‘The White Lotus’ Season 2 Theory: Daphne’s Children Aren’t Cameron’s
HBO Max series The White Lotus Season 2 premiered on Oct. 30, 2022, and brings a cast of mostly new characters. The eccentric Tanya McQuoid returns for the sophomore season, along with her new husband Greg (Jon Gries,) but other than that, the rest of the characters are new. This includes Cameron and Daphne Sullivan, a married couple inclined to over-the-top PDA. However, while they look like the perfect pair to innocent onlookers, what happens behind closed doors tells a much different story. Here’s my theory regarding Daphne and Cameron in The White Lotus Season 2.
[WARNING: This article contains detailed spoilers regarding The White Lotus Season 2 Episodes 1-5.]
‘The White Lotus’ Season 2 Episode 3 gives audiences a glimpse into the reality of Daphne and Cameron’s marriage
In The White Lotus Season 2 Episode 3, Daphne (Meghann Fahy) and Harper (Aubrey Plaza) took off for some shopping in Noto while Cameron (Theo James) and Ethan (Will Sharpe) stayed behind for some quality bro time. Daphne bombards Harper with the news that – surprise! – she actually rented a villa and plans for the two of them to spend the night there, leaving the guys at the hotel. Harper balks at the plan at first but quickly relents, and the gals spend the night drinking wine and eating edibles.
During their time in the villa, Daphne confesses that she knows Cameron has cheated on her, but accepts it. She explains to Harper that they both play games with one another, and at first glance, it might seem like she’s fine with the situation, but there’s a hint of sadness to her voice. We also learn that Cameron thinks it’s human nature to cheat and explains to Ethan his reasoning. (In the simplest of terms, Cameron sucks.)
Meanwhile, back at the hotel, Cameron persuades Mia (Beatrice Grannò) and Lucia (Simona Tabasco) to party with them for the night. All of them dose up on molly, and things get wild. However, while Cameron has zero issues about hooking up with someone while his wife is away, Ethan declines a kiss from Mia before passing out.
Do Daphne’s children not belong to Cameron?
Part of episode 4 of The White Lotus Season 2 revolved around Harper’s discovery of a condom wrapper on the couch in her hotel room. She didn’t bring it up to Ethan and, instead, stewed over the possibilities. However, in episode 5, Ethan sees the wrapper and asks Harper about it. He explains that he did nothing wrong and the wrapper belonged to Cameron.
During a trip to the vineyard, Daphne and Cameron engaged in their usual touchy-feely behavior, but Harper can’t stomach it. She starts digging at past experiences Ethan and Cameron had in college, making everyone slightly uncomfortable – something Harper has mastered. Later that night, Harper hints to Daphne that the guys partied just a little too hard while they were away. In a blink-and-you-miss-it moment, Daphne’s face falls at the news, but she recovers quickly.
“I’m sure whatever happened wasn’t a big deal. And, if anything ever happened, you do what you have to do to make yourself feel better about it,” Daphne says.
Daphne tells Harper about her “trainer” back home, who she spends more time with than Cameron. He has blonde hair and big blue eyes, according to her. Daphne asks Harper if she wants to see a picture and slides Harper her phone. When Harper looks, it’s a picture of Daphne’s kids, who have noticeably blond hair and big blue eyes. Harper becomes confused, but Daphne just takes her phone back and mumbles something about finding a photo of the trainer later. Did Daphne just confess to Harper she knows her kids aren’t Cameron’s biological children?
Nothing is as it seems in ‘The White Lotus’
The White Lotus revels in the art of misdirection, and almost nothing is as it seems. I mean, we are trying to solve the mystery behind the dead body floating in the ocean we saw in episode 1. During their trip to Noto, Daphne leaned into the idea of doing whatever it takes to make herself happy, and that surely doesn’t mean shopping sprees and indulgent vacations. Her reaction to Harper’s confusion about the photo doesn’t make sense at first glance, but I think she’s confessing to Harper without actually confessing to Harper.
With The White Lotus Season 2 only having 8 episodes, we don’t have much more to watch before we get every piece of the puzzle. But I’m keeping this theory in mind because, clearly, there’s more to Daphne than what we see.
The White Lotus streams on HBO Max.
