Review: The White Lotus, "That's Amore" | Season 2, Episode 5
As themes come into focus, the "sex season" morphs into a treatise on transactional relationships
As I watched the first half of this season of The White Lotus, I found myself thinking of it simplistically as “the sex season,” while season one was “the class season.” It was never a perfect characterization, of course; both seasons have tackled class, and both seasons have featured plenty of sex. But the longer season two goes on, the more I realize there’s probably a better way to describe these two stories, linked by a show title and a resort setting. Broadly speaking, maybe it’s more accurate to call this a series about transactional relationships.
It was certainly there in season one; think of Rachel agreeing to stay with Shane and embrace the life of security he offers her, or Dillon exchanging sex with Armond for drugs. (Of course, that power dynamic was even more complicated because of their employer-employee relationship, its own kind of transaction.) But that idea has really taken center stage in season two, with basically every relationship involving some type of…