The White Lotus Season 2 Episode 1: Ciao

The second season of The White Lotus opens in flash-forward at the Sicilian resort, where Daphne Babcock swims in the sea and is horrified to discover a dead body floating near her. Valentina, the manager of the Sicilian White Lotus, is told that this time several guests have been killed, raising the stakes above the single death of the first season.

The story rewinds one week to the guests' arrival by boat. Tanya McQuoid returns, now married to Greg, the man she left Belinda for in Hawaii, and accompanied by her new assistant Portia. Greg is distant from the start, ignoring Tanya's texts, criticizing her for eating five macarons, and insisting she send Portia away; Tanya instead hides Portia in the room and orders her to stay out of Greg's sight.

Ethan and Harper Spiller arrive as guests of Ethan's college roommate Cameron Sullivan and his wife Daphne. Harper, an employment lawyer, is unable to hide her disdain for the wealthy couple, and the gap between the two marriages is obvious. While Harper fetches sunscreen, Cameron undresses behind her in front of a mirror, and she later reports the encounter to Ethan, who reacts with little alarm.

The three Di Grasso men arrive together: Bert, his son Dominic, and grandson Albie. Bert immediately flirts with the female staff despite Dominic and Albie's attempts to shield them. Dominic, meanwhile, is rebuffed by his estranged wife in a phone call - played in an uncredited cameo by Laura Dern - who, like their daughter Kara, wants nothing to do with him.

Two local women, Mia and Lucia, slip past Valentina to enter the hotel so Lucia can meet Dominic, the American guest she connected with online. Mia talks with the restaurant's piano player Giuseppe about her dream of becoming a musician; he mistakes her for a prostitute and asks her price, and Mia throws a drink on him. Lucia makes her way to Dominic, who shows little interest in conversation, and the episode ends with her on his lap.

Elsewhere, Tanya and Greg have sex, during which Tanya sees flashes of the teste di moro vases and pushes him off, saying she was dissociating. She later finds the two macarons Greg accused her of eating, proving she did not eat all five, and then finds Greg locked in the bathroom whispering on the phone, which he claims is a work call. A bellhop explains the teste di moro legend to Ethan - Moorish vases depicting a betrayed local woman who beheaded her lover - a motif that signals the season's themes of infidelity and violence.

Episode 1 ends without resolving who dies in the flash-forward. The premiere establishes that several guests will be dead by the end of the week, and Valentina is told the count is 'a few,' but the identities and circumstances are not revealed and are left for later episodes.

Lucia ends the episode on Dominic's lap, an encounter whose consequences are not confirmed within the episode. Tanya's suspicion of Greg - prompted by the missing macarons and his whispered phone call - is unresolved, and the teste di moro motif leaves the season's themes of infidelity and violence open. The episode deliberately leaves the audience unable to say who the body in the sea belongs to.