Who Dies in The White Lotus Season 2? Finest White Lotus Theories

If The White Lotus resorts hope to outlive one other vacationer season, they actually should do one thing about all these murders. Within the first season of Mike White’s hit HBO sequence, Maui lodge supervisor Armond meets the flawed finish of a pineapple knife after one among his company catches the staffer defecating in his suitcase. In season 2, Italy doesn’t truthful significantly better than Maui: The our bodies are positively piling up as supervisor Valentina (Sabrina Impacciatore) does frantic injury management on the coast of her Sicilian resort. We be taught from fellow worker Rocco (Federico Ferrante) that a minimum of “a couple of” company have been murdered this go-’spherical, their corpses flotsam for the Ionian Sea—a lot to the horror of visitor Daphne Sullivan (Meghann Fahy), who discovers one such physique as she enjoys a last-minute pre-departure swim.

Which leads us to the query on the coronary heart of White’s sneering comedy, each this season and final: Who did the killing, and why? Solely two episodes in, we solely have a lot proof to go on, although already a couple of culprits appear doubtless. (Absolutely you, too, can think about Jennifer Coolidge with a knife in her hand.) Nonetheless, White loves a purple herring, so we greatest not be too valuable with the lowest-hanging fruit. With that in thoughts, let’s lay out the thriller earlier than us and take a couple of stabs—er, swings—at unveiling the victims.

Concept #1: Albie is the assassin. Or one among them.

In season 2, we’re launched to a wide-ranging solid that features three generations of Di Grasso males: Bert Di Grasso (F. Murray Abraham), the grandfather; Dominic Di Grasso (Michael Imperioli), the daddy; and Albie Di Grasso (Adam DiMarco), the son. Bert is a womanizing installment of the Outdated Guard, proclaiming household values whereas making strikes on nearly each younger girl who crosses his path. Dominic is extra refined however no much less vexed, having seemingly misplaced his marriage over an as-yet-unclarified infidelity. (Or infidelities.) He reveals to native intercourse employees Lucia (Simona Tabasco) and Mia (Beatrice Grannò) that he’s attempting to kick his intercourse dependancy, and hiring two younger Sicilian girls to parade round his lodge room isn’t serving to issues at house.

Solely Albie appears to have excised the sexual entitlement of his pedigree. Throughout an episode 2 dinner with the listless younger assistant Portia (Haley Lu Richardson), he reveals he’s a “good man,” the “peacemaker” of the household, who seems the opposite approach when Bert and Dominic wink and flirt. Nonetheless, he has no want to comply with of their footsteps himself. Such an perspective, he claims, has made his escapades with potential companions tougher: When girls understand he’s a “good man,” they appear to lose curiosity. When Albie later walks Portia again to her lodge room, he kisses her outdoors the door, which appears to take her abruptly—and never a completely welcome type of it.

It’s far too early to proclaim Albie an incel or something of the kind. However White is intelligent sufficient to know the alarm bells the time period “good man” is bound to set off in a phase of The White Lotus’s viewership. All too usually, males use their supposed “good man” standing to justify a sexual entitlement no much less insidious than Bert and Dominic’s personal, simply painted with a extra palatable veneer. If these males are so good, why wouldn’t lovely girls wish to sleep with them? Particularly “fairly wounded birds,” to whom Albie says he finds himself most attracted. Oof.

White has made it apparent The White Lotus season 2 is all about knotty sexual politics, notably between heterosexual women and men. It’s attainable, then, that the showrunner is positioning Albie as incel-adjacent, wherein case the youngest Di Grasso simply would possibly—maybe unintentionally—damage somebody in retaliation for a rebuffed attraction. That stated, it’s simply as doubtless Portia would possibly harbor a murderous streak, particularly if Albie refuses to take a touch.

Concept #2: Lucia and Mia are the murderers.

A recurring picture all through The White Lotus season 2 is that of testa di moro, the legend of the Moor’s Head. So the story goes, a Sicilian lady was as soon as seduced by a Moorish man, solely to find he was already married—with youngsters. In response, she sliced off his head. Such Moor’s Head busts populate visitor rooms at The White Lotus’s Sicilian property, a visual reminder (and instigator) of our solid’s adulterous suspicions.

It might stand to cause, then, that the precise plot this season would possibly mirror the legend. Lucia and Mia are each Sicilian women who, as of episode 2, have gotten more and more immersed within the goings-on of the lodge company (and their sexual proclivities). Proper now, they appear to have little interest in love; they’re at The White Lotus for enterprise, to benefit from the gaudy life of the women and men who feed off their island. However ought to feelings run scorching, violence is way from out of the query.

Concept #3: Greg is among the victims—as a result of he’s already dying.

Should you watched season 1 of The White Lotus, you’ll recall that Coolidge’s Tanya McQuoid-Hunt first encountered her now-husband Greg on the Maui resort the place Armond met his finish. As of season 2, they’re now married, although Greg’s shed a lot of the allure that made him likable within the present’s first chapter. This time, he’s work-obsessed, essential and controlling, which throws Tanya’s personal acute paranoia right into a tailspin.

Her issues calcify in episode 1, when she overhears Greg on the cellphone within the toilet, telling an unknown caller, “Look. Pay attention, I don’t wish to fucking discuss this proper now, okay? Sure, I’m going to. Yeah. This isn’t the time.” When Tanya asks who he’s speaking to, he explains, “It’s work. It’s Bob.”

Later, in episode 2, Tanya crawls off the bed to find him on the cellphone once more, saying, “Yeah, she’s clueless as common. I’ll be house tomorrow, provide you with a name after I get in. All proper, yeah, I really like you too. And I sit up for it.”

Our first intuition is to imagine he’s dishonest on her. (That would definitely match the themes swirling round this season.) However, once more, White usually is dependent upon these moments to make broader claims about class, intercourse, and gender. What if this can be a mere misunderstanding, a case of unhealthy timing and worry festering into irrationality? Do not forget that, throughout final season’s Hawaiian journey, Greg revealed he was coping with an sickness. By the point this Sicilian journey comes round, he appears wholesome and spry, however what if the illness has returned? And what if he’s retaining it from Tanya to save lots of her the nervousness? If that’s the case, he may very well be speaking to a pal, a co-worker, even his little one (which might clarify the “I really like you too.”) And if that’s the case, Tanya’s inaccurate suspicions may show deadly.

Concept #4: Greg is among the victims—as a result of he’s dishonest.

However maybe Greg actually is dishonest. When Tanya desires to have intercourse with him in episode 1, he doesn’t appear too thrilled about it, plus he’s on the cellphone with “Bob” on trip! Some followers on Reddit appear to suppose he’s secretly homosexual, or maybe bisexual. Would possibly such a secret ship Tanya right into a jealous rage?

Then there’s the matter of a prenup: In episode 2, Greg mentions that he and Tanya can’t break up as a result of it’d depart him destitute, particularly if he didn’t have a job. Would possibly he be scheming behind her again to inherit her cash, ought to she—I dunno—expertise a tragic cliff-diving accident?

Concept #5: Daphne is faking it.

Ah, however we’ve but to debate the pair of completely ill-suited double-daters on this trip. Daphne, who discovers the useless physique bobbing round in episode 1, is the radiant, mind-bogglingly wealthy spouse of Cameron (Theo James), with whom she shares two youngsters. Cameron—a confident finance bro with the chiseled stature of, effectively, a Hollywood actor—belies no insecurity in his marriage, which appears hermetic whilst lawyer Harper (Aubrey Plaza) makes an attempt to poke holes along with her disapproving gaze. She’s arrived in Sicily with husband Ethan (Will Sharpe), Cameron’s faculty roommate and a newly rich tech genius. At practically each alternative, Harper clashes with Cameron and Daphne’s sociocultural myopia, however there’s no denying a present of warmth operating between Cameron and Harper because the lengthy, sun-baked days roll on.

If The White Lotus continues down this street, because it’s all however assured to, would possibly Daphne be rather more than the candy, simple-minded housewife she appears? Would possibly she have faked her shock at encountering a useless physique within the ocean? If that’s the case, she’s fairly the actress, however that’s the enjoyable of a present like this one. The characters proceed to shock you—till they don’t shock you in any respect.

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