Not much happened tonight on the penultimate episode of “The White Lotus.”
There was no pay off of last week’s big incest story. The Ratliff brothers didn’t even share a scene.
There was so nervousness about sister and brother this time, with Piper and Lochlan getting uncomfortable. But thank God that was a bust, and Piper retreated to her room. (You could hear the audience echoing Parker Posey’s “Piper, no!”)
The big story was all about Walton Goggins’ Rick and pal Frank, played by Sam Rockwell, going on their murder mission. Rick brought a gun to meet Jim, the man his mother once told him killed his father. Jim is played by the great Scott Glenn, who bears a physical resemblance to Goggins. If Jim doesn’t turn out to be Rick’s father, who left the mother, I’d be surprised.
The best scenes were between Rockwell and Patravadi Mejudhon, the elegant Thai star who plays Hollinger’s wife, Sritala, a famed actress and owner of the hotel. Mejudhon lights up every scene. When she’s with Frank, she’s kittenish and easily impressed. Rockwell is magic once again, fawning all over her, freelancing to keep her busy. When he falls off the wagon, the results seem less dangerous than hilariously weird. Maybe next week he’ll be dressed up as an Asian woman.
Jason Isaacs’ Timothy is the most underwritten character. Knowing he’s going to jail and losing everything, all he does is walk around stoned and fantasize suicide – or murder of his wife or son. He mumbles from taking drugs and drinking. No one notices. Why wasn’t he written as pro-active or smart about his situation?
The most sinister part of the show was Belinda finally speaking to Greg/Gary. He offers her $100,000 not to rat him out to the US authorities. She says she has to think about it. He gives her the evil eye, setting up a red herring for the White Lotus about who gets killed in the final episode. Will Greg murder her? I don’t think so, but you never know.
If violence is coming, the participants are in two groups. One is the guard, Gaitok, who spots the hotel robbers at the fight. His girlfriend prods him to be more courageous, so maybe — since has one of the guns floating around — he’ll do something about it.
Or: One of the robbers, who’s now bedded Lauri (Carrie Coon) has a mean Russian girlfriend. She could come after Laurie. Or Jim’s goons might come after Rick, since he didn’t kill Jim but knocked him off his chair.
Regardless, at this point I’m not sure it matters.There’s no overarching theme to the season. So many of the beats and plotlines are retreads from the first two seasons. Piper and Lochlan wanting to stay in Thailand is the same as the kid in season 1 who remained in Hawaii. The hotel manager nervously sang tonight, same as the hooker in season 2.
In tonight’s episode the sensation Aimee Lou Wood, as Chelsea, had almost the same conversation she had last week with Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) about him being soulless, and so on. Wood is a gem, it’s too bad she hasn’t had more to do than act shocked about Saxon. Let’s hope she’s not collateral damage.
Nothing great for Parker Posey tonight. Victoria has gained no insight into anything going on around her. Her own character was not advanced this week. She hasn’t even questioned what happened to her missing Lorazepam, or wondered if her husband’s total fog could have been caused by the pills. If she’s seen clues that her husband is a criminal or that her sons have had an unacceptable encounter, it has not been shown to the audience.
But there’s a lot of beautiful cinematography.
Next week will come what I feel will be the unsatisfying end of this soap opera. I don’t think of the main cast will die, but again, I might be wrong. I think Gaitok may die a hero, and that Rockwell’s Frank could go on to another season. I hope wherever the White Lotus is set next, the guests go into town and look around a bit more.
Wait: this week’s inside joke, TV star Jaclyn has a last name– Lemon– making her Jac Lemon, get it? Jack Lemmon. I always loved the story of Jack Lemmon taking his mother’s urn to the Ritz Carlton Bar in Boston for one last drink. Now there’s a story!
