SPOILER ALERT Don’t read this if you don’t want to know what happens in Season Three.
The fact that so many critics panned season three of The White Lotus, underscores the rationale for this searing satire of Western entitlement, wilful ignorance and spiritual poverty.
It’s gone over their heads.
Petty complaints have been made about plot holes, unsatisfying character arcs (no happy endings) and the lack of Season One and Two’s Tanya McQuoid played for laughs by Jennifer Coolidge.
There are inevitable critics lamenting the lack of deep political analysis. New Statesman called the plot ‘a banal class war’ and the National Review accused the show of ‘using flashy prurience but no analysis’.
They don’t get it. The White Lotus is about humanity’s swing between the sacred and the profane, the theme spelled out in the title, opening credits, character arcs and finale.
IMAGE: He Zhu
Firstly, it is called The White Lotus, named after the sacred flower symbolising an awakened state of mental purity and spiritual perfection, something most of the show’s characters seek to touch, but fail to embody.
The opening credits lay the theme out clearly with murals from Thai temples depicting people descending from peaceful, productive and spiritual realms (sacred) into a hellish place where drug, sex and power-addled humans destroy each other (profane).
Section of a Thai temple mural used in the opening credits of season three of The White Lotus. IMAGE: supplied
The main characters’ narrative arcs move between these two poles.
Timothy Ratcliff, patriarch of a family whose wealth has dubious origins about to be revealed, goes from planning to kill himself and his family (profane) to being touched by Buddhist teachings and the idea of ‘living with nothing’. Almost causing his son’s death jolts him awake to the realisation that his love for his family is worth living for (sacred).
Timothy Ratcliff and son Lochlan go through some epiphanies. IMAGE Warner Bros/Discovery
His daughter Piper seems most destined to leave her privileged life for the monastery (sacred) but admits to her parents she can’t live without material comforts (profane). This is a relief to her mother, the delicious Victoria, whose avarice keeps her solidly on the profane track throughout the entire season.
Lochlan Ratcliff gets very profane under older brother Saxon’s mentoring message that getting off sexually should always be top priority, only to find Saxon disturbed after Lochlan masturbates him during a threesome. Surprising, when Lochlan was pretty much just following instructions. These scenes are less about the incest taboo and more about the lengths decadent people go to and sacrifices they’ll make to satisfy too much desire.
Toxic masculinity gets a bad rap
Lochlan later drinking poisoned protein powder supplied by his brother and father seems like a metaphor for toxic masculinity. The drink nearly kills Lochlan but he vomits up the toxic smoothie and sees God.
Meanwhile, noble massage therapist, Belinda, refuses a modest bribe to cover up a murder, only to later accept a much higher bribe negotiated by her son. She puts up an ethical fight but succumbs to venality as her values go from sacred (it’s wrong to accept a bribe) to profane (let me enjoy being rich).
It’s notable that the non-wealthy, non-Western characters go through the longest struggles with making immoral choices.
Massage therapist Belinda makes a choice between right and wrong. IMAGE: supplied by Warner Bros/Discovery
Tortured soul Rick is perhaps the most interesting character in this season of The White Lotus. He’s deranged by what he perceives as intolerable injustice and by seeking revenge, destroys himself and Chelsea, possibly the only person who loves him.
Is Rick every man obsessed with revenge? IMAGE supplied by Warner Bros/Discovery
This could be a metaphor for the current wars motivated by perceived and real injustice in which the warriors destroy themselves, their loved ones and their homelands. Only in death does Rick look enlightened. His young girlfriend, Chelsea, is a sacred figure in the unlikely package of a beautiful, bucktoothed believer in love and spirituality, her goodness magnified by her saintly death in the crossfire of Rick’s revenge.
Chelsea’s goodness is a stark contrast to almost all the other characters. IMAGE supplied by Warner Bros/Discover
Rick’s revenge fantasy partner and friend Frank, deadpan delivers the most blatant thematic explanation of sacred to profane with his monologue giving explicit detail of how he moves between booze and drug fuelled orgies with Thai prostitutes to getting sober and spiritual and drinking chamomile tea. And back again.
The character of Frank delivers a powerful monologue reflecting the entire theme of The White Lotus. IMAGE: supplied by Warner Bros/Discovery
Three middle-class, glamourous lifelong friends Kate, Laurie and Jaclyn, throw around ‘love you’ like confetti while subtly backstabbing each other (profane) but realise, as Kenny and Dolly sing: ‘You can’t make old friends’. They decide to value their friendship over petty competition (sacred).
The Australian characters, the bogan tourists, the rich sun-damaged sugar Daddy and the annoying resort wellness mentor Pam, didn’t get story arcs. I forgive Mike White for portraying us so unflatteringly because he’s featured Australian actors in seasons one and two. However, Australia did give the world one of it’s greatest villains in Rupert Murdoch (you’re welcome) which proves we do have dimensions. Could there be an Australian villain in Season Four?
Working class characters have toughest moral struggles
Some of the characters travel the high moral ground to the dark side just the one time, with big consequences. Gentle security guard Gaitok, sacrifices his Buddhist value of non-violence to obey his boss’s order to shoot Rick dead. Gaitok wins a promotion and the admiration of his crush, at the cost of his soul.
Gaitok struggles to reconcile his Buddhist values with being a security guard. IMAGE: supplied by Warner Bros/Discovery
The season three finale, so widely discussed and debated, delivers no typical American happy endings, which is my favourite aspect of the entire series. The Ratcliff family are returning home to the poverty mother Victoria dreads so much, but there’s hope in the partial enlightenment of the rest of her family.
The Ratcliff family are in for a rude awakening. IMAGE supplied by Warner Bros/Discovery
Belinda and Gaitok sold out in a way you can’t really cheer for. Rick and Chelsea achieve their goal of ‘till death do us part’ by dying violently together.
It’s not sunshine and lollipops, but the strands in this web of characters are tightly, cleverly woven together and completed in a way that is logical, satisfying and true to life.
Greg/Gary gets away with murder. IMAGE: supplied by Warner Bros/Discovery
The most evil character: charismatic, mendacious, murderous Gary/Greg, gets away with killing his wife for her fortune. The thieving Russians get away with taking what is not theirs. The goodies do not win, which is challenging for some and satisfyingly original and authentic for this reviewer.
If season three of The White Lotus is banal, it’s about the banality of evil.
Executive producer, writer and director Mike White’s creation is a potent metaphor for the global geopolitical shitstorm of venality that is planet Earth in 2025.
Miss its meaning at your peril.
