Critical Corner: The White Lotus Season Three

Spoilers for The White Lotus season three, obviously.

Another season of The White Lotus, another eight weeks of wondering who did it, another eight weeks of memes shared by the most boring people in your life, and everybody in your life having theories like they're the parliament press gallery before election day, incorrectly predicting results and suffering no consequences for being hilariously wrong. It's the most fun time of year for TV, until the next most fun time of year. (On that, can we have a moratorium of "this is the best X of the year" when we're barely three months into it?)

I’ve enjoyed this season as much as anybody – the twists, the depravity, the sheer Mike Whiteness of it all – but it’s taken until the final episode for it to really work for me. Whatever plotline a viewer enjoys most is very much up to them and their specific taste. For me, the Ratliff family was the most successful of the season; the family annihilator Sword of Damocles mixed with class commentary, messed up sibling dynamics, and a Parker Posey performance that really hit the landing was always going to be an unbeatable cocktail. 

The plotline between the three women was also a winner for me. The chance to see two actors (Michelle Monaghan and Leslie Bibb) tap into something they haven’t been able to in previous work, alongside Carrie Coon, one of the best actors on TV, play multiple layers of a decades-long friendship across eight episodes is enough for a series in its own right.

Other plotlines were alternately fun and great, if not exactly what I come to The White Lotus for. I will watch Natasha Rothwell do anything, but Belinda’s presence here for most of the season felt like more of a red herring than a necessity (although her turn in the finale is one of the most satisfying, so I imagine it’d hold up better on a rewatch). Similarly, Walton Goggins and Aimee Lou Wood were incredibly winning as Rick and Chelsea, but daddy Darth Vader issues are never going to grab me in a series like this.

For the first time, the various arcs of The White Lotus workers felt less intriguing than those of the guests. Mike White is a genius at riding the line between writing a three-dimensional character and writing a symbol, and this time the workers fell more on the side of symbol. But, again, Gaitok’s turn to prompted violence in the finale is one of the most potent moments, as is the image of him in the bodyguard’s uniform.

All of this leaves this season of The White Lotus feeling like a slower burn than previous seasons. It feels like design, however. The first season was about characters deluding themselves despite what was right in front of their faces, the second season was about characters throwing off completely reasonable suspicion in favour of comfort. Subtly, but crucially different, approaches to similar topics. In both cases, the extreme comfort and wealth of The White Lotus enables and disables characters, and not necessarily accordingly to class.

This season, however, is about a new cast of characters struggling between their own nature and the system. Timothy Ratliff believes his family can’t live without money, initially only deigning to spend the one who believes can live without it. At the last moment, he saves his family, but nearly dooms that same son. Belinda doesn’t want to take Greg’s money due to her moral compass, until she throws that compass out the window. Good nature succumbs to the system. Rick begs Amrita for five minutes of her time so he doesn’t murder somebody, essentially. The system fails him, so he succumbs to nature - his primal desire to kill.

Season’s three focus leads to what I think is the biggest misconception around one of the most talked about moments of the episode: Laurie’s monologue. After having a week spending time with friends who could be better described as enemies, and listening to their pseudo-profound conclusions on what they got from the week, Laurie has her own revelation:

“We started this life together. I mean, we’re going through it apart, but we’re still together, and I look at you guys, and it feels meaningful. And I can’t explain it, but even when we’re just sitting around the pool talking about whatever inane shit, it still feels very fucking deep … I’m just happy to be at the table.”

Taken at face value, it’s a beautiful piece of writing. I feel a deep amount of sympathy for those who run drama school auditions and zero sympathy for scene group participants who will hear this for the next five years. Carrie Coon nails every moment of it to the wall: Laurie’s need to not just belong, but to be better than these women. It’s the same thing that’s been driving her all season. 

But nothing in The White Lotus should ever be taken at face value. This is the same series that gave us Tanya. That gave us the uncle fucker. That gave us the brother handie. I don’t believe that Laurie sincerely believes any of this, but I do believe that she needs to get more out of this resort trip than the other women. Jaclyn has a beautiful face, Kate has a beautiful life, at least Laurie can pretend to have beautiful thoughts.

The White Lotus might be a victim of its own unprecedented success. What started off as satire and social commentary is now treated like a murder mystery, or even worse, a meme factory. The White Lotus is not an Agatha Christie story, however. It uses murder-mystery as a vehicle. The real point of it - and really, all of White’s recent work - is about how easily systems can break and bend people. Often, not the “right” people. Everyone in the show is a victim, some just have more money at the end of it.

This season will linger with me longer than others, I suspect. The quieter moments of the season resonate with me more than the memes. Laurie staring at her friends from the balcony, Lochlan simply saying that he is a “people pleaser”, a disarmingly sober Victoria explaining their privilege in no uncertain terms, and sad, doomed, Chelsea not even getting an onscreen death. White’s biggest successes are with those moments. It doesn’t really matter who did it, they’re all screwed anyway.

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