We were serious about the spoilers, yes? If you haven’t seen the last episode (7) of the season, don’t continue reading. Although if you haven’t seen the season yet, we’re not entirely clear why you entered the article in the first place:
At the end of most operas, the great diva dies of love. After in the Sicilian season of “The White Lotus” Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) was gradually built up as a diva, and another one who was labeled as such by a group of gays, she also gets to die as a diva. But if arias from the operas “Madame Butterfly” and “Dido and Anas” that were combined in the last episodes prepared us for a story about a broken heart of a woman abandoned by her lover, Tanya’s fate was sealed to the sounds of a different kind of opera. As her floating corpse is photographed from below, her hair wrapping around her face as if she were a mermaid, the aria “O mio babbino caro” from “Gianni Squeaky”, a short comic opera by Puccini about a struggle for a large inheritance, is heard. The lyrics of the aria sung by Loretta do include the promise “And if my love goes to waste, I will go to Ponte Vecchio and throw myself into the Arno” – a threat that sounds similar to what we see – but Loretta in the opera does not commit suicide but rather reunites with her lover (as mentioned, this is a comedy). And so “The White Lotus” gives Tanya a glorious ending, while snickering at her and reminding the opera fans among the viewers what it is really about.
Just before she falls from the yacht to her death – that is, after she killed all the gays who plotted to drown her in order to succeed Mamona – Tanya encourages herself with the words “You got this”, like in movies about female empowerment, and thus Mike White speaks to them as well. For moments during the second season I felt there were hints of misogyny. Thus, for example, the couple Harper (Aubrey Pelaza) and Ethan (Will Sharp) suspect each other of infidelity, but viewers know for sure that Ethan did not sleep with another woman, while in Harper’s case we only get her version. But the sly final chord leaves us with a smile in front of the victory of the two female friends, the singer Mia (Batrica Grano) and the prostitute Lucia (Simone Tabasco), who achieved exactly what they wanted without causing real harm to anyone. On the other hand, White, who defines himself as bisexual, risks the wrath of the LGBTQ community for the way he presented the group of gays, and then violently eliminated them, so you can’t come to him with complaints. What’s more, as mentioned, Tanya gets a superbly staged ending scene, in which she doesn’t die like a mollusk The sycophant who was throughout the series, but as a goddess of revenge.
Also the other characters in the season – that is, those who remained alive – receive a correction and a kind of happy ending. The superficial Daphne, who turned out to be the smartest of them all, gives Ethan some life advice in the scene where Megan Fahy first reveals the freckles beneath the perfect make-up that always covers them. But being a man, Ethan doesn’t really listen, but regains his manly power the old fashioned way – he finally hits Cameron (Theo James) hard, something he seems to have wanted to do since their college days. By the end he and Harper look in love, and we wish them nothing but the best.
The three DiGarso men have also reconciled, and Albie (Adam DiMarco) even helps his father (Michael Imperioli) reconcile with his mother (although he doesn’t seem to have gotten over his sex addiction). This happens after they discover that their roots in Sicily have long since been severed, and the reason for the whole trip becomes a joke lifted from a Pasolini movie. The hotel manager Valentina (Sabrina Impecciatore), who was a bit neglected in the first episodes, also receives emotional satisfaction that allows her to be a better boss.
In the review I wrote based on watching the first five episodes I claimed to prefer the second season to the first, where I got the impression that White was having too much fun failing his heroes. At the end of the second season, this impression only got stronger. This time too there was no lack of criticism of the rich, but the characters were given the opportunity to make amends, not out of submission but out of resignation. Portia (Hayley Lou Richardson), realizing she made the wrong choice, might even call Albie.