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The White Lotus season 2
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Anonymous
This. There could be a nice trainer, but she doesn't have it in her character to be a cheater. She is too honest and faithful. I don't doubt she wished she could just go bang others as revenge, but she can't because she needs love first and she values marriage and her own vows even if her husband doesn't. I think she is now seeing what a scumbag he is. They obviously have tons of chemistry and passion and he totally love bombed her at the start of their relationship. Even if she knew he was promiscuous, she likely thought he wouldn't be once married and I'm sure he said as much. She also thought a family would ground him. She was trying to call the kids and obviously misses them, but she goes along with Cameron for fear of losing him because she wants an intact family. |
Anonymous
The “nephew” is a distraction to get Portia away and isolate Tanya. There is a scam there somewhere I just don’t know what it is exactly. The captain of the yacht introduced himself don’t know what that means. I think the girl piano singer or Harper dies. |
Anonymous
Where...are you getting all this from? |
Anonymous
| Am I the only one who can’t stand Portia. Ugh, she is insufferable. She reminds me of the entire cast of Girls. Is this an accurate reflection of that entire generation? |
Anonymous
Psycho front desk lady is definitely capable of killing piano girl if she thinks she is going to "out" her. With multiple deaths, it makes me think of a yacht explosion or something like that. No idea. |
Anonymous
Her expressions. Her statements. The scene of her so badly wanting to be with/call her kids. The way she talks about family/marriage. I think she is a fun person, but the 'cool girl thing' is an act. She visibly looked like she was going to throw up when Harper said to her 'something happened while we were gone'. She knew what that meant and she was gutted, but then tried to brush over it and suppress it and then made up the story about her trainer. Showing the photo of her kids was also telling. |
Anonymous
I will be so upset if it’s Harper. Strongly disliked her at first and now she is my favorite character. |
Anonymous
And the things she does are all to try and keep Cameron bonded and to try and make him jealous, like not telling him she was going to stay overnight. She wants to punish him and have him think she is capable of doing what he does...but she had all the opportunity on the trip and all she wanted to do was hang out in the villa. She wasn't out looking to bang strange like her husband. |
Anonymous
She's a beautiful, beautiful woman. Men fall all over her. She could 100% get any man she wanted and, frankly, I think she is more attractive than her husband. She doesn't see her own worth. |
Anonymous
I don't think so based on the snarky looks he shot his companions. |
Anonymous
Lol, now you're just making stuff up out of whole cloth. We've seen no man fall all over her. I get the sad feeling that you identify strongly with Daphne. Is your husband a cheater as well? |
Anonymous
I think it's DCUM mad libs |
Anonymous
Those are different generations! Girls was millennials - Portia is Gen Z |
Anonymous
She’s beautiful but kind of dumb and very boring. I don’t see men falling all over her. |
Anonymous
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Mike White famously loves the show Survivor and even appeared in a season of the show. I think there are a ton of Survivor parallels in White Lotus and since I have nothing better to do this morning (just kidding, I have a long to do list but zero desire to tackle it) here are some of the parallels I see. Obviously the show is not strictly a game and no one is getting "voted out", but White is clearly playing with some of the tropes of the game in my eyes:
Alliances Alliances are central to Survivor game play and are the source of the vast majority of interpersonal drama. Some alliances can form early on in the game and last to the bitter end, essentially securing the final two or the winner's win. But most alliances shift throughout the game as people are eliminated and other players have to hop to new alliances with better numbers to protect themselves. The most obvious alliances parallel involves Portia, who arrives with Tanya but is immediately banished by Greg (early alliances are often based purely on who you like and don't like, personality-wise). She then gloms onto Albie and his dad and grandad. Nursing a flirtation from an interested party to form an alliance is a Survivor classic, and one way that younger women on the show who might otherwise be considered liabilities early on for lacking physical strength, secure safety during the early part of the game. There are other alliances going on as well. The foursome start out with to obvious alliances -- the Spillers and the Babcocks. But then Daphne clearly tries to recruit Harper to her alliance (is it her individual alliance or one she shares with Cameron? it's unclear) when they go to Noto. Noticeably, no one seems to be recruiting Ethan. If Harper turns against him, he has no protection. Tanya has been recruited by the gays to their alliance but it feels nefarious. Mia and Lucia were allied with Dom but they crossed to many lines with Albie and the grandad, so he's told them he's through with them. Blindsides This is when a player flips on an alliance at the last minute, voting against someone they'd previously promised to help protect. Blindsides are a survivor classic. You can see blindside parallels in the way Portia ditches Albie for Jack, effectively switching her alliance from the Di Grassos to the gays. But Tanya's discovery at the end of the last episode indicate a blindside is in the works with the gays as well, though it's not clear exactly what it will be. I suspect, as others do, that the gays are secretly allied with Greg, putting both Tanya and Portia in danger. Harper's discovery of the condom wrapper felt like a blindside, since Ethan had in fact been lying to her all day about what happened with Cameron. On the other hand, I think the ultimate alliances in the foursome are very much up in the air and Harper might be looking to convince both Cameron and Daphne that she's joining their alliance against Ethan, only to blindside them in the end in an act of loyalty to her husband. Whoever dies is likely getting the ultimate blindside and I do think White is trying to make this as surprising for the audience as possible, so I think the biggest blindside is yet to come and likely to be a shock. Swing Votes A Survivor classic, this is what happens when you have two equally sized alliances and one or two people who are unaligned. The wooing of the swing votes is a Survivor mainstay. I think the most obvious swing votes are Mia and Lucia, who have a tight alliance with each other but very weak alliances with others (Dom, Albie, Cam, Valentina) often based on temporary goodwill or a financial transaction. They are playing games and swing votes often get caught up in their temporary power only to get quickly punished for this as soon as the number shift and they are no longer needed. I fear this is what will happen with Lucia for sure. Mia seems a little more cautious and thus maybe safer but we'll see. Portia is also a potential swing vote and could help or hurt Tanya with the dangerous situation in Palermo. Tribal Council Tribal Council, where someone is voted out or, in the last episode, where the winner is selected, happens at the end of every episode of survivor. This last episode had MAJOR tribal council vibes at the end, with both the dinner hour at the hotel and the opera in Palermo. Right down to classic Survivor imagery of fire and close ups of statues, plus the White Lotus scores always gives Survivor with the wordless chanting -- if you are much of a Survivor watcher, it's hard to avoid the obvious references. Anyway, tribal council is where a lot of $hit goes down but because it's very public, with everyone sitting in a circle, it's hard to scheme. There are a LOT of meaningful glances. Kind of like the dinner with the foursome. Sometimes players will even have hurried, whispered conversations before the vote to try and change a plan last minute based on what has been said at Council. When Mia went off with Cameron in full view of Albie, it had that feeling of Lucia trying to swing a vote last minute using Cameron as a tool. The Di Grassos have also had a lot of Tribal Council-esque glances through the show during dinner, as gramps and Dom track the location of Mia/Lucia, and gramps also tracks Dom's tracking of Mia/Lucia. The foursome always feels Tribal Council-y to me at their dinners, with revelations and accusations thrown out, never more so than in this last episode. Cameron grabbing Harper's knee under the table reminded me of the way players sometimes slip other people immunity idols at council, though I don't think Cameron wants to give Harper immunity, if you know what I mean (lol). Often, after tribal council, the show will follow the tribe back to camp where they will go to sleep. Only sometimes some people don't go to sleep and there is activity -- idol hiding, alliance conversations, etc. Kind of like how Jack went to hide his idol after leaving Portia, wink-wink (I know I'm being silly, I enjoy the innuendo!). That's all I've got for now. I saw some Survivor references in the first season but they are out of control in this season and I think it's clear White was heavily inspired by his fandom and likely also his experience on the show. It's also clearly a passionate interest of his -- I think his interest in class and hierarchies dovetails nicely with his interest in Survivor. It's also what I like about that show too -- it has a way of exposing people in the most fascinating ways, both their worst impulses (betrayal, exploitation, lying and stealing) and their surprising vulnerabilities and resiliency. One thing about Survivor is that nasty people never win. They can't, everyone hates them. The winners are always schemers and pretty much no one ever wins without telling at least a few little lies. But the winners usually have strong social skills and are genuinely likable, or have qualities that help others respect them. That's how they get the votes at the end even after participating in voting off a lot of the jury. This aspect of Survivor makes me think it's unlike Mia or Lucia wind up dead (schemers, sure, but too plucky and likable to be hated) and also that Tanya probably makes it out alive. Cameron though... he's the sort who would make it deep in the game and then be gloriously ousted by the exact people he's been cruelest to. My money is on Daphne, Harper, or Ethan, or potentially all three, killing Cameron in an extremely satisfying way. The slaying of the villains has long been my favorite Survivor feature -- nasty people never win. |