"The White Lotus," writer-director Mike White's sinister satire of Western imperialism, luxury tourism, class divisions and the Oberlin College reading list, has emerged as the hottest TV series of the summer. But it's hard to tell exactly whether it's thanks to its dreamy setting, the score's earworm, or Jennifer Coolidge's tragicomic stylings.
Sunday's season — not the series — finale may tie up the loose ends of its multi-stranded narrative, but it's "The White Lotus," so there's still a lot of mess. (In an unforgettable moment, literally.) Did White stick Landing in Paradise on his group portrait of Trouble or did that busy final hour reveal the seams of the series? Los Angeles Times TV critic Lorraine Ali and staff writer Meredith Blake break it all down, from conceptual to scatological.
Meredith Blake, Staff Writer: Aloha, Lorraine! Our stay in "The White Lotus" is over and there's a lot to discuss, but I think we have no choice but to start with the elephant in the room - or, to be more precise, Steaming Turd in Pineapple Suet. For six episodes now, "The White Lotus" has given us a unique game of guessing who's in the coffin. Now we have an answer, as well as an indelible image of an older man defecating in a suitcase before turning over in a king-sized bathtub and dying. This is the death toll going down in HBO history.
Lorraine Ali, TV critic: Mahalo, Meredith, for starting this convo right where I hoped you would. Mystery solved, but not before heaven literally turns into [inprint word here]. To be honest, everyone at the resort was so sad that the death seemed like a sweet release. The series' collection of scandalous characters doing insidiously terrible things was impressive in a sad-porn kind of way.
Blake: Some might dismiss the dead-body-at-the-top-of-the-series as a gimmick, but I found it devastatingly effective at relieving tension and fear. And the whole murder-mystery-in-an-exquisite-setting is a time-honored tradition associated with Agatha Christie. To White's credit, there were a number of characters who seemed (or deserved) an untimely death. For a while I was sure that Tanya's boyfriend - you know, the one from BLM - was a serial killer who was going to murder her and got away with her jewelry. At another point, I believed that Quinn would kill his family in a scuba diving "accident". There was even a minute or two when I thought that Kai would be back to screwing Paula in such a spectacular fashion.
Armand was clearly on a downward spiral from Episode 1, but I wasn't entirely sure he was a goner until he unbuttoned his pants and opened his bowels to Shane's disgusting Seascape sweater. (If it were only his Cornell hat!) And yet, I prayed for a miracle, because I've found Murray Bartlett to be so splendid and sympathetic as Armand, a man whose hard-wound, obedient demeanor hurts his deepest. Can't completely mask- the frustration is sitting there. (Bartlett is as good as the rightly acclaimed Coolidge, IMHO.) I'm at least glad that Armand stepped out in a blaze of Coke-fueled glory, a virtuoso as the dinner host giving the final performance ("Jesu , Joy set on "Man's Desiring") before taking that cathartic revenge dump. The best part is that he died with a look of calmness on his face.
Ali: I was pushing for Paula to be beaten to death with her copy of "Discourse on Colonialism", or for Lani, the pregnant employee who would disappear after giving birth in Armand's office. To come back and kill someone. anyone. (Okay, Shane first.) I needed a follow-up to his story. One problem I had with the series was that it spent too much time on the self-centered issues of the resort's wealthy guests and their interactions with the staff, rather than taking advantage of the frustrations on either side of the split. Rich people drowning in their own procrastination is nothing new, especially for HBO, and it was a slog at times. That said, Armand was also one of my favorite characters, and his exit was epic.
Blake: It certainly was. Because I'm a fearless journalist, I immediately started thinking about the mechanics of the deadly doo-doo. (For starters, what was the turd made of? Who was responsible for making the fake poop? Props? Visual effects? God forbid... craft services?) But mostly I've read White's thorough and thorough go there. And praised for willingness to create visuals. As high as possible. A more timid filmmaker would have snapped a delicious close-up of Armand's face before the first turd fell. But not white. In any case, the poo-nami was a fitting farewell to Armand, and a microcosm of the show as a whole — twisted, outrageously funny and deeply sad all at once.
What I love about White's work, dating back to the beloved, is her "enlightened" comfort with complexity, her willingness to be deeply kind to the characters she rhymes with ease. Turns into potty humor. You can have an underwater scene so beautiful in a single episode that it brought tears to my eyes (side note: he really loves sea turtles) and a grossed-out close-up. Just like life! Anyway, I'll ease my oral diarrhea and let you share your thoughts.
Ali: Thanks, Meredith. I will never think of craft services in the same way again. Until the finale, I didn't care who was going home in that box. Like Tom Hanks, I just wanted to get away from the island.
Blake: Let's talk a little bit about who gets off the island and who doesn't. You make a good point about Lani. I also wondered what happened to poor, sad Kai, who was last seen running down the beach after an ill-fated robbery. You could argue that White has less interest in what happens to the less affluent, non-white characters in the series. In fact, he told me he's trying to "get into the mindset of people who have money and power" with this series. To that end, I felt like White was talking about how expensive employees are at a place like White Lotus—they're here one day, gone the next, only to be replaced by a new batch of "pleasant, interchangeable" To be done. Helpers,” as Armand once said.
Even the supposedly progressive Paula eventually treats Kai like a pawn in a plot of revenge against the Mossbackers, never reaching out to him because she knows better than to implicate herself. That last shot of Belinda greeting another boatload of robotically terrifying rich people as she stands next to Lani and Armand's replacements, her life playing out like an endless reenactment of "Fantasy Island," all of it. actually says.
For resort guests, things mostly turn out fine - that's how the world works when you're rich. Rachel resigns herself to life as a plus one, which honestly sounds fine compared to being a poorly paid content aggregator. Despite literally killing someone, Shane leaves for Tahiti - where he is destined to never "blink" over - with Nari a slap on the wrist. Tanya eventually leaves her mother's ashes and moves to Aspen with her probably dying lover.
One man who seems quite healthy by the end of the week is Quinn, who has freed himself from the shackles of technology and held on to his hokuleh. Do we think he will get bored and fly back home? HBO recently announced plans for a second season of "The White Lotus," which will feature a new setting and possibly new guests. Got any tips for White to make next season less excruciating for you?
Ali: White certainly makes the point that the disparity is baked into the character outcomes, which is as reasoned as it is the reality of the world — and so many cruise ship ports. But he does so almost exclusively from the colonizer's vantage point, which is problematic on several levels. For starters, it limits the chain by giving the same blind spots as the resort's self-centered guests. There's no shortage of satirical series about rich jerks treating others like disposable wipes, and "The White Lotus" had the perfect opportunity to spread that formula when it forced a family like the Mossbackers out of their usual habitat. Took and brought characters like Lani. And Kai. But it never grew beyond the absurdity of white affluence—money for parenting, the one-sided power-difference in their marriage—that was clearly felt.
I mean, we both love Cristóbal Tapia de Veer's soundtrack, right? A big part of what makes it amazing is that it feels like a clash of opposing cultures at the resort, a mix of tensions between mainland and islanders, colonists and natives, both historically and now. To me, Season 2 would be far more dynamic and smart if it were the staff entering the break room before the Hukilau dinner show or the lei greeting or whatever "native entertainment" awaits guests at next season's White Lotus property. And that doesn't mean turning this HBO series into a waking diatribe. God no. It also needed to be satirical with its working-class and non-white characters (see "Remy" or "Atlanta" for hints). As for Quinn, I predict he'll be running a sandal-like property in the 2024 spinoff "The Blue Flip Flops."