‘The White Lotus’ episode two recap: The sad boys need saving
What in the name of Tanya McQuoid happened at that baby shower? In a seemingly throwaway moment from last night’s episode of The White Lotus, Kate (who we are learning is the backstabbing go-between in the blonde rich lady triumvirate with Jaclyn and Laurie) stops by the Ratliff’s breakfast table to tell Victoria that she remembers her from a baby shower many years ago. For some reason, this really seems to irritate Victoria, who coldly refuses to confirm or deny anything.
When her kids ask her why she’s being so weirdly cagey, she pretends to be nonplused. We know that Victoria is frequently on another planet (she even takes downers for her massage because “massages stress me out”), but still, it was a strange moment. I am dying to know what kind of drama could have unfolded between the women.
The headline of this week’s episode is that Valentin is shady as hell. That man is flexing his unclothed muscles all over the resort, and Gaitok nearly gets killed because of it. It all started when Valentin informed two of the three blonde friends (Laurie and Jaclyn) that they have the health markers of women half their age, demonstrating that he is the worst kind of con man. Then, he sidled up to Gaitok’s kiosk at the entrance to the hotel, which distracted him, seemingly deliberately, so that a mysterious car could slip past. A hooded and masked figure with a gun leapt from the car and into the store where Chelsea and Chloe were enjoying some retail therapy after a very challenging evening with their respective ageing boyfriends.
No one was hurt during the robbery, but when Gaitok tried to stop the car from leaving, he was thrown to the ground and knocked out. It was the last straw of a pretty bad day for Gaitok, who had previously suggested to Mook in a somewhat indirect way that still was not indirect enough to avoid humiliation that they should get married. She helpfully pointed out that they had not been on a date yet, and when he suggested going on one every night, she chuckled devastatingly the way you might chuckle at a toddler who suggests that mummy and daddy get back together.
Whether his near-death experience will nudge him out of the friend zone is unclear, but at the moment, he spelt it all out to Mook in his mini-speech, and things don’t look good for him. She is smarter than he is and, yes, a lot hotter. So far, we don’t know much else about him except that he once saved a Belgian man from drowning and still gets letters about it.
The other sad, sad man in this week’s episode is Rick. Now, if you had asked me before the first episode what type of character Walton Goggins would be playing, I would have unequivocally stated that he would be the fun-loving wildcard – a hotter, more mysterious version of Owen Wilson, a good-time guy who makes a fool of himself and charms everyone in the process. Instead, he is shaping up to be a Tragic Figure in the most classical sense. There is potential for Shakespearean levels of tragedy here, folks, and I’m not prepared for it.
We discover in this episode that Rick, whose unsmoothable furrowed brown makes it seem like he’s on the verge of tears at all times, grew up in a dysfunctional family. His mother overdosed when he was six, and his father was murdered before he could make a memory of him. During a meditation session with Amrita, Rick reveals a level of self-loathing that is pretty darn heavy, even for a guy who is potentially headed to Bangkok to murder an elderly man. When Amrita tells him that meditation can help strip away the identity he’s built for himself, he says, “I never had an identity… I’m nothing.” Ouch. Even Chelsea might not be able to help him, though it seems pretty clear that she is an unbreakable optimist who will persist either through sex or kindness until she prevails or dies.
Speaking of sex, Belinda could be on the threshold of a soul-shaking physical renaissance with Pornchai. That, or she’s on the verge of a very uncomfortable remainder of her professional residency. Let’s hope it’s the former.
The Ratliffs took a backseat in this episode, and to be honest, that was totally fine. Tim might be going to prison, but do we care? The only notable thing about that predictable phone call with his erstwhile former business partner is that the voice on the other end of the line clearly belonged to Academy Award winner Ke Huy Kwan.
Has creator Mike White gone a little overboard with the Ratliffs? So far, Piper is just as insufferable as her parents and older brother, all the more so because she thinks she is the enlightened one in the family. Lochy has yet to make a single move in any direction, and isn’t Saxon’s protein shake and tantrum about not getting a happy ending from his massage a little too on the nose? I preferred Theo James’s manipulative deviance from last season.
The Fabien watch continues. I am patiently waiting for his personality to blow up like the two previous hotel managers (Armond and Valentina) and am willing to hold out until episode four before lodging a formal complaint. Presumably, his first real moment in the spotlight will occur when a crisis strikes or a guest kicks up a fuss over absolutely nothing, though he was strangely absent from the whole robbery thing. Come to think of it, that subplot was dropped pretty quickly. No one seemed upset by it, which seems very out of character for a resort full of rich white people.
And on that note, see you next week, at which point we will hopefully find out a), about that baby shower; or b), how many downers it takes to mute Saxon for the remainder of the season.
