The White Lotus Season 3 ended with a bang, which made people angry. Then another one. Then a few dozen more. In the first two years, the show’s end-of-season deaths were seen as cosmic jokes, like Jennifer Coolidge jumping into the ocean or a delusional hotel manager losing her cool. But in this season’s finale, death was shown as a pure tragedy: no one in their right mind wants to see the beautiful Aimee Lou Wood, with her big, hopeful eyes and toothy radiance, bleeding to death with a bullet hole in her chest. Anyway, I guess it fits for a season that everyone agreed was The White LotusSeason 3 least fun. Even people who, like Nick Hilton of The Independent, said it was another “exceptional” set of episodes.
It was, after all, eight shows of TV that were mostly bad. At its best, it has been filled with a sticky, slightly suffocating dread, and the characters have been rich, strange, and fascinatingly hateful. It’s been like being stuck in traffic on the hottest day of the year at its worst. It’s still not clear if Mike White, who writes and directs the show, meant for this season to have so many storylines that repeat themselves, with characters having the same talks over and over again. Maybe that was the point (which was painful)? But there have been enough hints of a rough production in the last few weeks—including proof of cast fights and creative disagreements—that I’m sure something went wrong behind the scenes this season.
Why hire Christian Friedel from Zone of Interest or Lisa, a South Korean pop star, if you don’t give them much to do? How come Patrick Schwarzenegger’s manosphere pin-up was such an important part of the first half of the season, but both of his side stories end quickly here? And since Rick and Chelsea were so important to the end of the show, why did they have to be apart for so much of this season? Without a doubt, a documentary about the making of The White LotusSeason 3 would be more interesting than a lot of what we got each week.
It was frustrating that, after eight long episodes, the season’s themes finally came together in this one. Since his great but short-lived Laura Dern drama Enlightened in 2011, White has been writing about how people look for spiritual meaning. I’m curious if he now thinks that search is mostly doomed. From what we know, he might think it’s a waste of time. Piper’s search for religious peace is for nothing when she tells her parents that she loves her money and would rather go home with them than stay in Thailand. In his second meeting with the man he thought killed his father (and who, in a terrible Darth Vader twist, turned out to be his father), Rick tries very hard not to get violent, but it’s not working. It was Rick who started the shootout that was hinted at in the season’s opening scene. Chelsea, meanwhile, is sure that Rick is the one for her, but where does that get her? She gets hit by the gunfire and dies while being held by her lover. Gaitok gets the girl and the respect at work he’s always wanted, but not before killing Rick to show himself. Was it really worth it?
Carrie Coon’s amazing monologue at the end of the episode makes it sound like it might be safer to give up on all this faith stuff: she tells Jaclyn and Kate that she has never found happiness or purpose in work, love, or motherhood, but that “time gives her meaning,” that just existing is enough. It looks like the easiest way to deal with life’s problems. It was also a strong ending for the women’s story. There wasn’t a major fight, and neither side promised to go their different ways. When they leave the island, they’ll probably always be linked as passive-aggressive nightmares, but they need each other so badly, whether it’s good or not.
But the fact that their finish made sense only showed how hard the Ratliff plot was. Can we finally accept that this group of characters has been a waste of time from the start? Their personalities haven’t changed into interesting social critiques, the brothers’ incestuous relationship felt strangely timid even though it looked like it could go further, and Timothy’s financial fraud was always so vague that everything he’s done since then has been hard to believe. In this scene, he tries to poison his wife, daughter, and oldest son in order to kill them. The execution is so sloppy that it looks like White threw it together quickly. Everything that is even remotely interesting about the Ratliffs is mostly dealt with off-screen, from how they will soon be poor to what will happen after the boys’ night together. What a huge disappointment this plot has been.
But maybe this isn’t the only problem. White used to say that the “who ends up dead?” riddle of each season of White Lotus was more of a “tram-polished” plot than something he really liked. He saw it as a way to get people to watch a satirical character study who might not have otherwise. But season three seemed more interested in its own secret than any other. There were too many fake deaths, too many possible killers, and too many Chekhov’s guns for the show to know what to do with them. Because of this, people now talk about The White Lotus as if it were Lost, Severance, or another puzzle-box show full of Easter eggs and hints that we need to figure out. Some of these deep dives make sense, like the conversation about what the books our characters are reading mean. Others, like trying to find secret messages in the show’s opening credits, have been completely silly. Sometimes, The White Lotus leaves clues. For example, Chelsea, who has been through a snake bite, an armed robbery, and being told that bad luck comes in threes, had been predicting her own death for weeks. But that’s not the whole show, and I wish White didn’t feel the need to focus on it so much.
It seems important that this season’s most interesting moments have been based on complicated human behavior, the kind of behavior that made The White Lotus so addicting in the first place, rather than crazy plots. Think about how Laurie, Jaclyn, and Kate talked over each other at dinner or how Sam Rockwell’s speech three weeks ago stole the show. For example, none of the gunfire in the end hit quite as hard as Belinda’s cool dismissal of poor, naive Pornchai when she found the $5 million Gary had put in her bank account. When they talk about the future, she asks her son, “Can’t I just be rich for five f****** minutes?” This is a clear resemblance to Tanya firing Belinda in the first season of the show, played by Jennifer Coolidge. What a cruel plot twist to see one of the few truly good characters on the show become so bad so quickly…
There are rumors that The White Lotus will be set in a colder, maybe Scandinavian, world when it comes back, and it should just go back to basics for its own sake. White is a master at writing about how people interact with each other and how cruel, cocky, and self-centered we can be. But after eight episodes that were hard to watch, he should escape the mystery trap and end it there.
The White Lotus Season 3: shoot locations:
Koh Samui is the second-largest island in Thailand. It is in the Gulf of Thailand. It has white sand beaches and lots of high-end hotels, and some of them show up in the show.
The Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui is the real star of season three, taking the place of the White Lotus Resort & Spa as the main character. (The first and second seasons were both shot in Four Seasons homes.)
There are a lot of scenes that happen at the resort’s main pool, in the general areas, on the paths, and in the fitness areas. That includes the beautiful Ratliff family home, where Parker Posey’s character Victoria says some of her most famous lines. There’s no word on whether the house has a blender or if you have to ask for one.
There were also scenes shot at the Four Seasons lodge for breakfast and lunch.
The “White Lotus” bar, on the other hand, is at the Singing Bird Lounge at the Anantara Lawana Koh Samui Resort, which is another high-end property. (The place for dinner is in Phuket; more on that below.)
What about the hotel’s security office and driveway, where Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong), the security guard, was in a lot of scenes? You’ll need to go to Anantara Bophut Koh Samui, the second resort on the island from the Thai hotel chain. It’s also where the gold store scenes were filmed.
We also can’t forget the Buddhist temple that the Ratliff family first came to Koh Samui to visit. Those scenes were filmed near Maenam Beach at Wat Phu Khao Thong.
In episode four, there is a funny scene where the three women going together get to see their first Songkran festival. The Fisherman’s Village is where those scenes were filmed.
Greg and Gary’s fancy house was built in two different places: Samujana house 12 on Koh Samui and Villa Amaravida on the island of Phuket.
Choeng Mon Beach, the Am Samui Resort Taling Ngam, the Dusit Dheva Cultural Center, Cape Fahn Hotel, the Pi Samui Beach Club and Restaurant, the Magical Weed Garden Lounge, and the Samui Snake Farm are also shown in the new season. At the Samui Snake Farm, Rick (Walton Goggins) sets about a dozen snakes free, and one of them bites Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood).
Haad Rin Beach on the nearby island of Koh Phangan also shows up in the show; several characters go there to attend the famous Full Moon Party that happens every month. At the same time, some parts of the arrival were shot at the beautiful Mu Ko Ang Thong National Marine Park, which is a popular day trip for people visiting Samui.
Rick’s trip to Bangkok in The White Lotus Season 3:
In the second part of the show, Rick leaves Chelsea and goes on a side trip to Bangkok, where he meets up with Frank, played by Sam Rockwell, an old friend. Frank tells some crazy lies about how he’s been spending his time in Thailand in one of the most talked-about TV rants of the year.
That scene was filmed in the famous Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Bangkok’s Bamboo Bar.
In the end, they go to meet American expat Jim Hollinger (Scott Glenn), who Rick thinks hurt his family, at the large riverfront home he shares with his wife, White Lotus owner Sritala. The building is the Siri Sala Private Thai Villa, which is on the Bangkok Noi Canal and can also be used as a hotel. There are six bedrooms in the house, and guests must book the whole thing.
After that, Rick and Frank went out. The scenes in the nightclub were filmed at the Sing Sing Theater on Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok.
Then, they go back to the Mandarin Oriental and go through the famous lobby to get to the 376-square-meter, two-bedroom Oriental Suite, where they keep the party going.
The White Lotus Season 3 Scenes filmed in Phuket:
As was already said, some scenes from The White Lotus Season 3were filmed on Phuket, which is Thailand’s biggest island in the Andaman Sea.
The Anantara Mai Khao Phuket resort has a beautiful spa pavilion in a lake where some of the most important events of the season began and ended. If that makes you excited, you should go there.
This resort is also where Belinda (Natasha Rothwell), an employee, stayed in that beautiful house with a private pool. The exact number is 42.
The dinner scenes in “White Lotus” were filmed at the Ta Khai restaurant at the Rosewood Phuket, which is another high-end hotel.
Bangla Boxing, Ya Nui Beach, the Phuket Yacht Haven Marina, and Café Del Mar are some of the other Phuket sites that HBO talks about on the show.
HBO says that more scenes of the arrival were made at Ko Lawa Yai, which is off the coast of Phuket near Phang Nga Bay.
Main Cast The White Lotus Season 3:
- Leslie Bibb as Kate
- Carrie Coon as Laurie
- Walton Goggins as Rick Hatchett
- Sarah Catherine Hook as Piper Ratliff
- Jason Isaacs as Timothy Ratliff
- Lalisa Manobal as Mook
- Michelle Monaghan as Jaclyn
- Sam Nivola as Lochlan Ratliff
- Lek Patravadi as Sritala
- Parker Posey as Victoria Ratliff
- Natasha Rothwell as Belinda Lindsey
- Patrick Schwarzenegger as Saxton Ratliff
- Tayme Thapthimthong as Gaitok
- Aimee Lou Wood as Chelsea
What Can We Expect from The White Lotus Season 3?
The official plot summary for The White Lotus Season 3 is very vague: “The social satire takes place at a high-class Thai resort and follows the actions of different guests and staff over the course of a week.”
On an April episode of Vanity Fair’s Little Gold Men podcast, Carrie Coon gave a short hint about the season’s theme. At the time, she was shooting The White LotusSeason 3. “[Starter Mike White] had a season about sex and a season about money.” “And this is his time of year for death,” Coon said. “So now we’re in this Buddhist country. I’m really happy about it because it makes me think about some really interesting things going on in my own life right now. And my family is under a lot of stress.” That sounds about right!
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