The White Lotus wraps up season 2 with an electrifying episode
Mike White delivers a shocking (and bloody and, yes, volcanic) finale
TV Reviews Daphne
Season two of The White Lotus had flirted with being an opera, so it made sense that [redacted; don’t worry, we’ll get into specifics in just a bit] was the one who had to die at the end. Yes, Twitter is likely already rioting as I type this. And yes, we’ll all miss our favorite Emmy-winning star. But, when you think about it, this was arguably what Mike White needed to do if he was going to turn this anthology into must-see TV when it comes back for a third season. Better to let Jennifer Coolidge’s Tanya go out with a bang (bang! bang! bang! kerplunk!) than have us suffer through another season in which her charms would’ve, perhaps, began to grow a tad old.
Indeed, that sense I got at the start of the season that her character felt rather ancillary to the main plot at hand was a helpful misdirect. Or, rather, a good diagnosis of the way White was likely shoe-horning a character who might have best been left kept all to herself after her scene-stealing turn in the show’s buzzy first season. But by the time I finished this electrifying (and edge-of-your-seat thriller of an) episode, it was clear White was just building up toward what truly was a shocking (and bloody—volcanic, even) end.
Well, was it really shocking though? On top of having given us plenty of operatic cues that suggested we were in for a tragic finale, the main intertext this season kept toying with was The Godfather. And really, Tanya coming out of a bedroom in the yacht shooting up everything she saw move (all while wearing a replica of the dress that mannequin had in The Godfather car) was very much on brand. Of course, she was never going to get away with such a bloodied scenario and, given the show’s penchant for darkly comedic accidental murders (see: season one), it made sense that Coolidge would get one final pratfall before moving on to (we hope) just as buzzy and meaty roles ahead.
Poor Tanya. Hers was a tragedy clearly months in the making (curse you, Greg!) and one that clearly Portia (Haley Lu Richardson) will have to live with for the rest of her life. But given the season’s interest in the feuding forces of ambition and desire, of money and sex, it makes sense that the rich lady would die while trying to foil an assassination attempt by her husband’s would-be former lover who needs the money to keep up the palazzo he’s inherited from his long-storied Sicilian family. I mean, this is a tale as old as time, no?
Sure, some of us may have wanted to watch Cameron (Theo James) bite it. Or to see one of the DiGrasso men come to terms with their own mortality (and maybe, in the process, teach the other two about how to better understand the women in their lives). But losing Tanya makes a lot more narrative sense (Jennifer Coolidge now gets to be an HBO martyr! A Sicilian saint of the gays, if you will; what could be better?)
And I’ll give it to White; even after revealing his hand early on in the episode, he kept up a thrilling pace that had me yelling at the screen everything from “RUN, PORTIA!” to “JUST SWIM TO SHORE, TANYA!” and even, “OKAY, BUT EVEN IF HE’S GONNA KILL HER HE’S STILL HOT!”
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the resort, we got to see the rest of our storylines quite neatly resolved. Well, sort of.
Albie got played, as we always knew he would be. No matter what he says, he made a very easy mark. (Lucia was always in control of the narrative, was she not?)
Valentina got to let go of her work crush and found herself, instead, and got played in a very different way. (Mia got her way after all, didn’t she?)
Ditto Portia, who got to, well, learn in real time what was about to happen to her boss, only too late for her to do anything about it. (Okay, honestly…what is it about these characters who let themselves be played by pretty little things? Oh, they’re just regular people who are blinded by desire? Got it. Never mind. That makes sense.)
Indeed, stacking these various storylines together, White is fascinated with the ways in which we are most vulnerable when we let ourselves be guided by what (and who) we most want. Such vulnerability is a requirement, of course, of emotional and sexual intimacy. And yet it is also what most drives you to letting yourself be blindsided. The characters who most understand this (arguably Lucia and Mia, the two White chooses to close out the episode with) are the ones who better leverage it for themselves—and get us to root for them in the process.
In the case of Harper/Ethan (Aubrey Plaza/Will Sharpe) and Cameron/Daphne (Theo James/Meghann Fahy), those insecurities ran up against the confines of monogamy. Harper, and later Ethan’s search for “the truth” was nothing but a wish for them to acknowledge that their intimacy had been eroded by rote familiarity—and it was only once they unshackled themselves from it (presumably by making moves on that couple across the bolted doors) that they found one another. Can such honesty survive? Daphne, who’s found herself a trainer, and who has an uncanny ability to reframe whatever Cameron does behind her back as both necessary and immaterial, has clearly settled on a way that works for her. And, if that fade we get after she leads Ethan away from prying eyes is any indication, she may well have helped him do the same.
When we last see them both couples are blissful once more. As to whether they’ll be able to weather what’s to come or whether they’ll need constant “trips to Sicily” or the equivalent to keep the spark of their desires alive is, alas, not for us to know. But it’s as bleak as it is a hopeful image of longterm companionship—built on playing others and playing oneself for the sake of what you truly want yourself to want. Which is both, as the show suggests, tragic and operatic in equal measure—and, contrary to what the final song tells us, anything but free.
Stray observations
- Which do we think will become the runaway meme/GIF of the episode: “These gays, they’re trying to murder me” or “Our Achilles heel is our Achilles cock” or, maybe, “So you fuck your uncle”?
- Jennifer Coolidge, action star! Who knew this is what we wanted? But honestly, who else could’ve made that scene play both as comedy and tragedy? Watching her shoot at us (White rightfully letting us not see what she was witnessing, keeping us guessing until the end what was unfolding) was divine, like a carefully choreographed slapstick routine that ended in, well, murder.
- Okay, so now that we know The White Lotus is coming back for a third season we have several things we’ll want to know soon enough. Namely, where do we think we’re headed next? Mexico? A ski resort? Somewhere in South East Asia? The mind reels at where Mike White may want to take us next. But, more importantly, now that we’ve lost the anchor of seasons one and two, we have to wonder: Will someone from season two be carried over to season three and, if so, can it please be Aubrey Plaza’s Harper? (Maybe following her divorce from Ethan?)
- Also, how did we not even get an actual Laura Dern cameo? Might she, perhaps, be the DiGrasso we see in The White Lotus season three?
- Oh Portia and Albie…I can’t decide who got played more spectacularly. Maybe they do deserve each other.
- “When did the world become run by nuns?” You just know Cameron was one day away from bemoaning “woke culture.” Glad Harper finally got to chew him out even if it ended up being a tell in front of Ethan.
- Will Sharpe in a wet (lavender) tee. (Thank you, Mike White, for all you’ve done in objectifying your leading men and also in making us all feel like every beautiful man is a danger both to themselves and to others.)
- Can’t believe it took me this long to see that Jack had a “cowabunga” tattoo. That alone should’ve been a large enough red flag for Portia, don’t we think? Speaking of, what do we think will happen to Jack? Is the death of his “uncle” now the opportunity he needs to get out of the hole that was his life and start anew? (I doubt it, but a boy can dream!)
- I’m gonna miss staying at The White Lotus every Sunday, but at least its ululating theme song will live forever in my Spotify playlists.
303 Comments
Going into this ep, knowing she’d seen Greg’s picture and heard Greg’s phone calls and saw the uncle f***er in action, I was thinking, “maybe Tanya has hidden layers?”Then she asks Is Greg cheating on me?, instead of Is Greg trying to kill me? Nope, there’s just the one layer, and it’s Oreo cookie cake.
Oreos have three layers!
That part had me absolutely howling in laughter. This dying, scheming queen trying to pull himself up on to a couch and all of a sudden finds himself being interrogated by his near-victim and it’s about if Greg is…. having an affair.
I thought that scene was perfect as well as the unloading of the long story to the captain who just said he didn’t speak any English.
That was the most disappointing part of the ep, and of Tanya’s arc. Throughout the two seasons, while she’s portrayed as self-centered and largely clueless, she definitely had moments of surprising astuteness and clarity. Like she’s got her head in the clouds but had enough life experience to know when something was fishy. Her just completely missing out on all the clues and completely trusting the gays who she just met kind of seemed out of character.
it seemed perfectly in character, her biggest downfall is her ability to completely lose her sense of self the moment anyone shows her affection. She is desperate for any type of love, and her moments of clarity were those brief times she was able to be self aware.
Honestly I’m a little glad her character is gone – not that I don’t love her, of course. It was just a little much (in a show full of a lot of much).
Personally was disappointed by this episode. So much of what happened feels hollow in retrospect based on the outcomes. Cameron ultimately was a nothing-character. The show hinted that he may have financial problems or something nefarious in mind. But nope, he’s just a d-bag to such a degree that it’s amazing that Ethan would even still be in contact with him, much less agree to go vacationing with him.And then Ethan and Harper. Would anyone have cared if the end result was they got divorced? Or that they maybe (or probably) cheated on each other? These reviews spent so much time fawning over Aubrey Plaza but did the show ever establish their relationship as something worth caring about?The show also had a setup for Albie and his father to clash over their shared intamcy with Lucia. Instead the show seems to forget that Dominic ever had a dalliance with Lucia to begin with and just allows Albie to be conned for $50k, an amount so inconsequential to him or his father that neither seems to care much at all. Good for Lucia I guess?Even the plot with Tanya and Portia was rife with frustrating dumb stuff. Like why in the world does Portia opt to keep going along with Jack after her and Tanya realize what the scheme was? And Tanya just happens to hit every single person she’s trying to kill while shooting with her eyes half-closed? She’s smart enough to suss out a plot to assassinate her but not to realize that she can’t jump onto that boat?I hope for next season, they drop the “who dies” aspect altogether and just focus on telling a cohesive story. I really think the efforts to keep that mystery a surprise hurt the story overall.
I don’t believe Tonya was even smart enough to take the safety off the gun, let alone hit and kill everyone.
Also, who doesn’t bring a backup gun? Or at least keep the one gun on their person at all times?
One is not born knowing how to murder 5-8 persons.
Hi Americans, it surprise you to learn most of the rest of The World doesn’t really know ‘guns’ and gun rules. We just enjoyed it for what it was… but thanks for breaking down how this particular mass shooting wasn’t ‘realistic’. *eyeroll*
This. And even if she could have taken the safety off, I absolutely do not believe that Tanya could have fired one time without falling down or accidentally shooting herself. There’s no way she hits all of those guys. No way.
I agree it’s ridiculous, but then stranger shit has happened in real life. I’m fine with it. Her comical death shortly after takes some of the “oh come on” of it off.
Exactly!
I think a lot of this season was about how far someone is willing to lie about their instincts, at least in the portia/tanya plot, and then also about how giving into your instincts can be dangerous, with the ethan/harper plot
He didn’t “allow” Albie to be conned nor did he forget about that daliance. Dom knew it was a complete scam, but the 50k was worth it to him to rekindle his relationship with his wife and it worked. Beats having to go to therapy, marriage counseling one can suppose. Albie’s preaching was successful in making Dominic have a mea culpa in realizing what an awful father, husband, and womanizer he was and wanted to make amends and be a better person. Given his complete lack of surprise and disappointment, one gets the sense Albie was aware the whole time that he was getting scamed, but he got to repair the relationship between his father and mother and with his dad himself and also to help the “wounded bird” that he always wanted to. And given it’s dads money that’s “nothing to him” he didn’t care either way. He didn’t turn out to be such an incel after all.And also the point of the Ethan/Harper plotline you seemingly missed is that by both of them cheating on each other, they became Cam and Daphne themselves. That they both took Daphne’s advice and found other “outlets” and now are choosing to ignore each others infidelity, and in the process, Ethan was able to restore his intimacy by acknowledging and forgiving each other. Their relationship needed that to break the inertia. If anything, Cam and Daphne served as the perfect foil to both of them. Ethan went on that trip to show off to Cam that he’s no longer the nerd he used to pick on, but he wound up becoming like him while ironically saving his marriage.I do agree with you that the whole Tanya/Portia plotline ended on a stupid note between both of them acting like horror movie victims and Tanya going full Rambo. What sucks is that Greg’s plot actually worked as far as offing Tanya and might get her money and that Mike White was just trolling the audience by killing Tanya more than anything reasonable.
In regards to Greg getting away with his scheme, I think it is highly likely he does not. A small massacre involving several wealthy individuals is going to invite a major police investigation. A spouse offing their partner for a payout is one of the oldest crimes in the book and with the only individual with a clear motive (since there is no reason a bunch of rich gays would otherwise try to off Tanya) Greg would be the prime suspect. Now obviously people can and have still gotten away with crimes such as this but considering Quentin literally has a framed picture of a younger Greg on his bedroom mantle I don’t think these guys were very good at covering their tracks.
I don’t think Greg’s plot worked at all. There is a yacht full of dead guys, a bag with rope and duct tape, a photo of Greg in one of the dead guy’s bed room, and Portia knows exactly what happened. I’m sure Portia will be detained and questioned as soon as the plane touches down in the states. She has absolutely no reason to not tell the authorities everything she knows. Greg will go to prison for sure.
I’m quite unhappy that Greg gets Tanya’s money now, for all we know.
Wouldn’t there be an investigation with all roads leading to Greg as the culprit? Portia can certainly testify about their last phone conversation. And it seems to me Greg is now at the top of the mafia’s shit list, having gotten one of their prettiest men killed. Feels reasonable to believe that neither the mob nor law enforcement is going to let this slide.
I hate Greg so much. It’s pure evil.
He might not. The circumstances around Tanya’s death are very sketchy and the police might be able to uncover the link between Quentin and Greg.
Especially since this is the very corrupt and incompetent Italian police we’re dealing with here.
Mike White himself says that Greg may not be in the clear:“I think as far as what happens to Greg and the conspiracy of Tanya’s death, it’s possible that I think Portia is scared enough to just leave it alone, but the fact that all of those guys die on the boat, it feels like there’s gotta be somebody who’s gonna track it down to Greg,” he said. “But maybe you’ll have to wait to find out what happens.”https://deadline.com/2022/12/the-white-lotus-creator-mike-white-unpacks-season-2-finale-deaths-ties-loose-ends-teases-season-3-1235196188/
I think you should really take that: “But maybe you’ll have to wait to find out what happens” line to heart here.
I wonder if it would be tied up for ages, given the nature of her death?
Also, note to Ethan and Harper, open marriages exist.
On Albie and Dom – I didn’t mean Dom, the character, forgot about his dalliance. I meant the show did. Him having sex with Lucia and Mia ultimately didn’t matter at all to the way their plots ended. You could have completely cut those scenes out and ended up with the same ending without straining too much.On Ethan and Harper – I know the popular reading was they turned into Cameron and Daphne. My point was more why should I, as a viewer, care about that? There was nothing shown that made you invested in them having a faithful marriage or relationship to begin with given they seemed unhappy even before the events of the series.
Again, that’s where you’re wrong. The show didn’t forget about it, it made it a critical component of Albie and Dom’s relationship and Dom’s mea culpa for the reasons that I mentioned. Dom’s horror at Albie sleeping with a prostitute, let alone the same one he slept with, on top of Albie’s preaching made him think and realize that he is a bad father. Like Cam, she also turned out to be a perfect foil.And I think you’re still missing the whole idea behind the Cam/Ethan/Daph/Harper plot. Ethan and Harper were faithful and loyal to each other at the start of the season. Ethan may have had intimacy issues, but he never cheated. Cam and Daph came along and shattered that and made them both do things that was unthinkable to them, and now they’re different people that took Daphne’s advice. It’s an interesting look at how some married couples and people like them cope with infidelity and toxicity issues, which is to bury them and forget about it.
I don’t agree with your opinion or your approach of calling someone’s interpretation of the show “wrong.” I didn’t think the show did enough with Dom personally. I never saw horror on his face, just slight discomfort. You could easily have taken out him hooking up with Lucia and replaced it with him learning Lucia was a prostitute and his discomfort level, as shown, likely doesn’t change much at all. I also never got the sense that he truly changed or became a better father – he abstains from his sexual addiction for a week and avoids having a real conversation with his son the second he realizes that his son will help repair his marriage for $50k. I also didn’t miss anything of what you said about the quartet of vacationing friends. I just said I didn’t find that very interesting because the characters themselves, outside of Daphne, weren’t that interesting to me. That’s a matter of opinion though – have no issues if you and others enjoyed it.
Yes, you are wrong. There is nothing wrong with being wrong if you are able to accept to be corrected. If you claim to be about mature discourse, part of it is accepting that you may always be right and not taking it personal when someone calls you out on it.
Where you are wrong is your interpretation of Dom. Dom went through a classic redemption arc. He confronted Bert and told him what a bad father and role model he was and how his treatment towards his mother was and towards women was bad. He completely stops his sexual addiction and tries to reach out to his ex-wife. He actually listened to and considered Albie when he could’ve just ignored him and seemed genuinely concerned that he was being scammed by Lucia. That long walk on the beach he did showing him watching happy families seemingly hit home for him and there was a sad, pained expression on his face. That 50k he paid is symbolism that he’s willing to pay any price to repair relations with his family, which as I said, is better than paying a therapist. I’m not sure what you wanted him to do specifically, but as far as a realistic reaction and change, it’s the best of what we get for this type of show.
I frankly don’t care if I am wrong or not about my interpretation of a TV show, I find it a bit ridiculous for you to prop up your own interpretation as fact though. I already made some of these points but just to do it again.I’ve already made my arguments on why I think Dom hasn’t really changed. A couple days of abstinence doesn’t prove much at all and his decision to help Albie is clearly at least partially based on his self-serving desire to reconcile with his wife. I would agree that it was a good moment for him to tell off his own father but he also deflects his own behavior on his father in that scene, blaming his behavior on what he observed his father doing.IMO true cathersis for him as a character would have been if he was ever open and honest with his son and if he ever accepted that he made mistakes that he shouldn’t recover from. He doesn’t do that. He just feels sorry for himself and takes the easy road out where he doesn’t have to confess his sins and buys his son’s forgiveness. I don’t believe for one second he has changed for good and don’t think any of the things you mention back up that he has.And again, fine with me if you want to have whatever interpretation you have. But stop presenting it as a fact as if you know for sure how a fictional character is going to act after the events of a show we just watched.
If you don’t care then why are you so hellbent on angrily insisting on being right? Again, for someone who claims arguing with people online about TV shows is “fun” you sure don’t seem to be having fun doing this. Again, getting this agitated on a Monday morning over a fictional TV show is no way to live my dude. Repeating myself again, you may not agree with the way the route they chose to go with Dom’s redemption arc, but you are wrong to think that it’s not a redemption arc when it clearly was and something you clearly didn’t understand. Even Mike White himself made it clear he’s making it that way. Whether or not he actually does is up to us, but you are very wrong that Dom did not realize he’s a bad father when he very clearly has.
I am not positioning my interpretation as right or wrong at all – you’re the one doing that. I don’t believe intepretations of ambigious scenes can be right or wrong. I am just offering my read on the interpretation, much of which you haven’t even reacted to.If you had started your reply with “I disagree” or even said “I disagree and you’re wrong about this one detail”, I would not have had any issues. I just don’t like the idea that interpretations of scenes like the ones you mentioned can be flat right or wrong.And yes, I can agree Dom realizes he has been a bad father. If I indicated otherwise, I was wrong on that. But I also think he self-justifies his behaviors at least partially when he blames his father for how he turned out. And I also think he doesn’t really atone for being a bad father and takes the easiest path out by giving Lucia $50k.
But it wasn’t ambiguous. They made it clear that it was a redemption arc, what i’ve been saying over and over here is that you disagree with the execution. You’ve just been so emotional; you didn’t even see we actually agree here. And on that point, I and no one said he has fully atoned and been perfect, but that he did actively take steps to be better and that’s a more realistic take. A rich person would take the easy route by dumping loads of money on it thinking it’ll solve that problem.
I’m not emotional or agitated – lol. That’s in your head. I’m just replying to you as directly as I can in the middle of work meetings. And in pretty much the same tone you are using with me.If the writers have said Dom is meant to be on a redemption arc then I agree with your statement, I don’t think it was executed well. I didn’t consider Dom redeemed by the end of the series. Can leave it as simple as that.
Wouldn’t you agree that you both can be right? It is a redemption arc of sorts, yes, but also not a great one? AKA isn’t wrong in that rather than doing the hard work, Dom is simply paying for a fix by giving Albie $50k in exchange for a good word with his wife. And isn’t that what the last scene in the airport is supposed to convey? Maybe Dom has been redeemed, but also maybe not and instead Albie is following in the path of the other men in his family.
Because you both seem to want him to be a perfect angel with a 100% turnaround, but that’s not how it works with guys like him in real life and as you both seemingly missed all of the subtle behavior changes he did up to the end which is why this show is so great. That the road to redemption is literally filled with potholes. And no it’s not “paying for a fix”, especially since he refused to do it in the first place and it was only after Albie persisted, especially with that compromise. If anything he did it because he loves Albie and his mother so much, that he was willing to “pay a price” so to speak. If he didn’t pay the money, then he’d be on non-speaking terms with Albie too and how does that help him?
I don’t think Dom has been redeemed. The last shot of all three DiGrasso men turning to leer at the woman in the airport made me think the tigers do not change their stripes.
I’m not sure anybody turns into anybody.I’ve seen these interpretations bandied about: Ethan and Harper are the new Cam and Daphne. Albie is the new Dom/Bert. Yes. We can share dark elements as human, even though we strive for other ideals and values. But then doesn’t mean we are identical to another person, or that we have absolutely no differences after all.It’s interesting because we can be hypocritical. But that’s not the full story, and we are capable of making different choices than our predecessors. Albie and Dom are evidence of that. Ethan and Harper – I’m not sure, but all we can do is speculate. I do not believe they’re the same as Cam and Daphne. I only have my belief to go on.
i mean, you could make the ‘why should i, as a viewer care about that?’ point about anything that happened on this how.
Re: Albie and Dom – you’re right about Dom’s encounters ultimately not mattering to the outcome, plot-wise.However, I think Dom in the end was passing the torch on to the younger generation. He stopped caring about the fact that his son was sleeping with the woman he’d slept with, stopped trying to prevent his son from making mistakes with women, and just let it go. He accepted that he’s becoming an old guy who needs to reconcile with his wife. He’s doing what his father did – cheat on his wife, but keep her happily in the dark.
If Dom had never slept with Lucia (and Mia), there wouldn’t be that subtext of him needing to step aside so that his son can have his spot in the sun (of shitty relationships).There wouldn’t be that sense of Dom having to confront himself as to why it was OK for him to sleep with prostitutes, but not okay for his son. And ultimately he decided it was okay. (Again, this is just my interpretation – it wasn’t really blatant in the show.)Plus, I enjoyed the comedic tension in the middle of the season, where it felt like Dom was bursting to warn his son off.The vast majority of White Lotus plots are like the Great Gatsby. “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”Few characters end up changing for the better. At best, they accept their flaws, quit halving qualms of morality, and embrace their rich assholery.
I’m pretty sure there was a line about Mia passing out early and the threesome not technically happening. Only Lucia had actual sex with Dom.
Dominic hiring Lucia was necessary to show how he was consciously changing his life/ways in the hopes of reconciling with his wife.
It’s almost like they didn’t watch the episode. Albie had a transaction with Dom. Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.
Does Dom really want to be better though? His eyes start wandering at the airport right away.
Yeah it wouldn’t quite be an operatic death if Greg gets the money. I think more if Portia was talking to the cops AND Tanya died. Tragic operas were usually like “everyone dies now- either good then bad or bad then good get ready guys”. I didn’t understand why Portia didn’t try to flag down a cop. I’m not sure I would’ve trusted Jack after all that. But she did seem kind of wifty in general
I wouldn’t trust a police officer in Sicily where these gay mafia men are from. They’d turn her over to them immediately. Portia made the best call of listening to Jack and just getting the fuck outta there.
I cared about Ethan and Harper, and I liked the show ended with them emerging the more connected couple.If anyone were to find the bodies, it seems Daphne has an otherworldy ability to put misdeeds out to sea so it seemed telling that she quite literally comes up against a dead body. I think things will shift for her and Cameron’s ability to remain so disconnected from the real parts of each other, for better or worse.Cameron was always meant to be a nothing character. The comedy is how we allow these nothing men to operate the world we live in.
Were they more connected though, or did they just transform themselves into Cam and Daphne?The shot of the four of them in the airport, Ethan and Harper sitting in the exact same “can’t keep their hands off each other” way as Cam and Daphne, the same way Harper mocked at the start of the season, was telling to me something not good about their relationship.
I hope next season is with Daphne and her trainer.
White seemed to planting a few seeds to still be explored in ther marriage and family. He even wink-winked at some of the hidden depths in their relationship in the Behind-the-Episode. It wouldn’t shock me if this wasn’t the last we saw of Daphne and Cameron.
My guess is it’ll focus on Tanya in an Adia country.
Um…as a corpse?
Um..spoiler?
Are you joking? This is literally a review for the episode. One would assume you’re commenting on an article you just read.
Um..spoiler?
Why are you reading a recap of the finale if you haven’t seen it?
Now I’m confused. You know this is a thread about the finale, right?
Are you really full on in the comments talking about who will return for the third season before you even watched the finale??
Wheres adia?
Daphne ands Cameron did mention going to the Maldives next year…
I was sad to see Tonya go but she certainly had a surprising and memorable ending. I’m not sure if Portia and Tonya were stupid or just in shock. I’m not sure how I’d react if I were basically kidnapped in a country where I don’t know the language BUT I think I would try to get away. At least Portia called Tonya. Albie turned out to be much more grounded than it seemed at first when there was speculation that he was going to do the killings. He is going to turn completely into his father and grandfather though.Cameron seemed more into flossing than his kid. Does he know it’s not his kid?I was really happy that Lucia and Mia both had happy endings and Valentina too.Hopefully Ethan and Harper divorce rather than turn into Cam and Daphne.
I’m so glad that Matteo (Francesco Zecca) wasn’t on the boat. His amazing hair lives on.
That Groucho Marx-looking mother fucker really lucked out.
He actually seemed legitimately sad about what he knew was planned for Tanya. I think that’s why he stayed behind at the villa, even if he wasn’t disapproving enough to help Tanya escape or even warn her.
I felt like he stayed back because he knew what they were going to do–he had tears in his eyes when he said goodbye to her. And yes. That his hair lives on.
I think Jack inherits all that stuff from his uncle. From penniless Australian uncle-fucker to Sicilian gentry. That’s something I want to see.
Mike White did the best directing I’ve ever seen from him tonight, showing how he was a master manipulator and creator of suspense. Every scene was meant to confuse us to what was actually going on, ambiguous, while ratcheting up the tension. Tanya on the boat felt it could have been a very giant, comical misunderstanding based on a hard-to-believe contrivance that Greg was the guy in the photo but had nothing to do with the plot. But no, the show went full on genre with a brilliantly directed and very tragic ending. I said “oh no” when poor Tanya fell overboard and hit her head. I was hoping the shot of her in the ocean, she’d open her eyes. Nope, White was that ruthless. (I feel maybe too ruthless with Portia who will have to live with that guilt for the rest of her life.)
While I didn’t much care for Ethan and Harper as a married couple, I’m glad someone got a happy ending, and their reconnection was tender. Seeing their Ghosts of Marriage Future in the weird, cognitive dissonant marriage of Cameron and Daphne. Meghann Fahy was exceptional in a handful of scenes showing Daphne’s hurt and willful oblviousness. I think I’m sticking to my theory that she didn’t even have a trainer lover: she told Ethan that you do whatever you have to to get by, including “using your imagination.” So maybe she’s never had an affair. She looked hurt when Harper and Ethan mentioned Cameron’s cheating after all and maybe that wouldn’t be the reaction if she’s sleeping around too.
Welp, I was wrong in wanting to believe that Lucia wasn’t playing Albie. But I didn’t realize it was to have enough money so she could stop the sex work, which makes her sympathetic. I liked Mia helping Valentina with expressing her gayness. Though I wish the latter had gotten an ending. For me the MVP of the season has been Sabrina Impacciatore.A terrific season. I liked it better than the first.
I also like this better than the first, that being a little too smug in the low-hanging fruit of “aren’t rich people the worst?”Are we supposed to assume that Mia didn’t know that she was going to incapacitate the piano player (forget his name)? I’m guessing they would have made it more obvious if she was doing that intentionally; I figure they’re just leaving it as “an accident, but one she’s happy about.”
In this post-Succession world, eat-the-rich satire is a dime a dozen – but where else can you find Jennifer Coolidge massacring a group of gay mobsters?
Tanya going full on John Wick wasn’t on my bingo card.
Where else indeed. That’s my favorite quote of the day.
As someone with no experience with ED medication I only recently found out that certain ones can apparently be fatal when mixed with alcohol, and that knowledge happened to coincide with that episode. But I would imagine that Mia almost certainly knew that, and was likely banking on it once it became apparent he would need said medication, opportunist that she is.
Definitely better than season 1. Season 1 had this awful at times “old white guy trying to talk about woke changes” vibe and it came off as something someone on twitter would rant about. This season kept that mostly off the screen (Albie had some takes, but it wasn’t as frequent as Steve Zahn and Brittan O’Grady in season 1…honestly it just felt so forced last season!)
Yeah, Daphne’s visceral reaction to Ethan’s news was the best scene in the episode. She was so hurt not only because Cam cheated on her again, but because Harper betrayed her in a sense. She tried to hard to have a girl friend in Harper, but Harper betrayed her, just like all of the other girls.
Aubrey Plaza is getting the buzz, but Meghann Fahy turned in a great performance, one of the best of the group, IMO.
Her dialogue with Ethan about “you don’t have to know everything about your partner, there is intrigue in the mystery” was a truthbomb delivered beautifully in her tone and especially the registrations on her face both familiar and a bit heartbreaking.Daphne then insisting Ethan join her to see the palazzo atop the rock, her leading him along the walk, turning back seductively to continue following was brilliant. It worked two ways, Daphne showing Ethan that appearances can be misleading or was there at least a kiss and embrace that we did not see that Daphne gifted Ethan to realize her pointOr both?
I’m thinking that they did actually hook up. And in the process, it helped restore Ethan’s mojo and intimacy with Harper while helping them both transition over to being a Cam/Daphne-esque couple.
I think they definitely hooked up as well. Ethan felt finally masculated by having someone who belonged to Cameron. His renewed virality stemmed from that. That conversation and subsequent walk with Daphne showing Ethan the way forward was so well done, and Ethan and Harper revitalising their marriage sexually that night after coupling with Daphne and Cam- or at least flirting with the idea – was officially their transformation towards a life with money and the new relationship dynamics Daphne and Cam laid out for them. Quite cynical depending on how you look at it given the principles they came in with, unless you felt saving their marriage supersedes that.
We’ll never know what happened between then but I still got the impression they didn’t have sex and she just showed him a way to compartmentalize things or to just let go of things if you really love your partner. I mean, she knows her husband is cheating, she’s just choosing not to let it get to her or to bother her.
God her face-acting alone, I don’t know how she does it. Shifting her eyes from surprised, to sad, to just disappointed, to actually unsurprised, to carefree, to devious, to seductive over the course of like 90 seconds.
Fahy deserves an Emmy for that scene alone. What a knockout performance
Way better than S1 IMO. More fascinating story and a much-improved cast.
I felt he was kind to Portia, I don’t think she was intended to live by our gays. I felt terrified when her phone was missing and Jack wrapped his arm around her. I think they played Portia how a lot of people would react in that situation, her docile politeness in not running both almost killing her and then saving her was hilarious in itself.Tanya finally takes her first step towards some independence, and in true comedy of errors, slips and dies. Coolidge really performed the shit out of that shooting, it was amazing.I don’t think we are supposed to be believe that Lucia is finally done being a sex worker. She just seemed happy to finally have a whole piece of pie (which is crumbs for Albie’s family) She was always sympathetic, whether or not she did sex work. Albie sold out his mom while behaving exactly like his father, and I don’t think any of those men are going to change. Lucia, Mia and Valentina got their karmic payment for once in finally, even for a brief moment, giving these working women what they wanted.
Now it makes sense why Greg was so upset with Tanya early in the season when she brought Portia along.
The murder plot was so incredibly poorly thought out who KNOWS what they had in mind. Certainly Quentin didn’t seem fazed at all when Portia called Tanya, you’d think he’d be more concerned if he thought she was dead/had escaped being killed. This whole “give her a nice evening” before killing her idea is also ridiculous. And then they spent hours moored in sight of Taormina in broad daylight, when Tanya could have easily called for help or tried to swim ashore. If anything, they should have given her an overdose during the palazzo party. A houseful of guests could attest she was taking drugs of her own free will, and a little bribe could make the investigation go away. On the other hand, a wealthy tourist showing up bound in duct tape and shot in the head would be an international incident!
I had an issue with this whole plot. I hate it when characters only act a certain way because it’s necessary for the story and not at all in keeping with what we know about the characters to be. Portia is told at the end how dangerous these people are and it is clearly indicated that this is a professional hit job. So, being the professionals they are, why do they repeatedly and publicly spend time with Tanya when they are being paid to kill her? Why not just invite her to a party on the yacht the night they meet at the bar. Then they can quietly off her before anyone knows there is even a connection. They could quietly shoot her in the back of the head in as the dingy approaches the yacht and she’s now just a missing tourist. She was invited to a party she never showed up to, only witness is the dingy driver who was also the murderer. Portia can still have her dalliance, as a way to keep her from attending the party and being on the dingy at murder time. What’s with the days of public wining and dining. It makes no sense. These characters would not act this way. They do so only in the service of the plot which makes it all so hard to suspend disbelief. If you absolutely had to show the “gay mafia” giving Tanya a grand tour of Palermo, fine, but change the circumstances leading up to the eventual fateful night. The characters they created, don’t match the story they told.
Totally. The setup makes sense if they were going to blackmail her or have her die of an overdose, but if you’re going to just shoot her, why even bother being seen with her publicly to begin with, let alone taking her to Quentin’s home??? Tanya isn’t traveling with a security guard or anything and could have been picked off at any time. As it is, if the plan had come off the first thing police would do is interview the people who saw her last.
Totally. The setup makes sense if they were going to blackmail her or
have her die of an overdose, but if you’re going to just shoot her, why
even bother being seen with her publicly to begin with, let alone taking
her to Quentin’s home???
I have to believe they weren’t going to shoot her, that would be dumb as hell.
She was meant to have a “boating accident” and drown. Maybe the gun was to keep her under control as they drugged her and pushed her overboard or something. Or maybe well hung mafia guy just always carries a gun, as he said. He is in the mafia after all.
I think part of it is that if they’re as powerful as Jack says, they don’t care about the police/prosecutors in Sicily at all.
idk, I feel if you’re takeaway of this is it didn’t work logically, then you’re ignoring the roots of the storytelling. It is a big operatic Italian tragicomedy, and anything less wouldn’t have worked thematically.
i took the final scene with Lucia and Mia (and Alessio) to imply they were off to run another scam on the next group of tourists. Thay made about 60000 euros this week, why do you feel this was the first (or the last) time that they “got their karmic payment for once”? I felt one of the themes of the show was understanding the transactional nature of relationships (sex, money, power) and who better to show this to everyone else but Lucia and Mia.
I meant karmic in a good way, that they got their just payment, the karmic payment they were owed that Albie mentioned (while he completely misunderstood that he was part of the problem)
Oh, I think she cheated with her trainer and I think Cam knows the kid isn’t his by the annoyed look he had when she wanted him to talk to “his” son while he was flossing.
Oh no, Daphne very much had a trainer lover and Cameron knew that she did. That was the point of the scene which showed Daphne on the phone with her kids, not their kids, and Cameron’s flossing his teeth.
You can certainly agree, right, that it’s meant to be ambiguous? Nothing in the show’s universe confirms this is true. Jesus Christmas sometimes I’m annoyed to talk to my 4 year old because he goes on and on about nonsense. He’s 4! And he’s definitely mine!I think it MIGHT be the case that this kid is her trainer’s, but my takeaway is that is not the case.
Just catching up, and my thought it that it’s certainly meant to be ambiguous to us viewers (although I think they’re absolutely the trainer’s kids from that shot of them on the phone), but it’s also made fairly clear that Cameron doesn’t think it’s ambiguous at all.
Why were you glad that anyone had a happy ending?
Speaking for myself, because constantly watching everyone be miserable is not great entertainment, subjectively.
Where is it indicated that Lucia is going to stop sex work? She got $50K from Albie, plus the money Cam owed her. That might last a year. Considering the way she shops, it’ll be less than that.Unlike 90% of other sex worker roles, Lucia is not getting punished for doing what she does. There’s no reason for her to hang around for the next batch of marks to drop in.
the old school stigma towards sex workers on here by other commenters is yucky lol, bunch of Albie’s.
ON EDIT: There’s no reason for Lucia to NOT hang around for the next batch of marks to drop in.
Lucia mentioned in E4 she was trying to save money to open her own shop. I assume she didn’t €50,000 as a random figure; it’s probably how much she needed to make those plans come true and leave sex work for good.Does this mean she’ll actually never pull tricks again? Who knows.
Didn’t she say her dream was to earn enough to open a shop?
I loved the repeated theme of “The real sin of cheating is not the infidelity itself, but the victimization.” It’s more about power than sex. Daphne (multiple times): “You gotta do whatever you need so you don’t feel like the victim”Bert: “A man does what he needs to do – but you don’t get sloppy, because then it’s like you’re rubbing her face in it. Poor form.” And lastly, Tanya: “Is Greg having an affair?” After learning that Greg has literally hired a mafia hitman to MURDER her, she’s only worried about being in the dark about his cheating. Harper and Ethan end up happy despite both cheating, BECAUSE they’re BOTH cheating – and so they are power equals again. Daphne and Cam live blissfully-ish this way as well. A delightfully amoral moral.
We suspected Tanya and Greg’s prenuptial had an unfaithfulness clause, and they were only angling for *half* her money until the bag reveal, so the ambiguity worked for us too.
Daphne and Cameron should teach marriage classes: How JUST Enough Dysfunction Can Lead to a Happy Marriage.
How do you know Mia was raising money so she can stop sex work? I didn’t catch that. Was there any indication she wanted to give up her job?
The wrap up video has White hinting at S3’s location.
What did they hint?
What was it, something about exploring death and spirituality? I got Eat Pray Love vibes.
Better to let Jennifer Coolidge’s Tanya go out with a bang (bang! bang! bang! kerplunk!) than have us suffer through another season in which her charms would’ve, perhaps, began to grow a tad old.No “perhaps” about it. Tanya was already an unwelcome presence in the first episode of this season.
Also, how did we not even get an actual Laura Dern cameo? Might she, perhaps, be the DiGrasso we see in The White Lotus season three?Doubtful, since we saw Dominic weeping while looking at a photo of his wife (not Laura Dern) and daughter.
Or to see one of the DiGrasso men come to terms with their own mortality (and maybe, in the process, teach the other two about how to better understand the women in their lives).You know that’s the whole point of Dominic’s character arc and exactly what Albie did to his father? That Albie successfully convinced his father what a terrible husband and womanizer he is, which in turn, convinced him to do the same to Bert and what motivated him to reach out to make amends with his ex-wife to the point he threw away 50k on a scam in order to reconnect with her?
So Jack actually was fucking his uncle? Huh…didn’t see that coming
In that scene, neither could his “uncle”.
As a gay man that once dated a boy in college that I came to find was doing the same thing with his uncle, I can believe it.
Uh no he was not
I don’t know if we can trust Jack’s insistence that it’s really his uncle.
Between House of the Dragon and this uncle fucking is a having a big year.
No….
OK, off-topic, but this is a public service announcement to anyone who hasn’t seen Giri/Haji on Netflix to check it out now! It’s hard to believe that it’s the same Will Sharpe (who is Mr Aubrey Plaza in this season of White Lotus) that steals the show in Giri/Haji by taking the hooker-with-a-heart trope and delivering a breath-taking performance (he won a BAFTA for the role of “drug-addicted half-Japanese sex worker”).Kind of annoying that Netflix churns out a lot of rubbish that autoplays whenever you log on, but they pumped money into the Tokyo-and-London shot Giri/Haji and didn’t bother to promote it. It’s got a Yakuza versus Albanian gang battle! A lesbian coming-of-age subplot! And a black-and-white dance number that had me bawling my eyes out. And of course Will Sharpe, whose one-liners had me laughing long after he’d deliered them!
That show got cancelled over two years ago.
Really?! It just popped up in my Netflix recommended. I was going to check it out. Man, Netflix is so full of trash that when you find a gem, it’s already been broken.
Really?! It just popped up in my Netflix recommended.Same here – just got a recommendation last week – binged the whole thing in a weekend. Ignore the troll calling it “long cancelled” like that speaks to the quality of the series, or the merit in it being recommended today. It plays like a movie with a beginning, middle and definite end – so it feels very complete, and as much as I loved it, I’m glad they didn’t draw it out with another season.
That show got cancelled over two years ago …… and so therefore? (Your comment feels incomplete – what point were you trying to communicate?)
I dunno, what’s your point in talking about a long ago canceled, one season show that just happened to have the same actor in it?
Oh I see, you’re just being an annoying troll.Go fuck yourself.
Ah, yes the ole “anyone who disagrees with me and my dumbass arguments is a troll” childish bullshit.Is this really all you got? Do you really have nothing better to do with your time, acting like a child on the internet?
OMG, I loved Giri/Haji and had no idea that was the same actor.
I know! It really does feel like two different actors played both roles, between the hair, the voice, the energy … he deserved that BAFTA, and no doubt would have been up for an Emmy had Giri/Haji been seen by more people …
Will Sharpe is also one of the best young TV directors right now (Landscapers, Flowers). His feature ‘The Electrical Life of Louis Wain’ with Benedict Cumberbatch is pretty good too but his shows are damn near perfect.
Will Sharpe is also one of the best young TV directors right now (Landscapers, Flowers). Wow! So he’s directed Olivia Colman in two separate critically-acclaimed series – neither of which I’d heard of before the replies in this comment thread! Thanks for bringing them to my attention!
Sharpe is so, so good in Giri/Haji, and that show was better than it was very recognized as in the US. I’m glad he got accolades in the UK for it, but it absolutely should have made a bigger splash in the US. But Netflix can’t get out of it’s own way.
Interesting show that went nowhere, and had a WTF ending.
Sharpe is a man of many talents. He directed Olivia Colman and David Thewlis to good effect in the limited series The Landscapers.
Check out FLOWERS, too, if you haven’t already.
Thank you! This was bothering me this whole season where I recognized Will Sharpe from. Such a wildly different character that I never would have thought of Giri/Haji.
Thanks for these very fine reviews.Can I also just make sure everyone knows, as I’m feeling very smug – CALLED IT in the comments last week:
“I’m going for a left-field pick for the deceased. Tanya. Perhaps she was the link between S1 and S2, and they’ll dispose of her, and for S3 we’ll get one of the other Sicily characters at another resort – maybe Aubrey Plaza.”I’m never right about anything, so basking in my own glory.
The first time I watched Tanya’s death I was near tears. The second time I laughed so hard I nearly passed out. What a phenomenal character. A+ episode.
That sound.
It was both kind of a sickening thud, but somehow also hilarious.
It reminded me of Kristin Davis’ death in Melrose Place.
Yes! Hilarious Looney Tunes sound effect!
It made the same clanging clunk that her phone made when she dropped it. So, foreshadowing!
Seems unlikely Dern would play the character since it clearly wasn’t her in the photograph
Everyone going nuts trying to figure out who’s going to die, while Mike White is just thinking “Guys, I really don’t make it that complicated.”
What’s interesting is that the show isn’t really a murder mystery, in the sense that it doesn’t drop clues that could help you predict the ending and who dies. One character goes out on an operatic note and that’s that, while the rest end up with a far more subdued conclusion. It’s really the music that changes how everything is perceived in this show, since most of it isn’t really as melodramatic as it’s made out to be.
I thought sure it’d be Aubrey Plaza cause she left her hat on the bed.Just like Heather Graham in Drug Store Cowboy.
I hated this ending!!! I was so blown they killed Tonya.
I’m mostly hoping the connecting character for season 3 is Greg. Maybe even with a Portia cameo (somehow).
Having a laugh at how many people are enthralled by this hollow, pointless show, with its remarkably dumb and imperceptive characters.
My guess is Portia will be the returning character. We’ll see her visiting a new White Lotus with her boyfriend Albie, they’ll be celebrating their first anniveresary. She’ll take over Tanya as a messy woman with low self esteem and questionable fashion sense.
There were a lot of bad guys in this episode, but Albie was one of the worst. People keep going on about how he was played, but how about the way he played his own mother in exchange for money to give his girlfriend/sex worker? Like that scene in the airport shows, with all 3 generations of the men in this family ogling that pretty woman walking by, they’ve learned that it’s ok to be deceptive and manipulative because it’s just harmless collateral damage when you’re charmed by a cute young girl.
I loved the deceptive darkness of how that storyline ended up. Albie sold out his mother and will likely resent his father AND mother even more.
On top of that, seeing all three generations ogling that girl in the end – ultimately Albie is now exactly like his father and grandfather. He tried hard, arguing with them about their behavior and their lack of awareness. Now coming out of what he did at the end, left him unredeemed because he’s no different than the previous generations of men in his family even if he rekindled the interest of Portia.
That’s what made the whole scam at least pay off. Like we knew it was a scam. His father knew this was a scam but he gave him the money anyway in a desperate attempt to reconcile with his wife. And then Albie kind of just plainly admits to Portia he got scammed at least left like they weren’t trying to make a bigger deal out of it.
I felt bad for him when Portia stood him up but dude just went up to the number one on the a-hole list after that scene.
Albie is just such a weird name to go by outside your family.Why not just Al?
As long as he’s not Albie Grant from Big Love …
I actually thing of the 3 generations, Albie has the potential to be the most destructive. He’ll be just as sleezy and manipulative as his father, but with the ability to navigate the woke culture with its own terminology. I’ve always found sleezy assholes with that kind of self awareness to be downright dangerous.
Maybe I’m in the minority, but I thought that was a terrible finale of a weak season. The Tanya plot was so over the top ridiculous, and for the rest of the characters, they pretty much all ended up exactly as they started. Maybe the whole “being rich is hard” theme just grated on me more this season than last, but I thought this was a huge step down. It was a really well directed episode though, I’ll give White that.
You’re definitely in the minority, yes
Every character and every plot felt like they filmed the first draft of White’s notes full of leftover ideas that (rightfully) didn’t make it into Season 1. This was probably the biggest dropoff in season-to-season quality since Downton Abbey’s first-to-second season.
I’m in the minority along with you. I hated the episode and I hated the way they handled the Tanya storyline. At the end of the episode I had a lot of questions as to who exactly these “dangerous people” were, and where exactly Greg went, whether Portia was supposed to be killed, and so forth.I posed these questions on another website, and got mocked. I was told I should stick to “Law and Order” if I can’t understand “The White Lotus.”
Yeah, falling back on “Duh — Sicilians! Criminals! That’s all you need to know!” feels lazy and they could definitely have provided more details on this plot/these characters.
I was also annoyed over the ambiguity over the “dangerous gay Sicilian/English/French-mafia party throwers, who are really broke but have enough power to borrow yachts and palazzos.”My guesses would be high end sex traffickers, the PR-wing of the modern Sicilian mafia, or maybe historical society preservationists gone rogue. I remember Greg was supposedly into land management. Although, I am now thinking that was a cover like Waste management.
Totally agree. I found this finale offensive, cynical and borderlie homophobic. But then I’m an old romantic who doesn’t believe everyone is driven solely by narcissism.
I agree. To me the hype with this series will die down and in a few years it will be revisited as not that great.
You may be in the minority, but you’re not alone. To me, it was very thin, but because it’s White Lotus (aka prestige TV), a lot of the thinness got passed off as purposeful. A lot of people read a lot of depth into the things that went unsaid, but in the end there wasn’t a lot of “there” there. The Tanya plot was bad. Bad. In the first season she was adrift and sad and you could see how she used people. But Jesus Christ they made her so fucking stupid. Mike White talked in the post-show clip about how much he loved the character, but the show treated her in ways that were pretty spiteful by continually making her act stupider and stupider way past the point it was clear that she should have known she was getting scammed. There were just too many moments in this finale where I said, “Oh come the fuck on” to my TV. Portia had about 87 chances to get away from Jack and ask for help. The minute her phone went missing she should have gone to the hotel front desk and called Tanya or arranged for transportation back to Taormina. Tanya could have called the hotel or the police from the boat to get a ride back to the hotel. She could have actually communicated what she needed to the captain, who did not appear to be in on the plot. There was a whole lot of Idiot Plot trope going on. The Ethan/Harper relationship was so underdeveloped. At least with couples like Nicole and Mark in season 1, you eventually learned a lot of what was at the heart of their dysfunction. Ethan and Harper just moped around an unspoken problem. There was so much more there that could have been developed. Aubrey Plaza and Will Sharpe was great, but the scripts did them no favors. Likewise, there was a lot more about the DiGrasso men that could have been teased out, a lot more subtext that could have been played around with. Instead, Burt goes back to being Burt (after that great emotional beat that F. Murray Abraham delivered last week in the wake of their failed homecoming). Dom buys his way out of trouble but doesn’t really seem to have changed all that much.All in all, this season seemed a lot more hollow, with a few exceptions (holy shit, Meghann Fahy was the breakout star—but she was also the only one whose role was meaty enough to call for a whole lot of nuance.).
you’re not in the minority. the ending wasn’t good. Tonya became impossible to watch. Her dumb as a doorknob character was played out
The ending would have been so much better without the “murder bag” reveal. I liked that they were making it a little ambiguous about whether they were really trying to kill her, or just preparing to ask her for money. Not to mention she’d be more more likely to shoot her own foot than successfully shoot three or four people to death.
Didn’t we already know that Niccolo was a professional gangster? He’s just carrying with him the tools of his trade.
I don’t claim to be a gangster expert, but I’m guessing they don’t routinely walk around with a duffel bag containing a gun, rope, and duct tape, especially on social occasions.
My thought: Is learning how to shoot a mandatory Rich People Thing? Like Amber Gemstone?
Yeah, I was also thinking that. For whatever reason I know quite a few rich people, and they are all very into self-defense/protection, they all have guns and have been learning to shoot since they were children. This is “top-tier” rich though, not regular rich.
Yeah, I might’ve liked Tanya’s storyline more as a black comedy if it was all a big misunderstanding and she ended up killing a bunch of people and herself over nothing.
Yup…and I can see her being totally OK with it, and leaving happy.
Long ago, Survivor tried a season not at a beach. It did not go well, lack of wet swimsuits etc. I cannot imagine any season of White lotus not being at a beach someplace.
just to clarify – several seasons of Survivor skipped a beach locale (back when the show wasn’t permanently set in Fiji) and it wasn’t all bad – Survivor China rules & Survivor Gabon is one of the best comedy of errors in reality television — just pure mess.
Thanks, I stopped watching about 20 years ago.
the one in the African desert I remember was good because they faded so fast, and Jeff was so mad he had to bring them rice.
White mentioned being interested in exploring an East Asian location, I think a hot spring resort would be a great change of pace that styas on theme.
True, are there any that are large enough to be a good location? (asking just for travel suggestions)
I wanted a Ethan and Cameron to end each other as they are both human plagues upon the land.
Once again HBO teaches us never separate from your daemon.
MAJOR POSSIBLE SPOILER – Even for those who’ve seen the finale!
(Look away now!)If you watch the 4 minute featurette of Mike White talking about the finale WITH the English subtitles on…
(Look away, last warning)
There is a very brief clip of Tanya in the yacht’s bedroom preparing to shoot, and a voice calls “Tanya!” The subtitle attributes the voice to Greg! The subtitle clearly says “Greg Hunt: Tanya!”
Greg is on the yacht?!? Are some of the running footsteps we hear up on the bridge coming from Greg?
That would be incredibly dumb to sacrifice his out of the country alibi to be there at the time.
So this is the 2nd season that features a gay hotel manager behaving inappropriately toward and with their staff/underlings. They have everything together except for when and how to get laid. That kind of irresponsible behavior is getting a bit repetitive
I don’t need a murder to get invested in a season. Just give me relationship drama among pretty people at a hotel.
Yeah I don’t really need a murder every season. Mostly the show is about pretty people arguing on a beach anyway
Well so far we’ve had 2 seasons and 0 murders. There’s been an accidental killing, and a number of self-defense killings followed by an accidental killing.So we’re probably due for a murder.
You may have missed a point with Portia. Both her sticking with Tanya and not running from Unconscious Jack were classic abuse victim reactions, to which asking “why didn’t she leave” is off-base.
I’m not going to pick apart this review or chastise anyone who enjoyed this season. Please carry on enjoying the entertainment you enjoy, and I usually don’t like it when people who dislike a show pop into the comments just to rip into the fans. Normally I just stay away if I’m not a fan.
But I really enjoyed the first season, and really really didn’t like this one at all. Again, I’m not here to dissect everything I disliked, but if anyone else has read these recaps and thought “wow, everyone seems to love this; am I alone in being disappointed by this season?,” I want you to know you’re not alone. Here’s hoping the inevitable Season 3 recaptures what was lost from the first one.
No you are alone and if my comment ever gets out of the gray, I expressed how I felt about the ending.
No you are alone and if my comment ever gets out of the gray, I expressed how I felt about the ending.
I loved the first season, and I didn’t hate the second season, but I hated the second season finale. I was SO looking forward to it, I was practically salivating. Could not have been more disappointed.
You’re not alone. I didn’t even read the recaps all season and just came to the comments to see what everyone else was saying.I don’t even plan on watching Season 3.
The exchange between Albie and Portia at the end was very “be careful what you wish for.” Some bad boys are more than bad; they’re deranged uncle f***ers. Some wounded birds aren’t as wounded as they appear; they’re playing you.
ThThat was the point of those two storylines, exactly. The Jack storyline reminded me a little of an inverted take on the “manic pixie dream girl” dismantling in “Arrested Development”, where the “quirky “ character played by Charlize Theron turned out to actually have a mental disability.
Oh, wow I never got that. I always thought that plotline was super weird.
MR F!
How about for next season Mia convinces Valentina to treat herself to a vacation, so Valentina goes to a different White Lotus to continue her journey of self-discovery and meets a nice lady in the process?
kudos to the guy with the insane ‘greg is actually dead’ theory that never technically got disproven.
Although presumably when Greg was on the phone on the balcony he was talking to Quentin, no? But you’re right-nothing was explicitly proven.
internet comment sections thrive on technicalities and ‘well actually’s
I don’t think Valentina got played. Mia is a transactionalist, purely so. She never promised Valentina a rose garden, just a night of self-discovery. Mia kiboshed the idea of a future relationship and Valentina rewarded her honesty. Theirs may be my favorite relationship of the show.
I agree! I loved how that whole thing played out. The only part of the show I really enjoyed.
Yeah she was honest and offered to help Valentina on her path to being out. And it’s not like Valentina got a bad deal- besides the sex Mia’s still a good singer and the grandfather was complaining about the older singer at the start anyway. Maybe it would’ve been a bit less obvious to go with the “We’re putting her on 2 days a week and you’re 3″ or something but that seemed like a happy ending. Especially since creepy singer seemed perfectly happy to just leave her out to dry afterwards
Yeah I have no problem with bad things happening to Creepy Singer
White has apparently said he’s thinking about exploring themes around Eastern religion and death in the 3rd season. So how about a newly wealthy Greg in Bali, having just discovered his health issues have returned. If that becomes the last season it will also make a nice trilogy around the Tanya story.
i cannot imagine greg going back to a white lotus resort after everything that’s happened the last two times.
Not even if he inherits Tanya’s Blossom points and status? 😉
haha i mean, if he’s begrudgingly taking a trip because points needs to be redeemed i guess i could buy it.
Maybe it will be like the emails you get from an airline offering you 200 miles after they’ve ruined your vacation and put you through hell: “Dear Mr. Hunt: We are so sorry your wife passed away after a brutal gangland slaying while staying at our resort. Rest assured that this is not the level of service we aspire to provide to honored guests like yourself. Please accept this coupon code for a 10% discount on your next White Lotus stay along with a complimentary cocktail with our apologies.” 😉
I would hope that once Portia learns her boss is dead she goes to the authorities and Greg is arrested. She knows enough to understand what happened, and the whole thing was terribly botched.
Like what’s the “innocent” explanation for the dead people on the boat? Coked up rich white lady goes nuts kills five gays and then commits suicide?Plus Greg tried to have her killed, and would presumably try again once he learned she was alive and might know what he did.
there may not be an easy explanation for what happened, but i don’t think there’s an easy way to pin anything on greg either.yeah, you have portia’s testimony…but that’s it. greg wasn’t even in the country. i don’t think she’ll be able to get very far on her own.
Didn’t we see Portia after learning her boss was dead at the airport, flirting with Albie? She didn’t seem like she was on a mission for justice, and I’m not sure the authorities in the states would have any jurisdiction over what happened in Sicily.
Did she learn her boss was dead? I can’t remember. You’re right about the jurisdiction but I feel like the government would want to know one of their employees conspired to murder his wife. Plus the insurance company and whoever was next in line to inherit after Greg.
I don’t recall seeing her learn that news, but at the point we saw her, she must have known.And yeah, presumably the US authorities could subpoena Greg’s phone records to prove a conspiratorial link between him and Quentin.
How do you figure she must have known? I figured the airport scene was the next day and wasn’t she warned off returning to the resort where the body was found? I don’t think enough time passed for the story to hit the papers. But I could be wrong.
I presume that the departing guests are aware of the identity of the floater. If not, Portia would know she’s nowhere to be found and recognize the yacht that’s anchored just offshore that rumours would be swirling about the dead bodies on board.Either way, it’s kind of weird that the all the bodies isn’t the talk of the airport a day later.
In the end, well-acted, nicely directed, but the undeveloped plots are a mile wide and half-an-inch thick. It’s not Love Boat” dreck, but it’s not Emmy-worthy brilliance like some people are screaming. Just go watch some classic films and compare the scenes and interplay between characters, or the evolution and resolution of plots and reveals. This isn’t really that good. It looks nice though, and the cast and acting are decent, but it’s nether madcap funny, and nor engrossingly dramatic. It’s high level network fare with some HBO tits-dick-and ass.
The worst thing was a re-inventing stumblin’, mumblin’ Greg as a closeted gay cowboy stud with a life-long devoted Eurotrash boyfriend willing to murder for him. (As stupid as it would have been, my thought that Greg was a delusional figment of her imagination would have been better plot than this over-the-top thing that didn’t even make legal sense) It was really just done to fanservice Jennifer Coolidge’ one-note annoying Tanya character in to the season. He spent hours of show time of her blase routine going nowhere. If he’d have written more for Portia (great actress) trying to save them instead three weeks of drunken meandering, and the nothing burger finale of her meekly going to her potential death with drunk-boi. That ridiculous plot could have been so much better. And Tanya’s expository scene after phone call was downright amateurish. That ain’t Emmy-worthy stuff peopleWhite punted on the whole potential family dynamic of dad having HIRED his son’s new “girlfriend”. He could have cut out the entire family-reunion / Grandpa portion since he didn’t go anywhere with it but for one really anti-climactic clunker in a driveway. Instead he should have devoted the time and writing to a real father-son-prostitute dynamic there. Instead we get a few boring chats over breakfast tables. I mean, you have eight weeks to fill. Write something besides table chats and “askew glances”.
And the whole two couples thing just fell apart at the end. Leaving us to wonder what happened with only a non-sensical dinner toast isn’t brilliant writing. It’s just a punt disguised as “ingenius”. White “Lotus World” is a great base. His casting and direction are good, but I don’t think it leaves him enough time to write at a depth to pull off this many hours of entertainment with requisite quality. Spread around the workload to some talented people for a better result.
I too had a hard time believing the connection between Greg and Quinton. they don’t seem similar at all. But Greg isn’t gay. Quinton says that he fell in love with a very heterosexual cowboy when he was younger. Or something like that. The love was unrequited. Quinton also said they used to drop acid together. I guess I could imagine that two men who, while very different in later adulthood, keep in touch after forming a drug-fueled friendship in their younger years.I personally like that Dominic’s night with Lucia never became known to Albie. That would have been so obvious and cliche. I think it’s way more realistic the way it was handled in the show. A source of shame and internal tension for Dominic and nothing more.
not that there’s a ‘wrong way’ to watch stuff, but it feels you spent so much energy trying to get ahead of what was happening and be more clever than the show you forgot to actually watch it.not to say the show doesn’t invite theorizing, but i get the impression if you theorized less you’d enjoy the show a little bit more. you were getting mad at white for assumptions you were wrong about!
What’s really bad and weird about him is that he appears to be doing it from two different accounts. He was on here last week with a different avi, but same name and different arguments.
well, that’s just good old fashioned fun on the world wide web.
Astroturfing AVClub with burner accounts, one which he just tried replying to me with, doesn’t seem all that fun to me. But what do I know?
Conspiracy much? If I log in from my tablet it looks one way, and if I log in from my PC it look another. Same account. I’m not hiding anything. You are annoying as hell. Write something original, fanboy. All you do is bitch at other people’s posts to the point you’re making this conspiracy bullshit up about my account.
I think I fell for that to a certain extent. I only watched a little of the first season – my wife started it and I jumped in half way – so when the show started with a bunch of mystery bodies and constantly kept implying who those bodies might be I assumed that was the point. Watching last night’s episode and realizing the bodies were one character dying more or less as a gag and then a bunch of nobodies we don’t care about made me realize the show had played me. That’s definitely on me but it also means I’m a little more aware that maybe there wasn’t much of a reason for me to watch the show in the first place.I didn’t love either the murder mystery aspect or the interpersonal conflicts enough on their own to make me want to watch the show but the combination of the two made it intriguing enough to keep watching. If one of them isn’t really the point then for me it’s just a show with perfectly adequate satire about rich people who are shitty people when they arrive and shitty people when they leave and, I dunno, I’m not sure that’s all that special.Admittedly it’s also only been 12 hours since I watched it so it’s not like I’ve had a lot of time to process. Maybe I’ll feel differently after I think about it a bit more.
No, everyone watches these with different ideas of where the stories are going. I just expect better out of these big-budget 8-to-10 hour tomes than misdirects and unresolved stories. Umpteen minutes to hours of Coolidge sashaying around isn’t high-end entertainment. Leaving copious amounts up to the viewers imagination is lame. He’s a writer. Write something. I’m investing 10 hours. I can sit around and image endless shit on my own time.
This is kind of a problem with a lot of people who comment on shows. It seems they’re more interested in trying to get ahead as if that would make them a better writer/show runner. It’s a weird thing.
You completely misunderstood the show. Amazing.
Tell me you’re pretentious without telling me you’re pretentious. Jesus….
boy this just ain’t the take.
This is exceptionally poorly written. Your post, not the show.
Is fucking Greg going to get Tanya’s money now? Somebody better investigate soon!Also, I don’t feel so optimistic about the Ethan/Harper wrap-up. Seems to me Ethan has become a carbon copy of the awful Cameron.
I think it all comes down to how portia reacts when she learns Tanya is dead. Greg did already try to have he killed once though, so if she has any sense she’ll speak up about what she knows.
If Portia’s really smart she won’t say a goddamn thing to anyone. And I personally don’t think Quentin sent Jack off to do anything more than occupy her and eventually drop her at the airport. If he’d wanted her dead he’d have sent a professional, like Niccolo. These posh dudes don’t like to dirty their hands.I hope Portia and Albie manage to hook up back in the states. She’s directionless and a little paranoid, he’s solid and far more confident. They could be good together now.
It seemed to me that Jack was struggling with having to kill her and ultimately opted to let her go. I could be wrong though, maybe he was just struggling with being a party to Tanya’s murder.
I think Jack was supposed to do exactly what he said he was going to do, just keep Portia busy showing her around until after they killed Tanya, then take her back. She really wasn’t a problem. In fact, she might’ve even been a positive.
But when he found out that Portia figured out what was going on, he knew she might be seen as a loose end, so he took her straight to the airport and told her to beat it.
That was really an act of mercy on his part. I loved that small moment of humanity and grace in a person whose life is all pain and numbing and doing what you have to do to get by.
I realize that I’m swimming upstream with this opinion, but I thought Aubrey Plaza was the worst thing about S2 of White Lotus. Plaza and Will Sharpe are such wooden actors — it’s a tribute to the brilliance of Mike White that the show itself was so stellar. Now Meghann Fahy on the other hand . . . wow! A brilliant performance.
Reading the comments all season, I wondered if I am the only one who thinks Aubrey Plaza is one-note. Her delivery of lines in ‘White Lotus’ is no different than April’s in ‘Parks & Rec’, only the scripts were different.
you should check out black bear or emily the criminal (or don’t, who cares)
I thought the finale was better than the rest of the season, but the rest of the season was very meh.The thing that bothered me a lot about S2 (and a little bit about S1) is that these people come a very long distance to take a luxurious vacation and then… barely leave the resort? Like, they literally ate the same hotel restaurant every night (in SICILY!!!) and the same breakfast every day, swimming on the same beach. I know there were a couple of excursions away from the Lotus, but seriously, you’re in Italy. Do something!
Rich people are boring
The really funny part, and i’m not sure whether it’s been mentioned previously by others in the comments, but IRL, the beach where they film the 4 couples lounging in the beach chairs is in the town of Cefalu, located on the northern coast of Sicily and a few hours away from Taormina. (This is also where they filmed the pier scene w/ Portia and Jack.) Isola Bella is indeed nearby to the hilltop town of Taormina, but they edited it to make it all one and the same. (Taormina is on the western coast.) The beach for Isola Bella is very small, so it makes sense that they would have used the wider beach.
To nitpick: Taormina is on the eastern coast of Sicily.
It looks like they filmed the pool and terrace shots at Unahotel Capotaormina, which looks amazing.
You’re absolutely correct, thank you for that clarification! I visited both Taormina and Cefalu a few years ago, so it was fun seeing some of these locales. (We did NOT stay at that hotel, hahaha!) I was thinking about OP’s observation about how the characters didn’t venture far from the hotel — so many restaurants and day trips to try, but the comment about Covid limitations by another poster make sense.
COVID measures during filming?
I know people who regularly go down to all inclusives in Mexico and don’t leave the resort. It feels like such a waste to me, but what do I know (I’ve been invited to go with them but can imagine trying to plan some excursions and then just giving up.)
That was my issue with Season 1. Even the middle class regularly spend extra to do a day trip excursion or two. But the characters we followed barely left the resort. There was a scuba excursion, a sunset boat dinner and that was it.At least this time the De Grassi’s went on a couple excursions, Daphne and Harper hit Noto, and of course Tanya and Portia went with ‘the gays’ to Palermo.
This might have been implied, but the plan to take Tanya on a little boat ride from which she would never return gave me brother Fredo vibes.
The big question for season 3 is which Survivor S37 cast members will appear this time?
>>Also, how did we not even get an actual Laura Dern cameo? Might she, perhaps, be the DiGrasso we see in The White Lotus season three?you can literally see Dominic’s phone lock screen before he calls home and his wife is an olive-skinned brunette. so, prob not. >>But, more importantly, now that we’ve lost the anchor of seasons one and two, we have to wonder: Will someone from season two be carried over to season three i thought it was rumored/announced that Connie Britton would be back for S3? i’m not sure if that was just wishful fan thinking or an actual rumor, but i did hear rumblings of this somewhere. it’s weird that you made it thru this entire review and didn’t even mention the funniest part of Tanya’s demise, which was right before she fell off the boat when she tearfully asked Quentin if Greg was having an affair. poor thing stayed hopelessly clueless about her cowboy husband ‘til the bitter end. one other minor (or major, depending on who you ask) thing that you also missed: when Daphne is on the phone Facetiming with her (blonde!!) children and Cam is in the bathroom flossing his teeth, their kids can be heard screaming, “Daddy! Daddy!” Daphne yells for Cam to come in and say hello to “his” kids, but he deliberately takes several beats before dropping the floss and going over to talk to them. his entire facial expression changes when he leaves the bathroom and it’s painfully obvious that Cam knows those aren’t really his biological children, but he does the exact same thing as Daphne, which is using his imagination to cope and pretend everything is fine. to me, the most impactful moment of the finale (and the one that will stay with me for a LONG time) was that brief pause that Daphne took when Ethan said he thought something had happened between Harper and Cameron. the way she stops, breathes, considers the possibility that it happened, considers her reaction to it happening, and coming to the conclusion that she isn’t going to be a victim all played across her face in those quiet few seconds. so when she finally took a big deep breath and cheerfully sighed, “i don’t think you have anything to worry about” i was like, WHEW, what a brilliantly nuanced performance. truly. the way she quickly cycled through all of those emotions and then immediately put them away on a shelf in her mind without breaking the facade… honestly, give this woman all the awards because that was in-fucking-credible.
The breaking of the Testa Di Moro is probably one of my favorite recent bits of symbolism in television.
I must be the only person around that can not stand Jennifer Coolidge’s Mr. Snuffleupagus voice and constant sucking on tart lemons between takes face?!? As beautiful as the locations were and the actors gave it their best but the script was trying to be operatic but came off as soap operatic instead. This season was definitely better than the first but my Gawd you could drive a Fiat threw some of these plot holes in order to make this season’s dreadful story work.
I like Jennifer Coolidge but I agree with you about the plot holes.
You are not alone re: Coolidge.
who cares about the plot holes. this isn’t some murder mystery show, it follows very similar beats of classic tragicomedies, which are filled with unanswered questions. Coolidge fucking nailed this episode, and she’s a comedic veteran in the industry for a reason.
Nope, you’re not alone. She is not my favorite actress. I was OK with her in season 1 because her arc worked (thanks also in large part to Natasha Rothwell’s criminally under-rated work) because it had depth and resonance. But in season 2 her schtick wore very thin very quickly.
thank you. her 4 yr old dumb act got old really quick
Jennifer Coolidge, Aubrey Plaza, and Murray Abraham all just got Golden Globe nominations this morning.
It think this finale should have also put Meghann Fahy in the running. The change in her face when talking to Ethan was a masterclass. Simona Tabasco has been phenomenal on this show as well – and I do still feel like she’s the breakout star to me – but Lucia and her story really faded into the background a bit in the last 2 episodes.
Ooh yes, I agree!!! She’s been so underrated all season, but that scene especially was flawless!!
agreed, I heard her in an interview and she said Michael Imperioli took her aside on their first day and told her she deserved to be there just as much as any of them (since she was one of the few not to do prestige television). And she hit the floor running.I also think Coolidge really was magic on the boat, she was tragedy she was comedy and that gun shooting scene was a masterclass in itself.
Yeah, Fahy was the breakout star of this season. I didn’t even know who the actress was when I started watching and by the end she was my favorite character.
Not enough people saying how broken Ethan clearly is, and how broken that marriage will be despite the way they sat there in the airport. Gross.
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If you think Rian Johnson is a master of the whodunnit then I guess it’s normal to also think this Mike White person is good at writing thrillers?
Having watched it… I didn’t get it and I might not see the appeal.
But, to each their own!
Seriously! Very cool.
Also reminded me of Killing Eve, which also reminded me of Shelly Winters.
1) Laura Dern cannot cameo; oddly, her character was pictured on Dominic’s phone in the episode and it was definitely … NOT Laura Dern.2) Loved all 3 DiGrasso men turning to look at the young woman in the check-in line. They’re all hopeless — every generation. (Even Dominic, who’s just gotten a chance to get his wife back, seems to get back to his old mindset in a snap.)3) Portia gave Jack every chance to murder her. Truly, his advice was honestly the best of the episode. JUST WALK AWAY AND FORGET THIS HAPPENED.4) Greg. So, he’s got all the money now, presumably (perhaps with cuts to the two surviving schemers)? 5) Props to White Lotus for giving us a Barry-worthy shooting scene and clumsy, accidental death. 6) Perhaps we’ll see Greg and Daphne and Cameron at White Lotus: Maldives next year?7) Still unclear how Cameron suddenly had money and right in tandem with his wife (presumably) cheating with Ethan. 8) I thought the angry piano dude was going to come back for sure to wreak havoc. 9) Here’s my vote to get Belinda back in the picture for season 3!!!
7) Still unclear how Cameron suddenly had money and right in tandem with his wife (presumably) cheating with Ethan.He finally went to the ATM? I mean, the show never confirmed that he’s broke. Cam telling his buddy to invest his money and conduct insider-trading fraud with him would be pretty standard for a dudebro financial planner, and him not having enough cash on hand to pay the hooker could simply have been a red-herring for the audience. The timing with Ethan/Daphne can be a coincidence.
Also, shout out to Mike White for figuring out how to sidestep the internet sleuthing of WHO WILL DIE and pivoting to HOW WILL THEY DIE. There’s so much speculative chatter that literally no writer can deliver an entirely surprise death (exhaustive posts have outlined the prospects for every character this season — SOMEONE was bound to be right); all they can do is make you guess how it will happen. And, perhaps, why.
I’d love a season called The White Lotus: Colorado, being Mike White’s riff on The Shining.
The opening teaser reveals literally everyone has been ax murdered.
So Greg is definitely in season 3, right? No way they’re going to let him ride into the sunset with Tanya’s money unpunished.
Yeah, he needs to be ironically killed by Tanya’s money somehow.
Jon Gries was in the main credits this season, while he arguably had fewer scenes than the piano guy (and was definitely in fewer episodes). That’s either because he insisted on this in his contract or he’s already signed for season three.
i doubt it would require insistence – i think stuff like that is fairly automatic via union/guild rules, it’s just that he was the only other returning cast member.
great ep. so tense. so sad coolidge’s character died. i really hope her husband doesn’t get the money. I highly recommend the netflix film Lou, where Alison Janney kicks arse, as seeing Coolidge take out the gays had the same electrifying feeling of seeing Janney kill someone with a food tin.
Once again, I watch a show/movie with all these complicated characters, and once again I realize I identify most with the Daphnes of these things. Basically the life philosophy “Do what you have to do to make yourself feel better about it.” It works!
Um Albie absolutely got more played by Lucia than Portia did with Jack. You can tell because Portia figures out she’s being played midway through being played and tries to get out of it.
I don’t understand why Cam and Daphne just thought they could plop right down next to Ethan and Harper at dinner on the last night after the day they all had, which included an actual fist fight.
That’s how they live their lives.By repressing things and pretending they never happened.
I thought that was fascinating, and the whole 100% bullshit toast Cam gave. Truly impressive artifice.
“These Gays…” will be the meme/GIF. No doubt.
So, Greg hit the jackpot! He gets all of Tanya’s money, and he doesn’t even have to share it with Quentin and his crew. And, given that he is the love of Quentin’s life, and Quentin didn’t have any real relatives … it’s possible Greg has inherited the palazzo as well.There is a curious parallel between Greg’s story line in season 2 and that of Paula in season 1. They both get other people to commit crimes on their behalf, and in the end, get away with it scot-free — and as season 2 ramps up the body count, so it does the windfall to the criminal mastermind. Or so it seems. Because there are some clouds in their bright-blue sky. Paula at the end of season 1 is almost certainly doomed — she got to leave the resort and board a plane, but it would only be weeks, perhaps days, before she inevitably found herself in hot water. With Greg in season 2, Quentin’s death is a double-edged sword. There is a very public discovery of a rich American woman’s dead body (with a massive head injury), and carnage on the yacht. Quentin and the drug-dealer boytoy being dead means they are too dead to call in favors with the local cops or politicians. Which means, there is going to be a real, massive criminal investigation. There is murder kit on the boat. Portia is alive and she knows Greg’s photo is at the palazzo, and there is no one left to hide or destroy it. Greg may avoid an actual criminal charge, but there is enough here to at least unravel his inheritance of Tanya’s money.
Also, how did we not even get an actual Laura Dern cameo? Might she, perhaps, be the DiGrasso we see in The White Lotus season three?When Dominic looks at the picture of his wife and daughter that does not look like Laura Dern, does it?
“Electrifying” still only gets a B+ rating here?
Daphne definitely fucked Ethan on that island. Didn’t like that Ethan and Harper are reconciled at the end. Glad Tanya bit the dust, stupidly too. Glad no harm came to Portia. So Albie’s Dad is how rich? 50 grand is not a small sum. Scammed by a prostitute, ho-hum. Hope it’s a divorced Harper returning next season.
As Daphne said: “Next year, the Maldives.”
Between Sri Lanka and India, seems like a beautiful exotic locale to explore spirituality and eastern religion themes.
Completely aside note: I feel like the minority when it comes to this opinion, but Mia is not a very good singer.