Note: The following contains spoilers for “The White Lotus” season 2 finale.
“The White Lotus” season 2 finale made good on the show’s promise of finding out whose bodies were floating in the ocean in the season opener, but few people were ready to learn that Jennifer Coolidge’s Tanya was one of the victims. According to creator and showrunner Mike White, the seed of Tanya’s death was actually planted in the season 1 finale of the HBO series.
In the final episode of Season 2, Tanya finally learns that Quentin (TOM HOLLANDER) and his friends are not what they seem. Quentin is apparently an old friend of Greg’s (Jon Gries), and when their yacht arrives back in Taormina, Quentin makes some excuse as to why Tanya can’t get off the boat yet. Instead, they await the arrival of Nicolo (Stefano Giannino) and personally take Tanya back under cover of night.
When Tanya goes through Nicolo’s bag and discovers rope, duct tape and a gun, she confirms that they are trying to kill him so Greg can get all his money. She, hilariously, takes them all out with a gun except for one, but when trying to jump into the small boat to go down to the ferry, she hits her head and drowns. .
In a behind-the-scenes video HBO aired after the episode, White stated that the entirety of Tanya’s season 2 arc was built around her eventual death.
“At the end of last season, Tanya is sitting with Greg in the last episode and he’s talking about his health issues and he says, ‘I’ve had every kind of treatment over the years. Death is the last immersive experience. Which I have not tried. And I’m thinking it would be fun to bring Tanya back because she’s such a great character, but maybe for her this journey is like a death journey.
“And it’s not like I really wanted to kill off Tanya because I love her as a character and I obviously love Jennifer,” White continued. “But I felt like you know we’re going to Italy, she’s such a diva, a larger-than-life female role model, it felt like we could draw our own conclusions to Tanya’s life and her story.”
However, it was important to White that Tanya not die at the hands of someone else.
“I think it’s very sad that he died at the hands of someone else,” he said. “It felt like she needed to give her best fight back, and that she had some kind of victory over whoever was plotting to get rid of her. So it made me laugh to think that she got out.” will go [this] gang of assassins and after she successfully does so, she just dies this hideous death. It felt like Tanya.
“The White Lotus” Season 3 has already been ordered by HBO, and considering it’s an anthology series, a new location and new characters are in the plan. However, in a post-finale video, White hinted at a continuation or some sort of closure of Greg’s murder plot in season 3.
“I think as far as the plot for Greg and Tanya’s death is concerned, it’s possible that I think Portia is just scared enough to leave it alone, but the fact is that all those people on the boat dies, it seems like there should be someone who will track it back to Greg. But you’ll probably have to wait to find out what happens.
Just as Coolidge was the only character from Season 1 to reprise her role in Season 2, could we see Haley Lu Richardson’s Portia return as she tries to delve deeper into what happened to Tanya? or greg? This would fit in with the White Teased theme as the centerpiece of Season 3.
“The first season highlighted money, and then the second season highlighted sex, and I think the third season will probably be a kind of sarcastic and funny look at death and Eastern religion and spirituality, and it looks like it could be a flourishing White Tapestry to do one more round at Lotus,” White said in the video.
Stay tuned, people. This particular story may have come to an end, but there is more “White Lotus” to come.
