With the second season of HBO’s “The White Lotus” now in the record books, some fans are wondering what could happen in Season 3.
We don’t know a whole lot about it beyond what creator Mike White said in a new HBO Max featurette, “The White Lotus: Unpacking S2 E7,” that plays after the finale.
What we definitely do know is this: If you haven’t finished Season 2 yet, you probably aren’t going to want to see any of the spoilers that lurk below.
The third season of “White Lotus” will continue with a focus inspired by the first two installments, White said, noting that the “first season we highlighted money and then the second season is sex.”
Indeed, Season 1 saw a host of wealthy guests staying at an elite White Lotus hotel in a Hawaiian paradise, with some less-rich characters thrown in as counterpoints. The vacation retreat for the 1% was portrayed as a cauldron of class conflict, environmental despair and white privilege — a place where guests unravel rather than unwind.
And of course, the first episode alluded to a death that wasn’t elaborated on until the finale of what was intended to be a six-episode limited series.
However, the series became a bit less “limited” when a Season 2 renewal was announced in August 2021, shortly before the Season 1 finale dropped.
Then, this last September, “The White Lotus” won 10 Emmys out of its 20 nominations.
Season 2 came back at the end of October with its location moved to Italy and its focus shifted to sex. We saw Tanya (played by Jennifer Coolidge, who won an Emmy for her performance in Season 1) abandoned in Sicily by her husband and finding comfort — including sexual comfort — with a group of new male friends who have serious ulterior motives.
Then there were the three generations of men in one family who all have complicated relationships with women and sex. Add to that the Ethan-Harper-Cameron-Daphne dynamic, with its various sexual imbroglios both known and implied.
The second season ended with yet another foreshadowed death, with the finale revealing the identify of a body seen bobbing in the water early on.
So what’s coming in the next visit to “The White Lotus”? Why, death, of course. In another exotic location — perhaps somewhere in the Pacific Rim.
“I think the third season, it would be maybe a kind of satirical and funny look at death in Eastern religion and spirituality — it feels like it could be a rich tapestry to do another round at White Lotus,” White said.
And while Coolidge’s beloved character made the journey from Season 1 to Season 2, she’s extremely unlikely to be a big focus of Season 3. Just like hotel manager Armond (Murray Bartlett) didn’t make it out of the Hawaiian season.
Death, it seems, will do that to a person.
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