Monday Musings: 'The White Lotus' Finale. Can't Stop, Won't Stop Thinking About It!
Hello, front desk? I’d like to extend my stay, please.
Hello There! 🌴 🙈
It’s Monday and I’m just coming onto this newsletter from watching the season finale of The White Lotus. There’s quite a lot to unpack here…
Don’t worry - the following contains no spoilers about who died in the finale, only memes that you may or may not understand. I’m going out on a limb here to say I think this third season of The White Lotus is the best season yet. I had low expectations going in since Queen/Goddess Jennifer Coolidge wasn’t going to be checking in. However, the cast of characters in this season and their relationship dynamics are far superior to any of the character groups in the previous seasons.
The murder mystery had me guessing until the very end as creator Mike White wrote every character to be a suspect and/or victim. I loved how each person had a reason to kill someone or be killed by someone, but that reason wasn’t even the crust of the story. It was ever-evolving relationships between these complex characters.
One of my favorite storylines was Belinda and how she came full circle from season 1 — The universe working overtime to give her the money Tanya promised Belinda in the first season, but also Belinda giving off big Tanya energy and disregarding the spa employee who had big dreams of opening his own business.
My favorite non-human storyline was the blender. I will definitely go the extra effort to mad clean my blender after each use after watching that scene.
There were some standout monologues this season, the first being the off-the-wall-what-the-F one delivered by actor Sam Rockwell. I mean, it just kept getting wilder and wilder, but that’s the beauty of The White Lotus — everyone is aboard and riding high on the Hot Mess Express. Choo! Choo!
The season finale ended with a great mini-monologue as well from actress Carrie Coons about friendship. She is just happy to have a seat at the table (insert tears here).
The White Lotus is not for everyone. I always tell people, “It’s a vibe”. For some people, it will be wildly entertaining, and for others, it will be meh, but I love this series because there’s something fresh about it I don’t see elsewhere. The unexpected always happens, and that’s what I’m here for.
Every character is so flawed, almost cartoon-like. That exacerbated facade is slowly picked at and peeled off throughout each season until the character becomes vulnerable enough to be relatable so you can finally see them as human beings.
The meme queen of the season was Parker Posey as Victoria Ratliff. She was a great substitute for Jennifer Coolidge and will go down in television history as an icon of The White Lotus franchise. Love, love, love everything she brought to the table for this character. Someone get her some Lorazepam!
In Honor of Chelsea’s character and her obsession with astrology (which actress and fellow Aquarian Aimee Lou Wood is in real life) here is your White Lotus character based on your astrological sign. (images by Brit&Co).
All three seasons of The White Lotus are now streaming on Max.