We’re back! After detours to Hawaii and Italy, a whole new—well, almost entirely new—cast of characters are checking into the White Lotus hotel in Thailand. The White Lotus is known for its stinging observations on wealth, power, privilege, and sex, but showrunner Mike White has teased that season three will turn the show’s gaze towards spirituality.
It’s no wonder, then, that season three opens with a meditation session between Zion (Nicholas Duvernay), a college student staying at the hotel with his mom, and resort employee Amrita (Shalini Peiris). Amrita guides Zion through a meditative trance, but that peace is quickly punctured by a series of gunshots echoing through the jungle. Instead of fleeing with Amrita or any of the other screaming hotel guests, Zion jumps into the resort’s lily pad-covered lagoon, on a mission to find his mom before the mysterious gunman does. For a moment, I wondered if this is the mystery that White chose to open season three with; rather than open with gossip about a murder or a glimpse of a dead body washing ashore, we’d spend the rest of the season unraveling the reason behind why, exactly, a shootout would be taking place at the White Lotus. After all, I assume there’s only so many corpses that can turn up at the same hotel chain before they all get shut down due to health code violations or whatever. But, Zion’s wade into the waters eventually brings him face to face with yet another floating body—à la Daphne’s encounter with Tanya in the season two premiere—and now there’s no turning back.
The show rewinds to one week earlier. Our main ensemble is now being ferried over to the resort, including a tycoon businessman and his family, a cranky sugar daddy and his woo-woo girlfriend, and a famous TV actress with her squad of childhood friends. Beloved White Lotus character Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) has also arrived on the boat—though, this time, she’s coming to the hotel as a participant in a three-month wellness program. Greeting them all is Sritala (Lek Patravadi), a glamorous woman and wellness pioneer who owns the White Lotus with her husband.
Upon checking into their villa, family patriarch Timothy (Jason Isaacs) is displeased to find out that the resort is a digital-free space, even though his wife, Victoria (Parker Posey), and daughter, Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook), seem pleased enough to play along. Timothy’s two sons are another story. There’s the eldest, Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger), the kind of obnoxious rich white guy who wears polo shirts and boat shoes while saying phrases like “clutch” unironically. He also works for Timothy’s company. Then, there’s the youngest, Lochlan (Sam Nivola), a naive high school senior whose biggest worry is choosing between his parents’ alma maters, Duke or Chapel Hill. Middle sibling Piper seems on edge. The only reason her family is even in Thailand, apparently, is because she wants to interview a monk at a nearby monastery for her religious studies thesis.
Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sarah Catherine Hook, and Sam Nivola in The White Lotus.
In the other villa, Rick (Walton Goggins) is unmoved by his girlfriend’s relentlessly optimistic outlook (as he puts it, she’s like “a fucking machine gun”). Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) is full of pithy observations like, “You should get a facial. Rick, the lady in the airport thought you were my dad. Okay?” Rick is far more stressed out than one should be in a tropical oasis, and it apparently has something to do with tracking down Jim Hollinger, Sritala’s wealthy husband.
At least the girls seem to be having a better start to their vacation so far. Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan) paid for her and her friends’ stay at the White Lotus, one of the many perks of being a successfully-employed actor. While Kate (Leslie Bibb) seems to be sharing a villa with Jaclyn, Laurie’s (Carrie Coon) room has a separate entrance, nestled closer to a thicket of monkey-inhabited trees. The trio kick things off by popping open a bottle of wine, before they settle into girl talk, AKA interrogating Jaclyn about all the work she has or has not gotten done. I admit, it’s a little unsettling watching the three of them together, pruning over their own individual anxieties about aging and cosmetic failures, despite the fact they all look like carbon copies of each other—down to the blonde beach waves and high cheekbones. Laurie says the quiet part out loud: “I look at you two, it’s like I’m looking in a mirror.”
Meanwhile, Belinda is making the most of her new Thai home and White Lotus compatriots. “It’s been a rough couple years,” she tells a group of fellow spa workers during a tour of the grounds. “When this program opened up, it was a blessing. I think the universe knew I needed something.” After the hell Tanya put her through in season one, I only want to see Belinda stress-free and thriving—but, perhaps this is the wrong show for that.
Natasha Rothwell in The White Lotus.
If devotedly watching The White Lotus has taught me anything, it’s that those who aren’t holding the pursestrings are usually the ones who also get screwed over. That casts a small shadow over Mook (Lalisa Manobal) an employee at the resort whose girl-next-door energy has clearly caught the eye of both Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong), a sweet security guard who’s looking for a way to prove his worth, and the leery crew of gun-carrying men, who apparently work as Jim Hollinger’s bodyguards.
Tensions rise at dinner, where Timothy gets a call from a Wall Street Journal reporter who is investigating his connection to Kenneth Nguyen, a former business partner who opened up a suspicious fund called Sho-Kel. Timothy plays it off like a pro, but, after hanging up, immediately gives Kenny a panicked ring to warn him of the coming crusade.
Rick’s appetite is also diminished, though I suspect it has less to do with the “gluten-free rice and coconut balls” than it does with his jitters over a certain Mr. Hollinger. Chelsea is either indifferent to or acclimated to her boyfriend’s tantrums. “I think the cosmos brought us together so that we could get to the root of your issues,” she breezily tells him. “I’m gonna help you get your joy back. Even if it kills.” Hm, do I sense foreshadowing or a plot diversion?
Aimee Lou Wood in The White Lotus.
After Rick sulks back to their room, Chelsea makes friends with a model at the bar, where they bond over their crappy relationships with older guys who seem to despise them. The model reveals that she has lived in Thailand with her boyfriend for the past year. “He just tells me to get lost because I get on his nerves,” she says, “but honestly he’s so fucking boring I almost don’t even care.” She points him out as the “bald guy,” and ohmygodohmygod it’s Greg (Jon Gries). Bald white guys in Thailand are a dime a dozen, but I’d know Greg’s shiny scalp from anywhere! After all, he orchestrated the murder of his rich heiress wife in season two—and that’s not something Jennifer Coolidge fans can easily forgive. And that’s not the only character reveal. After a pleasant dinner, Belinda gets on the phone with her son. We don’t hear or see his side of the conversation, but, from context clues, it can be gleaned that he is the meditating Zion we met in the first seven minutes of the episode.
Back in their villa, Jaclyn, Kate, and Laurie are talking about how lucky they are to be rich—rich in love, in friendships, and, obviously, in their bank accounts. Well, it’s actually mostly Jaclyn and Kate who are doing the talking, and Laurie is filling the awkward silence by busying herself on sips of wine. After going on and on about Kate’s wealthy husband and Jaclyn’s fabulous public life, the two attempt to heap praise onto Laurie for her corporate career, but it comes across as over-compensation. Or, worse, pity. Laurie escapes to her bungalow with a bottle of wine. Gazing through the window at Jaclyn and Kate still deep in conversation in their own separate world, Laurie lets out a guttural and unrestrained cry.
