Diksha Sundriyal
With its fourth episode, the third season of HBO’s ‘The White Lotus’ starts to dial up the tension for all the characters in different forms. It has been three days since the guests settled in the luxury resort, and so far, things have been considerably chill. However, from the opening scene of the season, we know that something terrible is on its way, and by the end of the episode, we know at least part of what may have caused that shootout, though the identity of the victim still remains a mystery. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Tim Ratliff Continues His Descend in the Spiral
While things may be taking their time to get bad for other guests, they are already beyond saving for Tim Ratliff. Over the past couple of episodes, the man discovered that the FBI had been looking into a pyramid scheme that he was a part of with Kenny Nguyen. With all the calls and whatnot flooding him, Tim decided to give up his phone and his entire family’s phone for the week. He needed a break from what was waiting for him once the week ended, and they went back home. This also leads him to get hooked up on his wife’s Lorazepam, and for the most part of the day, he remains a little fazed, which does not go unnoticed, especially when he unintentionally exposes his nether regions in front of his entire family.
The frequency with which her husband has been popping her pills without her knowledge leads Victoria to raise concerns about her dwindling supply. Still, she has enough to get by till the end of the week, or so she thinks. Following breakfast, the entire family goes to Gary’s boat, the invitation for which was extended to Saxon by Chloe. At the boat, Victoria hides her purse, but that doesn’t stop Tim from seeking out and keeping the entire bottle of Lorazepam to himself. As a result, he remains cloudy the entire time, while his wife keeps getting more anxious. By the next episode, when all the pills have run out, we will finally see Parker Posey in all her glory as an unhinged Victoria.
For now, Mama Ratliff seems a little disgusted by the company she finds on the boat. It is mostly bald, white men who have too much in their pockets, which they may or may not have secured through criminal means. All of them have much younger girls by their arms, and this disgusts Victoria even further. She expresses her thoughts later, in front of her husband and daughter, remarking on how lucky she is to have Tim, who is a boy scout and is too good at indulging in anything criminal that may force him to flee the country and settle in Thailand with a young arm piece. If only she knew! Though her comments do pull Tim out of his haze, and he realizes how stupid he has been to believe that everything would just go away if he didn’t pay any attention to it. This leads him to get his phone back, and sure enough, a new storm has stirred up while he was lounging away on a boat.
Tim immediately tries to take stock of the situation, but his lawyer tells him that the best thing to do is to plead guilty, do a few months in prison, and then start his life all over. However, Tim is appalled by the idea of losing everything, including his house and trust, because the Feds can take whatever they want once they start digging, and they have dug deep enough to cause damage. His friend, Kenny, is already set for prison and has decided to cooperate with the authorities, giving them everything to come after Tim. Interestingly, the lawyer mentions that Tim is lucky that it is “just” about the money and nothing more. This means that there are more skeletons in Tim’s closet than previously imagined.
Rick Reveals the Real Reason Behind the Trip to Thailand
Someone is going to die by the end of this season, and so far, the only person to have had a brush or two with death is Chelsea. She talks about this coincidence, and because things happen in three, she wonders if there is another life-threatening situation waiting for her. She thinks that perhaps going on the boat wouldn’t be such a good idea, yet still, when Rick refuses to go, she convinces him to join her. At the boat, there is nothing much for Rick to do, and Chelsea is affected by his spoiled mood. Eventually, she corners him and asks him what exactly is going on with him. Rick reveals that the reason he is going to Bangkok is to meet the owner of the White Lotus resort, who also happens to be the man who killed his father.
His mother told him that his father was a good man who worked with the local communities to help them save their lands from being taken over by rich men. He was working in Thailand and trying to stop the very man who is now the owner of the resort they are in. However, one day, he mysteriously disappeared and was never heard from again. According to his mother, it was the owner of the resort who caused all this tragedy in their lives, and Rick wants him to answer for it. Hearing about Rick’s desire for revenge, Chelsea is a little concerned and tells him not to go to Bangkok. But there is no changing his mind. He decides to leave while she is left alone. So, she joins Chloe and the others (including Saxon and Lochy) on the boat to enjoy the full moon party, which is deeply concerning because we know what happened the last time a main character got on a boat.
Jaclyn, Laurie, and Kate Have a Day Out With Valentin
Three days into their stay, Jaclyn starts to get hungry for something more. Her desire for fun is fuelled by the lack of contact she has with Harrison, her partner who is supposed to be on a film set but has not replied to any of her calls or texts so far. Feeling closed in at the resort, she decides to go out to a more happening place. She asks Valentin to suggest something to them, and he points them towards a place by the beach. At first, it seems like a bustling place, but then Jaclyn realizes that it is full of old people. Why Valentin sent the trio remains a mystery to them, but it’s clear that all his friendliness is clearly a facade, but there is more malice there than one can expect.
Following the discovery that they are surrounded by old retirees, Jaclyn and her friends immediately ditch the venue and return to the resort, where they get a hold of Valentin and force him to take them to a different, better place. He takes them to town but leaves them in the market, telling them to meet him somewhere else later as he will bring his friends. As soon as he leaves, the trio is chased down by a group of children with water guns, and they are drenched. Eventually, however, they manage to evade the gang and arrive at the rendezvous point. As promised, Valentin arrives with his two friends. The women see it as a sign of the party getting started, but one thing remains notable.
Valentin’s friends give off the vibe of the two masked men who robbed the resort merely a day earlier. If it seems a bit of a stretch, one must remember that it was Valentin chatting up Gaitok and keeping the gate open for the robbers to simply drive by Gaitok, completely bypassing the security measures that would have been in place had Valentin not been there, or if he had not positioned himself such that the barrier remained open when it should have been closed. Moreover, robberies like this always require an inside man, making Valentin one of the prime suspects. Since everything happens for a reason in ‘The White Lotus,’ all of this is proof enough that Valentin orchestrated the robbery with his two friends. Or so it seems so far.
Belinda Makes a Shocking Discovery
While the guests go about partying and finding trouble, Belinda spends the day lazily, waiting for her son, Zion, who is on a plane to Thailand, to arrive at the resort. But there’s the one thing that she cannot get out of her mind. She knows that the man she saw at dinner the previous night was Greg, so she decides to look into him. But first, she looks into Tanya McQuoid and is shocked to discover that she died a while back on her trip to Italy. What’s more shocking is that her husband, Greg, is wanted for questioning and has not been seen since his wife’s tragic death. All alarms go off in Belinda’s mind when she reads it. And to confirm that the man she saw was indeed Greg, she Googles him too and is proven right.
It is clear to Belinda that Greg had something to do with Tanya’s murder. The question is: what will she do about it? Not surprisingly, the audience isn’t the only one wondering about that. Since their interaction, Greg, aka Gary, has also become a little cautious about her. She is the only one, so far, who can connect him to Tanya and may cause him the trouble that he thought he had left behind in Italy. He is seen talking to a staff member later, and considering that he doesn’t stay in the White Lotus, one can only assume it’s about Belinda. Later, we find him at his house on the top of the hill, and just as Belinda googled him, he also looks into her, and it does not bode well for her.
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