Note: The following contains spoilers for “The White Lotus” season 2 episode 5.
“The White Lotus” Season 2 enters a new realm of tension in its fifth episode, when Tanya and Portia’s trip to Palermo unveils a well-kept secret between their new, seemingly easygoing friends Quentin and Jack.
“I think you are definitely supposed to to ask yourself questions,” Leo Woodall told TheWrap. “There’s supposed to be many question marks floating around at the end of Episode 5.”
After a flirty fling develops between Portia and Jack as the pair explore the streets of Palermo and Tanya and Quentin bond over an emotional connection to “Madame Butterfly,” each pair returns to the extravagant villa and Jack slips away from Portia after Quentin and Tanya call it a night on lamenting their conflicting thoughts about love and marriage.
However, when Tanya awakens to noise from another room in the villa, she uncovers a layer of deviance within the so-called family when she catches an illicit sexual moment between Jack and Quentin.
The sight immediately sparks a slew of questions for Tanya — and the audience — who begins to question everything they thought they knew about Quentin and Jack.
“Everyone has their own agenda,” Tom Hollander told TheWrap. “Is Jack a grifter? Is Jack even a nephew? How much is abuse and how much is is a sort of transactional consensual arrangement is up for debate.”
When Portia first meets Jack, her arrival captivates the British lad, who has grown tiresome of the company of his uncle and his uncle’s friends on his two-month long vacation — which he admits “is alright if you don’t mind a bunch of gays grabbing your ass and copping a feel.”
Though Hollander admits “people lose their bearings on holidays sometimes,” it’s clear whatever arrangement that transpires between the two men is not new — and has been unaffected by the men’s relationships with Tanya and Portia.
“As the story develops, what’s real and what isn’t real all becomes increasingly blurred for everyone in the story for all the characters,” Hollander said. “It’s a hall of mirrors, that house in Palermo.”
