Ryan Kirksey
The following recap contains spoilers for The White Lotus S3E2, “Special Treatments” (written and directed by Mike White)
The second full day at The White Lotus in Samui, Thailand is Wellness Day where all of the new guests are heading to their various treatments, massages, wellness checks, and biomarker retrievals. After arrival and unpacking day in the first episode of the third season of The White Lotus, it makes sense that the couples, trios, families, and apprentices who flew halfway around the world would start their trips with some relaxation and low-stress self-care.
That low-stress environment would last almost through breakfast, as robberies, career-ending phone calls, backstabbing, and some cringey family psychosexual situations start to throw these idyllic vacations into the first stages of chaos.
As the episode ends and the Ratliff children are headed into their villa for the night, they casually reference the 2004 earthquake and tsunami that devastated Thailand and how one girl who had just learned about tsunami warning signs in school tried to warn everyone they were in trouble. She could see the trouble coming and tried to do something about it. This motley crew of people stuck in Thailand, I fear, can’t see the warning signs all around them and have no idea all the trouble that lies in front of them.
Let’s go group by group to see how each are acclimating on their first full day in paradise.
The Ratliff Family
Remember in Episode 1 when Victoria Ratliff (Parker Posey) described their family as a “normal family?” Let’s count the ways that might not be true just in this episode.
Victoria is so addicted to pills that she can’t get a massage without a little pharmaceutical assistance. Patrick (Jason Isaacs) is watching his career disintegrate in real time as his partner Kenneth (voiced by Ke Huy Quan) gets raided by the FBI and laments ever going to Brunei. Patrick “only” made $10 million on Kenneth’s shady deal, so apparently we should feel sorry for him.
Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) continues to be a world-class douchebag frat boy who wasn’t happy with his massage because it didn’t have a happy ending—“What? Aren’t they all supposed to be a little speshy-speshy?” And that would be bad enough except now he has put the idea of his sister, Piper’s (Sarah Catherine Hook), sexuality in his brother’s mind, and outwardly creepy Lochlan (Sam Nivola) can’t stop asking her about it. At least that’s mildly better than the outright laser-stare Lochlan gives his brother’s ass when they wake up.
This family is headed toward a financial and emotional cliff. Apart from Patrick, they clearly don’t know it. Saxon getting shunned by Chloe over and over and Piper getting stared at by creepy bald guys in the yoga class are about to be the least of their worries.
Jaclyn, Kate, and Laurie
May we all have such good friends as these. Further evidence that a group of three friends never works, these ladies almost seem to crave one of the three leaving the room so they can gossip/backhand compliment the other. It also appears that they haven’t matured much since their time together when they were nine years old. Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan) can hardly believe that her “fat mass” from her biometrics is the same as Laurie’s (Carrie Coon). “Well, he’s never seen someone as hydrated as me.”
Jaclyn and Kate (Leslie Bibb) loooooooove the fact that Laurie’s daughter is violent and throws furniture, although they feign compassion when Laurie is around. I’m also not sure where they are getting their facts that all kids in New York City are “like sucking each other off at, like, eight years old.” Guess that’s just what happens when you divorce a freeloader, pay his alimony, give your whole career to a firm only for them to not make you partner, and develop a drinking problem. Seriously, these girls are the BEST of friends.
Interestingly, Laurie and Kate do the same thing to Jaclyn when she is out of the room. Touching on everything from her “Sand-blasted face” to the man she is married to who is 10 years younger to the fact she is clearly putting on a front (“You know what they say. The bigger the front, the bigger the back.”) But Jaclyn seems unfazed. Is she thinking those are my true friends and I’m a famous actress? What could they possibly be talking about?
Curiously, we haven’t seen Jaclyn and Laurie tee off on Kate yet. Can’t wait for that one next week.
Rick and Chelsea
We finally got to see Walton Goggins cook as the mysterious and troubled Rick in this episode. After being mostly sidelined in Episode 1, Rick reluctantly goes to a stress management class that Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) says he needs desperately. That’s the perfect opportunity for a background/exposition dump where we learn Rick’s mother overdosed when he was 10, his father was murdered, and he never felt like he had any sort of identity at any point in his life. Oh yeah, and his stress is at an “8” almost all the time.
Rick is still on the lookout for Jim Hollinger (Scott Glenn), husband to hotel owner and once-upon-a-time actress Sritala Hollinger (Lek Patravadi). Clearly that is not his father, as was theorized after Episode 1, but could it be the man who killed his father? He overhears Sritala tell guests that she is going to Bangkok to meet up with her husband, and that’s exactly where Rick tells Chelsea he needs to go. But the “why” remains a secret.
Chelsea, still feeling neglected, takes an opportunity to do some shopping and hang out with her new bestie, Chloe (Charlotte La Bon). After a traumatic experience later that day (more on that below), Chloe gets the attention—emotionally and physically—that she has wanted from Rick all along. Even if he is balding, Rick still can drive the women crazy with that devil-may-care attitude.
Mook, Gaitok, and Valentin
Poor, poor Gaitok. First, he tries to woo Mook (Lalisa Manobal) with the promise of a homemade dinner his mother made for them, then tries to tell her how much he really likes her, especially because they have so many things in common (their hometown, their place of employment, they both ride scooter bikes to work). Put another way, he ain’t speaking Mook’s language. Mook is called to the exoticism of the private security guards and the life outside Sumai.
Later, Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) gets caught up chatting with Valentin (Arnas Fedaravičius) at the hotel’s entrance gate, and Valentin promises him tickets to the upcoming martial arts show. Gaitok (mirroring his real-life story) is so intrigued that he lets a suspicious black SUV drive right through the gate. Is the SUV trouble? Of course it is. A fully-covered, armed man barges into the hotel’s luxury store and steals the jewelry, threatening Chelsea and the employees. On their way out, they smack Gaitok with the gun and make their getaway.
Clearly, Valentin is a part of this broad-daylight heist and his job is to distract Gaitok long enough for his partners to slip by. How big is this crime ring that knocks over the hotel store and who are the others involved? Add that to the growing list of mysteries at this White Lotus location. The one silver lining for Gaitok, who appears to keep his job, is that this dangerous encounter has drawn the attention of Mook, who comes to attend to him. Is Gaitok the type to seek out more danger to earn Mook’s affection? I imagine we will learn more about this in the next six episodes.
Belinda and Pornchai
It looks like Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) may be getting a lot more than a mentorship out of this trip to Thailand. For starters, she gets Pornchai’s (Dom Hetrakul) “signature treatment” foot therapy that involves some kind of milk soap. That’s a “nope” for me, but to each her own and I’m sure Pornchai is the best in Thailand for milk soap baths.
Then, Belinda gets another treat when a mostly-naked, but all-muscle Pornchai walks in for his massage from Belinda. He asks Belinda for her signature treatment, and her eyes make it seem like she is thinking about a lot more than treatments at that moment.
Alas, she ends up at dinner alone again that night, but spots a familiar man a few tables away. Once again, her eyes tell the story. First of confusion, but then of horrific recognition. Is that Greg’s music we hear?
“Gary” and Chloe
Our old friend Greg (Jon Gries) from Seasons 1 and 2 apparently decided to move to Thailand after scamming Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) and change his name to Gary? Kudos on finding a beautiful place to live out your conman retirement years, but points are taken away for lack of creativity in the name change. Didn’t stop him from picking up a French French-Canadian model in Chloe.
Speaking of Chloe, it seems mightily convenient that she was in the dressing room for the entire robbery and never saw anything despite multiple people yelling and glass being broken all over the place. Is it possible that Chloe, who thinks Gary is a world-class dickwad, is tired of a year of that life and is getting some side-action from Valentin and the two cooked up the robbery scam? Chloe clearly likes expensive things, so why not just get them for free?
Chloe may not be the only female trouble Gary has this week. Belinda recognizes him while at dinner that night and the “Next time on” scenes for Episode 3 seem to set up a confrontation between the two. Justice for Tanya!
Most Likely to End Up Dead in the Water
Several people mention the idea of death in this episode. Victoria Ratliff says she slept like a corpse. Tim’s partner Kenneth says he is going to kill himself because of the trouble he is in with the FBI. Rick’s mother died when he was 10 and his father died before he was born. But only Chelsea makes a point to say more than once that she almost died during the robbery.
She emphasizes it several times, likely getting what she wanted out of it, which was attention and physical and emotional care from Rick. But in The White Lotus universe, you don’t get to brag about being alive and live to tell the tale.
Rick is clearly going to Bangkok next based on his motivations and scenes from next week. Is the business he is looking to close with Jim Hollinger something that could bring violence and death to The White Lotus hotel, and ultimately to Chelsea? I certainly think so.
