I rewatched the second season of The White Lotus, which is surely the best of the series so far. With each passing day, it becomes even clearer how brilliant Mike White is. Knowing what we know so far, the second season took on thriller proportions without having even finished the third season, something that many miss these days. Not me, I love all the seasons even though, yes, the second one was a total bust.

So far, we haven’t gotten back to the loose ends of Greg/Gary Hunt’s (Jon Gries) scam, nor have we been able to understand how he’s been acting within the hotel chain (he met Tanya McQuoid (Jennifer Coolidge) in Hawaii and arranged for her murder while they were at the Sicilian White Lotus), but I wonder if at some point we’ll meet again or find out what happened to Portia because she certainly contributed to Greg/Gary’s escape to Thailand.

Portia: the distressed and narcissistic assistant

Portia (Haley Lu Richardson), Tanya’s assistant, wasn’t a “beloved” character among fans of The White Lotus: poorly dressed, always complaining about life, letting good opportunities pass by… but, in the end, she even tried to help her boss, without exactly being able to “save” her.

Of course, there’s her youthful naivety on the scene, as well as her desire to fit in with the wealthy crowd that surrounds her. Portia is in Italy because even on vacation Tanya can’t go without her assistant, something that initially seems to irritate Greg due to his wife’s lack of privacy and rest (but we soon realize that there was a more sinister motivation on his part).

Without being able to return, or to enjoy herself, the disparities between Portia and the richer characters become apparent. She is eager to make a good impression on Tanya, who is dealing with her own emotional turmoil related to her deceased mother and marital crisis.

Portia’s attempts to care for and help Tanya often lead to awkward moments, establishing a mix of comedy and tension. For example, when Tanya expresses her insecurities about her relationship with Greg, Portia tries to comfort her but inadvertently highlights her concerns, setting a tone of discomfort. On the other hand, when she wants to talk about herself to her boss, she realizes that Tanya doesn’t even listen and only thinks about herself. Not that Portia is far from this reality.

Portia is sort of “adopted” by the Di Grassos when she and Albie (Adam DiMarco) start spending time together. However, since he is rich (he studies at Stanford) and “nice”, she is not excited about him. She “knows” that he is great and a good option for her in every way, but since she says she “wants to live life” and “have an adventure”, he does not awaken that energy. The one who gets involved is precisely the mysterious Jack (Leo Woodall), the “nephew” of another suspicious man, Quentin (Tom Hollander).

An Adventure in Palermo

Although she is initially tearful, considering changing jobs and complaining about Tanya to everyone, Portia never actually gives up and leaves. On the contrary, she always makes herself available to her boss.

When Greg suddenly leaves, Tanya starts demanding that Portia be even more present than at the beginning of the trip, opening her heart to her. The assistant is with her boss when Quentin enters their lives, with a handsome Jack in tow. “That’s the genius of Mike [White]’s writing,” the actress said in 2022 when the season ended. “Portia gets exactly what she asks for and this kind of warning to really be careful what you ask for because you’re literally going to get it. She gets a caveman who’s not on Instagram, she gets thrown around in Italy, and she gets an adventure. But it’s like the most twisted, deeply fucked-up version of that,” she added.

The double seduction is inevitable and efficient: Tanya is so vulnerable and resentful of Greg that she opens up to strangers who quickly become her close friends. It’s chilling to realize that Quentin planned every move with coldness and precision. Putting the handsome Jack in Portia’s path to push her away and distract himself while he casts his net for Tanya.

Quentin is honest with Tanya, or as close to it as possible: he talks about how he inherited his father’s palazzo and the debts he incurred to maintain it. He brings up the legend of the widow who was murdered by the Mafia because she didn’t want to sell them a mansion. He says that Tanya is like the heroines in Puccini’s operas, in that almost all of them end up dead, and the millionaire herself questions whether this is really a compliment. Quentin’s friends “mistake” their English by using Tanya in the past tense – as if she were dead – but neither she nor Portia add up the facts because they are dazzled by the attention and luxury of their new friends’ lives.

The story Quentin tells about the “straight cowboy” who is the love of his life – for whom he would still do anything – is one of the most terrifying dialogues when we finally understand that the goal at all times is to murder Tanya.

Quentin calls Greg by another name, Steve, and even when Tanya finds a photo of the two young people, she lies to herself, questioning whether she really recognized her husband. I swear, it’s a horror film because both Tanya and Portia, at this point, are alone and isolated in Palermo without anyone else knowing their address or who they are with. And it gets worse.

Portia is so excited about Jack that she doesn’t question the nature of her relationship with her “uncle”, but it is Tanya who catches the two having sex and deviously tries to warn her assistant that there is something wrong between them.

In another sad moment, in which Portia holds back her laughter and is indifferent, Tanya opens her heart to Portia, remembering that her mother “dressed her like a doll” and taught her to be passive and insecure, in an abusive treatment that ruined her forever. By this point, Tanya has already started to file for annulment of her marriage and complains that she has not realized who her husband truly is. She tells Portia that she identifies with her, that she should not make the same mistakes she did, and ends by advising her to “get your shit together, Portia,” in a cryptic way to open Jack’s eyes.

From this point on, Portia becomes increasingly aware of the undercurrents of danger surrounding the lavish lifestyle of her new friends, but it is too late.

Already somewhat suspicious of Jack, or at least tired of his lost ways, Portia is clearly relieved that the trip is coming to an end. She is excited for Tanya’s farewell party, but Jack convinces her to spend the day with him sightseeing and that they will return later for the party.

Gradually, the trip with Jack becomes increasingly awkward, with him ignoring her requests to return home. Tanya, however, does not realize that she is in danger and that the party is literally a farewell party. Both are nervous about being apart from each other, but Portia only realizes that it is intentional when Jack, drunk, can no longer drive and they are forced to sleep far from the palazzo.

Distressed, Portia realizes in the morning that her cell phone was “stolen” by Jack and now associates everything he said – including “Uncle” Quentin’s plan for a large sum of money to come soon – that will solve everyone’s lives. Portia, terrified, realizes that Tanya is in a life-threatening situation and the gravity of her boss’s circumstances is enormous. Without the cell phone in hand, there is no way to warn her, and at this point, it is even uncertain how her life fits into the scheme: was Jack there to kill her too?

Portia manages to recover the cell phone but is not sure how and whether she should warn Tanya, doing so in an encrypted manner. When Tanya realizes the truth, she is already at sea, surrounded only by her killers. No one expected her to kill everyone only to slip and drown, details Portia doesn’t know until the end of the series.

Terrified and realizing that it’s time for Jack to kill her, Portia confronts him. “I feel like she was part of this mess. But also, it’s not entirely her fault. She’s just trying her best. She’s trapped and desperate, and this is where she ended up. And it’s kind of the worst possible scenario for her or anyone,” Haley Lou recalled in 2022. “I feel like that’s the closest thing to a hero that Portia can really be,” she added.

Portia’s future: Was she the one who turned in Greg?

Luckily, Jack actually feels sorry for Portia and doesn’t play his part in the scheme. He drops her off near the airport and recommends that she hide and leave Italy, warning her that the people who have Tanya are very dangerous. By this point, Portia is more than regretful about everything.

After all this trauma, Portia is “undercover” and returning to the United States when she meets Albie again, who is equally traumatized after being scammed by the call girl Lucia. It is Albie who tells her that they found a body floating on the beach of the hotel, but he doesn’t say (or even know) that it is Tanya. Portia instinctively seems to understand that it certainly has something to do with Quentin and Jack, but apparently doesn’t realize that it was her boss who died in Sicily.

In fact, this would be the only slip-up of the season: Albie would have recognized Tanya as Portia’s boss, and, if he didn’t know who the dead person was, he would still have asked her about Tanya. It was very strange, but the two exchange phone numbers and even if it is to allude to some future between the two, it will also serve to help with Portia’s alibi when her boss’s death is investigated by Interpol.

For Hailey Lou Richardson, Portia would tell the authorities everything she knew and somehow cast a shadow of suspicion on Greg, something that was confirmed by the research that Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) did on him. Greg is now a fugitive, and the police are investigating his involvement in Tanya’s death, even if it was accidental.

“I feel like Portia cares about Tanya. I don’t think she just totally hates her and wouldn’t want to avenge her in any way after she died. That woman died! And Greg was part of that!”, the actress commented. “At some point, she’s going to have to process that. And I don’t think it’s like, ‘Oh, thank God, my boss is dead.’ I see more good in Portia than that,” she insisted.

Since there’s still a 4th season planned, if Greg/Gary isn’t killed off at the Thai White Lotus, there’s a good chance that Portia could reappear in some way to disrupt the con man’s plans. Right now, we see that he wants to kill Belinda – the hotel employee in Hawaii – who didn’t even know about Tanya’s death or that Greg was a fugitive from American justice. What would he do to Portia? Much worse, right?

Portia or Jack could ruin Greg’s good life just as much, if not more, than Belinda. As such, The White Lotus’ second season is undoubtedly the most intense and intricate of the series so far. Portia’s storyline is one of the greatest displays of Mike White‘s genius because her journey is tied to everything that is still unfolding in Season 3.

As for Portia’s future, she still has a role to play in the narrative, especially if Greg continues his path of escape and manipulation. Portia’s possible return could add a new layer of complexity to the story, where the quest for justice — or revenge — could finally catch up with Greg, bringing a darker conclusion to his empire of lies. The White Lotus thus maintains its essence of exploring human nature in its rawest and most timely form, and Portia’s journey is proof of how even the smallest characters can become key players in the outcome of an epic and tense story.

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