Warning: Spoilers for the finale of season two.
HBO’s The White Lotus traded the tropical setting of its first season for the Italian seaside in its second. Continuing its exploration of the rich and abhorrent, season 2 of The White Lotus features a cast of characters so privileged and white, it nearly blinds its audience. Show creator Mike White confronts class, gender, and sexuality and makes it impossible for his viewers not to judge along with him.
In fact, Mike White writes such questionable if not downright corrupt characters, the series practically invites viewers to do their worst, with delicious tweets and memes piling up in all corners of the internet. The show has prompted discussions about the patriarchy, sex work, misogyny across generations, as well as praise and worship for iconic cast member Jennifer Coolidge.
‘The White Lotus’ Theme Song Is A Banger
Most viewers of The White Lotus season 2 agree that there’s no reason to ‘skip intro’ when the theme song is such a bop. In fact, many wouldn’t mind hearing it come on at the club.
Renaissance (Main Title Theme) has a similar melody to season one’s theme, Aloha! – Main Theme; both are by the show’s composer, Chilean Canadian musician Cristobal Tapia de Veer. Between the song's opening melodic piano and closing folksy guitar, Renaissance is compulsive EDM with an overlay of haunting, human-like vocalizations. It needs to be heard to be appreciated.
'White' Lotus Indeed
Both seasons of The White Lotus have featured extremely white casts. The only people of color on the first season were token members of the staff. In season 2, The Spillers, Ethan (Will Sharpe) and Harper (Aubrey Plaza) point out they technically fulfill a diversity checkbox, though both are white-passing (Sharpe is of English and Japanese descent; Plaza is half Puerto Rican).
The lack of diversity, however, may suit the show’s themes. Though there are plenty of rich people of color, white people undeniably have the upper hand when it comes to abuse of privilege and ignorant classism. It’s not a good look, nor is it meant to be.
This Season's Biggest Villain: Portia's Wardrobe
Fans of The White Lotus first met Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) in season one, a wealthy but troubled woman grieving the loss of her mother. In season two, she arrived in Sicily with mountains of baggage, both literal and figurative, a new husband, Greg, a hotel guest from last season with whom she hooked up, and an assistant named Portia (Haley Lu Richardson).
Portia is a lost soul in her 20s working a job she clearly dislikes. But for someone who just got a free trip to Italy, she complained about both her boss and the very few things her boss required of her an awful lot. Though by no means the worst of the guests, Portia was still hard to like, but her ugly outfits were what really got the internet’s attention. Portia’s Gen Z but her outfits often look like they belong on the least popular member of a 90s boy band. They clearly reflect her tendency to make bad choices and the chaotic state of her life.
Ethan’s A Hypocrite
With Harper’s suspicions kicking into high gear, Ethan eventually resorts to Cam, pleading for him to reassure Harper of Ethan’s innocence. But when Cam spends some one-on-one time with her doing just that, Ethan quickly flips the script in his mind, accusing them of cheating together.
Ethan’s evidence is much flimsier that the stuff against him, yet he has no problem playing the hypocrite and accusing his wife of sleeping with his friend. Perhaps because of his own gaslighting, Ethan doesn’t believe her, and becomes haunted by visions of his cuckoldry.
Toxic Male Characters
Part of the fun in watching The White Lotus is knowing that by the show’s end, someone will have died, and guessing who the victim(s) and perpetrator(s) might be. Season two featured a cast of toxic male characters with varying degrees of redeemability.
To be fair, the show features a number of problematic female characters as well, yet it remains clear that the men here are particularly despicable, making it all too easy for audiences to root for their untimely demises.
Jennifer Coolidge: Icon
Playing Tanya for both seasons of The White Lotus has allowed Jennifer Coolidge ample opportunity to showcase her numerous talents. Her line readings are perfection, she tosses out one-liners that become instantly iconic, she steals scenes with her mere presence, and her physical comedy is beyond reproach.
In season two, Tanya’s marriage is on the rocks, so she gets swept away by a group of Euro gays who toast with buckets of champagne to celebrate her queenly essence…at least to her face. This particular group of gays may not be totally trustworthy, but real-life queer communities adore her, audiences can’t get enough of her, and judging by her performance in season two, it seems inevitable that she’s destined for another Emmy.
‘The White Lotus’ Renewed for Season 3
With season 2 wrapped up with all-time high ratings and fans gob smacked by its ending, viewers can at least rest assured that HBO has indeed renewed the anthology series for a third season.
Though nothing is known of the third season at this time, it seems likely that a new all-star cast of awful rich people vacation at another luxurious White Lotus location. Fans have suggested that the cast of Succession might make for a fun and fitting crossover, but Daphne herself suggested that next year, they’d visit the Maldives. Either way, audiences are already excited to tune in.