The entire premise of White Lotus rests on people "taking a vacation" from the cares, stresses and foibles of their everyday lives, in a place of staggering beauty, luxury and pampering; only to find they've actually entered a cauldron where they are confronted with all that they seek to avoid. And each character has a basic choice: escape or confront? Should I continue to avoid the core issue in my life or confront it, first within myself and then with those around me. Sadly, every single character in season 3 took the path of escapism. Worse, each of the "pods" kept their pod-mates firmly in place. Perhaps, instead of monkeys, the better motif was crabs in a bucket. The various helpers at the White Lotus also failed by avoiding confrontation or enabling the escapism. While only 2 characters lost their lives, every character came out a loser, even when they seemed to win. {spoilers ahead}
Timothy Ratliff, patriarch of the Ratcliff Family: rather than use the opportunity to come clean to his family about his past shady dealings which have now unraveled, he first drowned himself in his wife's pills and alcohol and then decided he'd rather murder his family than face up to his mistakes. While he stepped back from the abyss just in time, his continued negligence almost resulted in the death of Lochlan, his youngest son. Even on the boat ride leaving the island, instead of acknowledging his issue and coming clean, he chose to focus on the impending change and the placebo that they'd somehow "get through it as a family."
Victoria Ratliff already lives in an escapist fantasy in her everyday life and simply continued it during the trip. Worse, she ensured her daughter, Piper, would stay in the very same cocoon. Escapists love company, it seems.
Saxon had no desire to confront his privileged existence and base instincts. The torrid events of the boat party provoked no confrontation, only repulsion. Even his meager reading of Chelsea's books were an act taken under duress.
While Lochlan acknowledged his role as "enabler to a family of narcissists," there was no effort to change. Instead, he had a fake enlightenment experience by mistakenly imbibing the remnants of Tim's death potion. Unlike his sister, he had a genuine awakening and desire to stay at the monastery, but didn't act on it even though her exit paved the way for him to do so. Piloting his own ship without input from his siblings seems even further out in the distance.
Piper was perhaps the most tragic of the three kids as hers was a direct attempt toward confrontation and away from escapism. She conned the family into the vacation to explore the monastery. But right at the moment where her journey could finally begin, it turned out the fantasy of confrontation was simply another form of escapism and she slid right back into the cosy cocoon. A fuzzy lorazepam future awaits!
Jaclyn, Kate and Laurie have always existed in an escapist fawning relationship, enabling each other's contrived self-image without confrontation. Despite multiple opportunities to pop the bobble and confront each other, none were taken up. Instead, the experience saw them recommitting to the fawning friendship from here on out. Jaclyn will continue trafficking on her looks and getting validation from men's attention and Kate on her husband's wealth and status. Laurie had the greatest opportunity for self-confrontation as her life situation had fallen apart even before arriving at the White Lotus. But rather than confront, she escaped with sex and alcohol. Her final speech to her friends represented not a confrontation, but a capitulation: she, as the "ugly duckling" was allowed to be part of the trio and she was just grateful to be included.
Rick, like Piper, came to the White Lotus not for escape, but to confront the man who killed his father. But armed only with the tools of violence, he ultimately gave into those core impulses to solve his problem. He rejected Amrita's (albeit shallow) help to look within and when finally came face to face with his tormentor, he made no room for dialog, thus missing the opportunity to learn who his real father was and come to a reconciliation. Chelsea continued to enable Rick's violent escapism and yoke herself to his journey, much like Victoria did to Timothy. In her case, she paid the ultimate price, while Victoria almost did.
In Gaitok and Mook, we have the same tragedy as Piper and and Victoria, Rick and Chelsea. Rather than support Gaitok in doing what's right, Mook draws him away from confrontation and into escapism. He "earns" his new role by murdering Rick and abandoning every decent impulse he had. He also fails to confront the situation with Valentin and his friends, letting a robbery go uncontested.
Likewise, Belinda is lured by the easy money of blackmail and encouraged by Zion. In the process she completely abandons her own dream, and reveals that healing people was never a real commitment. She dismissively tells Zion to "go on find find your center or some shit," when dispatching him to Amrita's session and completely abandons her budding friendship with Pornchai. He, in turn, is unable to confront her about her sudden change of heart.
Sritala, Victoria's doppelgänger, is enabled by Jim's ill-gotten wealth and fully committed to her escapist fantasy.
Greg is the ultimate committed escapist, having murdered Tanya in Season 2 and now living off his ill-gotten gains in Thailand. In a sense, he represents the bottom of the escapist funnel into which every other character is inevitably drawn to and circling into. He enrolls Belinda and Chloe directly and everyone else indirectly, by luring them into his escapist fantasy. We can chalk Season 3 as a complete and total win for Team Escapist: Greg, Sritala, Victoria and Mook and the toxifying allure of money, which enables that escapism.
And this is where we come to why season 3 as a whole was a huge disappointment for viewers. It fell into the very-same trap of its characters, preferring escapism in its writing. Rather than explore meaningful confrontations and show us how those could lead to productive resolutions and deep insight, it spent its time on the "oh-my" situations and overly leaning into its "who bit it" trope. It pushed off the confrontations toward vacuous, easy solutions (Belinda's $5MM) or assuming they would happen "off-show," such as the Ratliffs, or faux resolving them with the girlfriend trio, Gaitok's new gig or Lochlan seeing 'god.' The point of great shows is that they don't employ a "deus ex machina" approach; rather they show us how to be better humans, to confront what lies within and between each and transcend our situations. In that sense, the show mirrors the society we find ourselves in - constantly looking for easy solutions in pill, media and other forms, eschewing the real and truly satisfying work to be done.
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