Ask the cast of The White Lotus to describe the hit series’ third season and chances are they’ll say “chaotic.” Some variation of “chaos” or “chaotic” appeared no less than 15 times during an hour-long event with the cast and creator Mike White.
Chaos reigns as The White Lotus returns for more homicidal hijinks and hormone-fuelled fun in the sun. The third season visits the Thailand location of the posh hotel chain after trips to Hawaii and Italy in previous seasons. Although one feels the absence of the meme-able Jennifer Coolidge, whose death at the end of season two had fans rioting on social media, the Thai setting is one element that perhaps makes this stay the best trip to the White Lotus yet.
“There’s a lot of Buddhist concepts that I thought would be interesting to explore, would be fun, [and] give the show new places to go with different stories,” says White in a virtual press event. “Thailand seemed like the perfect backdrop for that because it is Buddhist. There’s something about the culture there [and] having some chaos Westerners come.”
The series refreshes the cast, as White did in season two, which only had Coolidge returning as the ill-fated Tanya. This season features returning cast member Natasha Rothwell as Belinda, who appeared as a White Lotus spa technician in the first season. Season three revives the bitter feelings that Belinda experienced when Tanya pitched her on a spa venture and reneged after finding love. This time, Belinda’s a guest of sorts at the White Lotus as she arrives in Thailand for a skills-building exchange.
The season begins with a mysterious dead body, as all seasons of The White Lotus do, but Rothwell keeps coy when asked about her character’s fate.
“It wasn’t my intention to be possessed by Tanya McQuoid, but I do think that we get to see Belinda outside of her work uniform,” says Rothwell. “She’s able to be a guest. I think when people travel, they often try on versions of themselves that they may not otherwise. And I think Belinda is trying to figure out what her vacation persona is.”
The series sees Belinda kick back and enjoy some signature cocktails at the resort, and sparks fly with her hunky Thai colleague (Dom Hetrakul) during their hands-on professional development sessions. Season three doesn’t necessarily task Rothwell with filling Coolidge’s shoes, but the character’s energy ensures some continuity between seasons. “I’m so grateful for Mike for bringing Belinda back because I do think it is a love letter to Tanya in a way,” adds Rothwell. “Her spirit lives on, if not in a direct impression.”
White adds that recognizing Belinda and Tanya as kindred spirits inspired him to bring the character back when brainstorming the new season. “We were sad that Jennifer died in the last episode [of season two], and there was a hope: ‘How do we keep her alive in some way?’” he asks. “I had this idea that maybe by bringing Belinda back, we could do that. I think people were kind of bummed by Belinda’s final moments in the first season where everybody’s off to [their homes] and she’s still working at the hotel and her dreams were dashed.”
New faces in the ensemble continue the White Lotus’s WASPy guest list. Among the vacationers is the Ratliff family, led by Timothy (Jason Isaacs), a wealthy businessman in crisis mode. The family’s in Thailand so that daughter Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) can research a neighbouring Buddhist monastery for her thesis while brothers Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) and Lochlan (Sam Nivola) indulge in the resort’s sensual offerings, including local resident Chloe (Quebec’s Charlotte Le Bon). Holding them together is mother Victoria, a pill-popping delight who perhaps comes closest to bringing the Jennifer Coolidge energy this season.
“I’m maintaining in a chaotic world,” Posey says of her character’s self-medicating Zen. The pills come in handy as the family faces an avalanche of First World problems throughout the holiday.
“What is interesting about the family is that we’re not necessarily that close with one another, at least the three siblings going into this vacation,” says Nivola. “And then it’s really like a sort of petri dish.”
Season three continues The White Lotus habit for seeing guests unravel over seemingly trivial things while the staff deal with harder consequences behind the scenes.
“There’s something that’s so beautiful about being able to play such a tight knit family,” adds Posey. “I think I laugh at [Schwarzenegger’s character] because he reminds me of my grandfather as a young man. I see that kind of love. I think Victoria, in this time of chaos where things can just be taken away from her, Lochlan is like her shadow self that she doesn’t want to deal with. Piper is her father’s daughter. She’s going to be fine. She’s fierce, right? How a mother at my age sees them going and not wanting them to leave and just having that love.”
Besides the Ratliff family, guests at the hotel include a trio of blonde besties: Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan), Kate (Leslie Bibb), and Laurie (Carrie Coon). Jaclyn, an actress, hopes to treat them to a girls’ getaway, but the retreat takes a dark turn when Kate comes out as a Trump supporter.
Bibb says the part was written in 2022—obviously long before Trump’s second term was foreseen—but Kate’s secret reflects the series’ play on public and private lives. “I think she’s so scared to say any of her beliefs, whether it be political or whether or not she likes the colour pink,” says Bibb. “Her need to have the approval of these two women and, I think, deeper than that, the respect of these two women is so important to her. She is this great connector. They feel that this trip is important and they’re not sure if, truly, they’ll survive it. If the friendship will survive it. Or, in true White Lotus fashion, we will survive it.”
“One of the fascinating things, and I think the gals will agree with me—the ladies, as we’re referred to—is there was this ever-shifting power dynamic where one’s the peacekeeper, one’s the victim, one’s the perpetrator,” adds Monaghan. “That’s something I think that feels familiar when we’re talking about the political and social commentary and everyone’s belief system and where we’re going to lean into. That was the juicy part for me, especially having this backstory of being this actress, and finding ways in which I might like lean into that privilege, that benefit.”
Coon echoes her co-stars’ sentiment and looks at how Laurie becomes a sort of pet project for her friends during the vacation, including some unsubtle nudges towards the hot Russian spa therapist (Arnas Fedaravicius) tasked with tapping into guests’ chakras. But as the season progresses, it becomes clear that each of the three women projects insecurities onto group. “My female friendship journey has started much later in life, and so I think a lot of it has devolved into artifice. I think any time you’re not keeping up with your relationships that you run the risk of that,” says Coon.
Late night wine sessions prove the perils of travelling in sets of three as allegiances between the ladies shift episode by episode. “If these women had walked into the villa and said, ‘Listen, this is what’s going on with me right now ‘and started off in this honest and authentic way, then it would have been a very different vacation,” says Coon. “But that’s not what happened. Everyone’s pretending. I’m afraid everyone can relate to pretending to be living an extraordinary life, whereas everyone’s actually feeling left out.”
“It’s so hard not to compare our lives to one another,” echoes Bibb. “It’s like what happens with Instagram right now. We’re all swiping and everybody’s life always looks so much dreamier on a phone than in real life.”
The frustrating chasm between expectations and reality invites the usual chaos to ensue at the White Lotus. “It’s not my own hot take, but we are kind of monkeys,” observes White. This season makes striking use of the monkeys that populate the resort with frequent cutaways to the animals echoing the monkey business happening among the guests. “In the first season, there’s some monkey stuff and the hooting in Cristo [Tapia de Veer]’s score. Monkeys are a kind of motif [for the series].”
White adds that he was inspired to explore darker sides of human nature further in this season after its Emmy winning predecessors set high standards. “In this one, it definitely is made more explicit: people wanting to be their ideal self and the base animal creatures that they can be. There’s this antic force that keeps pulling them back into monkey land.”
Monaghan says that leaning into these animal impulses gives The White Lotus one of its secret weapons with the non-verbal language shared by the characters. Come-hither glances, side-eyes, and shady looks abound, keeping audiences in suspense about who might be the series’ next victim. “The non-verbal language, the body language—it’s very unusual for a director to be able to take that time and lean into that, and really want reactions and for you to sit with something and ponder it, and how that informs your character, your character’s response,” says Monaghan.
And while this edition of The White Lotus goes darker and offers a slower burn for the series, audiences can expect season three to bring the heat. The hookups are so steamy and surprising that most of them come under strict spoiler wraps. And everyone, of course, ups the ante in White’s signature chaotic fashion.
“There’s few people that I would trust more with my footage of my buttocks than Mike White,” teases Nivola.
