The sun has set on another season of The White Lotus, and there are still plenty of questions.
In one of the most shocking scenes on TV in recent years, Jennifer Coolidge’s Tanya died after shooting her way through a yacht when she realized Quentin, Greg, and Niccolo were working together to kill her off.
Her death resulted from her trying to jump from the yacht to a boat below, sending her into the ocean’s depths and being revealed as the person Daphne found in the water on The White Lotus Season 2 Episode 1.
The death was a shocker, mainly because series creator Mike White had opened up about wanting Coolidge to be a part of future seasons.
Unless we’re in for a prequel season, that cannot happen. Tanya was dead in the season finale, a twist many never saw coming.
“In the end of last season, Tanya is sitting with Greg in the last episode, and he’s talking about his health issues. And she says, ‘I’ve had every kind of treatment over the years, death is the last immersive experience I haven’t tried,’” White said of the decision on the after the episode segment.
“I was thinking, it’d be so fun to bring Tanya back because she’s such a great character, but maybe that’s the journey for her, a journey to death,” White continued, adding:
“Not that I really wanted to kill Tanya because I love her as a character and obviously love Jennifer, but I just felt like, we’re going to Italy, she’s such a diva — a larger than life female archetype — it felt like we could devise our own operatic conclusion to Tanya’s life and her story.”
White felt Tanya dying “at the hands of someone else felt too tragic,” and that she “needed to give her best fight back and that she, in a way, had some kind of victory over whoever was conspiring to get rid of her.”
“It just made me laugh to think she would like take out this cabal of killers and, after she successfully does that, she just dies this derpy death, and it just felt like that’s just so Tanya,” he added.
Tanya’s assistant, Portia, survived the vacation because Jack dropped her at the airport during the final scenes, and she was well aware of the plot to kill Tanya.
“It’s possible that Portia [Haley Lu Richardson] is scared enough to just leave it alone, but the fact that all of those guys die on the boat, it feels like there’s gotta be somebody who’s gonna track it down to Greg.”
“But maybe you’ll have to wait to find out what happens.”
It certainly sounds like this plot could be revisited in a future season.
Speaking of a future season, White hinted that there would be a big change in store.
“I think the third season would be maybe a satirical and funny look at death and Eastern religion and spirituality,” White added.
“It feels like it could be a rich tapestry to do another round at White Lotus.”
What are your thoughts on the conclusion?
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Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.