White Lotus’ Meghan Fahy and Theo James talk sex and Sicily

You must choose your travel companions carefully. Otherwise, you might find yourself in Italy with people you can’t stand for seven days. As we saw in the last episode of The White Lotus, “Italian Dream”, it doesn’t get any easier for our two mismatched couples on their second day of vacation. Harper (Aubrey Plaza) and Ethan (Will Sharpe) don’t get along, and Cameron (Theo James) seems to be making things worse with his casual insults and aggressive behavior. Meanwhile, Daphne (Meghann Fahy) may display an air of sympathetic detachment (she finds Cameron’s outbursts of anger “kinda funny”), but she subtly captures each interaction. She might be the most underrated character this season.

In a recent interview with The AV Club, Fahy confirmed that there is more to her character than meets the eye. “I think when you meet her, you think maybe she’s a little one-dimensional,” she says. “[She has] sort of trophy wife vibes. And then you quickly realize that there’s a lot more going on beneath the surface. She’s a bit of a complex character, a bit mysterious. I think the real driving force between the two of them in their marriage is just these psychological games that they kind of play with each other.”

Both Fahy and James spoke The White Lotus Creator Mike White before they began filming on how their characters’ relationship would defy expectations. If you think you know what’s going on between them, maybe you’ll reconsider by the end of the season. “Mike was very careful that Daphne wasn’t a victim of the circumstances of their relationship, but an active participant who agreed to terms that are very specific to her and her marriage,” says Fahy.

“Mike was very specific about that,” adds James. “[He wanted] to challenge everyone’s perception of what a working relationship should be. You know, it’s pretty toxic in a lot of ways. And they play these games and it seems totally alien to most of us. But the question he kind of asks the audience is like, when they’re in love — they’re very clingy, they enjoy each other’s company too and it seems like a working relationship — is it okay that the Boundaries of their relationship being crossed are different from societal conventions?”

In episode two, we saw the affection between Daphne and Cameron in their lighter moments, like shopping for clothes, and also in more serious moments, as they recalled their difficulties in giving birth to their youngest child. It was a striking contrast to her traveling companions, Harper and Ethan, who constantly argued and seemed at odds. These two couples are like oil and water and the interaction between them is already one of the most intriguing aspects of the season so far.

“The excitement of the show is one of the really special parts of it, I think,” says Fahy. “Because somehow it’s always there, even if it’s not obvious. A simple shot of someone looking at someone—it’s very subtle, but it’s kind of the undercurrent of it all, no matter what.”

James points to the Italian frescoes featured in the opening credits as a thematic guide for the season, a connection between the location and the concepts the show seeks to explore. “There are many, many centuries of complex social evolution in Europe, but especially in Italy, Sicily,” he says. “And that plays a big role in terms of American social sexual norms meeting European and Italian ones [culture], and how to intervene. And on top of that, you know, Mike uses it as a tapestry to make certain comments about the construction of gender. You know what we assume are the roles men and women should be, how outdated they are at times, how they should be subverted and how they aren’t. So it’s a real playground, so it’s very different from the first season.”

If you thought season one was dark, just wait, says Fahy. “[Season two is] decidedly darker and sexier, kinda off the top. And that was intentional on Mike’s part. He wanted to push it a bit further and explore different ideas. But it still plays with the way we have blind spots.”