THE WHITE LOTUS - s2 MONDAY 9pm sky Atlantic. TV PACE. NO SPOILERS

[Blondeshavemorefun]

So lotus is back

s1 was good. About holiday makers in a posh hotel and one died but various other things

quite funny

worth watching s1

there is a thread. Not by me s one

s2 is new cast and a new secret apart from jennifer Coolidge who returns as Tanya along with her lover now hubby

This season, Coolidge's hysterical and hyper-sensitive Tanya McQuoid will be joined by Jon Gries, who reprises his season one role of Tanya's lover turned new husband Greg, and Haley Lu Richardson (The Edge of Seventeen) who plays Portia, her assistant. Oscar-winner F. Murray Abraham (Amadeus), Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos), and Adam DiMarco (The Order) portray Bert, Dominic, and Albie, respectively, three generations of men from the Di Grasso family with three very different approaches to the opposite sex on a trip to Sicily to visit their ancestral home.

Also checking in are two polar opposite couples on vacation together: the prickly, newly-rich, and socially aware Harper and Ethan, played by Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation) and Will Sharpe (Landscapers), and the carefree, news-averse, lovey-dovey couple Cameron and Daphne, played by Theo James (The Time Traveler's Wife) and Meghann Fahy (The Bold Type). The separate groups are intertwined when two local girls Mia (Beatrice Granno) and Lucia (Simona Tabasco) find their way into the White Lotus, much to the chagrin of Valentina (Sabrina Impaciatorre), the often flustered manager of the hotel.

Ah yeah I’d forgotten that. I was just hoping that it wasn’t going to be how it seems.

She must be very hard to live with though - look how she is with her assistant

(Not justifying if he murders her! Just if he is not warm toward her)

I agree Greg doesn't love her and is planning some kind of escape / set up. He may be behind the situation with Tom Hollander and the other awful men. Surely she would be suspicious that she would merit so much attention and interest from them! She must be aware she's a target because of her wealth and to be suspicious of strangers. In the last series, she was quite aware of her wealth and the risks attached.

I really dislike Portia - she's so whiney and terrible at her job. She's presumably being paid well to be there, she's not on holiday.

Can I join in? I love white lotus so much. Agree that Greg is in Cahoots with Tom Hollander character and something bad is going to happen there.

Portia is annoying and I think her and the Essex boy are going to go very wrong. Poor sweet, not so innocent anymore, AlBie, I really felt for him at the beach bar.

That's an interesting idea that Greg is in cahoots with the Tom Hollander character. It makes sense that Greg has buggered off for a couple of days to allow TH and his gang access to Tanya, if so. Greg was complaining, wasn't he, how the pre-nup he has with Tanya would leave him with nothing if they split? She is SO naive. When TH character said 'Tell me everything, from the beginning ...' she started with 'Well, I was born in San Francisco ...' so you just know she's told him her entire life story.

Oh my goodness - so many people on the make! (Have you all watched Ep5 - can I talk about it?)

Dunno about any Greg connection, but I’m certain Quentin owns as much of that palazzo as I do of Buckingham Palace. It will be rented - like the place Daphne dragged Harper to overnight. (It’s not the same one is it - I can’t remember the exact details of the earlier place?) Portia is too damned slow on the uptake, and not good at her job - she doesn’t seem to have picked up on what the nephew said last episode about how the Quentin and his gang roam around picking up rich old women. Tanya is sure to end up paying for the boat, the drink, the food, the house … The ‘nephew’ is just the same.

And Lucia … That was a set-up too - she’s playing the long game.

Daphne, though. Daphne will definitely be murdering someone before the end of that holiday.

Well I did not expect that at the end of episode 5! When the 'nephew' said to Portia he had something to do for his uncle, I thought it might be to seduce Tanya.

I am worried that the cowboy tom Hollander was in love with was Greg and he is going to off Tanya like everyone thinks!

poor Tanya!

Ha! I assumed Quentin was just trotting out a well-rehearsed bit of Annie Proulx pastiche that he keeps to ensnare deluded rich women! The Wyoming cowboy seemed so very unlikely.

But Tanya ‘discreetly’ acknowledging the Queen of Sicily … Death warrant signed. No one so stupid deserves oxygen.

It is rather unpleasant to think of Jack’s role in all this: distracting the PA (who ought to be looking out for her employer) while ‘Uncle Quentin’ cunningly extracts billions of dosh from one more lonely, self absorbed woman.

i think it’s the same villa as the 2 women stayed in. I’m also thinking that the cowboy he fell for was Greg coz he said he still would do anything for him.
lucia’s pimp was definitely staged. She’s working for herself.
anyone know how many episodes?

Maybe the fake pimp will be one of the ‘bodies’ by the end of the week! Albie is already keen to smash the patriarchal system that keeps Lucia enslaved. (Stupid boy.)

Think Greg is a bad one, so it's an idea he might be Quinten's cowboy. (Decided he was a bad one, when Tanya discovered the two macaroons after he'd run her down about eating five - did he hide them?

I was not expecting that scene at the end, so they're definitely not related then😅! I find Tanya entertaining so I hope she survives into series 3, it wouldn't be the same without her.

Daphne showing Harper the picture of her blonde haired blue eyed children, who matched the description of her trainer, not Cam.

Albie makes me want to shake him, he's falling hook line and sinker for Lucia's tricks.

I'm much preferring this series over the first one.

I think Quentin is rich. I think it would be so boring if it was a "scam a rich woman" storyline. I'd read there was a shocking sex scene so as soon as he left I knew it would be Quentin.

I missed that the kids might not be Cams. I assumed she was showing them to Harper in a "this is my life and it's good and you don't understand so back off with the truth".

Loving this series.

Daphne is becoming quite terrifying.

@BoneyEmm thank you. Utter genius - I’d been puzzling over that scene, and blame my week of unspecified virus for not comprehending it without assistance.

And let’s not forget the story opens with Daphne. I’d assumed it was because she was a nonentity, plot wise - but now I’m realising they may just be doing the more conventional thing of telling us, right at the start, who’s the central character in the narrative.

If she has been actively constructing her revenge over years … We can assume she truly hates Cameron and is a perambulating ball of incandescent fury. He should be very, very scared.

I love it, it’s so different and I think all the characters are brilliant. I watched the first series with my adult Son, but not this one, he asked me how’s it going and I told him I’m glad we are not watching it together. You really want to give all the women a good shake up. The hotel and scenery is stunning.

Hmm … I’m still finding this series considerably less - aurally, visually and in terms of narrative. It’s just more conventional, though still beautiful and absorbing.

S1 was revelatory in its use of sound and music. Some of the visual images - particularly involving the hotel manager - were astonishingly new to me. And the argument driving the overarching story was so skilfully put together. It was a triumph.

@BoneyEmm I thought the same when she showed the pic of her children.

The atmosphere is so unsettling on this show - waiting for something terrible to happen in paradise

I told you Jack wasn't Quentin's bloody nephew

Not the same villa - the one Harper and Daphne stayed at was in Noto, this one is supposedly in Palermo.

Greg as the cowboy - interesting idea - I hadn't thought of that! I'd assumed it was just a story that he trots out.

Lucia is definitely setting Albie up and 'Alessio' is made up - you saw her concocting the idea of being a poor, exploited woman when they were in the pool together. The conversation she had with the guy in the street (which wasn't translated, I noticed), he just said something like 'When can I see you again?' and touched her on the bum and she acted like he was harrassing her so Albie would think he was her pimp.

Oh and the pics of the children matching the description of the trainer, not Cameron - I missed that too! Thanks @BoneyEmm

Yes, two houses - interestingly one of the several million reviews of Ep5 has the show makers reveal they used the Noto building as Palermo and vice versa, for reasons of atmosphere.

Most reviewers seem to have picked up on the blond blue eyed trainer / Daphne’s children thing. A few don’t seem to grasp any importance in Tanya’s friendship with Quentin.

I’m still wondering which part of the ghastly Butterfly they’re leaning on because it seems a stretch to me. Is Jack the far too young individual forced into a sexual relationship for financial survival? Will Tanya soon be introduced to Greg’s other wife?? Who’s going to prefer an ‘honourable’ death to a life of humiliation???

Alessio was mentioned in episode 1. He might have been Lucia's ex-boyfriend.

I did not get murderous vibes from Daphne. Now I will have to rewatch it. Their marriage is clearly not what it seems.

Greg as the cowboy? Very interesting.

I love Harper and Ethan. When Cameron touched Harper, she looked at Ethan. Was her look saying he is doing it again, trying to take the girl you like? I hope Harper will say no to Cameron.

I am unsure if Greg is the cowboy or if Quentin was shamelessly trotting out a slightly adapted "Brokeback Mountain" plot, testing again how "clueless" Tanya is. I thought Albie wearing white socks in the closing scenes having sex with Lucia was a nod to Risky Business, a god awful film with a young Tom Crusie who clubs together with his mates who are all due to go to Stanford/Harvard etc to buy a drop dead gorgeous prostitute for night and who Tom Cruise falls for. perhaps there were nods to other films in the episode?

Loving the development of Daphne - I think the PJ top or blouse she was wearing at one point this episode had a snake print on it. I also was not sure whether the "trainer" super cute, funny and blond with blue eyes was actually her child or the implication in the photo that the trainer was the child's dad. Daphne definitely has hidden depths and Ethan is going to explode at some point like Mt.Etna ( that they talked about visiting).

DH and I both think Ethan will explode. He is so contained.

So I just watched the two trailers again and one of them has a few really interesting shots. In one Daphne is leading a dark-haired guy - Cameron I assume - across to Isola Bella - that little islet that Quentin was telling Tanya the story about - where the old rich lady who lived there and wouldn't let the Mafia have her house was pushed off the cliffs and murdered.

In the other, two men are struggling under water - they look like Cameron and Ethan. The one who could be Ethan is wearing a white t-shirt and then another shot shows Ethan walking along the beach in a white t-shirt looking distraught. Either way, it's not looking good for Cameron.