believe. I think there’s a reason she demurred as being “so nervous” and making the handsome young man do all the work. After all, she had the pre-nup created in the first place. I hope that’s the case because it would be much more interesting to see Tanya get revenge than be duped. Nearly every character has been set up for a dupe at this point, so they can’t ALL be duped in the end… can they?
as someone who’s been on a lot of cocaine it’s hard to be savvy when you’re on a lot of cocaine.
it’s also hard to be very nervous about banging a very hot person when you’re on a lot of cocaine, so I don’t think it’s that clear cut.
oh it’s very easy to be nervous about that on a lot of cocaine haha.
I do think Tanya’s put it all together at this point and must know what’s going on. Otherwise, why wouldn’t she just freak out more about the whole thing? They play her as cluelessly oblivious a lot, but also extremely shrewd at times too, usually in the most important moments. Her instincts have always been solid.Still, I can’t figure out what she would know that would make any sort of setup moot.
*IF* that was Greg???? Really? If?????
After the airing I rewound and froze on the picture frame. Then I found myself staring at facial structure and jawline. So at first I was in doubt it was him, and Tanya’s non-reaction didn’t help………..then again my brain isn’t at its best after 16 lines of decent cocaine.
Non-reaction? She literally said “What the fuck?”
Wasn’t last year’s finale 10 minutes longer than the rest of the episodes? Fully expect the next episode to be a bit extended too. Lots to wrap up as you say.
The Quentin said that the only time he fell in love was with a beautiful cowboy. Greg runs the Bureau of Land Management, which is a cowboyish endgame job and he picked the hotel.
The pre nup only kicks in if there’s a divorce. Different story if the spouse dies…
Does the prenup matter if she’s dead? Wouldn’t all the money go to him if she died in an accident?
Read the whole thread here, a lot of discussion regarding that very question.
is the prenup annulled if she cheats on him?
A LOT of comments on that, keep scrolling
I think Harper is letting Ethan very slightly twist in the wind because he was totally fine allowing her to be deeply psychologically uncomfortable for the entirety of this trip. But I don’t think she’s actively torturing him to the extent that he seems to perceive. That said, I am fine with him snapping and beating the hell out of Cam.That was 100% Greg in the old photo with Quentin, right? I assume he is actively trying to cause Tanya to void her prenup with infidelity? And then he splits the $ with Greg, and that’s the money Jack alludes that Quentin is coming into?Jack’s simple satisfaction with life because it is comfortable and safe (compared to the Middle Ages) could possibly have led Portia to shed some of her angst and feel gratitude for the simple things… but instead it totally disillusioned her. She snaps out of her vacay infatuation in minutes. Obviously, her evening with Jack gets much worse from there.Valentina is being unbelievably weird toward Isabella, yes. But the way she geared herself up for walking 5 steps to ask Isabella to toast her birthday, and then her excitement at getting a yes, was relatable and heartbreaking. And with Lucia, I can’t stop thinking that she’s setting all this up to F with Albie. She’s staging the Alessio situation, right? Told him where they’d be, told him to follow threateningly, left with him reluctantly yet bravely (and hilariously, the lack of a translator then messes up the entire Di Grasso purpose for the trip – they found possible relations! At least one of the women on the porch looked open to connecting! But alas, no translator). It all seems strange, because Albie’s clearly ready to empty his bank account just for the companionship/sex with her. I have to believe she wants a bigger payday (out of Dom, via Albie feeling desperate for her safety?) or a plane ticket to LA. I could see this storyline ending with Albie screwing up somehow because he is endlessly credulous, Dom cleaning it up for him, and Albie becoming a touch more jaded about women and more willing to vouch for Dom :/The earnest way Jennifer Coolidge delivered “I love your giant pupils” surprised a bigger laugh out of me than it should have.
I think it disillusioned her because it’s not a very honest way to live. Although we quickly learn it’s a facade, and Jack has endured enough bad stuff for one lifetime and a substance issue to cope.Portia is an interesting character in that she’s right to be unsatisfied. Things should feel less shitty in north american/european worlds that don’t feel as overtly violent, but things have just gotten more insidious. It’s hard not to get lost.And yes, cackled at Coolidge’s line delivery. I feel her character writing was a little lost in the first three episodes, but she’s back on track.
Jack is just a another fuckboi drunk Brit who is clearly saying and doing anything to distract and keep Portia away from Tanya while Quentin scams her. Anything he says really means nothing.
And Valentia isn’t being “weird”; she misread Isabella’s niceness into flirtation and sexual attraction and then tried to manipulate her and the situation in her favor. Not really sure if that’s relatable or heartbreaking. Now she’s letting herself get manipulated by Mia who wants to sing at the hotel for, uh, reasons? What’s more weird is the show heel turning her character repeatedly from the start of the season. She went from neurotic workaholic, to sympathetic loner, to a version of Armond from last season which is bizarre.
I had the same thoughts about her turning into Armond, but I think White is showing a different side of the same coin, and a more sympathetic one.Armond seemed to be driven much more by lust, was openly gay, and actually followed through with his coercion. We got the sense that Armond has done this before, and he doesn’t feel bad about it.Valentina seems much more confused and desperate with her sexual identity. What she is doing is still inappropriate and manipulative, but it’s coming from a place of loneliness and uncertainty and desperation. She doesn’t manipulate her employee into a sexual transaction, she manipulates her into what she hopes is a genuine date, and then cancels it when it’s clear she won’t be interested in that kind of relationship. Not good boss behavior, and similar to Armond, but ultimately less predatory than “eat my ass for the good shift.”I think there’s still hope for Valentina. I think she’ll feel some genuine remorse, reach a point of clarity now that shes finally been with a women, and at least attempt to correct what she’s done.
A few things with your post:1. It’s Sicily, so Valentina can’t be as openly and flamboyantly gay as Armond is.
2. She absolutely isn’t more confused and desperate with her sexual identity. She blew off that guy in the cafe earlier in the season with that line that she’s not interested in men hitting on her and spends all her time alone to avoid. It just goes back to my first point, that it’s conservative Sicily where the local resident can’t be as openly and flamboyantly gay, so she’s more struggling with who in that town to openly express her sexual feelings more than anything else. That’s why she couldn’t just straight up come on to Isabella like Armond did and had to resort to manipulation.
3. What she did was clear manipulation. She got jealous and upset at
Isabella talking to another guy, so she sent away him with an older,
uglier guy, hoping that it would drive Isabella towards her. And when
Isabella asked nicely if she can bring back her fiance, Valentina
refuses to out of spite. There are ways she could’ve ask Isabella out without resorting to playing games like that. 4. I don’t see things getting better for Valentia. Especially when she ultimately sees and understands that she’s getting used and manipulated by Mia and when word gets out at the hotel she did that to Isabella’s fiance in order to ask her out. I can see her getting more bitter and grumpier.
Agreed she can’t be openly gay in Siciily, and that’s what I mean by confused and desperate. She knows she’s gay, but she has no idea how to be gay due to her repressive circumstances. Which is leading her down this manipulative, fumbling path.And no illusions that what she’s doing is wrong. She’s using feminist principles to manipulate another woman and her employees. But she also ultimately backed off, which Armond would not do.Armond got a power charge off of manipulating his employees into sex. Valentina is closeted lesbian who is desparate for a girlfriend. In the realm of bad bosses, she’s much more sympathetic.But you’re probably right that it won’t end well.
Well, I wouldn’t say she has “no idea how to be gay.” Again, it’s just that she doesn’t have anyone to be open and out the closet with. I can imagine the tiny LGBT community there is closeted, so she has to play guessing games with everyone there to find out who’s queer and who isn’t. Fumbling, yes, but she doesn’t have to be manipulative about it either and that’s the issue. We still have one more episode left, so she may still resort to Armond levels of nastiness. We’ve seen some of it by her retaliating against Isabella by keeping her and fiancé apart and in general how demanding and strict she is towards her employees.
Valentina’s behavior was definitely professionally inappropriate, but I agree with you here that her situation is more nuanced and sympathetic than Armond’s.Also, Mia’s “even I’ve been with a woman” response to an actual lesbian was absolutely hilarious.
I hope so because I will be uncomfortable if all the queer characters on the show are manipulating everyone around them. Given the current bullshit coming from the right wing on LGBTQ people right now, it would be very problematic to have the gay men on the show trying to scam and maybe kill a rich heiress and for the queer hotel manager to be sexually harassing her employees by using her authority to put people where she wants them.
everyone is manipulating everyone around them in this show. cam and daphne are clearly trying to scam ethan and harper, ethan probably knows it, but still agreed to this trip so that he could finally win that dick-measuring contest by rejecting cam, harper is now toying with ethan by implying a flirtation with cam to get revenge for ethan’s unwillingness/inability to efffectively reassure her about the relationship (by deeds, not words), Jack (who’s presumably just gay for pay but otherwise seems pretty hetero) is distracting Portia so she won’t help Tanya, Lucia is clearly scaming Albie. Poor Albie, whom I’ve probably been a bit too harsh about so far, seems genuinely smitten with Lucia, but it still might be more about trying to cast her as the damsel in distress for his knight-in-shining-armor fantasy than about her as a person. Everybody’s playing games! It would take a really stunning feat of missing the point to make this about sexual orientation.
Yeah but two seasons in a row where the queer hotel managers sexually harass staff is not great. Makes it seem like a trend rather than an individual character flaw.
I do think it matters that Valentina ultimately backs off, but point taken.
I think you’re missing the part that she’s existing in a place and generation that is extremely homophobic. Her behaviour is being shaped by that. Have a heart.
The key thing is about Valentina is that she seems extremely ashamed of her sexuality and would not act on it unless she was basically prodded into it by someone like Mia. She has been trying to repress it and thus does not read the situation with Isabella properly. Plus there is the subordinate/manager relationship that she has to delicately manage meaning that she can not be outward in her flirtation or desire.
She’s not ashamed of her sexuality, nor does she repress it. She just doesn’t have anyone to actually flirt with and reciprocate her feelings, so when Isabella came along and told her nice things, she got too excited and assumed that she finally found “the one” and made her move.
I think Jack is also stuck in the situation though, because the alternative is quite grim for himself. He’s motivated by his own survival, which is a lot different than the uncle.
Tanya’s husband Greg, did not want Portia there, so of course if this is a long con, Jack is keeping her away. I think Tanya is going to kick some ass on the boat and the “bodies” are going to be the uncle and his entourage
(and hilariously, the lack of a translator then messes up the entire Di
Grasso purpose for the trip – they found possible relations! At least
one of the women on the porch looked open to connecting! But alas, no
translator)
Why did Albie only use Google Voice Translate (or whatever its called) that one time? I’ve used it multiple times with Spanish speaking coworkers and they’ve said, its not perfect, but its reasonably close
Because, and I take no joy in saying this, the writing this season has been very weak.
I feel for Valentina, but swooning over your employee sucks some of the sympathy away. But it seems she’s been cured of her potential HR nightmare.
Lucia’s definitely setting the family up. First of all she knows they have lots of money as evidenced by the amount of money Dominic spent on her company and allowing them to run up the room bill with no pushback. Second of all she sniffed Albie out as innocent, naïve and with a savior complex. Seems very unlikely that she just suddenly fell for a random vacationing American and is ready to run away from her life with him. Not saying that a sex worker can’t fall for one of their clients, but it all seemed super sudden. Her “pimp” is in on the con and trying to make love struck Albie believe that she is in real danger if he doesn’t help her out. She keeps turning down help because eventually Albie will insist and she is going for the big score. Now that he is infatuated with her he probably wont blink if told she needs a huge sum of money to be made whole.Just my 2 cents. I disagree with the review that this is the least interesting part of the story. Maybe a bit redundant in terms of the themes of the season, but I find it interesting and look forward to seeing how it is resolved and whether the people from the other plots who have interacted with Lucia and Albie (namely Cam and Portia) will be in some way involved in the resolution.
Dominic has no idea how much Lucia has been putting on his tab. He’s said a couple times that they can order a little food, not entire wardrobes from the hotel boutiques that we see them with shopping bags from. He’s going to get a nasty surprise when he checks out. And Lucia may be a hustler, but she’s not really a seasoned professional as a sex worker. I can see her using Albie as a ticket to Los Angeles., if she’s not going to clean him out.
Going to criticize this review a bit. This show has four distinct plot points at this point; the four “friends” on vacation together, Tanya and Portia hanging out with the “rich” men they’ve run into, the DiGrassos and Lucia, and Valentina’s foibles as a boss. This review mostly only covers one of those plots.Like is Jack mentioning that his “uncle” isn’t really rich but expects to come into money soon not worth mentioning or analyzing in any way?
The reviews have been getting worse and worse, I’m not sure how they missed so much from this episode
Aubrey Plaza! What more do you need to know?
Yeah honestly the Aubrey Plaza part of the ep was maybe the third most interesting part of this. The Greg reveal seemed to be the biggest bombshell and it wasn’t even mentioned.
Didn’t Momma Di Grasso say that the American cousins were only after her money, which, what?!
Tanya – would you die for beauty?
Weighty Song Rundown: “You Belong to Me”Ethan wants Harper to act like she belongs to him, not Cameron. (He’s jealous.)To Albie, Lucia acts like she belongs to Alessio (as a sex worker in his employ). But really, does Albie belong to Lucia, because he’s falling for a scheme of hers?Maybe Quentin feels like he “has” Tanya right where he wants her now, so she “belongs to” him. And he uses Jack to keep Portia away. We know Jack “belongs to” Quentin.Mia sings the song to Valentina and then seduces her, but Valentina is Mia’s boss. Who belongs to whom?Isabella lets Valentina know about Rocco, in effect saying that Isabella “belongs to” Rocco. (Maybe they feel like they belong to each other, but Valentina wants Isabella to belong to her.)Bert wants to feel a sense of belonging in a Sicilian homecoming, but realizes that that’s impossible for him.Also, the subject in the song is international travel, which is what most of the characters have done / are doing / want to do.
Aubrey Plaza IS great in this – but A LOT more happened in this episode. The cast is totally stacked and you really can find an award-worthy clip from almost all of them – but I do hope Sabrina Tabasco has a breakout year because of this. Im unclear if Tanya clocked the photo as Greg. (If she didn’t, I’d believe it – but only because she was coked out of her mind and dickstracted a moment later. But that was clearly Greg.
Ethan sucks. “I never lie to you. When have I lied to you?!” Uh… Literally the other day. So who’s the floater? (And the other dead guests). I have no idea. I hope it’s Ethan, Dominick & Jack. But that would leave me satisfied. And, just like Portia, that is simply not possible.
I think it’s Simona Tabasco
you’re right. my bad!
She certainly is Tabasco. There’s no debating that.
Indeed
I agree with you on Tanya – I’m not positive, but I’m pretty sure she recognized Greg. She picks up the photo, says something like “oh wow” and then her eyes dart around like she’s searching for understanding or maybe piecing things together.But she then abruptly changes channels, for lack of a better phrase, to focus on the tryst at hand, which is what had me initially thinking maybe she didn’t fully register the implication of the picture during her coke haze.But, after reflecting on it further, I think this is an echo of her behavior at breakfast. Warning Portia about Jack, deliberately discomfiting Quentin when she pointedly says she heard strange noises in the night… but then does that same ‘changes channels’ thing the second Quentin says she’s guest of honor at a party. Per her own pretty insightful admission, she’s been a doll playing dress up her whole life. And she feels empty inside. And the second she gets the attention or validation she needs (guest of honor at the party, hot guy wants to hook up, etc) every single other thing goes out the window for her.Incredible show.
I think the floater is Ethan and the other dead body is Bert from natural causes.
I was hoping Lucia wasn’t playing Albie. We’ve seen her feel guilt for dragging her friend into her sex work. Why write that if she’s gonna be a one-dimensional bad girl? Her declarations to Albie seem genuine; we haven’t seen evidence she’s lying, yet. But if she’s legit being menaced by her pimp, it’s a contrived plot that heavy-handedly shows off the theme of Albie being wrong in trying to protecting women, which will end in disaster. Then again, Greg being Quentin’s cowboy is also contrived, so White probably doesn’t care how his plots get if he gets to make his themes. And we are basically watching an opera so the dangerous, implausible plots are par for the course.I thought this episode was the most tender and poignant yet. Especially Valentina’s sad life and Mia cheering her up. Also Bert’s regrets and Jack’s. So who do I want to live and have a happy ending? Valentina, first and foremost; followed by Portia (it does seem White is writing a coming of age tale with her); I don’t care much about the three men, though I like Bert and maybe he can be the recurring character next season. Harper and Ethan’s marriage doesn’t appear salvageable since White never wrote them as loving towards each other from the beginning. I hope it doesn’t end like the marriage from season 1 where they’re trapped together.
Dude, she’s totally lying. That guy is just some friend of hers.
“We’ve seen her feel guilt for dragging her friend into her sex work.” But that was Lucia on a comedown internalizing the shame and guilt of society, not her own. She is doing nothing shameful. We wouldn’t say she corrupted her friend if it was any other type of work, that’s a projection Lucia is always going to have to navigate as a sex worker.She’s playing into Albie’s desire to be the saviour, no different than she’d play into the desire of any other client. Lucia isn’t a bad girl, she’s just a girl doing her best.
I mean, she’s actively manipulating the guy for money, to the point that he’s worried about her safety. That’s not exactly a girl, or anyone ‘doing her best’
these people are so wildly rich, whatever Lucia cons out of them is little significance to them and life changing for her. I think pointing to her individual behaviour is missing the point.
how much of your money can I steal until you start to question my individual behaviour? Does it matter if you consider yourself rich or just if you seem rich to me?
this show is at its core a critique of capitalism, and the unfair power dynamics it creates. You’re tuning into the wrong show if you think the takeaway is that Lucia is a bad person for taking from the same people that take so much from others.
No offense but this is a pretty insane barometer for morality
“It’s okay to steal from people as long as they’re rich” is not so much insane, but just plain stupid. And something they can say from the autonomy of the internet where they can get away with being so sociopathic.
lol wuttt? dude, the literal show is anti-capitalist, you’re a fool. It’s sociopathic to hoard that much wealth.
it’s insane that someone’s takeaway is that Lucia is a bad person for taking advantage of a system that otherwise would take advantage of her, have a little depth to the broader themes of the show and a little heart.
She’s not just taking advantage of a faceless, emotionless system, she’s emotionally manipulating another human being for financial gain. I don’t care how rich the kid’s family is, or how ‘disadvantaged’ she is for … living in Sicily and not being from wealth…that’s objectively being a bad person. That is choosing to be a bad person.
the harm here isn’t her stealing, the harm here is why does she have to steal, and it’s because wealthy people take so much and leave so little (not just money, but actual human value from these locals). You’re fighting the wrong fight here bud, dig a little deeper into how capitalism creates these behaviours in the first place.
I’m afraid our views on humanity and civilization are probably irreconcilably at odds, but I respect your willingness to engage & hope we both have a good time watching the finale of this season
I pass absolutely no judgement on sex workers but if she’s manipulating Albie like lying to him about her pimp I don’t think she’s “doing her best.” It doesn’t mean she’s an evil monster either but there other ways she could go that don’t involve straight up deceit and manipulation.
meh she’s giving Albie the exact narrative he assumes with sex workers, and in some ways the exact fantasy he desire. This is generations of objectification of women, let a girl get some retribution.
I have a bad feeling about Bert based on the trailer for next episode.(I
thought I saw a quick flash of Dominic near a coffin being loaded into a
hearse. Couple that with Bert’s speech about “no more homecomings” and
well…)
Oooh, if Bert dies in Sicily, then it will be a perverse kind of homecoming! Maybe they’ll bury him there for symbolic reasons.
She’s starting to feel conflicted about sex work, so she’s trying to pull off one last con that would leave her with enough start capital for a new life. It makes her a bit of a bad girl, sure, but not necessarily one-dimensional. I mean, you heard Bert about the unemployment rate in Sicily. She’s got dreams and not that many options, I guess she plans to hurt Albie only financially, and she probably assumes that financially he can take it.
Good point, hadn’t thought about it.
If she had a pimp, he would be the one hassling Ethan for her $1,300. So, either he’s not a pimp, or he’s a super shitty one who doesn’t perform his one function.
Judging by the ‘90’s Suzuki Samurai he drives, he’s either a super shitty pimp, or just a guy pretending to be a pimp.
Article Title: “Jack, Quentin, and the Big F***ing Hole”Wait, we’re focusing on Plaza’s character? Never mind, then.
She also mentally tortures it.
Ethan just continues to double down and confirm that he is one of the worst, if not the worst here. He disassociates a lot, which is why he chooses porn over intimacy with Harper and keeps letting her be alone with Cameron even though he doesn’t trust him for confirmed reasons.
Also, great touch with the show using the DiGrazzo to make fun of the way Americans romanticize foreigners and family heritage by doing these trips.
I didn’t notice a chekov’s gun. What did you see?
Tanya found a gun in Niccolo’s bag.
On SNL Sat, Longfellow mentions during his divorce bit a 30 percent fidelity clause (and texts don’t count!) To which Che replies “Good to know.” Seems relevant inadvertantly to where White Lotus is clearly heading. Yes, someone should look that up!
Aubrey Plaza is… fine? But we’re getting excellent performances by pretty much the entire cast here, so fawning over Aubrey for doing her resting-bitch-face-to-mask-her-crippling-insecurity thing is a disservice to some truly surprising and nuanced moments.
Yeah she really has no other expression.
THANK YOU. I mean I like her and she’s doing good work but not to this level of fawning. At the very least not to give half a review solely to her.
Sabrina Impacciatore (Valentina) is the real MVP this season and deserves the emmy imo
The song Mia was playing at the bar , “You Belong To Me,” was a big hit for Jo Stafford in the 1950s. One of the most beautiful romantic songs of all time, IMO.
I wish this season had more episodes, at least one more (8), or in all honesty I wouldn’t mind a further three instalments (10) on account of the nail-biting suspense at the ending of each episode. There are so many open plots to wrap up that with just one episode remaining my intuition tells me that we are going to left with a bad taste in our mouths for the precipitous way all these ongoing story lines are going to conclude. “Adbuctions” has shown us that Ethan may now be harbouring murderous thoughts and that his victim or victims may include Cameron, and even his wife who he doesn’t love in bed not even out of it. No self-respecting young husband and wife would dream of going to bed in pijamas like they do, and much less so when they are on a romantic holiday in Sicily. I love the way how Harper has managed to turned tables on her husband by her play-acting with Cameron. It is clear that she is avenging herself on Ethan for all the distress that he put her through in previous episodes, although little does she know that Ethan may well have a perverse mind under his self-controlled facade, and could easily resort to violence to sort out his tormenting thoughts of jealousy. I wouldn’t put it past him. You can expect that and much more of a young man who prefers watching porno to having sex with his wife who he feels jealous of at the first glimpse of her aleged unfaithfulness.Frumpy-looking Portia has abruptly come to realise that her all-brawny-but-no-brain lover boy, Jack, is nowhere near as rich as she had initially made him out to be and she may be starting to regret giving affluent Albie the brush-off as she did if her goal in life is the pursuit of a well-heeled boyfriend. It wouldn’t be surprising if Jack puts her out of the picture when he wakes up the morning after and remembers how indiscreet he was the night before about the scam his alleged uncle is about to bring to fruition on Tanya, whose licentious descent into hell left us utterly gobsmacked. I didn’t know she had it in her. She is so prim and proper at times that little did we know that she had done drugs in the past, and in a big way apparently.
On The White Lotus, Aubrey Plaza steals the showYeah, but when is that not the case when she’s on screen?? I mean, that’s kind of her thing — scene stealing.
I feel like the multiple bodies will be caused by some sort of boating accident on the way back from the palazzo.
“On The White Lotus, Aubrey Plaza steals the show”I don’t watch this show, but having seen Plaza on Parks and Recreation, Safety Not Guaranteed, and her Late Show with Stephen Colbert appearances, I assume this could be the headline for every episode.
Aubrey Plaza’s character April on Parks & Rec majored in “Halloween Studies” at Pawnee Community College (where students could design their own major). Future college students will probably major in Aubrey Plaza studies. What an icon
It’s a very “Sun expected to rise tomorrow” headline
hey, actual sex worker here, and for the millionth time: we don’t “sell our bodies” (in fact, i’m sitting here, in mine, right now!) we sell our time and our companionship. there’s really no need to parrot one of the most ignorant and cliched descriptions about our profession in service of your review. thanks!
I mean, even if you were offering up your body, you’d be renting it out, not selling it, since you still have it afterwards.
Interesting take. So do you have a web site? Asking for a friend.
But Sting told me that sex workers sell their bodies to the night. Was Sting lying to me?(comment completely made is jest, I completely agree with your take)
Fair point. So you rent your bodies (with pre-agreed restrictions and limitations like renting an AirBnB)?
i feel like too much happened this episode to rest the review entirely on aubrey plaza’s part. she was great and i never thought i’d pine for more of a ‘recap’ but like…a lot happened!
Valentina deserves her happy moment. She’s the most sincere of all the screwed up folks.
Valentina and Mia are my MVPs this season, so I’m very happy they had a nice moment together.
She feeds kitties! She deserves all the love
The exchange where Harper asks if Ethan wants her, he says “I love you,” and her subsequent expression was incredible writing and acting. I’m surprised the review didn’t mention it—it really struck a chord with me.
Edit: is it just me, or is “muscled Timothee Chalamet” a contradiction in terms? Timothee Chalamet’s defining characteristic is his waifishness.
That whole conversation scene was really well done. It accurately shows a couple with a complete disconnect and unable to express their true feelings for whatever reason.I don’t think Harper doubts Ethan loves her. That’s not the point of what she’s bringing up. There’s love and there’s ‘in love’. There’s love and there’s intimacy. He completely misreads that and believes an expression of love is what she needs.
Not an “A” IMO. The acting and directing, maybe. They’re pretty great. It’s generally entertaining. But the writing? The plots are too thin (and probably just too many) and reliant on this tropey “don’t tell them an obvious thing so illogical chaos can happen”. I get that it is some kind of Italianate narrative device, but it gets tedious when it infects every plotline.
I think White’s affection for icon actress Jennifer Coolidge wrecked his Tanya character. She was a vacuous, needy, self-centered asshole who screwed over the spa manager in Season 1. Now she treats Portia like crap, but we are supposed to be rooting for her to survive some terribly developed grift. Way too much off-screen supposition and exposition required to give this unbelievable plotline (on so many levels) an “A” IMO. And way too much of Portia wasted ambling around with an annoying brit f***-boy. The actress and character deserved better, maybe in delivering a comeuppance to the aforementioned a-hole version of Tanya – not THIS version of Tanya. The unbelievable Greg- obsessive- gay cowboy-fixation, army of gay Italian grifters, – just reel it in man… c’mon.
The family reunion has been a miss all along. The resolution at the family villa was just not a good payoff, and was even a little insulting to Italians IMO. They all came across like some pre-WWII cliche when there could have been a real resolution to that journey, but we just got a couple of terrible scenes, from the “abduction” to the villa. Maybe it turns out his mama stole the family fortune and ran off to America. SOMETHING. Otherwise White should have shelved the family reunion BS and devoted that time developing the father-son-escort conundrum that stays relevant to the White Lotus. People were genuinely jazzed by the idea of Albie going incel murderer. That built some nice tension for an episode -then he absolutely killed that. No, not a “A” at all.White pulled another Harper out of his hat as of the last two episodes, seemingly just to push the plot in some inconceivable direction based on the first several weeks of the show. He could have had Harper and Ethan plot to scam the scammers once he exposed that THEY know Cameron is after Ethan’s money – but instead after that the story goes to Harper possibly or pretending to f** Cameron, who she COULD NOT STAND. Why do this after Cameron vouched for Ethan? Totally illogical misdirect IMO. I just think it could have been a much better story than this trope. That alternate line could be an entire series on its own, in fact. Valentina is a quaint self-discovery, romantic story, but, man, White made a suable human resources nightmare out of her overnight , all for a clearly straight, uninterested girl. But as ridiculous as the hidden marriage proposal angle comes across – I actually know a couple who pulled that very thing off at a five star hotel. When both were managers they kept a dating relationship secret until she came in one day and showed her off her engagement ring. The staff was shocked and asked “Who’s the guy?”, and he waved from the background. He then resigned and worked elsewhere (Still happily married 20+ years later). So it CAN happen..
I think the Harper-Cameron dynamic is interesting and not at all unrealistic. You can absolutely find someone morally repugnant and also want to have sex with them.
My point to these things is that White doesn’t spend much time rationally developing these plot points. They just happen nonsensically on a whim, effectively changing the character outright with no support. Just flesh out the ideas more and cut out so much filler, and/or ancillary characters.
You missed the point of the family reunion scene. It’s supposed to be making fun of clueless Americans going on these family ancestry trips to Italy expecting some kind of happy scene straight out of a Barilla commercial and other stereotypes. It was hilarious and perfect. And you also missing what Harper is doing which is to make Ethan mad, jealous, and have a taste of his own medicine for him making her anxious. And also, it is a thing to be sexually attracted to someone you otherwise find repulsive. Your horny animal urges doesn’t care what your brain thinks.
I didn’t miss the point. I just think the resolve of all this was way underplayed (and kind of insulting to Italians). The whole lost-in nowhereville, awkwardness could have been a lot more entertaining after waiting all these weeks. I’m not saying that the act of meeting these distant relatives had to be happy-happy-joy-joy – just more of SOMETHING.
But that’s the point you’re still missing. It wasn’t insulting to Italians; it was actually insulting the Americans for annoying the local Italians for their self-serving needs and unrealistic stereotypes and ideals. That’s always been the point of The White Lotus series; the clash and contrast these rich vapid tourists have with the locals, which they doubled down on this season through the DiGrazzos. Bert who thinks he can just show up unannounced, not knowing Italian, thinking that they’d shower him with a ticker tape parade just because his family happened to come from there, while Dominic and Adam thinking that they’re saving the local girls and doing them favors. I mean, what were you expecting to happen?
If you think that all made narrative sense; then why are Italians so filled with rage against an American who drives up to say “hello”? Awkward, but hardly worth threatening with a knife. That’s MY point. Give us something so he doesn’t write Italians as this tropey babushka style who threaten people with a knife for NO REASON. He’s a storywriter – write something. Have Grandma tell him his mother was a whore who stole all their money. SOMETHING. He’s writing thin scenes, but not much story. They could have a lot more fun with the lame attempts at speaking Italian. After five weeks it needed more than 2 minutes. You say that scene was “perfect”, so please explain why you think Italians would treat a stranger that way. I mean Olive Garden and all that. They love EVERYBODY.
Think about it dude, if a bunch of aggressive and pushy foreigners just rolled up to your house unannounced, shouting at you in a language you don’t know about some nonsense about being related which wasn’t exactly proven or true; they just got the info about who you are from some local prostitutes, how do you think you’d feel? They didn’t just say hello. They didn’t even bother to really use the translator app they brought. “Italians as this tropey babushka style” Huh?!? Have you been watching this show? And also, this house was in a village in the middle of nowhere Sicily, what did you expect them to look like? Haute couture elites?!?I really don’t get why this is so hard for you to understand. This was a pretty stupid and clueless thing to do and that’s the point of this show, to laugh at these American idiots bothering the locals about some “family heritage” nonsense.
WTF show were you watching? They got out smiling, apologetically saying hello and attempting to use the translator app. The women knew nothing of a prostitute giving them directions. You have anger issues or something.
The only response you deserve at this point.
Ah yes, the Sicilian babushka. Oldest trope in the book.
I was expecting one of the Di Grasso men to give the name of Bert’s grandmother and get a reaction based on that. I thought that the women would have mentioned that she ran away with some no-good man, and the guys would realize that their behavior went back much further than they knew.
Exactly. Yes – give the story SOMETHING after all that build up. It didn’t have to be a syrupy successful heartwarming trip, but that was just a flat nothingburger.
I find myself still thinking about to the first episode. Multiple guests are dead, one is drowned. Is it a murder/suicide? Does someone get thrown from the rocks where the Swedish matriarch in Quentin’s story ended up dead? Who’s not “selling?” Who won’t budge? It feels like there much must be some kind of connection there, and we’ve talked so much about transactional sex.
I feel like Bert won’t make it out of this. There was some foreboding when he got out of the car to look back at Lucia. He keeps hitting his head. He’s fixated on this homecoming idea. I hope it’s not as straightforward as Lucia’s pimp being real and Bert somehow sticking his neck out over that.
We also have Mia, with a master key and a tendency to let herself into other people’s rooms. We have Bert, who was surprised by her before. An amped up Ethan and Harper. A conscienceless Cameron who still hasn’t paid Mia and Lucia.
Mia doesn’t have a master-key. She and Lucia were registered as guests on Dominic and Bert’s rooms, so they have keycards for those two rooms only.
Aubrey Plaza’s most fun role might have been as Natasha Lyonne’s krav maga instructor/ love interest in Addicted to FresnoShe was also strangely ideal and smoking hot as Aaron Burr in Drunk History
If you haven’t seen Ingrid Goes West, give yourself a treat.
I finally figured out why Jack has been so unsettling for me. It’s because he’s giving me Michale Pitt in Funny Games vibes. Portia, there are ride share apps in Sicily. Get out! That whole Di Grasso family reunion subplot was dull. Sopranos’ Commendatori did a much better job of illustrating the limitations of returning to a motherland that is a real, concrete place, not a charming fantasy frozen in time. If Lucia’s “pimp” is real, it’s too boring to care about. If it’s a con, it’s so clumsy that it won’t represent much of a twist. Kind of bummed her story wasn’t more interesting. The most frustrating thing about Ethan is that he’s obsessed with Harper cheating on him even though he ignores her when she practically throws herself at him. He’s like a toddler with a toy; he ignores it until someone else shows an interest. Dude, if you don’t want her, let that poor woman go!Harper spotting Ethan with Lucia and Mia felt just way too Three’s Company. Yet another moment when a simple convo or confrontation could defuse a situation. Death pool: my candidates are Cameron and Bert.
The only thing that could’ve redeemed Lucia’s plot at this point is if the Di Grassos discovered she was a not-very distant relative. Seems kinda hacky, sure, but also not out of the realm of a Mike White-scripted plot, if done right.
Eeeeek. I like it!
Totally agree. I’m over her story by now. If it weren’t for the play on Ethan’s mind, I would have been extremely disappointed with this episode. I feel like the entire season has given me so many set-ups and little pay-off.
They had a convo about the hookers. Ethan already told her than Cam was the only one who requested full services. Harper may or may not believe him, but talking about them even more probably won’t affect that.
We’ve been using Three’s Company to describe that couple’s entire subplot. Every episode there’s been some contrived misunderstanding, only because they use slow pans and ominous music instead of quick cuts and a laugh track, they’re trying to sell it as foreboding instead of wackiness.
it’s quite literally a play on classic Italian tragicomedies, miscommunication and misidentifying things is the point. it’s a modern telling.
I finally figured out why Jack has been so unsettling for me. It’s because he’s giving me Michale Pitt in Funny Games vibes.Thanks for this. I’ve been seeing him this whole season and trying to figure why I was so unnerved by him. I thought I had maybe seen him in something when he was a kid, but a search showed me nothing. It’s definitely his resemblance to Michael Pitt that’s triggering me.
I think Ethan’s more upset with Cameron fucking his wife than his wife cheating on him with some rando.
Ethan and Lucia are definitely going to be among the dead. Who agrees? And if they kill Alby, I will burn the motherfucking world to the ground.
I’ve enjoyed your articles and insights on this show. But this write up had some annoying elements. You had like 3 or 4 lines dedicated to your own personal lust. Do not make it about you and your sexuality.
Lucia has been playing Albie the whole time, leaning into his need to “help wonded birds”. My prediction is Albie will accidentally kill the man Lucia has playing her pimp.
I’m not sure how Lucia and Albee work out for her to go to America unless they get married. She wouldn’t have a green card. I guess she could just go underground but that’s a really hard life too. Would she end up in the same position as in Sicily?I think Portia finally caught on that she was being used too. Tanya finally being rational helped.Tanya, would she just randomly sleep with a sex worker? Was she just that lonely and feeling unattractive?The gun has to come into play, right?So E turned out to be the nice guy incel?
Italy has a visa waiver program with the US, so she could stay up to 90 days as a tourist, while she tries to work something out.
The Floater Watch Power Rankings changes every week and I love it. Here are my current power rankings (remember, Mike White said there were “deaths”, emphasis on the pluralization):Lucia’s crazy pimp/boyfriend/dude whose name I can’t remember. (first appearance on the Board)Jack (shoots way up the rankings)Bert (shoots back toward the top after several weeks of being safe)AlbieGregQuentinCameronEthanRocco (first appearance on the Board)LuciaSafe: Daphne (obviously), Harper, Mia, Valentina, Dominic, Tanya, IsabellaNice to see a theory pay off in a week’s time. Greg The Cowboy confirmed, and this was all a long con to get Tanya to leave her money to Quentin. That’s why Greg was so pissed when he saw Portia had been brought along on the trip because it muddied the plan. I’m sure Jack was originally supposed to be the one to seduce Tanya, but now he had to basically kidnap her to keep her away from the party.Ethan has gone completely mental and obviously gets into a physical altercation with Cameron on the next episode, as shown in the teaser. I think Harper was just fucking with Ethan and nothing happened between her and Cameron. Does Ethan kill him? Does that fight come before or after Harper’s “What’s going to happen to us?” While a recurring theme of the show has been that relationships are transactional, another one has been that the working class pays the consequences for the wealthy’s transgressions. I figured the guests would manage to get away scot free but that looks like it’s becoming increasingly unlikely.
I doubt the pimp guy is actually her pimp. I think she works alone. She’s far too gorgeous and cunning to need a manager. It’s just a story to extort money out of the DiGrassos and/or get Albie to take her home with him.After the heartbreak of the family reunion and his interaction with Mia, could Bert die of a heart attack during a pick-me-up bang with her?
Rocco was in the opening scene, so he’s definitely safe too. And they did say outright that the bodies were guests.
Thank you! Forgot about that!
I’m certain Greg is one of them. All the ubiquitous ceramic decapitated head vases, from a local legend about a woman murdering her lover when she discovers he has another secret family, aren’t shown frequently by accident. And that condom wrapper might be a little misdirection. Does anyone think maybe it’s from something between Cameron and Ethan, and not the girls? They were really loaded, there’s the weird male competition thing between them, and Ethan isn’t particularly sexually into Harper.
We saw Cameron have sex on the couch in Ethan’s room with a woman. Which is why I firmly believe that’s what that condom was from…
The trailer for the next episode has Ethan putting Cam in a headlock underwater, so Cam’s toast. Drowns on accident or purpose.I can also see Bert or Dominic getting killed intervening to save Albie if or whenever those dudes trailing Lucia attack.
One thing that no one seems to be paying any attention to is what’s going to happen when Albie—who clearly has genuine feelings for Lucia—finds out that his dad had sex with her—that the whole reason she’s in the hotel is that his father hired her. That’s got to be one of the big reveals of the last episode, and it’ll to do some serious damage to Albie’s psyche. I don’t think it’ll be enough to turn him into a killer, but there’ll be some major rage—at both of them. And probably no shortage of self-loathing.
Though the mystery of the dead body is what got everyone riveted this season, it might end up being the least shocking thing I’ve seen so far. Didn’t think it was possible seeing how much slower the pace was this year, but I think Mike White outdid himself — again.
For some reason the aspirin scene at the dinner table between Daphne and Harper stuck out to me. The line about Timothee Swole-amet messing up Daphne’s back felt a little forced to me — not in a ridiculous way, just in a necessary way. I think it could be setting something up, as if it needed to be there to bring in the future use of pills/pain killers. Maybe Daphne decides she needs something stronger and then someone else mistakes the replacement pills for aspirin, takes too many, and decides to go for a swim…
Good catch, I think there’s some heavy forshadowing about something going wrong with pills – Mia’s adventure with the piano player for instance. And I could well imagine it not being an innocent accident, but a cold-blooded murder, supposed to look like an accident – accidentially hitting an unplanned target (also forshadowed, with the Godfather car bomb killing the mafia wife).
But I was thinking more along the lines of the high value gays lacing Tanya’s drugs to fake an over-dose, and then Jack stumbling over the wrong stash.
Daphne pulling some shit with pills is also really plausible though, she has always been my prime suspect.
I’ve been suspecting Daphne being involved in at least one death since she mentioned watching a lot of Dateline in the first episode.
> Ahem, the name of the actor you’re most wanting to Google right about now is Stefano Gianino.Nope, still Simona Tabasco.
I definitely think Bert is one of the corpses. In the first episode, after the discovery of the body (bodies), there was a brief excerpt from ‘O mio babbino caro’, the aria that translates as ‘oh my beloved father’. As the patriarch of the show, I think this was a sign that Bert had met his demise.
On the other hand: the aria “O mio babbino caro” is not a lament over a dead or dying father, but a plea backed up with a threat of suicide. Also, paintings of Lucretia have been popping up in this show; Lucretia is a famous suicide. There is one in Ethan-and-Harper’s room, and the painting we see in Tanya’s room in the palazzo at the end of episode 6 is also Lucretia. Unless it’s a painting of Dido, but Dido also committed suicide. I’m wondering if one of the bodies at the end of the season is going to be a suicide.
Good point. My observation (which I thought was pretty in-depth) is probably too surface for this show!
I do like the absolutely realistic, no-holds-barred portrayal of an Essex boi that’s being presented for an American audience, with no softening of the accent. I grew up with people like Jack, some of my old mates sound like that, though maybe not quite as slurry with their speech. There’s always someone you know with that kind of accent, barely legible to the rest of Essex, let alone to America on HBO.
I don’t believe it’s possible to fake it. The actor is 100% authentic.
Dear Manuel,Last night I revisited the first episode searching for clues. In the opening scenes Daphne says to the two girls on the beach: “WE leave in a few hours” … “WE had the best time”, which leads me to believe that by using the pronoun WE her flirtatious hubby Cameron can’t be one of the dead bodies washed up on the beach in the first place. However, she may have been acting with duplicity because later on in the small talk she is politely trying to make with these two new female hotel guests, she goes on to add this: “Oh, you’re GONNA DIE. They’re gonna drag you out of here” apparently referring to the excellent quality of the food served at the luxury hotel, although she may have meant that literally, word for word, which can only add to my niggling suspicion that her husband may have been killed Ethan who was unrecognisably jealous of him in this penultimate episode. As if that wasn’t enough, the exact whereabouts of Cameron in this opening scene also presents something of an uncanny mystery because if one watches closely there is only one drink, apparently a glass of rose wine, sitting on Daphne’s parasol table and right under it only her sandals left on the sand can be seen, and more intriguingly so the other two sun loungers alongside hers appear to be empty. Where on earth is Cameron? Packing the few clothes that they were forced to buy while on holiday after the airline company lost their luggage which was later found and sent back to their home by mistake? Sleeping it off in his room? It doubt it.
A few scenes later in that first episode we see Tanya’s encounter with Greg at the hotel reception and she bemoans the fact that he hasn’t been texting her back, to which he replies it was due to a “flare-up” at his workplace. Does he actually have a job in his world of make-believe that he has skilfully concocted for gullible Tanya? I very much doubt it. What I also found discombobulating is that Greg resented the fact that Tanya had brought her assistant, Portia, along with her on a romantic vacation with her ‘loving’ husband. Why did he take exception to that when he knew perfectly well that Portia was not meant to sleep in the same room with them both? Simply because, in the quasi-culmination of this Agatha Christie-like mystery, we have now been invited to join up the dots and gradually realise that his initial bitter resentment at Portia being around would pose a major impediment to his carefully thought-out devious plan which from the outset is no other than getting rid of his fourth wife, or blaming her for some wrong-doing that could reward him handsomely in his prenuptial agreement with stinking rich Tanya. We shouldn’t forget the fact that this Don Juan has married and divorced three times (I think) and little do we know about the fate that his previous purportedly rich wives underwent. Are they dead or did they fall victim to his scams? Possibly the latter probability. Yes, indeed, Portia, is more of a hindrance than a help in the scam that this phoney cowboy and his beloved gay friend have meticulously thought up, and that only now at this late stages of the season we are now unravelling. No wonder Jack has been given instructions to spirit Portia away from the scene while the scammers bring their Machiavellian conspiracy to fruition. All in all, my intuition tells me that there is a nasty surprise in store for both Greg and Quentin, who may be lovers after all, which is the sting in the tail that we have yet to see. Yes, a nasty surprise is patiently awaiting them because gullible though as Tanya may seem, she will be pulling the trigger of his mafioso lover boy’s gun on the two of them, and these may very well be the two bodies that will turn up floating in the sea in the finale, but that is my gut instinct and my reinless imagination talking. Let’s wait and see.
Greg works for BLM (The Bureau of Land Management)!
This “review” is piss-poor. If you wanted to write an ode to Aubrey Plaza, you should’ve taken it to your personal blog. Telling us how you’re not going to bother mentioning 3/4 of the other character groups because they don’t interest you… really? Then let someone else who knows how to write a professional review do the job.
Can someone help me out, I’m going crazy over a seemingly minor detail: what’s this classical painting we see in Tanya’s room at the palazzo at the end of the episode, the one showing an angry nude woman sitting on the ground? Is that another painting on Lucretia? I KNOW I’ve seen it before, and the camera focuses on it … just really curious.Also: whether Quentin intends to kill Tanya or just record her being unfaithful — the realities of legal process don’t matter much in the world of cinema and television. In real life, even if an infidelity clause was enforceable, something like what happened here would lead to a nasty, expensive, drawn-out legal battle (which would drag Quentin and his buddies into endless depositions), whose outcome in the end probably wouldn’t satisfy any of the parties, and Uncle Quentin would not be coming into money any time soon (or at all) even under the most favorable circumstances. But on TV? Who knows. TV and movies routinely show legal disputes that would take years to play out in the real world getting resolved in, like, two days, so I guess it’s possible Tanya will fork over a chunk of her fortune without putting up much of a fight simply because there is a nudie tape. For what it’s worth, though, it would probably be simpler for Quentin and Greg to just kill her and forge a will if there isn’t a friendly one already. Greg going out of his way to give her a “perfect day” before leaving Sicily also suggests the attitude of someone who does not expect to see Tanya alive again.The Di Grassi trip to the village with the pithy name “Headwaters” (I don’t speak Italian, but that’s what the name “Testa Dell’acqua” means, doesn’t it? “Headwaters”?) was always a stupid idea, but it’s one that rings true. The men in this family feel detached and uprooted (Bert and Dom because of their fleeting and superficial relationships with women, Albie because he is their grandson and son, respectively) , and they are trying to find something to anchor themselves, to breathe meaning and stability into their lives. When my grandmother died, I had a strong urge to go on 23andme and try to find what should be numerous distant cousins scattered all over the world, before I forced myself to realize that an awkward meeting with some strangers would never fill the void — so I can relate. There is also the fact that like many American descendants of immigrants, Bert, Dom and Albie have an idealized, Hollywoodized notion of the land of their ancestors; like many Americans, they also instinctively sense the Old World holds a mythical power to give them some kind fo an epiphany, to transform their dull, consumerist existence into something spiritual and refined — so again, I think this was a finely crafted subplot that mixed the right amounts of absurdity, slapstick and sadness.
“apparently solid couple”Lol, you thought from the start they were a solid couple? They were immediately shown to be out of sync and unhappy.
As much as I praise Mike White for his dialogue… I should commend him here as well for his eye.It’s probably been mentioned already, but I totally missed that the scene from a couple of episodes ago where Harper was walking slowly and being leered at by men in Noto was an homage to the scene in L’Avventura where the late Monica Vitti was walking slowly and being leered at by men.