The White Lotus
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When our castaways were cruising on the hotel junk rig in the season premiere, internecine feuding felt inevitable.
But five episodes in, the problem isnt being stuck in paradise with other people.
Its being stuck anywhere with yourself.
Its being stuckasyourself in front of other people.
The gun count ticks steadily up this week, reminding us that all this wellness ends in death.
But for Buddhists, dying is an opportunity to unbind from the past and start again.
Someone will leave Thailand in a body bag, which is to say, reborn.
Full Moon Party is a neon riot of action punctuated by the seasons zingiest jokes.
Theres inappropriate sex between married Jaclyn and her butler.
she cries, stumbling over a Russian toast.)
Theres overdue workplace sex between Belinda and Pornchai.
(This is consent, Belinda declares.
Do you guys do that here?)
Played by Sam Rockwell (Leslie Bibbs S.O.
), Frank is introduced halfway through the season to hand Rick a gun (gun No.
- that Rick almost certainly could have gotten another way.
(For example, he could have lifted gun No.
2 from Gaitok.)
Becoming an LBH is a form of rebirth, too.
Instead of finding a scandalously young girlfriend on these shores the typical LBH play Frank found religion.
When he first arrived, he had sex with thousands.
Some of them turned out to be, in Franks words, ladyboys, which was revelatory for him.
Inside, could I be an Asian girl?
Frank asks, while Rick mm-hmms along in the role of active, impartial listener.
Do our insides have to match our outsides?Its the same question Piper Ratliff is posing.
Or maybe its perfect.
The Ratliffs are a family in upheaval.
Soon, theyll each be pressed to find new ways of being.
Youre not from China!
Victoria yells at Piper in protest of her post-graduation plans.
In other words, your outsides dont match your Buddhist impulses.
Tim says very little to his daughter, perhaps because hes not boarding the return flight to Charleston himself.
Theres a gun in his pocket, for one thing.
Maybe hell become another LBH, serving out a life sentence in a tropical prison.
Old men in a hellish bardo of their own making.
The Ratliffs hatch a madcap family plan to visit the monastery together tomorrow.
What wont Tim Ratliff steal?)
Its hard to know how seriously to take Victoria and the Case of the Stolen Pills.
On the one hand, a possible side effect of benzo withdrawal is psychosis.
This shy, dopey, lovesick kid should not be responsible for a firearm.
Tim, though, keeps his cool under pressure.
Its like Tims already practicing selective memory for the depositions to come.
I cannot recall.
I dont remember deleting the relevant emails.
For all Fabians concern about hotel security, that empty tunic cant spot a snake in the grass.
LBHs with colorful pasts are what keep the White Lotus Thailand afloat.
Deterred by Fabian, Belinda engages Pornchai for protection instead, which is a pretty smooth move.
Its role-play from here.
Belinda is the damsel in distress.
Pornchai is the hero who slays a dragon to save her.
(Okay, fine, he evicts a lizard thats been hiding behind the wardrobe.)
Belinda asks Pornchai to stay the night, just this once.
Its a double room, so she cant allow circumstances to shove them into the bed.
She has to ask for what she wants, and then she gets it, consequence-free.
Im not sure thats ever really happened onTheWhite Lotusbefore.
Its not the only bed-hopping on Full Moon Party.
Last week, Jaclyn struggled to get her young husband on the phone.
This week, she proves to herself that she doesnt care if he calls.
I felt in my bones that she would sleep with Val, but still I hated to see it.
Who you are at the White Lotus is who you are.
Theres not enough Reiki on the planet to fix it.
At least we finally make it to the Full Moon Party, which looks sick.
The girls getcute T-shirts(from NYC artist Scooter LaForge).
Youve seen people twirl fire batons before, but on Ko Pha Ngan, theyre jumping fire double Dutch.
Even Saxon I am the drug Ratliff drops molly.
Instead of a foursome, this transient little squad plays a performative kissing game, like teenagers.
Chelsea makes out with Chloe; Chloe makes out with Lochlan.
Lochlan, obliged by the rules, gives his brother a wee peck.
When the girls arent satisfied, he goes back in for a full, hands-on-the-face smackeroo.
Saxon looks stunned, but his younger bro wears a sly smile.
Yeah, for sure.
But nothing they cant pretend never happened in the morning.
Shes catastrophizing over Pipers plans to emigrate, but we know shes not wrong.
But its the first half of Victorias comment that I found myself ruminating on later.
What is it that Victoria thinks she got so right?
How would Kate answer that question?
Like catastrophizing, thinking you control the world around you is a cognitive distortion.
And its one we all make.
It makes your TV into a mirror.
Update: an earlier version of this recap misstated the Ratliffs home state.
It has been corrected.
