Warning: spoilers abound!
For those who celebrate The White Lotus finale day (it’s a real thing, don’t look it up!), the last episode of Season 3 was definitely a stressful mixed bag of dead characters, poisoned protein shakes, and oddly unsatisfying endings. Do Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan), Kate (Leslie Bibb), and Laurie (Carrie Coon) stay BFFs forever, or will another tea sesh get in the way of their slightly toxic, very fragile friendship? Do the Ratliffs figure out how to be poor together, or will Victoria (Parker Posey) succumb to the horrors of poverty? Will Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) ever realize that she’s turned into Season 1 and 2’s Tanya McQuoid (Jennifer Coolidge) after rejecting and running away from Pornchai (Dom Hetrakul)?
But we’re not here to nitpick (pauses, sips tea). We’re here because this third season of The White Lotus marks a continental shift from the seasons that came before it. While we’ve seen rich white people duke it out in Hawaii and Sicily, in Seasons 1 and 2, respectively, the latest season brings the white people half a world away to Thailand, a setting perfect for cultural faux pas, awkward racial tension, and the chance to see showrunner Mike White try his hand at writing Asian characters dealing with annoying foreigners.
Half-Baked Asians
You’d think that White would have had a lot to play with after setting his latest season in Thailand. When Blackpink’s Lisa (the seemingly-sweet resort assistant Mook) was announced to be part of the cast, fans of both the show and the girl group threw themselves into a frenzy trying to figure out how the K-pop star would have a hand in the season’s whodunnit. The season also welcomed promising newcomer Tayme Thapthimthong (the nice guy security guard Gaitok), as well as Thai powerhouses Patravadi Mejudhon (Sritala) and Hetrakul (poor Pornchai).
Lisa’s Mook does an excellent job coyly leading Thapthimthong’s Gaitok down the dark path of being a bad boy bodyguard (to which he reluctantly complies). While Gaitok struggles to uphold Buddhist values — hence his aversion to harming anyone and his desire to keep the peace — he is also infatuated with Mook and is willing to change himself to be the man she wants him to be. Thapthimthong effectively portrays this inner conflict with nothing more than an uncertain smile, and a subtle turmoil in his eyes.
Similarly, Hetrakul delivers a quietly devastating performance when Pornchai has his heart broken by Belinda. Just as the morose and flippant McQuoid left Belinda shattered in Season 1 when she negged on going into business with her, Belinda turns tables with Pornchai with nearly the exact same promise. It’s an eerie mirroring now that Belinda has become a rich woman herself, and Pornchai can do nothing but accept the blow.
But good acting isn’t enough to save half-baked character arcs, which merely act as vehicles to drive the storylines of the show’s American protagonists. Most of the Asian cast members, including Lisa, have limited time onscreen, making it hard to figure out their personas outside of the ones they don at the resort (in Lisa’s case, many fans thought she was up to something nefarious — turns out, she was just playing with Gaitok). Gaitok’s arc is perhaps one of the most wasted, as his transformation into a macho, sunglass-wearing bodyguard comes only after he shoots a distressed Rick (Walter Goggins) in the back — while he carries a dead Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) no less. More definitely could have been done to flesh these characters out, but I guess we’ll just have to wait forThe White Lotus all-stars season to see them shine.
A Show About White People
Despite the flawed Asian character arcs, White excels in writing about the resort’s insufferable white guests, and the scenes where they attempt to engage with the Asian culture around them are the most deliciously cringey moments of the season. Victoria Ratliff (the wonderful Parker Posey) barely acknowledges that she and her family are in Thailand (“You want to live in Taiwan?!”) and is quick to butcher the Thai language every time she orders room service. While Victoria’s daughter, Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook), seems like the most grounded Ratliff at first, she can barely survive the night at an impoverished Buddhist monastery (“You could just tell their vegetables weren’t organic.”).
This season has a long list of moments where cultures clash, and it would be hard to name them all. There’s resort manager Fabian (Christian Friedel), who skulks around in his tunic uniform and fumbles his employer Sritala’s last name. There are the aforementioned BFFs, who end up being chased by watergun-sporting Thai children after trying to attend a local water festival. There’s middle-aged white man Frank (Sam Rockwell), who fantasizes about being railed as an Asian baby girl. Things either go slightly amiss or completely awry when the foreigners attempt to interact with the world outside of their own — and perhaps that’s it . This latest season of The White Lotus, for all its shortcomings, remains sharply observant, poking fun at the privilege and entitlement of its characters while offering a sobering reflection on the unequal power dynamics between tourists and locals.
