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The White Lotus Season 2 Finale: Here’s Who Dies

Spoilers for the season finale of The White Lotus to follow.

After seven weeks of speculation, theme song dance parties, and close examination of one suspiciously placed photograph of cowboys, The White Lotus has revealed who dies at the end of what was supposed to be a relaxing week’s vacation.

The body count began on Quentin’s yacht, where Tanya ( Jennifer Coolidge ) sussed out what viewers had suspected: those gays, as she told the boat captain, were trying to kill her. Niccolo‘s black bag turned out to be exactly as suspicious as Tanya believed it to be, and she pulled out the gun to tearfully shoot Quentin ( Tom Hollander ) and his friends (and still made time to demand, unsuccessfully, that Quentin tell her if Greg was having an affair).

But it turned out to be Tanya who was the body floating in the water all along. Attempting to make her escape overboard on the dinghy parked next to the yacht, she instead hit her head on the railing, drowning and presumably allowing her absent husband Greg ( Jon Giries ) to get away with taking her money after all. But at least she stopped some would-be murderers in the process.

In the “Unpacking Episode 7” segment following the episode, series creator Mike White admits he didn’t want to kill Tanya but “she’s such a diva, larger-than-life female archetype, it just felt like we could devise our own operatic conclusion to Tanya’s life and her story.” And he suggested that Greg’s part of the story might not be done— “it feels like there’s got to be somebody who’s going to track it down to Greg. But maybe you’ll have to wait to find out what happens.”

The season ends, just as the first one did, with all the major players in the airport and on their way home. The rich and privileged are, once again, escaping with all their privileges intact, and the spirit of Tanya lives on in Portia ( Haley Lu Richardson ), who escaped whatever role was intended for her in the murder plot and wears a very Tanya-worthy head scarf for her flight home. Reuniting with Albie at the airport, embarking on what might not be the best relationship for either of them, feels like its own tribute to Tanya, too.

White has been frank that the dead body conspicuously placed at the beginning of each White Lotus season is a tool for luring in audiences. “When that first season became such a water cooler show [that] people were talking about, I was like, had I only known if I'd put a dead body at the beginning of Enlightened , maybe people would've watched Enlightened ," he told NPR . "You realize these kinds of hooks do actually get viewers."

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But the magic of The White Lotus is that the wild theories about bloody endings (Cameron and Ethan jet ski accident? Harper murder rampage?) don’t get in the way of the character drama that’s actually at the heart of the show. In a season devoted to examining the interplay of sex and power, virtually every character has been putting themselves in dangerous situations in the name of love, lust, jealousy, or some combination of all of the above. But even though The White Lotus isn’t about death, it was about Jennifer Coolidge—and with a third season officially coming , it’s time to start reimagining exactly what that might look like.

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'The White Lotus' Season 2 Ending Explained: We All Got Played

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Lucia and Mia dressed in colorful outfits and smiling out in the streets

Lucia and Mia really turned things around for themselves.

So much for Tanya McQuoid being the connective tissue between the two seasons of The White Lotus . Obviously, spoilers up ahead for the season 2 finale, in which Jennifer Coolidge's character finds herself on a party boat that definitely isn't a party.

The seventh and final episode of the HBO Max series was a master class in social commentary, witty writing and gorgeous shots from writer/director Mike White. It wrapped up pretty much every loose end, while leaving one dangling strand involving Ethan and Daphne. And keeping that mystery unsolved is the point.

Warning: Spoilers ahead for the season 2 finale of The White Lotus.

But first, Tanya. It was always going to stretch credulity having yet another person die at a White Lotus resort, but White chose the wildest and weirdly most believable option. The wealthy Tanya did indeed find a picture of her husband Greg and bankrupt British expat Quentin in cowboy hats together. (Although this isn't explicitly confirmed.) She and her assistant, Portia, conclude that Greg colluded with his ex-lover Quentin to have Tanya killed, because their prenup prevents Greg from taking any of her money if they divorce.

In a truly frightening sequence, a shaking Tanya loses Portia on the phone and has to face a boatful of people who want to kill her. She stalls for as long as possible before Quentin's man arrives to take her to shore and likely murder her on the way. Seizing her one opportunity to save herself, Tanya brazenly grabs her killer-to-be's duffle bag and locks herself in a room. Inside the bag, she finds a gun. As the door is kicked in, Tanya braces herself and squeezes the trigger, shooting anyone who comes at her.

Jennifer Coolidge as Tanya sitting on a bench in a fancy room

Poor rich Tanya.

In one of many examples of absurd hilarity, Tanya makes sure to ask Quentin before he coughs up blood and dies whether Greg was cheating on her with another woman. Quentin stares at her incredulously, before carking it (dying, that is, in British English). Sadly, as Tanya attempts to climb down off the boat and escape via a dinghy, she slips and smacks her head on the dinghy's railing before crashing into the water, where she drowns. Her colorful dress made it look like the dead body we partially see in episode 1 was wearing bright boardshorts.

Many thought Tanya would be the only character to appear in every season of The White Lotus, which was renewed for a third outing last month . In one of many smart rug pulls, White has eliminated that possibility. Why would Tanya spend all her time at White Lotus resorts anyway, if they're a hotspot for murder?

Aubrey Plaza and Will Sharpe as Harper and Ethan, sitting in each other's arms in an airport with an erupting volcano in the background

Harper and Ethan have fully accepted one another.

He could also potentially use one of the new characters introduced in season 2 as a familiar link. Let's pray it's Aubrey Plaza's Harper, although that seems unlikely. In a bittersweet turn of events, her eye-rolling, at first strongly principled, lawyer assimilates the same performative marriage facade that Cameron and Daphne put on. It's the only way now for her and Ethan to move forward -- whether they believe each other's stories about cheating or not, it doesn't matter. They're both willing to act out a happy marriage and allow each other to hold some level of mystery. Resting in each other's arms at the airport, they look a picture of peace and solidarity.

This is all after Ethan and Cameron have their inevitable showdown in the sea, but maybe it would have been too obvious and extreme if one or both of them died. The more unexpected turn of events involved Daphne taking Ethan to nearby island Isola Bella -- the shot looks like one of those Instagram pictures of couples leading each other down a path. It's left open to interpretation whether something happened between them, but it seems likely, since Daphne was unfazed by Ethan's worry that Cameron and Harper might have cheated together. She suggestively tells Ethan: "You don't have to know everything to love someone. A little mystery? It's kinda sexy..."

Daphne wearing a pink playshirt leading Ethan down a beach path toward an island

The mysterious leading the mysterious.

In a similarly messy situation, the Di Grasso men leave Sicily 50,000 euros poorer, yet they all seem surprisingly unfazed. Young Albie is momentarily put out by the revelation that Lucia was playing him the whole time, but he's swiftly on to the next opportunity: a changed Portia, who's now had her fair share of excitement and wants to settle for nothing more than the safest, most boring romantic option possible. (At least she looks mortified for one short moment about the fact her boss has just drowned to death.)

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'The White Lotus' Season 2 Finale: How It Ended and Who Died

Sunday's season 2 finale of The White Lotus tied up some other loose ends and revealed who on the hit HBO series will not live to see another resort

Glenn Garner is a form writer-reporter who worked heavily with PEOPLE's Movies and TV verticals. He left PEOPLE in 2023.

This post contains spoilers for the season 2 finale of The White Lotus.

As a beloved character learned on Sunday's White Lotus season 2 finale, a weeklong getaway to Sicily is truly a trip to die for .

Fans of the HBO series were devastated to learn the fate of Jennifer Coolidge 's Tanya after two seasons. Despite a boatload of social media theories, the climactic yacht massacre and Tanya's easily avoidable, accidental death as laid out by creator Mike White still managed to surprise.

The finale rejoined Tanya after Quentin (Tom Hollander) and his "high-end gays" threw the shipping heiress — whom they'd now dubbed "the new diva of Palermo" — a party at his palazzo in Palermo and hooked her up with Italian stallion/mafia scion Niccolò ( Stefano Gianino ).

For more on The White Lotus , listen below to our daily podcast PEOPLE Every Day.

Elsewhere, her assistant Portia ( Haley Lu Richardson ) woke up in a hotel with Quentin's supposed — but hopefully not! — nephew Jack ( Leo Woodall ). After his drunken hints at Quentin's financial issues, Portia was immediately suspicious of Jack when she couldn't fine her phone.

Before leaving the palazzo, Quentin caught Tanya looking at the photo she found the night before, seemingly featuring him and her shady husband Greg ( Jon Gries ) as young men. Although she swore it looked just like Greg, Quentin made up a story about some guy named Steve. Skeptical but unable to uncover the truth just yet, Tanya headed to Quentin's boat with his friends to head back to Taormina.

Later over lunch, Portia confronted Jack once again over her missing phone, but he continued to deny stealing it. He then immediately left his own phone at the table, and Portia took the opportunity to call her boss.

Tanya was surprisingly able to get a signal on the yacht, giving Portia the opportunity fill Tanya in on Jack's revelation Quentin was on the brink of losing his family villa but was expecting a hefty sum of money to come his way soon. At this, Tanya also broke the news to Portia that she'd seen Jack having sex with his "uncle" Quentin. They both agreed they had a bad feeling about everything.

Tanya then told Portia about the photo of Quentin and Greg, suddenly realizing that their prenuptial agreement prevents her husband from getting any money if they divorce. But if she died, he would get it all. Meanwhile, she recalled, it had been Greg's idea to visit Sicily in the first place. Tanya told Portia to get back to the White Lotus so they could "get the f--- out of here."

After the yacht dropped anchor back in Taormina, Tanya looked for a way off the boat and back to safety, but Quentin insisted she stay for dinner, telling her she could catch a boat ride back to land with Niccolò after their last supper together.

En route to the resort, Portia abruptly confronted Jack about having sex with Quentin. He finally caved, telling her to "just leave it alone" and saying he was just doing his job by driving her back to Taormina as his "uncle" had asked.

Hours later, Jack dropped off Portia in Catania, closer to the airport. He urged her to forget about Tanya and fly back home to the U.S. on her flight the next day. "These people are powerful," he told her. "You don't want to f--- with them." Before he sped off, he tossed Portia's phone on the roadside next to her.

RELATED VIDEO: Stars at The White Lotus Season 2 Premiere

Back on the yacht, Tanya saw Niccolò fishing around in a mysterious bag during dinner and was antsier than ever not to hop into the dinghy of death with him. After another drink, she grabbed the bag and locked herself in a bedroom, discovering that it contained a serial killer kit: rope, duct tape and the gun he'd shown her the night before at the coked-up party in Quentin's villa.

Once the banging on the door began from outside cabin, Tanya panicked. She grabbed the gun and, when the door burst open, shot the gun. After killing Niccolò, she continued firing wildly, fatally shooting everyone aboard except one partygoer and the captain.

As Quentin lay bleeding on the ground, she asked whether Greg was cheating on her, but he couldn't answer, only muster one final, bloody sputter.

After her rampage, Tanya tried to jump into the boat to head to land, but she slipped on her chunky platform heels and hit her head on the dinghy's railing on the way down. Knocked unconscious, she drowned.

Her body was then revealed as the one that Daphne ( Meghann Fahy ) discovered in the first episode. Just off shore, the coast guard discovered the other bodies on the yacht.

Things came to a head for Harper ( Aubrey Plaza ) and Ethan (Will Sharpe) as he accused her of having sex with Cameron ( Theo James ). She ultimately admitted to kissing him, but Ethan was convinced she was lying.

After storming across the beach and punching Cameron in an oceanic bro fight, Ethan took solace in a few words of wisdom from Daphne. She gave him a knowing look, and they headed off to Isola Bella where they may or may not have complicated the love quadrangle even further.

Despite an awkward last dinner, all was right with the young couples, with Ethan and Harper even getting in some vacation sex during their final night.

After a blissful night with Mia ( Beatrice Grannò ), White Lotus manager Valentina ( Sabrina Impacciatore ) let the aspiring singer take over permanently for Giuseppe (Federico Scribiani).

Although she appeared heartbroken to learn that Mia didn't want to pursue a relationship, they agreed to keep things casual and convenient — and Mia even offered her and fellow sex worker Lucia's ( Simona Tabasco ) services as Valentina's wingwomen to meet local lesbians.

Albie ( Adam DiMarco ) proposed Lucia move with him to Los Angeles and even convinced his dad Dominic ( Michael Imperioli ) to give him €50,000 as "karmic payment" so he could help her be free of her supposed pimp. To no one's surprise, Lucia cut and ran with the money, taking one last glance at Albie before she left him sleeping alone on his final morning.

But all wasn't lost — Albie ran into Portia at the airport. When he told her about the unidentified drowning victim and the yacht full of corpses, Portia got the drift of what had happened with Tanya. She commiserated vaguely with Albie about both getting played, and they swapped numbers. Kids!

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Seasons 1 and 2 of The White Lotus are streaming in full on HBO Max.

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<i>The White Lotus</i> Season 2 Was About Love as Delusion. In the End, It Fooled Viewers Too

The White Lotus Season 2 Was About Love as Delusion. In the End, It Fooled Viewers Too

Spoiler alert: This article discusses, in detail, the White Lotus season 2 finale. If you’ve yet to watch that, do yourself a favor and don’t read this.

“How was Palermo?” Albie (Adam DiMarco) wants to know, in the penultimate scene of the White Lotus season 2 finale, when he runs into Portia (Haley Lu Richardson) at the airport on their way out of Italy. “Not great,” she deadpans. Even though she’s yet to have her worst fears about Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) confirmed, it’s an understatement for the ages.

It also makes you wonder how this tragic vacation might’ve gone differently if things had worked out between her and Albie—two sheepish dupes who finally exchange phone numbers in the season’s final minutes—when they first met. He might never have let Lucia (Simona Tabasco) con him—or his father Dominic (Michael Imperioli), the original mark—into giving her €50,000. Dominic might never have convinced Albie to run interference with his mom, apparently saving a marriage that she probably should’ve ended long ago. Portia might not have spent her last day in Sicily afraid for her life, because she wouldn’t have fallen for Jack (Leo Woodall), the earthy pseudo-nephew, lover, and henchman of “high-end gay” fortune hunter Quentin (Tom Hollander). Which would’ve made it tough for Quentin to get Tanya alone on a yacht with a bag containing half the murder weapons from Clue.

Sure, it’s ultimately Madama McQuoid who kills the gays, not the other way around. But in true self-sabotaging style—and taking full advantage of Coolidge’s unmatched physical-comedy prowess—Tanya manages to shoot her way out of the trap, only to end up in a watery grave of her own making. So central was this character to two excellent seasons of Mike White’s luxury-resort misery-fest that her death was unfathomable to just about everyone (including yours truly ) publicly hazarding guesses as to who the corpses in Sunday’s finale would be. In retrospect, it seems fitting that a season about love as a delusion would end by shocking viewers who ignored what our own eyes told us about Tanya’s fate because we adored her.

In fact, the only eyes that seemed to observe much of anything at the Sicilian Lotus were inanimate. A Renaissance painting of St. Sebastian , that creepy fresco from the title sequence, those macabre Testa di Moro statues peeking out from every corner—they were all watching the guests’ every misguided move. Yet the characters themselves couldn’t seem to see anything clearly, least of all the far-from-ideal objects of their affection. Just about everyone got scammed, from Tanya and Portia and the Di Grassos to Valentina (Sabrina Impacciatore), who’s crushed again when newly hired lounge singer Mia (Beatrice Grannò) confirms their obviously transactional relationship as such, to the two young couples constantly performing romance and jealousy for each other’s benefit. And it all happens because everyone is too busy projecting their own selfish desires and insecurities on each other to fix a critical gaze on their own delusions.

The Di Grasso men are a particularly sad case. Dominic essentially has to bribe a sex worker he personally hired to keep his family from falling apart. Watching Lucia exit with the cash while she thinks he’s sleeping, Albie finally grows up a little. Now that his feminist facade has been shattered by a genuine gold digger, he’s ogling hot girls at the airport right along with his dad and grandpa. Speaking of poor Bert ( F. Murray Abraham ), his big blow came in episode 6, when he discovered that the Di Grasso women of Sicily had no interest in forming a loving bond with a man who’d missed his chance to do right by the Di Grasso women of America.

That’s not to say there aren’t characters who come out of the season better off than they were going into it. Mia got her gig and Lucia got her money; that final shot, in which the two best friends skip off together to make immoderate purchases, might be the closest thing White will ever give us to a happy ending. Jealous Ethan (Will Sharpe) and exasperated Harper ( Aubrey Plaza ) have rekindled their romance by allowing their insecurities to transform them into unfaithful, game-playing rich people like Cameron (Theo James) and Daphne (Meghann Fahy). The latter couple is no worse for the wear because their marriage has always been a farce.

And then, lest we forget, there’s Greg (Jon Gries), whose money-motivated deceptions in the honeymoon suite makes Lucia’s scheme look quaint by comparison. We don’t see what becomes of him once Tanya’s body is pulled out of the sea—probably because it’s so easy to guess his fate. His little Double Indemnity gambit works out even better than (as far as we know) he anticipated. Not only does he inherit Tanya’s hundreds of millions, but he doesn’t even have to share them with Quentin and company.

Of course , given the pessimism White’s shown us about love under heteronormative patriarchy, it’s the middle-aged white guy with two smitten, relatively vulnerable admirers wrapped around his finger who comes out on top. Meanwhile, Quentin might be too dastardly to mourn, but it’s worth noting that he dies, and gets a bunch of his friends killed, doing dirty work for a straight guy. That makes Tanya this modern-day opera’s one true tragic heroine. Doomed by her very existence as a lonely, self-conscious single woman of a certain age with a certain astronomical bank balance, she gets her dramatic, if also supremely klutzy, underwater death scene. Season 3 won’t be the same without her. (Does she have a twin sister Coolidge could play? Maybe season 3 can take place at the White Lotus in purgatory?) But would we want to keep coming back if The White Lotus didn’t manage to shock us every time? Like Cam and Daphne and Ethan and Harper, the show needs an element of uncertainty to keep the spark alive.

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The White Lotus’s explosive season finale, explained

Who died (and who survived) at The White Lotus.

by Alex Abad-Santos

This article contains spoilers for the season finale of the second season of The White Lotus .

For the last week , White Lotus fans have been losing sleep in stressful anticipation of the series’s season finale and the answer to the show’s ultimate question: Which White Lotus hotel guests are gonna die?

And in Sunday’s finale, we got our answer.

Image reads “spoilers below,” with a triangular sign bearing an exclamation point.

Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) met her watery demise in the season finale, as did practically a full yacht’s worth of conspiring gay men.

As episode six hinted at, new friend Quentin (Tom Hollander) and Tanya’s husband Greg (Jon Gries) had a relationship — Tanya picked up (a poorly photoshopped) photo of the two in Quentin’s bedroom. We never find out what exactly that relationship is, but Tanya — after a frantic call from the subtly abducted Portia (Haley Lu Richardson) — believes that Quentin and his crew were in cahoots with Greg to kill her and cash in an inheritance.

Offshore on Quentin’s yacht, Niccolò (Stefano Gianino), Tanya’s mafioso escort from her cocaine-filled night, arrives to bring her back to shore — just the two of them and a sizable black “cocaine bag” in a tiny boat. Tanya is convinced Niccolò and the gays are going to kill her (“These gays are trying to kill me,” she whisper-hisses, perfectly). In a desperate move, she grabs the bag, finds the tape, rope, and gun inside, and locks herself in a stateroom. When the gays come knocking, she blindly shoots her way out, still whimpering, and manages to mortally wound if not outright kill everyone on the yacht. (No, I am not making this up.) Tanya Wick just has to make it to the attached dinghy, but instead of taking the stairs, she decides to jump — whacking her head on the side of the boat and drowning.

Tanya went out doing what she loved most, obviously luring in people with her copious amounts of money and then thwarting them last minute. (The murky status of Greg’s inheritance notwithstanding.)

In a cheerier conclusion than the first season, the rest of the guests got relatively happy endings.

How everyone else fared at the White Lotus Sicily

Fatally miserable couple Ethan (Will Sharpe) and Harper Spiller (Aubrey Plaza) recovered their missing intimacy, accepting a little bit of mystery in one another. Knowing that his college roommate at the very least kissed his wife, Ethan tackles Cameron (Theo James) in the ocean and punches him in the face. Ethan reveals the possible indiscretion to Cam’s uncannily zen wife Daphne (Meghann Fahy), who gives Ethan basically the same ambiguously erotic pep talk she gave Harper: Don’t be a victim; get yours. Unlike Harper, Daphne takes Ethan on a walk to a private island. After that, and a surprisingly not-weird dinner with the full foursome, Ethan rekindles his attraction to Harper and the two finally have sex.

The Di Grasso men left the island as they came — all terrible with women in their own unique ways. Dominic (Michael Imperioli) has a sliver of hope his wife will talk to him again, thanks to his son’s semi-extortionist blessing; Bert (F. Murray Abraham) still gets sexually excited from a hug. At the airport, Albie (Adam DiMarco) reconnects with Portia, each having been pretty well and thoroughly scammed by the sex workers they unwittingly ditched each other for. The two exchange numbers, so they can go on to hurt each other another day.

Lucia (Simona Tabasco) and Mia (Beatrice Grannò) got to achieve their dreams this season: scamming men and singing at the hotel’s piano bar.

And speaking of sex workers, Lucia (Simona Tabasco) and Mia (Beatrice Grannò) got a real happily ever after. Lucia played Albie and his dad for 50,000 euro. Alessio, the man supposedly stalking her, wasn’t a pimp or a disgruntled mob boss but just a doorman at a neighboring hotel. And as a result of accidentally drugging the resident pianist, Mia convinces hotel manager Valentina (Sabrina Impacciatore) to fire him. Good for them!

Men get played. Women get rich. Yachts became death traps. What a surprisingly jaunty ending for our White Lotus guests (save for Tanya) and oddly hopeful cap to the second season of this beloved HBO show.

The season is a well-executed murder mystery

The biggest shift this season was how The White Lotus transitioned from feeling like a show about unaware and unchecked privilege with a little murder mystery hanging over it, to murder mystery with a bit of unaware and unchecked privilege on the side. Fans were more determined than ever to decode every potential clue . The change in vibe began in the very first episode.

We meet Daphne who, at first blush feels familiar to anyone who’s seen The White Lotus season one. She’s got perfect hair, a perfect swimsuit, perfect teeth. Big, clean, gorgeous teeth. In White Lotus code, this means she’s probably a horrific monster. Daphne chats up the girls next to her, initiating a conversation about how lucky they are to be in Sicily.

“Italy’s just so romantic,” Daphne tells the women, before getting into the Ionian Sea one last time. “Oh, you’re gonna die. They’re gonna have to drag you out of here,” she says.

As Daphne takes the plunge, the water suddenly doesn’t seem as blue or clear as it did in the wide shot. And then it happens: A pair of floating legs (and Tanya’s corpse that they’re attached to) thump into Daphne, and send her screaming for shore. Onshore, we learn that a number of bodies have been discovered, but no final body count given (beach club supervisor Rocco tells manager Valentina that there’s a “few”). All we know is that the unalive people were guests of the hotel.

That’s where the real show starts.

In season one, the possibility remained that the body bag we saw in the very first episode had been the result of natural causes. But since we saw that end with snotty guest Shane (Jake Lacy) stabbing hotel manager Armond (Murray Bartlett), and started this new season with a whole pile of bodies, it seemed all but assured that foul play would be afoot at the White Lotus Sicily. Were these deaths an accident? Were they on purpose? Murder? Manslaughter? And more importantly: Who died? And who killed them?

White’s sneaky move was to let the subtle, even pedestrian betrayals in relationships feel like clues to a murder mystery. A thousand motives flit across the screen, all possible in the characters’ fragile relationships. Over an innocuous dinner or drinks at the beach, the tension between these characters seems like it might boil over — and occasionally does.

Suddenly, it wasn’t so difficult to see a scenario in which Ethan, frustrated with Harper, would kill his old buddy Cam. It wasn’t impossible to imagine Albie killing Lucia after finding out his father also slept with her, or Jack (Leo Woodall) tossing Portia into the sea because she found out Quentin wasn’t his uncle.

The first season took a big swing , giving us White’s ideas about how American greed and pleasure are interconnected and how Hawaii and Hawaiians became the mainland’s victims. The White Lotus ’s second season doesn’t even attempt to tell a similar story. Instead, it’s skewering gender by way of masculinity, sex, and desire. It’s a more sensational, more sordid, more sinister, and more streamlined story. It’s a less ambitious season, maybe, but a more successful one.

Daphne Sullivan won The White Lotus

The White Lotus didn’t invent miserable rich Americans, nor did it create our morbid curiosity with them. Watching the wealthy writhe in emotional displeasure is a long tradition, from The Great Gatsby to the Real Housewives . There’s something comforting in knowing there are limits to financial security, and witnessing people who could afford anything still be unfulfilled in ways that they’ll never be able to solve. There’s something about the rich on vacation that feels like it could go full Hunger Games .

Yet, despite the endless reasons to hate so many of the main guests — Ethan is so terminally insecure, Harper is a horny grump, Cameron’s a slimeball, Tanya is an emotional vampire, Portia has no backbone, and the Di Grassos have never met a woman they couldn’t impose themselves on — there’s one I would die for: Daphne Sullivan.

Obviously, a lot of my affection for the character comes from Meghann Fahy’s brilliant performance. And just as much can be explained by the ancient proverb : “girl does sociopathic shit, her gays [say] work.”

But it’s also what Daphne represents.

When we first meet her on the beach chatting up the two women on vacation, there’s a sense that she’s kind of a rich dumb-dumb. That’s the common thread among White Lotus guests. Look how they can’t even understand what’s happening around them.

Adding to that impression is that we also meet eternally mordant Harper, who’s crabby the minute she gets to Sicily. Harper does not want to be there. She hates being on vacation with people she hates.

This irritability makes Harper seem like the show’s protagonist. It allows her to point out how out of touch the people around her are, the implicit position of viewers at home. When Harper tells Cameron and Daphne that she’s an employment lawyer, Cameron quickly spouts on about how most harassment lawsuits are fake. When Cameron and Daphne tell her they don’t read or watch the news, she’s shocked at their incuriosity about the world. If Harper, who the show paints as smarter than the rest of the cohort, thinks Daphne and Cameron are idiots, then they must be idiots, right?

But as the show progresses, Daphne shows herself to be much smarter than she appears — and maybe wiser than Harper herself.

In episode 5, Harper, by way of a condom wrapper and emotional warfare, finds out that Cameron and Ethan did MDMA and that Cameron cheated on Daphne with a sex worker. When she tells Daphne as much as she can without spelling out all the details, Daphne doesn’t even flinch.

Instead of shock, Daphne tells Harper about her trainer Lawrence. They spend an enormous amount of time together. Lawrence makes her laugh. Lawrence keeps her fit. Lawrence doesn’t let her get lonely. She describes him to Harper as blond and blue-eyed, and offers to show her a pic. Instead, she hands over a photo of her blond and blue-eyed children. “Oops,” she says, with the smallest point, and we know she’s never made a mistake at all, but that Cameron has in underestimating her.

“I spend more time with him than Cameron sometimes because he’s so busy at work,” Daphne tells Harper, before her face sharpens into a smile that’s all edges. “The point is, maybe you should get a trainer.”

It’s in this moment that Harper realizes Daphne isn’t oblivious to her life but, rather, fully aware of every moment of it. Like her shopping sprees, infidelity to the point of paternity fraud is one of the ways Daphne has carved out happiness in what could be an utterly punishing life. She’s the trophy wife to Cameron’s wheeling, dealing, cheating asshole finance bro, but Daphne plays the game, too. She just happens to be smart enough to never be left footing the bill. She knows being unvalued will get her further.

Though it looks like they might, Ethan (Will Sharpe) and Cameron (Theo James) did not kiss.

Daphne puts her slightly mercenary wisdom to practice in the final episode, after Ethan tells her something happened with Harper and Cam. Taking just a beat to let the hurt wash over her, she’s quickly ready to metabolize. While we don’t know for certain what happens when Daphne takes Ethan on a walk to La Isola Bella, it seems to lead to a reset in the natural balance of the group, which had gone perilously lopsided for Ethan since he had reason to be suspicious of his wife. Does Daphne really want Ethan? (No, I don’t think so.) Do they actually hook up? (Yes, I think so.) What matters is that neither of them is a victim anymore.

Daphne’s worldview serves both halves of the Spiller couple well, eventually. Each had felt victimized by the other: Harper by Ethan’s expectations and lack of sexual interest, Ethan by Harper’s moods and frustration, both by the other’s lies. Daphne helps put the couple on equal footing by encouraging each one to take their power back. Honesty is overrated; an appreciation for mystery in yourself and the person you love is a much sexier solution.

“You don’t have to know everything to love someone,” she tells Ethan.

She should know; it’s an answer that has paid off her time and again. It’s also worth noting that Ethan and Harper being on good terms with each other is a good thing for Daphne. If Ethan doesn’t see Cameron as a threat, especially if you read his “walk” with Daphne as more than a stroll, he might be open to Cameron investing his money and obliquely funding Daphne’s lavish life.

Upward mobility isn’t usually rewarded in The White Lotus, as we saw with Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) from season one, and Quentin and his cohort this year. Striving for something more never works out when you play against the ultra-wealthy. But here, all along, Daphne defied the odds and found a way. Just don’t tell anyone about her trainer.

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'The White Lotus' Recap: Who Died in the Shocking Season 2 Finale?

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Season 2 of The White Lotus has officially come to a close – and audiences finally learned who died in that very shocking, very unexpected final episode.

The second installment of creator Mike White's Emmy-winning social satire opened with Daphne ( Meghann Fahy ) discovering a dead body in the water, off the beach of the Sicilian luxury hotel where she was staying with her husband Cameron ( Theo James ) and their two friends, Harper ( Aubrey Plaza ) and Ethan (Will Sharpe).

As hotel manager Valentina (Sabrina Impacciatore) assessed the scene, it was soon revealed by her employee, Rocco (Federico Ferrante), that there was more than one dead body.

Since then, audiences have eagerly been guessing which guests will turn up dead – and what led to their demise – as the remaining six episodes unfolded. And in the finale, "Arrivederci," all was revealed. [ Warning : Spoilers below!]

So, in the end, the dead bodies belonged to Tanya ( Jennifer Coolidge ), who was discovered by Daphne, as well as Quentin (Tom Hollander) and several of his gay companions, who were all revealed to be in on a long con involving an attempt to kill her and take all her money. It was Tanya who killed them while aboard their yacht on the way back to the hotel from Palermo before slipping and falling into the water while trying to escape on the boat's dinghy.

It was during their final night that she discovered a photo of Quentin and Greg (Jon Gries) as young men together and came to believe that they were working together to take advantage of the prenup she had with her husband, whom she met during season 1 at the White Lotus hotel in Hawaii.

Jack (Leo Woodall), meanwhile, was tasked with driving Portia ( Haley Lu Richardson ) back across the island. Instead of returning her to the hotel, he took her to the airport. He left her with a warning to get out of Sicily as soon as she could and that the men he was involved with were dangerous.

While Greg promised to return to Sicily, he never returned . And what came of his and Quentin's attempt to get her money remains unclear. The hotel's other guests, however, survived. But they all left on mostly damper notes, with Albie (Adam DiMarco) being played by Lucia, who managed to score €50,000 from him and the rest of his family; the two couples — Ethan and Harper and Cameron and Daphne — dealing with the unexpected turmoil that erupted between them; and Mia (Beatrice Grannò) landing a full time job as the hotel's new singer/pianist after seducing Valentina and drugging Giuseppe (Federico Scribani).

And as promised by the cast, the season truly ended on a volcanic note with Mount Etna erupting in the background.

The White Lotus is now streaming on HBO Max.

'The White Lotus' Star Tom Hollander on Episode 5's Unexpected Twist

'The White Lotus': Jon Gries on Greg's Departure, Who's on the Phone

'The White Lotus' Season 2: Will Sharpe on Ethan's Breaking Point

Who Dies in 'The White Lotus' Season 2? What We Know About the Murder

'The White Lotus' Renewed for Season 3 as the Series Heads to a New Location

The White Lotus

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'The White Lotus' Season 2 finale: Who died? Who cheated? Who stole? And what does it all mean?

Spoiler alert! The following contains details from the Season 2 finale of "The White Lotus," "Arrivederci."

All is fair in love and war. Except absolutely nothing is fair in either.

Sunday's Season 2 finale of HBO's Sicily-set satire "The White Lotus" landed with a startling thunk on the side of a boat, as a bombastic episode of television with a murder spree that may not have even been the biggest moment of its 80 minutes.

The "Lotus" finale comes together like a symphony, each scene falling into place like a cascade of musical notes, inevitable yet surprising at the same time. The exquisite finale was impeccably acted and scripted, a fitting ending to a breathtaking story. It is akin to the tragedy of the Season 1 finale, although in many ways Season 2 has outshone its predecessor .

While the first season was an apt exploration of class in a five-star upstairs/downstairs drama, it was still a version of a story we've seen before. In Season 2, creator Mike White molded something all his own, an examination of sexual politics and norms that have radically changed – but also depressingly stayed the same – since the #MeToo movement. Ever astute in his observations of modern life, White offers no answers to the tough questions, or even much hope for our flailing attempts at human connection. But he does provide a ruthless mirror in which to examine ourselves, and a breathless hunger for a third season.

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Who died in 'The White Lotus' finale?

At the end of the week in the stunning Sicilian resort, we learn the body floating in the sea was Tanya's (Jennifer Coolidge), who fell to her death off the side of Quentin's (Tom Hollander's) yacht while trying to escape what she believed was a murder-for-hire plot and left a trio of dead bodies in her wake. It was a stunner, but it also felt inevitable, as Tanya seemed trapped by each move Quentin and his compatriots made on his yacht.

At the beginning of the episode, her assistant Portia (Haley Lu Richardson) remained stuck far from Tanya, with Quentin's fake nephew Jack (Leo Woodall), but the pair managed to speak on a brief call that convinces both that their generous companions have been conspiring with Tanya's husband Greg (Jon Gries) to murder her.

Fumbling and bumbling through the motions of socialization after this realization, Tanya attempts to save herself through desperate measures: exclaiming to the non-English speaking captain, delaying tactics and eventually shooting her captors before falling to her death in an ill-conceived attempt to get from the yacht to a dinghy. These scenes ricocheted from slapstick to startling to violent, and Coolidge – already wielding an Emmy for this role in Season 1 – plays it all easily, with Tanya's trademark haplessness.

Jack leaves Portia scared and suspicious, by the side of the road, but she takes his advice not to get involved. She only hears about the deaths at the resort after running into Albie (Adam DiMarco) at the airport. After the terror Jack put her through, Portia is a lot more amenable to boring, safe Albie, asking for his number before boarding her flight.

More: Wonderful 'White Lotus' is back for Season 2, and it's not a second too soon

Who got conned?

Albie and the other DiGrasso men (F. Murray Abraham and Michael Imperioli) didn't seem to learn much from their time in their ancestral homeland. In the end, Lucia (Simona Tabasco) was conning Albie, and was never beholden to a pimp or stuck in her life of sex work. She gets 50,000 euros out of him before (with an ounce or two of regret) she leaves him alone in his hotel room to live with the fact that his father was right; Albie was an easy mark.

Albie's father Dominic (Imperioli) gets what he wanted in the end: an open line of communication with his estranged wife by placating his son, rather than by engaging in any meaningful acts of remorse or penance. And Nonno Bert (Abraham) is still the same old lech he always was, unable to congratulate Mia (Beatrice Grannò) on her gig as the new White Lotus lounge singer without commenting on his own arousal.

The lack of growth from the DiGrasso men is underlined at the airport, where they're in line for a budget airline no less, when they turn to leer in unison at another woman in a crop top.

More: Why we're seeing a new 'wave' of wealth satires, from 'White Lotus' to 'Triangle of Sadness'

Who cheated?

We may never know exactly what happened between Cameron (Theo James) and Harper (Aubrey Plaza), although Harper attempts to convince her husband Ethan (Will Sharpe) that the only thing that happened between them was a drunken kiss.

After his argument with Harper, an enraged Ethan confronts Cameron in the ocean, and almost makes his so-called college roommate and friend the dead body, before their fight is broken up by a bystander. Ethan eventually finds his way to Cameron's wife Daphne (Meghann Fahy), and tells her of his suspicions about their spouses. Fahey proves herself the star of the series in a 30-second, silent reaction to Ethan's revelation, in which Daphne runs through the stages of grief in quick succession. Her happy, playful facade returns, and she lures Ethan to a small island. What they do there isn't clear, but when Ethan returns to Harper later, he suddenly reconnects sexually with his wife, all indiscretion forgiven.

Who got a happy ending

In the end, it's just Lucia, Mia and hotel manager Valentina (Sabrina Impacciatore) who are unabashedly happy at the end of the week at The White Lotus in Taormina.

After finally getting over her own sexual frustrations, Valentina is able to see other sexual harassment in her workplace, if not that she too was behaving inappropriately toward one of her employees. But it's as if her whole body has unclenched after admitting she is a lesbian, down to a slightly unbuttoned blouse and frizzy hair.

Mia and Lucia, meanwhile, are 50,000 euros richer and strutting through the streets of town in the designer clothes they craved at the beginning of the season. Maybe they deceived and drugged and conned their way to their new positions, but they did it to a gaggle of guests who aimed at exploiting them first.

The "Lotus" finale raised as many questions as it answered, but the loose ends aren't especially bothersome. White is singularly accomplished at filling his writing with satisfying ambiguity. There are vagaries and injustices in the messy worlds he creates, but just as in the real world, the characters must just move on or get trapped.

Tanya, for instance, will only leave Sicily in a coffin.

More: The 50 best TV shows on HBO Max in December: 'The White Lotus' finale and more

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The White Lotus season 2 goes out guns blazing in a riveting finale

HBO's Sicilian vacation ends with genuine shocks, and even the happy endings leave a nasty aftertaste.

This review contains spoilers for the season 2 finale of The White Lotus .

Death looms over both seasons of The White Lotus . One airport coffin, multiple beach bodies: Creator Mike White starts these stories with the promise of a bang. Bit of a con, maybe, an easy way to add tension to leisure weeks of hot, rich, ambient dramedy. Season 1's finale fatality was a sudden shock: accidental stabbing, apologetic stabber, the hysterical proximity of the killing to the pooping. White goes a different direction in Sunday's exuberantly deranged season 2 finale, building the episode around ticking-clock anxiety and a genuine action set piece. It's full of thrills and lingering ambiguities — plus sex, fighting, and lava.

When the Sicily season premiered back in October, I was half in and half out . Glorious photography, great actors, bright clothes, musical numbers, Conversations About Contemporary Themes: What's not to like? But I sensed a drop in eccentricity from the debut season and worried some characters were one-dimensional. In rereading that initial review, I have concluded that I am a dumb idiot, and I underrated just what hotblooded soap-on-fire entertainment White was cooking up. Case in point: I thought Tanya ( Jennifer Coolidge ) was brought back as a kind of trumped-up franchise mascot, resetting herself for another luxury journey from shallow sadness to shallow happiness. Surely Coolidge had that Emmy-winning force field around her, and nothing bad could happen to a character so pitiful and hilarious.

Wrong! Here's Tanya shooting her way through a yacht, leaving a trail of well-dressed bodies in her wake. A phone call from Portia ( Haley Lu Richardson ) nudges her toward paranoia. Has her absent husband Greg (Jon Gries) called upon his long-ago lover Quentin (Tom Hollander) for an elaborate prenup-avoiding murder? The conspiracy sounds crazy when you line it all up, and part of the finale's genuine freakiness is that nothing ever gets confirmed. Tanya kills three men, and throws mad words toward the dying Quentin. "Is Greg having an affair?" she asks him — a hilarious line given all the bullets that were just flying. Tanya then tries to climb off the yacht onto the dinghy. White plays with our expectations, since this should be the moment when the messed-up character Gets It All Together. "You got this!" Tanya mutters. And then she stumbles off, bashes her head, and drowns.

It's disturbing and grand: Pure farce, pure noir. For Coolidge it's a chance to push Tanya's trainwreck sweetness into a new operatic direction. Offhand, I can't think of any character in recent television who seems less equipped for a gunfight, and the way the camera stays on her the whole time is both a legitimately cool camera trick and a way to lay bare all her confounding sides in close-up. There's the caged-animal secret strength of someone who's lived her whole life sad, and some palpable booziness in her shaky aim. You imagine she is someone who has spent her whole life thinking that the people who love her don't really love her. Consider that fear confirmed: From her perspective, a husband and a lover and a bunch of new friends (even Didier and What's-His-Face!) want her dead.

To be honest, the first time I saw that scene, I thought it was still possible Tanya was overreacting wildly — that the ultimate twist this season would be that Quentin wasn't actually gaslighting her. Not sure what the rope and the duct tape were for, and it seems more likely (and much sadder) that she really did save herself from drowning before just drowning herself. And it took me a while to realize that Tanya's death includes another deflating twist. Portia spends the episode genuinely worried about her boss. Jack (Leo Woodall) drops her off far from Taormina, strongly suggesting that she not return to the hotel. Well, she'll definitely go back to the hotel , I thought to myself. Wrong again! Portia hears about the drowning secondhand from Albie (Adam DiMarco) at the airport. She does not race to call the police. Instead, she asks for the dope's number — a nice moment, except she's mentally (and actually) fleeing her boss' probable murder.

There's an angle where this finale is too joyous. Mutual adulteries heal all rifts between spouses. Harper ( Aubrey Plaza ) admits that she kissed Cameron ( Theo James ), which leads Daphne ( Meghann Fahy ) to guide Ethan (Will Sharpe) into an island canoodle. Presto presto: All the renewed marital mystery gives Harper and Ethan their mojo back. More mojo is reclaimed by Valentina (Sabrina Impacciatore), abuzz with post-coital pep after a night with Mia (Beatrice Grannò). I kept waiting for their relationship to backfire tragically, and the opposite kept happening. Mia gets the singing gig full-time. Valentina reunites darling Isabella (Eleonora Romandini) with devoted Rocco (Federico Ferrante). Mia promises to take Valentina out clubbing to find "hot girls who are gay."

Meanwhile, in the Subplot About American Masculinity, Bert ( F. Murray Abraham ) leaves Sicily without dying or getting arrested for dirty-old-man impropriety. Dominic ( Michael Imperioli ) finally talks to his wife on the phone. And dear Albie gets rolled for 50 thousand euros, but he sort of expects that, and he gets Portia's digits.

The Di Grassos mattered less this season than I expected; I wonder if White just cared more about Tanya's gay getaway and the luscious nastiness between the couples. But it's worth noting how transactional a lot of these happy endings are. Dominic knows Lucia (Simona Tabasco) is feeding his son a line about needing so much money: "How are you gonna make it in life if you're this big a mark?" When Albie offers to talk up Dominic's redemption to his mom, though, they come to an agreement. A normal version of this story might see father and son opening up to each other in an honest way. Here, it's just two men cooking up a contract: Lie to your mom about my thing, and I'll give you money so you can lie to yourself about your thing. The only guy telling any truth is randy old Bert, who can't deny that a sweet daughterly hug from Mia gets him hard.

Then there's Daphne. Fahy was the breakout performer this year, embedding an inferno of repressed hurt and battle-scarred humor behind her dizzy-housewife façade. She was the very personification of the White Lotus dissolve from radiant sunswept slow-motion waves to explosive volcanic midnight awe. In the finale, she gives Ethan a variation of the advice she offered Harper: "Do whatever you have to do not to feel like a victim of life." Is that great advice for living or terrible license to sin? Consider the outcomes: She nudges Harper and Ethan toward infidelity. There's more here, I think, and I strongly suspect Daphne will pick up the baton dropped by Tanya to reappear next season. Girls' trip to the Maldives, maybe? Or could we finally meet her trainer?

White balances his moods so deftly — emotional brutality, goofy one-liners, simmering terror, soul-baring confession — in an episode full of expensive cheap thrills. When Ethan attacks Cameron in the waves, White shoots it like a Street Fighter duel, and finds a marvelous button when Cameron actually giggles after the fight. Whereas a long conversation between Ethan and Harper lingers in quiet moments of pent-up anger. First she lies, and then she throws her own infidelity back in his face: "You don't want to have sex with me!"

In the last few episodes, I felt like season 2 of White Lotus was veering away from satire into something both louder and trickier, taking the bygone model of the primetime soap opera and ratcheting up both the decadence and the perversion. Think "he was kinda f---in' his uncle!" but in a villa. Past a certain point all the walls looked like paintings and all the dresses looked like the walls that looked like paintings. The finale features a critical absence that would be Lynchian if it weren't more directly Hitchcockian: the complete vanishing of Greg, a person who was maybe having an affair and was probably planning to kill his wife. His place in the story recalls Tom Helmore's stern husband in Vertigo , mostly absent from a film that depends on his elaborate machinations. I think there's serious replay value in the show Greg and Quentin were putting on for Tanya: the Vespa ride and the opera visit, the possibility that all of Quentin's "die for beauty" monologues were his sincere confession to his victim.

"It's a good feeling when you realize that someone has money," Tanya tells Portia midway through the season. "'Cause then you don't have to worry about them wanting yours." That line hits like a depth charge when you realize Tanya was surrounded by people who wanted her money bad enough to kill her. My second theory about season 3 is that we'll see Greg — rich, unhappy, dying once again — and that the McQuoid fortune will become White Lotus ' serialized saga, passed along like a parasite from one host body to the next.

Then again, maybe we're forgetting the show's real heroes. Lucia receded these last couple episodes, stuck in a con that was obviously a con. (Confirmed: Her angry murderous pimp was, in fact, not an angry murderous pimp.) I think I wanted one more level with her. As it is, she was kind of everyone else's unstable molecule, breaking marriages asunder and making father-son conversations very awkward. But I liked her last look back at Albie; the thought balloon seemed to say What a nice guy! and What a chump! We're left with Mia and Lucia cheerfully strolling down the road. Could a few more weeks like this give Lucia enough cash for a White Lotus trip of her own?

There's a lot to imagine as we await season 3. There's a part of me that badly wants a White Lotus without the murder or the melodrama — a more holistic and dreamy character piece, like White's sacred and short-lived masterpiece Enlightened . But I admire how often White Lotus lets the joke and the horror go hand in hand, embracing gaudy spectacle even as it revels in its characters' boiling self-destruction. "The best things in life are free" promises the singer over the closing scene. It's a compelling lie. Those things aren't free, but they really are the best.

Finale Grade: A -

The Ending of 'The White Lotus' Season 2, Explained

Our breakdown of the finale and those shocking deaths.

The second season of the HBO drama The White Lotus has ended, the surviving characters have boarded their planes, and the viewers are left with...a lot of unfulfilled storylines. Many a fan theory has been left floating in the ether after the finale's big reveal of which hotel guest met their demise, and several ticking time bombs simply fizzled out to become a tightly-kept secret. Still, the season finale delivered in stressful scenes and shocked laughter, as each of the plots among the Sicily resort 's guest and staff came to their conclusions.

For anyone who wants to commiserate on the end of this must-watch TV event, follow along as we go through this finale breakdown group by group.

Harper and Ethan make up through jealously and (possible) mutual cheating.

Oh, Harper and Ethan. The spouses came on this strange trip expecting nothing more than general awkwardness, joining Ethan's asshole college roommate Cameron and his fabulous, complex wife Daphne on a couples' trip where the couples barely know each other. Instead, they got a severe test of their relationship as Ethan was suspected for Cameron's cheating and Harper used Cameron's interest in her to give Ethan a taste of his own medicine.

Early in the finale, after some nudging from Ethan, Harper caves and admits that Cameron did kiss her when they went up to their rooms alone. She describes the moment as a "drunken, stupid nothing," and insists that's as far as it went since Cameron is, as she rightly points out, "disgusting." Ethan doesn't entirely believe her, but he focuses on the one part of the situation where there's no doubt: Cameron tried to sleep with his wife, just like he hooked up with all of Ethan's college crushes.

With no hesitation (like, not even a word to Harper), Ethan goes straight to the beach where he fights with Cameron. The two men alternate in attempting to drown each other, but a good Samaritan breaks up the fight after Ethan lands one great last punch. He then goes for a walk on the beach, where he runs into Daphne, sunning and oblivious.

Sweet Daphne has just been trying to ignore her husband's cheating and enjoy her vacation. Ethan ruins that when he directly tells her of her Cameron's infidelity, informing her not of the night with some random locals, but with her husband's tryst with Harper, the woman she was hoping to befriend. She looks sad for a second, before she rallies and gives Ethan a similar "do what you have to do to make yourself feel better about it" speech that she previously gave to Harper. The pair then go on a walk to a secluded part of the beach, where it's heavily implied that they hook up themselves.

In addition to showing that Daphne could rule a small country with her cunning optimism, whatever happened between her and Ethan may have saved Ethan and Harper's marriage. Later that night, after the foursome have one final dinner where everything goes unsaid, Harper and Ethan return to their room and Harper asks what will happen to them. Instead of a fight or a sad separation, the couple who haven't touched each other all vacation finally has sex! We next see them at the airport, cuddling with small smiles on their faces and the reassurance that their marriage just might make it after all.

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Mia becomes the permanent lounge singer.

A quick note for Mia and Valentina, another pairing that could've ended in tragedy but instead finds its way. After their night together in one of the hotel's vacant room, they're woken up by a housekeeper walking in on them. Surprisingly, Valentina just goes back to her post in yesterday's clothes and no one says anything. She makes some major personnel changes with disheveled hair, starting with sending Salvatore back to the beach so Isabella's fiancé Rocco can come back to the front desk.

Later that day, Mia returns to the resort for her lounge shift, and everything's great between her and Valentina. She even offers to take Valentina to the lesbian bars to find her a real girlfriend. Right after they stop talking, with the hopeful smile still on Valentina's face, Giuseppe comes back! Remember the previous lounge singer who was sent to the hospital after Mia gave him something that definitely wasn't Viagra. He has returned with a full bill of health, only to find Mia at his piano. Luckily for Mia, as soon as the drama is introduced, Valentina solves everything by firing Giuseppe and giving Mia the permanent singing gig. Both Mia and Valentina end the night on top of the world, but between the unjust firing and the dead body that'll be discovered the next morning, Valentina probably won't hold on to her job much longer. (We don't see the aftermath, but that's what headcanons are for.)

Lucia scams the Di Grassos out of 50,000 euros(!!).

Though Daphne is the Internet's favorite character, Lucia is the MVP of Season 2, walking away from a man she only knew for three days with a year's salary in her bank account. After "good guy" Albie promised to help her get away from her "pimp" Alessio in Episode 6, the mark wakes up with big plans, telling her she may be able to come visit him in Los Angeles. He goes to meet Dominic at breakfast with a battle plan, asking his father send 50,000 euros(!!!) to Lucia's account. Albie infuses this ask with a level of entitlement that is something to behold, as Dominic understandably refuses. Instead of backing down, Albie suggests that the money could be "karmic payment" for Dominic's history of cheating on his wife, and the son even says he'll put in a good word with his mother to take Dominic back.

This whole season, Dominic has been trying to change his ways and asking Albie to put in a good word with his mom. Because of this, even though he knows his son is being scammed, Dominic actually sends the money to Lucia's account. He tells Albie at dinner, and the 20-something immediately ditches his family to go receive thanks from Lucia. The sucker and the entrepreneur enjoy a sweet night together, and just when you think that maybe they are in love, Lucia sneaks out of the room in the morning, and Albie wakes up to her closing the door.

The last shot of Lucia and Mia is the last sequence of the episode, and it dispels any remaining doubts that Lucia has pulled off the scam of the century. In a parallel to the pair's first walk to the hotel in the premiere, we follow the women as they walk away down the Taormina street, before they stop to greet Alessio at his post (surprisingly as a doorman at another hotel). He was obviously an accomplice in the scam, not a "pimp" from whom Albie has saved Lucia. So the season ends with the two women on top of the world, and Albie doing just fine at the airport (more on that in a bit).

Portia was definitely kidnapped.

Episode 6 ended with only a general vibe that Portia was in danger, as Jack insisted on keeping her away from his "uncle" Quentin's villa. But within her first few minutes of finale screentime, it's clear that Portia's being held against her will, as she discovers that her phone has "mysteriously" disappeared from where she put it to charge. Jack shrugs off its disappearance, pretending that he did not take it, and later at breakfast he reveals that Tanya's heading back to Taormina via yacht, with Quentin and his posse of gays. Jack's going to drive Portia, who's missing her phone and whose luggage is left abandoned back at the villa.

We're about to see throughout this saga that Portia is not the sharpest assistant, but she actually makes a smart move in taking Jack's phone while he's in the restroom. She calls Tanya, they debrief on everything that's going on (including the reveal that Jack and Quentin were sleeping together), and Portia says over and over that she has a "really creepy feeling" about everything that's going on. Before the two women can come up with anything actually resembling a plan, Jack comes back and snatches the phone away. Poor Portia tries to demand that he takes her back to Taormina immediately, but Jack shrugs it off and takes his sweet time getting her to the car to drive her back.

Now, I do get why Portia would feel like she has nothing to do. When Jack's negging is still gentle, he makes some valid points: she probably brought very little money with her, she doesn't speak the language, and her attempts at assertiveness aren't really...assertive. Still, it's hard not to watch and cringe and yell at her to do something as Jack gets more and more frightening. She even confronts him about hooking up with his "uncle," and when he gives a non-response, she still lets him transport her to another location that obviously won't be the hotel. Instead, he drops her on the side of the road near the airport, saying that she shouldn't go back to the White Lotus because the people who hired him are powerful and not to be messed with.

Whether you think she's right to actually listen to Jack's threat, or wrong for not even trying to help Tanya, Portia does walk straight to the airport. We next see her waiting for the flight back to San Francisco, with nothing but her backpack and her ridiculous outfit. There she runs into Albie, who appears to have shaken off the fact that he was taken for literal tens of thousands of dollars. The last we see of them, the duo are exchanging numbers to assumedly date once they get back home. (Mike White, do not let these two show up married next season, I beg you.)

Tanya doesn't make it off the yacht alive.

And so we've arrived to the last guest of this season and the last person we thought the show would actually kill off. Tanya McQuoid was in the most danger all season, but still, she was the only recurring character. We love Tanya (and Jennifer Coolidge) which is why I was low-key stressed the entire episode. By the finale, the show was toying with the obvious sinister plot, letting Quentin become fully menacing even before Tanya and Portia connected the dots between him, Greg, and the prenup. The strongest fan theory (besides Lucia's plan) was proven true: Tanya's husband was the cowboy Quentin knew from youth and Greg hired Quentin and co. to kill Tanya so he could get all her money. I'm still surprised that the plan wasn't just to blackmail, but I guess the stakes were high this season.

Unfortunately, by the time Tanya figures out that Quentin wants to kill her, she has already gotten onto the yacht. The big boat drops anchor about half a mile offshore, and Quentin lets Tanya know that Niccolò, the mafia-connected dealer she slept with in Episode 6, is arriving to personally take her to the shore that night. It'll just be the two of them, and she won't make it to the shore. Trapped, Tanya makes a solid attempt to ask the captain to help her, but he doesn't speak English, and he's gay too! (Lots of gay villain jokes in this season, not all of them great.) That's when Niccolò arrives, with his trusty black bag that Tanya already knows carries a gun.

Tanya is a lot more enterprising than Portia in trying to escape. (Seriously, Portia, you at least didn't get your phone back in the three-hour drive?!) She knows to stall out the dinner, and she gets eyes on the bag. When Quentin says that it's time to go, she excuses herself to the restroom, and successfully grabs the bag! The next sequence is jaw-dropping, with Tanya pulling up her inner strength and arming herself with the gun, shooting Niccolò, Quentin, and Didier through tears. It's a scene that'll earn Coolidge another Emmy, as she then confronts Quentin not about the murder plot, but with a question that is sooooo unimportant: "Is Greg having an affair?" Tanya's gonna Tanya, but I was so proud of her for escaping her death...until she can't figure out how to get down to the dinghy. Not knowing to look for the stairs, she climbs over the railing in heels, slips, falls, and drowns.

So it was Tanya's body all along that floated to the White Lotus beach. It's a very classic Tanya way to go, and just like the Season 1 ending, fans are left with nothing to cheer for, feeling conflicted on how every character will move on after their trip to Sicily (except Lucia and Mia, who are living their best lives). There's also just so much that could've happened this season that didn't. Albie never found out that both he and his dad slept with Lucia, and Harper and Ethan ended up moving past their issues without a real discussion. For all the Sicilian characters, it feels like we're leaving them before the really interesting stuff happens. There could be a whole Lucia, Valentina, Mia sequel and a Quentin, Jack & co. prequel made out of my lingering questions, but that's not the way White operates. Instead, we'll now have to wait for a third installment with a new cast that might be a look at "Eastern religion and spirituality." Whatever happens next, we'll be watching.

Quinci is a Culture Writer who covers all aspects of pop culture, including TV, movies, music, books, and theater. She contributes interviews with talent, as well as SEO content, features, and trend stories. She fell in love with storytelling at a young age, and eventually discovered her love for cultural criticism and amplifying awareness for underrepresented storytellers across the arts. She previously served as a weekend editor for Harper’s Bazaar , where she covered breaking news and live events for the brand’s website, and helped run the brand’s social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Her freelance writing has also appeared in outlets including HuffPost , The A.V. Club , Elle , Vulture , Salon , Teen Vogue , and others. Quinci earned her degree in English and Psychology from The University of New Mexico. She was a 2021 Eugene O’Neill Critics Institute fellow, and she is a member of the Television Critics Association. She is currently based in her hometown of Los Angeles. When she isn't writing or checking Twitter way too often, you can find her studying Korean while watching the latest K-drama , recommending her favorite shows and films to family and friends, or giving a concert performance while sitting in L.A. traffic.

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Who Lives and Who Dies in 'The White Lotus' Season 2 Finale?

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Editor's note: The below contains major spoilers for The White Lotus Season 2.

As we all take a collective sigh now that the end of The White Lotus Season 2 is officially here, we're also taking a little time to reflect on those that made it out of Sicily alive — as well as say "arrivederci" to those who weren't as fortunate and saw their Italian dream end with an untimely death.

Lived: Ethan and Harper Spiller

There was a time early on the finale when it looked like Ethan's ( Will Sharpe ) jealousy might get the better of him and spell an untimely end for his wife, Harper ( Aubrey Plaza ) who he was positive had cheated on him with Cameron Sullivan ( Theo James ). He was nearing a breaking point and suffering from tortuous hallucinations of the two in the throes of passionate amore. She denies it, but he's never quite sold by her story that the two just shared a kiss. Ethan later had his own brush with death after Cameron got the upper hand on him as the two scuffled out in the Ionian Sea. Fortunately a bystander was there to separate the two, or Ethan might have ended up on the wrong side of this list.

Died: Quentin

It was the end of the line for the smooth-talking, cocktail-sipping British ex-pat from England ( Tom Hollander ) in the finale. Whatever his game was with Tanya McQuoid-Hunt ( Jennifer Coolidge ) and her assistant Portia ( Haley Lu Richardson ), the jig was up when a terrified and out-of her-mind Tanya emerged from a cabin below deck with the pistol that she found in Nicolo's murder bag. The boozy charmer from Palermo was caught up in the hail of gunfire before we could find out if he was really in cahoots with Tanya's husband Greg ( Jon Gries ) to abduct and kill Tanya so he could "decorate his house" as she put it. He appeared to be in complete control of the situation — until he wasn't. No more opera visits and Palazzo soirées for the mercurial man from Palermo.

Related : The Best Characters From 'The White Lotus' Season 2

Lived: Cameron and Daphne Sullivan

Superficial tech entrepreneur Cameron ( Theo James) and his wife Daphne ( Meghann Fahy ) made it off the island safely. Though it appeared that Cameron's advances and indiscretion with Harper might have cost him his life in his brawl with Ethan, he survived. Despite a consensus among the viewing audience that he was the most deserving of death, Cameron lives on to no doubt continue to cheat on his wife Daphne whenever he gets the chance. Meanwhile, Daphne remains content with compartmentalizing her pain and embarrassment as long as she gets to have a little tryst of her own here and there as well.

Died: Niccolo

Tanya's mafioso companion and full monty enthusiast, Niccolo ( Stefano Gianino ), came aboard Quentin's yacht equipped with a murder bag that was intended for her, but ironically and perhaps karmically, it proved to be the source of his own demise. After grabbing the bag and taking the steel-plated pistol from within it, Tanya shot Niccolo several times with it as he tried to force his way into the cabin where she was having her meltdown. Although we never really got to know the rakish Italian ringer very well, it's probably safe to say that it was a good riddance. Live by the sword, die by the word, right?

Lived: The Di Grasso Men

Bert ( F. Murray Abraham) , Dominic ( Michael Imperioli ), and Albie DiGrasso ( Adam DiMarco ) all made their way to the plane bound for the United States together safely. While none of them ever really appeared to be in much trouble as far as coming close to death, things could have gone a lot differently if they had not paid Lucia and her accomplices that played them like a fiddle to the tune of 50,000 Euros. A tough life lesson learned by the innocent, but self-righteous Albie. Hopefully, he continues to support his father in making amends with his mother.

Died: Tanya McQuoid-Hunt

Alas, it is with great sorrow that we bid goodbye to fan favorite and the only holdover from Season 1 (we're not counting that scumbag, Greg): Tanya. All she wanted was to have an Italian dream vacation and be like Monica Vitti. What she got was swindled by Quentin (and possibly her own husband) in what was truly the most tragic story arc of Season 2.

Tanya's drowning answered the question we had been asking all season of who was found floating in the Ionian Sea at the beginning of Episode 1. We got to enjoy her quirks, her romantic romps, and her wide-eyed naïveté before her luck finally ran out, and she plummeted to her death trying to escape Quentin's yacht. We will miss her, but it was a good run for two consecutive seasons on the show.

Lived: Portia and Jack

It was quite the journey for Portia during her week at The White Lotus. After arriving as a frazzled and frustrated assistant to Tanya, she had romances with both Albie and Jack ( Leo Woodall ) that would ultimately expand her horizons and allow her to take stock of her own existence. And though Jack proved too good to be true, she came away from her adventures with a new appreciation for life and a possible relationship with Albie as the two reconnected at the airport on the way home. Speaking of Jack, the wayward "nephew" to Quentin showed that in the end, there was some goodness in an otherwise wounded and lost young man as he let Portia leave Sicily instead of doing something far worse to her.

Lived: Lucia and Mia

The two con artists ( Simona Tabasco and Beatrice Granno ) came up big in the end after playing almost all the male White Lotus tourists like a fiddle. In fact, Mia came out of it with a new job as her sexual dalliance with resort manager Valentina ( Sabrina Impacciatore ) helped her land the gig as the piano-playing muse at The White Lotus. While they started out as what appeared to be two ambitious escorts, they proved to be the ones holding all the cards by the end of the season. Speaking of Mia's new gig behind the piano, Giuseppe also lived — but wasn't too happy about being fired and replaced by a young girl who got the better of him and stole his job.

The first two seasons of The White Lotus are now available to stream on HBO Max.

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All the winners, jennifer coolidge on the real tragedy of ‘the white lotus’ finale.

"[She] was so close to having a victory — and, an unlikely victory, for someone like her," says the Emmy-winning actress about the conclusion to the second season of the hit HBO series.

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[This story contains major spoilers from the season two finale of HBO’s The White Lotus , “Arrivederci .”]

The White Lotus opened its second season with a dead body to tell viewers that someone they will meet at the HBO show’s resort dies. But after seven episodes of getting to know the ensemble in Mike White ‘s anthology return — this time, set in Sicily, Italy — the ending remained unpredictable.

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The White Lotus season 2 ending explained: Who dies in the finale?

Your biggest questions answered about The White Lotus season 2

Aubrey Plaza in The White Lotus season 2

The White Lotus season 2 finale has exploded onto our screens, and things certainly went out with a bang rather than a whimper. We finally found out which hotel guests met tragic ends and, in typical White Lotus fashion, there were plenty of surprises in store, too. Each storyline was neatly wrapped up while still leaving us with plenty of questions, but we wouldn't expect anything less from series creator, writer, and director Mike White. This isn't the end for the hit comedy-drama, either – The White Lotus season 3 has already been confirmed, but, for now, let's break down what exactly what happened in season 2's dramatic conclusion.

It goes without saying, of course, that there are major spoilers for The White Lotus season 2 finale ahead. Proceed with caution if you haven't seen the episode yet and don't want to know what happens!

Who dies in The White Lotus season 2?

Meghann Fahy and Theo James in The White Lotus season 2

In The White Lotus season 2 finale, we finally learn the identity of the dead body discovered in the ocean by Daphne (Meghann Fahy) in episode 1. It's Tanya, played by Jennifer Coolidge, who dies. The other bodies found belong to Quentin (Tom Hollander) and his associates.

Earlier in the episode, Quentin and his friends take Tanya back to the hotel from the palazzo in Palermo on their yacht. The yacht drops anchor a little way from the shore, but Quentin assures Tanya that Niccolo, Quentin's drug dealer and potential mafia connection, will take her back to the hotel on a smaller boat after they all have dinner. Tanya is suspicious and pretends to use the bathroom so she can investigate what's in Niccolo's duffel bag. It's the gun from episode 6, plus some rope and tape – a textbook kill kit. She locks herself in a bedroom and, when Quentin and co. start trying to open the door, she begins to shoot the gun at random with her eyes closed.

She emerges from the room to find Didier and Niccolo dead. Hugo is still alive, but runs away and jumps off the yacht into the water. Quentin is bleeding out but still conscious, and Tanya asks him whether her husband Greg (Jon Gries) was having an affair. He's too weak to answer, and gives her one last withering look in his final moments.

With the threat to her life eliminated, Tanya attempts to get off the yacht and into the dinghy so she can make her way back to the hotel. She jumps from the deck of the yacht, but misses the dinghy, hits her head, and drowns in the ocean.

What happened to Portia?

Haley Lu Richardson in The White Lotus season 2

Portia (Haley Lu Richardson) gets increasingly desperate to get back to the hotel and confronts Jack (Leo Woodall) about his relationship with Quentin. Jack says it's his "job" to take Portia back to the White Lotus, but he ends up dropping her at the airport instead and warns her not to return to the hotel.

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She reunites with brief former fling Albie (Adam DiMarco) at the airport. Albie asks if she heard that a guest drowned at the hotel and that other bodies were found on a yacht, which makes Portia realize it must be Tanya. Her response? To ask Albie for his number.

Did Harper cheat on Ethan?

Will Sharpe, Aubrey Plaza, Meghann Fahy, and Theo James in The White Lotus

Ethan (Will Sharpe) is convinced that his wife Harper (Aubrey Plaza) had sex with Cameron (Theo James). When he accosts her about it, she says that they kissed in their hotel room, but that was it. Ethan doesn't believe her and he confronts Cameron on the beach – the two get into a physical fight in the ocean until a stranger breaks them up.

Ethan then finds Daphne and tells her of his suspicions. Daphne tells him that he needs to do whatever he needs in order to "not feel like a victim," and the two of them go for a walk to a secluded area of the beach. When they return, the two couples reunite for their last dinner, and both pairs seem at ease with each other. When Ethan and Harper go back to their room, Ethan seems energized and full of renewed passion for his wife. While we don't know exactly what happened while Ethan and Daphne were alone, it's possible that they had sex to get back at their respective (supposedly) cheating spouses.

What happened to Lucia and Mia?

Beatrice Granno and Simona Tabasco in The White Lotus season 2

Believing that Lucia (Simona Tabasco) is in danger from a pimp named Alessio, Albie convinces his father Dominic (Michael Imperioli) to send €‎50,000 to her by promising to put in a good word for Dominic with his mother. Albie and Lucia sleep together again one last time on Albie's last night at the White Lotus, but she sneaks away before Albie wakes up, leading him to realize he got played.

As for Mia, she gets a permanent gig playing the piano and singing in the White Lotus restaurant after sleeping with hotel manager Valentina (Sabrina Impacciatore). The pair have seemingly formed a real friendship, and Mia promises that her and Lucia will take Valentina to Sicily's gay clubs and introduce her to some "hot girls."

With €‎50,000 to their name, along with the money finally paid to them by Cameron, Lucia and Mia are set financially. Lucia previously stated that she wanted to open her own boutique, and she's certainly in a position to do that now.

If you're up to date with The White Lotus, fill out your watch list with our picks of the best new TV shows coming our way in the next few months.

I’m an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering everything film and TV-related across the Total Film and SFX sections. I help bring you all the latest news and also the occasional feature too. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism.

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The Extreme Pleasures of the “White Lotus” Season 2 Finale

At the beginning of the second season of “The White Lotus,” Mike White’s hit HBO dramedy, a bright-eyed, slim-hipped strawberry blonde named Daphne (Meghann Fahy), a guest at the White Lotus luxury resort in Sicily, decides to take one last dip in the Mediterranean before her vacation ends and she heads back home, to the U.S. But as she swims in the perfect azure waters, her dreamy immersion is shattered by the sight of a dead body, floating on the waves. She screams, and soon the police are called, and more bodies turn up. Who are they?

“The White Lotus” is peak spoiler TV (and this might be a good place to say that there will be spoilers in this piece). By starting at the end of the story and only then rewinding to the beginning, the show creates an itch that the audience must continuously scratch, and, by Sunday night’s finale, the scratching had become outright clawing. Certainly, in the course of the season, we saw no shortage of conflicts that could have yielded perpetrators and victims: there was the newly rich Ethan (Will Sharpe), seething with jealousy over a possible dalliance between his wife, Harper ( Aubrey Plaza , brittle and excellent), and his dick-swinging finance-bro friend, Cameron (the brutally handsome Theo James), who is married to Daphne; there was Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge), a hapless heiress in a loveless marriage who, along with her assistant, Portia (Haley Lu Richardson), had fallen in with a number of sinister, Palermo-based gay men seemingly intent on stealing her fortune by any means necessary; and there was Albie (Adam DiMarco), a wide-eyed, romantically minded Stanford grad travelling with his philandering father, Dom (Michael Imperioli), and still amorous grandfather, Bert (F. Murray Abraham). Albie had taken up with a local prostitute, Lucia (Simona Tabasco), who, unbeknownst to him, had also slept with his father, and who was being followed by her apparent pimp. And this was before we even considered the more minor characters (Giuseppe, the disgruntled hotel-bar pianist? Lucia’s friend Mia, the aspiring singer-slash-sex-worker?) It was truly anyone’s guess who the hell was going to die here.

I can’t pretend that there wasn’t something extremely pleasurable, on a plot level, in trying to crack this mystery. And yet the deaths also seemed to me like a bit of a beside-the-point hook: an easy entryway into the deeper business of considering how relationships on the series work—which is what White’s project is really about. “The White Lotus” isn’t a completely cynical show: its characters have feelings and doubts and fears that aren’t entirely subsumed by their baser, more mercenary instincts. Still, to my mind, the central point made in the series is that no relationship is detached from the transactional and that power always plays a role in how people deal with one another. Death is significant in the “White Lotus” universe, not because each season has been framed as a murder mystery but because death is the only state in which people can’t jockey for more: more sex, more money, more dominance. As long as you’re still breathing, White tells us, you’re going to keep fighting to get the upper hand, or die trying.

The first season of the show focussed on class, and the conflicts that emerged between the haves and the have-nots at the White Lotus resort in Maui. This time around, the theme was desire, with most of the battles emerging from the characters’ preoccupation with sex. (“The motivation of sex is always primary, I think,” White told me when I spoke to him, earlier in the fall for the New Yorker Radio Hour .) Ethan and Harper are experiencing bed death; Cameron and Daphne have a de-facto don’t-ask-don’t-tell cheating policy; Albie is horny but doesn’t want to be like his father, whose marriage is in ruins owing to his sex addiction. Portia, meanwhile, is drawn to Jack (Leo Woodall), the supposed nephew of Tanya’s new gay friend Quentin (Tom Hollander). Jack is an Essex boy whose touch is much less cautious than that of Albie, with whom Portia shares a couple of bland kisses early on.

Like the world’s most indulgent couples therapist, White deals with all these conflicts in satisfying yet surprising ways. Yes, Harper admits to some form of a hookup with Cameron, something that the season had been setting up since the very first episode; less expected is the response from these characters’ spouses. An aggrieved Ethan attacks Cameron while the latter is going for a swim, resulting in an underwater tussle that verges on the erotic. After a stranger breaks up the fight, preventing the two men from killing each other, Ethan reveals what he knows to Daphne. In one of the season’s more insightful—or, perhaps, depressing—moments, she responds by asserting people’s essential separateness from one another. “We never really know what goes on in people’s minds,” she tells Ethan, in a chipper but no-nonsense tone. (Fahy is fantastic in the role, but especially in this scene.) “You spend every second with somebody, and there’s still this part that’s a mystery. . . . It’s kind of sexy.” Then she and Ethan venture out on what, it is implied, is a sexual engagement of their own, to even the score. (Daphne: “You just do whatever you have to do not to feel like a victim of life.”) Later, Ethan and Harper, each recharged with the sexual attention of someone other than their spouse, finally fuck. But the congress is made possible solely through a complicated calibration whose ante will likely need to be upped.

Lucia, predictably, solicits money from Albie in a roundabout way, implying that it’s the only thing that can save her from her violent pimp. Albie asks his father to wire Lucia fifty thousand euros; in exchange, Albie agrees to put in a good word for Dom with his mother, Dom’s angry ex-wife. “I’ll tell her how sorry you are. . . . and how it seems like you’ve really changed—yada yada,” Albie promises, without much conviction; Dom, he says, should consider the money a “karmic payment” for all the hurt that he has caused his wife, his family, and maybe women in general. Giving your college-age son fifty grand to help out a prostitute might not be the most obvious form of making amends to your wife (and Dom’s main objection to the gambit seems to be animated not by any moral qualms but by the suspicion that Albie is Lucia’s “mark”). In the end, though, the deal seems to work: Dom calls his ex-wife, who agrees to talk to him when he’s back, and resolution appears close at hand. At the airport, however, we see his head—and Albie’s, and Bert’s—swivel in the wake of a pretty young woman who is passing by. Clearly, becoming a changed man might be more challenging than it looks.

Tanya and Portia’s plotline is the most delightfully twisty of the lot. In the fifth episode, we discover that Jack is hiding a secret; Tanya catches him in bed with Quentin. (This leads to what is perhaps the best line of the show, uttered by Tanya, to a horrified Portia, in the season finale: “Well, he was kinda fucking his uncle.”) When Portia asks Jack about the nature of the relationship between himself and his “uncle,” he explains that Quentin helped him out when he was “in a fucking hole.” “No one’s perfect,” he continues. “Sometimes you do things you don’t wanna do.” Even though this credo rings true of Portia’s oft-demeaning experience of working for Tanya, the idea, once articulated, seems completely unpalatable to her. Her goal in life, she told Jack earlier in the episode, is to be “satisfied,” although she’s not sure if such a thing is possible. The fact that no one is ever satisfied—that everyone endlessly tries to get the most in exchange for the least—is not just her view but also White’s. (Portia’s effective abandonment of her boss in the finale and her choice not to alert anyone to Tanya’s disappearance also suggest that she is looking out for No. 1, and that she is perhaps the worst assistant in the history of the job.)

“The prenup, the prenup, the prenup,” Tanya murmurs, recognizing that Quentin, in an attempt to raise money to refurbish his crumbling palazzo, has made a deal with her husband, Greg (Jon Gries), to kill her off. “He’s gonna pay them with my money so they can decorate their houses or some shit!” Tanya fumes. (As in Season 1, Coolidge is a comedy genius.) According to their agreement, if they divorce, Greg will get nothing of Tanya’s fortune. If she dies, however, he will finally have the upper hand, and her will to live, to win, is too strong for that. Panicked by the realization that, as she says, “these gays, they’re trying to murder me,” she goes out, gun blazing, spraying bullets willy-nilly and killing Quentin and his cohort on the yacht where they were planning to get rid of her. Tanya refuses to be what Daphne calls “a victim of life.” But that doesn’t stop her from eventually becoming a victim of fate. “You got this,” she tells herself, moments before tumbling off Quentin’s yacht, slapstick style, and hitting her head on a dinghy.

The last moments of the finale show Lucia and Mia prancing down the street, arm in arm. As Lucia stops to hug a tall, good-looking man, we realize that he is her supposed terrifying “pimp.” (Albie, after waking up in an empty hotel room to the discovery that Lucia has left without saying a word, admits to Portia, at the airport, that he was “played.”) The karmic debt has been paid, and it’s hard not to feel happy for the two girls, free of the pesky Americans who thought that they held the advantage. The song that plays in the background, however—Sam Cooke’s “The Best Things in Life Are Free”—provides an Opposite Day context to the scene. “All the moon belongs to everyone / The best things in life, they’re free,” Cooke sings. “Love can come to everyone / The best things in life, they’re free.” Wouldn’t it be nice if that were true? ♦

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Alan Sepinwall

This post contains spoilers for the Season Two finale of The White Lotus , which is streaming now on HBO Max .

“Arrivederci,” the finale of The White Lotus Season Two, was in many ways nothing like “Departures,” the conclusion to the first season of Mike White ‘s acidic comedy about One Percenters run amok on vacation.

Yet in the most important way, the two closing chapters felt very much of a piece. Where the episodes until now made for a largely disappointing sequel season , White at the end managed to recreate the delicate combination of tones and themes that had made the first season so special.

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Yet for the most part, those scenes felt scary and almost unbearably tense. That Tanya is able to make like John Wick and gun down three of her would-be assassins should seem silly. But White keeps our POV entirely on her terrified face — which is more expressive in that moment than it so often seems when she’s floating through life — as she keeps popping off rounds until she is finally safe. Do a murder-for-hire plot and a burst of gun violence entirely fit the tone of this show? That’s hard to say, even after two full seasons. But as a set piece, it was bravura in a way that much of this Sicilian jaunt had proven to be before now — simultaneously a thriller parody and the genuine article.

We can make reasonable assumptions: the kid looks much more like the blonde trainer than he does Theo; the looks Ethan and Daphne were trading along the isthmus were not those of people looking to admire nature together. But the ambiguity made it more interesting than if White had spelled it all out(*). Whatever happened between Daphne and Ethan, the overall experience of the trip finally pulled him out of sexual neutral, leading to a passionate night with the lonely and frustrated Harper. And Daphne and Cameron’s unspoken agreements about their marriage — coupled with hints of pure sociopathy from Cameron — allow them to power through infidelities, brawls in the Ionian Sea, and whatever other bumps they hit.

(*) It helps that Meghann Fahy was sending out enough heat in that isthmus scene to melt a glacier, and also that she was able to say so much with the change of expression as Daphne absorbed what Ethan had just told her. Just a fantastic performance from Fahy, previously best known for Freeform’s The Bold Type .

Daphne’s philosophy that “We never really know what goes on in people’s minds, of what they do” doesn’t really apply to the season’s least successful corner, regarding the toxic masculinity of the Di Grasso men. Everyone behaves exactly as we would expect them to: Bert (F. Murray Abraham) proudly talks about how the family’s “Achilles Heel is an Achilles Cock.” Dom (Michael Imperioli) again tries to recommit to his wife, but can’t stop himself from gawking at a younger woman at the airport. And Albie (Adam DiMarco) is too caught up in his Good Guy fantasies to recognize that Lucia (Simona Tabasco) is scamming him. It’s all predictable and flat, with Abraham’s jubilant line deliveries providing that subplot’s only real life.

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It’s a satisfying inversion of how Season One functioned, and arguably a necessary one, as it would be hard to imagine coming back to this show year after year if it was always going to be about the guests blithely ruining the lives of the poorer people around them.

But even a memorably violent and sexy finale can’t entirely cover for the rest of the season’s flaws. A third season has already been announced, and Cameron makes reference to taking his “friends” to the Maldives next year. Moving past Tanya will definitely help, as White had nothing new to say about her, despite Coolidge’s comic genius. Can White recapture Season One’s perfect balance of satire and pathos? And, if not, can his ability to craft big moments like Tanya on the yacht, or Daphne and Ethan’s long walk, be enough to make The White Lotus a destination worth revisiting again and again?

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Who dies on the 'White Lotus' Season 2 finale?

Warning: This post contains spoilers for “The White Lotus.”

After seven weeks of intense speculation , close readings of all the art within the hotel and prying together references to Italian culture , "The White Lotus" has finally revealed which characters end up in body bags at the end of the week in Sicily.

Although many fans thought all the signs pointing to Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) were red herrings, the iconic character has stayed at her last White Lotus resort — but she didn't go down without a fight.

Episode Seven, the Season Two finale, begins the morning after a wild night for Tanya partying at a palazzo in Palermo. Quentin (Tom Hollander), the owner of the villa, informs Tanya they have to head back to Taormina aboard his yacht, so she can make her flight back to the U.S.

Before Tanya and the group of "gays" leave, she returns to a bedroom in the palazzo to take another look at a photograph she saw the night before, which appears to show Quentin and her husband, Greg (Jon Gries), together, many years ago.

Quentin denies the photo is of Greg , and they head out on the yacht. Meanwhile, Tanya's assistant, Portia (Haley Lu Richardson), cannot find her phone in her hotel room, despite plugging it in to charge the night before. She questions Jack (Leo Woodall), who was sleeping in bed with her the whole night, and he suggests she lost it.

She manages to take Jack's phone and calls her boss, and the two begin putting the pieces together: Jack and Quentin are not related ( Tanya caught them hooking up in the middle of the night ) and Quentin and Greg could be poised to reap millions from her fortune if she dies, due to their prenup agreement.

Portia tries to find her phone with Jack.

Tanya begins to fear for her life, and the anxiety increases as the vessel slowly makes its way back to Taormina. Niccolo, the Italian local who she had met at the palazzo party, shows up on the yacht to bring her back to the shore on a small boat, carrying the same black bag from the night before where he stored his drugs — and a gun.

As day turns to night, Tanya’s anxiety reaches an all-time high. She asks for more wine to delay the end of dinner, before she runs to the bathroom and grabs Niccolo’s bag. She locks herself inside of a bedroom on the yacht, and grabs the gun out of the bag in tears.

Quentin begins knocking on the door, and eventually breaks it down. Tanya shoots, and doesn't stop firing the trigger until Quentin and several of his associates are dead.

If the shootout wasn't shocking enough , Tanya then tries to jump overboard into a smaller dinghy to make it back to shore. She miscalculates the jump, and bangs her head against the side of the boat before falling into the Ionian Sea.

The show's creator, Mike White, said in an interview aired after the show he wanted to give Tanya's character an "operatic conclusion."

The next day, Daphne (Meghann Fahy) is the one to find her body in the water, just as depicted in the first episode. The foursome — Daphne, Cameron (Theo James), Harper (Aubrey Plaza) and Ethan (Will Sharpe), leave the island with their marriages intact, but a lot of questions are swirling about what the couples got up to in their final days in Sicily.

Harper admits to Ethan that Cameron kissed her, but insisted it was "nothing." Ethan accepts the story (not without punching Cameron in the face), but notes there is a significant chunk of time missing between the pair returning to their room and Ethan attempting to knock down the door.

Ethan gets into a fist fight with Cameron on the beach.

“The question of whether Harper and Cameron did more than the kiss, I think probably that’s just all that happened. At the same time, there’s some time that isn’t really accounted for and I think that’s why it’s eating at Ethan,” White said.

Daphne and Ethan also had a trek to Isola Bella, a nearby inlet, after Ethan suggested something had happened between Harper and Cameron, and Daphne says they shouldn't be victims .

“Some of the unspoken things between them, you wonder if that’s going to ultimately catch up with them," White said. “It is somewhat of a happy ending although there’s dark clouds on the horizon too.”

Dominic (Michael Imperioli) also appears to be poised to save his marriage. After giving his son, Albie (Adam DiMarco), 50,000 euros, Albie put in a good word for his father with his mother. Albie swiftly transferred the funds to Lucia (Simona Tabasco), a local sex worker he caught feelings for and was worried she was in danger from another local after he followed them on a trip to explore their family's heritage.

Lucia leaves Albie in the early morning without a word, and she walks away in a new dress with her best friend Mia (Beatrice Granno), who was recently promoted to the hotel's piano performer the day after she hooked up with the resort manager, Valentina (Sabrina Impacciatore).

Albie admits he was swindled when he runs into Portia at the airport, and shares with Portia a guest was found in the water and several others were found dead on a yacht .

The pair gets each other's numbers and heads off to their flights, leaving viewers to wonder: Will Albie and Portia be the new Tanya and Greg in Season Three?

White hinted the next season could be set in Asia.

“The first season kind of highlighted money, and then the second season is sex,” White said. “I think the third season would be maybe a satirical and funny look at death and Eastern religion and spirituality. It feels like it could be a rich tapestry to do another round at White Lotus.”

Anna Kaplan is a news and trending reporter for TODAY.com.

‘The White Lotus’ Season 2 Finale Recap: Who Died, Who Lived and Who Stayed Together

Our questions were finally answered

Note: the following contains spoilers up to “The White Lotus” Season 2 Episode 7.

After seven weeks of watching the tension build in “ The White Lotus ” Season 2, the shocking finale finally answered our burning questions after fan theories took on a life of their own.

If you missed the finale, or just need to break down the chaos you just watched, read on to find out who died, who lived and who stayed together.

What happened to Tanya, Portia, Quentin, Jack and Greg?

After episode 6 confirmed that Tanya’s (Jennifer Coolidge) husband, Greg (Jon Gries) was, in fact, the Wyoming cowboy that Quentin (Tom Hollander) fell in love with in his youth, fans theorized that Quentin and Greg were secretly working together to conspire against Tanya. After Quentin encouraged Tanya to get involved with a handsome Italian guest — and fans spotted a red light that might be a camera — many guessed that this tryst would render her prenup invalid and enable Greg to his fair share of Tanya’s wealth.

As it turns out, this theory was, in fact, correct.

After waking up from a night of debauchery, Tanya is awakened by suspicious whispers of Quentin, Didier and Matteo before she interrupts their conversation and Quentin informs her they will be leaving on his yacht — without Matteo and Portia.

Meanwhile, Portia (Haley Lu Richardson) wakes up to a missing phone and an indifferent Jack who tells her they’ll be driving back to Taormina while Tanya, Quentin and the others take the boat back. When Portia manages to swipe Jack’s phone and call Tanya from the boat, Portia and Tanya grow even more cynical of the situation when Tanya puts the puzzle pieces together and Portia learns what Tanya saw that night of the opera.

After finally getting Jack (Leo Woodall) to fess up, Jack asks Portia to let him do his job so that he doesn’t get in trouble and drops her on the side of the road near the airport, encouraging Portia not to return to the White Lotus to avoid any trouble.

the-white-lotus-season-2-jennifer-coolidge

On the boat, Quentin insists that the group has one final dinner together before Niccolo, who meets the group on the yacht, escorts Tanya back to the hotel on his smaller boat. Tanya gets a glimpse of a suspicious black bag and after delaying dinner as long as she can, makes a run for the bag and locks herself in one of the boat’s bedrooms.

As she assesses the contents of the bag — rope, tape and a gun — she is paralyzed with fear and holds onto the gun for protection. When the men break into the room, Tanya shoots everyone in her sight — including Niccolo, Quentin and Didier — leaving them for dead.

Tanya then asks Quentin the most pressing question in her mind as blood oozes from his chest — is Greg cheating on her? — while the boat’s driver and another man escape by jumping off the boat.

Already in fight or flight mode, Tanya knows she must leave the yacht and tries to jump into the smaller boat to head ashore, but as she jumps, she instead hits her head, falls into the ocean and drowns — eventually drifting far enough to the shore that Daphne (Meghann Fahy) discovers her body floating in the water the next day.

Portia appears to take Jack’s advice to avoid the hotel, later arriving at the airport with no clue as to what went down.

How about Harper, Ethan, Cam and Daphne?

the-white-lotus-season-2-finale-theo-james-meghann-fahy

As tensions bubbled over for our fearless foursome, Ethan (Will Sharpe) continues to imagine sexual encounters between Harper (Aubrey Plaza) and Cam (Theo James) before his interrogation inspires true honesty from Harper.

With shaky breath, Harper admits she and Cam flirted at the bar and he suggested they go upstairs. She recalls that Cam latched the door and kissed her briefly before Ethan began relentlessly knocking.

Although Ethan still doesn’t believe the full story, one thing is clear: Cam tried to sleep with Harper. Filled with resentment, Ethan finds Cam in the ocean and the friends fight until another tourist pulls them away from each other.

After the fight, Ethan shares his worry with Daphne, who in return tells him to “do whatever you have to do to not feel like a victim of life,” before luring him to the small island beside the resort, where you can decide for yourself what happened between them.

Whatever happened in that moment, it awakened something inside Ethan as he returns to Harper and seduces her with a passion the pair likely hadn’t seen in ages.

Safe from the drowning that occurred, the two couples leave Sicily seemingly content (although the volcano behind Cam and Daphne is foreboding) — with Ethan and Harper more affectionate than ever — though it’s safe to say they won’t be reuniting anytime soon.

And Albie, Dominic and Bert?

Albie (Adam DiMarco) wakes up with a mission: to save Lucia (Simona Tabasco) from her horrible situation. He approaches Dominic (Michael Imperioli) at breakfast and asks him to transfer 50,000 euros to Albie so he can give it to Lucia. Dominic scoffs, noting what an easy mark Albie is, though he ultimately agrees when Albie says he will put into a good word to his mother about how Dominic has truly changed for the better.

Sadly, Laura Dern did not appear as Dominic’s estranged wife, Abby, despite fans’ wishes, but Dominic does successfully call Abby, who seems just a tad less cold than their previous phone call.

Despite the emotional rollercoaster the family went through on the trip, they arrive at the airport in one piece, and Albie even links up with Portia after realizing he was played by Lucia.

What about Lucia, Mia and Valentina?

the-white-lotus-season-2-sabrina-tabasco

Though Valentina (Sabrina Impacciatore) wakes up initially flustered from her night with Mia, the experience seems to be revelatory as her mood even allows Rocco to return to the front desk.

Valentina and Mia make plans to see each other again, but Mia (Beatrice Grannò) encourages Valentina to come to a gay club with Mia and Lucia to find her “a real lesbian lover.” When Giuseppe returns from his time at the hospital, Valentina also informs him that Mia will be taking over as the hotel’s pianist.

Lucia, on the other hand, is finally reaping the benefits of her work, as Cam hands her an envelope of cash and Albie transfers a small fortune to her bank account. She leaves Albie’s bed before he wakes up, seeming to close any door of their future together.

As Mia and Lucia walk along the streets of Sicily, they kindly greet Alessio, who works at another hotel — proving correct another fan theory that hypothesized Lucia and Alessio were friends working together to scam the clients and he was not, in fact, her pimp.

Despite the havoc wreaked by the wealthy clientele of the White Lotus, it appears Lucia, Mia and Valentina will resume their lives with a bigger smile — and bigger pockets — after this slew of guests leave Sicily.

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Jennifer Coolidge Tried to Get Mike White to Change The White Lotus ’s Ending

“mike likes to stick to reality.”.

Before it aired last night, few people knew what would happen in The White Lotus ’s season finale . At the top of that shortlist sat actress Jennifer Coolidge , who played dotty heiress Tanya McQuoid through a journey of self-discovery in last year’s Maui-set installment, then found herself at the center of a Hitchcockian murder plot on a yacht off the coast of Sicily in the climax of season two.

Following mountains of speculation regarding the identity of the victims at this season’s luxury Italian resort, the seven-episode getaway worked its way up to an astonishing, operatic conclusion: Tanya discovers that the troupe of high-class gays she’s been cavorting with after her husband’s departure are actually planning to murder her on his behalf. When she realizes her only way off the yacht is to fight back, she conquers her enemies in a blaze of tears and gunfire only to go toppling off the side of the boat in a tragic, darkly hilarious accident.

Months before the season started filming , Lotus creator, writer and director Mike White called Coolidge to prepare her for Tanya’s fate. Her response? “Aw, damn it !”

How long did you know Tanya would die? I knew very early on. Even before he was planning for Italy, Mike told me he wanted me in White Lotus two. And then I don’t know how many months after, he called me up one day and said, “Well, I guess I have to tell you this now so you can prepare.” And I said, “What?” And he goes, “You die, Jennifer. You’re gonna die in White Lotus two.” And I said, “Oh, no !” You’ve gotta be kidding me! Really?” I tried to talk him out of it, but Mike is very strong. He said I was going to have a tragic ending, and he stuck to his guns.

Did he tell you how it would happen at that time? He didn’t tell me how it was going to happen. He did say Greg was going to be behind a plot that was not good for Tanya and that Tanya was going to go out with a bang. He said, “We’re definitely killing you, Jennifer.” And I said, “Aw, damn it ! Okay.”

What did you think when you read the script? I was surprised! I’ve had a gun before in one other movie, but somehow this was the first time I felt very out of control. I really liked that. When we were shooting it, I felt like I could even have shot myself. Mike is a really good director — he sets up such a good environment where it feels like anything could happen.

Right before we did the scene, Mike was like, “Just remember, Jennifer, Tanya is so much more human than these guys. Just remember that killing something is hard for her.” It’s true. As unattractive as she is at times — she’s such a handful and unlikable — she really isn’t awful. Not like guys who are willing to take someone’s life as if it’s nothing.

There’s such a range of emotions in those final scenes. The shooting is so tense, and the part where you fall off the boat is at once funny, horrible, and surprising. What was it like to shoot that sequence? I didn’t feel like the boat was that far off the water. I wanted it to be me. I wanted it to be me falling off the boat. I didn’t want it to be a stunt double. Mike was like, “The water’s really cold!” And I said, “I don’t care if the water’s cold! I want to fall off the boat!” He said, “Jennifer, our stunt double has been waiting here all night to do her stunt. It would be weird to say, ‘Hey you can go home now.’”

She was this very cool Italian woman, and she was very funny, so yeah, it would be weird to just send her home. But I was like, I get why Tom Cruise wants to do his own stunts . You think, Well, why can’t I do that? Who cares if the water is cold! But it was this fall between these two boats and insurance and you know. But it would’ve been fun.

The thing that was interesting when I was arguing with Mike — well, not arguing, but talking about the way she loses her life — is he was saying it has to be at the fault of herself and not anyone else. A clumsy moment. I heard Mike telling someone that’s what happens with Tanya because “I think that’s what happens to Jennifer. She locks herself in the bathroom or something. She can get the big stuff done but not small things. Some weird little thing can just mess her up.” There’s something, unfortunately, very unconscious about me.

You know, Mike and I went to Africa together, and we were staying in a tent. I had this experience on the Serengeti where the animals were outside the tent, so you have to have a chaperone take you from the tent to the mess hall where you eat. And sometimes I would open up the tent and walk out and forget that you have to yell for the chaperone. I’m that kind of person. I’m thinking about something else and then I just walk out there with the wild animal.

I saw a lot of responses to the finale that were surprised Tanya didn’t think to take her heels off before jumping off the boat. Sometimes you don’t do things that are practical when it’s really high stakes. I think if they were pumps, it would be weird.

Ah, because they’d be much easier to take off. Yeah! You’re just having to make a decision, your life is at stake. We shot that a couple different ways, but I don’t think we ever shot it without the heels. It is so weird, though. It’s that panic mode where you’re murdering someone or it’s high stakes and you don’t do that thing — that obvious thing — that anyone would’ve done in normal circumstances.

You do such great improvisational work. Was there any ad-libbing in any of your big finale scenes? I would guess you know that “These gays, they’re trying to murder me” has already taken over the internet. I don’t know! I don’t know if Mike wrote that or if I improvised it. There were some things like that that did make it, but I don’t know. When in doubt, I want to say it’s Mike White. I add whenever I can, and some of it works. But “These gays are trying to murder me” was to the captain, and I don’t know, I was trying all sorts of stuff. But that could’ve been a Mike White line.

At the moment you fall off the boat, you say, “You’ve got this,” to yourself, which is so moving and funny and tragic. It was a long shooting day; I was delirious. I think we tried a couple different lines at that moment, and I don’t remember what the other ones were. We were trying to come up with some little thing that would be an encouragement to herself.

Sometimes you have experiences that are so vivid, and you remember every moment. White Lotus two has become this dreamy thing. People ask me what time we shot something or whether it went all night, and I have no idea. We were shooting so fast, trying to get seven episodes in this short amount of time.

So there was a stunt double falling off the boat, but there are also several shots of you in the water. Did you shoot those yourself, or is there a Jennifer Coolidge dummy lying around somewhere? I was definitely floating in the ocean when Daphne discovers me, that was me floating around. I had to hold my breath for a long time.

You know, I’ve only seen the finale once now. I watched it Sunday night with Mike White. I’m not sure what was me and what was the stunt double. I’m so fascinated.

It must’ve been pretty wild watching it with Mike last night. It was! I was one of the few people that knew the finale. I knew everything . And yet I thought it was really suspenseful! I thought that was a good sign. I told Mike, “Isn’t it weird that I’m watching it as though I have no idea?” He’s really good at building tension.

He is! I feel so frustrated that Greg is going to get all of Tanya’s money now. Mike told me not only does Greg get all the money, but he doesn’t have to share it with Quentin. Worse, right?

The finale was such a secret. Was it a closed set to avoid any spoilers leaking? There were so many people on that boat, makeup and hair, and of course everyone is very discreet. But I’m surprised no one leaked it! I thought maybe someone would tell their wife or something. But everyone was so closed-lipped about it. It really blows me away.

Were there other characters whose stories you were particularly invested in this season? The story that fascinated me the most is the story that I witness the most, and am fascinated by it, and my girlfriends and I talk about it over and over: The story line of the two couples. The betrayal, the cheating — I’m most interested in that topic. How do you have a good relationship, how can you make it last, when there’s infidelity? How can you survive it? I thought it was so well written. I’ve been interested in that topic for 30 years.

With a little distance, how do you feel about this as an ending for Tanya? Mike White’s very realistic. I don’t think everyone gets to be the hero in the end or everyone gets to live in the end. It’s sad. She’s finally able to forgive her mother in season one and finds this guy, and he ends up being this awful human being. He tries to murder her. It would be so great if I come shooting out of the water and I’m alive at the end, but Mike likes to stick to reality. Tanya was sort of doomed. I think she had to go.

So many of these stories are bad in real life. The guy ends up with all the money. But if you’re asking me, the actress, if I’m sad about it — yes. I am sad about moving on. It’s good to mix it up, though. Mike White is truly the greatest friend. He gave me White Lotus one and two. If he asked me to come back as someone else? Or asked me to do a prequel? I would totally do it.

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Who Died in ‘The White Lotus’ Finale?

Spoiler Alert!

We finally learned which vacationers are leaving Sicily in a body bag.

Fletcher Peters

Entertainment Reporter

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/HBO

Predictions for The White Lotus finale have been rolling in almost all over the internet—from TikTok to Twitter to every entertainment publication in Googling distance. Who will die? Who faces Italian jail time, incarcerato per omicidio ? (You may be able to guess what that means in English, but if not: incarcerated for homicide.)

Well, we finally know who’s going home in a casket, who’s riding in the cop car, and who can return to America with nothing more than a guilty conscience. The White Lotus Season 2 finale aired tonight, and boy, was it wild. We wouldn’t expect any less from Mike White, the creator who brought us two warped seasons of this show (and School of Rock )!

At the beginning of The White Lotus , as was the case with Season 1, we learn that someone dies in the first episode. Daphne ( Meghann Fahy ) swims into the ocean and her arm brushes against a dead body. She yelps, runs out, and hotel concierge Valentina (Sabrina Impacciatore) rushes to the scene. We find out multiple “guests” have died. But who, exactly, gets the ax? And is anyone guilty of first degree murder?

Warning: Spoilers ahead for The White Lotus Season 2.

That yacht and those gays were never good news. While Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) sails back to the White Lotus in Taormina, a stranded Portia (Haley Lu Richardson) awakes in far off Catania—to find that her phone has been stolen. Girl, get out of that hotel NOW! Get on a bus back to the resort. Nevertheless, she stays with Jack (Leo Woodall), who is getting creepier by the minute.

While at brunch, Portia decides to phone Tanya (via Jack’s phone) to tell her what’s going on. Tanya flips, realizing the gays are stealing her money. The only way Greg (Jon Gries) can inherit her dough? To escape the prenup, Tanya needs to die. Noted mafia hottie Niccoló (Stefano Gianino) arrives minutes later to the yacht with a black duffel bag.

Tanya escapes during dinner, stealing the black duffel bag as she runs to the lady’s room. And, sure enough, the bag’s contents are incredibly ominous: black rope, duct tape, and the kicker, a pistol. Tanya reacts quickly, thank goodness, murdering all of the men after her money. We needed Jennifer Coolidge firing multiple rounds to get us through the rest of the year. (We’ll see her firing one in January 2023 with the release of Shotgun Wedding , after all.)

But Tanya’s not in the clear yet. She’s stuck on the boat, and the only way out is via the boat that Niccoló brought to bring her to shore, which floats just around 15 feet below the yacht. Tanya leaps to the boat—only to slam her head on the side and drown. The morning after, Daphne (Meghann Fahy) swims away from shore only to brush against the poor woman’s corpse.

This is in stark contrast to last season, in which we only knew douchebag Shane (Jake Lacy) survived the stay. Instead, our beloved concierge Armond (Murray Bartlett) was killed—by Shane himself , who stabbed the hotel manager in an act of self-defense. Armond had been, pardon my French, shitting in Shane’s suitcase when the manslaughter (or, murder) occurred.

Fans went wild for the new kill, mourning the death of our beloved Tanya, who bit the dust even after her big murder scene. (Moreover: Does Portia go to the funeral? Does she bring Albie as her plus one? Season 3, we need you now more than ever.)

And you know the worst thing about all of this? Because Tanya died, Greg still inherits all of her wealth. That dirty bastard. We may be facing more coffins in the future of The White Lotus , which—thank goodness!—has already been renewed for a third season. Where will they venture next?

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here .

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IMAGES

'The White Lotus Season 2 Episode 7, 'Arrivederci,' Recap and Ending
White Lotus' Season 2
White Lotus Season 2 Finale, Explained: Who Dies
HBO Releases First Footage From The White Lotus Season 2
'The White Lotus' Season 2 review: Go on vacation with the horny elite
'The White Lotus' season two: everything we know so far

COMMENTS

'The White Lotus' Season 2 Finale: Here's Who Dies
December 11, 2022. Spoilers for the season finale of The White Lotus to follow. After seven weeks of speculation, theme song dance parties, and close examination of one suspiciously placed ...
'The White Lotus' Season 2 Ending Explained: We All Got Played
Finally, in a nice 180-degree flip, season 2 sees no deaths and an optimistic outcome for the staff of the White Lotus, Sicily. Unlike season 1, this time it's the underprivileged who take ...
'The White Lotus' Season 2 Finale: How It Ended and Who Died
As a beloved character learned on Sunday's White Lotus season 2 finale, a weeklong getaway to Sicily is truly a trip to die for. Fans of the HBO series were devastated to learn the fate of ...
White Lotus Season 2 Ending: How Mike White Fooled Us
The White Lotus Season 2 Was About Love as Delusion. In the End, It Fooled Viewers Too ... Which would've made it tough for Quentin to get Tanya alone on a yacht with a bag containing half the ...
'The White Lotus' Finale: Season 2 Ending Answers Who Died
December 11, 2022 7:57pm. Daphne (Meghann Fahy) swims upon a dead body in the premiere of 'The White Lotus' season 2 Courtesy of HBO. [This story contains major spoilers to the season two finale ...
The White Lotus's explosive season finale, explained
The White Lotus's fantastic second season and [redacted] met their watery ends. ... Offshore on Quentin's yacht, Niccolò (Stefano Gianino), Tanya's mafioso escort from her cocaine-filled ...
The White Lotus Season 2 Finale Death Explained by Mike White
According to creator and showrunner Mike White, the seed for Tanya's death was actually planted in the Season 1 finale of the HBO series. In the final episode of Season 2, Tanya finally realizes ...
'The White Lotus' Recap: Who Died in the Shocking Season 2 Finale?
'The White Lotus' Creator Explains Season 2's Shocking Death ... It was Tanya who killed them while aboard their yacht on the way back to the hotel from Palermo before slipping and falling into ...
'The White Lotus' Season 2 finale recap: Who died? Who cheated?
The Season 2 finale of "The White Lotus" answered some questions, but raised a whole lot more. ... yacht while trying to escape what she believed was a murder-for-hire plot and left a trio of dead ...
The White Lotus finale review: Season 2 goes out guns blazing
The White Lotus season 2 goes out guns blazing in a riveting finale. ... Tanya then tries to climb off the yacht onto the dinghy. White plays with our expectations, since this should be the moment ...
'The White Lotus' Season 2 Ending, Explained
By Quinci LeGardye. published 12 December 2022. in News. The second season of the HBO drama The White Lotus has ended, the surviving characters have boarded their planes, and the viewers are left ...
Who Lives and Who Dies in 'The White Lotus' Season 2 Finale?
Lived: Cameron and Daphne Sullivan. Image via HBO. Superficial tech entrepreneur Cameron ( Theo James) and his wife Daphne ( Meghann Fahy) made it off the island safely. Though it appeared that ...
Jennifer Coolidge on the Tragedy of 'The White Lotus' Season 2 Finale
By Jackie Strause. December 12, 2022 3:38pm. Jennifer Coolidge in 'The White Lotus' Fabio Lovino/HBO. [This story contains major spoilers from the season two finale of HBO's The White Lotus ...
The White Lotus season 2 ending explained: Who dies in the finale?
In The White Lotus season 2 finale, we finally learn the identity of the dead body discovered in the ocean by Daphne (Meghann Fahy) in episode 1. It's Tanya, played by Jennifer Coolidge, who dies ...
The Extreme Pleasures of the "White Lotus" Season 2 Finale
Naomi Fry reviews the Season 2 finale of Mike White's HBO show "The White Lotus," featuring Jennifer Coolidge, Aubrey Plaza, Michael Imperioli, Meghann Fahy, and others.
'The White Lotus' Season-2-Finale Recap: Arrivederci
Lucia and Mia joyously galavanting through the streets of Sicily, having had the best week out of everyone staying at the resort. We finally learn who died on their Sicilian vacation. A recap of ...
Arrivederci (The White Lotus)
Next →. —. "Arrivederci" (Italian for 'Goodbye') is the seventh episode and season finale of the second season of the American black comedy drama anthology television series The White Lotus. It is the thirteenth overall episode of the series and was written and directed by series creator Mike White. It originally aired on HBO on December 11 ...
'White Lotus' Season 2 Finale: Sex, Death, Jennifer Coolidge FTW
'White Lotus' Season 2 Finale Gives Us the Mighty Jennifer Coolidge and the Meme-able Lines of the Year. ... And, if not, can his ability to craft big moments like Tanya on the yacht, ...
White Lotus Season 2 Finale: What Happens And Who Dies
Episode Seven, the Season Two finale, begins the morning after a wild night for Tanya partying at a palazzo in Palermo. Quentin (Tom Hollander), the owner of the villa, informs Tanya they have to ...
The White Lotus Season 2 Finale Recap: Who Died, Who Lived
Note: the following contains spoilers up to "The White Lotus" Season 2 Episode 7. ... Tanya knows she must leave the yacht and tries to jump into the smaller boat to head ashore, but as she ...
Jennifer Coolidge Explains 'The White Lotus' Finale Ending
When she realizes her only way off the yacht is to fight back, she conquers her enemies in a blaze of tears and gunfire only to go toppling off the side of the boat in a tragic, darkly hilarious ...
Who Died in 'The White Lotus' Season 2 Finale?
Warning: Spoilers ahead for The White Lotus Season 2. That yacht and those gays were never good news. While Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) sails back to the White Lotus in Taormina, a stranded Portia ...
The White Lotus
The White Lotus is an American black comedy drama anthology television series created by Mike White for HBO. [4] [5] It follows the guests and employees of the fictional White Lotus resort chain, whose interactions are affected by their various psychosocial dysfunctions.The press release notes that "each passing day, a darker complexity emerges in these picture-perfect travelers, the hotel's ...

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