‘The White Lotus’ Season 2: Ending, Explained – Who Happened To Tanya And Portia? What Was Greg’s Plan?

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The incredible amount of “The White Lotus” season 2 theories that floated on the internet is a testament to its popularity. Created by Mike White, the drama unfolds at the luxury “White Lotus” resort situated in Sicily. The series revolved around a group of characters, some of whom befriended one another during the trip while the others were mostly caught up in their mess. From the odd pair of couples to the three generations of male members of the Di Grasso family to Tanya and her assistant, each character has a reason to remember the Sicily trip. The pertinent questions this season were: “What will happen to Tanya?” And what was Greg’s ultimate plan? Will Harper and Ethan make it to the end? The last episode answers all our questions and does so in typical “White Lotus” fashion.

Spoilers Ahead


‘The White Lotus’ Season 2: Plot Summary – What Happens In The Second Season?

The “White Lotus” resort in Sicily is headed by Valentina. She does not hide from criticizing the choices made by their spoiled guests. A loner in search of a lover, Valentina had her eyes on Isabella for quite some time. Her closeness with one of the receptionists, Rocco, bothered her to the extent that she asked him to alter positions with Salvatore, who worked at the beach. She gifted Isabella a brooch from her favorite jewelry store as a desperate proclamation of her love for her. While Isabella admired Valentina for her commitment to her job, she was not romantically interested in her. It was a tragic surprise for Valentina when Isabella stated that she and Rocco were engaged to be married. Valentina craved the affection that only lovers can provide, but sadly, she never had someone special in her life. Meanwhile, Mia (Lucia’s friend) was ready to do whatever it took for her to become a singer. Mia had planned to sleep with the singer at the hotel, Giuseppe, but that did not go as planned. She confused the molly in Lucia’s bag for Viagra, and that ultimately resulted in hospitalization of Giuseppe. Her mistake turned out to be for the best, as she managed to convince Valentina to play the piano in the absence of Giuseppe. Mia sensed Valentina’s loneliness and offered to sexually please her. Valentina was grateful to Mia for understanding her, and she could not stop blushing after spending the night with her. Even though Mia was not the lover she was searching for, she offered Valentina company when she needed it the most. Mia suggested taking Valentina to gay bars and introducing her to gay women. Valentina finally found a friend in Mia, even though their arrangement was transactional (sex in exchange for a job). She stood by Mia even when Giuseppe returned and demanded his job back. Not only had the guests at the restaurant started to enjoy Mia’s performance, but Valentina, too, had grown affectionate toward her. Valentina fired Giuseppe, and Mia was offered the job at the restaurant. Mia’s desperate measures to become a singer finally paid off, and it was perhaps the only storyline where one does not hurt the other in the hopes of getting something in return.

The patriarch, Bart Di Grasso, and his grandson, Albie, would often disagree with each other when it came to women and their rights. While Bart romanticized the oppression of women, Albie could not help but find the old man’s beliefs problematic. Dominic’s stance, on the other hand, was always somewhere in between. He has witnessed women’s protests for liberation and has grown up believing in the importance of treating women equally, but at the same time, he cannot always dismiss his father’s opinion as well. He was not as radical as his son but also not as close-minded as his father. Dominic struggled to stay faithful in his marriage; his wife had recently found him cheating on her, and she decided against going on the Sicily trip. Dominic had made plans with the local sex worker, Lucia, before starting the trip. On the first two nights in Sicily, he slept with Lucia, but he soon started to regret it. While he did enjoy fulfilling his sexual appetite, he also missed having his family by his side. He wanted the affection of his wife, and he knew that only Albie could convince his mother of his loyalty and love for her. He abstained from any physical relationship throughout the remaining days of the trip, though watching his son indulge with Lucia was not easy for Dominic. As previously discussed, Albie is a fine example of the White Knight syndrome. Lucia’s helplessness and desperation to live a decent life prompted Albie to offer his help. He was ready to give her any amount of money and fly her with him to LA. Albie had barely known the world outside his university space, making it easier for him to believe in his improbable dream.

Apart from the Di Grasso family and Valentina, we had Tanya from “The White Lotus” Season 1 visit Sicily with her husband, Greg. Their marriage is far from perfect, and Tanya is left disappointed when her husband decides to go away for a couple of days, leaving her alone at the resort. Throughout their Sicily adventure, the odd pair of couples, Ethan, Harper, Cameron, and Daphne, discussed cheating in marriage and how often the fear of losing their partner can act as an incentive to work towards turning their marriage into a success story.


Did Harper Cheat On Ethan? Did Daphne And Ethan Make Out?

Harper and Ethan struggled to wrap their heads around the reason why Cameron invited them to join him and his wife on their trip to Sicily. Harper guessed that he wanted to make a business proposal now that Ethan was financially successful. While Ethan did not dismiss her guess, he wanted to believe that it was an innocent request from a college friend who wanted to spend time with him. Cameron and Ethan were vastly different individuals; Cameron was the popular guy in college who belonged to an affluent family, whereas Ethan was the college nerd who wanted to make it big in life. Ethan from college must have felt a little proud watching the popular guy make an effort to stay in contact with him even after all these years. Harper disliked Cameron and Daphne from the moment she met them. She could not get past their fake chemistry and doubted their relationship. When she traveled to Noto with Daphne, she realized that she had been right all along. Daphne and Cameron were far from the romantic couple that they pretended to be. Daphne had reasons to doubt Cameron’s loyalty, and she, too, would cross the boundaries of marriage to feel less like a victim. She once discussed with Harper that she would spend her time with her trainer when Cameron was busy. We do not know if Daphne ever cheated on Cameron or if it was just something she preferred to believe and imagine. She refused to be a victim, and getting back at Cameron with solo trips, or a gym trainer was her way of expressing that she, too, had the power to make or break their marriage. She had learned to have a life beyond Cameron, though more often than not, she thought about him while making alternative decisions; going to Noto is a clear example of it. Engaging in intimate activities outside of their marriage had almost become a game for them.

Cameron had his eyes on Harper from the first day. From stripping down naked in front of her to grabbing her legs underwater, he found ways to get close to her. The dynamic between Harper and Ethan completely changed the moment she found the condom wrapper on the sofa. While it was Cameron who had slept with the sex workers, Ethan was the one Harper suspected. Even though he honestly stated that he remained faithful to Harper, she found it hard to believe. Harper thought it was impossible that Ethan chose not to indulge while Cameron was having sex right in front of him. Especially after spending a night with Daphne in Noto, she could not help but think that Ethan (just like the other men Daphne talked about) might have wanted more than what Harper could offer, especially now that he was rich and popular. She got back at Ethan by kissing Cameron. Ethan lost his mind once he realized that Cameron and Harper had sneaked out of the bar while he went for a swim. He was further convinced once he realized that the door latch was on and the door to the connecting room was left open. He had reasons to suspect Harper, especially because he knew the kind of person Cameron was.

While Harper maintained her innocence, she ultimately spilled the truth, realizing how much it bothered Ethan. She disclosed that they had kissed, but she did not like Cameron and that it was just a drunken mistake. Ethan could not believe that they had only kissed; he knew that Cameron wanted to sleep with his wife, and he furiously left the room. He grabbed hold of Cameron in the sea and pushed his head underwater. Ethan punched him in the face, and Cameron chuckled. He did not regret getting involved with Harper; maybe that is what he had always wanted. It was always more than just offering a business proposal; it was about getting close to the Spillers and knowing their dark secrets. When Ethan discussed with Daphne that her husband and his wife might have been involved, she did not give it much thought. She believed it was best not to pursue the doubt and to let certain things remain a mystery. To love someone, one does not have to know them entirely, and she enjoyed having a little mystery in her relationship.

She expressed how she wanted to visit Isola Bella, and the two went to take a look around the island together. We do not know what happened between Daphne and Ethan; maybe they did use their imagination to not be the victims of life. While we do not know if they got back at their partners by spending time together, it helped Ethan forgive Harper and take charge of their relationship. It might be the fear of losing Harper or the belief that he was not a victim and had enough control over their relationship that helped him realize that he needed to make an effort to make their marriage work. For the first time, Ethan and Harper got physically intimate during the trip. While Ethan and Harper detested Cameron and Daphne’s toxic marriage that involved one-night stands and making up, at the end of the day, they had become the same. Harper and Ethan had completely changed as a couple; they had secrets between them now. While it is great that they found their way back to each other, it might just as well become a Cameron-Daphne marriage that lacks honesty and transparency.


‘The White Lotus’ Season 2: Ending Explained – Did Tanya And Portia Die At The end? What Was Greg’s Plan?

After spending a gala night with Quentin and his friends, it suddenly struck Tanya that Portia was missing. She complained about how every assistant would take advantage of her, though honestly, it was quite reckless of Tanya to take her assistant to Palermo with a group of strangers. Portia lacked experience, but Tanya, being the boss and an experienced adult, should have been more careful about what she was getting herself into. But, then again, we all know the kind of person Tanya was. She was an extremely gullible woman and mostly seemed lost in her own world. Meanwhile, Portia was certain that they were a part of an elaborate plan. She desperately wanted to contact Tanya, but she could not find her phone. She was confident that it must have been Jack who had taken the phone away from her. Maybe it was his way of making sure that she was unable to contact Tanya. Jack’s reluctance to take Portia back to the hotel made her doubt his motives all the more.

Portia managed to steal his phone when he went to the washroom and called Tanya. She discussed with her every detail Jack had shared the previous night. Tanya was surprised to learn that Quentin and his friends were not rich after all; wealth was the yardstick she used to judge people. She wondered what could have been the possible reason, and she recalled the picture she had seen in Quentin’s room. It was now certain that the man in the picture must have been young Greg. She concluded that Greg wanted to end her life because, according to the prenup, he would get nothing if they got a divorce but inherit her wealth if she died. He insisted she come to Sicily to end her life with the help of Quentin and his friends. Tanya panicked the moment she realized that this was going to be the end of her life and that her wealth would be distributed among a bunch of gay men to take care of their villas and maintain a high-end lifestyle. She was desperate to get off the yacht, so she asked the sailor to help her, but he barely understood English. He might have known the plan as well.

Quentin offered Tanya a lavish dinner to celebrate her last meal with them, but Tanya could not take a single bite. Even though she tried to act cool, her face was tense. She was told that Niccolo would take her to the shore in a dingy, and she knew now that the man she made out with the previous night would be the one to murder her today. She had her eyes on Niccolo’s bag, and she managed to grab hold of it and rush into a room. The bag consisted of ropes, duct tape, and a gun. She held the gun as Niccolo banged on the door to enter. When he entered, she shot him twice. She was in an almost trance-like state of mind, and she shot whoever came in front of her. She was not ready to die and let Greg inherit her fortune. After shooting Quentin, she asked him if Greg was having an affair, but he was not in a state to answer her question. It was funny how Tanya was still concerned about Greg’s loyalty when the man clearly could kill her just to get rid of her. Whether he had an affair or not, he simply wanted a way out of the marriage and to make money while at it. She should have rather asked who Greg was because, clearly, she knew nothing about her husband.

One of Quentin’s friends jumped off the yacht while the others lay dead. The sailor managed to escape as well. After killing her enemies, Tanya had to find a way to get off the yacht and reach the shore safely. But Tanya struggled to figure out a way all by herself. She had relied on others most of her life, and here she was, trying to make one of the most crucial decisions of her life. Without giving it much thought, she jumped off the yacht, hoping to make it straight to the dingy, but alas, it was the worst decision she could have taken. Instead of the dingy, she hit her head on a rod, fell into the sea, and drowned. Tanya’s death was unimaginably unglamorous. Perhaps if she had been shot by a gangster and her body tied and drowned, people would have at least thought that there was a conspiracy behind it, but instead, her case was labeled as a case of drowning, further confirming that Greg would not face repercussions. Meanwhile, Jack dropped Portia off at the airport and asked her to stay away from the hotel and not get caught up in the case as it involved heavily influential people. The next morning, Daphne came across Tanya’s body, and it was confirmed to be a case of drowning. Quentin and the rest were also found dead on the yacht.

Portia learned about the case from Albie. Both Albie and Portia, in the end, realized that it would have been best if they had stuck around together. Albie had convinced his father to pay Lucia fifty thousand euros to help her with her condition in exchange for saying good things about him to his mother. While he had expected Lucia to stay with him, she left him after receiving the money. Maybe she did have a soft spot for him, but of course, it was an impossible romance, and she tried to take advantage of it knowing that he came from money. Albie and Portia exchanged numbers at the airport; their experimental Italian romance had backfired, and they were ready to play within their safe territories. Did Dom change as an individual? No. After knowing that his wife was reconsidering their separation, he will probably go back to his old ways. All three Di Grasso men looked at a young girl passing at the airport, indicative of how Bert and Dom were exactly the same and nothing could change them. Harper and Ethan would continue to be together, but they would surely not remain the honest couple that they used to be. The locals, Mia and Lucia, benefitted from their trade the most; the Americans directly or indirectly changed their lives. Tanya’s death in “The White Lotus” season 2 was quite fitting and comical. It surely was one of the silliest ways to die, and, well, you cannot expect any less from Tanya. Greg’s identity still remains unknown, but we know that he surely is having the time of his life.


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Srijoni Rudra
Srijoni Rudra
Srijoni has worked as a film researcher on a government-sponsored project and is currently employed as a film studies teacher at a private institute. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Film Studies. Film History and feminist reading of cinema are her areas of interest.

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