After a wild night, ‘The White Lotus’ serves a breakfast of piping hot tea and ugly truths

By Dan Heching, CNN

(CNN) — After last week’s party-centric episode, Saxon Ratliff has a monster of a hangover, but something tells us this is only the beginning of the icks for him and others.

Here’s what went down at everyone’s favorite tragic luxury resort this week:

That’s so high school

To continue the morning-after vibes, Kate sees Valentin doing a rather proud walk of shame outside Jaclyn’s. She tells Laurie about their indiscretion, and Laurie is pissed, outwardly wondering why their famous friend would push the Russian hunk on her if she was interested in him herself. When Laurie confronts Jaclyn about it, Kate begs her to stop, and Laurie responds, “Look, I’m not like you, sometimes I just have to be honest.” What started out as a perfect trifecta of toxic positivity has evolved into something of a hate triangle.

Leslie Bibb, who plays Kate, told CNN last week that if the trio had just “walked in in the very beginning and were really honest, which is very scary to do,” they wouldn’t be in this mess. But messes make great TV, so here we are.

At the end of the episode, Jaclyn (rather condescendingly) scolds Kate about the gossip she must deal with as a public figure, saying that “it’s really depressing” to be getting it from her friends, too. Kate is about to form a rebuttal, which will probably come out in a big way in the next two episodes.

About last night…

Both Saxon and Lochlan are plagued with fragmented memories of their drug-fueled night of partying, which ended in bed on the yacht. After Chelsea declined Saxon’s advances, the brothers both became intimate with Chloe… and with each other. There’s a painful scene by the pool where the girls revisit the gory details with Saxon, who tries to blame it on the drugs. Chloe politely reminds him that no one forced him to do anything, including getting physical with his little brother. Where else could this possibly be headed? We hope this particular thread arrives at a resolution firmly outside cardinal sin territory.

Then there’s the gun. Gaitok can add ‘luckiest guy ever’ to his list of titles, as he manages to recover the firearm while skulking about the Ratliffs’ villa unseen. Talk about a red herring. Later, he’s seen at the gun range, where he demonstrates quite a knack for hitting his target. Just how handy will that be, come the season’s gunfire-riddled finale?

‘You cannot outrun pain’

This line – uttered by Thai monk Luang Por Teera (played by journalist Suthichai Yoon), who runs the monastery where Piper wants to stay – could be a tagline for the series has a whole. He says it to Timothy, who knows a thing or two about dulling the pain he’s found himself in of late. Understandably, Timothy also asks the spiritual man about death, and seems comforted by the answer (see below). To his wife’s dismay, Tim reports that he “liked” the monk, saying he “seemed legitimate” – one of the joys of this season is watching Timothy react to his surroundings in an entirely unexpected way, based on the nascent collapse of his entire life back home.

Unfazed, Victoria proposes a wager – she tells Piper that if she can stay in the monastery for the night, she’ll condone her living there for a year, apparently banking on her daughter recoiling at the spare way in which the monks live. To Piper’s relief, Lochlan says he’ll stay with her, but we think that’s also to do with the fact that he can’t really face his older brother at the mo. We get that.

Later, Victoria manages to further drill home just how clueless and entitled she is, complaining to her husband that she doesn’t want their daughter “thinking she’ll be just fine if she’s poor. She needs to fear poverty Tim, like everyone we know.” She goes so far as to say that she herself wouldn’t “have the will” to be alive if it meant being poor. Yikes. Will she get her wish?

Toward the end of the episode, Belinda’s predicament reemerges in the form of Jon Gries’ mysterious antagonist, who shall heretofore be known as ‘Gregary,’ when he literally jumps out at her on the resort path. “I think we should talk,” he says, inviting her to his house that night, where some of the Ratliffs, along with Chelsea, are also expected to be present. Should make for an interesting evening, to say the least.

Best lines

“Do you need a minute?” ~Zion to his mom Belinda, after walking in on her in bed with Pornchai

“I’m laughing. It’s funny. HA. But also…” ~Laurie to Kate, doing a terrible job of seeming amused by Jaclyn’s behavior

“Gotta get gangster around here.” ~Belinda to Zion, in reference to her predicament, immediately following a “Scarface” reference

“It’s not a thing, it’s not a thing, it’s definitely not a thing!” ~A panicked Saxon to Chloe and Chelsea about the… helping hand he received from his brother, which DEFINITELY IS A THING

“There’s something you both should know. Your sister has no thesis.” ~Victoria to her sons about their sister Piper’s life decisions

“Death is a happy return, like coming home.” ~Luang Por Teera, to Timothy

“The White Lotus” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. EDT on HBO, with the episode available to stream on Max. HBO and Max, like CNN, are owned by the same parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.

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