The White Lotus (Season 2) Episode 4: One of the coolest things about the near-perfect first season of The White Lotus was the interactions between the hotel staff, led by their enigmatic manager Armond; a role which earned actor Murray Bartlett a much deserving Emmy. In the current season, this has been mostly missing as we haven’t really seen much of manager Valentina and her staff Rocco and Isabella. The latest episode, however, has managed to change to a great extent.
The urgency in taking the story forward can also be seen in this episode where a lot of new developments happen which includes Tom Hollander’s character finally coming into the foray.
The White Lotus (Season 2) Episode 4: Recap
Let us start with Valentina
Here is the thing. Our “tough to crack” manager Valentina likes women and she has a crush on her staff Isabella. There were subtle hints in the previous episodes but in this episode, it is pretty much revealed when Dom asks for some help regarding a jewelry shop from where he intends to buy something nice for his wife. Valentina, not particularly trying to hide her dislike for him, doesn’t try to help much but when Isabella mentions a local place that has beautiful jewelry Valentina shows genuine interest. She also asks Isabella if Roco is bothering her or not.
And finally, Tanya has a good day.
Things were looking really bad for Tanya when we last left her. But we are glad to see things are finally changing for our veteran tourist who is finally having a great vacation day.
However, the morning doesn’t really show the day for Tanya as we find her at the breakfast table along with Portia; still heartbroken about Greg. When Portia asks if she could spend the day with Albie, Tanya ignores her and keeps talking about the disappointment that “Greg” has been.
While walking back to the room, She comes across a very well-spoken man who gives her a sudden compliment about her dress. The man, who was smiling at her the previous evening introduces himself as Quentin who is here with a group of queer males. Impressed by her chic style, Quentin and his friend Mateo invite Tanya to spend the day with them at the beach club. She gladly accepts and Portia tags along.
Portia also has a good day
We find Portia regretting not hanging out with Albie the night before. The duo awkwardly strikes up a conversation during breakfast about spending the day together when they meet during breakfast for a while. But Portia is on duty so she has to follow her boss everywhere. However, the proposition of spending the day at the beach club seems to be working fine for Albie as well.
To Portia’s surprise, the hot stranger from the pool happens to be Quentin’s nephew Jack. The two immediately hit it off and Jack seems to check all the boxes of what Portia was actually looking for in this trip, fun and wild with a dash of adventure.
And so does Albie.
After reaching the beach club; Albie saves a chair for Portia, being the perfectly nice guy. Lucia and Mia arrive and ask if they could sit in the empty chair which Albie politely declines as his friend is about to come anytime soon.
Unfortunately for Albie, Portia doesn’t seem to move away from Jack and seems to have a really good time which Albie could see from afar. Things get even worse for Albie when he goes up to her and she introduces him to Jack but still doesn’t leave with him.
A dejected Albie finds himself sad and alone with an empty chair beside him. Lucia comes back and this time, Albie doesn’t mind her sitting there. Lucia also manages to figure out the state of his mind but she does seem to be genuinely empathetic towards him and with the course of time, Albie’s day starts to get better.
But not Harper, unfortunately.
Let us take a look at the husbands’ first. After a night filled with drinking and debauchery, Cameron wakes up and quickly does the “needful” by removing Lucia and Mia from his room with some money and a promise to give the rest of the money eventually (hope this comes to bite him in the..). Ethan on the other hand is sick (of Cameron is what we are hoping for but..) and throwing up in his room. Harper calls him and informs him about how Daphne has potentially abducted her as she planned their stay at Noto even before going there. She also asks him about not picking up her call last night but that conversation doesn’t go anywhere as Ethan dodges past it.
After coming back, Harper gleefully tells Ethan that she was right about the other couple as their “lovey-dovey” thing is really a front. She also takes pride in her own marriage with Ethan. However, Harper’s good mood didn’t last long as she found a condom wrapper casually lying around on the sofa. Instead of confronting him right away, she chooses to bottle it inside her which is understandable as she was already suspicious about him from last night.
If only she knew what really happened…
What’s up with Lucia and Mia?
Before coming across Albie at the beach club, Lucia and Mia were shown the door by Cameron the douche. But they still have the key to Bert’s room who is spotted outside by them with Albie. This prompts them to use the opportunity to freshen up for the day. However, Bert does come back before they manage to leave but they manage to spin things around with the excuse “room confusion” which Bert doesn’t seem to mind at all.
At the beach, Lucia has a moment of realization that her life is being wasted and she is dragging Mia in her pit of shame. Mia consoles her by saying these are just the drugs (from last night) talking.
The White Lotus (Season 2) Episode 4: Ending Explained
Tanya finding her groove back
For the first time in this season, Tanya truly seems to find her groove back as Quentin and his friends genuinely seem to be her kind of people. Quentin particularly seems to be interested to know her as he patiently listens to all about her life, like a true (newfound) best friend.
The question is, how long does this last for Tanya?
The quadrangle of awkwardness, and sex
Jack and Portia continue to appreciate each other’s company and we find them hanging around the hotel bar in the evening. Portia does feel a little bad for Albie but she is clearly having the greatest time on the trip with Jack.
Things get awkward when she sees Albie with Lucia and that somewhat ignites something in her which leads to making out with Jack. Seeing that, Lucia proceeds to do the same with Albie which makes Portia leave with Jack.
As expected, Portia ends up having sex with Jack while we find Albie getting a blowjob from Lucia in his room, and eventually reaching the climax.
Is it all over for Portia and Albie or will there be a twist?
Why does Harper not confront Ethan?
Before leaving for the evening, Ethan asks Harper what is wrong with her as he has been noticing her “not doing okay” throughout the day. But Harper keeps asking about what Ethan did last night to which he keeps lying about nothing other than drinking and talking to random people.
The reason Harper probably doesn’t confront Ethan is probably that she is scared of Ethan actually accepting cheating on her which will destroy the fundamentals of their marriage in which she actually takes a lot of pride. But it is also really difficult for her to keep things inside her as we can clearly see. We feel for you, Harper (not to mention Aubrey Plaza doing a fantastic job this week as well).
But why does Ethan lie?
Ethan continues to be the most mysterious character of the whole lot as we still have no idea about what his motives are or who he truly is. We know for a fact that he is not a cheater and also not a huge fan of Cameron but why would he not tell Cameron cheated for the sake of a bullshit “bro code” and risk his marriage?
There might be a possibility of Cameron holding someone on Ethan from the past, maybe. This is the only conclusion we can reach which makes sense at the moment.
Time for us to get back to Valentina
Valentina picks up a cute little piece of jewelry from that local shop Isabella mentions and surprises her by gifting it. While awkwardly flirting (which almost seems like not flirting at all) with her employee, Valentina pins the jewelry in Isabella’s coat and seems to enjoy the moment.
But the life of a manager of a White Lotus property is never peaceful, because…
What an eventful day for Mia
Even though she consoles Lucia at the beach, Mia seems to find this fresh urgency in her to go the distance and do anything to achieve her goal. So she finally decides to sleep with Guiseppe and let him know of that. But there is one big problem, despite being elated by the proportion Guisepe fails to get an erection.
Mia runs back to Lucia at the beach to take a Viagra pill from her but Lucia is in the water with Albie so Mia takes matters in her own hand and takes the pill out of Lucia’s bag.
Except those pills are probably not what they are supposed to be as Guiseppe still can’t get “it” up.
But that’s not the worst of all.
While performing in the evening, Giuseppe has a sudden heart attack and collapses right away. He is taken to the hospital soon enough.
We are hoping he is going to survive though. But what about Mia?
Small things, but might matter eventually
Lucia now has some sort of encounter with all the male members of the De Grasso family. Bert even points that out to a rather uncomfortable Dom after seeing her with Albie in the evening.
Albie is so “nice” that he keeps asking if he could come again and again to Lucia. But maybe that’s exactly the kind of thing Portia doesn’t like.
Quentin tells Tanya this particular story about this matriarch on a nearby Island who got killed (possibly) by the powerful investors who got refused her when they attempted to buy her house. What is the significance of that? Is Quentin not what he seems like?
This episode had a lot of shots of the water being angry. We are taking that as a hint of the explosions which are about to come.
Last but not the least, Lucia does talk about the “whore” dying in the end while having her moment of realization. Is that just drugs or a prenumeration?
And like every week, here we are at it again:
Victim(s): Lucia and Mia. At least one of them.
Killer: We are gonna put our money on Cameron as he owes money to the girls. We are not entirely ruling out Dom either.
But, considering what happened To Guiseppe, accidents might also happen. Don’t forget Bert is really old and might just drop (we are not gonna say it as of now). Even in the last season, the big death was a mere accident after all.
