Like Season 1, ‘The White Lotus’ Season 2 It started with an anonymous corpse, this time found on the beach by Meghann Fahy’s character. Although the series never revolves around so-and-so dying, there was some intrigue as to which of the HBO Max fictional characters would be the one to die in the Sicilian waters.
During, above all, the second half of the season, Mike White has been throwing breadcrumbs to show us where the shots could go. Obviously, he has done it by playing distraction and the tragedy could have fitted into any plot… but there was one that stood out above the rest.
By the way, as you can imagine, from here we will have spoilers for episode 2×07 of ‘The White Lotus’.
I’m talking about the Tanya McQuoid, immersed in a strange plot through a group of new friends that he makes and that, from the beginning, smells like singe. Finally, Portia’s bad premonitions and a couple of things that don’t add up to Jennifer Coolidge’s character make us discover that the rich woman’s days are numbered.
The conspiracy of the rich
However, she rebels against the situation and decides to get hold of a gun and finish off those who want to kill her… to end up dying accidentally. A tragedy as unexpected as it is ridiculous (in White’s words) that has been explained by both its creator, Mike White, and its protagonist, Jennifer Coolidge:
“I was thinking, it would be so fun to bring Tanya back because she’s such a cool character, but maybe that’s the journey for her, a journey to death. It’s not that I really wanted to kill off Tanya because I love her as a character and I obviously love Jennifer, but I felt like we’re going to Italy, she’s such a diva, such a vital female archetype, that I thought we could craft our own operatic conclusion to Tanya’s life. and his story.”
Furthermore, Jennifer acknowledges that although he did not like it very much he knew early on that his character was going to die this season.
«I knew it very soon. Even before he planned Italy, Mike told me he wanted me in White Lotus 2. And then, I don’t know how many months later, he called me one day and said, “Okay, I guess I have to tell you this now so you can get ready.” And I said “What?”, and he goes “You die, Jennifer. You’re going to die in White Lotus 2.” And I was like “Oh no! You’re kidding me, are you?” I tried to talk him out of it, but Mike is very strong. He said that he was going to have a tragic end and stood by him.”
Of course, I also did not want to be too tragic opera type in this sense since Tanya “She needed to put up her best fight and that she had, in a way, had some kind of victory against whoever it was that was conspiring to get rid of her.”
So the next thing was provide a kill to match the character, something that would fit a lot with her and her personality. In White’s words:
“It just made me laugh to think that he would take down this cabal of assassins and after successfully doing so, he dies this ridiculous death, and it felt like pure Tanya.”
Pure Tanya and pure Jennifer Coolidgewho assured that at first he did not like that his character died in such a silly way:
“The interesting thing when I was arguing with Mike – well, not arguing, but talking about the way he wasted his life – is that he said it had to be his fault and no one else’s. A silly moment. I overheard Mike telling someone that’s what happens to Tanya because “I think that’s what happens to Jennifer. She locks herself in the bathroom or something. She can do the big things but not the little ones. Some weird little thing can screw her up.” There is something, unfortunately, very unconscious in me.”
By the way, for her part, Jennifer Coolidge acknowledges that she felt excited filming this entire sequence, so much so that she wanted to be the one to jump off the boat instead of a double. They had to convince her not to jump on her:
“She was a very cool Italian woman and she was very funny so yes, it would have been strange to send her home. But I was like… I know why Tom Cruise wants to do his own stunts. You think, and why can’t I do it?, who cares that the water is cold! But it was this fall between the two boats and the insurance and you know. But it would have been fun.”