THE WHITE LOTUS – Season Three
Set at a luxurious wellness resort in Thailand, the lives of wealthy guests and dedicated staff intertwine in unexpected ways.
A monkey sitting peacefully on a tree branch in a forest. Two people meditating at a luxury resort in Thailand. You’d think these opening shots were used in a documentary produced by National Geographic. However, the moment of tranquillity and distillation is punctured by gunshots, and what follows is a mad scramble for safety. Hotel guests cower from the gunfire, desperate to escape the chaos. A dead body drifts along the water.
We’ve come to the third season of The White Lotus, which follows the same format as its previous seasons, examining the inner lives of affluent American tourists against the backdrop of a whodunit mystery. Again, the murderer and victim are unknown. Now we have about eight episodes to speculate and piece together what happened, who died, and discover the reason why. There’s something more cohesive this time around, though, but it’s more to do with character than plot. While the tension is compelling and the slow plot unfolding is intentional, it’s the finale that leaves viewers unsatisfied if thought-provoking.
The Ratliff family is holidaying in Thailand, mainly because they can, but also because their daughter, Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook), insisted they come. Along with her two brothers, Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) and Lochlan (Sam Nivola), she seeks a life different from the one her parents have built for her. She tells Tim (Jason Isaacs) and Victoria Ratliff (Parker Posey) that she’s there to write a thesis on Buddhism, but secretly she plans to live in Thailand for a year, away from her privileged life.
Laurie (Carrie Coon), Kate (Leslie Bibb), and Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan)—three lifelong best friends—are on a girls’ trip, although their friendship isn’t always smooth. In the “land of smiles,” false personalities are easy to expose. Rick (Walton Goggins) and Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood), a disproportionately aged couple, are on separate missions. New faces at the White Lotus in Koh Samui include Mook (Lalisa Manobal), Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong), Pornchai (Dom Hetrakul), and Valentin (Arnas Fedaravičius), alongside returning fan-favourite Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) and sinister Gary (Jon Gries). Sam Rockwell makes a memorable entrance as Frank, Rick’s eccentric friend, in episode five.
These satirically charged characters are all embarking on journeys, some tumbling down dark rabbit holes, others finding unexpected enlightenment with a sour aftertaste. This is the most engaging band of characters of the entire series, largely thanks to the incredible acting and Mike White’s dedication to character examination.
Belinda and Gary—formerly known as Greg—seek fresh starts after the events of Season 1. The Ratliff children, struggling with their stagnant personalities, try to find meaning in Thailand’s dissimilar culture. Laurie, Kate, and Jaclyn try to reconnect with their youth while indulging in debauchery. Tim Ratliff chases an escape from his money laundering mess, while Victoria remains apathetic. She actually embodies the series’ original premise as a lotus eater from Greek mythology, relying on medications, wine, and humour to get by. Rick pursues vengeance for a crime against his family, while Chelsea fears her boyfriend will make an anti-karmic mistake from which she needs to save him.
The series blends Eastern philosophy (impermanence, Yin and Yang, Karma and Dharma) with Western thought, showing how external forces influence each character’s fate. From Zion (Nicholas Duvernay) hearing gunshots that could signify his mother Belinda’s death to Tim’s crumbling empire and frequent murder-suicide fantasies, everyone is in danger because of someone else’s decisions.
Cinematographer Ben Kutchins captures the beauty of the popular tourist spot with an almost documentarian’s eye, panning across the tranquil gardens, golden temples, mountains and forests that surround the White Lotus hotel in crystal clearness. During close-up shots, though, the background is routinely blurred, emphasising the characters’ reluctance to see the bigger picture of life over their own egos. The recurring fixation on filming long-tailed macaques that live beside the hotel effectively captures the Eastern philosophies embedded throughout the series. Symbolising the “monkey mind”—to borrow a Buddhist term—they foreshadow the emotional reason behind the unsatisfying ending, which finds itself at odds with the Nietzschean concept of Amor Fati (or wanting nothing to be different in one’s life; complete acceptance of fate), itself a recurring theme in Piper, Tim, Victoria, and Laurie’s storylines.
As White relies heavily on character examinations, the acting is by far the best out of the three seasons. Jason Isaacs (The Crowded Room), Sarah Catherine Hook (The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It), Walton Goggins (The Hateful Eight), Sam Rockwell (Galaxy Quest), Aimee Lou Wood (Living), Michelle Monaghan (Mission: Impossible—Fallout), and Carrie Coon (Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire) portray their characters with more than enough depth and complexity to keep the viewer’s attention, pulling off monologues that get to the core of the series’ messages about transcendence and why some do and don’t love their fate. Leslie Bibb (What If…?), Natasha Rothwell (Sonic the Hedgehog 3), and Parker Posey (Thelma) provide comedic relief after tense moments, aligning with the series’ tone and the dichotomy between drama and comedy.
However, the hotel staff don’t make that much of an impact, and some viewers may wonder what White has against hotel managers: this time around the manager Fabien (Christian Friedel) is here for comedic relief, but he falls flat in comparison to the likes of Bibb, Rockwell, Rothwell, Wood, and Posey. Not to mention if returning viewers remember how funny and fitting Murray Bartlett was as Armond, the frustrated hotel manager of the White Lotus in Maui, in the first season.
Patrick Schwarzenegger (Daniel Isn’t Real) and Sam Nivola (The Brutalist) explore scenes that challenge their limits, confronting grotesque moments that will unsettle viewers. Again, we wonder about White’s fixation on male nudity and particularly male incest. Out of the two young actors, it’s Schwarzenegger who makes the necessary adjustments, delivering in scenes opposite Wood and Isaacs with sincerity. His muscle-flexing, rich-boy persona must be overcome for the sake of sanity, he learns mainly from Chelsea. Sam Rockwell’s meme-worthy monologue in episode five shows us how far people (especially Frank) will go to satisfy their desires.
Isaacs pulls Tim into darker waters than anyone we’ve seen so far at The White Lotus, portraying murder-suicide fantasies with enough emotional intelligence that we feel the weight of his financial dilemma. Walton Goggins brings silent authority to Rick, as we love to watch him crank up the tension to 11, especially in scenes opposite Scott Glenn (The Leftovers), who plays Jim Hollinger, and Chelsea. And Parker Posey brings out the humour in a character who would otherwise be annoying in the hands of lesser actresses. This is perhaps the greatest confluence of acting and writing we’ve seen.
As White’s screenplays are ambitious, yet oftentimes problematic and disturbing, it’s the actors who complicate their characters far beyond the creator’s vision. They allow us to contemplate the many layers of personality which abundant wealth and immorality provide the human condition, showcasing humanity’s fragility. Chelsea gets to the core of the series’ deeper messages about spirituality, immorality, abundance, and the nature of Karma. She’s also responsible for striking a partially sobering change in Saxon, which may linger with him as much as the finale’s tragic ending does with dissatisfied viewers. And the sense of her prophetic powers throughout the series is eerie and well plotted.
White, however, certainly makes his characters pay for their poor decisions. Again, Chelsea says it best in episode one: “This is so on brand for you,” she tells her boyfriend Rick smiling, although she could be speaking for every character, “to be a victim of your own decisions.”
Ultimately, by the finale our spirits may be crushed, our expectations tarnished, our philosophical minds widened; however, our love of the characters’ fates (or Amor Fati, which also happens to be the finale’s title) need not apply with an ending so bleak and tragic.
USA | 2025 | 8 EPISODES | 16:9 HD | COLOUR | ENGLISH
Cast & Crew
writer & director: Mike White.
starring: Leslie Bibb, Carrie Coon, Walton Goggins, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sarah Catherine Hook, Jason Isaacs, Michelle Monaghan, Sam Nivola, Parker Posey, Natasha Rothwell, Aimee Lou Wood, Sam Rockwell, Jon Gries, Tayme Thapimthong, Lek Patravadi & Scott Glenn.
