Arrivederci to White Lotus S2: We Won't Easily Forget You
Sophomore season of Mike White's masterpiece satire, "The White Lotus" tackling class systems, social stigmas, with a dash of foreboding murder, plays out in the rocky terrains of an operatic Sicily
Warning: Spoilers ahead for S2 of The White Lotus
Much has been said, written, and visualized about writer/director/actor Mike White’s wildly successful, darling of the critics’ show on HBO, The White Lotus. From the “did they really go there?” scenes in season 1 and 2 (Exhibit A butt to Exhibit B butt) to TikToks featuring predictions for what went down in the finale, to the love for the intro theme song? Personally, I’m hitting “skip intro” every time it comes on, even after I’ve read the theories about how the pictures in the intro hint and basically foretell the whole season. Yeah, no thank you. Next.
But then there’s also the memes about Aubrey Plaza poking fun about how she’s the only person people refer to when talking about the genealogy of Season 2’s character family tree. (The guy who’s married to Aubrey Plaza, The wife of the guy who went to school with Aubrey Plaza’s husband. The girls who may have had sex with Aubrey Plaza’s husband who she gave stink eye too. The piano player that sang a song while Aubrey Plaza was having dinner and passed by, etc.)
I also happen to think it’s because bar none, for 5/7 of episodes of this season, Plaza’s Harper was the best thing on this show before she caved and self-doubt crept in and it wasn’t pretty, but it was expected. I mean Ethan, was her husband, a flat character with zero personality, who preferred getting up every day to run at 5 AM while on vacation, than to actually have to face the wrath of Plaza’s face when he told her they had to dine yet again with Cameron, his douchey college bud (played by Theo James) and his wife, Daphne.
Regarding Ethan and Cameron’s bromance:
Back to Harper’s situation, however, how many meals can you eat with another couple you have nothing in common with and to boot, have pretty bad ethics, before your face just permanently does the Plaza? See facial permutations below.
In addition to Harper, we have Daphne, (Enid to Harper’s Wednesday in a darker retelling which emits more toxic than genuine positivity), her husband’s college roommate’s wife. She has a fresh perspective on life, which included basically looking the other way when your mate does something that bugs you and then, to do the same back to them because that fixes this and makes you happy. This leaves you with no regrets and #notavictim. Harper is curious. Ethan is lapping it up.
Daphne’s husband, Cameron, may or may not be jiving with this bit of “getting back” at your spouse by having someone else’s child but then pretending it’s your spouse’s and not ever talking about what happened in Vegas, or Texas, or while at the gym at those trainer “sessions”:
And who can forget these memorable memes that pretty much sadly speak truth to the men of S2 White Lotus and how lame they were. Namely: Cameron, Ethan, Grandpa & Daddy Dom, and the gays that plotted to kill Tanya.
But then we also have the finale success of economically disadvantaged females of the show (the sex workers, Lucia and Mia, sorta), planning for their futures, and securing for their financial stability, so there’s that. The spa worker, Belinda from Season 1 is cheering for them and for Tanya’s demise, because let’s be honest, Tanya did her wrong and in some truly macro karmic way, by brushing off their future business, and running off with Greg and suffering his con was her comeuppance.
But back to the sex worker afterglow of Lucia and Mia, bffs:
And so happy to see it wasn’t “the help” that got killed off this season.
Backing up a little…Season 1 of The White Lotus on HBO Max, which took place in Hawaii, featured glammy guests staying at a $1000/night resort over the course of a transformative week in which we knew from the get-go there was a murder.
The murder is a device of course and a good hook to keep us entrenched in the story, but it’s a small artifact in a much bigger table setting. It’s a decorative element only. The tablecloth being the locale, Hawaii or Sicily, in season 2. The setting itself is always in the foreground in any of White’s seasons and true to life here, it’s not just the place but the culture of Italy.
Case in point: The uber wealthy, sometimes cruel, and always clueless, Tanya (played by Jennifer Coolidge), our resident diva from Season 1 carryover, describes death as the “last immersive experience” and talks about looking like Monica Vitti, a queen of Italian cinema and icon. She feels at home in Italy and she wants to live out the fantasy with her husband who abandons her by the first few episodes. In the end, it’s a fitting arc of her story and this season to have Italy, the place of opera, The Godfather, (which also gets its backstory told thru the three generations of Italian-American men) and Madama Butterfly to be where Tanya meets her maker or in her words does the “immersive experience” stuff.
In the end, this line from Tanya’s final afternoon is the one forever immortalized on the ‘net"- especially as she first asks the yacht driver/helmsman if he speaks English to which he says “no inglese” and she continues to speak English and to deliver this line, to which he then confirms for her that he is also gay, so I guess he speaks a little English:
So where does this leave us at the end of S2? Tanya’s ex, Greg (Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite) gets Tanya’s money because of the most ill-advised prenup line to ever be written which said Greg only inherits her money if she dies.
The rest of the Palermo dudes are dead. Tanya did good. And our final scene has everyone minus Tanya at the airport headed back home.
Also, there’s hope for young love:
Season 1 focused on money, Season 2 on sex and with Season 3, Mike White has promised death and eastern spirituality.
Where do you think it will take place?