There are other ways we trick ourselves into contentment, and even peace. In trendy occasions, it is the topic of the self-care business — massages and baths, wine and resorts, all types of ‘natural’ merchandise in tubs and jars. We have managed to idiot ourselves into believing that we are able to really take care of ourselves by way of consumerist hedonism. That is a part of the cultural and religious malaise that The White Lotus has at all times addressed, and it does so in Season 3, Episode 2 with an excellently edited and really humorous montage of wellness remedies that interrogate our notions of self-care. A lot of Episode 2, titled “Particular Remedies,” is about self-delusions like that. In order for you a refresher on Episode 1, click on right here.
These Rascally Ratliffs
The White Lotus Season 3: Episode 2
3.5
/5
The friends at The White Lotus in Thailand start to bicker as Timothy’s enterprise disaster escalates.
- Episode Quantity
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2
- Runtime
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60 Minutes
- Character(s)
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Mike White
- Launch Date
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February 23, 2025
- Rick’s character improvement and the way it pertains to the season’s themes is nice.
- A really humorous and well-edited self-care montage suits completely.
- Some nice dialogue all through one other well-directed episode with nice music.
- The storyline with the three feminine mates continues to bathroom down the episodes.
- The theft feels all-too acquainted.
Episode 2 begins proper the place the final episode ended, with two of the three-person good friend group gossiping wickedly in regards to the third. Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan), Kate (Leslie Bibb), and Laurie (Carrie Coon) have been mates from childhood, and also you see how their schoolgirl dynamic has by no means actually modified in any case these years. They name themselves mates as a result of the fact is worse to think about — that they are bitter rivals, jealous adversaries who want one another so as to persuade themselves that they are not horrible, lonely individuals. They only want somebody to be favorably in comparison with.
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As soon as we fortunately transfer previous that slightly banal storyline, we get to one of many nice household mealtime conversations that the present is understood for. Author/director Mike White has mastered this type of scene, the place characters have interaction in revealing dialogue about cultural and generational variations whereas humorous delicate particulars and the nice luxurious of their surroundings usually masks the actual feelings at stake. This one is with the Ratliff household, a peculiarly f’ed up bunch. Parker Posey is totally crushing it by now because the Ambien-popping Southern mom, Victoria. She tells her husband Timothy (Jason Isaacs, an rising ball of sensible pressure) that he ought to’ve taken one in every of her Lorazepam.
“You already know I do not like taking medicine,” Timothy responds, his thoughts on his telephone and crumbling enterprise. Their son Saxton, a form of Donald Trump Jr. with higher seems however the identical daddy points, sucks up and says, “I am such as you, dad, I do not like taking medicine, both.” His sister Piper, who Saxton would name a ‘woke scold’ of types, says, “What are you speaking about? You are taking Aderall all day.” Saxton snorts fun and says, “Yeah, so I can get sh*t completed.” Saxton and his mom would certainly vote to increase legal sentences for drug customers, however would by no means take into account themselves to be addicts. Self-delusions on show.
Do I Know You?
There is a actually curious and unnerving bit that ends the dinner desk sequence, during which the three mates come throughout the Ratliffs. Apparently, Kate acknowledges Victoria from a child bathe a decade in the past and is delighted to see somebody she is aware of, maybe to point out her ‘mates’ that she’s standard and other people truly like her. However Victoria is hilariously standoffish, making it utterly clear she needs the interplay to finish. Her quiet, well mannered son, Lochlan, asks Victoria why she was being so impolite. “Oh please, what does she need from me?” she retorts. “We met at a child bathe 10 years in the past. I imply, so what, who cares?”
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There is a form of darkish knowledge to this. As a fellow boozy socialite, Victoria sees proper by way of the vacancy of Kate’s gesture, recognizing it for what it’s. “Am I not memorable?” Kate asks her mates, which is after all the very first thing her thoughts goes to. Victoria has the wealth and expertise to actually not give a f*ck anymore; when she was youthful, she’d in all probability play the entire “Oh, hey!” recreation with Kate. However the artifice of social niceties has been peeled away from Victoria’s existence the extra insulated (and drug-addled) she’s change into. She’s been in wealthy circles her complete life, and he or she understands the vanity and cruelty that Kate, Jaclyn, and Laurie faux does not exist.
After this, we get the aforementioned ‘self-care’ montage, which is completely edited and shares humorous little points of every character. It additionally reveals their deluded understanding of what they assume self-care means. After all, Victoria has to take a capsule earlier than getting a therapeutic massage, in any other case she feels claustrophobic; the therapeutic massage is solely an excuse to bask in her dependancy. And Saxton is clearly disillusioned by the dearth of a “joyful ending.” Self-care is explicitly masturbatory for him. For Chelsea, the therapeutic massage looks like a chance to talk and be social; the therapeutic massage therapist is pressured to be near her for an hour or so, in any case. For the three mates, it devolves into a contest to see whose well being metrics are higher. For Rick… effectively, it is just a little completely different.
The Ballad of Rick Hatchett
The kicker to the great ‘wellness’ montage is a stress administration session with Rick Hatchett (Walton Goggins). Fortunately, other than a number of moments, we heat as much as Rick much more on this episode and see his soulful, troubled existence for what it’s. His interplay with the physician is revelatory. She tries to know his stress stage, which appears to hover round an eight out of 10. His father was murdered earlier than he was born, and his mom was a drug consumer who overdosed on the age of 10. He is rich and well-connected now, so one has to think about what he is completed or struggled with to get to that place.
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The physician shares one of many season’s themes with Rick — that he has maybe created and perpetuated an id primarily based upon these childhood tragedies, and that’s the solely approach he has outlined himself. She encourages him to interrupt from the id, and their dialog turns into like an endgame in chess. “Meditation helps you see that the id you’ve got created brings you struggling,” she says.” Rick replies: “I by no means had an id. I needn’t detach. I am already nothing.” The physician properly responds by saying, “Even nothing will be an phantasm you inform your self.” Rick declares checkmate by saying:
If no person places fuel within the tank, the tank is empty. That is not an phantasm. The automotive will not begin. Nothing comes from nothing, proper?
The physician is deeply affected by this, which results in some of the attention-grabbing dialectics of The White Lotus Season 3 — Buddhism and pessimism. We’ve utterly completely different preconceived notions about each of this stuff, however as Arthur Schopenhauer identified in The World as Will and Illustration, they’re extra related than individuals assume. “If I wanted to present the briefest attainable definition of Buddhism, I ought to name it the doctrine of salvation by annihilation,” he wrote. Which is to say, the wellness physician encourages the annihilation of id, whereas Rick maintains that he’s already in that state. His pessimism is, in some ways, only a paradoxically indignant Buddhism.
One other Season, One other Theft
We see extra of Rick and Chelsea’s relationship, which continues to be ugly, however we’re in a position to glimpse its melancholic sweetness this time round, largely due to the implications of a harmful theft. Whereas Chelsea and her new good friend are looking for jewellery, thugs storm in and make out like, effectively, bandits. Whereas it delivers some thrills, it is a bit disappointing to see the identical outdated ‘resort theft’ storyline in Season 3 that we noticed in Season 1, particularly when you think about that the suspect might appear to be a person on the within. Valentin, the hunky well being knowledgeable on the resort, actually did appear to distract safety guard Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) to ensure that the thieves’ SUV to enter the resort.
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As for Gaitok, his story appears a bit incongruous to The White Lotus as a complete. He and Mook (Lalisa Manobal), the resort workers member he pines after, really feel like they’re straight out of a Thai romantic dramedy from a director like Adisorn Tresirikasem or Nithiwat Tharathorn. They’re candy, and Gaitok’s storyline (an underdog attempting to show his value to his love) is attention-grabbing, nevertheless it all feels just a little too low-key for The White Lotus. Luckily, Gaitok’s destiny does change into intertwined with one of many resort friends in a extra dramatic approach that raises the stakes, however we’ll have to attend to see how that performs out.
Season 3 of The White Lotus premiered Feb. 16 at 9 p.m. EST/PST on HBO and streams on Max; new episodes will air weekly till the eighth and last episode on April 6, 2025. You’ll be able to watch The White Lotus by way of the hyperlink under:
Watch on Max