YMMV / The White Lotus

Season One

• Accidental Aesop: If the viewer is willing to be cynical, one can view the season as a parable about the futility of fighting unfair, but deeply rooted systems. By the end of the season, the guests born into wealth have mostly gained everything they wanted, Olivia has Paula under her thumb again, Tanya found a boyfriend, Shane has a wife willing to play the part he wanted, and Nicole and Mark revived their spark while Quinn fled for his newfound love of Hawaii. Meanwhile, characters who aren't find themselves with Downer Endings, and under their thumb as Belinda's dreams are crushed when Tanya loses interest, Rachel gives up on her career and accepts a possibly loveless, unfulfilling marriage for the financial safety it provides, Paula has to accept that Olivia will have the power of her failed robbery over her, Kai is arrested, and Armond is killed. In other words: for the working class, it's a losing battle to stand up against the wealthy, or even to fail to cater to their whims.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • On Armond:
    • How much of Armond's breakdown is the result of decades of resentment, a relapse into drugs, guilt over missing Lani's pregnancy, and a series of extremely humiliating events vs. Shane specifically. At least one Twitter user gave an extensive examination of Armond through the lens of being a Generation X white gay man stuck in a demeaning position.
    • Related to this, how sympathetic he is as a result of everything. Yes, he has a lot of points in his back story that make it easy to feel for him, and Shane is a massive Entitled Bastard who's easy to dislike... but Shane also isn't wrong. The hotel did make an error in his booking, is trying to bilk him out of money by double-charging him, and Armond does let his dislike and resentment of Shane become a spiteful vendetta which leads him to act vindictively and unprofessionally.
  • Olivia's poisonous friendship with Paula is open to a lot of interpretation. Is she in love with Paula and so sabotages her other relationships to have her all to herself? Does she see her as more of a pet and so sabotages her independence purely to retain control over her? Is her sadness in the final episode a legitimate feeling of betrayal from her friend or is her sadness purely self-pitying? Does she reconcile with Paula out of a desire to repair their relationship or simply to reassert status quo? Has their relationship grown this time, or are they simply going around in circles? Is she planning to blackmail Paula with her knowledge?
  • Is Quinn's decision to abandon his family to stay in Hawai'i with the row crew a sign that he has broken free from the bubble of privilege and entitlement that he began the series in? Or just another way for him to exploit that privilege and entitlement? Will his choice have lasting consequences, or will he be dragged back home sooner rather than later?
  • Is Paula a more authentic person than Olivia or every bit as big a Hypocrite as Olivia? Her Just Like Robin Hood plan to rob the Mossbachers is ostensibly to help Kai but seems more like petty revenge on people who brought her on vacation with them, however entitled and snobby they may be. And does she really come from a disadvantaged background, or is her family simply not as fantastically wealthy as the Mossbachers?
  • Is Rachel a woman trapped in a loveless marriage with a Jerkass who is being pressured to give up a promising career to be a Trophy Wife Stepford Smiler or is she an emotionally needy Gold Digger who wants validation from every stranger she meets? Given her journalism career involves repurposing articles into clickbait, was she actually remotely talented? Is her choice to stay with Shane due to a lack of self-respect or a calculated desire for wealth?
  • How much does Shane care for his wife? He's a spoiled manchild and Entitled Bastard but tries to make up for ignoring his wife by arranging a big romantic getaway that Armond deliberately sabotaged. Is his commentary on her giving up her career casually sexist or genuine given that it's their honeymoon and she has newfound financial freedom as a millionaire's wife? Just how much are his actions toward Armond an overreaction when the latter really is trying to double charge him a room that costs tens of thousands of dollars?
  • On Belinda:
    • Is she someone who genuinely befriends the emotionally stunted alcoholic Tanya or was it always an attempt to exploit her for financial gain?
    • Was her betrayed and jaded response to Tanya's backing out of her business plan reasonable or excessive and ungrateful? It might not be the full partnership she was hoping for and is an example of how flaky and blinded by her privileges Tanya can be, but $20,000 also isn't that bad a sum to receive from someone you've literally known for only a week either. It's some solid start-up capital at least.
  • How does Kitty really feel about Rachel? She is passive-aggressively insulting to Rachel, but she's a jerk to everyone and never deliberately badmouths Rachel to her face or behind her back. It is possible that she thought she was giving good, sincere advice to Rachel about becoming a trophy wife.
• Base-Breaking Character: Most of the characters are designed to be extremely ambiguous, but a couple stand out as especially polarizing among the fanbase:
  • Olivia Mossbacher appears tremendously literate about social justice, but she also doesn’t appreciate her parents’ wealth, bullies her brother horribly, psychologically terrorizes her friend, and further traumatizes her father in her efforts to assuage him after discovering his dad is gay. Some fans love her caustic sense of humor and (initially) carefree friendship with Paula, while others think that she more than anyone represents the kinds of wealthy entitlement the series condemns.
  • Paula herself. Most viewers agree with her disdain for the Mossbachers, but opinions are very split on whether she genuinely tries to be better than them and to help Kai only to screw it up, or whether she's actually worse than them because she's an Ungrateful Bastard about their generosity towards her (whatever may have motivated it) and she wants to claim she's better than them while still profiting off them.
  • Rachel. Is she a Gold Digger and a bad journalist with delusions of grandeur who wants to believe she's better than Shane and family while simultaneously profiting off them? Or is she a sympathetic woman born in poverty who sees an opportunity to get out of it and regrets it once she's there? Could she have legitimately been "better" than them?
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The revelation in season 2 of just how wealthy Tanya really is (her fortune is said to be almost $500 million) makes her consolation gift of about $20,000 look less generous considering how much money she's revealed to have. However, her behavior throughout the series doesn't really match someone halfway to a billionaire.
  • The 2023 Maui wildfires devastated the island (although the filming location was not damaged). But the fires also brought to light the impact colonialism and development has had on Native Hawaiians, which is a major plot point of the season.
• Jerkass Woobie: Oh boy.
  • Armond is a short-tempered, manipulative jerk, but he’s also a recovering addict stuck working in a job he hates.
  • Tanya is flighty, self-centered, and condescending, but she’s also a needy, codependent wreck of a person with a ton of emotional baggage and low self-esteem as well as having been the victim of a terrible childhood with a mother who was horrifically emotionally abusive.
  • Quinn is a bratty rich kid who’s virtually attached to his electronics, but he’s constantly bullied by his older sister, and clearly resents the rest of his shallow family.
  • Even Shane, as irritating and petty as he is, actually is being gaslit and fucked with by the hotel manager.
• Magnificent Bastard: Greg Hunt is a frequent guest of the White Lotus resorts who first meets Tanya McQuoid in Hawai'i where he begins a relationship with her. Eventually marrying Tanya, Greg (spoilers for season 2) plots to have Tanya murdered when their relationship turns sour so that Greg can inherit her money. Greg invites Tanya to Sicily with him before leaving Sicily himself to establish an alibi, while hiring the Sicilian hitman, Quentin, to kill Tanya while Greg is away, which proves successful for Greg.
• Squick: Armand pooping in Shane’s suitcase is extremely graphic!
• She Really Can Act: Jennifer Coolidge has always been a well-liked actress, but people were surprised by how deep and skillful her performance as Tanya was.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Some viewers expressed disappointment that Lani only appeared in one episode.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Apart from a few minor gags, nothing ever comes of Mark getting Mistaken for Gay by Armond.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Shane is a real piece of work, but Armond is actively trying to cheat him out of the tens of thousands of dollars that the room his mother purchased for his honeymoon would cost them. Even a rich man is likely to notice this extra charge. Then Armond deliberately books him a funeral boat ride for a "romantic gesture" that Shane wanted to show his wife. By that point, he knows that Armond is screwing with him. Even his treatment of his wife seems to be Innocently Insensitive since he tries several times to make things right for them.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Tanya promises to bankroll Belinda's plan to open her own spa but ends up only giving her a lump sum of $20K or so in cash. Belinda treats this as such an insult that she's reduced to tears and becomes mean and jaded. Many viewers thought Belinda should be glad to get that kind of gift for a few days' work pandering to a neurotic, rich woman's anxieties.
• The Woobie: We’ve got these, too!
  • Kai is an indigenous Hawai'ian who is estranged from his family for working at the resort built on their stolen land. Lonely, marginalized and desperate, he agrees to steal valuable bracelets from a guest, only to get caught and arrested, while his co-conspirator gets off scot free.
  • Rachel is a newlywed who is already stuck in a loveless marriage, constantly fighting with her asshole husband and his overbearing mother. She wants to be respected for her mind, but she’s viewed as nothing but a trophy wife by the people around her and can't land any better journalism jobs than writing clickbait. At the end of the series, she’s resigned herself to an empty life.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Armond's self-destruction is a massive train wreck spurred on by decades of building resentment, drug relapse, guilt over missing Lani's pregnancy, and a truly spectacular Entitled Bastard that pushes his last button.

Season Two

• Accidental Aesop: "What the eyes don't see, the heart can't feel" is not really the best policy, because you can never be actually certain of what someone else doesn't know. Bert and Cameron seem secure in the knowledge that their philandering doesn't affect anyone because nobody can tell that something happened. Dominic tells the former that he was not nearly as sneaky as he thinks he is, and Bert has caused endless grief for him and his wife with said indiscretion. Meanwhile, Daphne all but states she is aware Cameron cheats on her, and has decided to spend her life making passive-aggressive attacks against him by targeting his most personal insecurities, even to the point of having her own affairs and, impliedly, having at least one child with someone else.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Is Isabella oblivious to Valentina's infatuation with her or just pretending not to notice so as to avoid an uncomfortable situation?
  • Knowing what we know now did Greg's three other marriages fall due to differences they had or did Greg and Quentin kill Greg's three other wives?
  • Is Cameron a psychological nightmare or just a dense frat bro who doesn't know how unpleasant he is to his guests? Does he know that his children are probably not his or is he deluding himself otherwise? Just how much of the trip is motivated by his need to suck up to his college roommate for money since apparently he's not nearly as wealthy as he pretends to be?
  • Are Harper and Ethan really more honest with each other, or was that Harper's way of finding something to be superior to Cameron and Daphne? Most of their conversations at the start of the season consist of Harper complaining about the other couple. Harper also pretends to be nice to Daphne, only to insult her behind her back. When she discovers evidence of Ethan's night with Cameron and the girls, she acts passive-aggressive for an entire day before confronting him about it. Then after the confrontation, she starts flirting with Cameron to make him jealous. She also doesn't tell him about Cameron's inappropriate behavior towards her (ex: rubbing her leg) until she is confronted. Between all of that and Ethan lying to her about a number of things (Cameron's infidelity, the porn he hides from her), there may not be anything honest about their relationship.
    • By the end of the season, have them, like Cameron and Daphne, exchanged honesty for reigniting the sexual fire of their relationship? Or, having gone through what they have, they reached in a healthier middle ground?
  • Is Portia suffering depression and loneliness, so that her rant about the world having no mystery is a genuine cry for help or is she a entitled young woman who can't figure out how a week off from any real duties in a five star hotel is not something to complain about? Or is she a combination of the two?
  • As of the finale, what happens on the island between Ethan and Daphne is a mystery, although the way it's shot very heavily implies something sexual. The next time we see Ethan and Harper, he appears to have just told her something that brings her to tears, but they're interrupted before anything is revealed. Shrug of God only adds fuel to the fire.
• Awesome Music: While the season 1 theme was beloved enough, the season 2 theme, Renaissance, became memetically popular in early 2023, with it frequently being remixed by DJs.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: Considering the coincidence of Quentin meeting Tanya in Italy and the past conversations in Season 1 about Greg's job, most viewers guessed that he was the "cowboy" Quentin referred to. His further involvement in the plot was more of a surprise, though, as he was theorized to be either involved in the plot (which was true) or unaware of Quentin's intentions.
• Contested Sequel: Reaction varies among fans on whether season two is as good as the first season. Some consider it inferior, mainly due the increased focus on fanservice and its Denser And Wacker tone, while others prefer this season's characters and mystery.
• Ho Yay:
  • Fans have theorized that Ethan has a crush on Cameron that's why he is so keen on getting his approval. Doesn't help that he doesn't seem to oppose Cameron kissing him on the neck (though it doesn't go anywhere and he has sex with Lucia). It's even less subtle in episode 4 when Cameron straight up says he wants to have sex with him, if he was just joking or serious it's up to the audience to interpret.
  • In the same episode, Daphne sleeping with Harper and even getting her own bikini could be interpreted as this.
• I Knew It!: In season 2 lot of viewers correctly deduced that Greg was the cowboy Quentin fell in love 30 years ago and that they were conspiring to kill Tanya so Greg could inherit her money several episodes before the reveal.
• Magnificent Bastard: Lucia Greco is a High-Class Call Girl native to Sicily who, along with her friend Mia, seduces wealthy men into paying them large sums of money for their services. Taking an interest in Albie Di Grasso, Lucia plots to scam him of 50,000 euros by using her beauty to charm him while having her friend, Alessio, play the role of an abusive stalker to make Albie more vulnerable to her manipulations. Successful in scamming Albie of his money, Lucia celebrates her success with her friends while planning to con more men out of their fortunes.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "These gays, they're trying to murder me!" quickly made the rounds online, especially coming from the mouth of beloved camp icon Jennifer Coolidge.
  • Portia's questionable fashion choices have also gained a lot of popularity with many fans joking that the finale was a happy one simply because she left all her clothes behind.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: A lot of fans were annoyed at the move from Hawai'i to Italy. After barely touching on the issues of indigenous Hawai'ians and ignoring the staff, there were many people who felt there was a lot more that could be explored at the original White Lotus.

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