Note: the following contains spoilers up to “The White Lotus” Season 2 Episode 7.
The uptight Valentina who once reprimanded Lucia in “The White Lotus” Season 2 premiere has been completely transformed by the end of the season following what star Sabrina Impacciatore calls an “epiphanic” night with Mia.
“It’s for sure a life changing experience, because she’s going to explore these new directions that [are] more faithful to who she really is,” Impacciatore told TheWrap. “Sometimes people live an entire life without being able to be faithful to their nature, and from these moments she can start to know herself better.”
Upon learning that her crush, Isabella, is engaged to hotel staffer Rocco, Valentina drowns her sorrows at the hotel bar when Mia approaches her with a bold proposition. Though Impacciatore says Valentina has likely felt attraction to a woman before, she hasn’t had the courage to pursue it and reveals to Mia that she has never been with a woman before.
“She didn’t totally know that she was gay,” Impacciatore said. “She was trying probably to hide to herself that she was gay. She was so focused on her job … she was like a workaholic to me because she didn’t have a private life, and working so much for her was a way to have her life in control.”
With stifled giggles likely caused by a mixture of several martinis and the thought of mischievously sneaking the hotel, Valentina takes Mia up on her offer in a moment that kickstarts her sexual awakening and enables her to get in touch with “her secret nature.”
After waking up in a panic to a knock on the door as Valentina throws on her crumped clothes from the last night, Impacciatore says Valentina simultaneously feels overwhelmed, happy and scared, but also excited about what the future holds for her.
“A new life is starting somehow,” Impacciatore said. “Until that moment, she was not able to live life truly, and so it’s a new journey that starts from that moment.”
After settling down from initially feeling flustered, Valentina’s transformation is immediately noticeable in her firm but fair approach to the male employees as she confronts Salvatore about his unwanted advances toward Isabella and asks him to switch places with Rocco.
“Before, she had this rage against men, she was feeling almost threatened by men, [and] she was aggressive, probably because she was not in peace with herself,” Impacciatore said. “After this night with Mia … she welcomes Rocco back to the reception, she talks to Salvatore in a sweeter way. Even her relationship to the world is different.”
On a high from this awakening and still very much so in the “dream” of last night’s events, Valentina also kicks Giuseppe to the curb and offers Mia a full-time position as the hotel’s pianist — a choice Impacciatore says was motivated by the budding crush Valentina has on Mia after their night together.
“In that moment, she is not feeling empowered because of her job and because of her position,” Impacciatore said. “She feels that she wants to impress Mia. She wants to show Mia that she’s able to help Mia, that she can do something for her, that she stands for her, that Mia can can count on her.”
Though Valentina and Mia’s encounter could be interpreted as transactional, Impacciatore says Valentina doesn’t feel used, and is instead thrilled that a new life is starting for her.
Although Mia agrees to spend another night with Valentina, Mia invites Valentina to join Mia and Lucia on a night out to a gay club find her a “real lesbian lover” — marking a stark contrast from the start of the season.
“Valentina is so repressed and compressed at the beginning of the show [that] she reacts so hostile to them, not only because she’s the boss and she doesn’t want sex workers in the hotel, but also because they challenge her with their female confidence,” Impacciatore said.
While we can already picture the shenanigans the trio might get into, Impacciatore admits that while watching the finale, she imagined Valentina catching up with Mia and Lucia in that final scene as they stroll the streets of Sicily together.
“[Mia and Lucia] are going to become meaningful for her because they represent liberation,” Impacciatore said, pointing to how Lucia utilizes her uninhibited freedom to get what she wants. “Now, after this night with Mia, and I think that Valentina should going to explore a new relationship with them, and probably she’s going to feel safer.”
“The White Lotus” Season 2 is available on HBO on demand and on HBO Max.