Warning: This post contains spoilers for the first episode of The White Lotus Season 3.
Who would’ve thought that the character who’d make the biggest splash in the Season 3 premiere of HBO’s The White Lotus would appear on screen for a few seconds, roughly three-quarters of the way through the episode, and never say a word? Jon Gries absolutely deserves the millions of gasps his unannounced return, as the late Tanya McQuoid’s (Jennifer Coolidge) diabolical widower Greg Hunt, on Sunday surely evoked. But maybe we shouldn’t be so shocked to see him again. He does, after all, have plenty of unfinished business.
Although he now has the distinction of being the only character to appear in all three seasons of the show, Greg remains an enigma. He showed up late in Season 1 and checked out early in Season 2, as his old pal, possible lover, and apparent co-conspirator Quentin (Tom Hollander) did the dirty work of leading Tanya to a watery grave. Now Quentin and his merry band of murderous gays are dead by her hand, presumably leaving Greg to enjoy an undivided inheritance of $500 million. I would argue that his persistence on the show makes him one of its most important characters, and perhaps the most important. The outcome of his story—that of a man widely considered to be Lotus’ supervillain—is going to be crucial to understanding creator Mike White’s overarching ideas about wealth, love, death, and other major themes.
Greg’s grand entrance in The White Lotus Season 3 premiere
We catch our first glimpse of Greg a full 48 minutes into the premiere of the new, Thailand-set season. A gorgeous young woman sits down next to Aimee Lou Wood’s Chelsea at the bar. They hit it off immediately; Chelsea is from England, where her new friend Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon) used to travel regularly for work. (Her job? Oh, you know, “muddling.”) Another thing the two women have in common: rude,…
