The White Lotus season 2 kept us guessing until the very last moment

Warning: This article contains spoilers about ‘White Lotus’ season 2

The White Lotus season two has finally come to its fatal end, but I already knew who would meet their untimely death in the season finale … sort of.

No, it’s not because I have The White Lotus creator Mike White on speed dial; although, I do know someone who knows someone who was in School of Rock. Don’t we all? And no, I didn’t receive an advance screening of the finale, nor did I give executives at HBO Max an offer they couldn’t refuse (obligatory The Godfather reference, more on that later).

It’s because my entire feed has been inundated with fan theories, hypotheses and predictions about this season’s whodunnit, so much so that it seemed like online discourse had met its apex with The White Lotus. But are these fan theories ruining our viewing experience, or enhancing it?

From the minute HBO Max aired the first episode of season two on 30 October, I’ve spent every Sunday evening doom-scrolling through the Reddit episode discussion thread, and even posting some comments myself. Gasp, a 23-year-old with a Reddit account? Yeah, I’m not like other girls.

Soon enough, my TikTok For You Page was filled with one fan theory video after another. Have you seen the one TikTok about Tanya’s blouse? Or the TikToker who analyzed all the artwork in the background of each scene? How about the astrologer who gave the White Lotus characters a birth chart reading? I sure did.

And of course, there was the Cowboy Theory. You know, the Wyoming cowboy who stole Quentin’s heart? After Quentin (Tom Hollander) told Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) about his unrequited love story with the unnamed cowboy in episode five, I was sure that it was just some meaningless monologue meant to fill time, or provide context to Quentin’s backstory. Shame on me, because if there’s anything we know about Mike White, it’s that everything has a way of coming back around.

Despite my naivety, dedicated Reddit users were convinced that this heterosexual cowboy from Wyoming was Tanya’s husband, Greg (Jon Gries). I immediately dismissed this outlandish prediction, and considered whether fan theories have gone too far. Much to my surprise (but not to others), that theory was practically confirmed when Tanya picked up a photo of a young Quentin, in a cowboy hat, alongside what can only be determined as a young Jon Gries – especially by Napoleon Dynamite lovers, who could tell that was definitely a picture of Uncle Rico.

As a result, I soon adopted another fan theory that seemed to go hand-in-hand with the infamous Cowboy Theory: Portia (Haley Lu Richardson) is the disembodied leg floating in the ocean that’s found by Daphne (Meghann Fahey) in episode one.

Perhaps the most discussion this season has surrounded Portia’s eccentric outfit choices, and how her Urban Outfitters-core looks signified that Portia was a meandering, chronically online Gen Z-er wearing any item of clothing that’s been deemed trendy by the internet. However, many theorists also looked to her mismatched clothes as hints about her fate. Take The Godfather tee shirt she was wearing in episode five. Could this have been a sign that Portia would meet her untimely death in a trap meant for Tanya, à la Appollonia in The Godfather? TikTok seemed to think so.

Alas, that’s where both mine and the rest of the internet’s predictions came to an end. As it turns out, it was Tanya who went on a murderous rampage and murdered the men she thought were out to steal her fortune. Now, out of my hours of scouring The White Lotus Reddit page, I don’t think there was one person with the username WriterDog101 who could’ve predicted that.

That’s why at 10.30pm – just after the 65-minute episode ended – there’s nearly 30,000 of us chronically online White Lotus viewers signing on to the Reddit thread right now, ready to discuss, dissect and postulate about the upcoming third season.

Although this season of The White Lotus didn’t quite remain spoiler-free for me, it did allow me to obsess over one of the most entertaining shows on TV with equally enthusiastic fans. If my friends or colleagues were not caught up on the latest episode, at least there was some stranger on Reddit with whom I could get my weekly fix of White Lotus discourse.

Perhaps the ubiquitous fan theories did enhance my White Lotus viewing experience after all, because there’s nothing better than being proved wrong. Now, it may be some time before a TV show captivates every corner of the internet like The White Lotus season two – or, at least until the next season of Succession comes out. But as the age-old saying goes: life’s not about the destination, but about the fan theories and predictions we made along the way.