Clearpost.online It's your post, so post it!

You know what vacations in locales like Thailand—and at resorts like The White Lotus—are made for? Fun. You’d be forgiven for thinking, as Mike White has trained us to, that they are actually havens for crippling self-examination, grueling self-actualization, and perhaps even bruising self-alienation. For, indeed, for three seasons now, The White Lotus has beco*e a prime example of how holidaying is but an excuse to look not at the lush green landscapes around our characters nor the striking beachfront vistas but to look within.  

It’s fitting then that an episode titled “Hide Or Seek” tees us up to think about what this new batch of characters will find, either in Thailand or inside themselves. The line, as used in the episode, is about those who move to Thailand (“People who move to Thailand are either seeking for something or running away from something”), but the question is clearly being posed to those who are there for this pivotal week: Are they hiding or are they seeking?

In Timothy’s (Jason Isaacs) case, it’s clear he’s hiding—from those pesky calls from back home which keep reminding him that he’s now wanted for fraud and embezzlement but perhaps more pointedly from his own family now that he’s tasted the sweet, sweet nectar that is Lorazepam. Why fret over what’s happening elsewhere (in the U.S., in the hotel, by the pool, in a boat) if you can just drown everything away with one magical little pil*? No matter that your wife is now suspicious of her children stealing her pil*s or that your drug haze nudges you to flash your kids first thing in the morning? (Just don’t question whether Isaacs used a prosthetic or not, just enjoy the awkward nude moment for all it’s worth!)

But he can’t hide for too long. Soon enough, he’s back asking Pam for his phone and getting all riled up again about what awaits him back home. Only, he’s there at the right place and the right time to make the absolute wrong choice—namely, stealing a gun, one Gaitok’s fellow guard has decided is the best way for them both to better secure the hotel after that robbery a few days back. Only, in true Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) form, he’s temporarily distracted by Mook (Lisa) visiting him at his post that he leaves the gun unattended as he escorts her back to the hotel…and finds no gun there anymore. Might this be the gun that goes off in a few days and that opened this season?

In any case, three characters who truly don’t want to hide nor seek are Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan), Kate (Leslie Bibb) and Laurie (Carrie Coon). They are here for fun, as they repeatedly tell one another—and Valentin (Arnas Fedaravičius), who finds himself at a loss as to how to square that with the wellness plans the hotel has curated for them. Not that they have much luck. Jaclyn, who starts off her day getting ghosted by her much younger boyfriend (whom we have to dreamcast now), decides she wants to spend some time by the pool (only not this pool) and drink (only none of that healthy stuff). At Valentin’s suggestion, they head off to another hotel nearby only to find it’s mostly populated by retirees which basically makes youth-obsessed Jaclyn shudder in disgust. 

And so, back at the hotel she insists Valentin escort them out to a more appropriate (read: way more fun and young and preferably flirty) location. He’s helpless and so he co*plies. That’s how the three find themselves giddily walking down a street in the middle of Songkran, a.k.a. the wildest, wettest water gun fight celebration in all of Thailand, which marks the Thai New Year. To watch the three of them fend off kids with water guns is hilarious and makes the arrival of Valentin and his two Russian friends (who I’m now convinced are the ones behind the hotel robbery—might this be why we’re encouraged to take a good look at their unfortunate snake tattoos?) all the sweeter. Finally, they can just relax and have some classy, adult fun!

Which is precisely what the Ratliffs are doing over at Greg’s—I mean Gary’s— yacht. Or trying to, at least. Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) for sure is. He’s there to mix and mingle and peer pressure his adorable younger brother Lochlan (Sam Nivola) into being a douchebro, encouraging Lucky to drink and flirt away with the girls aboard. He probably didn’t expect his little brother’s penchant for close-up magic would work well with this crowd but there he is, getting even Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) excited about it all. 

Sadly, none of the other Ratliffs seem as carefree as the two boys. Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook), who’s confessed to Lochlan she’s going to co*e live in Thailand after she graduates (to join the meditation center), is kind of a wet blanket—even when she has her lorazepam-addled dad to keep her co*pany. Oh, yes. Timothy has gone ahead and full on stolen Victoria’s (Parker Posey) entire prescription and is all too happy to glide away while the balding white guys in Greg/Gary’s yacht talk at him. For Victoria, well, that thievery is all the ammunition she needed to write off that entire yacht experience as obviously beneath her.

It makes sense that she, Piper, and Timothy would take the first chance to disembark and not follow the rest as they head out to celebrate the full moon ahead. Indeed, Piper is quietly furious that Lochlan won’t be there at dinner, where she was planning to tell her parents about her move. She’d wanted his support there but it’s clear the youngest Ratliff is resentful for soon being left to fend on his own without his doting older sister. No matter, he too is ready to just have fun with his older brother, Chelsea, Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon), and their friends.

Two people who also choose to not party past dusk: Greg/Gary (Jon Gries) and Rick (Walton Goggins). The former is clearly trying to remain mysterious, even as he continues to be in Belinda’s sights. She finally learns Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) died in Sicily and that Greg is wanted for questioning, which only makes her more suspicious once she sees him in the hotel again. What could he be plotting?!

Meanwhile, Rick is intent on heading to Bangkok to…avenge his father (!). Yes, really. As we learn in this episode following yet another encounter with Amrita, what Rick is here to do is co*e face to face with the guy who killed his father. Will he go through with it? Or will he heed both Chelsea and Amrita’s advice to maybe, uh, chill?

And so, by the end of the episode, it’s clear all that fun may be more illusory than first imagined: Timothy, high and now with a gun, may be headed for dangerous territory (“I’d rather fucking die!” he says, than go to prison). And Rick, always angry and jittery, is headed to Bangkok into an equally dangerous kind of plot. Meanwhile, the youths (and our trio of blondes) are hoping to keep dancing the night away in blissful ignorance of the dangers up ahead—for now, at least.

Stray observations

• • Much of my recaps are spent heaping praise on the ensemble’s stellar acting (who doesn’t love Posey going broad, Isaacs going mad, and Bibb/Monaghan/Coon getting damp?) or White’s juicy dialogue (“This could be some Final Destination shit” is an A-plus line), I have to take a moment to relish just how beautifully he’s using framing to capture the alienation of his characters: Think of Timothy outside his room, on his phone; or Jaclyn in her bed furiously texting her boyfriend. There’s an encroaching sense of loneliness throughout, as if all of these guests were stranded in their own little worlds, slowly being swallowed up by the lush landscapes around them.


• • Who will be the first to co*pile a collection of all the B-roll of monkeys (real and decorations alike) we’ve been graced with so far?


• • “This could be some Final Destination shit.” It definitely could be! Thankfully, this time around the only folks who got mildly hurt (well, more traumatised) were our trio of blondes—and only with water guns, at that.


• • Sometimes a wardrobe choice can tell you everything you need to know about a character. That is definitely the case with Laurie’s straw hat which is both sensible yet slightly embarrassing. Surprised it didn’t garner any quippy asides from Jaclyn or Kate.


• • Similarly, I am now obsessed with Lochlan’s blue/white alligator shirt, at once goofy and adorable (like the close-up magician himself!). 


• • But if we’re talking costume choices, none are quite as striking as Mook’s dancing attire. You can see why Gaitok remains so smitten.


• • Is anyone doing more with their brief screen time than Morgana O’Reilly, a.ka. Pam, a.k.a. the keeper of Timothy’s electronics?


• • Is it me or are some of these scenes requiring our White Lotus guests to dispense with wearing the sunglasses they’d otherwise be wearing so we can better track their emotional state via their expressive eyes?