It was only a matter of time.
This season of “The White Lotus” has so far been relatively tame in terms of sex, drugs, violence and overall debauchery. Mention of a party in last week’s episode implied an incoming shift, though, and “The White Lotus” Season 3, Episode 5 delivers on that promise. It is an episode full of reckless partying, lust and more than a few cringe-inducing moments of impulsive degeneracy. Amid all of the chaos, “White Lotus” creator Mike White returns to some of the HBO drama’s long-running themes — namely, the difficulty of cultural assimilation and the unfortunate truth that no amount of wealth or uninhibited living can fill the empty parts within ourselves. The former theme emerges early in the episode.
At dinner, Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) finally tells her parents about her plan to move to Thailand. Victoria (Parker Posey) reacts poorly, responding to her daughter’s assertion that she is a Buddhist by telling her, “You can be interested in this stuff, but you can never really be it.” Posey has had a few memorable lines this season, but she gets her best, most gut-busting one this week. In response to her mother’s paranoia about her moving into a monastery, Piper says, “If it’s a cult, it’s a cult with a billion members, OK?” Victoria quickly retorts, “Still a cult! Look at the Catholics! Organized religion and deviant sex can go hand-in-hand!” To be fair to Victoria: she has a point there. (If not for its scene-stealing cameo, this episode could have very easily been titled “The Parker Posey Hour.”)
Timothey (Jason Isaacs) spends most of the episode checked out and depressed, but he is confronted early on by Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong), who leaves his guard booth unattended — much to White Lotus manager Fabian’s (Christian Friedel) annoyance — in order to track him down. Gaitok knows that Tim took his newly designated handgun, but when the American man tells him that he doesn’t know what Gaitok is talking about, the White Lotus guard doesn’t know how to handle the situation. His reaction is to unwisely alert neither Fabian nor his fellow guards about the theft. Tim, for his part, seems to have no intention of returning Gaitok’s gun, as his actions in the episode’s final minutes prove.
Brotherly Love
Tim is not the only Ratliff who chooses to walk down an inadvisable path in “Full-Moon Party.” Lochlan (Sam Nivola) and Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) spend the entire episode partying with Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) and Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon) — even going so far as to wander the streets high with the two women. (Schwarzenegger, like Posey, gets some laugh-out-loud moments in this episode, but none are quite as funny as when Saxon initially turns down Chloe’s drug offering by loudly exclaiming, “Saxon doesn’t take drugs. I am the drug!”) White, meanwhile, slips in a queasy-in-retrospect bit of foreshadowing when Saxon tells an inquiring Chloe that he and Lochlan have just been passing the time sharing some “brotherly love.”
It is a line that comes horrifyingly full-circle late in “Full-Moon Party” when a kissing game on Gary/Greg’s (Jon Gries) boat with Chelsea and Chloe ends with Lochlan making out with his older brother. It is, even by the standards of “The White Lotus,” a notably gross moment. Not only does it add yet another layer of weirdness to Lochlan’s strange relationship/unspoken attraction to his brother and sister, but it also ties back into the episode’s ideas about where overly extravagant, self-indulgent behavior leads. That theme is reflected in Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan), Kate (Leslie Bibb) and Laurie’s scenes, which chart the rest of the trio’s night out with Valentin (Arnas Fedaravicius), Aleksei (Julian Kostov) and Vlad (Yuri Kolokolnikov). Laurie and Jaclyn start “Full-Moon Party” sensually dancing with Aleksei and Valentin, and the two only get progressively drunker and wilder from there.
Kate is forced to humor Vlad, and as the most sober and least interested in getting laid member of her group, she can’t hide her discomfort with her friends’ drunken behavior or her increasing desire to put an end to their nightlong rave. Bibb doesn’t get much to do in “Full-Moon Party,” but she makes the most out of every tiny moment she’s given — her micro-expressions perfectly, hilariously riding the line between polite empathy and muted horror. Monaghan similarly seizes control of her scenes — milking every ounce of narcissism and insecurity that she can out of Jaclyn’s small glances and “friendly” quips. Later, Jaclyn’s vanity reaches its highest peak when she invites Valentin, whom she has been actively trying to set Laurie up with, back to her room to sleep with him. When it comes to Jaclyn, the line between friendship and personal validation remains thin.
The Carousel of Lust and Suffering
As disappointing as Jaclyn’s drunken betrayal of Laurie is, it is not the bluntest way White makes his point in “Full-Moon Party” about the dangers of empty pleasure. That comes when Rick (Walton Goggins) finally meets up with his “old buddy,” Frank (surprise guest star Sam Rockwell*). The latter slides Rick a bag with what he “asked for” and then shocks his friend by telling him he has given up drinking, alcohol and drugs. When Rick inquires why, Frank launches into a monologue at Rick’s hotel bar that is entrancing, startling and, frankly, a bit of a creative triumph on White’s part. Frank notes that he “had to leave the States” but that he chose to move to Thailand because, in the first of what turns out to be many moments of frank honesty, he’s always been attracted to Asian girls. Sex, however, only managed to satiate him for so long.
“I started wondering, ‘Where am I going with this?,’” Frank says of his period of constantly sleeping around. His inner crisis led him to question his gender identity and the purpose of sex (for him). “I got it in my head that what I really wanted was to be one of these Asian girls getting f—ked by me… and to feel that,” Frank says, much to Rick’s blank-faced, shocked confusion. “I got addicted to that. Some nights, three-four guys would come over and really rail the s—t out of me. Some I even had to pay.” Eventually, Frank found new meaning in religion. “I realized I gotta stop with the drugs, the girls, the trying to be a girl,” he says. “I got into Buddhism, which is all about, you know, spirit versus form, detaching from self, getting off the never-ending carousel of lust and suffering.”
The thematic relevance of Frank’s admission(s) is obvious. Following your most basic impulses and carnal desires can only take you so far. Sometimes, the things we do to escape our lives only send us into an even greater existential crisis and, therefore, further into ourselves. But the scene also works because of how it differs from much of “Full-Moon Party.” The episode, masterfully directed by White and edited by Scott Turner, is largely operatic in its rhythms and cutting. Parties are crossed together, Mook’s (Lalisa Manobal) resort performance practically glides into a scene of Laurie, Jaclyn and Kate dancing on a nightclub floor. But everything slows down for Frank’s monologue. White uses only static shots of Goggins and Rockwell’s faces, and Turner’s editing leaves the space for Rockwell’s pauses to linger and breathe. A disorienting stillness is achieved both technically and in Goggins and Rockwell’s quiet, bare performances.
*For those curious: Rockwell has been in a relationship with Bibb since 2007, which likely explains his cameo appearance in “Full-Moon Party.”
I Think You’ll Survive
His conversation with Frank rattles Rick and forces him to personally interrogate the way he spends his time. He is not the only character who begins to question their trip to Thailand, either. Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) is sent into an even greater paranoia spiral by Fabian, who tells her that Greg has asked him about her. “It appears you have many fans,” he obliviously observes. “One of our regulars was just asking me all about you. Wanted to know your name and why you’re here.” Rather than quietly worry to herself, Belinda decides to ask Fabian for help in one of “The White Lotus” Season 3’s most simultaneously funny and frustrating scenes yet. To start, White has Rothwell recap Greg’s entire “White Lotus” story up to this point in a hurried whisper — blowing Fabian’s mind.
When she mentions calling the police, though, Fabian shuts down. “Some people here have colorful pasts. It’s really not wise to stir anything up,” he warns her. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about, as long as you focus on yourself — and your job.” Dismissing Belinda, he adds, “I didn’t sense Gary had any ill intentions. He was just curious. I think you’ll survive.” We can only hope he’s right. Belinda, fortunately, does find some comfort and support in Pornchai (Dom Hetrakul), who not only discovers that the source of the ominous noises in her room has been a lizard all along but also ends up staying in her room and sleeping with her. (If any “White Lotus” character deserves to have a tryst with an attractive masseuse, it is Belinda.)
Praying to God
Ominous words and signs fill “Full-Moon Party.” Frank’s gift to Rick unsurprisingly turns out to be a gun — one he intends to use on Jim Hollinger (Scott Glenn) — and Chelsea confesses to Chloe early on that she can’t shake the feeling that “something really bad is going to happen.” Chloe later confesses in turn that her planned one-night stand with “little magician” Lochlan could very well blow up in her face. “Gary might kill me. I honestly think he’s capable of it,” she admits, and she has no idea how right she is. All of these moments fill “Full-Moon Party” with a heavy air of dread and doom, despite the seemingly frivolous fun that unfolds throughout it.
It seems, for a moment, like the episode’s ominous tone will be fulfilled in its last scene, in which Tim writes a suicide note to his family (“I’m so sorry. I love you.”) and puts Gaitok’s stolen gun to the side of his head. Just when he is about to pull the trigger, however, Victoria opens their bedroom door and asks him why he’s been acting so strange lately. Crumpling up his suicide note, Tim vents by blaming her and their kids for all his stress. Victoria, once again, says the exact wrong thing at the exact wrong time, responding, “There’s no reason to be stressed, Tim. You’ve already succeeded in every way.” Unlike Chloe, Victoria doesn’t know just how wrong she is.
Rather than joining his wife in bed, Tim spends the final seconds of “Full-Moon Party” praying to God and asking for cosmic help. It seems unlikely that he will find the help he’s looking for in heaven, though. Whether he wants to admit it or not, it was his decision to commit a crime that has led him to where he is right now, and no matter what you do, the one thing you cannot escape is yourself. Just ask Frank.
“The White Lotus” airs Sundays on HBO and Max.
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