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HBO’s critically acclaimed comedic drama returned with the next installment, The White Lotus: Sicily, and it’s time to contemplate who dies on vacation. Creator and director Mike White insists that viewers will “never be able to predict it,” however, we’re going to try. Take a look at the many times the characters mention death in episode 1 to see if any might indicate who dies in Sicily. 

‘The White Lotus: Sicily’ opens with multiple deaths

Like season 1, White opens The White Lotus: Sicily Season 2 with a shocking death. However, he takes it further — multiple hotel guests are dead. Meghann Fahy’s character Daphne Sullivan is the only guest we know who is not dead. She’s happy and bubbly as she tells the new resort guests what a great trip they are about to embark on. She remarks that they will love it so much they might die.

Then Daphne takes one last dip into the Ionian Sea off the coast of Taormina, Sicily, before her flight home. However, as the stay-at-home mom swims, something brushes against her. Daphne sees a dead body floating next to her. 

After Daphne runs out of the water screaming, the resort manager, Valentina (Sabrina Impacciatore), finds out that a guest drowned in the sea. But it’s not only one person this time. 

“Salvatore says other bodies have been found,” Rocco tells Valentina.

He doesn’t know how many guests died but at least “a few.” Daphne wasn’t with her husband, Cameron (Theo James), so if he is one of the dead guests, she doesn’t know yet. Or, she’s very good at acting and putting on a show, so no one knows she’s the one who did it. 

‘The White Lotus: Sicily’: The story behind those severed head statues

In the first few minutes of The White Lotus: Sicily Episode 1, Ethan Spiller (Will Sharpe) asks why there are so many head statues around the resort. Rocco explains that the heads are all around the resort because of an old story — Casa di Moro.

A moor came to the resort and seduced a local girl; however, he didn’t tell her he had a wife and children back home. Because he lied to her, she cut off his head, so there are severed heads around the resort. 

Does the story foreshadow something that might happen later in the season? It’s possible and a critical moment to remember going forward.

Did Daphne murder someone in ‘The White Lotus: Sicily’? 

'The White Lotus: Sicily' Aubrey Plaza, Meghann Fahy, Theo James, and Will Sharpe talk about murder and how wives might die on vacation
‘The White Lotus: Sicily’: Aubrey Plaza, Meghann Fahy, Theo James, and Will Sharpe | Fabio Lovino/ HBO

Back to Daphne, although she did seem genuinely shocked to find a body in the water, she also mentioned death the most in the first episode. Daphne told the newcomers to the resort that they would have so much fun they might die. Then she described how someone could be murdered on vacation. 

“I do a lot of Dateline,” Daphne told Harper (Aubrey Plaza), Ethan, and Cameron on the first day. “Husbands murdering their wives. Happens a lot on vacation. Scuba diving — they just unplug her oxygen while she’s under water. Happens more than you think.”

Then Cameron comments on how ugly the men on Dateline are, and Daphne has an interesting response. 

“At least their murdering each other,” Daphne says about the guys on Dateline.

She’s obsessed with death and murder and is the only guest to find the dead body. It’s not a coincidence.  

Is Greg one of the people who dies in ‘The White Lotus: Sicily?’

In another scene, while Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) and Greg (Jon Gries) are making love, she has strange visions of one of the severed head statues. She pushes him off of her and says she is disassociating. 

“I saw you and your eyes were like shark eyes, like completely dead, like dead,” Tanya tells Greg.

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Since we know the story of the severed heads, this could also be foreshadowing. Tanya is suspicious of Greg, and we know from the trailer that she thinks he is cheating. Does she find out that he’s unfaithful and cut off his head? 

We’ll have to wait to find out who dies in The White Lotus: Sicily Season 2, but after episode 1, there are two possibilities. We think Tanya could kill Greg, and Daphne could kill her husband, Cameron. 

The White Lotus: Sicily Season 2 returns to HBO with episode 2 on Nov. 6, 2022, at 9 p.m. ET/PT.