tv

Symbolic vases and a line from The Godfather: All The White Lotus clues you may have missed.

Death is imminent at The White Lotus Sicily.

And hoy boy, am I excited.

Season two of Mike White's series about rich people behaving badly primarily follows three groups: married couples Cameron and Daphne Sullivan and Ethan and Harper Spiller, three-generation Italian-Americans Bert, Dominic and Albie Di Grasso, and White Lotus royalty Tanya, her husband Greg, assistant Portia and the "high-end gays" who adopt her after Greg leaves.

Then there's sex workers Lucia and Mia, who very quickly become entangled in the guest's bullsh*t, and the resort staff, led by manager Valentina.

Basically, there are a lot of potential murderers and murderees.

One of the most fun parts of The White Lotus is that creator Mike White's writing is packed full of hints, clues, and misdirections to keep us guessing.

Here, we've rounded up the clues you may have missed.

The legend of Testa di Moro.

In episode one, the White Lotus guests notice the Testa di Moro vases around the hotel.

The vases represent the important Sicilian legend, which translates to "Moor's Head" in English.

The story is about a Sicilian girl who fell in love with a Moor, but then discovered he had a wife and children in his homeland. Furious, she cut off his head and turned it into a vase which grew basil watered by her tears. When her neighbours began to see how well her plant was growing, they commissioned vases with a Moor's face.

ADVERTISEMENT

Now, vases depicting both the girl and the Moor are a common decoration in Sicily.

Considering how much cheating is going on in this resort, drawing focus to legend feels extremely pointed.

Daphne's love of spousal true-crime.

Meghann Fahy's Daphne is everyone's favourite right? She's revealing herself to be more and more of an evil genius every episode.

At multiple points throughout the series, Daphne has talked about enjoying true crime.

"We do a lot of Dateline," she said in episode three. "I love it. Husbands murdering their wives. Happens a lot on vacation
 scuba diving. He'll just unplug her oxygen while she's underwater. Happens more than you think."

SUSPICIOUS.

Plus, there's the episode two scene, where Daphne and Cameron joke about how she won't - but could - cut his balls off.

Considering later in the season she VERY strongly hints to Harper that her blonde-haired, blue eyed children are fathered by her trainer, I think this was a metaphor.

I mean, she's not out here physically lobbing balls off bodies, but metaphorically...

The island of Isola Bella.

Image: HBO.

ADVERTISEMENT

In episode four, Tanya befriends Quentin who tells her about the tiny island off the coast, Isola Bella.

He explains there is a house on the island that was once owned by a rich Swedish family.

"The old matriarch was the last one living in it and there were these powerful, local investors," he says, implying the involvement of organised crime.

The "investors" wanted the house but the woman wouldn't budge.

"They made her all kinds of offers, and then one day her body was found in a heap at the bottom of the rocks."

Now, the house is open to the public.

A mafia storyline in Sicily feels too obvious, but the "investors" in this story seem to hint at Quentin and his pals recognising Tanya as a wealthy woman they can manipulate and leave at the bottom of the rocks.

ADVERTISEMENT

Get back on that Vespa and run, Tanya!

Tanya's movie star dreams.

Living her best life. Image: HBO/Binge. 

In the show's second episode, Tanya wants to live her best Monica Vitti dreams with a Vespa ride and pasta.

Vitti's breakout film role, L'Avventura, has a couple of parallels to Tanya and Greg's relationship that are worth pointing out.

ADVERTISEMENT

The plot of that movie centres on the disappearance of the woman, who complains about her partner's long business trips (oof!), before the partner and her best friend begin a relationship (oof again!)

In The White Lotus, when Greg makes his secret phone call to someone in the States, he's standing on the same terrace that Vitti stands on at the end of L'Avventura.

Albie's love of "wounded birds".

I winced when Albie told Portia his 'type' was "pretty wounded birds" in the second episode.

At the time, it very much seemed like Albie's 'I'm a feminist nice guy' persona was being positioned as a way to prey on vulnerable girls, but I think as the season has progressed it's become clear this wasn't what his comment meant.

Instead, it foreshadowed what Lucia's since realised: that feigning as a damsel in distress is the best way to manipulate him. 

Alessio, her "pimp", appeared in the first scene of Lucia and Mia walking through the streets and is friendly with the pair, which may suggest things aren't quite as they seem. 

Tanya's fortune-teller.

In episode three, Tanya hires a Sicilian fortune-teller to give her a tarot card reading - and it's not good.

First, Tanya asks if her marriage will last. And the cards say... no, her marriage is doomed and Greg has 'beauty' in his life with someone else.

Then Tanya gets mad and accuses the woman of being too negative. As she's shoving her out the door, the psychic yells in Italian - one of the rare times the language appears without subtitles.

ADVERTISEMENT

According to Italian speakers online, the woman yelled "madness will lead you to commit suicide", which is VERY interesting given the fact that we know there will be multiple bodies at the end of the season.

Both Tanya and Portia were in the room at the time, and the show LOVES a red herring, so maybe the psychic was actually referencing Portia?

The opera.

Later in the season, Tanya identifies with the lead character in the opera she and Quentin go to see - Puccini's Madama Butterfly - who dies by suicide.

So... there's definitely a theme following this group around.

The Godfather scene.

As Lucia and Mia seduce Dominic in his suite, next door Bert is watching a very interesting scene from The Godfather.

It's the scene featuring the throwaway (or not) line: "In Sicily, women are more dangerous than shotguns.".

A lot of the gender and sexual politics playing out in this season point to a woman doing the murdering, and this line seems to hint that too.

All will be revealed when The White Lotus wraps up on December 12.

Feature image: HBO/Binge.

Do you often find you need a pick-me-up to get through the day? Take our survey now to go in the running to win a $50 gift voucher.