The Babcocks and Spillers try to learn to co-exist (Photograph by Fabio Lovino\/HBO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nCameron and Will were long-ago college roommates, but not the best of friends. Harper constantly reminds Will of this as we come to learn more about his recent entrepreneurial successes. Will has recently sold a company he founded and is now \u201cloaded,\u201d so why the invitation to Sicily now? Why wine \u2018em and dine \u2018em if Cameron and Daphne don\u2019t plan to pyramid-scheme \u2018em? At least that\u2019s what Harper wants to know. Plaza plays Harper as somehow even colder and more stand-offish than in many of her previous roles, while at the same time trying to defer to Will\u2019s instinct to people please.<\/p>\n
In the early going, Harper is fine to defer, even if it means they have to order the whitefish off the dinner menu, \u201cas long as it\u2019s not too fishy,\u201d but her bullshit antennae are way up.<\/p>\n
Unlike Harper, at least the Di Grasso boys know why exactly they are in Sicily. The three generations of Di Grasso men—Bert (the flirtatious and still \u201crock hard\u201d elderly grandfather of the trio), his son Dom (a Hollywood big shot with severe relationship turmoil back home), and the youngest Albie (a Stanford man who is shy about his university but not about digging into his paternal-side’s secrets)—have come to Sicily in search of their past. They want to uncover some of their history on an island where their family once lived.<\/p>\n
But in Episode 1, the only thing being uncovered by that family is the body of a young and eager Italian prostitute named Lucia whom Dom has no problems bringing up to his room to try and escape the verbal outbursts of the partner left behind in L.A.<\/p>\n
Lucia is finally able to outsmart and escape resort manager Valentina and her deputy Rocco, having clearly watched the first season of The White Lotus<\/em> and now knowing what it takes to climb the rungs of the social ladder.<\/p>\nThe White Lotus Sicily’s manager Valentina (Photograph by Fabio Lovino\/HBO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBut just as those themes of social positioning, the haves and the have-nots, and the fa\u00e7ade of control were the through-lines of Season 1<\/a>, that is clearly not where writer and director Mike White is taking this season. We are going to dive deep into relationships this season, it would appear.<\/p>\nHow do these many already-intimate, blossoming, and brand-new relationships evolve, or rather devolve? How do they begin to interplay and weave together a mystery that leaves several people dead, floating on the beach outside Sicily\u2019s White Lotus?<\/p>\n
Season 1\u2019s White Lotus guests were secretly depraved but outwardly happy. It\u2019s what was expected. But they, for the most part, displayed a sense of morality to one another that could have come from ambivalence but at least provided us as the viewers with a few characters to root for.<\/p>\n
Through one episode, we are now focused more on deceit, resentment, and competition as we tour our resort across the pond. I hate almost all of them already. But perhaps that\u2019s the point. Where this all goes, and more importantly, where this all ends, is going to be quite the relational journey as this second season begins. \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The following contains spoilers for The White Lotus S2E1, “Ciao” (written and directed by Mike White) As we arrive on the boat for Season 2 of The White Lotus, our initial visual is that it\u2019s the second verse, same as the first. A whole lot more bodies, and a whole lot worse. Somebody better get […] More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":354,"featured_media":264710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6,27],"yoast_head":"\nThe White Lotus S2E1: "Ciao" --- Defining the Relationship | TV Obsessive<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n