The White Lotus Season 3 Part 3

Kate stops to chat up Victoria - a palate cleanser to start off this thread.

I think the blender introduced in the most recent episode is Chekhov’s Gun. The poison fruit will be tossed in the blender to make a smoothie and one of the Ratliffs ends up dead.

I can buy that. Which Ratliff puts the fruit in there? Mom, dad, or Lochlan? Saxon is too dumb and Piper doesn’t have a motive…yet.

Lochlan is such a little cutie…

…but I’m ready for Belinda’s hot son to show up!

Maybe Belinda’s son and Lochlan can have a little fling

Swirl!

Isn’t a cobra bite a little more…serious?

Not when there’s a yacht party to get to! A couple bandaids will fix it.

R7, she rubbed a little cod liver oil over it and was good to go!

THEORY: the whole season takes place 50 years in the past and Lochlan is actually one of the murder gays as a teenager

[quote] Isn’t a cobra bite a little more…serious?

Well, this bite probably was not a venomous bite (apparently cobras sometimes bite without injecting their venom).

But even so, it seems like it would have warranted a night in a hospital.

From r599 on the previous thread:

[quote] What was the significance of Victoria's tsunami dream?

Victoria knows her family is about to be overwhelmed by Tim's illegal business dealings. She probably caught wind of it back in Raleigh/Durham, and his (apparently) irrational behavior with the phone calls probably suggests to her something is really wrong.

The presence of the ladyboys attending Lochlan in her dream probably signifies she knows he's gay but she's in denial abotu that too--that news is also about to overwhelm her when it comes out, as it does for most gay boys by the time they get to college.

[quote] THEORY: the whole season takes place 50 years in the past and Lochlan is actually one of the murder gays as a teenager

R10 Interesting, except for the recurring theme of mobile devices that keeps popping up in these episodes. Lock up your phones for your stay, don't use your phones in common areas, etc. So, you're saying there were smart phones and tablets in the 1970s?

R13 Bless.

Things are supposed to pick up next episode, and that desperately needs to happen. I was fine with the first two episodes being slow, but this episode the only exciting thing that happened was Rick freeing the snakes that bit Chelsea, and her recovery was handled so offhandedly that it seemed stupid. Otehrwise it was just too slow and undirected.

The preview for next week suggests we will see Tim naked and that Belinda will learn about Tonya's death, so at least something will happen in those storylines. But they also have to move ahead with the incest storyline and with the three blondes storyline (especially)--we can't just have those three women trade bitchy comments in pairs about the third ones anymore--we've done that now three times.

We also need no more scenes of one guest going up to another guest and insisting they know them from somewhere, only to be met with the other guests's denial. White has now used that scenario for episodes in a row! We should have found out more in this last episode about what's the problem with Victoria not acknowledging the Leslie Bibb character.

Yes but the season previews hinted at an incest scene between the younger brother and the sister.

I think the gay stuff is a red herring

R13 Ok, I was CLEARLY joking 😭

R16 I don’t think it hinted that at all. What about the relationship between the little brother and sister says incest? They just read like relatively normal siblings in a sexually weird family to me.

Can the gun-toting monkeys please go after the "it's too slow" posters?

R18 after the first episode aired there was a trailer of “scenes this season” that aired and there were several little moments in upcoming episodes that hinted that it was the younger brother and sister that had an affair. Several of us commented on that in the first maxed out thread on the season.

The first episode had Saxon commenting to his brother Lochlan how hot their sister was, but how he was disgusted she was still a virgin. Then in the second episode Lochlan told her what Saxon had said, and then asked her point-blank if she were indeed a virgin. (She was disgusted and walked away from him.) But it seemed much more like Lochie was just curious rather than that he has a thing for his sister.

In both the first and the second episode, much attention is given to Lochlan staring at his brother's naked butt and dick.

So far, there doesn't seem to be much sexual attraction between Lochlan and the sister (Piper). It seems like Saxon is attracted to his sister and Lochlan is attracted to his brother.

I think Lochlan is just attracted to dick and male ass. His brother’s just happens to be on display…very close to him.

Give him another available naked dude and I’m sure he’d be into that way more.

Lochlan is going to get it on with Zion.

That would be acceptable

OMG. This season is moving wayyyy too slowly. We;re already three eps in and nearly nothing has happened. I miss Jennifer Coolidge.

I would not be entirely shocked to see Jennifer Coolidge in some capacity.

There's more foreigners working at this resort than Thai people. The meditation lady is Indian, Valentin is Russian (so he says, he doesn't have a Russian accent at all), Fabian is German/Austrian?, Pam is Kiwi/Australian...

Wait. We might see Tim naked??

That's all I needed to hear.

r27 Not exactly rare for luxury resorts

[quote]The preview for next week suggests we will see Tim naked and that Belinda will learn about Tonya's death

One thing that's been bugging me - Tonya was a wealthy American heiress who died in a sordid way, after killing three men. Surely this would've been international news and Greg/Gary would've been identified as her husband in the media. I don't see how something like that could've been kept quiet. Surely everyone would know who Greg/Gary was.

Walton shares his love of distressed leather in the tour of his rustic and refined country manse,

R30, the preview for next week addresses this.

I have enough faith in Mike White's writing that the Three Blondes narrative will evolve next episode. Each has overheard the other two shit talking them now. Unlike the other plot strands I'm not sure where this one will go. Maybe Jacqueline or Kate will cheat on their partners and fuck Valentin, sending Laura into a rage?

Mook wasn’t in this episode, was she? She hasn’t made much of an impression.

Yes, the guard told her how he offered his services to the owner

R34 She was. But briefly

R29 True. But it's set in Thailand, I would like to see more native people. Also, hope we see more of Thailand's beauty. So far almost all the scenes were filmed inside the resort. Why travel all the way to Thailand to shoot and then not show its beautiful landscapes

Patrick has one VERY fine ass

That's part of Mike White's commentary on rich people traveling R37. They never leave the resort. Remember when Tanya proposed eating at a local restaurant in Sicily? It's clever and accurate.

This season has made Thailand much more enticing for me to book a vacation. Previously everyone I know that has gone there just went to Bangkok and only talked about the ladyboys and child prostitutes. It really turned me off to wanting to visit.

r39 And then proven accurate when the actress playing the assistant complained about the food. In Italy. Said she couldn't find fresh vegetables and wanted to eat the foods she usually ate and not Italian food.

r40 It is a bit odd that the pedo stereotype hasn't been mentioned yet

It's plausible Tanya's death was major news, but Belinda wasn't aware of it.

I have to say I am really looking forward to seeing Sam Nivola's butt

ALL of the men are totally doable

R39 True. But I still want to see the beauties of Thailand. Otherwise this could have been filmed in Four Seasons Florida or California. With a few Thai people and monkeys added.

There are 5 episodes left, we are going to see more of Thailand. They have already established a yacht trip next episode and that Rick and the Owner are going to have a plot line in Bangkok.

And we left the resort last episode with going to the town and seeing a snake show.

I assume this is true to life of what Mike White saw r27. I know he mentioned in an jnterview he was shocked by how many Russians lived in Thailand which is what led to the Valentin character.

We have three Thai main characters in the cast still.

I had a crush on Piper, even before this show, untill that clip with her and Lochlan visiting Moo Deng, posted in the previous thread. She sure talks a lot. All her characters so far have been mysterious. Kinda ruined it for me. While on the subject of Moo Deng, is Deng her middle name or her last name?

I mean, it was an interview. I think the point was for her to talk.

Is Valentin even Russian? He lived in Thai speaking country for 3 years and he has no Russian accent at all when speaking English. Also, showing them the tattoo of a Russian place seemed quite odd.

R49 True. But the little boy didn't talk a lot.

So who will fuck on the boat? We know that Chelsea has a thing for Saxon and she invited him on the ship. We know from the previous that Chloe and Chelsea will make out with a male figure watching them. So Saxon promised to Lochlan that he will help him get lose his virginity. So he would invite him into this threesome thing But that leaves out Piper. Cause we know Saxon finds her hot. What if they all just had a big ol' orgy? Every guest character on the show.

Why would piper join in? So far she hasn’t done much, but I haven’t gotten the impression she’d fuck her brother/s

Perhaps they all get high on that spiked weed we've already seen?

True. Maybe drugs? Rick's laced joint? Maybe she isn't who we thought she was this whole time

I wish that they’d credit the monkeys at the end of the episode, they are as hard working of actors as any of the Hollywood staff

[quote]But it's set in Thailand, I would like to see more native people. Also, hope we see more of Thailand's beauty. So far almost all the scenes were filmed inside the resort. Why travel all the way to Thailand to shoot and then not show its beautiful landscapes

And food! What a missed opportunity to show off five-star Thai cuisine.

[quote]But it's set in Thailand, I would like to see more native people.

The show is about entitled white cunts who are miserable even though they are rich and spoiled. It's a dark, moody show. If you want to see the touristy part of Thailand go watch the fucking Travel Channel.

I hope Timothy goes on the yacht trip and since he knows he’s likely going to prison, loses all his inhibitions and goes buck wild. He starts by seeing Rick smoking, and unlike the boat ride to the resort, he doesn’t ask Rick to put it out but asks for a drag.

Then he blows Rick.

Mmhmm

Rick is hot, angry, sullen, and hot. Always had a thing for guys like rick.

And he looks good in bed. Buck-toothed Chloe or what ever the floozey’s name is is heinous

Is it only MAX viewers who have the ad-based subscription that are seeing the Google 8-part sponsorship mini-series that features the actor Nicholas Duvernay who plays Zion? I was wondering who the odd-looking guy who's in the ads with him, apparently, he's the host of the official White Lotus podcast.

What are you going on about?

[quote] What are you going on about?

Nicholas Duvernay, an American actor, stars in Google's eight-part mini-series that is part of the sponsorship agreements for "The White Lotus" Season 3 on HBO Max. The mini-series, created with Warner Bros. Discovery’s Courageous in-house studio, features Duvernay alongside Evan Ross Katz, the host of "The White Lotus Official Podcast." The content incorporates Google Pixel with Gemini and is designed to be distributed across Max, including on the day the third-season finale is made available.

We pay to avoid that shit. You’re a cheapskate it seems.

R62 An athentic imperious asshole would know that the question is phrased,

What are you on about?

Walton Goggins is a bargain basement Bruce Dern.

I think Jon Hamm would have made a great Timothy and Jacob Elordi a great Saxon. Of course neither one would go near this trash, haha. And Kim Cattrall would have been fun as Victoria.

Cattrall is at least a decade too old.

I love the casting

Chloe is looking to scam Saxon and his family. Probably by hooking up with him. I rewatched the scene where Belinda tells "Gary" that she's sure they met in Maui. Chloe's reactions suggested to me that she knows full well that "Gary" is Greg (or maybe Greg is Gary?) and the many nefarious things he's been up to.

R33 "Each has overheard the other two shit talking them now."

They didn't. Only the soccer mom in the last episode overheard them. In the first episode Coon was in her room overlooking them but couldn't hear them. In the second, the tv star tried to read a book, but it was in Thai. We could hear voices talking from somewhere in the place, but there was indication that she heard them

R59 You know this is not a porno but an actual tv show.

R66 You are talking like they are some blockbuster movie superstars that are getting offers left and right. They would say yes to this the second that Mike would ask them. This is one of the biggest shows of the last 5 years. Hamm was on Fargo the last season. And Jacob is on Euphoria. Is Euphoria that much bigger than White Lotus?

Valentina also wasn't that much on screen in the few episodes. She became a bigger part of the story later on. So maybe Fabian's character will get more screen time in the upcoming episodes.

When Timothy is on the phone receiving the bad news, we can see Gaitok listening to him, from his security guard house. Earlier Gaitok told Mook how he is still a pen pal with a guy from Belgium he saved years ago from drawing. And when Lochlan is showing that video of a guy walking into the big wave, Timothy seemed mesmerized by it. So will Timothy walk into the ocean and Gaitok save him?

R71 yes a show where that could happen. We’re most likely about to get some brother on brother sex, so why not have their ‘my life is over dad’ join the party? Not with them, but with someone else. A more likely scenario is he and Rick fight, then Tim makes a move.

[quote] And Jacob is on Euphoria. Is Euphoria that much bigger than White Lotus?

Euphoria was his breakout role. He’s a big star now.

[quote]So will Timothy walk into the ocean and Gaitok save him?

And Mook will never hear the end of it. Let her walk past just one time.

I see Timothy as more of a “fake his own death” kinda guy.

I’d like to see Timothy naked

Timothy is getting gobbled up by that tsunami wave, like the man in Loch's video.

I'd like to gobble up timothy's cock

R78 I kind of agree. When Lachlan was showing that video he asked why the guy didn’t run? Why was he just standing there when the wave was coming?

When he asked that there was a closeup on Timothy and it seemed like he was thinking the same thing- time to run, don’t just stand there getting swept away.

R82: this is the video in question. It's probably the most notorious tsunami clip of all time. Mike White clearly did his Thailand tsunami research.

I know Wolfgang Peterson totally fucked it up in the 200s but I would love to see Mike White tackles remake of the Poseidon adventure. He’s really doing a much more sophisticated version of what all those old disaster movies did, swapping a mystery corpse for the actual disaster.

I will be quite disappointed if the plot ultimately involves a tsunami. Tasteless and unimaginative.

I'd love to see the 200s. maybe the 300s

Sorry r86 I meant to type the 2000s thanks for pointing out my critical error

R85 it won’t happen; the resort is in a sheltered part of a gulf, not directly facing wide-open ocean.

The tsunami is a metaphor for the shit ton of problems headed right for the Ratliffs.

And possibly for the three women friends, Greg/Chloe, Rick/Chelsea, Gaitok, Belinda, and anyone else at the White Lotus.

There won’t be a literal tsunami.

Maybe Timothy’s clothes will get swept off

Fingers crossed 🤞

[quote] Of course neither one would go near this trash, haha.

White Lotus is THE show for Coastal Elites right now. Any actor would kill to reach that coveted audience.

Wouldn't there be a camera at the entrance of the resort? They could easily see that it was Valentin who was standing underneath the ramp so that the robbers could get in.

Valentin being there is not a secret, he was talking to his coworker Gaitok. Gaitok just is too naive to connect the dots that Valentin was distracting him.

Walton Goggins snake bite incident…

R95 If Walton wants a snake bite of a different sort, I'm available. 😏🍆😈

Agree, r92.

Jon Hamm would have been a great choice for this show. A sort of renaissance for him, which he sorely needs. L

He was fantastic in Fargo just last year. He’s never going to get another role as perfectly fit to him as Don Draper.

[quote] The show is about entitled white cunts who are miserable even though they are rich and spoiled. It's a dark, moody show. If you want to see the touristy part of Thailand go watch the fucking Travel Channel.

And speaking of miserable cunts...

r99 stop talking about yourself.

So did any of you hysterical fan-boys buy anything from the new White Lotus x Banana Republic collection that just came out?

Wow, what a sophisticated withering comeback, r100.

Go to bed r102, you're becoming a bore.

The men this season are all nice looking but none are hot to me.

I think Walton Goggins would be a fun neighbor — the type to invite the gay neighbors over for a cookout, insist they try this bourbon he'd found, serve great barbecued meat, and after dinner insist you share his weed pen. Then he'd insist you take the bourbon home: "I got a great deal on a case."

When you'd get home, you'd Google the bourbon and find it was $200 a bottle, which he would never mention.

[quote] And then proven accurate when the actress playing the assistant complained about the food. In Italy. Said she couldn't find fresh vegetables

That’s true of a lot of Italy and France and Spain TBH.

It’s the downside of “Fresh! Locally Grown! In season!” schtick. Unless you want to spend a weekend of your expensive vacation finding a farmers market or Uber-ing to a supermarket and keeping your fingers crossed that it’s one of the decent ones, you are at the mercy of what is available in the expensive tourist areas.

[quote] The men this season are all nice looking but none are hot to me.

Especially when compared to the embarrassment of riches in Season 2.

R106 The produce section of the average Italian supermarket countrywide makes a mockery of those in the U.S. But yes, city centers may seem like food deserts to those who don't know where to look.

R107 and i find this all the more disappointing than Thai men can be absolutely gorgeous. I was really expecting some local eye-candy this season considering the location.

I think Lochlan is the best looking guy they’ve had in all three seasons. That said, I have a very specific type.

Regarding Belinda not being aware of Tonya's death, I find that hard to believe. Think of any job you've ever worked. If an annoying guest met such a startling death, the whole resort, town, and nation, would be endlessly chattering about it. Even if employees were instructed not to talk, they would talk among themselves.

Workplaces are dens of salacious gossip, true or not. Who could resist discussing the floating body of a guest freaking out swimmers at the beach? Especially Belinda, who had to put up with the victim and her insincere promises. You'd want to know what happened to her. Didn't she also leave rooms full of her stuff? What was on her iPod? Inquiring resort employers want to know.

^supports the theory that events of this season are happening at the same time as events of last season

In other words, Tonya is not dead yet and “Greg” is orchestrating her kidnapping and murder from Thailand right now

Greg has been living in Thailand for at least a year.

. I don’t recall the explanation for why “Greg” wasn’t with Tanya in Italy.

r110 twink?

The preview for Sundays episode shows Belinda reading articles about Tanya’s death online. Sorry but This show is definitively happening AFTER season 2 not concurrently with it.

If the article is appearing while Belinda is in Thailand, the death just happened. That supports the parallel timeline.

But Coolidge did not die in Hawaii r111, she died a year or so after Belinda met her. And she died in Sicily, many thousands of miles away from where Belinda lived. The Four Seasons has 129 properties in 44 countries and 45,000 employees. Gossip among employees? It's not that small of a planet.

Belinda is reading the articles because she is snooping anround online, investigating Greg/gary’s deal and googled Tanya’s name, not because the story was trending on buzzfeed.

It's just the people that came up with the "this season is an undercover prequel!" silliness not being able to let it go r120. Some people go overboard with trying to cone up with wacky conspiracy theories.

Sure the show involves a murder mystery, but Mike White isn't trying to create Westworld here.

[quote]supports the theory that events of this season are happening at the same time as events of last season

No, the preview for the next episode shows it's after the events of the last season. Belinda sees that Tonya is dead from searching news articles.

It really is unbelievable that Belinda wouldn't know already.

Maybe Belinda is a Trumper and gets all her news from Steve Bannon’s podcast.

Idk I remember seeing a news report a couple weeks ago about some American woman who got eaten by a hippo on safari last year and that news totally missed me at the time I also know a lot of people who work in wellness who , for reasons I don’t agree with, pride themselves on not paying attention to the news because they don’t want to be exposed to negative “energy”.

We are a self selected cohort of people who enjoy reading about lurid true life stories of wealthy people caught up in scandalous crimes. Believe it or not, not everyone pays attention to those things.

Tanya was a wealthy heiress/socialite and she fucking killed three people before she drowned. Believe me, that would be a huge international news story.

Did anyone witness the boat shootings? Would the police even know she was the shooter? I think she killed all the witnesses

One guy jumped off the boat and tried to swim away. We never saw what happened to him.

“Wealthy American listed amongst victims of yacht robbery”isn’t quite the international scandal that “wealthy American murders boat full of gays” would be

Also Tanya was rich but she wasn’t Gloria Vanderbilt. She wasn’t the kind of society name that would be a household name in the states- in fact the gays who were conspiring against her were more socially prominent than she was.

I just quickly googled millionaire accidental death and pulled up several juicy storiesover the past few years that never made it into the mainstream

I do think it’s possible this story could have been buried. Especially if her lawyers (under Greg’s direction) wished it to be.

You’re all ASSUMING Belinda didn’t know that Tanya was dead.

Maybe she’s re-reading about the death to confirm that she was correct about Greg, that he was Tanya’s husband and that his name isn’t Gary.

No one was pushing to make it a big story. From what he saw Tanya didn't really have any family or friends, she relied on assistants as companionship. And obviously Portia just wanted to disappear and have nothing to do with it.

A lot of times the stories that make big news are because they have loved ones trying to get attention about their death.

The media picks and chooses what stories to promote and get stuck on. I’ve never really understood the science behind it except when someone is young and beautiful

You people waay overthink these plot points. It’s not a Dateline show, it’s a character drama with social commentary.

R116 shy, awkward twink

I've never been into Asian guys but I think Gaitok is so adorable. I hope nothing bad becomes of him.

But he does need to get a clue that Mook is just not that into him.

I wonder whatever possessed Mike White to name one of his major Thai characters "Pornchai" other than sheer perversity. He must have giggled every time he typed it.

Um it’s a Thai name. A woman named Porntip was Miss Universe.

[quote] I don’t recall the explanation for why “Greg” wasn’t with Tanya in Italy.

R115 A few days into their stay in Sicily, Greg's ruse to Tanya was that he got a work call and needed to return to Denver for a couple days and he'd return to her. Of course, he leaves and then later the same day she crosses paths with the high-end, murderous gays.

Jason Isaacs is perfect as Duke Dad. Absolute perfection.

Plus, there’s the Lucius Malfoy connection.

[quote] Things are supposed to pick up next episode, and that desperately needs to happen

Absolutely.

It might help some of you to see this, if you re-watch season one and season two.

Season one was absolutely hilarious, from the very beginning. It was madcap and hilarious. Murray Bartlett and Jennifer Coolidge were absolutely the best part of season one. They added so much humor to the season, which season three is seriously lacking.

Season two was funny too, but a bit more serious.

But season three is just a snooze fest, so far. I was away traveling for work for the past two weeks, and didn't have a chance to watch episodes two and three. When I finally caught up, I realized that I didn't really miss anything at all.

This is the problem with increasing the number of episodes from 6, to 7, to 8. More episodes means more wasted time.

[quote] Jason Isaacs is perfect as Duke Dad. Absolute perfection.

He is doing an almost perfect impression of Thomas Ravenel, from Southern Charm.

Thomas has a South Carolina upper class accent, which I suppose is close enough to someone from North Carolina.

[quote] The preview for Sundays episode shows Belinda reading articles about Tanya’s death online. Sorry but This show is definitively happening AFTER season 2 not concurrently with it.

This part is confounding, because Belinda tells Pornchai that her boss at the White Lotus in Hawaii JUST died. And she just got screwed over by a rich guest.

That's why everyone is questioning the timeline.

What Belinda said, implies that this just happened. Which means that Tanya and Greg would have just left Hawaii, got married, then went straight to Italy.

I mean, I guess it's plausible, but it seems unlikely.

So the timeline is kind of screwed up.

Thomas Ravenel has a very slight Southern drawl, which I find very sexy.

And Jason Isaacs mimics it perfectly.

I did wonder if Belinda would still be so hurt two years after Tanya's betrayal to need a Thai wellness retreat to "heal." But then again her son in the opening scene alluded to "other stuff" stressing him out, so maybe there was more bad news for the family.

R88 When Lochlan was showing that video of a guy walking into the big wave, he said it happened on the beach right next to theirs.

Shocking and crazy

R144 in the “real” place, they are on the opposite side from where the Christmas tsunami hit. in any case, Mike White is far too good a writer to be that literal—and obvious.

Why would Belinda admit to the main masseuse that she was planning to leave White Lotus and that it is her dream to have her own place one day? When they are paying her to stay in Thailand and learn from him and other massage therapists, for a few months.

I think it tracks that Tanya and Greg got married right away and went to Italy. Belinda wouldn’t still be pissed after the betrayal two years later?! I know people who have been pissed about a betrayal for decades, until they finally died.

Betrayal is not the right work. For a few days, Belinda was led to believe that a relative stranger, a flaky rich lady, would invest in her business , but then the flaky rich lady flaked. That’s a disappointment, but hardly surprising and by no means a “betrayal” she’d be stewing over for years.

We have established that each White Lotus (or at least this one) is independently owned. That makes Belinda’s months-long “training” mission even more unlikely. I think there’s a back story behind what’s she’s doing in Thailand.

I just find it hard to believe someone who works with the public and sees maybe hundreds of people a day could remember the new boyfriend of a client they met maybe once or twice.

Maybe Greg was living in Thailand and establishing a new identity there concurrently with season 1 & 2 and going back and forth.

Someone suggested upthread that Timothy decided put all the phones away in order to enjoy the time left with his family; actually, he did it because Saxon kept getting called/texted by the company about what was happening and Tim didn't want them getting ahold of him.

R150 that’s not necessarily true at. Four Seasons hotels are own separately by individuals, funds or other investment groups. Four Seasons is a hotel “flag”—manager and operator. No reason that the fictional White Lotus wouldn’t be the same.

at all*

LEAVE BELINDA ALONE!

I admit I don’t understand the intricacies of the relationship behind the ownership of a hotel and the operating of the hotel by a “flag” operation, but I do think that the separate ownership makes it more unlikely that the flag operator would undertake the expense of putting an employee based at one hotel up for months at a time on a property owned by a different owner.

[quote]In addition, our market-leading global Employee Travel Program allows our employees to travel the world while discovering all that our properties have to offer learning best practices, discovering new and innovative ideas, while also building connections with colleagues around the world.

Can we move on now?

R157 and you’d be wrong.

Let’s move on.

No. That’s a travel discount program for employees (including the possibility of “complimentary nights”). It doesn’t indicate any kind of months-long training missions.

Google:

The Four Seasons employee travel program offers employees discounted rates and complimentary nights at Four Seasons properties worldwide. Employees are also eligible for exclusive rates at travel partners like Hertz, Expedia, and Disney.

Benefits

Discounted rates

Employees can get reduced rates on rooms and complimentary nights at Four Seasons properties

Food and beverage discounts

Employees can get a 50% discount on food and beverages at Four Seasons properties

Travel partner discounts

Employees can get exclusive rates at travel partners like Hertz, Expedia, and Disney

Incentive travel

Employees can be rewarded with cultural experiences, relaxation treatments, and group activities

IJBOL

Well I tried, that poster is obviously determined to be as tedious as possible.

You’re the one being tedious, doing research to “prove” your point which is apparently that there is nothing odd at all about Belinda’s being sent to Thailand on an all-expenses paid, months-long training mission.

Just block the poster.

Fun fact: as a 22-year-old, I took my teenaged brother to tour UNC and Duke as he was applying to colleges. It was a fun trip. So we have had a good laugh over the Ratliff rivalry.

It is fiction, Mr. ‘I don’t buy Belinda’s story’ troll. Please txegway, pronto.

We can’t assess fiction for whether it makes sense?

[quote] I just find it hard to believe someone who works with the public and sees maybe hundreds of people a day could remember the new boyfriend of a client they met maybe once or twice.

R151 Except that for Belinda, even over those brief few days, Tanya became more than just one of the hundreds of people a day that she'd encounter as resort guests.

If someone I recently met offered to fund me in business, then reneged a few days later after meeting a new paramour who I was likely introduced to by this person, I'm pretty sure I'd remember this person if I saw them again a few years later.

At the very least, I'm confident I'd have the "why does this person look familiar / where do I know them from" thoughts that Belinda was having with Greg over these first few episodes.

If Belinda had ulterior motives there would be a hint or two dropped and we haven’t gotten anything that suggests she isn’t a sweet slightly lonely and honest woman.

Then there’s the whole pornchai dimension. He’s there as a white lotus assigned mentor.

If she weren’t there for the reasons she claims why would other staff at the resort be playing along with her deception?

There is no precedent in this show where a character enjoys significant solo time on camera alone and unobserved by others, whi is also hiding a complete double agent agenda.

If Belinda were some kind of spy or whatever we would have seen something by now

Belinda just wants her snatch diddled. It’s been a LONG time.

ALSO turning Belinda into a dishonest hustler would be poor writing because it would drastically lower the stakes

The tension between Greg and Belinda is that he is a killer on the run and she is an honest woman who has his number. There’s nothing incriminating he can use to shut her up or make her go away. Therefore in order to shut her up he would likely need to kill her

If Belinda were another grifter or had something to hide she would be less likely to involve herself in Greg’s trajectory. She also wouldn’t go around greeting people who she might have known in her past life, because she’d want to maintain her own anonymity and not be recognized by anyone who could potentially derail whatever crazy hustle r164 thinks she’s on

There are soooo many reasons to believe that Belinda is sincere and like zero that would cause you to guess otherwise

Belinda is a loose end from Greg’s Tanya job.

Pornchai wants to tap Belinda's THICC ass

I think Belinda is the most beautiful woman on the show.

She has a lovely face and positive energy.

R175 her skin and smile are beautiful. Nice eyes, too.

I love the actress who plays Belinda. Glad she got her own show (How to Die Alone).

Natasha Rothwell really is gorgeous. Love the energy she emits as this character.

Belinda is not some undercover spy. That’s very “Megan Draper will jump off the balcony.”

UNC and Duke are playing basketball today at 6:30 p.m.

LOVED Natasha Rothwell on the show Insecure and her own show How to Die Alone. Watch them!

The Four Seasons’ Employee Discount Program is quickly devolving into the DL Season 3 obsession equivalent to S1’s “how much money was in the envelope” debate.

Norwegian Catholics of Bay Ridge.

The Datalounge Detective Agency is at it again with these outrageous Belinda conspiracy theories.

I was here for the Mad Men "Norwegian Catholic" debate back in the day and that was BATSHIT.

Those old queens must all be dead by now.

Belinda is a spy, just as Megan Draper turned out to be a corporate spy murdered by the Manson family.

How much money did Tanya leave Belinda?

Millions. But it was millions of pesos.

[quote] Belinda is a loose end from Greg’s Tanya job.

[quote] —“Belinda, you in danger, girl.”

I think that Greg followed her back to her room, after her dinner with Pornchai. When she got back to her room, she heard rustling in the bushes outside her window.

He's stalking her, and might (or even probably) kill her.

Remember, the Leo Woodall character "Jack" told Haley Lu Richardson's character "Portia" that she needs to get on her plane and get the hell out of there quickly, because "these people are dangerous."

Obviously, Greg is involved with some VERY bad people, and if anyone finds out about his scam, they have to be eliminated.

Belinda is on to Greg, which means that she's a loose end. I think she's going to die this season.

PornChai wants to make some Porn Chai out of that sweet chocolate ass of belinda

r186 - not ENOUGH

R40: Your friends are idiots. There is a lot to see, even in Bangkok, beyond Kathoey and child prostitutes.

AH! Belinda!

I don't think Belinda will die. It feels more likely that Greg will get his comeuppance.

I can’t believe anyone wants to see Greg in a fourth season. He may not be the victim or get killed, but he’s going to be taken out of the storyline.

I first saw Natasha Rothwell in her role in Insecure and enjoyed her character, Kelli. So I was a little surprised by how initially surprised I was by her performance as Belinda in White Lotus One. And I am grateful to her for exposing me to myself, that I still harbor a level of internalized racism.

"The White Lotus Opening Theme Song: Live from Classical Pride at The Barbican"

For fans of the Season 2 Intro.

This is so cool.

Natasha Rothwell reminds me of Octavia Spencer. Both actresses are likeable and ingratiating but there’s a faint air of amateurishness in their performances. Viola Davis they ain’t.

Parker Posey on creating her accent for 'White Lotus' character

I love it

Jason Isaacs. -I looks hung

I look at him and he looks hung

[quote] And I am grateful to her for exposing me to myself, that I still harbor a level of internalized racism.

Oh good Lord.

I’m scared of what will come next.

I am very worried about the Ratliffs.

I want to do the baby cradle exercise with PornGuy!

A lot of “walking out into the ocean” death imagery in this episode.

The tsunami video, Victoria’s dream, Greg’s lie about how Tanya died.

Episode 4 preview.

Halfway there.

R197 a lot less slow-boiling hysteria and snot, too.

[quote] Greg’s lie about how Tanya died.

What did I miss? Was this revealed in one of the previews?

What Chloe told Chelsea.

In that Today piece, Parker said she's starting production on a film set on Easter Island? It's a movie by Martin McDonagh about which not much is known other than the title, Wild Horse Nine, and that Mark Ruffalo is also cast.

R153 I thought this was a weak point in the storyline. The idea that Timothy's stated rationale for his sudden 180 on the sequestering of phones & devices, wasn't received as an obvious ploy - just not believable. Especially to Saxon, who was aware of the urgent texts from the office member. And yet he's portrayed as completely buying it, along with his sister.

I was thinking the same thing r181.

What time does White Lotus become available on MAX?

9 PM EST.

I’m counting the minutes

We’re in EDT now, not EST.

It is available at 6pm PST.

One more reason to live in California!

R218. No, it’s not. Check your Daylight time.

You know what the problem with this season is? Except for Carrie Coon and maybe Walton Goggins and Parker Posey it’s all just so fucking undercast. It’s like the eighth or ninth choices for each role ended up on it. Don’t tell me Leslie Bibb, Michelle Monaghan, Jason Isaacs, Patrick Schwarzenegger, the girl playing Piper and the fuggos playing Chelsea and Chloe were the first choices.

That’s so mean.

They were.

r220l I would doubt you're right that they were "eighth or ninth" choices for the parts. The White Lotus is considered very prestigious in Hollywood, especially since several of the actors in it have either won Emmys or been nominated for them, and because it gets high ratings too.

I can’t see anyone else playing Leslie Bibb’s part right now. I always just considered her an awards show appendage of Sam Rockwell’s (whose cousin is on my trivia team, by the way). And I love what Michelle Monaghan is doing in this (“You’re an independent…”)

I think your comment is needlessly complain-y and not particularly backed up by what we’ve seen on the screen so far.

Also, as the other poster said, I can assure you these were most likely all first offer choices. No one would turn down The White Lotus right now.

[quote] whose cousin is on my trivia team, by the way

Thanks for sharing that fascinating detail.

r220 jason isaacs is the reason I'm watching

[QUOTE] You know what the problem with this season is?

The problem with this season is YOU.

Sorry to drag up this tangent again, but regarding the plausibility of Belinda being sent to another White Lotus resort for training it’s not an inaccurate premise in and of itself at all. I’ve spent over 25 years in the industry with executive positions at companies like Mandarin Oriental, Kempinski, and Belmond and at all of those organizations we had staff that would spend time at other properties (no matter if wholly owned or management contract locations) for cross training and career development purposes.

The difference was, unlike Mike White’s conceit for Belinda, no way no how were they staying in guest rooms that could otherwise have been generating thousands of dollars in nightly revenue with paying clients. They were housed offsite in a comfortable, but modest apartment or in staff housing which existed onsite at some properties in remote locations. They also did not casually take all their meals in the resort restaurant dining rooms on the company dime as if they were paying guests. That would never be permitted and they would eat in staff venues or locally on their own, aside from a few comps in the restaurants to understand the client experience and maybe occasionally have a meal by their own volition. They would, however, get per diems in addition to salary.

And a spa employee like Belinda wouldn’t be sent off to just luxuriate every day for a month with a ton of treatments. It would be a combination of receiving treatments to understand the client experience and learn techniques, shadowing other employees to observe/ further learn, and still putting in hours actually working by being assigned jobs with shared commonality across all properties that she’d already know how to do.

There’s a reason Leslie Bibb and Michelle Monaghan have never become big stars. Because they’re mediocrities. And they’re dull AF in this.

I'm not somebody who needs characters to be likable or relatable - which is good because none of them are, for me, in Seasons 1 & 3. But the thing about Season 2 was, whether or not they were dicks, good or evil, I loved everybody. Everyone, except possibly Greg. It was just such a pleasurable viewing experience that way.

There have been dicks in all three seasons, and I, for one, say thank you, Mike.

Agree. My point was that in season 2, they were all loveable.

I meant dicks dicks.

even more loveable.

R228 is ready to fly on out of here

Tell me we get to see Sam Nivola's butt tonight.

Losers

I did not recognize Michelle Monohan as a blond. It looks terrible. She was so pretty as a brunette. It’s hard to buy her as some great beauty with a “perfect face.” Almost every other woman on the show is better looking.

[quote] I did not recognize Michelle Monaghan as a blonde.

I'm trying to figure out how I did not recognize her at all. I went down the list of her 57 credits on IMDB. Somehow, I managed to not see every single one.

Sorry for the tangent, but R228 can you make any comments on the three brand’s cultures/standards?

I’ve never stayed at the first two, but just love, love, love Belmond.

R239 You didn't watch True Detective, first season? She was Woody Harrelson wife

[quote] Sorry to drag up this tangent again,

If you were really sorry, then why would you be dragging it up YET AGAIN?

R241 Nope, it's been in my HBO queue for years. 60% of my time on streamers is spent browsing and sticking stuff in my watchlist. Then I just switch back to MSNBC.

R238 You need to go get you eyes checked. She's the prettiest out of the three friends. Coon is beautiful too and has that something special, that the other two lack, but she also looks quite older than her. Piper is the only one that's better looking. Chloe, Sritala, Belinda, Pam, Chelsea, Parker Posey? No. Mook maybe but she's like 20 years younger than her. Same with Piper.

Max or prime?

Max

I was just thinking that Jason Isaacs was teasing us with his legs open sitting on that stool in the robe and then Bam! Very nice! We need more of that.

Biggus Dickus!

That's quite a girthful dick Jason Isaacs has! I would be very proud were I he.

I hope it was real. Tired of fake dicks.

Jason looks real good lounging on that boat cushion. The white shirt/purple shorts are doing it for me.

I’ve had a thing for him since I saw Event Horizon in 1997. Hot daddy.

[quote] I hope it was real. Tired of fake dicks.

How you have suffered!

Interesting that we are seeing Victoria without her drugs for the first time.

Sunday viewing is good again with The Righteous Gemstones and The White Lotus

This is the first episode I’m getting bored with. 1-3 were fine with a leisurely pace, but I need some good action now!

Jaclyn is such a big bitch--what a nasty snob she was about the retirees' swimming pool.

She was fine. She wanted to go someplace young and hip, not an old folks’ pool.

She was horrified that the hot yoga guy thought that was their peer group R257.

Can “shooting the water pistol” take the place of “jumping the shark,” at least in terms of how it applies to this fucking show?

I appreciated seeing Parker Posey's Gucci 1947 Bamboo Handle Bag. It's a reissue but that was the first one I've seen in white. Nice.

Sam Nivola’s acting was rough in this episode. And “But… but what about me?” is a line for a five year old, not an 18 year old.

Full bush on Timothy. Love to see it.

The two nepo babies have the least to do.

There are more unlikeable characters than likeable. Belinda and Chelsea so far are my favorites.

Lochy is so sexy. I want him in me quite deeply.

He wouldn’t even know what to do to you.

Does it make any sense that Gary/Greg would invite dozens of strangers on his yacht?

There are more plot holes in this series than I thought possible. Very sloppy writing and character development.

He will after next week’s episode. Virgin Lochy will be no more.

If sucking your brother’s dick counts as losing your virginity, I guess…

I cannot stand the older brother, what an asshole. And why did dad decide to drop mom's pills?

How did the 3 blondes escape the water pistol gangs?

Sorry but I don't sense any homosexuality coming up.

The dialogue between the dad and the guy on the phone was laughably bad.

Belinda may be a large woman but has nice legs. Just a tidbit I noticed.

He invites the loser white ex-pats and she invited the young ones. It was really two different parties. They gave nothing else to do. It didn’t seem weird. I bet they would be getting similar invites all the time. It was mean to show you the weird social sense and vibe in resort areas…same reason we saw the three chicks outside the resort.

But r275, is it the behavior of someone who was wanted in questioning of his dead heiress wife?

HBO, if you kill off Belinda I will be pissed off.

Good to know that The Last of Us will replace The White Lotus when it's season is over. It feels like forever since it's been on.

I don’t get why they established a weird vibe between the brothers in the first two episodes via one staring at the other while naked, and then completely dropped it in the next two. And now it seems like they’re making the younger brother straight?

This season feels like it was being written as they shot it.

Greg is well aware of the flirtation developing between Saxon and Chloe. Why isn’t he putting a stop to it. And honestly why is Chloe risking all that

Well, at least no one can complain the show is still moving too slowly at this point. As we've left it:

Rick is off to Bangkok to confront the man whom he thinks killed his father.

Belinda is stalking Greg, and Greg is stalking Belinda and her son.

Timothy stole Gaitok's gun, and we don't know for what purpose.

The three blonde bitchy friends are going to have to fuck Valentin and his creepy Russian friends.

Saxon and Lochie are going to have to fuck all those women on that yacht (including Chelsea and Chloe).

Victoria is entirely out of Lorazepam.

Piper has to tell her parents she's running away to Thailand for good.

It also feels like bad writing that they've sent Walton Goggins off to Bangkok to do his dirty deed. Why not just have the dying Thai father resdie at the White Lotus?

r282, all of that could have happened within the first episode instead of dragging it out and making us wait. Talk about a lack of tension....

I’m not so sure Rick’s mom told him the full truth. I wouldn’t be surprised if Hollinger is in fact his father.

i guess I'll watch it tomorrow on prime

Then stop watching, r284.

[quote] HBO, if you kill off Belinda I will be pissed off.

Belinda is boring. It’s not the actress’s fault; it’s Mike White’s fault for getting stuck on a certain formula for racial politics on the show.

White = Colonizer, evil, self-centered, corrupt Native = Noble, kind, wise, pure (unless they’re close to the white colonizers, like the Thai bodyguards who work for the hotel owner, then they’re bad) Black = Genuine, sincere, morally upright, put upon by whites

The irony is, because he doesn’t allow for the characters of color to have bad motives, they don’t have any layers and they’re not as interesting to watch as the white characters. They just wind up being bit players whose main purpose is to help drive the white characters’ stories forward.

It was an odd scene when Belinda was so surprised to see a black couple on vacation that she felt compelled to wave at total strangers. Like, really Mike White? You don’t think there are affluent black people who go on expensive vacations in 2025? Weird.

Put down your shot glass^^

R285 that’s likely, especially since there was no body. Rick’s dad probably was a good man, went to Thailand to help, got caught up in shady shit, changed, and left Rick and his mom. Rick’s mom was pissed and said Hollinger killed his dad.

Kind of like Obi-Wan telling Luke Darth Vader killed his dad, when his dad was Darth Vader.

The thing I liked about season 2 was how most of the the drama came from having all these quirky and stubborn personalities coming up against a person who represented their opposite number.

The tension lay in how each of the characters had their own self image challenged and tested, sometimes in very small but profound ways.

This season all the drama is coming from a bunch of over the top soap opera scenarios the threat of financial ruin, murderous revenge, ruthless killer stalking innocent witness etc

There was so much more tension watching Daphne and Harper square off over their respective attitudes towards infidelity there there is in any of these high stakes phone calls Tim is making, or Rick’s revenge fantasies.

Idk. The acting is still good and the plotting is as well but I just don’t feel like I really know any of these characters or have a glimmer of familiarity with whatever ethical dilemmas they might be going through. Maybe because none of them really feel conflicted.

I agree that these characters are much more opaque that previous seasons (which managed to combine fun with character development and tension). Do I care about the three middle aged women? Not in the slightest. Do I care about the rich family? Not really. The soap opera of the hotel staff? No. Maybe Rick and Belinda come the closest to being characters I care about. This episode was all edging and no payoff.

The little buck toothed girl is growing on me. She's cute, like an inquisitive little chipmunk and she seems genuinely sweet.

Gaitok is ridiculously careless. Greg seems absolutely miserable all the time.

He is miserable, but he was looking kind of good on the yacht in those sunglasses. I would’ve hit it.

Glad I watched the aftershow package. The guy playing Gaitok has a very sexy Aussie accent.

[quote]It was an odd scene when Belinda was so surprised to see a black couple on vacation that she felt compelled to wave at total strangers. Like, really Mike White? You don’t think there are affluent black people who go on expensive vacations in 2025? Weird.

The actress said it was her idea. It's no different than seeing another gay person at a place where you don't expect to see gay people: there's sometimes a brief acknowledgement.

[quote]Belinda is boring. It’s not the actress’s fault; it’s Mike White’s fault for getting stuck on a certain formula for racial politics on the show.

I don't think she's boring. She has her own, interesting plot, IMHO. I care more about her surviving Greg than the three catty best friends or anyone other than the Ratcliffe daughter and Goggin's character and his girlfriend.

Also I'd argue the show is more about class politics than race--it just so happens that most of the white characters are rich and the characters of color are poor. That, however, is not standard. Aubrey Plaza and Will Sharpe played "possibly" flawed rich characters last season. Neither character was white. This season many of the staff's characters are of color but not all of them.

The mom and Saxon are the ones who would be most upset if they found out they are broke now. Lochlan and the sister will be okay, although Lochlan may not be able to afford an ivy league type college. But I can understand the dad not wanting his family to be disappointed in him.

I find Saxon entertaining even though he is a douche.

Gaitok what a dumb ass, he is Friend Zoned with that girl yet he chases after her without locking up the gun.

I can see Greg murdering again, he is shady and that chick he is with should realize she is replaceable.

Please keep Belinda and her son safe. I can understand as a caucasian male writer where Mike White is hesitant to make a black character a villian since most of his casts are white.

I think Rick does care for the gap toothed gal but it also is an age difference thing. When you are 50 and your significant other is in their 20's it happens, sometimes you get cranky and they get on your nerves.

I think those Russians are going to be trouble for the 3 women friends.

Those Russians were probably the robbers

Did you miss the snake tattoo? They are definitely the robbers

I can’t believe they managed to fit in a fourth episode where nothing happens.

Wonder why Greg lingered on pics of Belinda with hot son Zion. Greg is gay and closeted, right? Does he have something horrible and sexual up his sleeve for Zion?

The locals, every single one of them, are hopelessly one-dimensional. Compare that with S2 where the two hookers and the hotel manager were complex, recognizable human beings. The sweet hotel staff in this one are one-dimensional and the “sinister” bodyguards are one-dimensional. This season really fucking sucks.

[quote]It also feels like bad writing that they've sent Walton Goggins off to Bangkok to do his dirty deed. Why not just have the dying Thai father resdie at the White Lotus?

Some fan theories speculate that the man who killed his father is now the female proprietor of The White Lotus.

Greg’s going to threaten Zion if Belinda doesn’t leave him alone. His interest in Zion isn’t t sexual, it’s to make sure Belinda doesn’t tell anyone what she might suspect about Tonya’s death/Greg’s shadiness.

If Belinda leaves it alone, Greg won’t hurt Zion. Or her.

I read this week that the actors were in Thailand for seven months staying in five-figure-a-week luxury suites that they — gasp! — HAD TO SHARE.

I think I'd want Walton to be in the other half of my suite.

Maybe the father will refuse to leave Thailand? He could go with his daughter.

[quote] I think I'd want Walton to be in the other half of my suite.

R306 Agree, I definitely want Walton in my other half... 😉

Seven months? Why?

My theory from a previous thread holds re the incest angle and I think it will happen at night aboard the ship.

Lochy will attempt to screw one of the card trick women and won't be able to perform. Saxon will intervene and it will turn into a threesome with the gay brother, the straight brother, and one of the women.

The Russians are gross.

Including Valentin.

This is turning into a very downmarket vacay for the Fancy Cougars!

I like Chelsea and think there's true love between her and Rick. Don't blow it, man. She's nice.

Patrick S has all the elements to be hot, but somehow ... isn't.

An offbeat looking guy like Walton Goggins manages to be hotter.

Chelsea at this rate, deserves an Emmy nom. And I don't care what you say, her overbite I find endearing.

Belinda pronounced her son’s name (Zion) like “Klingon” or “Krypton.” Which is not how the word “Zion” is pronounced. So they gave Belinda’s son a name she can’t pronounce correctly? Uhhh…OK.

Parker Posey's character is a snob! I liked her better in the indie films.

Is it not pronounced Zye-on?

No she just prefers the company of decent people to trash

Victoria is a true DLer!

She doesn’t clientele with trash!

So the girls are out on the town with the robbers?

Thailand, ugh. Monkeys and creepy crawlers, the things of nightmares for me.

When the director decided the shot of Jason Isaac's penis was done, did he call out, "Uncut and print?:

Jason’s Jewish- he’s cut

r315 r317 she is pronouncing Zion correctly

[quote] This is the first episode I’m getting bored with. 1-3 were fine with a leisurely pace, but I need some good action now!

Talk about a slow burn.

This season has almost fizzled out.

It just really hasn't taken off yet. And it's too serious. There needed to be more comedy interspersed with all the dark, heavy drama.

Parker Posey is trying, but as others have pointed out, her character is becoming too one-dimensional. We've essentially seen her saying and doing the same thing in the past four episodes.

In fact, they've all been doing basically the same thing for the past four episodes, none of which has advanced the story.

And it's kind of annoying, if the writers are saving all the action for the last two or three episodes. Why not give us something good in EVERY episode?

So far, my guesses are:

Dad and daughter are going to stay in Thailand to live. Maybe even the whole family, since they won't have any home or money to return to, and dad has a warrant out for his arrest. Greg might even take them in, since they're both in the same boat.

I think Belinda is toast. The scene in episode one where Zion was praying, "please let my mom be safe" might have been hinting at her death. And Zion might get eaten by a crocodile.

We all seem to be on the same page that Sritala's husband (the guy in the hospital) is actually Rick's father. Rick clearly said that his father was never found, so it seems very likely.

Oh, and I think that Rick is falling for his meditation coach - the Indian lady. They seem to have a connection. When Chelsea went to talk to the lady in the jewelry store, Rick and the Indian lady definitely had a moment. He actually seemed happy and calm. The minute Chelsea got back, he looked mad and stressed again. So I wonder if they will end up together at the end of the season?

The three lady friends were supposed to bring the drama, in much the same way that the married foursome in season two brought the drama and tension. But it's just not happening. They have an occasional bitchy moment here and there, but overall, they've been pretty much cordial to each other.

And yes, Gaitok seems to be the dumbest security guard in the history of security guards. He's fucking hopeless. Another thing is the weird mixed signals Mook is giving off. Sometimes she seems to be into him, and then at other times, she doesn't. I don't know if it's her acting, or bad writing, or what, but their friendship/relationship is just all over the place.

I think the best part of this episode was seeing Jason Isaacs' bulge in his shorts. Not the fake prosthetic dick in the "robe scene" mind you, but the shots where he's lying back and you can see his package bunched up in his shorts. Very sexy!

Overall, I'm sorry to say that the writing is severely lacking this season. I guess it's hard to "nail it" for three seasons in a row. It's a lot of pressure being the Writer AND Director. I think Mike White might be burning out.

I still love the show, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that I'm a little bit underwhelmed.

Dare I say that Mike White borrows a bit from Bravo?

It kind of makes me laugh that Parker Posey mentioned that she and Mike White watch Southern Charm on Bravo.

There was a hint of this in each season so far, that I noticed right off the bat.

Season 1 - Rich douche Shane Patton kept calling his new wife, "Bubba." This is exactly what Tom Schwartz used to call his wife Katie on Vanderpump Rules.

Season 2 - Albie DiGrasso. I immediately thought of Albie Manzo, from the Real Housewives of New Jersey. "Albie" is too specific a name, to have it just be a coincidence.

Season 3 - The Jason Isaacs character "Timothy Ratliff" just strikes me as way too similar to Thomas Ravenel of Southern Charm.

T.R. Timothy Raliff = T.R. Thomas Ravenel

Up until episode four, it was just the accent and the looks that made me think of the similarity between them. But when Timothy revealed in episode four that his Grandfather was "Governor of North Carolina" and his father was rich, well.... that pretty sealed the deal for me. Thomas' father was a U.S. Representative to Congress from South Carolina, and a bridge in South Carolina is named after the Ravenels.

And of course, Thomas Ravenel was mired in scandals, which is basically Timothy's story now.

[quote] And yes, Gaitok seems to be the dumbest security guard in the history of security guards. He's fucking hopeless. Another thing is the weird mixed signals Mook is giving off. Sometimes she seems to be into him, and then at other times, she doesn't. I don't know if it's her acting, or bad writing, or what, but their friendship/relationship is just all over the place.

Explained here.

I wonder why Mike White didn’t make the Ratliffs from South Carolina.

Maybe because South Carolina is a very specific type of Southern culture, and it’s much more backward than North Carolina or even Georgia. The Ratliffs’ clothes actually look very “Atlanta” to me.

And, the Duke vs UNC stuff is fun.

Or maybe MW changed just enough details to avoid lawsuits from Ravenel or Bravo.

R328, tell me that Timothy Ratliff doesn't resemble Thomas Ravenel.

Coincidence? Haha.

Something just dawned on me, watching the preview for next week's episode.

What if Valentin and his two friends are working for Greg?

The three of them seem a bit "gay for pay," and they're pretty handsy with each other.

It could be that Greg has a stable of boys who romance rich women in different White Lotus hotels.

In Sicily, it was Jack (Leo Woodall) and Niccolo who were pulling the scam.

In Thailand, it's Valentin and his two friends.

I'm starting to think that it's a whole network of men who swindle money from rich women at all of these locations, and Greg is the mastermind.

Saxon on the boat to the Thai trophy girlfriends: “Swastika”

That is just what a douche bro like him would say instead of “Sawadika”

I wondered if the Thai trophy girlfriends would be ladyboys.

Fabian was right (assuming the bodyguards were telling the truth) - Gaitok should've been fired. Not just the gun, and leaving his post, but leaving the barrier up.

Piper couldn't leave her announcement until the end of the vacation? Instead she's going to ruin it for everyone in the middle? Selfish.

Belinda hearing things in her room again makes me think it's just going to be a lizard or something. Her curiosity only extending to a puzzled look is annoying.

God I hate magician's patter.

For a show that some posters insist is terrible (and yet they still watch) it's funny how many bullshit excuses some posters have to come up with to whine about? Pretending Belinda didn't pronounce Zion properly, really?

Valentin isn’t that good looking or sexy. I thought that from the moment his character was introduced. His acting isn’t great either. I find him the weak link this season.

Literally the same complaints as the first two seasons. It's too slow, etc. I don't think anyone last year could have anticipated These Gays are trying to murder me, so let's see where this goes, shall we?

Another lame plot hole: why would Victoria leave her purse, stashed with all her lovable pills, behind instead of bringing it with her to the upper deck? Made no sense whatsoever. Even if it didn't contain her pills, why would any woman do that? She brings her parasol but leaves her purse behind??

Sure, Mike.....

R336 is right. Repeating the same problems magically transforms flaws into virtues, so shut up!

^r335

R336, that one really jumped out at me. Women aren't suddenly overcome by a need to abandon their purses, especially not if they're packed with drugs.

Because she’s an idiot.

Except by E4 both earlier seasons had kicked in with high drama and character engagement. Actually, S1 by E3.

OK, I give in.....how else does one pronounce Zion?

It also seems unlikely that your drugs are missing, your husband, who knows exactly where they are, is acting tranquilized, and it never occurs to you he is taking your drugs. Instead you accuse your children who are behaving normally

jason isaacs is so hot

walter goggins doing something COMPLETELY different

Belinda problem aside, what exactly are Greg and Chloe up to?

That boat and the house they live in were MASSIVE. Would Tanya’s fortune really have paid for all of that?

Tanya was rich but I remember how impressed she was by the murder gays lifestyle and boat, which was a fifth the size of Greg’s yacht.

Which makes me wonder: is this another scam they are pulling, targeting the ratliffes? And the boat and villa are just rented to make them look richer than they are?

Is Chloe’s seduction of Saxon part of a plot?

Maybe Greg has had a series of wealthy wives who disappear?

Jason Issacs full frontal..I LIVE

Okay, it’s been four episodes and I feel we can accurately state that Patrick Schwarzenegger is terrible in this. Not one line he’s delivered has felt authentic tit he character or him as an actor. Now, the character is badly written, so that’s in Mike, but the cringy words he says have little to no basis in American male lingo in 2024/2025. It’s all too much. Shane in S1 was a rich douch but he was still based in reality.

Patrick’s character is not nearly hot enough to pull off the shit that’s coming out of his mouth and his actions. Further, if he’s gonna go on and on about fitness then they should have picked an actor that’s actually ripped. Patrick’s abs are barely there. Finally, Patrick is acting like a gay man trying to play as a former Duke frat boy while on vacation. I think his character is supposed to be authentically terrible but it reads as a bad act.

I think of what a Jacob Elordi and many others remake TV stars could have done with such a role. This feels like a true nepotism or casting couch hire. Sick of him already.

Wouldn’t Victoria at least have gone up to Greg/Gary and complain that someone had gone through her bag? I don’t think she’s the sort who would have just whined a bit to her husband and that was it. It was just plain stupid for it to be established that she hid the bag behind a small pillow on something somebody was bound to sit on, anyway.

R279 Mike White always drops gay storylines. Gays on WL are never really gay. Curious, and payed for, but never legit acting on their desire.

Yes, he had the evil gays in S2 but the only gay sex was with a man and his sugar baby. Transactional rather then lust like Cameron and Ethan during their hooker and Molly scene.

R348 how do you come by your expertise on how authentic straight douchebags in their 20s talk?

R282 there is just no way, NONE, that the Ratcliffs would go in a scene if yacht with sketchy people without their phones. Even less realistic the mom and dad would let their sons go off on the boat full of confirmed weirdos without cell phones. They’d have that yacht wait to grab the phones.

So much makes no sense. I’m sorry but Americans don’t go gallivanting around foreign places phoneless.

Scenic

Not here to defend Patrick but I don't see his character as someone who we're supposed to take as particularly successful at anything he does, including having a perfectly ripped body. He seems perfectly cast to me, essentially a nepo baby playing a nepo baby.

I think White realized this in casting him

R351 for starters I’m not just over 30 so still have straight and gay friends in the 25-30 range. For second social media makes it very easy to access young men and their lingo. My god, it’s not rocket science in the social media era.

Saxon is some dated caricature of a 20-something former frat boy with a porn addiction. I could see this character in some 90s show/film. The issue is that the writing is bad and Patrick’s delivery is worse. One of the two sides of the scale need some weight to complete the high wire act of pulling off a performance.

Patrick is an acting light weight in this. And Mike missed the mark with the script.

There are very very many straight white males who, if not utterly delusional about their own impressiveness, adopt a trumpian strategy of boasting or bragging that they are much more impressive than they are, as if reality is just a lie repeated enough times. These fat fucks look in a mirror and see James Bond. It’s like reverse body dysmorphia

Yes^. He’s inherited all of Timothy’s bullshit personality with nothing to show for it.

R324, nope. Belinda pronounced Zion’s name incorrectly. It’s Zion rhyming with Brian. Not Zion, like Klingon or Krypton. Make Google your friend.

She did in fact say Zion with a long I. As she did in an earlier episode. Get your hearing checked.

R359

I’m Pretty sure that however somebody’s mom pronounces their name is, indeed, the way their name is correctly pronounced

I’m not saying I’m a fan of creative name pronunciations or spellings. It’s pretty tacky imho

But it’s worse than tacky to tell a mother that they’re mispronouncing their own kids name.

I feel bad for Patrick. He said he cried when he got the role…and now it’s obvious to everyone that he is not good enough to play a role like this.

What are we supposed to make of the google search that Belinda did on Gary/Greg in regard to his disappearance after Tanya's mysterious death?

That he has just "disappeared" under an alias yet still has all her money? Even though clearly his photo is all over the internet? Would the Italian authorities not be still following his movements?

Or are we to believe that because he wasn't on Tanya's death boat, he was somehow acquitted in any connection to her death?

Has that been explained in any way in the writing? I mean, I know that the Italian police are often drawn as lazy imbeciles but.....

R357, I’m not negating people like that exist. My issue is that no one talks like Saxon and even if they did, Patrick doesn’t sound convincing at any point in this show. He can’t carry this rather simply role.

I think he’s doing fine. Not great not awful. Just like the above poster wrote- that is Saxon.

He’s mediocre.

[quote]there is just no way, NONE, that the Ratcliffs would go in a scene if yacht with sketchy people without their phones.

Technically, they ask all the guests not to have their phones so presumably they would have been on the boat with other people from the hotel who didn't. I do agree with the purse thing but I also think she knows it's her husband stealing her pills and she's just giving him a chance to say it.

[quote]nope. Belinda pronounced Zion’s name incorrectly. It’s Zion rhyming with Brian. Not Zion, like Klingon or Krypton. Make Google your friend.

Maybe [italic]you[/italic] should have used Google. She said it correctly. It's like the name, "Ian" which has two pronunciations.

Zion can be pronounced, "zie-on" as in the National Park (to locals), [bold]and[/bold] "zie-in."

R363 that may be why there were casting couch rumors, that I don’t believe, even before the season aired lol. He sucks.

^ for r362

Greg would be suspect number one in a real investigation. It wouldn’t matter if he wasn’t in Italy when she died. The Quentin association would’ve been discovered, he’d be arrested.

But I guess Italian authorities didn’t care enough to do a deep Investigation. Or got paid off. Who knows.

Casting couch? You think Mike White is LB Mayer in 1938?

This thread is degenerating rather too quickly.

R366 no phones in public areas. The three women and Belinda have their phones.

No way, NONE, that the mom would have allowed them in the yacht without their phones. Then to let your sons to go off with those people to part without a phone? No, not realistic. Or at least show us an argument with the dad and mom about the phones.

Sorry, the mom is shown to be protective of her family and suspicious of those people. Plus, there could be cute photos to take or something. I just don’t see them leaving the property without their phones.

Wouldn’t Interpol have put something out about Greg?

As the Belinda scene showed, there is all kinds of easily googled info/photos on the internet about Greg/Gary. So why is he not more undercover and why is he only (seemingly) targeting Belinda?

I can't make sense of it.

Did the photo on the BLM webpage actual show our Greg or the “real” Greg.

someone post the shot of Issacs's dick!

Also, weird and implausible that Greg is hunkering down next to yet another White Lotus. Like if ever there was a time to commit to only going to dinners at the Marriott!

Something finally happened. This episode was so much better. Next episode should be good!

So Chelsea is sure Rick is going to harm himself in Bangkok so...she's goes partying?

Why are the three girls so oblivious? Valentin obviously hates them and that's why he fucked with them about the pensioners and then the water pistol fight. Do they not realize this? Are they dumb? Now he introduced them to some shady Russians. This will not end well.

[quote]Gays on WL are never really gay. Curious, and payed for, but never legit acting on their desire.

And what about Murray Bartlett's character?

[quote] Also, weird and implausible that Greg is hunkering down next to yet another White Lotus.

It was necessary for the plot for this season.

That was definitely a weak episode, for many of the reasons already outlined. Victoria placing her pocketbook behind a pillow made no sense whatsoever. She also had barely any reaction to her pills being stolen after making such a big deal about them earlier and seemed to have forgotten all about it by dinnertime. And totally agree that such an overprotective mother would not just wander off leaving her immature and reckless sons to continue partying on the yacht.

And yes, she doesn't seem remotely curious about her husband being drugged out of his mind. Is she supposed to really believe that it's all just delayed jet lag?

The three friends storyline seems to have completely fallen apart. By now, we know that they've all grown apart and are likely regretting the trip. But where is this going? Would anyone really care if the TV star cheats on her husband or if Carrie Coon has a cheap fling? Or if they all stop being friends, since they're barely friends already? Although maybe there won't even be a blow-out - the Texas Trumper doesn't seem to care at all that she overheard the others gossiping about her last night.

Gaitok is very cute but very clueless. I don't care about most of the resort staff either, other than - maybe - Rick's 'therapist.' And I do like pushy Pam.

I do like Rick's girlfriend, the actress is doing the best work on the show this season, I think.

The Belinda-Greg storyline is interesting at this point, but there are so many unlikely plot elements - all outlined already in this thread - that it's hard to believe. I'm still hoping that Jennifer Coolidge will have some kind of cameo, appearing in Belinda's dreams, maybe.

But the extended view of Timothy's crotch was exciting.

Patrick S is a repo-douchebro.

Sorry, NEPO

R323 many many men who are circumcised are nit Jewish

R197 Viola is all hype. Not really much of an actress. Her skin seems to be getting lighter

Of course. But Jason is Jewish, and Jewish boys are cut.

R378 what else can she do? Sit in the room alone and worry? She’s already asked him not to go, he doesn’t want her to go with him, he’s going regardless of what she says.

Short of following him there, which she probably wants to do, but is respecting his wishes and won’t, she’s stuck at the White Lotus. Might as well do something to take her mind off it.

I bet she hooks up with Chloe. And then Saxon and Lochlan join in.

R345, in Season 1, Tanya's mother had just died, so she may have barely started to enjoy the full extent of her parents' fortune. She would have gone through life a wealthy woman, but not one worth half a billion dollars (a sum I thought I heard mentioned in Season 2). Since Tanya died under suspicious circumstances and Greg had refused to be questioned by the police I don't see why the U.S. executors of her estate would have turned over Tanya's money to him. Given all that, it really is possible that Chloe and Greg are up to something: for example, Chloe was very quick to volunteer to Chelsea that Greg has money and to give the impression that they live on a grand scale.

Greg was probably the guy who planned the robbery.

Why would Greg need to rob a tacky tourist jewelry shop?

As other posters have said, I could care less about the 3 blonde friends at this point. And Vlad should have been cast with a MUCH HOTTER actor! And just maybe one who could manage a sexy Russian accent.....

Wasn't there another actor cast in the main Russian role but got re-cast at the last minute because the guy who was cast turned out to be a big Putin supporter?

This show has always been a slow burn. But this season is the slowest of burns, there's just barely a flame going. Episode four was often a chore to get through. Season one felt kind of aimless in the first half, but once it hit the second half, it got good. So maybe this season will follow a similar pattern.

The problem is the characters this season aren't quite as compelling as in previous seasons. Rick's character arc is the best, but as others have stated, it's pretty obvious what happened to his father is more complicated than he was led to believe. The Ratliff family is kind of dull; the incest angle seems to have been forgotten (but who knows what will happen next week). The three friends arc feels underwritten. Every Gaitok and Mook scene is about the same; it's hard to like either since Gaitok is getting closer to "nice guy" territory, and Mook is just stringing him along.

The emerging Belinda/Greg arc, though, could redeem the season. Unlike the others on here, I doubt Greg is part of some wild conspiracy that connects every character. He's just a low-level grifter who got lucky.

Yes.

You be the judge:

I think that the casting would have worked better with Carrie Coon in the Parker Posey role, Parker Posey in the Michele Monaghan role, and Michele Monaghan in the Carrie Coon role.

Wait, being a Putin support is bad, but Patrick being MAGA is okay? Weird.

The Russians definitely robbed the jewelry store. Valentin came to Gaitok to distract him so the robbers could ride through the entrance, right? But hard to know how that subplot resolved.

That's the form of these White Lotus series... many subplots that "tease" endings - which one ends in the violence and death foreshadowed in the first episode.

The Russians start shooting up the hotel? No.

The Gaitok subplot winds up with him or the bodyguards shooting up the hotel? No. More likely Gaitok becomes a hero.

Greg shoots up Belinda? Possibly.

Pay attention to Chekhov's gun? Timothy starts shooting? I suspect the gun is a MacGuffin.

I am betting on Rick going off... clearly his mental health is problematic. Gaitok steps up and rescues everyone. Gaitok and Mook go off into the sunset, the bubble butt Thai guy a hero to her.

What’s weird is your question.

I liked Rick’s therapist lady. It seemed like Rick at least thought about what she was saying- to let it go and forgive himself and be happy. And all that. He still needs to go to Bangkok for closure, but she made an impression on him.

Was she the one in the first episode with Zion when the shooting started?

r344 I've got my clogging shoes on!

Yeah if you go back and look at the robbery scene, the two robbers are definitely Valentin's friends.

I am surprised people are complaining about this episode. I thought this episode was quite enjoyable (and beautiful!) and plotlines finally started kicking into gear.

R400 yes.

I am wondering if the body floating in the pool itself might be a Macguffin. Zion reacted big to the body but it could've just been a person floating in the water and because of the gunshots he thought they were dead. When Belinda was being floated in the pool that occured to me. Maybe MW wanted to play with our expectations since the dead body opening scene has been such a thing

I thought Jason Isaacs did a great job being heavily sedated on the yacht.

I think Jason Isaacs has been killing it this season r405. Maybe not the accent so much, but otherwise he has been giving a great performance.

[quote] It was an odd scene when Belinda was so surprised to see a black couple on vacation that she felt compelled to wave at total strangers.

And those strangers were Mike White's Survivor castmates.

R406 and his DICK!

[quote] Something finally happened.

What?

Like the Ratliffs, the Ravenels also have a political history.

I can't help thinking that these first 4 episodes could have easily been done in 2.5 or 3 at most. There is soooo much water-treading going on.

In addition to things already mentioned in this thread (Victoria's purse, the cellphones), I also wondered:

(a) How did the blonde trio get out of the store?

(b) Piper was so upset with Lochlan for bailing on her, but why couldn't she just wait an extra day before telling her parents about her plans to move to Thailand?

(c) How does resort security seemingly consist of only a single person on duty, in a little shack, with a single monitor and a wooden gate arm? (Note that said single person on duty obviously feels no compulsion to [italic]actually remain at his post[/italic].)

The Rick story makes zero sense. He thinks he’s going to a strange city to confront a very wealthy stranger, who just suffered a debilitating stroke, and demand the answers about what happened to his father 50 years ago? How is he going to meet this guy? Does he imagine he can just walk in off the street? “I am a guest in one of your hotels and I’d like to pay my respects?” Or “I need answers from 1975?”

He’ll make up a lie.

He’ll do whatever it takes to see this guy and get some answers. It’s been eating at him and he needs it to end. At this point I don’t think he’s worried about the consequences.

Color me shocked if Belinda gets killed. I know Mike White loves a perverse twist, but I don't think he's got the balls to kill of a sympathetic Black character.

R411–

A) it doesn’t matter—it was just any amusing scene and they were not in any danger

B) true, it made no sense to me either. Besides, who cares if her little brother supports her. She’s still going to catch hell from her parents.

C) we have seen someone looking at many tv monitors showing many locations in the hotel so the gate house is just one aspect of security, but you are right the gate house doesn’t seem to serve much purpose

Will this season be up for Best Drama Series at the Emmys this September? I guess. Will it win? Fuck, no. I think only Walton Goggins has a shot at a nomination in an acting category.

I'm interested to see where things go with Victoria Ratliff now that she'll be coming out of her prescription fog.

Did he use a prosthetic or was it real? It looked big.

R417 Victoria will a have new clarity of some sort—that’s a nice plot thread.

R410 you have it backwards. Clearly the Ravenals are the source material.

R407 that poster you quoted doesn’t know much about Black people.

Or she could go into a horrible benzo withdrawal and unravel.

I think Lochlan looks like a young Michael Palin.

[quote](a) How did the blonde trio get out of the store?

It's not hard to figure it out. Eventually the children had to move on. The blondes might have had to have spent an hour in the store, but children's attention spans are not long enough that they would have waited forever, especially when they could have had the fun of squirting other people.

Some of you genuinely get some sort of bizarre pleasure pretending there are logical mistakes in the plotting. Why you do, I cannot imagine. But the nitpicking about this show on these threads is ridiculous.

They walked out door —jeezus. If they showed every last moment then you’d be right to bitch about the pace. Get a grip, folks.

The water gun urchins were hired by the Russians.

R422 Mike White has entered the chat

Perhaps Greg and Belinda will have a nice chat and Greg will give her the money Tonya stiffed her on (a bribe/payout) and they’ll go their separate ways and call it a day. Neither of them will be killed. Belinda doesn’t care enough about Tonya to keep pursuing it.

Greg flees.

The Blonde Blob is deadly boring.

Unless they end up being the murder perps and / or victims, they don’t seem to serve any purpose.

I wonder why Mike white chose to name another character “Valentin(a)”

Remember the concierge in season 2 was “Valentina.”

You’ll find the answer in season four. 😵‍💫

r422 you should know that the DL has always had a healthy contingent of plot hole trolls. Also currently to be found contaminating the "Severance" thread.

Frankly I am surprised and disappointed that, up to now at least, Parker Posey is essentially window dressing.

Some of you people are absolutely ridiculous with the complaining. If you don’t like the show, don’t watch it.

R430 but in this case it is sort of warranted - they made a BIG FUCKING DEAL about getting attacked by water guns and being cornered in the convenience store. The next scene they appear in all were fully dry and somewhere else, so it felt a bit jarring after the hysteria over the water.. Why was the water gun scene in there at all? Maybe it was supposed to be funny. Maybe it was meant to make them more unlikable as characters. That part worked for me.

Valentin said he would come back and get them. One assumes he and goon friends showed up an hour later to retrieve them and they dried out in the meantime.

The water gun scene was because it is a real Thai tradition r433. Song kran is a big deal in Thailand that I am glad Mike showed.

Also seeing the Thai kids spray the super privileged westerners was hilarious. Everyone wants to experience "authentic" local culture until they are actually in it.

I feel like after last season, the whole world was determined to descend on Southern Italy, but watching this season, I can’t imagine wanting to go to Thailand - nothing but monkeys, porky Australians tourists and dorky cargo short-wearing expats and their mercenary concubines.

I think Lachlan looks like Ukrainian gay pornstar Igor Kolomiyets.

Tanya died after hitting her head trying to get out of the boat. That doesn't really look like murder, especially when she was the one firing the gun that killed the people on the boat. I don't remember, did she throw the gun off of the boat? If not her hand and finger prints would be on that gun. Maybe Greg wasn't a suspect because it didn't appear there she was murdered? I suppose it depends on how much evidence there was of a conspiracy to kill her, and I think wading into that is way, way beyond what anyone should be doing for this show.

When she realized the inevitability of the situation and started shooting was the first time I liked that character.

Honestly I think that's showing Thailand in a good light r436 - they (shockingly) haven't even gotten into the sex tourism

Thanks R435, I get that it is part of the local tradition, they did explain that in the episode. I was saying that it seemed sort of thrown in there and then wiped off the board. Sort of like local-flavor box checked, or something. Ha maybe I took it too personally, I didn't think it was funny but rather embarrassing the way they reacted.

[quote] I feel like after last season, the whole world was determined to descend on Southern Italy, but watching this season, I can’t imagine wanting to go to Thailand - nothing but monkeys, porky Australians tourists and dorky cargo short-wearing expats and their mercenary concubines.

And oppressive heat.

The cast actually said that it was so hot in Thailand, that they sometimes had a hard time remembering their lines.

And in some scenes, Walt Goggins was just dripping with sweat.

Who in their right mind would ever want to go there??

Good point, R439. I think it would gave been more plausible if Greg/Gary had been shownhanging around Bangkok as a sex tourist, not dining at another fucking White Lotus resort.

R433 ding ding. We learned how annoying and even puerile these women can be. They wanted fun, and then bitched about it. Most people who came across a scene like that as tourists would think cool—love it!

R426 Nope. Belinda wouldn't do that. She's clearly a moral person and she wouldn't let something like this go away.

He loves the pad thai

R434 but they didn’t show it! Insert whine here.

Season 3 needs a lot more of this.

R330 But why would Greg's boys have to be gay to do crime for him? He clearly isn't gay. Can't this season's criminals just be straight? What would be the point of them being gay? And why would Greg hire them to rob a little jewelry store in a resort where he eats every day and above which he has a house.

Who says they’re gay? Certainly nothing we’ve seen.

How big is this town, or rather how small, since Russian guys just casually found the three blonde ladies after an hour of them panicking and screaming thru town?

What annoys me is that the gay storyline this season is not getting screen time like the lesbians last season. We still don't even know if Lochlan is same sex attracted by this point. It has not been handled well imo. There should have been more signs. Apparently only lesbians are allowed to discover their sexuality and come out, not the gay men. Typical. Once again lesbians get better treatment than gays. I remember the lesbians getting a sex scene last season. I bet it won't happen with the gay character this season.

R449 The guy at R330 ?

[quote] they (shockingly) haven't even gotten into the sex tourism

Isn’t that why Saxon is there, and isn’t he trying to traffic his brother?

R451 There was only one lesbian last season and we didn't know she was gay also until towards the end of the show. Didn't she have sex with the prostitute lady in the second to last episode? Or even in the last episode?

[quote] We still don't even know if Lochlan is same sex attracted by this point

We do know that he is magical though, so that’s an interesting twist.

R450 they asked some street urchin “where’s the nasty Americans” and the kid point to the package store across from the pharmacy.

R452 so you take him as an authority?

R325 " And Zion might get eaten by a crocodile" That's rather random. And specific. There are no crocodiles in the pools/lakes inside the resort. That would be idiotic writing. The poisonous fruit laying all around is bad enough.

And Rick wasn't falling for his meditation coach. He was just touched by her words. And that some random person cares about him.

R457 What authority? WTF are you talking about? I was just responding to his post.

Would Greg inherited Tanya's money even if he was wanted for questioning about her death? Isn't there some legal process he would have to go thru and papers he would have to sign to get to her money?

And there is now way he would be living right next to a White Lotus resort and eating there, even if it is on the other side of the world. They are making him look really stupid but at the same time like some murderous genius.

[quote] Honestly I think that's showing Thailand in a good light [R436] - they (shockingly) haven't even gotten into the sex tourism

They actually have. Chloe is clearly a prostitute; we were told that the other pretty young women the Ratliff boys are on the yacht with are prostitutes.

[quote] But why would Greg's boys have to be gay to do crime for him? He clearly isn't gay. Can't this season's criminals just be straight? What would be the point of them being gay? And why would Greg hire them to rob a little jewelry store in a resort where he eats every day and above which he has a house.

I think there's a bit of confusion, due to the "sort of" gay story line from season two.

Jack was gay-for-pay, hired by Quentin to do two things: 1) Fuck Quentin, and 2) Distract Portia.

Quentin also had gay ties to Gary/Greg. It's not clear if their relationship was only in the past, or if it extended to the present day, because that was never fully explained in season two.

Gary/Greg's sexuality is still kind of a mystery. On the phone in Sicily (out on the balcony), Tanya overheard him talking on the phone, saying "I love you."

Who was he talking to? Quentin? Chloe in Thailand? We still don't know.

So there's this whole "gay thing" underlying Greg/Gary's criminal activity.

And of course, there's the rentboy aspect to Jack and Nicoolo's characters in Sicily, which kind of extends to Valentin in Thailand.

I think all of these young studs are just hired to seduce rich people (men or women), so that they can be swindled out of their money.

The rentboys don't necessarily have to be gay. They'll just do whatever it takes, to make money.

[quote] they made a BIG FUCKING DEAL about getting attacked by water guns and being cornered in the convenience store. The next scene they appear in all were fully dry and somewhere else, so it felt a bit jarring after the hysteria over the water

NEWS FLASH: wet clothes and hair dry out eventually, especially in hot dry weather.

Greg hasn't been charged with any crime r460. So why wouldn't he get her money. That they wanted to question him is a long way off from being being charged or convicted or a crime.

[quote] Would Greg inherited Tanya's money even if he was wanted for questioning about her death? Isn't there some legal process he would have to go thru and papers he would have to sign to get to her money?

You think he wouldn’t have had his name added to everything she had? It wouldn’t have been inheritance in that case; it would just be his.

he needs to give her some pad thai

[quote] R325 "And Zion might get eaten by a crocodile" That's rather random. And specific. There are no crocodiles in the pools/lakes inside the resort. That would be idiotic writing.

R458, go back and watch the opening scene of this season.

Zion is with Rick's meditation lady. He's practicing meditation with her.

Then they hear gun shots. Then shooting starts.

The meditation lady runs away. Zion jumps in the water to "hide."

He wades through the water, and ends up in front of a buddha statue, where he prays for his mom.

The camera pans backwards, and in front of the camera, you see a crocodile in the water heading towards Zion.

Go back and watch the opening scene again. There is DEFINITELY a crocodile in the water.

R465 Thanks. I don't know how that stuff works.

Except she insisted on a prenup, which pissed Greg off. Doubtful that she just gave him stuff. However, if he went to the effort with a posse of gays, it’s unlikely this was Greg’s first trip to the scamming rodeo.

All Gaitok has to do, is look at the camera footage from a few seconds ago to see who entered his cabin.

People complaining that the story is moving too slow but also get upset unless every minute of the characters lives- including hair drying and arranging meet-up spots- isnt covered.

Pointing out plot holes is not trolling.

[quote] Would Greg inherited Tanya's money even if he was wanted for questioning about her death? Isn't there some legal process he would have to go thru and papers he would have to sign to get to her money?

That's why the theory at R330 is plausible.

Greg was already rich, because he's a career grifter and con-man.

Tanya's money would come later, after her death is investigated and then disbursed to him.

In the meantime, he was already rich, using money from previous "jobs."

That's why he's always flying all over the place. Working multiple scams all at once.

He had Quentin, Jack, and Niccolo working for him in Sicily.

Then he had Valentin and the other two Russians working for him in Thailand.

He's got money schemes going on all over the world, so he didn't need Tanya's money right away.

The only thing I'm confused about is his BLM story. Is that just a cover, for his real work?

All he has to do is note that Timotee walked right past him…looking out of sorts just like the three other times Gaitok had seen him.

R471 But meet up spot wasn't mentioned at all when he was leaving them. He just said he will find them around. Which makes one wonder how small is this place where the are staying.

No one else thinks the BLM webpage pic looked a bit off?

IRL this wouldn't happen

How are Greg and his floozy able to come and go as they please at the White Lotus when the downmarket Australian tourists told the blondes that you could only get in when you're a guest? Is Fabian on Greg's payroll or something?

[quote] All Gaitok has to do, is look at the camera footage from a few seconds ago to see who entered his cabin.

That's exactly what he does.

In the preview for episode five, Gaitok confronts Timothy about stealing the gun.

R451, uh, there were explicit gay male sex scenes in season 2 (Leo Woodall fucking Ton Hollander) and season 1 (Murray Bartlett rimming Lukas Gage)?

Neither Quentin, Armand or Valentina “discovered” they were gay as part of their storyline. Valentina and the piano-playing hooker were obviously less sinister than Quentin and his faux-nephew, but both involved gay-for-pay “trade” exchanging sex for resources.

Greg is rich and a local r478. Different rules apply to the wealthy than these down market tourists. They were there as part of some tourist group, I could see how the White Lotus wouldn't want their kind invading their resort.

R288 Who are all these black, genuine, sincere, morally upright, put upon by whites characters in White Lotus. We had exactly one black character in the first season, no black people in the second and the same black character from the first season, in the third. And I don't know if you remember, but the biracial girl from the first season left her native loverboy to take all the blame while she cuddled up to her bff as they were leaving. So not exactly genuine, sincere and morally upright

R479 Well, thanks for the spoiler.

We've seen Gaitok listening in on Timothy when he was having a call with his business partner that screwed him over.

The official promo released by HBO for the next episode can't be considered a damn spoiler.

Fair enough. But I never watch the promos for the next episode. It ruins it for me

Unless the camera actually shows the entirety of the process of the women's hair and the clothes being dried out in the sun in real time, and the three women actually leaving the convenience store and making their way to the club, I cannot be expected to believe it actually happened! Television is hard for me--I must be shown everything. I cannot be asked to fill in the gaps imaginatively!

The one thing I learned this season is Jason Issacs can fuck the living hell out of me. Damn that was a nice dick.

[QUOTE] The official promo released by HBO for the next episode can't be considered a damn spoiler.

I hate people like this. Some of us are promo-free, asshole.

I’ve often eaten in restaurants in hotels where I’m not a guest. The tourists probably could have made a dinner reservation, but they just wanted to have a look around.

That definitely looked like a prosthetic r487. I think the only real dick White Lotus has ever showed was that Italian killer last season.

And he was hot

R473, Greg does seem to be an experienced scammer and manipulator. The way he forced Quentin into his plan to kill Tanya echoes something Tom Ripley did in one of his later adventures.

A lot of the people positing that Greg/Gary would be a wanted murder suspect are forgetting that primarily only we, the audience, know the real circumstances around Tanya’s death. To the Italian police and 99.9% of the rest of the world, Tanya would seem to be a woman who murdered three men (assuming they found the gun with her fingerprints) and then hit her head and died trying to flee the scene of the crime.

Any plans Greg/ Gary had with Quentin and that posse would surely have all been verbally made and there was no paper or internet trail to be discovered by the authorities. And if the fact that Greg/ Gary knew Quentin earlier in his life was discovered, it actually might play into Greg’s favor in that Tanya could be portrayed by his attorneys as an unbalanced wife who killed three men in a homophobic, jealous rage before accidentally killing herself.

So Belinda might not really have the viewpoint that Greg is a criminal. The way more interesting person for Greg/Gary to run into would be Portia, since she is part of the .1% of the world that has some clue that Tanya was the real victim based on their cell phone calls when things were getting really suspicious on the boat. The other part of that .1% would be the guy who jumped overboard (that the police probably don’t even know was there) and the dotty gay captain who I think was clueless about any plans to kill Tanya and if questioned would reaffirm that she was a crazy lady who shot everyone and tried to flee.

I might have missed other comments similar to this upthread and also I haven’t yet seen the episode where Belinda does her internet search… do we see that the headlines say “murdered” heiress rather than just dead? Anyway, have at me if my arguments here are shitty!

R463, Thailand doesn’t have dry heat, only humidity. Once you’re wet you stay wet.

Another plot hole!: Jaclyn's bed was made as the episode began, yet we did not actually see anyone make it! Did it just make itself? How can we possibly be expected to know how it was made unless we see it?

I just hate this show to pieces! But I am going to continue to watch it just so i can point out the plot holes here like this one to prove to you all how brilliant and discerning I am.

r493. I like cut of your jib. You make more sense than most anyone else speculating here. IIRC, the website did not reference murder in the headline.

Oops, R463, I meant to put NEWSFLASH in front of it just to be as obnoxious as you are.

that was his real dick.

Evenly trimmed bush—straight line

I’m sure the police would have spoken to Portia and have a pretty good idea why Tanya killed the men and died trying to get off the boat. We know they wanted to talk to Greg and he refused to speak to him. So, not a murder suspect, but perhaps a “person of interest.”

The autism troll would have a field day with some of the posts in this thread

The wheels of Italian justice grind slowly, so slowly.

I hope that actress character gets gang banged and blackmailed.

r467 You're a damn idiot. That was clearly a body in the water.

R493 There were photos of Greg with Quentin all over that room Tanya was staying, at Quentin's place.

Answer on Quora to “Why are there no crocodiles in Thailand?”

[quote] Wild Siamese crocodiles, which were once found in abundance in slow-moving rivers, streams and lakes in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, were decimated by the late 1990s due to uncontrolled hunting and trading, as well as by economic development that shrank their natural habitats.

Whom was Tanya speaking to when she uttered the immortal line “These gays, they’re trying to murder me!” Did that person survive?

I’m not sure Portia would have cooperated a lot with the police if questioned and could very easily play dumb without having them doubt her… “I’m just her assistant, those last phone calls were asking me to get her some spa and restaurant reservations, she didn’t seem to be acting stressed or unusual, she didn’t confide any details about marriage with me, etc.”.

The scene of Portia in the airport in the last episode of S2 wearing sunglasses and warily speaking to Albie made it pretty clear she just wanted to get the hell out of dodge and didn’t really give a damn about Tanya or wanting to get involved in finding out what happened. Once back in the States I’m not sure she would even be legally compelled to return to Italy and might only be required to be questioned by phone/zoom?

The old dude. I don't think she shot him. He must have jumped into the waters.

Right R505 but the fact remains that Tanya shot them and the police wouldn’t have many clues to point towards self defense. Jealous wife kills bisexual husband’s former lover in jealous rage.

I’d love for Portia to make a surprise appearance this season… she’s backpacking around Southeast Asia and runs into Greg/Gary on some beach. He’s totally thrown off balance seeing her, thinks she knows more than she really does and that she has tracked him down with blackmail on her mind. Except that Portia is way too passive a character for that storyline.

She said “These gays, they’re trying to murder me.” That’s a pretty big hint.

Except it was shown in that scene that he didn’t speak English and didn’t understand anything she was saying except the word “gay”.

Has Mike White cast any of his Amazing Race mates?

Read the thread

It’s bugging me that Greg is a fugitive and yet is very public in Thailand. Showing off a yacht and going to a fancy hotel. Makes no sense unless he wants to be caught.

R511 that would turn it into a soap opera

If your post is directed at me R515, I know he's had several Survivor castmates sprinkled throughout the series, but I don't recall anyone from The Amazing Race.

I think it’s going to be revealed he’s not really a fugitive R516. The circumstances around Tanya’s death are too obtuse for him to have been charged with her murder and essentially all of his accomplices are dead.

Timothy seemed to be going after his daughter pretty hard while he was high. That could be the straw that breaks his wife's back.

Greg is not a "fugitive" as he hasn't been accused of any crime. You could call him a person of interest.

R496, the headline was “Heiress’s Husband Wanted For Questioning in Italy.” Any casual reader would conclude that the Italian police think he had something to do with her death and that he’s left the jurisdiction, which itself suggests that he’s guilty. We already know that he’s using another name and has denied knowing Belinda. He is not be, strictly speaking, a fugitive, but he’s clearly lying low. And anyone who follows crime stories knows that investigators rarely say that someone is a “suspect.” They’re usually just “wanted for questioning” until they are arrested.

I hate the analysts who scrutinize everything the characters say and everything that’s shown on camera as if it were the da Vinci code.

R520 the speculated incest this season must’ve warped my brain, because that scene on the yacht where Piper sat next to Timothy and then he turned and put his hand on her face, I thought for sure he was going to kiss her. Inappropriately. I was so relieved he didn’t.

If there has to be incest, keep it to Saxon and Lochlan.

R460 It seemed to me that Tanya's death was for the benefit of the gay uncle, a former or current playmate of Greg's in order to keep his falling down villa

r524, it's already been established that incest is a big theme with the entire family. Saxon keeps speculating wildly inappropriately on Piper's love life, and Victoria keeps saying she doesn't like associating with other people who aren't in her own family.

Victoria and Saxson do it raw.

No, R525, Tanya’s death was to benefit Greg who would inherit her entire fortune if she died while they were still married. (He would get nothing in the divorce. This was all explained by Tanya in her final call with Portia - well, her final call ever really).

I’m sure promises of villa restoration money and a past gay affair with Greg enticed Quentin to be Greg’s person on the ground while he conveniently absented himself elsewhere.

The entire plan would have worked if Portia had not called Tanya and they filled in the blanks together. It’s even a miracle that Portia’s call went through while Tanya was out in the middle of the ocean and Quentin had mentioned there was no service. Quentin made a series of mistakes, including under-estimating the shrewdness of Tanya underneath the daffy exterior.

The Ratliff family is like a cross between Tennessee Williams and Nicky Silver.

Jason's got a nice big thick hog.

Timothy does^. That’s all we know for sure.

I doubt that was really Jason’s dick. I never thought he would have a big one like that.

But if it was him, hell yeah! Looked good.

R195 And I am grateful to her for exposing me to myself, that I still harbor a level of internalized racism.

R202 Oh good Lord.

I sense your exasperation, but hear me out. When I see the actress Lily James play an ingeneau on Downton Abbey, and then transform herself into Pamela Anderson, I'm impressed with her dramatic range. But when I'm introduced to Natasha Rothwell convincingly playing Kelli, a "sista from the hood", and then I'm initially surprised at her performance as Belinda - how is that not evidence of some degree of race-based preconceptions?

I checked myself. And I will continue to. Sneer if you like.

R532 Aren't there some legal regulations or at least production & union requirements, especially when other actors are involved? Anyway, it looked slightly unnatural, girthy yes, but the base looked a bit too wide, as if it needed to accommodate a real penis.

I think she reacted to dad’s “pawing” as someone who’s seen her parents totally drunk and/or stoned too many times. His action was to indicate he was extra fucked-up this day.

Victoria is all concerned about "decent" people, but then she's just mildly amused when her husband flashes his junk at her daughter. She's got a streak of trailer park in her.

It's not a question of having to be shown EVERY SINGLE THING. But it is a matter of having a coherent, developed narrative. As R433 said, the show made a BFD about the 3 blondes being cornered in the convenience store. They were specifically told there was no other way out. Even if the kids eventually left, there were plenty of other people blasting water guns on the street. Yet the next time we see them, they are walking through a bar, completely dry, carrying drinks and saying that "what happens in Thailand stays in Thailand". There is absolutely no acknowledgement of what just happened.

[quote]One assumes he and goon friends showed up an hour later to retrieve them and they dried out in the meantime.

They definitely didn't meet the goon friends until after they got to the bar. We are shown them meeting them. And you don't dry out that quickly in steamy, tropical heat.

And, no, it's not a crucial point—I'm not even saying it's a "plot hole"—but it points to a general laziness in the storytelling this season. I'm going to assume that either the connecting scenes were left on the cutting room floor or (more likely) that the water gun stuff was added after the bar scene had already been filmed and they didn't particularly care about continuity.

R426 Tanya gave money to Belinda. The let down was setting up Belinda's business. Tanya got all hot and distracted by Greg and threw Belinda under the bus. Mere money won't fix it.

Has anyone brought up the obvious theory of the shooter? It's Bai Ling on the roof.

R537 that water gun scene was about character, not about plot. That’s not hard to understand. Jackie’s reaction was wildly different from the sense of character we’ve seen up to now. She was anal about her man not calling her back that day. We saw her chill exterior disappear and the real(?) her lashing out. I’ll infer that Mike White wants that shift to play some role later.

Liked this episode better than the last one, but still very slow.

To me the difference to this season is that there are not illuminating scenes/conversations from a character perspective. The characters were introduced in episode 1 and have remained more or less as expected. In Season 1 there was the talk between the mother and the bride where you realized both their characters full for the first time. In Season 2 you understand the vapid cuckold wife is anything but.

Still, am enjoying it and it may change. Still better tv tHan most.

I actually enjoyed the water pistol scene. Also, the trio appears to be the segment being confronted by locals, the are clearly being trolled.

[quote] The let down was setting up Belinda's business. Tanya got all hot and distracted by Greg and threw Belinda under the bus.

That’s what makes me wonder why Belinda wasn’t happy to see that Tonya had died. If I had been in that situation, I would have been happy to see that justice had been done to someone who had hurt me.

That has never seemed like the kind of person Belinda is.

R542 Have you heard of the concept of "proportionality"?

You hurt me, so I hope you fucking die - would not qualify.

R544, karma wouldn’t have had to kill Tonya for Belinda to feel that Tonya got what she deserved. If Tonya had become permanently disabled or disfigured, among other things, that would have been sufficient to allow Belinda to feel that justice had been served. In a lot of ways, the bad person continuing to live with greatly diminished quality of life is preferable for getting satisfaction that the bad person dying.

Thailand seems awful...from monkeys to humidity. No thanks. Why couldn't they do Greece?

R545 Christ, she pulled out of tentative business deal, and softened the blow with some cash as a peace offering - and justice in your mind is that she be maimed and suffer for life. Damn, backing away from you very slowly.

I insist from now on, no DEMAND, that i see Jason isaacs’ cock at the beginning of every show I watch.

R533, an “ingeneau”?

Oh dear.

Ungenau ist das Unterschied

R549 Tell it to Grammarly.

Zeig mir die Fehle!

The older guys are WAY sexier than the young cast members

It is spelled incorrectly

R554 Thank you, dear. I rely on Grammarly for spell-checking as well. I just reconfirmed that it does not complain about that piece of text. But I will use "ingenue" in the future regardless. You've done your good deed for the day!

That’s no excuse.

Not an excuse; it's a justification.

Timothy, Rick, Pornchai, Gaitok, Lachlan, Zion are all very fuckable.

Saxon, eh, attractive but not hot. No sex appeal there. Greg has more than him. I’d do Greg.

Valentin- no.

Fabian would do in a pinch

Fabian as a Nazi—

Timothy at the top.

He's not so very interesting, but I've been admiring Gaitok's khaki-clad ass.

And they brought the old music back after the gun was discovered! Wow!

I love the old season’s music comes back at the end

[quote]I checked myself. And I will continue to.

You're beautiful...

What I like about this series is wondering which character is going postal. Even during the slower episodes you're looking for hints which is fun, although there's a few too many lingering shots of Timothy's and Rick' s sweating, anxious expressions. I was so happy when Jason leaned back and showed us another side of him.

I'm another who avoids promos for the next show, I like to be surprised.

Well, they appear automatically before the after-show chats.

Or you could just stop watching when the end credits strart.

[quote] Liked this episode better than the last one, but still very slow.

[quote] To me the difference to this season is that there are not illuminating scenes/conversations from a character perspective. The characters were introduced in episode 1 and have remained more or less as expected.

The most disappointing part about the writing, is that they had about two or three years to clean it up.

Season 2 premiered in 2022, and season three premiered in 2025.

They had so much time to think things through, and come up with a GREAT story.

Instead, this is the worst of the three seasons.

There's really no excuse for that.

I like the previews, so why would I do that? You’re kinda strange

The guy who plays "Gaitok" is named Tayme Thapthimthong, and he looks great in this video.

Love the white outfit.

R572 Desire pops up in surprising places. I would love to impregnate Gaitok.

[quote]Instead, this is the worst of the three seasons.

You have literally only seen half of the season so far. At least wait until it finishes for your histrionics.

I was told that I didn't need to watch the first two seasons, but I see now that is incorrect.

R570 My understanding is that Mike White is the sole writer for the series, and that he basically has full creative control. He did not complete the season until after he was hospitalized during a location scouting trip to Thailand, during which he had a multi-day fever dream that provided him with the inspiration for the conclusion. So it should be sick.

Yes Mike White is the only writer and director for White Lotus. Usually it's wrong to credit one person because it's a team of people creating it, but this really is his sole vision on screen.

[quote] He did not complete the season until after he was hospitalized during a location scouting trip to Thailand, during which he had a multi-day fever dream

Dear lord, yet another reason to never go to Thailand.

So, with Timothy stealing the pistol at the end of yesterday's episode, I'm guessing that would make it way too obvious for him to turn up as the shooter - but it doesn't rule out other members of the Ratliff family.

As a seemingly modern resort, I'd assume they have security cameras, especially around the gatehouse. How does he manage to get away with it?

[quote] [R572] Desire pops up in surprising places.

Just like a rattletrap streetcar making its way up to Elysian Fields!

**Spoiler**. R579

Gaitok confronts him about it next week. He tells Timothy ‘I think you took something of mine’ or something like that. Gaitok is going to do whatever he can to get the gun back without having to tell anyone he lost it. If Fabian learns Gaitok lost the gun, he’s fired for sure. He might ask for Mook’s help in getting it back.

I saw on TikTok a video with a guy talking about Lochlan reading the book Hunger by Knut Hamsun, Belinda reading Surrounded by Narcissists, and Victoria reading The Beautiful and Damned.

R480 I'm talking about a coming out storyline, like the lesbians got last season, which the assumed gay character this season isn't getting. It was made obvious that the lesbian was a lesbian very early on last season. We are now 4 episodes in and not even a sign that Lochlan is gay. There is an obvious double standard there.

Or just a different story?

R 583 needs to get laid

Many’s the time I dreamt about showering with Jason Isaacs.

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Stop it.

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That was the fakest fake dick I’ve ever seen. It looked like the Liberty Bell or something. He was showing so much inner thigh, I saw that coming a mile a way.

If your husband had a dick like that you’d need a walker not mood enhancers.

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