The White Lotus Season 3 Episode 1, “Same Spirits, New Forms,” is exactly what the title suggests: a whole new cast of human beings with different motivations—all at the same tourist destination. Show creator Mike White already delineates this season apart from the previous season with a different focus and exploration of mental health, identity, and religion.

Many of these themes from this episode work with Thailand’s predominant practicing religion, Buddhism, and the concepts of spirituality. It’s fascinating to see how the animals and tapestry in the show’s intro theme and within the show reflect the characters and their self-identities. All these themes and hidden easter eggs work their way in various moments throughout the episode.

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Pay attention to the symbolism in Thai art and the meanings behind the animals in the art and around the resort. These purposeful shots involve a lot of foreshadowing and juxtaposition. This foreshadowing becomes clear from the opening theme of the season. As we learn more about the visitors of The White Lotus Season 3, the connection to the drawings and paintings may become more clear.

The first scene of The White Lotus Season 3 Episode 1 takes place a week before the main events of the season, much like Season 2’s opener. It opens with a young Black man named Zion Lindsey (Nicholas Duvernay) meditating. He’s guided by an Indian woman who works for the resort’s wellness program named Amrita (Shalini Peiris) so he can de-stress about his final exams. It’s important to note when she talks about “calming the monkey mind.”

The White Lotus Season 3 Episode 1 tackles its symbolism and themes immediately.

If you’ve read a lot of Jay Shetty’s books or heard him talk about the monkey mind, it comes from Buddhist teachings. To summarize, the monkey mind is the human subconscious that leads many to spiral into overthinking. In Zion’s case, his monkey mind is stressing about final exams in school.

This interaction and the concept of calming the monkey mind is funny because the two are literally surrounded by a jungle filled with monkeys in the trees. Another significant part about Zion here is when he tells a Buddha statue to keep his mom safe after almost getting shot by a stray gun skirmish happening nearby. Then, he prays to God, only to hear more gunshots. Zion cusses at the Buddha statue, blaming it for not stopping the violence.

It’s ironic that he blames the Buddha statue and the fact that he prayed to the Christian God in front of a Buddha statue. While this isn’t the most disrespectful action done in front of a religious symbol, especially since Zion is under high stress, it’s a slightly funny moment of how humans will resort to whatever faith they can to stay hopeful. This is also an example of how quickly the human mind switches from looking for faith to pissed that nothing is being done when the immediate issue isn’t resolved.

The conversations on religion continue through the introduction of the Ratliff family. The parents, Timothy Ratliff (Jason Isaacs) and Victoria Ratliff (Parker Posey) explain the purpose of their trip is for their middle child and only daughter, Piper Ratliff (Sarah Catherine Hook), to interview a well-known Buddhist monk for her university thesis. Piper doesn’t have an appointment set up, causing some suspicion that she’s not telling the truth. Based on the intro theme art, she’s represented as being genuinely spiritual when her name card shows up next to an image of someone meditating on a tree.

At the end of The White Lotus Season 3 Episode 1, Victoria talks to her husband Timothy about why Piper couldn’t study their family’s practicing religion, Christianity. She comments how they wouldn’t have to travel so far, and Piper could’ve interviewed the Archbishop of Canterbury instead.

Victoria’s comments reveal a lot about her identity, which is that she’s not accustomed to change and is close-minded about things she doesn’t know. It’s one thing to be tired from 16 hours of travelling, but she doesn’t positively compliment anything about the trip in The White Lotus Season 3 Episode 1. Tying back to the animal imagery, Posey’s name in the intro shows up next to a drawing of two monkeys smoking weed and a bong.

Going back to the concept of the monkey mind, Victoria didn’t like that Rick Hatchett (Walton Goggins) was smoking on the boat while they were all travelling to the resort. Potentially, this is her monkey mind thinking about it.

By nighttime, Victoria reassures Timothy how good of a father he is when he’s getting stressed about someone constantly calling him. This harks back to the image in the intro. When Isaacs’ name pops up, there is a man in a tree full of swords all around him, alluding that he’s surrounded by danger. Also, there’s a work of art above their bed that shows an empty throne with worshippers all staring at it. This can symbolize that Timothy’s missing from his throne because he’s on vacation, and the worshippers are his employees.

Identity and uncertainty take center stage in the characters’ journeys this season.

Returning to Piper, she reads a passage from the monk’s book: “Identity is a prison. No one is spared this prison, rich man or poor man, success or failure. We build the prison, lock ourselves inside, and throw away the key.” This is a very meaningful quote about human identities and people who get trapped by their perceptions of their self-identities. Four examples in The White Lotus Season 3 Episode 1 clearly show this.

The first example that’s closely related to the concept of identity and the quote from the book is Goggins and his intro theme artwork picture. It shows a man smoking a cigarette, and it looks like he’s scared and trapped in a tower. The White Lotus Season 3 Episode 1 contains multiple times Rick is smoking, and he looks troubled by something. While this episode doesn’t unveil much of his character, he looks like the epitome of what the quote is explaining on identity being “a prison.” He also looks like the intro theme image adjacent to Goggins’ name when it appears.

Rick’s partner, Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood), complements Rick’s self-tortured personality. She’s bubbly, spiritual and empathetic. Chelsea is very empathetic with how she picks up on Rick’s energy, even when Rick doesn’t say anything. Her struggles with identity are with who she represents to Rick, whether she’s a close confidant partner or just a partner he’s meant to have “tantric” with.

When Aimee Lou Wood’s name appears in the intro theme, the image associated with her name shows a tiger or cougar protecting its prey from other smaller predators. It is unclear what this symbolizes for Chelsea, based on The White Lotus Season 3 Episode 1. It’s possible she’s the tiger or cougar protecting Rick from some other dangerous threats as she devours Rick—draining more of Rick’s wallet than eating away at his character or trying to kill him.

The second example of exploring identity in relation to the quote is the conversations with the three visiting girlfriends: Kate (Leslie Bibb), Laurie (Carrie Coon) and Jaclyn Lemon (Michelle Monaghan). Jaclyn explains to the co-owner of the White Lotus resort, Sritala Hollinger (Lek Patravadi), that they’re life-long friends trying to catch up since she’s been busy with her acting career.

It’s important to also note here that Sritala only greets Jaclyn’s group directly and even adjusts her makeup before all the guests arrive. In Thai culture, the Asian elephant is the most precious and respected animal. Tying this back to the intro theme tapestry, Bibb and Coon’s names are next to an image of three elephants and another image of one elephant being adored. Meanwhile, Monaghan’s name pops up with an image of a nude woman in a tower. To connect this all, since Jaclyn is an actor, Sritala must view the group as being as highly-valued guests as elephants are valued in Thai culture.

The connective thread between the monk’s words and Jaclyn’s group is how much they talk about their status and looks, more so with Kate and Jaclyn. Kate and Jaclyn socialize the most, while Laurie mostly listens and only joins conversations when they directly ask her questions. These micro-interactions with these three show that Laurie is the most insecure in her skin, and Kate and Jaclyn pity her.

Laurie leaves the other two to return to her room to cry. Clearly, Laurie feels like she’s lesser than her friends for having a corporate job while the other two women are thriving. Her perceived self-identity is holding her back from feeling happy, or it’s her monkey mind comparing herself to others.

A cast of characters full of worries spells chaos ahead.

The third example involves Saxton Ratliff (Patrick Schwarzenegger), the eldest child who works for his father, and Lochlan Ratliff (Sam Nivola), the youngest child who’s deciding where to go to university next year. Saxton adds the horniness to this season when he tries to hit on almost all of the female characters at the pool. There are multiple instances where he’s trying to control situations and fails at hitting on every woman. Saxton keeps teaching Lochlan about how to hit on women, and he keeps talking about how horny he is.

By nighttime, Saxton ends up masturbating in the two brothers’ washroom. Saxton struggles with his self-identity by overcompensating for what he thinks he knows. He’s at odds with himself because he thinks he’s always right, too, but he learns quickly that his charisma is not as great as he thinks. Schwarzenegger’s name in the show intro appears next to an image of two men staring at women bathing in a pond, which is very on brand for what Saxton does in The White Lotus Season 3 Episode 1.

For Nivola, his name pops up next to an image of a man falling in a pond. This is unclear for what it represents but will make sense later for Lochlan. The evident identity crisis he faces in this episode revolves around whether he’s attracted to his older brother or men in general. Lochlan is meek but doesn’t get easily persuaded to change his mind on things. As a senior in high school, his identity issues are more towards his sexual exploration during a pivotal formative year in his life — in contrast to Saxton, who’s dead-set on wanting to have sex with any woman.

The final example of a person dealing with self-identity problems is Season 1’s Belinda Lindsey (Natasha Rothwell). She comes to The White Lotus Thailand branch to learn about their wellness program and then takes the knowledge back to the Hawaii branch. As part of her exchange program, she’s also treated like one of the paying guests so she can enjoy fancy dinners, spectacular entertainment, and all the self-care and wellness benefits.

During dinner, Belinda notices the only Black couple dining or ever focused on throughout the episode. She raises a glass to acknowledge them and then has a moment to think about her identity as being single. It’s evident that she’s thinking about how that could be her one day, but she currently doesn’t have a partner to create that memory. This is a small instance, but it’s a hint of her trying to find happiness for herself.

She’s happy her son Zion is doing well in school, but she knows she deserves some R&R too—especially when her plans to open her own wellness center are quashed from Season 1 and 2’s Tanya McQuoid (Jennifer Coolidge) “ghosting” her. We learn Belinda assumes Tanya forgot all about Belinda’s business proposal when Tanya runs off and marries a fellow vacationer in Hawaii named Greg Hunt (Jon Gries). Little does Belinda know that Greg inadvertently murders Tanya in Italy last season when she slips and falls off their yacht while escaping the men hired by Greg to murder her.

Surprisingly, we learn that Greg has been living on the island with his new, younger partner, Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon), for about a year through Chelsea and Chloe meeting and talking at one of the resort’s bars. Whether Belinda is going to figure that Greg murdered Tanya is going to be a major plot point to keep in mind. As for Rothwell’s intro theme image, it shows a heron staring at its reflection in the water, which shows Belinda’s introspection to explore herself inwards.

The main critique of the episode, “Same Spirts, New Forms”, is that some characters, like Mook (Lalisa Manobal) and Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong), are not given enough scenes to flesh out their personalities and identities. Their intro theme images also didn’t symbolize anything definitive to what happened in the episode, making it harder to gauge anything further about their characters.

There’s much to unpack from the symbolic significances related to religion, spirituality and art within The White Lotus Season 3 Episode 1. So far, the season is off to an enticing start, filled with many mysterious characters to follow.  Depending on if Belinda figures out what Greg did to Tanya, this will be the season of this series with the most crime-solving vibes yet.

The White Lotus Season 3 Episode 1 is currently streaming on Max, formally HBO Max.

The White Lotus Season 3 Episode 1

• 8/10 Rating - 8/10

8/10

TL;DR

There’s much to unpack from the symbolic significances related to religion, spirituality and art within The White Lotus Season 3 Episode 1. So far, the season is off to an enticing start, filled with many mysterious characters to follow.

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