The White Lotus Creator Reveals Why They Killed Off That Character

The White Lotus creator Mike White has a pretty good explanation for that shocking finale death. 

The Season 2 finale, "Arrivederci", saw fan-favorite character Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) meet a tragic end in the beautiful waters of Sicily. In a post-episode segment, White revealed that her death had actually been hinted at in the Season 1 and helped set up her arc for the second installment. 

"In the end of last season, Tanya is sitting with Greg in the last episode and he’s talking about his health issues," said White. "And she says, 'I've had every kind of treatment over the years, death is the last immersive experience I haven’t tried.'"

"I was thinking, it’d be so fun to bring Tanya back because she’s such a great character, but maybe that’s the journey for her, a journey to death," White continued. "Not that I really wanted to kill Tanya because I love her as a character and obviously love Jennifer, but I just felt like, we’re going to Italy, she’s such a diva — a larger than life female archetype — it felt like we could devise our own operatic conclusion to Tanya’s life and her story."

Coolidge won an Emmy for her performance in The White Lotus's first season, and White had previously hinted that he was interested in bringing her along for Season 3, making her character's death more of a surprise. He revealed that he thought Tanya being killed "at the hands of someone else felt too tragic," and that she "needed to give her best fight back and that she, in a way, had some kind of victory over whoever was conspiring to get rid of her," leading to what became her ultimately clumsy cause of death.

"It just made me laugh to think she would like take out this cabal of killers and, after she successfully does that, she just dies this derpy death, and it just felt like that’s just so Tanya," he said. 

The White Lotus's third season is currently in the works. Whether or not we'll see more of Tanya's new widower Greg (Jon Gries) - or any of this season's characters - remains a mystery.

The White Lotus Seasons 1 & 2 are streaming on HBO Max. 

People are talking about The White Lotus in our forums. Join the conversation.

Jade Budowski is a freelance writer with a knack for ruining punchlines and harboring dad-aged celebrity crushes. She was previously a reporter/producer at Decider and is a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow her on Twitter: @jadebudowski.