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      ‘The White Lotus’ Season 3, Episode 6 Recap: The Morning After

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      Drinks were drunk, decisions were made. This week’s episode was all about the consequences.Season 3, Episode 6: ‘Denials’This “White Lotus” season moved at a lulling pace early on, putting the viewers in the same head space as the vacationers, feeling equal parts enchanted and dazed by an exotic, sun-splashed locale. The show’s creator, Mike White, then cranked up the energy considerably over Episodes 4 and 5, in which several characters made sudden, fateful choices — perhaps without fully understanding what they were doing.This week? It’s hangover time.In terms of narrative progress, this episode inches along. It ends just before three significant events begin. Saxon and his parents (and maybe Belinda?) are about to attend a dinner party hosted by the dangerous Gary. Rick and Frank are walking into their meeting with Sritala’s husband in Bangkok, which could very well turn violent if Rick follows through on his need for revenge. And Piper and Lochlan are spending a night at the Buddhist temple, at Victoria’s request.But while there is more anticipation-building than action this week, White does develop the season’s major themes in ways that help them strike a little deeper. Over and over, as they face crises mostly of their own making, many of these characters find themselves asking: Is there a better way to live?The Ratliffs are the most in need of a new path. When last we saw Tim, he had Gaitok’s pistol by his side and had just finished writing a suicide note. By the end of this day, he still has not pulled the trigger. But he does imagine shooting himself, and he perhaps stops himself from doing it for real only because he also imagines Victoria and Piper finding his body. Later, he imagines shooting Victoria and then killing himself, thus sparing his wife from having to live on in shame and poverty.At the moment though, Tim is leaving his options open. He stashes the gun in a chest of drawers and spends the day on an assignment handed to him by Victoria. She wants him to check out Luang Por Teera (Suthichai Yoon), the senior monk whom Piper is planning to spend a year following. (“He better be the best Buddhist in China,” Victoria harrumphs.)Victoria expects that Tim — her confident, successful, morally upright husband — will give this phony guru a good dressing-down. But instead, Tim is captivated by Teera’s thoughts on the inescapable pain of everyday existence, which he blames on an insatiable hunger for self-gratification born of a spiritual emptiness and a loss of connection with nature. Teera also describes death as the end of suffering (“a happy return, like coming home”). Which may not be the best thing to say to a suicidal man.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light’ Review: No Century for Old Men

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      In the long-awaited sequel to “Wolf Hall,” Henry VIII’s royal fixer pays the price for success. (It’s his head.)“Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light” picks up where “Wolf Hall” left off, amid the gruesome beheading of Anne Boleyn in 1536, which we get to see this time in even more gruesome detail.In real life, however, there has been an unusually long gap between series and sequel. It has been 10 years since the release of “Wolf Hall,” based on the first two novels in Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell series. This means that in “The Mirror and the Light,” based on the final novel, the actor Mark Rylance is a decade older than the 50-something character he is playing.And it works, because the Cromwell in the new six-episode series (beginning Sunday on PBS’s “Masterpiece”) is haunted and beaten down by his work as Henry VIII’s political and matrimonial fixer, a job that included fabricating the evidence that led to Boleyn’s murder. In that first scene both we and Cromwell are reliving the beheading (necessary, from Henry’s point of view, because Anne, his second wife, had not borne a son).“The Mirror and the Light” is very much of a piece with the earlier “Wolf Hall,” written and directed by the same men — Peter Straughan and Peter Kosminsky — and with many actors returning to their roles, including Rylance and, as Henry, Damian Lewis. Among relatively recent historical costume dramas, the shows set a standard for polish and seriousness.But as the story of the commoner Cromwell’s decline and abrupt fall, “The Mirror and the Light” has an entirely different feel than the up-by-the-boot-straps, grimly celebratory “Wolf Hall.” The mood is nervous and ominous, as Cromwell begins to make errors and give in to his emotions. And it habitually casts its eye back in time, as Cromwell reassesses the often dirty work he has done. Picking up on a device from the novel, “The Mirror and the Light” continually drops in snippets of Cromwell’s guilty memories in the form of bits of film we have already seen across the two series.His guilt even has a supporting role in the form of the dead Cardinal Wolsey, the beloved master and mentor whose downfall Cromwell was unable to prevent. Cromwell now has late-night conversations with Wolsey’s slightly diaphanous ghost, scenes that are a little cringey but that do us the favor of keeping Jonathan Pryce and his archly disapproving eyebrows in the show.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      A Meghan Markle-Approved Doll That Gives Toddlers a Taste for Finer Things

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      Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, is a fan.“With Love, Meghan,” the Netflix series starring and produced by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, immerses viewers in her world of at-home luxury. But for the most part, it diligently avoids mentions of specific brands.Certain episodes offer glimpses of brand-name items in Meghan’s universe. In one, while describing the outfit she is wearing, Meghan names three labels (Loro Piana, Zara, Jenni Kayne) to telegraph a preference for mixing high and low. In a later episode, she identifies another product — a doll belonging to Lilibet, her 3-year-old daughter — that, by Meghan’s description, comes across as squarely luxurious.It has “a little baguette and a little cheese,” Meghan says, “and the name of the doll is Stella Al Fresco.” (Its full name, in fact, is Wee Baby Stella peach Al Fresco.)These plush dolls, which are marketed for toddlers, are from a line called Love, Stella. They have a Cabbage Patch quality thanks to features like round faces and chubby arms. Stella dolls are very popular among customers of the Acorn Store, a toy store in Santa Monica, Calif., which is about 80 miles down the coast from where Meghan and Prince Harry live in Montecito.As are other toys involving breads and cheeses.“Baguette toys have been trending like crazy,” said Heather Hamilton, 53, who owns the store. “It’s rampant across Southern California: the baguette, the charcuterie, the cheese boards. Kids really like imitating life, and if this is what they’re seeing on their parents’ patio, then they just pretend play.”Stella dolls, which start at around $20, take various forms: Some look like toddlers, others look like newborns and all come with pacifiers that magnetically attach to their mouths. The line also includes a variety of clothing and accessory sets, like an extravagant picnic collection that costs $35 and comes with a checkered blanket and snacks including a plush sandwich and watermelon wedge.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘Severance’ Finale: Which Theories Were Correct?

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      Some fans correctly predicted some of the episode’s biggest revelations. But other mysteries remain, and many more were introduced.This article is almost entirely made up of spoilers.The “Severance” rabbit hole online is deep, with fans sharing theories about the meaning of the notes used for elevator dings, the true nature of the Lumon Industries office (is it actually a hospital?) and other arcana. Would any of them pay off in the Season 2 finale?Yes, as it turned out. In fact, one of the most popular predictions prevailed in the explosive episode: The numbers Mark S. had been diligently sorting on his terminal were indeed the building blocks of his wife Gemma’s mind. With every file he completed, a new consciousness — or “innie” — of hers was created to be tortured on the testing floor.The effort culminated in Cold Harbor, his 25th and final file, which Mark S. completed as part of a greater scheme and collaboration between his innie and outie to free her.This work, which relied on Mark S.’s gut instinct, was — as Harmony Cobel confirmed — tied to “the four tempers,” a philosophy developed by the Lumon founder Kier Eagan: woe, frolic, dread and malice. Hats off to the “Severance” enthusiasts who saw that coming!And while the big Cold Harbor revelations will satiate devotees for a moment, many other questions remain, and many more were introduced.Yes, we learned that the goats serve some sort of ceremonial and sacrificial purpose. “This beast will be entombed with a cherished woman whose spirit it must guide to Kier’s door,” the Lumon fixer Mr. Drummond tells Lorne, of the Mammalians Nurturable department, as he hands her a bolt gun to kill the animal.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘Severance’ Finale: Which Fan Theories Were Correct?

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      Some fans correctly predicted some of the episode’s biggest revelations. But other mysteries remain, and many more were introduced.This article is almost entirely made up of spoilers.The “Severance” rabbit hole online is deep, with fans sharing theories about the meaning of the notes used for elevator dings, the true nature of the Lumon Industries office (is it actually a hospital?) and other arcana. Would any of them pay off in the Season 2 finale?Yes, as it turned out. In fact, one of the most popular predictions prevailed in the explosive episode: The numbers Mark S. had been diligently sorting on his terminal were indeed the building blocks of his wife Gemma’s mind. With every file he completed, a new consciousness — or “innie” — of hers was created to be tortured on the testing floor.The effort culminated in Cold Harbor, his 25th and final file, which Mark S. completed as part of a greater scheme and collaboration between his innie and outie to free her.This work, which relied on Mark S.’s gut instinct, was — as Harmony Cobel confirmed — tied to “the four tempers,” a philosophy developed by the Lumon founder Kier Eagan: woe, frolic, dread and malice. Hats off to the “Severance” enthusiasts who saw that coming!And while the big Cold Harbor revelations will satiate devotees for a moment, many other questions remain, and many more were introduced.Yes, we learned that the goats serve some sort of ceremonial and sacrificial purpose. “This beast will be entombed with a cherished woman whose spirit it must guide to Kier’s door,” the Lumon fixer Mr. Drummond tells Lorne, of the Mammalians Nurturable department, as he hands her a bolt gun to kill the animal.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      What Was That Strange Asian Child Doing in the ‘Severance’ Office?

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      This season introduced Miss Huang — and used her as a visual shorthand for a longstanding American anxiety.Pity the American office worker: overworked, undervalued and kept in the dark about the true intentions of his employer, which are somehow weirder and more odious than he could possibly know. The beauty of the corporate-culture satire “Severance” lies in just how universal, how quotidian, its protagonist’s gripes are. On some cosmic level, Mark Scout wants to investigate the aims of his mysteriously tight-lipped company. Day to day, though, he must slog away at unsatisfying and impenetrable tasks, browbeaten by a series of cold, uncaring bosses. Who hasn’t been there?This season made a curious new addition to that line of Big Bad Bosses — a puzzle-box of a character, more loaded with menace than any of the middle managers who came before. Introduced, without fanfare, in the season’s premiere, “Miss Huang” is a steely Asian girl who, despite not looking old enough to enter PG-13 movies on her own, is apparently responsible for managing Mark and his adult colleagues. “Why are you a child?” someone asks, to which she only replies: “Because of when I was born.” Miss Huang is given no further explanation. She orders employees around, unsmiling, in her prim adolescent voice and middle-schooler knee socks, then plays with a hand-held water-ring-toss toy at her desk, all the more chilling for her lack of justification.But we are meant to make some assumptions. Miss Huang is orderly, diligent, quick-witted. She shows not a pinch of personality, so her talents must lie in sheer intelligence or efficacy. We can infer by her position that she has excelled beyond her years in some way — that she is precocious, perhaps even a prodigy. Standing quietly in the corner, eyeing the staff, she occasionally looks forlorn, a kind of executive waif, yet the overall effect is of sinister vigilance. You suspect coiled ambition, backstabbery in waiting. “When I played her, I didn’t feel very scary,” the actress Sarah Bock said in an interview. “But at the end of the day, crew members would come up to me like: ‘You freaked me out. You’re terrifying.’”The threat Miss Huang poses is more spectral.Watching this strange corporate poppet float around all season long, injecting scenes with an aura of ominous efficiency and little else, I kept having the thought that I knew her, somehow.And we have seen Miss Huang before — shades of her, at least. We have seen her in model students like Sanjay Patel on “Modern Family,” Cho Chang in “Harry Potter” (a Ravenclaw, naturally) and all the nameless TV Asian kids who effortlessly win spelling bees or chess tournaments. We have seen the top-of-their-class Asian doctors of “Grey’s Anatomy,” “House” and “E.R.” We have seen punchlines of ultracapability like “Asian Annie” on “Community” — the only person able to usurp the already-overachieving white Annie — or the high-ponytailed Joy Lin on “Girls,” who gets picked for a job over Lena Dunham’s Hannah because, while less personable, she knows how to use Adobe Photoshop. There is the corrupt accountant Lau in “The Dark Knight,” to whom Gotham’s mob bosses outsource their money laundering because he is “good with calculation,” and the geneticist Dr. Henry Wu, whose brilliance unleashes the hell of “Jurassic Park.” These are all wildly different characters in wildly different entertainments, but their Asianness is deployed to the same effect: as a shorthand for intellectual ability and über-proficiency.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The ‘Severance’ Actress Who Plays Natalie On Those ‘Terrifying’ Scenes

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      “That’s the great thing about being an adult,” says Sydney Cole Alexander, who plays Natalie, the liaison with a wide smile and a cold gaze on the hit workplace thriller.As Natalie, a devoted spokeswoman for the shadowy Lumon Industries on “Severance,” Sydney Cole Alexander has an exacting morning routine. It starts with that tightly coiled updo.Ben Stiller, one of the Apple TV+ drama’s executive producers, “has a reputation for being very particular about hair,” Alexander said. After she was cast in the series, which follows workers who sign up for a procedure that bifurcates their personal and professional lives, she sat for a camera test. Stiller had asked her to repurpose the freeze-dried smile she flashed in a Crest commercial she’d booked the same day as “Severance,” and she encouraged him to let Natalie, the headset-wearing “conduit to the gods,” as she puts it, go blonder.“Every curl on my head was curled,” Alexander recalled. “And I just thought it was so Lumon, because that would take forever. I think it helped me to think about: What is this woman’s morning like? How committed is she to perfection and this company, and representing them perfectly?”In Season 2, which had its finale on Friday, the facade slips momentarily in a charged, nearly wordless exchange when Natalie presents Seth Milchick, a Black department chief and fellow Lumon true believer, with “inclusive” paintings from a tone-deaf board. “I did feel a little bit of sympathy with Milchick, which I think is terrifying for her,” said Alexander, who is biracial. “Because this is her prize, that she’s not sympathetic; it’s why she’s so good at her job.”In a video interview this month from her Brooklyn apartment, Alexander opened up about another dream role, the Jim Carrey movie that gets her choked up, her incurable sweet tooth and more. These are edited excerpts from our conversation.Vintage ShoppingAs a teenager in New York City, a social activity was going to Beacon’s Closet or No Relation. I started furnishing my apartment with vintage things. There’s something so fun about the story of an item and that something can last, not even decades, but centuries.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Takeaways From the ‘Severance’ Season 2 Finale

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      Our critics and editors assess the new conflicts introduced by the Season 2 finale and whether it cleared up enough of the show’s many mysteries.The second season of “Severance” just wrapped up with its longest episode yet. We have thoughts. Spoilers abound.Whose Side Are We On?There are endings that give you what you want. There are endings that don’t give you what you want. There are endings that give you what you don’t want.Then there are endings that make you wonder what exactly you should want, which was what the “Severance” Season 2 finale did.The first season of “Severance” gave us some clear rooting interests. We wanted Mark Scout to find his not-dead-yet wife, Gemma. And we wanted Mark S. and the rest of his innie colleagues to find freedom, self-determination and love. But the finale hit a realization that the season had been building to: These two wants might not be compatible, at least not easily.The two Marks having the world’s weirdest Zoom conversation at the birthing cabin laid the conflict out. The series has shown them to date as twin protagonists wronged by the mighty Lumon corporation. But there’s a power dynamic between the two of them as well, as innie Mark says with growing frustration.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More