The White Lotus Review: New Day (Season 1 Episode 2)
If the season premiere of The White Lotus didn’t make you uncomfortable, the second episode surely will.
The White Lotus Season 1 Episode 2, “New Day,” follows the guests on their second day at the resort as tensions continue to bubble up.
The episode begins with the promise of a fresh start, but it’s hard not to notice that while the guests appear rejuvenated the staff seems as stressed as ever.
Although Armond can barely remember Lani’s name when Belinda asks about her, he does seem genuinely upset about what happened. He feels so bad he tells Belinda it’s testing his sobriety, which foreshadows him finding Paula’s backpack full of drugs later on.
We’re only on day two of this story, but already we’re seeing a different version of the high-strung cheery manager we met at the start. Murray Bartlett does an excellent job portraying a character who’s beginning to crack with a much more subtle performance than we saw on The White Lotus Season 1 Episode 1, “Arrivals.”
It’s not long before the guests start creating new conflicts and drag out ones from the previous day. The idea that you can’t take a vacation from yourself drives much of The White Lotus’s conflict. It’s what makes the show so uncomfortable but interesting to watch.
It’s easy to imagine the characters creating similar problems no matter where they go.
Shane’s quest to get Armond to give them the Pineapple Suite clearly has less to do with his concern for his honeymoon than his inflated sense of self-importance that causes him to obsess over any perceived slight against him.
Tanya’s willingness to pressure Belinda to cross the boundaries of appropriate employee-guest interactions makes you wonder how many times she’s done this before with anyone else who’s shown her a sliver of kindness. Tanya’s comments about the resort’s “caste system” ignore the fact the policies partially exist to protect the staff from the very situation she’s dragging Belinda into.
Even Belinda’s somewhat blunt comments about not feeling like she makes a real difference because of the rich white clientele don’t deter Tanya. Her thinking that offering Belinda money to start her own business is an appropriate response proves how oblivious she is.
Having all of these events happening in one place adds to the situational humor while also creating a high level of discomfort and claustrophobia. Even if a character wanted to walk away from these awkward encounters, they have nowhere else to go.
Instead, they are forced to continue to react and respond. Take Rachel’s cringe-worthy encounter with Nicole, which starts as a friendly chat where Nicole offers her career advice.
The discussion sours when Nicole finds out Rachel wrote a profile about her that she considered a “hatchet job.” Nicole goes from mentoring Rachel to eviscerating her journalism career in a matter of minutes.
It’s arguably the most excruciating scene of the entire episode to watch, which is saying a lot. I’m glad to see Connie Britton get some juicy material on this episode though since up to this point Nicole had really only interacted with her own family.
Later at dinner, Rachel leans over to Shane to complain about Nicole and her daughter Olivia. What might have been one awkward encounter in a different place becomes something Rachel can’t hide from and causes her to act defensively.
One of the most interesting plots on this installment ends up belonging to Mark. It would be easy to write him off the same way the characters within the story seem to, but The White Lotus has something more in store for him after finding out he doesn’t have cancer.
He still can’t relate to his son and his family looks at him with boredom whenever he tries to talk to them, but at least he’s not dying, right?
If Mark’s new lease on life sounds too good to be true, it is. A call from his uncle reveals his father didn’t die of cancer, his family just told him that to avoid revealing he died of AIDS. As The White Lotus reminds us over and over real-life doesn’t stop coming for you just because you’re on vacation.
How he’ll react to learning his father was not who he thought he was and how it will impact his attempts to bond with Quinn will be interesting to watch play out. Mark is the first character to have his world truly upended while at the resort, but there’s a sense he won’t be the last.
Creating a false sense of peace and then ripping it away is The White Lotus’s main storytelling trick so far, and it continues to work well. You’re left wondering what other bombshells will drop before the guests finish their stay.
Additional Thoughts:
- It’s somewhat unclear if Olivia’s jealousy over Paula seeing the busboy is because she’s in love with Paula, but that is the vibe I’m getting.
- Speaking of Olivia and Paula, if I never have to watch an ASMR scene on TV again I will be okay with that. The scene where they’re high and awkwardly run into Tanya made up for it though.
- The background music almost drowning out Mark’s speech at dinner made me feel even worse for him.
- I wonder what the German couple who got the Pineapple Suite thinks about Shane and the rest of these overwhelming guests.
- I loved Quinn’s unexpected and beautiful moment on the cliffside watching the whale. He deserves a nice moment.
- Does Rachel actually care about her career or just hate Shane? The fact she had no problem not working until they got to their honeymoon indicates the latter.
What did you think of this episode of The White Lotus? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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The White Lotus airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO.
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Breeze Riley
Breeze Riley is a pop culture enthusiast who decided to turn her love of watching too much TV into a hobby writing about it. Although she's a convention-going sci-fi and fantasy nerd, she's just as likely to be watching an off-beat comedy or period drama. She is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic.