Ryan Kirksey
The following recap contains spoilers for The White Lotus S3E4, “Hide or Seek” (written and directed by Mike White)
Even though we are halfway done with Season 3 of The White Lotus, do you feel like you’re still waiting for something to happen? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. While I have enjoyed almost every minute of it, this has been a very slow burn to get to what I can only presume will be some enormously wild stuff in Episode 5.
While some of the plot, especially in Eepisode 3, has moved at a leisurely pace, I have enjoyed the construction of these characters and their conflicts so much that I have not been bothered by the fact that “nothing” has happened yet. If I know Mike White, and I think I do after two and a half seasons of this show, he is not going to let a town-wide water gun fight be the wildest thing that happens in this place where you’re “either hiding from something or looking for something.”
The Ratliff Family
It’s almost March Madness, so I can’t help but think of some members of the Ratliff family in terms of a bracket. For example, if there was a bracket of the worst humans on the face of the earth, Patrick Ratliff (Jason Isaacs) and Saxon Ratliff (Patrick Schwarzenegger) would likely be in the finals against one another.
I don’t know what’s worse. Saxon asking Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) if guys are into “gender goblins who tuck their dicks between their legs” or Patrick worrying what “everyone at the club” is going to think about his embezzlement before flashing his entire family in a drugged-out stupor. This family is the epitome of, the very definition of, extremely awful. Even Piper, the “normal” one, is on this trip based on a lie. She plans to tell her family she wanted to come to Thailand so she could move there for a year, not to interview a Buddhist monk.
Victoria Ratliff (Parker Posey) was the only member of her family who couldn’t function without a low-level Lorazepam buzz going on, but now Patrick is with her in that boat after just one day because he can’t stop popping his wife’s pills, presumably so he won’t feel anything for a week as he knows what’s waiting for him back home.
Speaking of boats, Saxon convinces the family to take a cruise around the island on Gary’s yacht for the day, and I’m sure his intentions are pure. Either he wants to break in his new linen shirt and deck shoes, or Saxon is looking for any way he and his brother Lochlan (Sam Nivola) can get laid. Lochy impresses some girls with close-up magic, and Saxon convinces his brother to stay on the boat for the Full Moon Party that night because the girls on that boat (despite being married) are “thirsty for some young cum.” God, I love to hate him.
Despite the party still to come, Saxon and Lochy are not the members of the family we have to be most worried about at this point. Back on land, Patrick connects with his lawyer, who tells Patrick his life is basically over (“What am I supposed to tell my family? We’re poor now?”). Patrick then sees Chekhov’s (er, Gaitok’s) gun and steals it. Just days ahead of a shootout on the property, there is a rogue gun in the hands of a depressed and spiraling guest.
Jaclyn, Kate, and Laurie
After quite a bit of bickering between this cougar trio in previous episodes, they all found something they could bond over in Episode 4. Primarily, the fact that Valentin (Arnas Fedaravicius) really did them dirty. Twice. First, after Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan), Kate (Leslie Bibb), and Laurie (Carrie Coon) tell their butler they want to go somewhere with music, energy, and fun, he directs them to what can only be described as a retirement property (a rich person’s Cocoon, if we must), where the three ladies are far and away the youngest people around.
When they find Valentin again, he sends them to a town that is celebrating its annual water fight festival, causing them to get soaked and stuck in a place they can’t get out of. Still not figuring out that Valentin is doing this to torture them, the ladies ask Valentin to show them some fun for a third time. It’s only then that Valentin introduces them to his two friends, Aleksei (Julian Kostov) and Vlad (Yuri Kolokolnikov).
These guys are so clearly the ones that carried out the robbery in Episode 2, but these ladies don’t know that. They are just intrigued by the muscle shirts and the snake tattoo “that goes all the way down.”
Rick and Chelsea
Walton Goggins (who plays Rick) is really getting to show off his range in this third season of The White Lotus. After Amrita (Shalini Peiris) gives Rick a truly emotional connection at the beginning of the episode (“You have touched my heart…and you are not stuck. You can let go of your story…Find peace in this life.”), he is finally able to open up to Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) about why he is there and why he must go to Bangkok.
Chelsea, sensing this change in who he is, doesn’t run away or call the police or even question Rick’s intentions or motivations. For as unusual a couple as these two may seem, there is some incredible sense of harmony between them, and Goggins and Wood sizzle when they are on screen together. Their chemistry is outstanding.
Chelsea tries to convince Rick to stay and listen to Amrita’s words. Rick (like another certain southern gentleman on a popular show), however, is driven by a life-long pursuit to confront the man who killed his daddy. While he may find Jim Hollinger in Bangkok, what Rick is unlikely to find is the thing that will make him whole after all these years. Chelsea is waiting to play that part for him, and I just hope Rick doesn’t die before he is able to fully see that.
Gary and Belinda
In the battle of who can get to their computers the slowest to Google the other one, Gary (Jon Gries) wins this round over Belinda (Natasha Rothwell). If I were either one of them, I would be back on the laptop the second that awkward dinner conversation ended from Episode 3, trying to figure out where I knew this person from. Now that they have discovered each other’s identities—and shared some serious laser stares in the resort lobby—both Gary and Belinda are in various states of trouble.
Belinda knows that Gary was wanted in the questioning of Tanya’s death in Italy, but has never been found. (He’s living right next to another White Lotus resort, of course.) He could try and take her down at any time. Gary knows that there is an undeniable connection between him and Tanya, and now someone who might be interested in Tanya’s killer being caught knows where he is.
Probably should have stayed on that boat for the Full Moon Party, Gary. Although I really, truly fear that the “thing” he had to do back on the island was give Belinda the Tanya treatment.
Gaitok and the Gun
Well, Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong), it was nice knowing you. After being told you need to do your job better and the way to do that is to learn how to use a gun, you promptly leave the gun unattended to go chase after your crush, allowing the most deranged guest on your property to steal it. Not promotion material, Gaitok! How are you going to explain that one to Mook (Lalisa Manobal)?
In a matter of three days, Gaitok is either dead, fired, or headed to prison. There are no other possible alternatives now.
Most Likely to End Up Dead in the Water
Well, considering Patrick Ratliff now has a gun, we can consider just about anyone currently at The White Lotus resort equally likely to fall due to the whim of a madman. But how about this: What if the person we see floating by Zion (Nicholas Duvernay) is none other than Patrick Ratliff? What if all of the Lorazepam is gone, so Ratliff starts having some moments of lucidity near the end?
A gunfight breaks out on the resort property and Patrick—who already told his lawyer he “would rather fucking die” than go to prison—shoots himself, thinking his family might get some big settlement from the resort or life insurance if Patrick was killed on the property. He hopes his death is attributed to a mass killing and his family can start over again because of how much they will be compensated.
It’s an unlikely theory, but beneath the criminal exterior, there seems to be just a man who wants to take care of his family. He may feel that this is his only way out.
