Wednesday, July 28, 2021

Take Three: The White Lotus

The White Lotus: Season 1, Episode 3 “Mysterious Monkeys” (B+)

I feel like everything is about to implode, with these people on their vacations interacting in ways that are just going to make them want to jump out of their skin and far too ready to say things that will be problematic and impossible to take back. Quinn having all of his things washed away or ruined isn’t all that consequential since it just means that he needs to use his parents’ phones to watch porn, fulfilling the image of him that Olivia has even if it’s not particularly nice. Mark is going off the deep end thinking about his father’s secret life, and I loved how Murray answered his question about what gay sex was like by asking him if he wanted to find out. It was certainly less drawn-out than Rachel sitting there and listening to Mark drone on about how the spark has died and then launch into a detailed narrative of his sex life even with his son right there and then underline his point by arguing that you don’t watch the same porn clip every time. Shane only becomes more unbearable with each passing episode, flirting with Olivia and Paula and dismissing it to Rachel as nothing and then complaining about how he was being gaslighted since people have been “coming for him” his entire life. Armond was eager to seize an opportunity to ruin Shane’s vacation for real by pairing his romantic candlelit dinner with Tanya’s ashes-scattering trip, and I expected something much more dramatic than Shane offering to open the box for her and then just doing it. Armond hitting on Dylan seemed to catch him by surprise, and Belinda fighting him sleeping in his car suggests that he’s losing his grip, thanks no doubt to the contents of Paula’s bag that he’s pretending he didn’t find. I’m not sure what Olivia is going to do now that she’s seen Paula with the guy she kept saying she didn’t notice, and that’s just one of the many things that will surely grow more volatile in the final three episodes.

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