'The White Lotus' season 3, episode 1 recap: same spirit, new rich ...

This story contains spoilers from past seasons of The White Lotus.

SAWATDEE KHA valued guests and frequent flyer point redeemers to the White Lotus Thailand! It’s been a while. The last time series writer-slash-director Mike White brought us to exotic climes was late 2022, in Sicily, Italy, where we sipped Aperols in peace until a body washed ashore. And now we find ourselves in a different world again (you’ll recall in season one, we stopped off at the Maui resort in Hawaii during COVID-19 lockdowns in 2021). If not for escapism, the whodunit will have to make its greatest leap yet with its third iteration, the first episode of which was released this week.

Since debuting four years ago, the anthology series has earned 6 Primetime Emmy Awards; its main star Jennifer Cooldige (who played Tanya in the first two seasons, RIP) has become a pop-culture icon finally receiving her dues. There are the mainstays: the sinister yellow lens tint, themes about wealth, leisure travel and class anxiety, and, of course, the death (perhaps multiple this season as well, which we will unpack). So, what’s changed? Let’s start with the new opening credits music.

White Lotus new opening credits music, explained

Composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer’s opening credits for the show’s first two seasons were instant club classics, even a hit on TikTok with pet-owners, who would record themselves harmonising with their cat or dog to the tune. 

When crafting each season’s theme, de Veer links it back to the season’s setting. Season one’s theme, titled ‘Aloha!’, had layered yodels and chants with gasping flutes – it sounded like a really bad tropical acid trip for the Hawaiian setting. Season two’s theme, titled ‘Renaissance’, for the Sicily resort turned those acidic yodels into an Italian opera with harps and guitars. But it was the synth club beat that elevated the music, and the show, into a new rung of popularity. You can picture Nicole Kidman’s CEO Romy in Babygirl letting loose to this one in the club; no coincidence, de Veer also composed that film’s track.

But for season three, there’s none of that up-and-down ululation we brim to sing “O-LO-LO-LO” to. The new theme song, titled ‘Enlightenment’, reflects the season’s theme of spirituality and wellness. To acclimatise it, the theme is trance-like; the ululation is instrumentalist, with the same synth build-up as season two but restrained just before the drop.

White Lotus opening credits illustration, explained

We also can’t talk about the music without the accompanying fresco illustrations – the White Lotus Thailand’s are the most eerie to date. The menacing monkeys are an ominous motif, drawn smoking pipes and attacking people. Our new characters, Americans, with the exception of Chelsea (Sex Education‘sAimee Lou Wood), find the monkeys cute but are swiftly warned they can be fierce. Dangers of the natural world was a trope from the first season, albeit in urban Maui, dialled down in season two’s Sicilian villa. But the experience of the Ko Samui location is built around nature, staying in villas where the fruit growing on the property can be toxic. Guests beware.

Meet the White Lotus season 3 staff

Unlike the White Lotus resorts we’ve visited so far, the one in Thailand caters to the wellness minded wealthy traveller who would part with thousands of dollars to detox digitally, spiritually, whatever they require. Fabian (Christian Friedel) is the Thailand White Lotus manager, though he’s a little timid compared to the poker-face Armand (Murray Bartlett in season 1) and quippy crowd-favourite Valentina (Sabrina Impacciatore in season 2). Sritala (legendary Thai actor Lek Patravadi), one of the resort owners and pioneer of the wellness program, holds the real power. Season three features its first security guard (you’d think after two incidents they’d get this one right), Gaitok (Tayme Thapthomthong), who’s smitten with health mentor Mook (played by K-Pop star Lisa; she’s credited in the show as Lalisa Manobal).

Belinda gets the “Burnt-out Bitch” recovery treatment in Thailand

Rejoice, it’s Belinda’s (Natasha Rothwell) redemption arc! We were more than happy to welcome back the season one character after being ditched by her client Tanya (Jennifer Cooldige) when she gave her a business proposal for her own wellness centre. Arriving in Ko Samui, Belinda is greeted – separated from the guests – by the kind Pornchai (Dom Hetrakul), who finds her fear of lizards charming. In Thailand, Belinda is living it up: staying at the resort in a plush room for the next three months to learn the ins-and-outs of Thai wellness to bring back to Maui.

She’s able to dine for herself amongst the guests, feeling the white tablecloth at last. As usually the only Black woman in the room, Belinda is heartened to see a Black couple dining alongside her. Mike White fans will notice that the couple are his fellow contestants from his appearance on Survivor: David vs. Goliath in 2019, Carl Bouderoux and Natalie Cole. Easter egg!

Belinda reports this back to her hunky son, Zion (Nicholas Duvernay), who will join her later in the week. In the season’s cold open, Zion is the first character we meet as he’s guided through meditation to ease the stress about his final exams, until he hears a gunshot in the distance. The sound pierces his zen as it comes closer and closer; people are heard screaming, resort staff start running. He jumps into the pond for cover, coming face to face with a Buddha statue, praying to Jesus Christ to protect his mother.

It all seems like it’ll work out for Belinda this time. But another returning character may put that in danger, bringing back some bad memories with Tanya.

The Ratliff family may be The White Lotus’ weirdest and scariest family yet

A dysfunctional nuclear family is a White Lotus staple. Meet the Ratliffs, a Southern family with great hair and okay manners. Dad Timothy, a finance guy that’s being badgered with calls from a Wall Street Journal reporter, holds the keys to his kingdom that eldest son, Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger), the resident tool, is vying for.

Mother Victoria (Parker Posey lays on the Southern belle charm thick), the pill-popping matriarch who’s the kind of wealthy woman to dish out on a Gucci bamboo bag for the week-long vacation. That bag will end up in the back of her closet soon enough.

Middle child Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) convinced the whole gang to make the trip to Thailand to help with her religious studies thesis in Buddhism; she’s the outlier. Youngest child Lochlan (Sam Nivola), who’s deciding between his parents’ alma maters, Duke (dad) and Chapel Hill (mum), is perhaps the key to the family unravelling.

Between the tug of war his parents have with Lochie’s college decision, the relationship he has with his siblings are just as tense. After arriving at their villa, guided by their health mentor Pam (Morgana O’Reilly), Lochie originally planned to share a room with his sister until Saxon calls it out as weird for siblings of the opposite sex to sleep together as adults. “Full-grown, you know,” he pauses, “genitals”.

Saxon sees himself as the guiding hand for his little bro. Later that night, after admitting he finds his sister attractive, Saxon passes on his mantra to a man’s happiness to Lochie: “Pussy, money, freedom, respect.” Sounds a lot like Succession‘s Lukas Matsson’s (Alexander Skarsgård), an Elon Musk type billionaire, mantra, “Privacy, pussy, pasta.” But the Swede had better alliteration.

Proceeding to wonder how he’ll be able to masturbate throughout the week with Lochlan in the room, Saxon heads for the toilet – in the season’s first hot-guy-all-nude shot – he notices Lochie’s eyes trailing behind him before closing the doors.

Related: Who is Patrick Schwarzenegger?

Mid-life crises is brewing for the girl-trippers

Female friendships are important, but there’s a stench of contempt and rancour hanging over Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan), a successful actress, Kate (Leslie Gibb), a wealthy housewife, and Laurie (Carrie Coon), a successful businesswoman raising a “really cool” daughter, as Kate observes. If not for the gunshots Zion heard in the cold open, you sense these three will be at each other’s throats by week’s end.

It’s the first time in a while the three meet up, busy with their schedules and living across the country from one another. Meeting as young children in school, Jaclyn describes that growing up, people couldn’t tell them apart. Throughout their first day at the White Lotus, Jaclyn and Kate volley compliments with each other: “You look amazing,” “You look incredible,” “Shut up. Who’s your doctor?” Laurie is just left hanging. After dinner and drinks, Laurie calls it an early night, heading for her room, ugly crying à la Nicole Mossbacher (Connie Britton) from the first season, another successful businesswoman.

Sugar couple Rick and Chelsea

The only person who seems like they’re having a good time in Thailand is Chelsea (the charming Aimee Lou Wood). She’s staying with her sugar daddy boyfriend Rick (Walter Goggins), a miserable sod by comparison who she met while teaching him yoga. Choosing to visit Thailand instead of Bali, Chelsea gushes about everything around her, including her health mentor Mook. But Chelsea isn’t the ditz her character cliche would suggest; she deflects a pass deadpan from Saxon when she’s lounging by the pool.

Rick on the other hand is tense, perhaps why Chelsea nudged for this resort. After greeted by Sritala (the legendary Lek Patravadi) on the beach, Rick’s fixated on meeting her sick husband Khun Kim Hollinger (Scott Glenn), who he has some business with. Judging by his uncouth near-baldness, rumpled Hawaiian shirt (wrong season, Rick), and penchant for “getting pissed”, Rick’s business matters seem nefarious.

While Rick is wallowing away on the first night, Chelsea heads for the bar and strikes up a conversation with a character that was not at all part of the new season’s promotional material . . .

The return of Greg

If there’s a villain in The White Lotus, it’s Greg Hunt. One of the new season’s best kept secrets, Greg, played by Jon Gries, is now the only character to feature in all three seasons of the show. We were first introduced to the character as a guest at the Maui White Lotus when he caught Tanya McQuoid’s (Jennifer Coolidge) eye. The two strike up an affair when Tanya ditches her business plans with Belinda (Natasha Rothwell). By the second season he makes no effort to hide his disdain for Tanya at the Sicilian villa, who is now his wife. He makes an exit for Denver, leaving Tanya alone with her assistant Portia (Haley Lu Richardson), which serves her up for Quentin (Tom Hollander) to murder so he can inherit her fortune.

Now, Greg is keeping a low profile, living off the McQuoid millions, in Thailand. Not staying at the resort, but living on a nearby hill with his new girlfriend Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon), a young model, for the past year. It’s unclear what his motives are for this season just yet, or whether he has a new mark, but an encounter between Greg and Belinda seems to be in the episodes to come. In the meantime, Chloe has found a new friend in Chelsea when they meet over a drink. A welcome distraction from her LBH (“Loser Back Home”, a moniker for white men in Thailand), delivering one of the season’s best quotes yet: “I love your teeth . . . You’re from England, right?”

Related:

Who is Patrick Schwarzenegger?

The actor and character guide to The White Lotus season 3