The first two seasons of HBO's The White Lotus have cleaned up at their respective award circuits thus far. SAG Awards, Primetime Emmys, you name it. Season 2 came to a close not too long ago, following an onslaught of fan theories regarding what exactly would happen. And the end result was a doozy, including the shocking death of a fan-favorite character — thanks to a couple despicable folks who joined her life.
Speaking of, we took a closer look at the series thus far, specifically at which other characters made us a cringe in the worst and best possible ways. Both seasons share the trait of having a plethora of famous actors, including Aubrey Plaza, Theo James, Alexandra Daddario, and, of course, Jennifer Coolidge. On a character level, "despicable" is a strong word — and it goes without saying that each character in Mike White's hit show has their own fair share of undesirable qualities. See our list below for the "worst of the worst."
9 Kitty (Molly Shannon)
It runs in the family, eh? Kitty's son Shane (played by Jake Lacy) is also on this list — see below. But as his mom, Molly Shannon is reliably scene-stealing in her limited scenes during The White Lotus Season 1. Kitty crashes her son's honeymoon, fuels her son's fire by adding to the complaints about the hotel giving them the wrong suite, and then, on top of all that, once she gets Shane the infamous "pineapple suite," she doesn't even like it. "Very pineapple-y," she says, with an unpleased expression as they check out the suite for the first time. Kitty also encourages her new daughter-in-law (Daddario) to be a "trophy wife," a scene that's hard to watch, to say the least. The list of Kitty's showstopping moments goes on!
8 Lucia (Simona Tabasco)
Poor Albie. At least, he was able to get Portia's digits in the Season 2 finale. But before all that, he and his family met Lucia, who roams Sicily's White Lotus with her partner-in-crime Mia, seeing nothing but dollar signs across the upper-class patrons who check in every day. Just as Tanya's lover ultimately plans his own epic scheme to take her money (see further down on this list), Lucia schemes to take some of Albie's dad Dominic's dough by having her actual boyfriend pose as her pimp. "I got played," Albie admits to Portia in the White Lotus finale. For a second there, we thought Lucia and Albie would live happily ever after. Oh, well...
7 Olivia (Sydney Sweeney)
Sydney Sweeney is red-hot in Hollywood these days. A double-nominee at the 2022 Primetime Emmys (for The White Lotus and Euphoria), Sweeney played Olivia in Season 1, whose rich family vacations at Hawaii's White Lotus location with her friend Paula (Brittany O'Grady). Over time, we learn that Olivia takes their friendship for granted and routinely sabotages Paula's romances for her own personal gain.
"Olivia thinks that she knows everything, and you have to fully allow yourself to think that you know everything," Sweeney once told Deadline about her character. "She’s expelling who her mother is. She doesn’t want to be anything like her mother, but in doing so, she’s becoming exactly like her. Having to allow that to happen was a fun process."
6 Bert (F. Murray Abraham)
Bert is a fun-loving, happy-go-lucky grandpa who's nice to everyone he meets — especially younger women. He's a caring family man to his son Dominic and grandon Albie, but we learn over the course of Season 2 that he frequently cheated on his wife years ago, when Dominic was growing up. "You never taught me how to properly love a woman," Dominic tells his dad in an emotional scene at the Sicily hotel buffet.
5 Dominic (Michael Imperioli)
It runs in the family — again. Speaking of Dominic, he also cheated on his wife, as revealed early on in Season 2. But unlike Bert, Dominic was caught, and now his marriage is basically over. His wife bails on the Sicily trip, so Dominic takes Bert and Albie instead. You'd think he learned his lesson by then, but while at the White Lotus, Dominic falls prey to Lucia's seduction and sleeps with her and Mia. At least, later on, he admits he has a problem and tries to do better.
4 Shane (Jake Lacy)
Speaking of almost-failed marriages — who can forget Shane from Season 1? Lacy rightfully earned an Emmy nod for his headache-inducing turn as the angriest newlywed this side of the Mississippi. On top of harassing hotel manager Armond (Murray Bartlett) to the point of falling off the wagon, Shane outwardly doesn't respect his wife Rachel and even flirts with the younger Olivia and Paula in front of Rachel at one point. And that weird affinity he has for his mom Kitty is quite vomit-inducing, one might argue.
3 Cameron (Theo James)
Cameron looks to be about the same age as Shane, but has a couple kids under his belt with wife Daphne (Meghann Fahy). We meet him in Season 2 and quickly learn of his inherent misbehavior that only spirals as the story progresses. He hits on the married Harper (Plaza), including "accidentally" flashing her in the first episode. He also cheats on his wife, which Daphne somewhat knows about, and even tries to break the law with insider trading, per his conversations with buddy Ethan (Will Sharpe). One could argue that if he didn't take so long to pay Lucia for the sex they had, Lucia may not have turned to Albie to con his family out of $50,000.
2 Quentin (Tom Hollander)
The highest-ranked spots on our list of despicable characters are reserved for the guys who tried to kill Tanya. Sure, she had her own unfavorable qualities — such as leading on Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) in Season 1 and then bailing on their business plan last-minute. However, Coolidge is clearly a fan-favorite across both seasons, and her unexpected death sent the internet aflame. Tanya's death may have been directly caused by her own slip-and-fall in the second season's finale, but what were the events that led her to that infamous boat? Enter Quentin, a seemingly likable gentleman earlier on in Season 2. But as the episodes unfolded, we learn there's more than what meets the eye for the gay smooth-talker.
1 Greg (Jon Gries)
And who orchestrated Tanya's murder attempt with Quentin? Oh right, that was Greg, whom we first meet later in Season 1. He and Tanya fall in love, and Tanya's infinite wealth even allows Greg to get the medical attention he needed to get rid of that nasty cough. Maybe he was just using Tanya all along, and it all came to a head in season 2, when we put the pieces together that Greg and Quentin are lovers and have masterminded a plan to kill Tanya. Thanks to a pre-nup loophole, Greg thought he had it all figured out. I wonder what his reaction would be upon learning that everyone involved in the con job on the Sicily end is now dead. RIP, Tanya!