Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Season 2 of The White Lotus.

So here's a fun fact: Prior to Sunday night's Season 2 finale of The White Lotus, I had already written 700-plus words of an article that, in part, argued why the show shouldn't bring back Jennifer Coolidge for yet another go-round in Season 3, even though it could. I had built an entire argument about how the material Coolidge has been given this season wasn't quite as thematically compelling as what she had to work with in Season 1 and how continuing to feature her character, privileged but ditzy socialite Tanya, season after season could unfortunately end up diluting a character we loved early on. It was, if I don't mind saying, a rock-solid thesis based on the notion that Tanya was in play for Season 3. And then White Lotus creator Mike White had to go and ruin the whole thing by killing off Tanya in the show's finale. Something tells me he's not terribly concerned about my wasted work.

Seriously, though, to call Tanya's death shocking would be an understatement. Of course, we knew someone was going to pass on into that great unknown. Season 2 of the character drama/exotic-travel thriller opened just like Season 1 did — with an unidentified body being presented to the audience in a flash-forward. For the past seven weeks, viewers have been busy guessing whose corpse could have washed up on that gorgeous Italian beach. Could it be Lucia (Simona Tabasco) or Mia (Beatrice Grannò), the young sex workers who entangled themselves in seemingly everyone's business over the course of the season? Or maybe it would be a member of our two central couples — Cameron & Daphne (Theo James & Meghann Fahy) and Ethan & Harper (Will Sharpe & Aubrey Plaza) — who slowly spiraled down a hole of jealousy, paranoia, and forbidden attraction. Even as the season hit its final act, and it became clear that Tanya was involved in something rather nefarious, eyes turned not to Tanya, but rather to Portia (Haley Lu Richardson), her beleaguered assistant who was just hoping to find some adventure in her life.

RELATED: 'The White Lotus' Season 2: Our Biggest Unanswered Questions After the Finale

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Image via HBO

But Tanya Was Set Up to Be a 'White Lotus' Mainstay!

After all, you couldn't kill Tanya, right? Tanya was the only main character carried over from Season 1. (Her new husband, Jon Gries' Greg, had come along for the ride too, but he was more of a secondary player.) Coolidge herself was the breakout cast member from the first season, having won the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series Emmy for her work and reminding everyone about how effective she could be in a role that played to her strengths. There were collective fist pumps when it was announced that Tanya would be returning for Season 2. Plus, just from a narrative standpoint, consider that Tonya was filthy rich. It wasn't going to take large brainstorming sessions to figure out how to keep sending her on various exotic vacations. Honestly, it was easy to imagine a version of the show where we continually followed Tanya around from hotel to hotel, as she remained adjacent — and somewhat oblivious — to all the other personal dramas going on around her. (Although, admittedly, it may have started to get weird and a little suspicious if people in her hotel kept ending up dead every single time she went on vacation.)

So when the walls started closing in around Tanya in these final few episodes, and it became clear that Quentin (Tom Hollander) and the group of gay men she had fallen in with did not have her best interests at heart, it was still tough for viewers to believe that she was the one at risk. The ruse even continued throughout the season finale when Tanya valiantly fought back against the men who, at this point, were clearly out to make her disappear. After all, in a mystery like this, the character with the biggest target on their chest is rarely ever the character to wind up dead. It was not surprising to see Tanya fight back against Quentin and his allies, mowing them down with a pistol stolen from a mafia assassin's travel bag. That's right, Tanya, you show those bastards what's what. And then, after heroically (and hilariously) taking out everyone who was trying to do her harm, and just a short jump into a dinghy away from safety, Tanya clumsily fell off Quentin's yacht, smacking her head on the way down and drowning.

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Image via HBO

So Where Does 'The White Lotus' Go From Here?

And thus Mike White did what many of us assumed could not be done — he killed The White Lotus' most recognizable and universally liked character. Which, in truth, perhaps makes it the most audacious and inspiring move he could have made. Maybe that fact in itself should have allowed me to see it coming, as opposed to writing articles in advance about Coolidge's future with the series. But, nope, I was gobsmacked, as I'd guess were many of you.

Now our attention turns to the question: Well, since Tanya isn't coming back for Season 3, then who will? It's possible that no one does, and the show returns with a completely new cast. But I like the idea that The White Lotus, like Fargo before it, will continue to include just enough connective tissue from one installment to the next to make it feel all of one piece. So my guess is someone does take Tanya's place and return for a repeat engagement next year. Maybe it'll be a Season 2 cast member, continuing the story the way Coolidge herself continued it from the first to the second season. Or maybe a different Season 1 character will return, effectively setting that inaugural batch of episodes as the nexus of The White Lotus universe, as the show expands outward from a center point rather than springboarding from one season to the next. (Seriously, would anyone object to Sydney Sweeney's Olivia returning to the show, her cutting worldview firmly intact but now out on her own and with a few more years of life experience under or belt?) I'll tell you this, though: Whomever it ends up being, don't just assume they're going to make it out of the season alive.