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 ofThe White Lotus.
Death looms over both seasons ofThe White Lotus.
Jennifer Coolidge in ‘The White Lotus’.Fabio Lovino/HBO
One airport coffin, multiple beach bodies: CreatorMike Whitestarts these stories with the promise of a bang.
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.
Theo James and Meghann Fahy in ‘The White Lotus’.Fabio Lovino/HBO
But I sensed a drop in eccentricity from the debut season and worried some characters were one-dimensional.
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.
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.
“You got this!”
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.
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.
Portia hears about the drowning secondhand from Albie (Adam DiMarco) at the airport.
She does not race to call the police.
There’s an angle where this finale is too joyous.
Mutual adulteries heal all rifts between spouses.
Presto presto: All the renewed marital mystery gives Harper and Ethan their mojo back.
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.”
Dominic (Michael Imperioli) finally talks to his wife on the phone.
But it’s worth noting how transactional a lot of these happy endings are.
Then there’s Daphne.
She was the very personification of theWhite Lotusdissolve from radiant sunswept slow-motion waves to explosive volcanic midnight awe.
Is that great advice for living or terrible license to sin?
Consider the outcomes: She nudges HarperandEthan toward infidelity.
Girls' trip to the Maldives, maybe?
Or could we finally meet her trainer?
Whereas a long conversation between Ethan and Harper lingers in quiet moments of pent-up anger.
Think “he was kinda f—in' his uncle!”
but in a villa.
“‘Cause then you don’t have to worry about them wanting yours.”
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.
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.
“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-
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