Ryan Kirksey
The following recap contains spoilers for The White Lotus S3E1, “Same Spirits, New Forms” (written and directed by Mike White)
“Identity is a prison. No one is spared from this prison. Rich man, poor man, success, or failure. We build the prison, lock ourselves inside, then throw away the key.”
This quote from a Buddhist monk’s book that Piper Ratcliff (Sarah Catherine Hook) is reading during the first episode of The White Lotus Season 3 is both an expositional immersion into the spiritual journey she is on in Ko Samui, Thailand and also the thesis for what The White Lotus has been as a television show since it first premiered in 2020.
Because, you see, when guests check into a White Lotus hotel, their identity is never what it appears to be on the surface. Over the last two seasons, Mike White (who has written and directed every episode) has proven to be a savant at the subversive and hidden parts of ourselves, and he uses the most beautiful and luxurious places in the world to uncover the ugliness and griminess that exists just underneath the surface of these lives, despite how shiny the exterior may appear.
The White Lotus Season 3 premiere, “Same Spirts, New Forms,” follows this exact formula that has made the show such a success over the past two seasons and has helped build up expectations and anticipation for what is an all-star ensemble cast in Season 3. The rich, the elite, and the troubled are still descending upon White Lotus hotels in search of the perfect getaway from their lives back home, but things always deteriorate into the macabre and the violent as more of their lives become exposed.
Season 3 shows that juxtaposition as Zion, a stressed-out college student on holiday, tries to focus on his wellness through meditation, but is easily distracted. Those distractions, however, quickly turn to danger as he hears rapid gunfire coming from the resort, signaling there is either a mass shooter or a shootout of some kind happening on the property.
Zion hides among the trees and the water but eventually encounters a body floating by. Who is that body? Who is/are the shooters? What happened at this luxury hotel to lead to such violence? These are always the signature mysteries in The White Lotus seasons, and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Viewers get the standard “One Week Earlier” line on screen, and we are officially off and running. As always the groups arriving at a White Lotus resort all have their own interesting backgrounds and dynamics. Even before they began to clash and intersect on the island of Ko Samui, who these people are and what brought them on the journey makes for some of the most interesting subplots of the show.
Each week during these recaps we will look at each group of travelers in their units, theorize how they may become entangled over the next seven days, and make a prediction about who might be in the water by the end of the third season’s eight episodes.
The Ratliff Family
Hailing from North Carolina (and bringing their over-the-top accents with them), the Ratcliffe family has decided to take a family trip to Thailand while they all have a short amount of time to spend together. Patriarch Timothy Ratliff (Jason Isaacs) is a wealthy and influential financier who despite all evidence to the contrary believes he has a “normal family” in tow for the week. His wife Victoria (Parker Posey) is a Lorazepam-aided, functioning ball of nerves who doesn’t have a problem when they ask the family to turn over their cell phones, likely because they didn’t make her turn in her pillbox.
They have three children. Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger), a Duke graduate like his father, also works with dad in finance and is like the frat bro character Jake Lacy played in Season 1 but turned all the way up to 11. He is a muscly, striking young man who has no problem talking about how hot his sister turned out and talking to his brother about how “long plane rides make me so horny” and how with so many ladies at the resort it’s just a “numbers game” he and his brother have to play.
Piper Ratliff (Sarah Catherine Hook) is the middle child who is attending the University of North Carolina (like her mom did) and is on somewhat of a spiritual awakening journey as she was the one interested in going to Thailand so she could interview a Buddhist monk for a paper she is writing for her religion major. Victoria doesn’t know why she won’t interview someone from “her own religion,” but little do they know that Piper is already a Buddhist. However, her commitment to that faith seems to be on thin ice as she about-faces when approaching a temple and also does not reach out to the monk she wants to talk to beforehand.
The youngest is 18-year-old Lochlan or “Lochy” (Sam Nivola) who has to make a big decision soon. Should he join dad and brother and enroll in Duke or follow the footsteps of mom and sister at North Carolina? Dad thinks it is no decision since he got into Duke, but Mom really wants him to become a Tar Heel. Lochy, it appears, wants to spend his week being mentored by his older brother, whom Lochy appears to have just a little more interest in than might be considered normal. Lochy gives Saxon some interesting looks down by the pool and can’t break his gaze from his older brother after they have a conversation about masturbation and Saxon goes into the bathroom to get a small amount of privacy and finish the job.
All very normal behavior for this family. No notes whatsoever. But the shaky family facade might see some strong winds ahead as a Wall Street Journal reporter is trying to reach Timothy about a colleague of his and a troubled fund they started some years ago.
The sense that there is a playful, friendly rivalry about which school Lochy should attend makes for some relatable family dynamics, but it also appears this is clearly intentional. Those schools, their teams, and their fan bases hate each other. A metaphor for how this family will feel after the next seven days?
The “Fancy Cougars”
Three middle-aged female friends on their midlife crisis VICTORY trip seem on one hand very happy to escape their semi-charmed lives but also seem to be secretly resenting anything and everything about the other two. Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan) is a famous television actress (at least famous enough that 20-something Saxon recognizes her) who is bankrolling the trip for her two childhood friends Kate (Leslie Bibb) and Laurie (Carrie Coon).
Kate is married to a wealthy and successful businessman in Austin, Texas, and loves to talk about how much her “husband’s company” is a blessing, but sometimes a curse. She thinks Jaclyn is beautiful, Jaclyn thinks she is beautiful, and they both have had almost nothing done cosmetically (“just a little maintenance”). It’s a whole thing. Laurie is a single mom entangled in the corporate world in New York who seems basically miserable from the start. Despite the other two friends commenting on how everything she does is “so hard” and that her daughter actually turned out to be “pretty cool,” Laurie’s face is never not covered by a glass of chardonnay.
This dynamic among the female triumvirate is perhaps the most interesting through one episode. Laurie clearly does not have the level of success of Kate and Jaclyn. Jaclyn makes sure they both know she paid for the trip. Kate is not quite convincing enough that everything in her perfect Texas ranch home is as idyllic as she makes it sound. Is Thailand the place where these secrets come out and the inhibitions of each are lowered? These ladies (much like another one below) wouldn’t give Saxon the time of day, but does that change later in the week?
Rick and Chelsea
Perhaps the most mysterious and nefarious couple to arrive in Thailand are Rick Hatchett (Walton Goggins) and Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood). Rick is clearly much, much older than Chelsea and they give off the impression of a wealthy, retired drifter who has taken on a younger girlfriend to join him in his many travels.
However, there are places Rick can’t go, like Australia (and why would a person not be able to go somewhere? Likely a criminal backstory there). And this doesn’t seem to be a purely pleasure trip for Rick. He takes a keen interest in Sritala Hollinger (Lek Patravadi), who is a co-owner of The White Lotus in Samui, Thailand. He wants to know why her husband Jim (Scott Glenn) is not there and where he might be.
Rick has plenty of pictures of Jim ready to be pulled up on his phone’s browser, and he gives off the air that he might be either stalking Jim, ready to confront him about some past issue, or wanting some restitution for a past grievance.
Rick, quiet and melodramatic, is the polar opposite of Chelsea, who is friendly, talkative, and wants nothing more than to have a great time in a beautiful tropical location. Rick is clearly on this island for other reasons, and might those reasons be something that could turn violent by the end of the week?
Belinda and Zion
Like the role that Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) played between Season 1 and Season 2, Belinda Lindsey (Natasha Rothwell) becomes this season’s throughline that connects The White Lotus universe to other people and places we have seen before. Belinda is a spa manager at the Maui location who has been accepted into some type of work exchange program where she will be staying in Thailand for three months learning some of the aspects of their wellness programs.
Belinda, you may recall, was befriended by Tanya in Season 1 (Hawaii) and given a promise by Tanya that she would fund Belinda’s ambitions to start her own spa on the island. Belinda, after years of providing unwavering customer service to guests of the Maui resort, is first floored by the generosity of a stranger, but that enthusiasm is short-lived. When Tanya meets and is seduced by Greg in Season 1, she abandons her plan to help Belinda, leaving the spa manager in the same position she has been in for years.
Now several years later (and after Tanya met an untimely death in Season 2), Belinda at least has developed a new sense of ambition and is trying to create some upward trajectory at The White Lotus resort chain. She speaks to Zion about his finals once she arrives in Thailand and makes it clear how much she is looking forward to seeing him there, not knowing tragedy is only days away.
For this season, the “other stuff” stressing Zion out and Belinda’s immediate chemistry with wellness mentor Pornchai are things I will be paying special attention to.
Mook, Gaitok, and the White Lotus Staff
Speaking of The White Lotus staff, one of the hallmarks of this show is the intriguing parts the locals who work at the resort play in the overall arc of the season. In Season 1, it was recovering drug addict and resort manager Armond (Murray Bartlett) who stole the show, while Season 2 gave us Valentina (Sabrina Impacciatore) who likes to reprimand employees who flirt with each other but who also doesn’t mind a little sexual quid pro quo when it benefits her position.
Season 3 introduces us to health advisor Mook (Lalisa Manobal) and security guard Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) who have a flirtatious relationship. Not much of their story is explored other than Gaitok stumbling over himself to give Mook a ride and impress her with the story of when he saved a drowning Belgian, but considering Gaitok is responsible for security AND he is packing a gun, these roles are likely to expand over the course of the season.
Surprise! Greg is back!
After a romantic first dinner between Chelsea and Rick doesn’t go as planned, Chelsea befriends Chloe (Charlotte La Bon) at the bar, who is a French model who lives a mile up the hill with her “LBH” (Loser Bald Head) boyfriend. When that boyfriend is revealed, it turns out to be none other than Greg Hunt (Jon Gries), the man who seduced Tanya in Season 1, leads a VERY suspicious double life, and mysteriously disappeared in Season 2, leaving Tanya behind (which eventually led to her death).
This is the third White Lotus resort where Greg has popped up, so in addition to him clearly having a lot of White Lotus reward points, he now becomes the only character to have appeared in all three seasons. Why is he now in Thailand living a mile away from a White Lotus resort with a French model? Where did he go in Season 2 after mysterious middle-of-the-night phone calls? What does he actually do and how does he afford this lifestyle? Season 3 needs to be the time when we discover the answers to these questions.
Oh, and don’t forget the subplot that Belinda knows who Greg is and despises him for playing a part in Tanya bailing on her in Season 1. Surely Greg or Belinda don’t shoot up the place in seven days, but you never know.
Most Likely to End Up Dead in the Water
The only name from this list above that we can definitively cross off is Zion, who is not among the original guests and staff that arrive in Episode 1 and won’t descend on Thailand for another few days.
With no clues from the blurred body we see drift by, circumstances and vibes are all we have to go on right now. Based on what happened to Tanya in Season 2, I have to say I am a bit worried for Belinda. Not only does she seem to be in a happier place, but she is also making plans to stay for three months of professional education. If there is one thing we have learned in The White Lotus world, it’s never plan too far ahead because your stay at the resort is never going to end up like you thought it would.
If this is true, and Zion discovers his mom dead in the resort’s lake, it will absolutely be heartbreaking, but true to the identity of this show and its characters that sometimes the worst things happen to the best of people.
