Summary
The “getting to know you” period is over in The White Lotus Season 3 – Episode 3 begins to process of having the guests cross paths in new and unexpected ways.
At a pinch, you could quite easily forget that The White Lotus is still a murder mystery in Season 3. It’s the only show that can devote an episode to characters lounging around poolside and doing basically nothing and still be considered prestige TV. But I think we’re approaching the end of that phase in Episode 3. “The Meaning of Dreams” feels like the point where “getting to know you”, which is how I described the second episode, becomes something else. Perhaps “I know you now – and you might be a mass shooter.”
That fact remains the essential appeal, casting and comedy and snake farm absurdity notwithstanding – anyone might be the killer. You could imagine how slightly different circumstances might conspire to tip anyone in the White Lotus over the edge; fear of a scandal, drug addiction, past misdeeds being exposed, you name it. The nest of depravity and neuroses runs deep. It isn’t like anyone could claim to be well adjusted.
The Tsunami of Tim’s Failures Is Upon Us
Speaking of which, Episode 3 of The White Lotus Season 3 opens by cracking a window into Victoria’s subconscious, letting us see one of her dreams in real-time. In it, she pops a bunch of pills, wraps herself in cloth, and sits in the path of an incoming tsunami. There have been subtler metaphors, but what’s interesting is you could apply the same essential fear – of being engulfed and swept away by something huge and inevitable – to everyone. It’s what Piper later calls “the collective unconscious.”
Obviously in Victoria’s specific case, though, it refers to Tim being in dire straits with the FBI, who at that moment might have progressed from tossing his office to repossessing the plush home backdropping Victoria in her dream. You never know. And Tim responds to this crisis with a masterclass in denial. For the first time, he agrees that the entire family should to acquiesce the wellness practices of the hotel and surrender their electronic devices. How better to avoid the upcoming storm than to pretend it isn’t happening at all?
Kate Voted for Trump
On the subject of avoiding a subject entirely, we come, inevitably, to Jaclyn, Kate, and Laurie. The “reveal” here, so to speak, is that Texas-dwelling Kate is an “Independent” – which is framed as a polite way of admitting to being a Republican in this context – who almost certainly voted for Trump. Grounds for murder? Perhaps not, but people take politics particularly seriously these days.
I should have known. Jaclyn and Laurie are from Los Angeles and New York, respectively, hotbeds of liberality where anything you think, feel, or pretend to believe is designed to encourage social media brownie points from people you’ve never met but would nonetheless like to be accepted by. In certain circles, Texas is shorthand for regressive beliefs and values. One of them had to be the outsider – and it remains Jaclyn who is separate financially and reputationally – and a crime so heinous as being right-wing is sometimes enough.
But again – grounds for murder? Bit of a stretch.
Side note: What is Mike White actually doing with these three? After the premiere, I was sure that they’d continue to cross paths with Saxon, who would perhaps ping-pong between them in an effort to burnish his body count, but Saxon gets Chloe’s attention in this episode, so it seems like he has his mark. I don’t mind spending time with these three, but I do find it difficult to insert them into the broader plot, so hopefully that changes a bit in coming episodes.
Michelle Monaghan in The White Lotus Season 3 | Image via HBO
Rick Might Be on A Revenge Mission
One of the key takeaways from The White Lotus Season 3, Episode 3 is that Rick might be in Thailand looking for revenge on the man who killed his father. And while I don’t think his wellness sessions – he attends his second in “The Meaning of Dreams”, either because he likes his therapist, the feeling of unburdening himself, or some combination of the two – are part of his plan, they can perhaps tell us why he’s so determined to accompany Sritala to Bangkok.
It was obvious in the previous episode that the death of Rick’s father was an integral part of his backstory; his reveal in this one that he was murdered gives him motive, especially since he’s clear about implying that there’s some satisfaction available to him that remains elusive – at least for now.
You could, to be fair, read “satisfaction” in a bunch of different ways. Rick’s ill-suited to a revenge mission because he’s far too keen on addling his consciousness, which gets him and Chelsea into trouble here. He smokes some bad weed and takes her to a snake farm, then tries to free all the reptiles. One of the escapees bites her. It’s a close call that doesn’t amount to any serious repercussions but doesn’t exactly speak to a Liam Neeson in Taken type. Whatever he’s planning, it’s likely to go wrong.
Belinda Knows Who Greg Is
The reason I said at the top that “The Meaning of Dreams” probably marks the end of the show’s “getting to know you” period is because the various characters and subplots are beginning to intersect in new ways, which in The White Lotus is generally speaking where things start going badly wrong. Nowhere is this truer than with Belinda and Greg.
Greg seems to have gotten away with murder for now, but the house of cards is going to come crumbling down before long. His own cover story is ridiculously fanciful, and anyone other than Chloe would have probably seen right through it. But there’s simply no way that Belinda, who clearly recognises him from The White Lotus Maui, is going to settle for the idea he’s just a similar-looking guy named Gary (although it does tie in with the earlier joke of the Thais having a collective nickname for bald white men.)
I think it’d be too easy for the crime of the season to just be Greg trying to cover up his crime of last season, and it’d also be a little disappointing. But it’s going to come up in some capacity, without a doubt. Will Belinda become another story about women in Greg’s past walking into the sea?
