Will Sharpe talks The White Lotus season 2 finale ending and those unanswered questions about Ethan

Warning: This article contains spoilers about The White Lotus season 2 finale.

In the season 2 finale, The White Lotus finally revealed whose dead body Daphne (Meghann Fahy) discovered in the premiere. But while Daphne, her husband Cameron (Theo James), and their couple friends Ethan (Will Sharpe) and Harper (Aubrey Plaza) made it out alive, there were still many unanswered questions about the foursome left hanging by the end of the intense episode.

Did Harper tell Ethan the full truth about what happened with Cameron, or did they share more than a kiss in their adjoining hotel rooms? Did Ethan cheat on Harper with Daphne after he didn't trust that Harper told him the full truth? Is Ethan and Harper's relationship in a better place when they left Italy than where it was when they arrived? And are these four people ever going to vacation together again after this disastrous trip?!

Sharpe tells EW it's been great seeing the response to the finale and where it leaves Ethan after having to hold back so much throughout the season. "It's been exciting getting some messages from the States — it airs tonight here in the U.K. — but people seem to have enjoyed the finale," he says. "It's nice to be able to talk about it freely now that it's all out there. We all had read all the scripts before we even started shooting it, so we've all been carrying these secrets for a long time and talking in riddles. But some of the sort of most rewarding scenes were the heaviest, and the scene in in in the hotel room where Ethan is interrogating Harper and trying to push her to give him an answer was emotionally tough — but that's what made it satisfying to play. A lot of the scenes in the final episode, weirdly, were the most rewarding."

Below, Sharpe dives deep on how season 2 ends and all those unanswered questions about the two couples.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What was your reaction when you learned how season 2 was going to end?

WILL SHARPE: I was really excited by how Ethan, having been a creature of such restraint through the majority of the series and kind of an enigma, how he really does come out of himself and releases the animal inside in the final episodes. And how, for much of the season, it feels like you're watching Ethan and Harper slowly come to terms with the fact that something has gone awry in their marriage and trying to work out how to fix it and making mistakes and communicating badly and all of that, and how it flips the character of Ethan on its head in the final episode, was really exciting to me. But also Jennifer [Coolidge]'s story, the Tanya story, was such a shock to find out about. What a bold move from [creator] Mike [White], and I really felt like it played out at times very funny, there are moments of tragic comedy through all those scenes, but also very poignant and kind of loving of that character.

Ethan's storyline was kept very separate from Tanya's, but did you ever overlap time on set to talk about how she was going to be the the dead body at the end of the season?

We'd have time outside of work and the ensemble, there were dinners and things, and we became close as a group. But one of the really nice things about watching the series back was to see everybody else's stories play out. That was such a delight. The only conversations I remember were to do with the underwater shots where it really is Jennifer and that she really meant business and was really going to do it and that she was excited to do that.

There were a lot of unanswered questions and distrust in the last few episodes. Like, did Harper tell the truth or did more happen with Cameron, and did Ethan cheat on Harper with Daphne like it was implied. Did Mike tell you all the details, or did you and Aubrey, Meghann, and Theo talk about that and come up with what you think happened?

Not in lots of depth, actually. I feel like that's part of what's interesting and sort of poetic about how Mike's handled those stories, is that there is an element of mystery still. That's what Daphne is saying to Ethan in that scene on the beach, maybe you don't need to know everything about one another to love each other and to be with each other. From a performance point of view, with Harper and Cameron, I felt like I didn't need to know what had happened because Ethan doesn't know. What's fueling the temperature in those scenes is a kind of realization that he really wants to fight for this marriage, and he's realized that he needs to fight for it. And this is, rightly or wrongly, his way of doing it.

In that moment, he just feels like he has to get the truth from Harper and maybe he does get it from her or maybe he doesn't, we don't know. In terms of Ethan and Daphne, the way I thought about it was whatever sort of physically happens on that island, what has happened between them undeniably is a moment of intimacy and a moment of kind of mutual vulnerability and connection. And something about Daphne's own sort of self awareness and the accommodation that she has with who she is and how she lives her life, something about that affects Ethan.

I don't know if it's because I know the cast, but sometimes watching the series, I feel like all of the conversations about a satire of the hyper-privileged and the gender politics and toxic masculinity and sexual politics, all of those things are going on, but sometimes I felt like I was watching a series of interestingly drawn characters all longing in their own way for some kind of connection. And that is a moment of that between Daphne and Ethan. That was a really fun scene to shoot. Meghann and I were often in scenes together but didn't have a lot of intense acting to do together, and I just thought she delivered that speech so beautifully.

With how much Cameron and Daphne have affected Ethan and Harper's marriage, and then Cameron's toast at dinner about how they should go on more trips together, do you think they're actually going to keep vacationing together in the future?

[Laughs] I don't know. I find that moment so funny after the day they've had, let alone the week they've had. What's sweet about that is it feels like the beginning of Ethan and Harper reuniting, because I do feel like they're on the same page in that moment finally, like, "Are they f---ing kidding? Are you f---ing kidding me?!" But it's hard to tell with Daphne and Cameron, and how much of it is performative? Can they move on from things as easily as they present or is it just an act? The show is asking questions about the two relationships and how they operate, and it's asking you what kind of relationship do you think you're in or would you like to be in and I don't think it's necessarily saying that there's any one right way to be, which is interesting.

I love how the last time we saw Ethan and Cameron interacting was their fight in the ocean, and then immediately after at dinner, he's just like, "This what a great trip. Let's do this again." No reconciliation or conversation, just pretending like none of it happened.

I remember feeling how, in that scene, there's a degree to which Ethan has found Cameron's presence quite irritating or suffocating or infuriating. And in that moment, there's a feeling of actually, this is your stuff. If that's how you want to be, that's for you to be like that, and it doesn't really affect him. Maybe that's why it felt lighter in some ways and it felt kind of funny, rather than oppressive, because it was almost like we're in our space now, you're in your space. [Laughs] You enjoy toasting this abominable holiday, we'll work our own stuff out over here.

What did you think of how Ethan handled his paranoia about Harper and Cameron, especially since he was going through exactly what he had just put Harper through?

Yeah, I feel like unfortunate things happen to Ethan and people do things to Ethan that are not his fault, but I think he also makes mistakes and he doesn't communicate in the best way. He knows that. And withholding the details, and not even telling Harper about the night that he had with Cameron, it was ultimately because he was aware that they were not in the best place and he was worried about what it says about where they're at and what it says about him, that he's even curious enough to engage with it at all. But he's holding on to the fact that he did show some restraint in the moment. That's why his suspicions are driving him crazy, because he's worried that Harper didn't believe him when he told her that, and she has reason not to trust him because he's withheld information and he hasn't done himself any favors, but I think he's frightened that she didn't believe him and has done more than he did in retaliation.

But it's really interesting how the show explores in a really interesting way gender roles and way that men can behave historically in situations like that. A lot of it is deeply uncomfortable and was often uncomfortable to perform. That's what's strangely beautiful about Mike's writing, he's really not shy about the gnarliest, messiest, most complicated aspects of human relationships. I always felt in a funny way it was quite a romantic series, and he does leave you with some hope and some pieces of light in there and that was something to hold on to as a guiding light through the series through all of the darkness and the thorniness of how it plays out. It's his way of being like, if we're going to say something positive, let's first be real about the mess of it.

He always talks about Ethan and Harper as not having any specific issue other than that they had been together for a long time. They loved each other, they've been together for at least seven or eight years (we'd decided between the three of us), and so they're trying to get back to that place where they once were. Some of those interactions Mike would always say are sort of tragically universal and more relatable than many would care to admit. It's a bold, really frank take on some of that stuff.

And I also interestingly notice watching back that a lot of the other characters and storylines play out as a kind of fantasy, even if it's a dark fantasy, whereas for a lot of this, Ethan and Harper feel trapped in this quite harsh reality, and they can't seem to catch a break. There's something interesting about that, that they can't get on the fantasy level of this vacation. They just need to work on their relationship instead.

How did you approach playing Ethan's eventual explosion where he fights Cameron in the ocean?

That was a fun day, for sure. A lot of it has to do with the restraint of Ethan up to that point and how much had been held in. There are many scenes where I think Ethan wanted to lash out or to say something or to do something, but just tells himself that it's better to try and keep the peace even if that isn't the best thing to do. He's holding so much in so I knew that given the amount that had been withheld and how much he's trying to process, whether it be on his morning runs or just by staying quiet, that there needed to be an explosion that matched the build up to it. He is in an animal mode, and he's fighting for his marriage. I don't think he's in a particularly cerebral mode, so it was just about throwing yourself into it. Theo was very game and it was a lot of fun to choreograph that fight and try to work out how do we make this look real, [laughs] but also like two men who don't really know how to fight going at each other.

Was filming that eventual explosion a cathartic experience for you after holding so much back throughout the season?

I suppose it was cathartic in a way because there was so much energy that Ethan had been waiting to expel that he was able to expel in that moment. I remember using a lot of adrenaline on that day and towards the end, needing to eat some kind of sugary pastry between every take to get the energy to go back into it. But equally, it isn't completely resolved in that moment. There's still work to be done and Ethan doesn't leave that fight feeling satisfied. He still feels in some way like he hasn't worked out what exactly is going on between him and Harper, and he hasn't worked out how to fix it. Maybe some of that is to do with himself and the anger that he has towards himself for how he's been on this vacation and how he hasn't really been showing up for his marriage. It's only after his encounter with Daphne that it feels like he can come back to Harper in a different way.

After that moment with Daphne, we see Ethan and Harper having sex that night and the next morning at the airport, both couples seem to be really happy and at peace with each other. Is this really a positive turning point for Ethan and Harper? Where do they go from here?

I definitely think that they have found a way to connect by the end of the episode, and they've reminded each other that they love each other. They have achieved a closeness that they hadn't managed to achieve so far on that vacation, so it is supposed to be a kind of positive moment. I know that Mike wanted Ethan and Harper to be happy at the airport and to feel connected, but there is still a mystery hanging over it and there's still questions left unanswered, and so as for what happens offscreen or following that, that's open to interpretation.

Would you be interested in returning for season 3?

Sure, but that's for Mike to decide.

Are you going to host a viewing party tonight when the episode airs in the U.K.?

I haven't arranged to have a viewing party with people. It snowed about foot overnight, so that's what I'm thinking about, making a snowman with my kids. [Laughs] But I'm excited for people to see it. I really think the final episode is what makes sense of Ethan's journey up to that point. Mike said to me early on that he did want Ethan to be a mystery and for it to be a possibility that people theorize that maybe Ethan is going to end up killing someone. I was always mindful of that whilst having an eye on the long game that in a way this is actually privately just a big messy sort of love song in Mike White's very particular language.

What did you think of the fan theories where Ethan was either the dead body or the killer?

I'd only get these theories secondhand or if someone brought one to me in conversation. I don't have a full sense of what all the fan theories are, but it's a testament to the show that it provokes this game of trying to crack a mystery and the way that Mike writes characters that you can sort of see stories beyond stories behind every door. Sometimes it'd be fun if it was wildly off and sometimes it'd be fun if it was very close.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

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