The White Lotus: Season 3 - Review

So, that happened.

Finale Thoughts:

I just finished watching the final episode and I am not sure what to think. In comparison to the previous two installments I would say that this finale stands out in terms of feeling more climatic while the others came across, at least to me, as more open to interpretation or half baked. Still, I cannot deny that watching my two favourite characters this season die in the final episode does not give me pause in my praise for the show. To better reflect on this season I want to breakdown my opinion on the various storylines. Lets begin.

The Hatchett’s

The storyline that best captured my attention, and sympathy, this season was that of Walton Goggins character of Rick and Aimee Lou Wood’s character Chelsea who, despite their age difference, seemed at times to be the most healthy and heartwarming aspect of the often bombastically sardonic Mike White show. Chelsea with her embrace of the supernatural, heightened emotional intelligence, and comically sharp and biting insights throughout the season seemed the perfect counterbalance to Rick’s pessimism, closed off nature, and vindictiveness. I believe what endeared me to this storyline was that I found Rick with his sarcasm and antisocial tendency to be a character I could identify with the most. Chelsea on the other hand was a ray of optimism in a sea of misdeeds and passive aggression. While I had hoped that it would end well for the pair the fate they met, though disappointing as a fan, felt entirely earned. I think we all have those people in our life who we know are not good, and that have hurt us, and despite that fact they seem to go on and find success and the adoration of those around them. Thus, seeing Rick in the closing minutes of the season see the man who he holds so much anguish toward and who he blames for all of his trauma be showered with praise and happy glances was not just a valid tipping point for the character but a sequence I think many can relate to and as a result see the humanity in such an act of vigilantism, even if that is never the right answer to such a problem. While trying to flee Rick tries to save Chelsea only for her to be lost in the crossfire. It is the ultimate irony that Chelsea, who all season long offered advice to others, broke down their motivation and emotional states was incapable of seeing how her all encompassing love for Rick, which she thought would be enough to save him, ended up leading her to annihilation. That blind spot in her character is reflected in her positioning in her final scene this season where you see her and Rick bobbing lifelessly in the water where she is facing down into the depths while he looks up toward the sky with an expression of enlightenment for having finally sowed the revenge he had been planning for years.

The Blonde Blob

In the first episode I had the impression that Carrie Coon would be the one to speak truth to the dysfunctional triangle of friendship she has been involved with for the better part of her life. So much promise seemed to exude from this storyline in the first few episodes with Michelle Monaghan’s surprising appearance and scene stealing performance in the first episode along with Leslie Bibb’s incredibly well balanced and nuanced performance bobbing between her two friends as they battle back and forth. While the acting was never in doubt with all the talent between the trio and the writing always fun and sharp at times to me this was the most disappointing storyline. While I appreciated the show questioning the nature of friendship, how random it can seem, how those closest to you have the most ammunition to throw against you when things go wrong, while countering those negatives with the idea that it provides a constant in the chaotic nature of our lives none of these revelations seemed to come from anywhere specific. Specifically, I found that this storyline ebbed and flowed at random while passive aggressive conversations turned outright hostile seemed to have no lasting impact. I have complained before about how Mike White suffers from a sort of stasis in his writing considering he rarely has characters sever ties with each other since that would eliminate the potential for drama such that he resorts to having his characters repeat cyclical and escalating patterns of behaviour that seem to go nowhere. While this plot ends up somewhere different, in a way, it never felt earned nor all that deep. Though maybe that is the point?

The Ratliff Family

Now that the season is over Jason Isaacs can finally stop acting as if he is dying at all hours of the day. This storyline also suffered from that Mike White stasis style of having Isaacs and Parker Posey sort of act out the same ideas week after week while the siblings explore the country, the people, and each other. Still, I cannot deny that Isaacs constant family annihilation ideations provided good tension to the season while Posey’s accent and posh personality delivered needed humour to an otherwise dour narrative. The siblings though provided the most compelling arcs this season. Mike White is at his best when he subverts your expectations and the best example of that here is Patrick Schwarzenegger’s journey that sees him go from aspiring womanizer to a more reserved and reflective young man unsure of what is next when at first he thought he had all the answers to life. Sarah Catherine Hook’s character of Piper is a bit underwhelming considering there is this constant mystery surrounding her the whole season that never pays off quite as well as the long buildup would lead you to believe. Still, it was fun watching her dreams of living a more devout and stripped down life get washed away after she experiences one night without the luxurious trappings of her privileged experience which, despite her guilt, she comes to accept are engrained in her such that to be separated from them would cause extreme discomfort.

The most interesting part of the Ratliff arc to me, again in part because I could see parts of myself in this character, was the narrative surrounding Lochlan. He is the youngest, as am I, in a trio of siblings and throughout the season he seemed lost. As the youngest there is the connotation that you are the spoiled one, or the one favoured by the parents, and while there may be truth to that there is another, that being that as the youngest you will always be chasing your older siblings. While his sister trusts him to share the idea that she plans to spend a year in a Thailand and his brother tries his best to impart his knowledge, or lack thereof, on how to pick up women both share the same theme, both are are leading the conversation while Lochlan is the listener. Throughout the season he is shown to be scrambling from sibling to sibling trying to find a way to keep them close to give him a sense of security which seems all the more important considering he is about to choose what university to attend where it is assumed he will embrace a new sense of independence for the first time. In the final episode this struggle meets a seeming tragic end where, after drinking a laced blended protein shake, he is shown struggling by the pool while his mother and siblings depart paying little attention to him as they just assume that he will tag along behind them, as he has done his whole life. I am glad that Mike White decided to refrain from offing Lochlan, but to me his storyline, though it includes much melodrama and absurdity is one of the more depressing and honest this season.

Belinda

Heading into the season the return of Belinda, at least to me, seemed an odd choice considering that in the first season she was more of a heartwarming side character than a fully realized person that I assumed could provide a full season’s worth of story. I was very misguided in that assumption. While you are endeavoured to root for Belinda considering how she was undone by Tanya in the first season while seeming to be one of the warmest and most kind persons in the show this season seemed to prove that money’s ability to corrupt has no bounds. Even the love interest that seemed to be one of the most heartfelt moments of the season Mike White uses brilliantly to bookend Belinda’s story as she repeats the pattern Tanya did to her in the first season with her abandonment. Here Belinda upsets the seeming promise of working together with her love interest at the resort once she takes the blood money from Gary as it opens up opportunities to her that otherwise had been denied and despite the pain it causes her opposite she seems to care little considering she now sees herself belonging to a different echelon in society which she is eager to embrace.

Gaitok and Mook

While the “Blonde Blob” was the most disappointing storyline I would say that Gaitok and Mook were the most underwhelming aspect of the season. Again Mike White pulls the rug by having the seeming ‘nice’ character find that being bad unlocks not just success but happiness as well. Gaitok is a charming character, but much like the Blonde Blob I just have this overwhelming feeling that the resolution of the storyline was not earned. The constant up and down between the pair where Gaitok reaffirms over and over that his beliefs lead him to be more modest while Mook encourages him to be more asserting and ambitious was interesting to a point before it became frustrating having to watch the two repeat the same idea each week until the final episode sees Gaitok be bullied into gunning down Rick which transforms him into the man Mook always desired. Ultimately I never felt that sympathetic to either of these characters which is a shame considering the domestic characters in prior seasons were so interesting in comparison to those on vacation in their homeland.

Before ending this review I want to give a shoutout to

Beth Lisogorsky

for her weekly discussions of the show which were a lot of fun in terms of hearing other’s takes on the show, getting to share opinions, and question what might happen next week. The third season of Mike White’s hit HBO series seems to land the most punches in the finale but the season as a whole seemed to weave in and out of being compelling as storylines tended to circle about and those characters you were most interested in phased in and out of focus. Perhaps it is a symptom of me having binge watched the prior two installments that made this season feel so slow in comparison. Another show that really captured my heart and imagination was Better Call Saul which as it was airing I tended to feel let down by while my annual binge before the latest season always seemed to be more enjoyable, thus my criticisms of The White Lotus may reflect my own viewing habits to a degree as compared to the quality of the show. While I appreciated where the season went considering how the varied plot threads were tied off in a way that felt earned, for the most part, the dour note the season ended on makes it hard for me to recommend anyone not already invested in the show seek it out to watch. Furthermore, I hope that Mike White finds a different way to surprise the audience as opposed to having the seeming protagonists each season show their true colours to be something altogether different in the final minutes of each season since this structure is becoming not only exhausting but depressing.