‘The White Lotus Sicily’ Finale: What the Shattered Testa Di Moro Head Could Mean for Harper and Ethan
There’s no beheading at the hands of a jilted lover in the finale of The White Lotus Sicily. However, the Testa di Moro vase in Harper (Aubrey Plaza) and Ethan’s (Will Sharpe) hotel room shatters to pieces in the last episode of season 2. Harper, Ethan, Daphne (Meghann Fahy), and Cameron (Theo James) make it out of the finale physically unscathed, but mentally and emotionally, there’s scarring. Here’s what we think the shattered Testa di Moro vase means for the future of Ethan and Harper’s marriage.
[SPOILER ALERT: Spoilers ahead regarding the finale of The White Lotus Sicily.]
What do the Testa di Moro heads mean in ‘The White Lotus Sicily’?
According to a 12th-century Sicilian legend, a young woman whose father wouldn’t allow her to leave home fell in love with a visiting man. He becomes her lover, but the story ends with the Sicilian woman decapitating him and using his head as a vase to grow basil, which she waters with her tears.
In another version of the story, the girl’s family decapitates her and her lover upon discovering their forbidden relationship. That’s why the vases typically come in pairs. However, in the version of the story told in episode 1 of The White Lotus Sicily, a traveler told his lover he had to return to the East, where his wife and two sons lived. When she discovered she was lied to, the girl killed him in his sleep and cut off his head to make a vase for her basil plant.
“The legend paints this girl as exotic and desirable to an outsider visiting her villa, which is really what The White Lotus is all about,” Michael Diaz-Griffith, author of The New Antiquarians and COO of the Design Leadership Network, told Architectural Digest. “The show depicts these elite outsiders [who] aren’t culturally sensitive about what they’re doing in these localities and might even fall in love with locals. But these heads are saying, you think you can come here and play, but we have fangs…”
Ethan and Daphne’s moment alone in ‘The White Lotus Sicily’ finale
Infidelity is a significant plot point in Ethan and Cameron’s relationships. Cameron and Daphne knowingly cheat on each other, which they claim makes their marriage stronger. Believing Ethan slept with the hookers Cameron hired, Harper lets Cameron make a move on her as an act of revenge.
After confessing he thinks something happened between Harper and Cameron to Daphne in the finale episode, she remains upbeat. Instead of consoling him or getting upset about her husband’s actions, Daphne encourages Ethan to follow her to a secluded area of the beach they hadn’t yet explored. Ethan sauntered behind Daphne warily, but ultimately followed her to the wooded area. What happened between them, if anything, is unclear.
“Did Ethan and Daphne have some kind of a dalliance on the island or whatever happened?” White said in an HBO Max featurette. “That allows [Ethan] to let go of the jealousy that has been brewing with him. It kind of brings back that first kind of sexual charge that happens in the beginning of relationships and sometimes fades away over time.”
‘White Lotus’ ending reveals Harper, Ethan, Cameron, and Daphne were the biggest red herrings
In some capacity, every character in The White Lotus Sicily encounters the “fangs” Griffith mentioned. The sexual hedonism the Testa di Moro represent applied to each story told in this season of The White Lotus, from the Di Grasso trio to Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) and even Portia (Haley Lu Richardson) and Jack (Leo Woodall). However, contrary to the body being Harper, Cameron, Daphne, or Ethan, whose tension reaches its climax when Harper admits she kissed Cameron, Tanya is the one who dies in the finale episode.
Despite not being the ones who die in the finale of The White Lotus Sicily, the physical representation of the Testa di Moro statue crashing down amidst Harper and Ethan’s passionate love-making is significant. That moment may or may not have been brought on by Ethan’s unseen moment with Daphne on the beach, but regardless, the “curse” that existed between Harper and Ethan seems to be broken, much like the porcelain head.
Does this mean Ethan and Harper’s marriage is solid? Let us know in the comments.
Catch up on The White Lotus Sicily on HBO Max.
