Mike White Couldn’t Help But Relate To Quentin While Filming The White Lotus Season 2

It might seem funny to relate to — major spoiler coming up here — a character who’s working with the Mafia to wine and dine Tanya into complacency so that they can kill her. But Mike White has no shame in sympathizing with the on-screen would-be-murderer. After all, if you want to get really technical about it, White’s the one who sent Tanya to her death, not Quentin. In an interview for The Ringer, White talks about this impulse to see himself reflected in Quentin, saying, “The reason I said I relate to Quentin is because I feel like I was doing to Jennifer what Quentin was doing to Tanya.” (White first mentioned his draw to Quentin in an interview for The Guardian where he said, “I’m not as sophisticated as him, but I aspire to be. He’s like this Gore Vidal figure. I guess I’d like to be Gore Vidal.”)

Because White wrote season 2 of “The White Lotus,” it was his decision to make this season be Tanya’s last (a choice that has left many fans, including myself, extremely sad). And though she did go out as extravagantly as only Tanya McQuoid could, her death was still a hard one for everyone to swallow. White tells The Ringer, “I want[ed] her to have this great sendoff. But I [was] always heading to kill her.” He explains how his mindset echoed Quentin’s, explaining how he gave “her this bravura story line [where] she [got] to do all these fun things in Italy and wear cool clothes.” Still, though, he recognizes “also there’s a part of me where I’m torturing her.” For White, this means he was always conflicted about his relationship to Tanya/Jennifer. “There are times when I’m like, ‘Am I her guardian angel, or am I her little devil?’ he says.