Who’s Who in The White Lotus season two

Jennifer Coolidge is back as Tanya, and she’s now married to Greg (Jon Gries), the guy she met in Hawaii from the BLM (that’s Bureau of Land Management). In case you need a refresher, last season Tanya came to the White Lotus resort in Maui to spread her mother’s ashes. She formed a connection with the manager of the hotel spa and expressed interest in going into business with her, but ultimately let her down. Tanya inherited her money from her parents, whom she says mentally abused her. When Greg shows interest in her she warns him that she’s basically a bottomless pit of neediness and gives him an out before they get any more involved.Greg obviously didn’t take that exit, and now may regret his decision. At the time, he believed he was dying of some mysterious illness, but that seems to have cleared up now. Tanya, on the other hand, hasn’t healed at all since we last saw her. She’s still completely self-absorbed and a total mess of a human. She senses that something is off in her marriage but doesn’t know how to fix it. Greg doesn’t give her much to go on, either. At times he’s dismissive, while at other times he’s accommodating, but he’s almost always distant. The harder she tries to hold on, the more he pulls away. It’s an old, familiar dynamic, even to Tanya, but it’s always a little heartbreaking to watch.

Aubrey Plaza is great at playing characters who are prickly on the outside but have a hidden softness inside. That’s not Harper, though. She’s prickly on the outside and the inside too. She’s an employment attorney who represents victims of sexual harassment and discrimination in cases against their employers. Her job allows her to think of herself as intellectually and morally superior, and to judge anyone she deems beneath her. But it’s all rooted in an insecurity that lies just beneath the surface.Harper is married to Ethan, played by Will Sharpe. He’s just made a fortune selling his tech company, but even on vacation he can’t stop working. They’ve been invited on the trip by Ethan’s wealthy college roommate Cameron (Theo James) and his wife Daphne (Meghann Fahy). Harper is suspicious of their motives, but it seems like Ethan is just happy to finally be in the same league as his alpha-male friend.

Are Daphne and Cameron as happy in their relationship as they seem, or is it all a front? Harper becomes obsessed with this question soon after meeting them. Though she may be right that they’re unhappy, it says more about Harper than it does about the Sullivans.Meghann Fahy slowly peels away the layers of full-time mom Daphne, letting us see beyond the basic trophy wife that Harper immediately takes her for. Meanwhile, Theo James is perfectly cast as rich playboy Cameron, the embodiment of that old cliche about the guy who was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple. You could draw a comparison between him and Jake Lacy’s character Shane in season one, except while Shane’s entitled whining carried no weight with Armond, you get the feeling that Cameron would be legitimately intimidating if he were ever put in the wrong room. He doesn’t go around thinking the world owes him anything—not consciously at least—he just takes what he wants because who’s going to stop him? Certainly not Daphne.

Three generations of Di Grasso men—grandfather, father, and son—have come to the White Lotus Sicily ostensibly to return to their family roots, but they’re more interested in sowing their wild oats. Michael Imperioli plays Dominic, a movie producer from Los Angeles whose relationship with his wife and daughter had become strained due to his constant cheating. Only his son Albie (Adam DiMarco) remains civil, not because he’s on his side but because he’s the peacemaker of the family.What was intended to be a family vacation ends up as a boys’ trip, with Dominic’s octogenarian father Bert along for the ride. F. Murray Abraham brings a smarmy charm to Bert, who still thinks of himself as a ladies’ man and refuses to accept culpability for his past mistakes. Dominic, in turn, blames his own bad behavior on Bert for being a bad role model. And then there’s recent college-grad Albie, who actually seems like a decent guy and hasn’t picked up either of their bad habits when it comes to women. At least not so far.

Taking over the role of White Lotus hotel manager this season, Sabrina Impacciatore’s Valentina runs the Sicilian property like a tight ship. Armond—played with a palpable, simmering desperation by Emmy winner Murray Bartlett last season—is a tough act to follow, but like Armond, and probably every other five-star hotel manager in the world, she also has to smile through the thankless job of dealing with the constant demands of privileged white people. Also like many in that position, she takes her frustration out on her subordinate, Rocco.While Valentina may not have any issues with substance abuse, she definitely has her own personal challenges that threaten to get in the way of her job. She’s vigilant about keeping the wrong sort of people out of the hotel, namely local girls like Mia and Lucia, who are there to prey upon wealthy male guests willing to pay for their company. Or are they the ones being prayed upon? That’s one of the many questions The White Lotus asks us to consider this season.

This time Tanya has brought her assistant Portia (Haley Lu Richardson) along on vacation with her, though it’s not clear why she needs an assistant at all; Portia doesn’t seem to have much of a function beyond providing emotional support for her needy boss. Greg isn’t pleased when he finds out they’ll have a third wheel, so Tanya monstrously banishes Portia to her room for the remainder of the trip, to give Greg one less thing to be annoyed about. It scarcely matters; Portia is not the problem with their marriage.Not content to be a princess imprisoned in a tower, even if it is a metaphorical tower inside a luxury hotel, Portia ventures out every chance she gets. You can’t blame her. We’re only seeing a slice of it here, but Tanya seems like she’d be a nightmare to work for. She manages to connect with some of the other guests, including Albie Di Grasso, but there’s something inside Portia that keeps her distant from everything and everyone around her. Even in a place as beautiful as the Sicilian coast, that emptiness remains.

In season one we saw the tension between the guests of the White Lotus resort in Hawaii and the locals through the lens of colonialism and racism. This season there’s a different kind of tension underlying everything. One of the recurring artistic motifs of the region, and in the show as well, is the “teste di moro,” a ceramic image often in the form of a vase, depicting the head of a man, and sometimes a woman. They are inspired by the local legend of a woman who beheaded her lover when she discovered he was married.What does this have to do with these two characters? As local Sicilian girls, Mia (Beatrice Grannò) and Lucia (Simona Tabasco) cannot escape sexual politics either. Lucia makes her living as an escort, and though she’d probably jump at the chance to do something else, she makes no apologies for it. Her best friend is Mia, a talented singer and musician who aspires to launch a musical career. Mia’s not actively in the sex trade, but she’s not above dabbling in it. She’ll do whatever it takes to accomplish her goals. Living near a resort like the White Lotus, with its wealthy and often amoral clientele, is good for business—as long as they can manage to escape Valentina’s watchful eye.

Tom Hollander’s Quentin doesn’t come into the picture until about mid-way through the season. He’s a British expat who inherited a villa in Palermo from his father and likes to entertain his friends—a lively, multi-national collection of gay men—at the White Lotus’ beach club. The group immediately takes a shine to Tanya who, let’s face it, is the very model of a modern gay icon. She soaks up their attention and flattery like a sponge; it’s everything she wants to hear and everything she isn’t getting in her marriage. Yet it all feels a little too convenient, perhaps too good to be true. Quentin is traveling with his nephew Jack (Leo Woodall), who’s more interested in Portia than Tanya. Both women are instantly taken with these British charmers, but red flags are easy to ignore when you’re having a good time.