Lucid, obnoxious and funny: the brilliant female characters of The White Lotus

That's it: since Monday, September 12, we know which corpses were rejected by the sea at the end of the last episode of season 2 of

(broadcast on HBO, and on OCS at home).

The principle was the same as in the first season: a prologue suggests that a suspicious death took place in the luxury hotel giving its name to the series.

Each season then moves the characters around like so many pawns on a 5-star chessboard, leaving us to guess who will end up in a black plastic cover.

Of course, we will not reveal who it is here.

But if it wasn't sharks that devoured the

of the White Lotus, everything in Mike White's series comes down to one question: eat or be eaten.

Manipulate, humiliate, defraud, or pay the price.

A rule with which all characters (especially female?) must play.

The White Lotus

places, in a dream setting (Hawaii for the first season, Sicily for the second - the third should take place in Asia), a handful of vacationers as rich as they are odious, who consider the hotel employees , and the premises, in much the same way as the furniture in their bedrooms: as interchangeable, vaguely decorative, mostly utilitarian objects.

Their loved ones, families and friends, are not faring much better.

Like

(another HBO show), the series plays on our fascination with the ugly, rich and wicked and acts as a magnifying mirror to the power issues of the time.

Morality is never safe, and the cathartic power is immense.

The female characters, ambivalent and profound, are no exception.

In video, the trailer for season 2 of

The White Lotus

Harper and Daphne, the abandoned wives

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Meghann Fahy embodies Daphne, the carefree.

HBO

In bridal suites with connecting doors, Daphne and Harper spend a week's vacation with their respective husbands, college pals Cameron and Ethan.

Sublime thirtysomethings, whose dresses fall as well as their replicas, they have nothing in common except to be the wives of wealthy husbands.

The first, a mother with a perpetual tan, is as smiling, carefree ("Honestly, Cam and I don't even watch the news anymore") and first degree as the second, a high-flying lawyer, is impassive, ironic, and endowed with a slight superiority complex.

The mutual exposure of the two couples and the complex mechanics that govern their intimacy, and their sexuality, will turn everything upside down.

Who has ever been unfaithful?

Who knows true harmony?

Who has the hottest nights...?

Jealousy,

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Aubrey Plaza plays Harper, the ironic.

HBO

Why we love them:

For their lucidity.

Faced with each other, the two women open their eyes (more or less quickly) to their marriage.

And choose to play, or not, with what they imply hideous truths and secret gardens.

Manipulate two guys low on the forehead to get exactly what you want (and above all, assume it): a certain idea of ​​female power.

"I'm not a victim," calmly declares Daphne (masterful Meghann Fahy, discovered in

),

but not woman-object, to a dumbfounded Harper.

Before happily grabbing his glass of Spritz to toast.

Tanya, Portia, and la dolce vita

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Portia (Haley Lu Richardson) and Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) HBO

At the beach bar, another duo drags its anguish.

Cloudy-brained blonde diva Tanya (the hilarious Jennifer Coolidge, Season 1 Emmy winner) dreams of “Monica Vitti from California,” worries about the lack of attention her new husband Greg is giving her (both are the only characters already present in season 2).

And exploits his personal assistant, Portia, a young American with a wardrobe (lime green nails, striped bolero over zebra bikini, saffron dress with eyelets) as incoherent as her decisions: while a young, beautiful (and admittedly, quite silly) Stanford student holds out his arms to her, she prefers those of a small English striker, always ready to party.

.

Read alsoThe hilarious little dance of Jennifer Coolidge who receives her first Emmy at 61

Why we love them:

Passive and naive, Tanya and Portia carry their boredom, their melancholy, and their incurable need to be watched in order to exist throughout the series.

One is touching, the other a bit heartbreaking.

But we still recognize a quality in them.

That of following only their impulses, certainly at the risk of hurting others (and themselves).

Whether it's expressing absolutely whatever comes to mind (“What a beautiful view! I wonder if we've ever jumped from here”), spending a cocaine night with a gigolo, or wearing a hideous scarf wrapped around his hat.

Lucia and Mia, the prodigious friends

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Mia (Beatrice Grannò) and Lucia (Simona Tabasco) HBO

They are the spark of humor, liveliness and impertinence of this season 2. Lucia and Mia (irresistible Simona Tabasco and Beatrice Grannò), young Italians, try to spend as much time as possible in the palace.

Objective: monetize their charms with wealthy holidaymakers, single or not.

If Lucia (who has the same surname, Greco, as one of the heroines of

) is determined, Mia, whose dream is to be a singer, is more reserved.

But can you come so close to luxury, dollars, and a permanent seat behind the piano in the bar, without having to pay for it?

Why we love them:

for their insolence and pragmatism.

Lucia announces it very quickly to Mia: you have to forget to be romantic.

Yes, the two young girls do not respect anything (and especially not the hotel manager, Valentina) to achieve their ends.

But no one gives them a gift.

For great evils, great remedies, Lucia and Mia sharpen the weapons that are their bodies, their intuition (often correct: men are easy to fool) and their intelligence.

To the point of sacrificing their soul to it?

Not necessarily: their friendship, the way each one supports the other at all costs, make them the only characters capable of being sincerely interested in someone other than themselves.

And it is on an image of the duo, inseparable, that the series ends.

Quiet !