Let’s be real: This season of “The White Lotus” was not it.
Does anyone remember the folktale “The Emperor’s New Clothes?” The story follows two con men who attempt to embarrass their emperor. They make him a cloak that is invisible to anyone who is either incompetent or dumb. In reality, there is no cloak, but the emperor does not want to admit he doesn’t see it. So he steps out into the public not wearing anything. But to the con men’s dismay, the people of the kingdom refuse to admit they can’t see the cloak either.
There are many different interpretations and applications of this story, but I often think about it when it comes to film and TV. For popular media, there are times when I question: Did I just not understand this, or was there nothing to understand? Am I allowed to criticize this without being told that I just “didn’t get it?”
My biggest issues with season 3 of “The White Lotus” are the plot points that didn't go anywhere, from the wasted potential of Fabian to the gun and lorazepam that Timothy Ratliff stole inconsequentially. The hotel robbery and Chelsea’s snake attack both foreshadow her death, but is foreshadowing enough for such anticlimactic subplots? There were also plot twists that were very obvious from about halfway through. The first was upon meeting Valentin’s friends, where it became obvious that it was him and his friends who perpetrated the robbery (to which they face no consequences). The other twist was centered on the death in the season.
For me, the deaths in “The White Lotus,” particularly in the previous two seasons, have been the weaker parts of the show. The deaths are usually accidental, and more interesting are the characters who remain and how their arcs end. Instead of looking at who dies, we see what it means to live with what one has done. Rick’s whole journey in season 3 is the somewhat overdone Inigo Montoya plot line: a man setting out to kill the man who killed his father. He finally manages to do so, but learns what many fans already saw coming: The man he kills is his father. Rick’s death (as well as the passing of his girlfriend Chelsea) happens about a minute later, and so we are robbed of the consequences his decisions will have on his life. The ending may have been stronger if only Chelsea had died, and Rick had to live with the guilt of the danger in which he put her, adding more to a relationship that felt under-explored.
Gaitok, the security guard, really stood out to me, not because of his illogical decisions (of which there were many) but more so because I didn’t understand what drove him to those choices. Both he and Mook did not feel as complex as the other characters in the show. For most of the season, I dismissed this, thinking that their characters would become more complex toward the end, especially with the resolution to their arcs, but they didn’t really deepen.
Almost every other non-morbid plot line wrapped up somewhat anticlimactically. The three girlfriends just make amends, and the Ratliffs find out about their financial situation but don’t really have any time to react before the credits roll.
Overall, I think what made this season the weakest is that almost every character and plot line is supposed to hint to who dies, a buildup to the inevitable death, but not much else happens with them. And when the death is, frankly, basic and predictable, it becomes difficult to look positively at other elements of the show since they only existed to set up the death.
I am ready to admit that I might have missed something or that I just didn’t get it. But I also wonder if the show’s creator, Mike White, has reached a point where he can do no wrong in his writing for this show. When he makes the next season, will fans just tune in indiscriminately and find meaning in whatever he writes, even if he doesn’t say anything? Will no one admit they don’t see the cloak?
