Review: The White Lotus, “Arrivederci” | Season 2, Episode 7
Everyone accepts what they need, for better or worse, as the season comes to an end
When I think back to the first season finale of The White Lotus, I remember myself thinking of each character’s ending in terms of how soul-crushing it was. The bleakest ending may not have actually been the senseless death that formed the frame-story structure, but the depressing spiritual resignation of Rachel staying with Shane. Some resolutions were happy for the characters while being sad for us: Nicole and Mark Mossbacher were able to revitalize their marriage thanks to an act of uncharacteristically masculine heroism from Mark, but it came at the expense of poor Kai, the Native Hawaiian staffer whose life was derailed by Paula’s plot. Similarly, it felt good to see Tanya meet and fall in love with Greg, who seemed to actually appreciate her for who she was—but when the credits rolled, the expression that stuck with you belonged to Belinda, who lost out on a life-changing business opportunity because even well-intentioned self-fancied philanthropists prioritize themselves first and foremost.
It made for a pretty feel-bad ending all around, and that was the point; at the end of the day, the rich get to go home and put this chaotic week behind them, while the staff is stuck here to briefly lick their wounds before standing back up to clean the mess. But despite the continual focus on the ultra-rich, season two has been far less concerned with the guest/staff divide, and in the rich/poor binary. In a way, that actually frees it up to end these characters’ stories in ways that are more complicated than just happy or sad or happy-for-them-but-sad-for-us.