This article contains spoilers for the Season 3 finale of “The White Lotus.”
The third season of HBO’s “The White Lotus” has finally come to a close. With eight episodes — the last of which ran for 90 minutes — it is the longest iteration of the show, stuffed with all manner of plots, subplots and marplots.
Set in Thailand, it gave us cobra bites, Muay Thai fights and Buddhist insights; suicide trees, queasy sexual sprees and lots of screaming monkeys, not to mention an early image of a corpse floating face down in a pond as a panoply of gunshots rang out.
Was the body that of Tim Ratliff (Jason Isaacs), who, after learning that some illegal business deal might strip him of his wealth and freedom, spent the entire season contemplating suicide/familicide? Or Rick Hatchett (Walton Goggins), who had come to Thailand for the express purpose of taking vengeance on Jim Hollinger (Scott Glenn), the hotel’s owner who Rick believes killed his father? Or perhaps Belinda (Natasha Rothwell), from Season 1, who recognized Greg (Jon Gries), who goes by Gary in this season, the man presumably responsible for the death of Tanya McQuoid (Jennifer Coolidge) in Season 2?
As it turns out, we may never know who once inhabited that particular corpse — five people were killed in the finale, four of whom went into the water, including two nameless bodyguards and, more important, Rick and — sob — his cheerful, devoted lover Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood). Times “Lotus” watchers have already made their feelings known about the big reveal (and a few other things) but Greg Braxton and Mary McNamara had a few more things to say about Season 3 and the series as a whole.
McNamara: I have long been a fan of creator Mike White’s dark humor — his ability to find grace in chaos and see the corruption lurking beneath a placid and beautiful surface. “The White Lotus” has always been a meta-joke about privilege and the impossiblity of taking even a high-end vacation from the self, but this season felt slow, dark and super self-conscious.
Maybe I just missed the buoyant absurdity of Coolidge’s Tanya, but the subplots seemed a conspicuous mix of bread crumbs and red herrings, while the commentary on wretched excess was so heavy-handed that a smiling Buddhist monk (played by Thai journalist/TV personality Suthichai Yoon) was on hand to dole it out. When the finale opened with him explaining that “there is no resolution to life’s questions,” the words “come on” escaped my lips — this season has been so clearly geared to resolving who died and whodunnit that I kept expecting Miss Marple to show up.
But there was so much else going on — the incestuous encounter between the Ratliff brothers, the mysterious Russian guys, the infamous Frank (Sam Rockwell) monologue, the song-styling aspirations of hotel general manager Fabian (Christian Friedel) — that, like “Lost” viewers of yore, we would also have to accept death by a thousand dropped sub-plots.
The micro- (and macro-) tensions between hotel guests and staff/townfolk that fueled the first two seasons were jettisoned in favor of eyeing the potential powder kegs of masculine energy — Tim, Rick and security guard Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong), he of the missing gun. The cinematography was, as usual, breathtaking, and I did love the interplay of the three gal pals, played by Michelle Monaghan, Leslie Bibb and Carrie Coon, but they often felt like they belonged on another show.
Many viewers complained about the slowness of early episodes — and Duke was not happy with its prominence among the highly flawed Ratliff family — but given the show’s enormous success, perhaps some backlash was inevitable. When a series has set the bar so high, it’s easy to nitpick as time goes on, so maybe I’m just being grumpy. What do you think?
Braxton: It’s hard to know where to begin, Mary. Are fans so consumed by the mystery of who died at the end that they’re willing to forgive the numerous contrivances and shameless manipulations of this installment? I, for one, cannot. To use a metaphor by borrowing a line from the finale, “the coconut milk is off.”
As you so superbly put it, the first two seasons were top-notch TV, populated by performers who captured the complexity and layered complications of interesting characters who were not always likable, but possessed a humanity that made them relatable. But this season was such a supreme disappointment, populated by one-dimensional, shallow characters who were not compelling. The contrivances (trees with “suicide fruit” conveniently planted near the villas, Lochlan (Sam Nivola) not washing out the blender before making his smoothie, Tim popping lorazepam pills like they were jelly beans without turning into a zombie, etc.) were too numerous to mention. The obvious manipulations, the panoply of loose ends and the cheaply provocative happenings will keep me from a return visit to this season.
Mike White seems to want the viewers to feel that Tim had reached a level of clarity on the boat. The moment is meant to redeem him. And his speech about the family weathering the catastrophe awaiting them at home by bonding together? To quote Hall & Oates, “I can’t go for that. No can do.”
It seems that the show was juiced up with happenings (brothers making out, Frank’s monologue about his ladyboy decadence) that were intended more to push buttons to get viewers buzzing rather than add momentum and meaning to the overall story. The incest storyline is just easily dismissed with Lochlan’s “I’m a pleaser” explanation without Saxon reflecting on why he was smooching his sibling. The finale reached another low point with the “he’s your father” revelation in the end which must have caused “Star Wars” fans to have a brain freeze.
Mary, I I know you’re a big Sam Rockwell fan, but I feel the only reason he was on the series was so he and his wife Leslie Bibb would not break their “no more than three or four weeks apart” rule. That whole speech was just to shock and bait Emmy voters to give him a nomination. I hope they don’t fall for it. Frank’s presence really had little to do with Rick’s mission of revenge. There were problems with the show before, but that’s where I feel it really jumped the shark — or more appropriately, the monkey.
McNamara: I admit I had hoped Frank would play a larger part in Rick’s story, and we never did find out what their previous relationship was or why he “owed” him so big that he’d provide Rick with a gun and the whole Hollywood director charade. I will also never understand why Rick wasn’t arrested for loosing a tangle of venomous snakes in town or how Chelsea’s near-death experience with a cobra found her chatting happily at breakfast the next day with a band-aid.
Nor do I accept that Tim, having stolen a gun, would accept its disappearance (after Gaitok stole it back) without a second thought, no matter how much Lorazepam he had hoovered.
“The White Lotus” is built, in part, on the gap between image and reality, but you’re right, there were so many plot holes that it was hard not to keep tripping over them. Try as I might, I could not shake the feeling of a series resting on its laurels: the gorgeous setting, the amazing cast (in which too many stars, including Parker Posey, were not given enough to do), the rapt audience. It’s as if the show, like its wealthy guests, has bought into the White Lotus mythology — if the thread count is high enough, no one will be too concerned about the perils of ignoring what is actually happening.
Still, if White brings back Belinda, now as miserable and out of touch as any other wealthy hotel guest, in Season 4 and gives Rothwell room to play, I might tune in.
Braxton: The darkness that shadowed this season overwhelmed the light touch and insightful interplay that made this franchise such a hallmark. The memory of this season will pass, and I will definitely be aboard for the next. Mike White is a true artist, and I have loved everything he’s been involved with. I do think Belinda will return, and she and her son Zion (Nicholas Duvernay) will be in peril. Gary/Greg is not going to let a smug kid feel like he triumphed with that fast-talking wheeling and dealing, and Belinda is still a potential threat. I also hope that the cast next time has more cultural diversity. We’ve seen enough entitled white people, so let’s get some variety. Belinda did smile when she saw a Black couple eating dinner at the resort, but that seemed more like White checking a box so that he could preempt charges of exclusion. But most of all, I hope he returns to the feel of the first two seasons. I’ll be waiting.