White Lotus : Season Three

 

A Buddhist-like renunciation of the world is at the center of this season. Can Americans pull it off when immersed in a lush, palatial, tropical island sanctuary under the care of therapists and spiritual counselors? Are you kidding me?  Of course not. We are what we are.  The wellness resort is just more bling - a well appointed pit stop in the rat race.  Even the local Thai characters become, if anything, more worldly by the last episode ( as the peaceful Gaitok learns to use a pistol which he eventually uses to kill Rick and get promoted to chauffeur)

Rick, by the way, is the extreme example of an unredeemable lost soul.  His motivations remain a mystery until the fifth episode and his background is never told.  Was he a professional criminal? We’ll never know.  A last minute therapy session may have averted disaster - but this would not be his fate. I love to watch the charismatic, rubbery face of the actor, Walton Goggins - but he did fail to make this character very believable. It may have been an impossible task.

This is mostly the story of a spiritual crisis in the Ratliff family whose patriarch abruptly learns that he faces financial ruin over a brief episode of white collar crime for which he takes no responsibility. Contemplating suicide, he has an audience with the Abbot of the local Buddhist monastery- asking him what happens after we die. The venerable monk tells him that our lives are like drops of water thrown up momentarily like spray from the great ocean of being - into which we fall back when we die.  It’s a beautiful, peaceful image, and lacking evidence to the contrary, I prefer to believe it.  Zero moral content.  No merit-based reincarnation. No eternal ego.  And as some critics have pointed out, not especially Asian Buddhist. More appropriate for a spiritual retreat in the hills of California.  But this series is about Americans, by Americans and for Americans. So it’s quite appropriate.

All of which may be fascinating, but the series is really about narrative ambience as far as I’m concerned. The music, sets, costumes, flow of story, control of tension and release.  Mike White is a genius - and he’s still getting better.

****

BTW - we might note that one set of characters, the three amigas, has zero interest in spirituality at all. They’re just looking for fun and friendship.  The two career ladies get fucked by a handsome young Russian dude, and the third, a housewife, just wants to hang out with women who are unlike the ladies at church.

edit

• Leslie Bibb as Kate Bohr, a country club wife from Austin, Texas, one of three longtime friends reuniting on a girls' trip
• Carrie Coon as Laurie Duffy, a corporate lawyer and recent divorcée from New York City, one of three longtime friends reuniting on a girls' trip
• Walton Goggins as Rick Hatchett, a rugged and mysterious man with a chip on his shoulder, traveling with his young girlfriend Chelsea
• Sarah Catherine Hook as Piper Ratliff, a college senior studying religion and middle child of Timothy and Victoria
• Jason Isaacs as Timothy Ratliff, a financier in jeopardy from Durham, North Carolina, vacationing with his wife, Victoria, and kids Saxon, Piper, and Lochlan
• Lalisa Manobal as Thidapon "Mook" Sornsin, a health mentor for guests of the White Lotus
• Michelle Monaghan as Jaclyn Lemon, a successful television actress based in Hollywood, one of three longtime friends reuniting on a girls' trip
• Sam Nivola as Lochlan Ratliff, a shy high school senior and Timothy and Victoria's youngest child
• Lek Patravadi as Sritala Hollinger, one of the owners of the White Lotus, who pioneered its health program
• Parker Posey as Victoria Ratliff, Timothy's wife and mother to Saxon, Piper, and Lochlan
• Natasha Rothwell as Belinda Lindsey, a spa manager from the White Lotus in Hawaii, attending a work exchange. Rothwell reprises her role from the first season
• Patrick Schwarzenegger as Saxon Ratliff, Timothy and Victoria's oldest child, who works for his father's company
• Tayme Thapthimthong as Gaitok, a security guard at the White Lotus
• Aimee Lou Wood as Chelsea, a free spirit from Manchester traveling with Rick, her much older boyfriend
• Jon Gries as "Gary" / Greg Hunt,^[a] a man involved with Chloe and the widower of Tanya McQuoid. Gries reprises his role from the first and second seasons.
• Sam Rockwell as Frank,^[b] Rick's friend and former associate
• Scott Glenn as Jim Hollinger,^[c] Sritala's American husband who has recently suffered a stroke

Recurring

edit

• Nicholas Duvernay as Zion Lindsey, Belinda's college-aged son who is visiting her after finishing his business degree
• Arnas Fedaravicius as Valentin, a Russian health mentor for Jaclyn, Laurie, and Kate
• Christian Friedel as Fabian, the general manager of Thailand's The White Lotus
• Dom Hetrakul as Pornchai, the wellness expert at the White Lotus who is assigned to train Belinda
• Charlotte Le Bon as Chloe, an ex-model French-Canadian expat who is Greg's current partner
• Morgana O'Reilly as Pam, a health mentor for the Ratliffs
• Shalini Peiris as Amrita, a meditation teacher and spiritual counselor at the White Lotus
• Julian Kostov as Aleksei, Valentin's friend
• Yuri Kolokolnikov as Vlad, Valentin's friend
• Suthichai Yoon as Luang Por Teera, the head of the local Buddhist monastery
• Yothin Udomsanti as Pee Lek, head of security at the White Lotus, Gaitok's supervisor