‘The White Lotus’ Season 3, Episode 3: The Snake Show

Season 3, Episode 3: ‘The Meaning of Dreams’

In last week’s “The White Lotus,” the three gal-pals — who are supposed to be on a bonding trip in Thailand — took turns pairing off and, in insinuating whispers, tearing each other apart. Kate and Jaclyn muttered anxiously about Laurie’s draining divorce, stalled career and delinquent daughter. Kate and Laurie took shots at Jaclyn’s cosmetic procedures and sham marriage.

So who does that leave? Ah yes, Kate. When will she leave the room and get snipped to bits by her oldest and dearest?

It happens this week — and it partly happens to her face. And Kate is not the only one who feels a bit bummed out and betrayed in this episode. On Day 3 at the White Lotus, the guests are getting restless. After two hours spent creating a context for various situations to go awry, the show’s creator, Mike White, seems ready to start making those messes.

Let’s start with the Kate scenes, which, in a way, represent this episode’s biggest moments of shocking violence — if emotional violence counts. The inciting incident for the Kate takedown is an “energy healing” session Laurie has with Valentin. The other ladies have been urging Laurie to have a fling with the Vladivostok-born Valentin. (It’s a fling kind of weekend, they say. Plus, Valentin insists he left Russia before the Ukraine invasion, so he is not politically problematic … probably.)

White goes hard with the sound design and editing during the energy healing session. As Valentin holds his hands just above Laurie’s body, the soundtrack is filled with eruptive moans and sighs, woven through the percussive, chiming musical score. When the ladies reunite, Laurie jokes, “I haven’t been not-touched by a man like that in a long time.”

That’s when Kate makes a surprising confession: She finds all this new age healing stuff “goofy,” “spooky” and “kind of witchy.” When Jaclyn suggests that eastern spiritual practices are superior to Christianity because they are more empowering to women, Kate defends the church she has been attending since moving to Texas. This leads to several probing questions. Is this, like, a “real Texan church, with bible-thumpers?” (Kate, noncommittal: “They’re nice people, really good families.”) Does talking politics ever get awkward? (“Why would it?”) Is Kate a conservative now? (“I’m an independent.”) Did Kate vote for Trump? (Long pause, and then, “Are we really gonna talk about Trump tonight?”)