Seasons may come and go, but we'll always have the memory of Murray Bartlett hunched over Jake Lacy's suitcase, dropping a deuce onto what we assume was a well pressed polo. This past Sunday, Mike White's hilarious, if not demented, The White Lotus drew to a close, finishing its sixth and most twisted chapter of its first season. Did it involve poop? Sure. Murder? Runaways? A white woman half-heartedly attempting to learn the power of her privilege? Also sure. But most importantly, it involved Jennifer Coolidge.
While there is a nuanced discussion to have about The White Lotus's treatment of race, power, and socio-economic status, the real thesis statement is this: the world has been desperately in need of Jennifer Coolidge and her unhinged, "onion core" performance of Tanya, a wealthy woman whose mother recently died. How else can we judge to legitimacy of a performance, if not for the plethora of GIFs it gives us? Tanya's final chapter is far from tragic—perhaps even cathartic? But on her way to making peace with her own troubles, Tanya scorched the earth of everyone around her, tried to give a dying man the ashes of her dead mother, and gave us one of the most peculiar line readings of the word "chaise" in the process.
That is only the outer layer of the onion, as Tanya might say. This week's finale birthed a whole other set of topics for discussion. Social media lit up on Sunday night after the series was said and done to unpack details of that unfortunate murder, the best of each character, and who, if anyone, was deserving of a happy ending. (The answer is Belinda. Only Belinda deserved a happy ending.)
Ok, also maybe Quinn.
Here's to Season Two and the hope that Tanya decides to take another holiday.
Justin Kirkland is a Brooklyn-based writer who covers culture, food, and the South. Along with Esquire, his work has appeared in NYLON, Vulture, and USA Today.
