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‘The White Lotus’ Refresh: Everything to Remember About Tanya’s Shady Husband Greg
The bald men are abundant this season on Mike White‘s long-awaited third season of The White Lotus, but there’s one bereft, hairline-impaired character who some viewers may have missed at the end of the first episode: Greg (Jon Gries), Tanya’s (Jennifer Coolidge) former husband and sort-of murderer.
Off to its branded slow burn start, the Season 3 premiere episode, which dropped on February 16 on Max and HBO, offered various warnings and clues to its captive audience, but perhaps the most harrowing of all: “You’ll notice a lot of bald white guys in Thailand. The locals call them LBHs: Losers Back Home,” said long-term Thailand resident Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon). Which bald man is behind her? None other than Tanya McQuoid’s former husband.
Gries, who reprises the role of Greg, was not a face viewers were hoping to see again, given his insidious intentions with Tanya that were revealed throughout Season 1 and Season 2. Greg, who has made his way to the new resort location of Thailand, has a whole storied history at the White Lotus Resort. Now, where to begin?
When did Greg and Tanya first meet?
Greg and Tanya first met in Season 1 of The White Lotus at the resort’s Maui location. At the time, Greg was a sports fisherman who “accidentally” tries to get into her hotel room. The two hit it off and become romantically involved over the course of Tanya’s stay. Though there are some nights that Greg remembered better than Tanya, by the end of Season 1, Greg drops major hints that his health is in jeopardy.
When did Greg and Tanya get married?
Greg and Tanya are revealed to have gotten married at the top of Season 2. Waiting for her at the Sicily White Lotus (but not having answered any of her text messages), Greg greets Tanya with a less-than-warm demeanor. Clearly, things are on the rocks for the married couple as Greg continues to exhibit signs that he actually hates his newly beloved. He makes disparaging comments about her weight and demands she sends her assistant Portia (Haley Lu Richardson) away, which, smartly, she does not. (She just makes her assistant run around like a crazy person to hide from him the entire duration of their stay.) Greg also mentions that Tanya had helped him with his health issues immensely since they had gotten together by setting him up with her fancy doctors. You would hope he would seem more grateful for Tanya’s presence in his life, but alas. Tanya ends up dead in the ocean after falling off the abduction boat she had nearly freed herself from.
A prenup was mentioned a handful of times over the course of Season 2, implying the two had come to some agreements about Tanya’s money (since she definitely had more than Greg) should their relationship end. So, it felt safe to assume that should Tanya befall some tragic accident that takes her life, Greg would be the sole benefactor of her wealth.
So, did Greg kill Tanya?
Not exactly, but pretty much yes. After hiring Quentin (Tom Hollander) to kill Tanya in Season 2 to inherit her money, his ploy does not exactly go to plan—though she still ends up dead regardless.
After only a few days on their romantic getaway, Greg leaves Tanya alone at the Sicilian resort, citing some “work troubles” as urgent. In her lonely state, she befriends a group of Italian and English men that adorn her with compliments and lavish luxury experiences—who can blame her? It’s later revealed that Greg was working with these men and offered them a share of his inheritance if they befriended Tanya to bring her to her downfall.
Smarter than he gave her credit for, Tanya realizes the scheme before it’s too late. Despite being trapped on a boat alone and outnumbered by men bent on killing her, Tanya locks herself in a room with a gun and manages to shoot and kill nearly every single member on board. It was tragically as she stepped off the boat to get to a smaller escape vessel that she slips, hits her head, and drowns.
Did Greg inherit Tanya’s money?
This is unclear but very likely. Greg was nowhere near Sicily at the time of Tanya’s death, and due to the nature of her accidental fall, it seems likely that his plan worked after all. This is only further confirmed by his surprise appearance in Season 3.
What is Greg up to now?
Greg seems to be living it up abroad with a new girlfriend, a new house, and a new life. When one of the new residents this season Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) goes to the bar after her boyfriend Rick (Walter Goggins) leaves her at the table, she bonds with another guest named Chloe (Le Bon) over their grumpy boyfriends.
“We have a house at the top of the hill. We just come down here to eat, but we just got into a fight, so I’m letting him cool off,” Chloe says. Cut to, surprise surprise, Greg, looking as despondent and insidious as ever.
Chloe reveals the two have been living in a house nearby for an entire year. We can assume that location and those resort dinners do not come cheap, so for now, Greg seems to be set on cash.
Is anyone alive that still knows about Tanya and Greg’s rocky relationship?
At the moment, Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) is also the only other character who has known Greg and Tanya before, as she was the manager at the resort spa at the Maui White Lotus. She had formed a close and, at times, troubled bond with Tanya, who took a liking to Belinda while also haphazardly pitching that the two start their own spa practice: a grand gesture to Belinda in her position of wanting to leave the resort but an empty promise to a woman as out-of-touch as Tanya.
Though Greg and Tanya were not married at the resort Belinda worked at, they were seen together on multiple occasions and were often cited to Belinda as the main distraction from Tanya’s ability to carry through on her and Belinda’s plan. Now in Thailand on a three-month teaching retreat, Belinda is back at a resort with Greg, though only time will tell if Greg will finally pay for the ultimate sin: taking Tanya away from White Lotus fans far too soon.
The White Lotus, Season 3, Sundays, 9/8c, HBO
