In The White Lotus Season Finale, Portia And Albie Got The Perfect Ending
This post contains spoilers for "The White Lotus" season 2 finale.
Of everyone in "The White Lotus" season 2, Albie (Adam DiMarco) and Portia (Haley Lu Richardson) seemed to be under the most scrutiny from fans. Morally, they were probably some of the least sketchy characters on the show, but they had plenty of qualities that made them off-putting to large sections of the audience.
For Portia, it was her lack of assertiveness and her apparent inability to appreciate nearly anything in her life. Most people would love to have a job that lets you spend a week at a fancy resort in Italy, but for the first few episodes, Portia manages to treat this like its a prison sentence. It's more complicated, of course — Portia's legitimately depressed and her boss is pretty terrible to her — but for most TV audiences, one of the most unlikeable things a character can do is complain. Viewers will root for a charismatic killer over a morally pure sad sack any day of the week, which means that Portia can be a little hard to love. (Also, her fashion sense is questionable.)
Meanwhile, Albie suffered from the viewers' constant suspicion that his nice guy demeanor wasn't as wholesome as it seemed. In an early episode he refers to himself as a "nice guy," and throws in a line about how some girls don't actually appreciate guys who are kind to them. On its own, it's a harmless comment, but for a show that's famously tuned in to online discourse, it feels intentionally reminiscent of something you'd hear from the Incel community. Is Albie actually a nice guy, or is he a "Nice Guy" who thinks that Portia owes him?
Subverting expectations
One of the things that's made both seasons of "The White Lotus" so great is the way it's able to surprise you with its characters. Its plot twists aren't usually big dramatic events, but quieter scenes where a character handles things differently than you'd think.
For Albie, the first half of season 2 is filled with moments that seem to hint at something darker beneath the surface. At one point he gets a little too self-righteous when debating "The Godfather" with his family, pulling out a misguided attempt at a feminist interpretation of the film's popularity, where it seems like he's just saying what he thinks Portia wants to hear. Later, Portia tells him he should be more assertive, but when he tries this she doesn't actually seem to be into it at all, and soon she leaves him for some aggressively British hot guy.
Portia rejecting Albie seems like it could be the moment where his secret dark side comes through, but instead he's ... perfectly normal about the situation. He doesn't lash out at anyone; he simply starts hitting if off with Lucia (Simona Tabasco) instead. But as his relationship with Lucia continues and it becomes increasingly obvious she's just playing him, we're once again left wondering how he'll react when yet another woman hurts him.
But again, he's cool about it. In the finale, he realizes Lucia manipulated him into giving her 50,000 euros, and all he does is laugh at himself a little for being an easy mark. There were so many moments where it seemed like his entitlement issues around women might rear its ugly head, but it never happens because those issues were never actually there. The twist is that Albie truly is about as decent as he seems.
Appreciating the mundane
Portia's storyline, meanwhile, seems to be about learning to appreciate what you have. Early-season Portia wants an escape from boredom, something that dependable sweetheart Albie isn't capable of providing her. When Jack (Leo Woodall) comes along with his exciting, mysterious ways, it's not much of a competition. Soon she's off on a three-day trip with him, and it almost feels like she's forgotten about Albie entirely.
But as she learns the hard way, excitement isn't always worth the trouble. In addition to how Jack turns out to have been hired to kill her, Portia is also reminded over and over again that she is barely capable of surviving this type of situation at all. She makes terrible decision after terrible decision throughout this finale, the worst of which is choosing to wait until she's already in the car with Jack before confronting him on his motives, and then letting him take her on a drive even after she knows for sure he's been lying to her. Portia said she wanted an adventure, but she spends half the adventure passively letting a stranger isolate her from any help and trapping her in a confined space.
Maybe Portia will get her truly exciting, fulfilling adventure one day, but before she can do that she needs to develop more of a backbone first. That's why it feels like a concrete step in the right direction when, in her final scene on the whole show, she takes the initiative of asking Albie for his phone number. After seven episodes of sitting around and waiting for other people to make her happy, here she finally takes things into her own hands.
A fitting final note
When I wrote a prediction article about who was most likely to die in the season finale, I ultimately decided that Portia and Albie would probably make it through. "These two characters spent so much of the early episodes of the season together," I wrote. "I wouldn't be surprised if they met back up in the finale, both realizing that their first choice in romantic partners was the right one after all."
Although I was wrong about my final guess that the dead bodies would be Lucia and Mia, I'm relieved to say I was right about this one part. As messy and awkward as Portia and Albie's relationship in those early episodes were, the finale ends with the declaration that the two of them are better for each other than any of us might've thought. The things that didn't work for each of them, like Albie's over-cautiousness and Portia's boredom with the world, have both been directly challenged by their relationships with Lucia and Jack. When they meet back up at the airport, they're slightly more improved versions of themselves, more appreciative of the stuff that drew them to each other in the first place.
"The White Lotus" went to some dark places this season. Poor Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) clumsily shuffled off this mortal coil, and everything we've learned about the relationships between Harper, Ethan, Cameron and Daphne was just sort of depressing. But for Albie and Portia, it's not too late to change, and it's not too late to avoid the mistakes of the other characters. "The White Lotus" is all about the emptiness of rich people's seemingly-perfect lives, but Albie and Portia still have a chance at fulfillment.