The White Lotus series’ penchant for killing off obscenely rich holidaymakers remains as riveting three seasons later as when the show first premiered.
Season three, released during May, is set against the tropical landscape of Thailand, opens with a foretaste of the murders to come when a meditation session between the characters Zion (Nicholas Duvernay) and Dr Amrita (Shalini Peiris) is interrupted by a volley of gunshots. Thus the stage is set for the proceeding nine gripping episodes.
The heart of season three’s plot is the tension between material privilege and spirituality. We see this prominently in the Ratliff family from North Carolina’s high society. Tim Ratliff (Jason Isaacs) and his wife, Victoria (Parker Posey) have ventured to the White Lotus hotel in Thailand to indulge their daughter Piper (Sarah Catherine Cook), who has naïve aspirations of renouncing her family’s wealth and joining a monastery as penance for their extreme privilege.
While on the island, Tim’s might as the family patriarch is felled when the corrupt underbelly of his wealth is revealed. This prompts a descent into despair in which he plots and partly succeeds in familicide.
Rick (Walton Goggins) and Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood), lovers constantly at odds, embody the show’s exploration of the themes of optimism versus nihilism. Rick comes to the White Lotus hotel in Thailand under a misguided notion to avenge his father’s death, which culminates in tragedy for blameless Chelsea.
This forces him and the audience to reconcile with the futility and self-inflicting pain of revenge.
The most compelling plot line is played by the toxic trio of Laurie (Carrie Coon), Kate (Lesley Bibb) and Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan) whose girl’s trip to the White Lotus turns into a medium through which one of the women are in turn judged and undermined by the other two. Their friendship is bound not so much out of love but co-dependency.
The casting includes beloved actors like Isaacs and Posey whose skills bring an emotional resonance to their performances as the trad-husband and wife at the helm of a dynasty.
Tim’s determinedly hidden and quiet spiral into despair on the brink of financial ruin sees him become reliant on pills from his prescription-addicted wife’s supply. His drug addled changes in behaviour go unnoticed by Victoria and their children who have become reliant on his stoicism as the fount from which their material wealth is derived.
Victoria’s obliviousness to his state is symptomatic of her only daily objective — to remain as medicated as possible to avoid having to contend with any inconveniences.
Their emotional disconnect is heartbreaking and humanises the excessive wealth their characters are associated with.
This season has been criticised for following the conceptual parameters of the first two but there is merit in the argument not to fiddle with what is working but we will leave you to decide by streaming the show on Showmax.
