The White Lotus Season 3 invites everyone to the same old luxury resort chain with almost a whole new cast of characters and a backdrop in beautiful Thailand. Created, directed, and written by Mike White, Season 3 brings Walton Goggins, Sarah Catherine Hook, Sam Nivola, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Lek Patravadi, Aimee Lou Wood, Michelle Monaghan, Jason Isaacs, Parker Posey, Scott Glenn, Lalisa Manobal, Nicholas Duvernay, Leslie Bibb, Carrie Coon, Michelle Monaghan to the cast with only Natasha Rothwell to reprise her role as Belinda Lindsey from The White Lotus Season 1.

Continuing Mike White’s social satire anthology, this season is set at an exclusive Thai resort over one week. With each new character group added, more intrigue comes as well. For these first six episodes, the ensemble cast comes from all walks of life — all hungry for power and sure to grip your attention and never let it go.

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The White Lotus Season 3 offers viewers a mysterious entrance for a young man named Zion Lindsey (Duvernay) learning to meditate with one of the resort’s staff members. Zion explains how he grew up in Hawaii, that his mom is into spiritual energy and wellness, and that he’s here visiting her. It doesn’t take a genius to connect the dots that this is Belinda’s son. All of a sudden, gunshots can be heard nearby and send the two characters scrambling, and then we learn this will happen a week after all the visitors first landed on the resort’s beaches.

The White Lotus Thailand resort welcomes a variety of characters and group sizes like in previous seasons. In classic White Lotus fashion, there is a mix of visitors who are either sexually pent-up, seeking to learn something new, others who want a relaxing getaway, or catching up with old friends. But it wouldn’t be White Lotus Season 3 without those with hidden agendas under their paradise attire.

White Lotus Season 3 sets the viewer up the moment the characters step onto the dock.

You can see who’s who if you pay close attention to what happens when the new arrivals dock on the resort island. The enigmatic couple Rick Hatchett (Walton Goggins) and Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) are the first to disembark and be greeted. Their relationship is tested throughout the series, and Rick’s age gap with Chelsea takes center stage. Since Chelsea is a free-spirited young woman, she genuinely believes Rick is her “soulmate.” The reasons for the trip are unclear, but Chelsea treats it as a vacation, while Rick has ulterior motives.

What’s most captivating to watch is Wood’s performance as Chelsea. Most stereotypes and prejudices would assume Chelsea is highly likely to be a gold digger, but viewers will see how ambiguous she can be with her new age, astrological, and free-thinking. What makes her a wild card is that audiences don’t learn too much about her and why she thinks the way she does. Maybe her dark secrets are more sinister than Rick’s ones.

On the other hand, Goggins delivers a simple man who’s vacationing with his younger partner but plays it so well to hide the fact that there’s more depth to his character. More specifically, he knows how to play an animate object like a tree when he’s acting opposite to Wood, who carries most of their conversations. Meanwhile, you can see Goggins switch Rick into a different person when he needs information from someone. To a certain extent, Goggins brings a chameleon form of acting to Rick — adding to Rick’s mystique and unknown occupation.

One of the core elements of the overarching series, and most travel resorts, are families. Playing this part for White Lotus Season 3 is the Ratliff family, and they may be the most hateable family we’ve seen in the series yet.

Timothy Ratliff (Jason Isaacs) is a wealthy businessman vacationing with his wife Victoria (Posey), and their three children Saxton Ratliff (Patrick Schwarzenegger), Piper Ratliff (Hook), and Lochlan Ratliff (Sam Nivola). Naturally, the purpose of their 16-hour-long trip from the U.S. to Thailand is for Piper to interview a Buddhist monk near the resort to supplement her religion studies thesis paper. This all seems normal, until trouble brews.

Through the trials and tribulations that the Ratliff family experiences for most of The White Lotus Season 3, their cookie-cutter stereotypes make burnt cookies. Isaacs does a solid job of portraying the father who’s forced to provide for his family. When Timothy keeps receiving calls about an investigation into his company, Isaacs’ reactions show that Timothy is not the stoic father his family is led to believe. His descent into madness is one for the TV books.

Saxton is the oldest son who works for his father’s company, the golden boy who graduated from Duke University like his dad. Schwarzenegger knows how to play the perfect role of the mischievous older brother. He adds subtle things like noogie-ing Nivola to sell that Saxton is a domineering person, or he’ll drop out-of-pocket comments like it’s a casual Tuesday. Seeing Saxton evolve throughout most of the season is both satisfying and strangely sad. Schwarzenegger’s mannerisms change as he’s constantly shut down by women, and his confidence declines. His posture is slumped down, and he even gets quieter.

Piper is the family’s middle child and ‘black sheep,’ a spiritual and sheltered girl in both fashion choices and mind. Hook’s performance is pretty standard, playing the trope of the young woman inspired by what she reads back home and has to seek answers from the source. Either Hook is doing a good job not revealing if Piper is actually into Buddhism to run away from her enclosed Christian values life back in North Carolina, or Hook is bringing an earnest person through Piper.

The Ratliff kids couldn’t be more different or more of the same.

Then there’s Lochlan, the youngest son, deciding on where to go to university and on his sexual identity, both putting him in contention with his father. The way Nivola looks at people he’s attracted to makes it seem like he wants to devour them. Nivola takes the meek Lochlan and evolves him into something else. The only problem with Nivola morphing Lochlan into a more confident person is that he doesn’t feel earned when he’s not given the on-screen time to develop. This is the double-edged sword for The White Lotus because the show has a variety of characters but not enough time to flesh out certain ones.

The main problem with the Ratliff family is that many are faking and/or hiding something and are not good at it. Immediately, Victoria boasts to The White Lotus staff about how her kids went to their parent’s alma mater at Duke and North Carolina Chapel Hill. Posey’s voice for this role adds to the grating poshness she presents throughout the season.

It sounds like she’s trying almost trying to sound profound about everything she comments on. With constant bragging about things that mean something to only those in their home state, everything about the family screams they’re new money with no class and empty influence points.

The funny part to all of the Ratliff’s exaggerated wealth is that the co-owner of the resort Sritala (Patravadi) can smell their misdirected shots to seek validation an ocean away. The leading Thai protagonist, Sritala, is the most intriguing, exuding the hidden villain energy the White Lotus series thrives on. Sritala even has personal bodyguards following her and driving her around after meeting all the guests for the first time.

The only nitpicky shortcoming of this season is Isaacs’ English accent slipping out at times when he’s supposed to be playing a North Carolinian. It’s jarring to hear him slip in and out of the accent, and it primarily affects every element of his performance. That said, losing Isaacs’ performance would significantly impact The White Lotus Season 3. His reactions and facial reactions are the perfect representations of a father who’s worked the most in the family to provide for his family, and he’s just done with life. So, it’s easy to get over his verbal ticks.

The Ratliffs are the focus but wind up too grounded in tropes to move beyond them.

Next, enter the best girlfriends of The White Lotus Season 3: Kate (Leslie Bibb), Laurie (Carrie Coon) and Jaclyn Lemon (Michelle Monaghan). These three longtime friends reunite on this trip to The White Lotus Thailand, but their dynamics bleed out jealousy instantaneously, especially since Jaclyn is a seasoned actress. The three women all live different lives.

This leads to the most captivating and polarizing conversation at the dinner table, where they discuss politics and quickly learn that they’re not all the Democrats they thought they were. Instead, they seem to be sitting with an unwanted Donald Trump supporter. The disgusted face that Carrie Coon and Michelle Monaghan make when Leslie Bibb’s Kate goes silent, mumbling she votes Independent and her husband is Republican, is concerning. Bibbs’ performance here is perfect as she stumbles through this awkward moment.

The topic of dinner table political conversations may be taboo because of the potential for escalated fights and conflicts. Still, they are meaningful conversations, most notably because of the current political landscape. It was an intentional choice by showrunner White that could have gone either way with a 2024 outcome.

The main issue with bringing up politics in casual talk is that it can lead to resentment and ostracization of people. To a certain extent, it makes sense if people don’t hang out with those who don’t share similar values. On the other hand, this scene shows how quickly someone could be isolated from a group by revealing their political affiliation. To say the least, it’s a relatable conversation that reflects real-life dinner table talks on politics.

In a time when America is divided, the symbolism of these three friends turning on each other perfectly represents the current political climate. If they can’t stand together on this, standing by each other through the end of the trip is unlikely. The three are also a mirror being held to American audiences, even with its added drama.

HBO finally gives Lisa a role with weight.

Mook (BLACKPINK’s Lalisa Manobal – aka Lisa) is a “health mentor” for the resort guests, but you’ll never see her working. Instead, she mainly talks with other female staff members. At the same time, Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) is a security officer for the resort and is encouraged to move up the security job ladder while attempting to date Mook. From a nihilist perspective, this is a doomed relationship from the start. But from a hopeful one, there’s a chance at a happy ending.

Mook consistently encourages Gaitok to find a way to get a better security position but doesn’t advocate for herself. It seems like she is looking for a man with status without making it seem obvious, or she could be naive in how she talks to Gaitok about pushing him to do better career-wise. When Gaitok earns more responsibility on the security team, he flubs it by being distracted and talking to Mook while on the job.

Manobal’s acting presents Mook as a friendly woman, but we never see what she’s like outside of the resort. Whereas Thapthimthong’s character, Gaitok, is clearer; he’s a hopeless romantic who needs someone to push him. Both of their storylines hold up a different mirror to society on dating. Initially, Mook laughs when Gaitok asks her out on a date. It’s ambiguous if she’s laughing at him for even thinking about asking her out or if she’s awkward about him asking her out.

Overall, their story so far has been straightforward and vanilla. It’s cute to see, but it’s not breaking any romance molds. Based on the episodes so far, the message is that nice guys finish last, and Gaitok may not get the happy ending he hopes for, and it doesn’t help when he’s constantly distracted.

The Thai characters in HBO’s White Lotus Season 3 wind up more like their guests than ever before.

An insightful part of this season for the Thai characters is how similar their positions are to those of their predominantly American guests. It all comes back to gaining or taking power from others. Where the Americans are recharging or asserting their powers at The White Lotus, the Thai locals are also fighting for power — in more ways than one in The White Lotus Season 3.

The White Lotus Season 3’s storytelling is also battling for power to what gets the attention. From a cultural perspective, it’s sad that the Thai actors and characters are overshadowed by the foreign actors and characters. But it’s also another layer to the storytelling that this is still a Hollywood production. The narrative intentionally shows things that most tourists most likely already know about Thailand, and doesn’t offer anything new to viewers.

And last but not least, is Belinda. She arrives last and explains that she’s visiting the Maui resort for an exchange trip to learn from the Thailand branch’s wellness program. Being the only recurring character of The White Lotus Season 3, her story is what ties this series, as a whole, together.

She immediately recounts her failed wellness business venture with Tanya McQuoid (Jennifer Coolidge) from season one. For Belinda, Tanya’s flakiness takes a different turn when she learns that a larger mystery is at play for why Tanya is nowhere to be found. This is the biggest mystery of the season, and it will be exciting to see Belinda put the pieces together.

What stands out is the opening theme for The White Lotus Season 3. The opening themes and visuals of the series have become iconic for their eerie and simultaneously whimsical notes. With so much relating to multiple characters gaining power, there are a lot of symbols of strength in the animal images: a tiger, a hyena, and monkeys with swords.

The intro song is less derivative than previous seasons’ musical intro themes. Instead, viewers will be treated to the wonderful sounds of traditional Thai instruments playing in a polka-esque style. The upbeat polka sounds add to the show’s whimsy and hyper-horrniess/sensual aphrodesia. The traditional Thai string instrument sounds add ominous sounds, hinting at an impending storm this season.

There are hints of the original theme “Aloha!” from season one, but this one is not as close as “Renaissance” was to the first opening theme. This could be done intentionally by composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer (Babygirl) who’s indicating this season will be a bit more different than the previous iterations.

The paintings in the opening take place in a Thai palace, representing this monarchical representation where those with status are high up while the rest are on the ground. This is why the monkeys on the high ground all align with acting credits for those who are playing high-status people. It’s also poignant how certain actors’ names pop up, with some being different animals than others and the fact that some are juxtaposed with humans in the opening theme tapestry.

None of the chaos would be possible in The White Lotus Season 3 without the foundation built from the previous two seasons. This season is an intricate web woven together from other seasons’ narrative threads, which become more evident as this season spirals out of control. Every episode will have you on the edge of your seat, whether that’s figuring out who’s going to die or whether the sexual tension entices you. Welcome back to The White Lotus.

The White Lotus Season 3 premieres Sunday, February 16th at 9 p.m. EST/PST, on Max, formally HBO Max.

The White Lotus Season 3

• 8.5/10 Rating - 8.5/10

8.5/10

TL;DR

None of the chaos would be possible in The White Lotus Season 3 without the foundation built from the previous two seasons. This season is an intricate web woven together from other seasons’ narrative threads, which become more evident as this season spirals out of control.

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