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    ‘The White Lotus’: 7 Questions for the Season 3 Finale

    As this season heads into its supersized conclusion on Sunday night, here are a few questions that need answers.Season 3 of “The White Lotus” has been the show’s longest, with the creator Mike White spending eight episodes instead of six or seven to tell the stories of superrich tourists and their messed-up personal problems. The extra time has allowed White to slow the pace a bit, to match the more meditative vibes of the high-end Thailand resort where this season takes place.But has there been violence? Oh yes. Kinky sex? The kinkiest. Unsolved mysteries? Of course. Everything fans have come to expect from “The White Lotus” has been abundant this season. Episode 1 began with gunshots, and in the weeks since we have seen armed robbery, white-collar crime, multiple violent threats and arguments and — yikes — fraternal incest.As this season heads into its supersized finale on Sunday night — at around 90 minutes, it will be the show’s longest episode to date — here are a few of the questions we hope will get some answers.Will Gaitok get a promotion?This may not seem like the most urgent issue facing the “White Lotus” characters this year, but I think that by the time the season ends, it will turn out to be very important. Granted, one of the biggest complaints about this season — especially as compared with Seasons 1 and 2 — is that White has not integrated the resort’s staff into the action as well as he usually does. But from week to week, the front gate security guard Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) has been moving closer to the heart of the plot. In Episode 7, he realized that a major heist at the resort earlier this season was likely perpetrated by a fellow employee, Valentin (Arnas Fedaravicius), and his two Russian friends.Gaitok has been in trouble with his bosses since the robbery. He has wrestled with self-doubt, wondering if he is too soft to follow his dream and become one of the well-paid bodyguards to the resort’s married owners, Jim (Scott Glenn) and Sritala Hollinger (Patravadi Mejudhon). Busting the Russians could be just what Gaitok’s career needs — and could also win the heart of his love interest, Mook (Lalisa Manobal), a co-worker with ambitions of her own.Is landing a plum job with a sizable salary the key to happiness? This is one of the big questions “The White Lotus” asks every season, and it is also why Gaitok’s story line matters.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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    After “The White Lotus,” Lorazepam Lives On in Memes and Merch

    “The White Lotus” Season 3 may be ending, but the medication that has become synonymous with it has found a new life in memes and merchandise.Etsy has been flooded with hats and candles asking the question: “Has Anyone Seen My Lorazepam?” Social media is rife with videos of people enunciating “lorazepam” in a faux Southern drawl. Lorazepam even made a cameo on a recent episode of “Saturday Night Live,” when the actress Chloe Fineman raucously shouted the word during a sketch.As anyone even loosely familiar with Season 3 of “The White Lotus” may know, this sudden tsunami of references to a prescription medication used to treat anxiety is not a sign of mass desperation. Rather, it’s a manifestation of an unceasing fan obsession with Victoria Ratliff, a character on the HBO TV show, the current season of which ends on Sunday.Played by Parker Posey, Victoria is a wealthy North Carolina woman on vacation at a wellness resort in Thailand, who, despite the idyllic setting, regularly expresses a need for her lorazepam, a drug known for being tough to quit.A massage? It could make her “very stressed out” and “claustrophobic,” Victoria says. The lorazepam helps her “to really relax,” she tells a masseuse.A party on a yacht? “Certain social situations make me anxious,” Victoria drawls at her eldest son, Saxon.Her daughter Piper’s decision to make a major life change? “I don’t even have my lorazepam,” a distraught Victoria declares after her bottle goes missing. “I’m going to have to drink myself to sleep.”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 White Lotus’ Luxury: How Branded Collaborations Are Capitalizing on Privilege

    The hit HBO series satirizes luxury vacationers’ privilege. That hasn’t slowed demand for branded collaborations that sell the show’s lavish lifestyle.Ahead of the much-anticipated Season 3 finale of “The White Lotus,” HBO’s dark comedy-drama that skewers self-absorbed luxury travelers, some fans will be able to immerse themselves in a version of the show’s opulent settings.The Four Seasons Hotel Westlake Village, in the foothills of California’s Santa Monica Mountains, is offering an “exclusive luxury wellness retreat,” set to begin hours ahead of the finale’s airing on Sunday. The experience is intended to “capture the essence” of this season’s Thailand location.“We’re inviting fans to go beyond watching ‘The White Lotus’ and truly experience it,” Pia Barlow, HBO and Max’s executive vice president of originals marketing, said in a news release about the campaign.The retreat is only one of many “White Lotus” experiences and products pegged to the current season. The premium luggage company Away sold out its “White Lotus” capsule collection, complete with lotus flower-printed interior lining. Clothing retailers including H&M, Abercrombie & Fitch, Bloomingdale’s and Banana Republic have all offered show-inspired resort apparel. (Patrick Schwarzenegger, a star of the season, modeled for Banana Republic.) There is “White Lotus” wallpaper, sunscreen and a travel skin-care set in a branded beach tote. Sunglasses, candles, chocolates and even a Thai coffee-flavored creamer can be purchased by viewers looking to live like the show’s wealthy protagonists.But truly experiencing “The White Lotus” is an inherently dicey proposition. The primary motif of the series — created, written and directed by Mike White — has always been to satirize the wealthy who, even while enveloped by the world’s most tranquil and extraordinary surroundings, can’t help but indulge their egos or keep up with their ever-growing list of grievances. They can’t relax either.“I just was like, I should just do a show about people on vacation who have money, and how money is impacting all of their relationships,” White told The New York Times in 2021, ahead of the Season 1 premiere.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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    ‘White Lotus’ Takes On Touchy Subjects. The Southern Accent Is One of Them.

    <!–> [–><!–> –><!–> [–> <!–> –><!–> [–><!–> –><!–> [–><!–> –><!–> [–> <!–> –><!–> [–> <!–> –><!–> [–><!–> –><!–> [–><!–> –><!–> [–><!–> –><!–> Lorazepam, an anti-anxiety drug, seems to be having a moment, thanks to Ms. Ratliff’s frequent mentions, where her accent dances along the open vowels. [–> <!–>Lorazepam–> <!–> [!–> <!–>Lorazepam–> <!–> [!–> <!–>Lorazepam–> <!–> […] More

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    ‘Dying for Sex,’ Plus 7 Things to Watch on TV this Week

    The Hulu show starring Michelle Williams premieres, and the third season of “White Lotus” wraps up.Between streaming and cable, there is a seemingly endless variety of things to watch. Here is a selection of TV shows and specials that air or stream this week, March 31-April 6. Details and times are subject to change.Certain circumstances of being a woman.In 2020 Nikki Boyer hosted a podcast in which she chatted with her best friend Molly Kochan, who, after being diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer, decided to leave her husband to explore her sexual desires for the first time in her life. A new series, inspired by the podcast, “Dying for Sex” stars Michelle Williams as Molly and Jenny Slate as Nikki. Rob Delaney, Kelvin Yu, David Rasche also make appearances. Streaming on Hulu on Friday.Though menopause will effect every woman who lives into her 40s and up, there is only starting to be a public conversation about its symptoms or possible treatments. And who better to tackle the issue than Oprah Winfrey? She has recently hosted shows discussing weight loss drugs and A.I., and now comes “An Oprah Winfrey Special: The Menopause Revolution,” which will feature a panel with Naomi Watts, Halle Berry, Dr. Mary Claire Haver and others as they discuss their personal experiences and share research. Monday at 10 p.m. on ABC.A bounty hunter, a doctor and a dysfunctional family walk into a bar …The new series, “The Bondsman” answers the question I can only assume has been top of mind for most of us: What if Kevin Bacon were a bounty hunter resurrected from the dead by the devil to help bring escaped demons back to hell? Bacon stars as Hub Halloran, the aforementioned resurrected bounty hunter, who also spends time, when he’s not busy chasing demons, reflecting on what landed him in hell in the first place, getting a second chance at love and jump-starting his country music career. Jennifer Nettles, Damon Herriman and Beth Grant also star. Streaming on Thursday on Prime Video.Willa Fitzgerald and Colin Woodell in “Pulse.”Jeff Neumann/NetflixThough we have seen countless encounters on TV of hot doctors canoodling in the on-call rooms, it somehow never gets old. On “Pulse,” a new medical drama, the stakes get upped when a Category 1 hurricane rips through a busy Miami medical center. The third-year resident Dr. Danny Simms (Willa Fitzgerald) and the chief resident Dr. Xander Phillips (Colin Woodell) are locked down in the hospital and forced to work together as details of their affair starts to spread. No medical show romance can probably ever top Meredith Grey and McDreamy, but one can only hope. Streaming Thursday on Netflix.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 White Lotus’ Season 3, Episode 7: Lovers and Fighters

    “The White Lotus” tells us only enough about the characters’ pasts to explain some of the choices they make. Sometimes this works; sometimes it doesn’t.Season 3, Episode 7: ‘Killer Instincts’One unusual quality of “The White Lotus” is that the show’s creator, Mike White, keeps his characters’ back stories to a minimum. He mainly traffics in types: the swaggering North Carolina money-manager, the vain celebrity, and so on.White tells us only enough about their pasts to explain some of the choices they make. We know a lot about Rick’s past, because his tragic childhood led directly to every move he has made this season. But we know very little about the Ratliff kids beyond the personas they project: the cocky older brother, the rebellious lefty sister and whatever the heck Lochlan is supposed to be. As for what made them this way? We can use our imaginations to shade in the finer details.Most of the time, this approach works well enough. There is a wonderfully wry comic moment in this week’s episode, when Piper gets embarrassed while watching Lochlan struggle awkwardly with his monastery dinner. We know just enough about her to guess what she is thinking. She suddenly seems a lot like her mother, concerned less with her brother’s feelings than with how his clumsiness reflects on her. (See also: Piper’s mildly dismayed expression when Lochlan says he wants to spend the year in Thailand with her.)On the other hand, Saxon’s overall blankness becomes a problem in this episode, leading to one of the season’s clumsiest scenes. The moment occurs at Gary’s party, when Saxon watches his father swill down yet another large glass of whiskey. He asks Tim again if something is wrong back at the office, reminding him that, “My career is totally tied to yours.” Saxon has no interests, no hobbies. “I put my whole life into this basket,” he says. “Into your basket.”Given what we have seen of Saxon this season, I am not sure he is the kind of guy who would give such a self-aware speech, saying things like, “If I’m not a success, I’m nothing, and I can’t handle being nothing.” (I can, however, believe that Tim would answer his son’s very real concerns with a mumbled, “Nothing’s up, kid. We’re all good. It’s a party, get out there.”)It’s a tricky balancing act for White, trying to show more than he tells and letting the audience make assumptions. I thought about this also this week during the Bangkok scenes with Rick and Frank. I figured these two were seasoned old pros, skilled at running cons, and that they would know what they were doing when they met up with Sritala and her ailing husband, Jim (Scott Glenn), at the Hollingers’ house. Instead, Rick and Frank are surprisingly — and ridiculously — unprepared. They try to get by on improvisation; Frank in particular is really bad at it.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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    Duke Says ‘White Lotus’ Went ‘Too Far’ With School References

    In a show that features an array of disturbing story lines, the actions — and wardrobe — of a character have gone “too far” for the university.The third season of HBO’s “The White Lotus” has featured — spoilers ahead — adultery, a stolen firearm, an incestuous threesome, a dead body in the water, fake friendships and white-collar crime.So it might not be entirely surprising that real-life officials from Duke University are troubled that the school has played a supporting role throughout the season.One of the show’s leading characters, Timothy Ratliff, a wealthy businessman and Duke alumnus played by Jason Isaacs, is on vacation in Thailand with his family. But things go south in a hurry when he learns that he is being investigated for his part in a shady financial deal.Mr. Ratliff copes by stealing lorazepam, an anti-anxiety medication, from his wife’s cache of prescription drugs. The pills leave him in a zombielike state. Later, after filching a handgun from one of the resort’s security guards, Mr. Ratliff appears to contemplate suicide — while wearing a Duke T-shirt.But there is more: Mr. Ratliff’s eldest son, Saxon, who works for his father’s company and is played by Patrick Schwarzenegger, is a poster child for toxic masculinity — and has a disturbing sexual encounter with his younger brother and a woman they met at the resort. Saxon went to Duke, too.Frank Tramble, the vice president for communications, marketing and public affairs at Duke, said in an email that the university did not approve of the use of its “marks” in the program.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 White Lotus’ Season 3, Episode 6 Recap: The Morning After

    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