The second episode of The White Lotus season two, titled “Italian Dream,” continues to explore the personalities and lives of this season’s key characters. It also aims to deliver on its humor, which, in my opinion, is more subtle than that of last season, dealing more with humor through comparison or not addressing an “elephant in the room.”
The episode title “Italian Dream” itself makes a mockery of the notion of vacation as well — at the moment, none of these people are necessarily having a dream vacation. It opens with everyone at breakfast as Tanya, played by Jennifer Coolidge (Legally Blonde, A Cinderella Story), delivers an iconic one liner, “What a beautiful view, I wonder if anyone has ever jumped from here.” The beautiful scenery of the Sicilian coast contrasts so greatly with the blunt, almost feral nature of its inhabitants.
Aside from Tanya, the two main couples at the hotel continue to have discourse with one another. It’s Cameron and Daphne, played by Theo James (The Divergent Series) and Meghann Fahy (The Bold Type), versus Harper and Ethan, played by Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation, Little Demon) and Will Sharpe (Flowers, Landscapers). Cameron and Daphne just seem so perfect; they never fight, love to goof off, and always display affection, in public or otherwise. Harper and Ethan are the opposite, and the show does a simple yet effective job of demonstrating this. Cameron and Daphne wake up naked together while in an embrace, whereas Harper wakes up in her robe to an empty bed while Ethan is out on a run. Harper is clearly insecure about the status between the two and feels some odd need to compete with them, but whether this jealousy will continue to fester or fizzle out throughout the show is still up for debate.
Returning to Tanya, she and Greg, played by Jon Gries (Napoleon Dynamite), seem to be having some trouble in paradise. Greg lets Tanya plan out her dream day in Italy, only for everything to go wrong. At first, their vespa won’t start (due to some obvious reasons), and the hotel manager tells Tanya she looks like Peppa Pig. The two go to dinner later that night, only for Greg to tell his wife that he has to go back to America for work. Their episode feature ends with a possible allusion to Greg returning home to visit a mistress, but I feel like that would be too cheap a grab for how obvious the writers are trying to make it known.
My personal favorite relationship of the show right now is that of Portia, played by Haley Lu Richardson (Five Feet Apart, Columbus), and Albie, played by Adam DiMarco (The Order, Radio Rebel). With nothing to do during the day, Portia accompanies Adam and his family on their tour of Sicily, and she grabs dinner later that night with only Adam, almost like it’s a…date? The two are a very contrasting and endearing duo, and the conversation that they have over dinner is very reminiscent of what many people around my age think about dating and relationships in the technological age.
Overall, “Italian Dream” was a solid watch and continued to flesh out the new characters without failing to deliver on the awkward humor that The White Lotus is so well known for.
Rating: 8.0/10.0