'That's Amore' Presents the Best of Season 2 of 'The White Lotus' with Tons of Mystery and Intrigue Ahead

 

by Darian Scalamoni

    Hello White Lotus, it's been a while. Let's please catch up from the last two weeks. Last time I posted a review for the series was after its second episode of Season 2 where I was interested in the development of the characters and relationships being forged in the Sicilian location of the hotel chain created by Mike White. However, readers, I got thrown off course. Episode 3 was my least favorite episode of the show throughout its two seasons and truthfully, though I did enjoy last week's episode, I didn't have time for a review. Now, it is two days after the release of 'That's Amore' and I am enamored to jump back into discussion of this show and its direction.

    Let's start with my current favorite dynamic of the show: the relationship between Albie (Adam DiMarco) and Lucia (Simona Tabasco). Albie, though once seen through the viewer's eyes (and Portia's) as the "good guy" within the Di Grasso family, was playing the jaded game of jealousy with Portia (Haley Lu Richardson) across the bar hooking up with Lucia, who seems to have a character arc that gives her a change of heart in her work as a hooker seemingly finding someone who she has true feelings for in Albie. The two of them become much closer following the awkward exchange of payment for Lucia's sexual services in the beginning of the episode but you can see over shared dinners, ice cream dates and meaningful kisses that Lucia may want to leave behind her life of a sex worker behind. 

    Portia on the other hand, is hooking up with Jack (Leo Woodall) and truly having her "party girl" moment alongside her boss Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) and her new gay best friend, Quentin (Tom Hollander). Following Greg's exit from Sicily, Tanya and Portia are courted by Quentin, Jack and some of Quentin's friends to join their company and this episode they head to Palermo to Quentin's mansion. Tanya is living out her fantasy of beauty blinded by a trip to the Opera and stories about love but is awoken in the middle of night when she hears noises in the palazzo. The noises that Tanya comes across is some of the most shocking television we've seen that only Game of Thrones has brought to screens in recent years and that's incestual sex, this time, between Quentin and Jack. Pure insanity right..? Well, Haley Lu Richardson recently revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that the final two episodes of the scene, surprisingly get "way crazier, believe it or not." However, my theory is that Jack and Quentin aren't ACTUALLY related. Earlier in the episode, Jack and Portia get dinner and wind up dine and dashing due to Jack "forgetting his wallet" but there's something fishy about such a bougie character just not carrying or flaunting his wealth. He may be someone that Quentin hired for a sick and twisted "game" within this mysterious vacation.

    Additionally, we get to what is happening between Harper (Aubrey Plaza) and her husband, Ethan (Will Sharpe) along with their vacationing frenemies Cameron (Theo James) and Daphne (Meaghann Fahy). This week's episode brought us a view into Harper that we have yet to see on The White Lotus. One that is binge drinking, overtly sexual and carefree. She discovers at the beginning of the episode that Cameron had sex on their hotel room couch. Furious about the thought, she begins to drown herself in booze before confiding to Daphne that she thinks the guys did something bad while they were gone. Daphne responds by telling Harper about her handsome and cute trainer back at home that she often spends more time with than Cameron. The twisted square of friendship between these four is coming to a tipping point and something tells me these couples won't be together by the end of the season, at least not Harper and Ethan.

    All in all, I think that this is one of the better episodes of the season for sure and I'm anticipating how all the shocks of 'That's Amore' will lead into the final two episodes of the season.

Overall Score: 7.9