There is something fitting about this week’s episode of The White Lotus and its most action-packed sequence, though this was a less action-packed episode all around. Indeed, I’d say this is the episode with the least forward momentum yet, though it was anything but boring. I suspect some readers may disagree with me here, as already I’ve heard some grumbling about this season’s slow pace. Spoilers ahead.
There’s some truth to that, of course. By this time in Season 1, we’d already established a pretty crackling conflict between Shane and Armond, the hotel manager. In Season 2, the tension between the two couples had already built up quite a bit as well. Season 3 has had a couple of explosive moments, but tension between the guests and staff remains fairly mild, all things considered.
And yet, I remain wholly absorbed by these characters and the many little ways their stories are unfolding.
Freedom For Snakes & Vipers
Action-packed may not even be the right way to describe this episode’s most shocking moment. When Rick (Walton Goggins) and Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) head to town to find Rick some much-needed cannabis, a snake show catches Rick’s eye. In his typical gruff fashion, he storms over to go see, Chelsea following close behind.
We’ll get to the snakes in a minute. First, we have to backpedal just a smidge. Before he heads off to find weed, it being the only thing that eases his stress, Rick has another fruitless meditation session with the “wise Indian” Amrita (Shalini Peiris). He also puts on a persona for the hotel owner, Sritala (Lek Patravadi) pretending to be a Hollywood producer interested in casting her in a film he’s working on. The flattery gets him what he’s after: A business card with her contact information and an excuse for him to meet up with her in Bangkok, where he’s eager to track down her husband.
Why is he so eager to find Sritala’s husband? The clue seems to be in his meditation session, when he tells Amitra that it’s too late for him to be a good person, too late for him to ever know his father, but maybe not too late to get some satisfaction. I think at this point it’s fairly obvious that he’s out for revenge, and that he’s narrowed down his search to the husband, Jim Hollinger (Scott Glenn). This could be a headfake. Hollinger could be Rick’s father, or just someone who knows something about his father’s murder (if he really was murdered).
Rick and Chelsea’s relationship continues to be pretty fascinating also. She chides him at one point when he won’t divulge his business in Bangkok. “Scorpios,” she says. “So secretive.” She’s an Aries and therefore needs everything out in the open. When she asks what she’s supposed to do while he’s away he says she should maybe meet a guy. A guy who is even richer than he is to sponge off of. After all, he says, “our signs aren’t even compatible!”
But she follows him to get weed and then follows him to the snake show. Here, they find dozens of snakes kept in glass aquariums. Rick, now stoned for the first time in awhile, says that it’s a shame they’re not free, but Chelsea disagrees. If all these venomous snakes were free they’d just be out there biting people. It’s a bit of foreshadowing. They go into the snake show and watch as the locals bring out a trio of cobras. One of the men talks into a microphone, telling the crowd about he snakes while the other man handles them. It’s a pretty tense moment and it seems to really have a distressing impact on Rick, who storms out of the show after the cobras are put back in their tank.
He goes into the room with all the aquariums and has his only little E.T. moment. Recall the scene where Elliot frees the frogs about to be dissected in that film. Rick is Elliot at this point, only he’s stoned rather than drunk and he’s freeing deadly snakes instead of harmless frogs. Chelsea once again follows him, spotting him carrying a large snake across the room. “Rick?” she asks. He turns and sees her and sees the cobra rearing up behind her. It lashes out, biting her leg.
She’s rushed off to the hospital and he follows in a taxi. It’s hard not to think of all of this as Rick’s own personal struggle with his past and the many bad things he’s done. Later, when he and Chelsea unpack the day she tells him, “Snakes are evil. Read the bible!” which is perhaps the best line of the episode. “Well even evil things don’t deserve to be treated like shit,” he replies. He apologizes and she tells him he won’t be able ot get rid of her that easy. Rick identifies with the snakes, empathizes with their imprisonment. Of course, there are many snakes here at The White Lotus, and most of them are bipedal. And at least one of them is about to learn what having his freedom taken away means.
The Family Ratliff
The family Ratliff is haunted by bad dreams. There’s a tsunami coming, and it threatens to wash away all the money and joy from their lives.
Timothy Ratliff (Jason Isaacs) is in a world of trouble. He’s also in a world of denial. Everyone can see that he’s stressed out and slowly losing his control, but he’s not about to divulge what’s going on. He’s so thoroughly in denial that he gives up his phone in order to ensure that nobody else in his family learns the truth about what’s going on back in the States.
This is all prompted by Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) who is starting to get texts from the office telling him to have his dad get in touch ASAP. It’s only a matter of time before the lid is blown off and they all find out that their perfect father is actually not such a good guy, after all. The FBI has shown up at his office. His lawyer has left messages telling him not to talk to anybody but him. Of course, without his phone, there’s little chance he’ll be able to do even that.
When Victoria (Parker Posey) offers him one of her pills, he reluctantly takes it, popping it after she leaves and promptly passing out. Later, he sneaks another and takes it surreptitiously. When Victoria offers him another, he tells her he doesn’t do drugs. It’s all lies and secrets with Timothy Ratliff.
The other Ratliffs are enjoying themselves, more or less. Saxon badgers his younger brother, Lochlan (Sam Nivola) about putting on muscle, which is apparently achieved by drinking lots of protein shakes. Lochlan, meanwhile, is signed up for a corrective posture session, which turns out to be more like a therapy session. The man helping him tells Lochlan that he sits defensively, that his entire persona is basically one of self-defense. Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) is the only one really thrilled by the phones getting taken away. Things seem to be going her way. She even sets up a meeting with the Buddhist monk she came here to speak with. Saxon is the only one who has a meltdown about the phones. He’s like a very large child, stomping his feet and throwing a fit, complaining that Piper always gets what she wants.
But it seems Saxon may also get what he wants in the form of Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon) the French Canadian companion of Greg/Gary (Jon Gries). She doesn’t share Chelsea’s appraisal of Saxon. When he asks to sit next to her on the beach, she flirts with him. Later, at dinner they exchange glances, though Gary notices.
Greg, I Presume?
Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) is having a fine old time at The White Lotus in Thailand. She’s been getting the royal treatment, learning about the spa’s secrets by indulging in them with her new friend, Pornchai (Dom Hetrakul). At dinner, she realizes that she absolutely knows Greg from somewhere. He was the one who snatched Tanya away from her a couple years back, crushing her dreams of opening her own treatment center in the process.
This is the second time Tanya is referenced this episode. Earlier, Chloe tells Chelsea about Gary’s ex. She was a real lunatic, apparently, so crazy that she killed herself by walking into the ocean and drowning. They only found her leg. Of course, Chloe’s version of events (as told to her by Gary, naturally) are a wild distortion of what actually happened in Sicily, though she certainly was a bit off her rocker, and she did drown in the ocean.
In any case, Belinda walks over to the table where Gary, Rick, Chloe and Chelsea are all having dinner and introduces herself. Don’t I know you? she asks Gary. You’re Greg, right? You were married to Tanya McCuoid. Deeply uncomfortable, Gary denies it all. She must be thinking of someone else. You must have a doppelganger, she tells him, laughing but clearly not fully onboard with this explanation. When she leaves, Chloe tells Greg, “See, I told you all you white bald guys look alike.”
Later, Pornchai walks Belinda back to her room. He’s drunk. He makes some very suggestive comments to her, though up to this point he’s been nothing but professional. “I hope you have good dreams of me,” he says drunkenly, “And you have good dreams of me.” She clearly likes him and laughs along with his clumsy words, but when she’s alone in her room she hears something. Maybe a door or a window, it’s hard to tell. Has Greg come to search her room?
The Gossip Girls
Much of our time with the Gossip Girls this week is spent with Kate (Leslie Bib) and Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan) encouraging Laurie (Carrie Coon) to have a fling with Valentin (Arnas Fedaravičius). They set up a healing session with the two of them after asking him copious questions about his life, noting that he made it to Thailand before the war with Ukraine broke out.
This is perhaps the most timely storyline of them all, perhaps of the entire series. Not only is the war referenced, but later at dinner all three chat about politics. Both Laurie and Jaclyn are surprised when Kate reveals how important church is to her. They ask her if it’s uncomfortable being around conservative types. She seems confused. They’re very nice people she says. Then they bring up Trump and when she demurs they ask if she’s a Republican. Kate denies it immediately. “I’m an independent,” she says, but her husband is a Republican.
“You didn’t vote for Trump?” they ask in disbelief, and she doesn’t deny it, but she does attempt to change the conversation. Later, back in their rooms, she wakes up to the sound of voices outside. She goes to the patio and looks out at her two friends, clearly engaged in yet another tawdry gossip session. She seems shocked by this at first. She was only too happy to engage in the chatter when it was one of the others off on their own, but now she’s on the other end of it all.
Snakes and vipers, indeed.
Scattered Thoughts
We don’t see much of the staff this week. Gaitok (Tayme Thaphimthong) greets Sritala in the hotel lobby and she commends him for his bravery. He says that if she needs any new bodyguards, he’s happy to help. Her bodyguards, however, look more like thugs. They find Gaitok later and mock him, telling the poor guy that Fabian (Christian Friedel) wanted him fired but Sritala kept him on because she’s nice. Why would she hire Gaitok as a bodyguard when he can’t even do his current job properly?
We also get a brief moment with Fabian talking with Sritala, telling her that he’s been writing music and maybe he could perform some of his songs at some point. The idea that the Gossip Girls planted in his head last week has taken root.
All told, another excellent episode of The White Lotus, but definitely a slow burn. I get the feeling that the first half of this season will be mostly setup, with all the payoff unfolding as we near the finale. I admit, I was a little surprised when the episode ended. You could say that’s because not a ton of stuff happened and I was expecting more, but I suspect it’s also because even without a lot happening, what does unfold is still so gripping from a character standpoint. This is especially true since we know things are going to get crazy soon enough, and watching all the pieces maneuver into place is just great TV, slow or not.
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