Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Season 2 of The White Lotus.
The White Lotus features an amazing cast of veteran actors and newcomers, all filling in their roles analyzing the wealthy. And the finale created a lot of buzz — namely for the dramatic, comical, and sad ending for Jennifer Coolidge's Tanya. But there was one scene consistently popping up: Daphne (played by Meghann Fahy) reacting to the news that her husband may have cheated on her with someone she considered a friend. Those 30 seconds culminated a brilliant performance by Fahy. She may not have given the showiest performance of the season (maybe not even in her group with Aubrey Plaza, Theo James, and Will Sharpe), which is saying something since she’s the one who finds Tanya’s dead corpse floating in the ocean. But Fahy knew exactly what she was doing in every scene, and she snuck up on us with one of the season's best performances.
Daphne Is Both Breezy and Complicated
Fahy gets the opportunity to be the first main actor shown this season. Her brief conversation with two new arrivals feels ominously pleasant (as do many conversations in The White Lotus) but hers takes on a different feel after the events of the season. At first, she happily says they “had the best time." She talks confidently and surely about the hotel and staff, then slows down when getting into the food and wine. Fahy subtly presents the mix between saving the face of her image and remembering new problems with her life. Then — in the same line — she says Italy is “so romantic. You’re going to die. They’re going to have to drag you out of here.” Daphne and Cameron use that pointed language several times throughout the show, and Fahy delivers it in such a relaxed tone that you forget the self-deprecating nature of the humor.
She then goes in for one last swim and Fahy moves through some expressions. She gives the island one last look, looks at sky, and then stops treading. It’s a quiet moment of reflection, and you can tell she’s thinking about everything she has to return to and the intricacies of her marriage. It’s an example of a small moment where Fahy adds more context to the long run.
Taking Her Power Back
In the present timeline, Fahy presents Daphne’s fluffy marriage well. She again presents that dark humor with Theo James in their first hotel room scene. A hotel staff member, Rocco, tells them the story of the “Testa di Moro” statues (heads of a man who cheated on his wife with a young woman). Cameron reacts to the story by saying, “If you come into my house, don’t fuck my wife,” and Daphne laughs, putting her head on Cam’s shoulder. She then turns it, saying, “It’s a warning, babe. Screw around and you’ll end up buried in the garden,” and then puts her hand on Cam’s other shoulder. Fahy does an excellent job with the playful exchange showing how she can take power back from her husband, reminding him of the power she has in their relationship with the shoulder tap.
Fahy lets Daphne get real when she goes on the trip with Harper to Noto. She gets excited telling Harper that they’re staying in Noto overnight, and she casually packed extra everything for Harper before switching to looking at the beautiful building. Fahy excellently breezes through to get to the point of the trip: to enjoy herself in the big house. She then brushes off a question from Harper about leaving their husbands, commenting on not letting the guys have all the fun and enjoying themselves. It’s a key moment of Daphne explaining herself and Fahy delivers it well, thinking for a second about Harper’s query but rationalizing it even faster. The two have a nice chat in the pool — joking about how tight men wear their pants in Italy and then waving at said men working at the building — before discussing how she likes to play games with her husband’s abandonment issues to keep things interesting. Fahy then gleefully asks Harper if she can give Cameron the news, swimming to her phone with a smile as she thinks about Cameron’s reaction. Once again, Daphne invokes comments of death casually, telling Cameron “you would die” if he saw the place.
The Truth Comes to Light
In the scene where Daphne admits Cameron cheated on her “at least once,” Fahy knocks the sincerity and earnestness out of the park. She does not want to be seen as a victim, and she sells that Daphne has worked out her feelings and is moving on without letting Cameron’s actions control her. She then has a scene to walk some of that back the next morning. Daphne tells Harper she said things that she “hopes stay between us” and that she doesn’t have a lot of women friends because they often want something out of her “and then talk shit and stab you in the back.” She says she feels she can trust Harper, but needs to ask again for affirmation. Fahy plays this so calmly but also openly and honestly. She needs to pause for certain moments, but knows when to look Plaza in the eyes and emphasize the right phrases. The way she asks “Can I?” then smiles and laughs after Harper says “for sure” just to be happy but also not fully trusting Harper is really something. And again, she pointedly and casually drops in a line about metaphorical violence with the “stab in the back” comment. The way she delivers those harsh terms so easily speaks to how Daphne has just internalized this cynical, fake, bubbly lifestyle.
And the way she spoke earnestly to Harper hammers her reaction in the last episode. Fahy made it seem she could have some faith in Harper, but she reacts quickly. Her smile fades and she looks at Ethan somberly, then looks down, bites her lip, looks at Ethan again, then looks back out at the sea starts to smile with sunken eyes and then tells Ethan he shouldn’t worry. You can see Fahy working through Daphne’s broken trust with Harper, connecting with Ethan’s anxiety, and then finding a narrative that makes them both feel better about their lives.
She tells Ethan about not needing to know everything and how a little mystery is "kinda sexy,” while smirking at him. She then says that Ethan should do to whatever it takes not to feel like a victim of life. Fahy pauses after the word "victim," and rolls her eyes when she says “of life,” emphasizing that she has gone through this before but just keeps moving forward and enjoying herself. The way she then quietly asks Ethan to walk with her to Isola Bella, using a fluffy voice to say “it’s so pretty” while staring into Ethan. Fahy runs through so many emotions, going to Daphne’s lowest point in the series but them immediately bouncing back and turning into an opportunity to both have fun and make Ethan understand perfectly.
Fahy is fantastic in The White Lotus at capturing the small details and lines of Daphne’s character. She makes routine scenes more compelling on rewatch and turns her facade on and off so often with glee and darkness.