Spoilers below.
If incest was on your White Lotus theories bingo card this season, then congratulations on your win this week. The series confirmed such suspicions in the latest chapter of this Thai vacation from hell, and yet, that wasn’t even the weirdest thing to come out of this episode. Thanks to a new character introduced by Oscar winner Sam Rockwell, things take a rather unusual turn.
But first, Gaitok is frantically scouring his booth for his missing gun. By searching the security footage, he discovers Timothy has taken it. When he looks for Timothy in the restaurant, he finds the doomed businessman enduring an awkward family conversation as Piper announces her big news: She wants to move to Thailand to study Buddhism for a year, and she’s not working on a thesis after all. Her mother, Victoria, is obviously shocked, unable to believe a world exists beyond the pristine borders of her rich community in North Carolina. “Honey, you’re not from China,” she says. “You can be interested in this stuff but you can never be it.” She’s so flustered she forgets where they are. “You want to live in Taiwan?” Another delightfully outrageous performance from Parker Posey.
Gaitok can’t bring himself to approach Tim, so he follows him to the bathroom instead. Gaitok tells him, “I cannot find something. I think you have it.” Tim says he doesn’t know what he’s talking about and leaves. He missed Lisa’s, I mean Mook’s, performance for this?
Meanwhile on the yacht, Saxon is hyping Lochlan up for their night with Chloe and Chelsea. Chloe is actually interested in getting some action. She just wants some “attention” because Greg/Gary won’t give her any, but Chelsea is not on the same page. She could never cheat on Rick, she’s a romantic! Besides, she’s too worried “something really bad’s gonna happen” while he’s away in Bangkok. “He’s like my child,” she says. He’s 50, but it’s true.
Another party is forming in the club with Jaclyn, Kate, and Laurie, who are now joined by Valentin and his childhood friends (and total characters), Aleksei and Vlad. When Valentin invites Laurie to dance, the rest follow. Jaclyn even sandwiches herself between two of the men, making a group of younger women across the dance floor visibly jealous. She feels victorious.
Back at the hotel, Belinda is fearful when hotel manager Fabian tells her that a guest has been asking about her. She suspects it’s Greg, which is not a good sign considering he’s suspected of killing his wife. Belinda warns Fabian about Greg—should they call the police? But Fabian shuts her down, saying they shouldn’t be gossiping about their guests.
Later that night, Belinda shows Pornchai the Greg news and expresses her anxiety. He notices there’s something hiding in her room—it’s a lizard! He shoos the creature out of her place, but she’s too freaked out to spend the night alone now. She asks him to stay, and they kiss before going to bed.
When the Ratliffs get back from dinner, Victoria continues to harp on Piper’s post-grad plans. What if Buddhism is a cult? What if the monk makes her one of his sister wives? What if she gets brainwashed? “Look at the Catholics: organized religion and deviant sex can go hand in hand,” she says. Where is the lie? Victoria insists that Timothy—whose mind is clearly elsewhere—visit the monastery to vet the location and the monk Piper wants to study with.
Piper’s brothers arrive at the Full Moon Party with Chelsea and Chloe and continue to pound drinks. Saxon tells Lochy to slow down; let the girls get messy instead (implied: so they can take advantage of them later). “One day, I’m gonna take you down,” Lochy tells his brother with a laugh. Is this foreshadowing? When Chloe comes back with a few pills, Saxon refuses—he doesn’t take drugs except Adderall for work. But to his surprise, Lochy pops one into his mouth, completely disregarding his advice. Eventually, Chelsea and Chloe also take one, and Saxon is peer pressured into following suit. With his low tolerance, he can barely handle walking through the crowd. As they watch fireworks on the beach, Lochy rubs Saxon’s back.
Chelsea tried calling Rick several times, but he misses each attempt as he reunites with his longtime friend, Frank (played by Sam Rockwell), who meets him in a hotel bar in Bangkok, equipped with a mysterious black duffel bag. When they order drinks, Rick learns his old pal has been sober for 10 months; he partied too hard but ultimately turned to religion, specifically in Buddhism, here in Thailand.
Frank then details his bizarre personal journey: He always had a thing for Asian girls, he says, so had a field day when he first moved to Thailand. But one night, when he brought home a “ladyboy,” which he had done before, he wanted to feel what it was like to be the one penetrated. It changed everything. He realized that he didn’t just want to be with an Asian girl, he wanted to actually be one. He started to wear lingerie and perfume to feel like a woman. When he had men over, sometimes multiple at a time, he’d hire an Asian woman just to sit there and watch. The whole experience made Frank wonder, Inside, could I be an Asian girl? That’s when he turned to Buddhism.
There’s a lot to unpack here, especially when it comes to the dated stereotypes of Asian women being submissive and exotic sexual playthings—there are plenty of examples of this throughout cinematic history, from Anna May Wong to Lucy Liu. (Luckily we have made progress too.) But when it comes to Frank inserting himself within this stereotype to benefit his own submissive kink? I’ll just sit here like Rick in utter confusion.
After getting tired from dancing, Laurie, Kate, and Jaclyn and their pals retreat to their table for another round of shots, but Kate is starting to lose steam and passes on her drink. Laurie takes it instead, impressing Valentin. (He also just called her a sexy dancer.) The vibe is killed when one of the women from earlier approaches the table and starts fighting with Aleksei—whoops, was that his girlfriend? Kate says it’s time to go home, but her girlfriends end up inviting the guys over to the villa. Kate doesn’t love that idea. This is another very real element of a girls trip: being the person who wants to go to bed when everyone else still wants to party.
As the festivities continue in their pool, Kate is in her PJs while everyone else is stripping down into their bathing suits and underwear—and then shedding more clothing as they start to skinny dip. When things start to die down, Laurie is left rambling to Valentin and Aleksei about work and her divorce, clearly boring them. Vlad trauma-dumping on Kate seems to be her final straw. She politely manages to get their guests to leave. As they say their goodbyes, Laurie whispers something in Valentin’s ear. Jaclyn tells her after the guys are gone, “You should’ve hooked up with them!” But in a surprising turn of events, Jaclyn is the one who gets an overnight guest. Valentin secretly returns later in the night to sleep over. Not that her friends needed any more reason to talk about Jaclyn behind her back, but they are going to blow up with this news.
Back on the boat, Chelsea is tired of always worrying about Rick. “I have pain too,” she says, adding, “bad things have happened to me.” It’s clear her joyful disposition is a defense mechanism. Someone help Chelsea! Chloe has less regard for Greg/Gary’s feelings as she considers hooking up with Lochlan. “Gary might kill me… He might be capable of it,” she says. Yes girl, he is! But she’s willing to take the risk.
Over in Bangkok, Rick pulls a gun out of the bag Frank gave him and tries calling Chelsea finally. But this time, she won’t answer because she’s playing drinking games with Chloe and the Ratliff brothers. It’s like spin the bottle without the bottle: Lochy and Chloe kiss, then Saxon, in his classic cocky behavior, asks the girls to kiss each other for his enjoyment. They do, but the ladies also dish it right back. Chloe points at the brothers and signals that now they should kiss each other for her entertainment. Things are a little hazy for them given all the alcohol and drugs, but after some initial confusion, Lochy leans over to give Saxon a quick peck on the mouth. But Chloe goads him to go in for a bigger smooch—and he and his brother kiss again. Saxon is flustered, Chelsea is weirded out, and Chloe is slouched over in laughter. She has these boys wrapped around her finger.
As if things couldn’t get stranger for the Ratliff family, Timothy is up in the middle of the night writing a suicide note. He holds a gun to his head, but he can’t shoot. Victoria wakes up and finds him (he hides the gun and note in time) and notices that he hasn’t been acting like himself lately. Tim nearly breaks as he vents about the expectations placed on him since day one. As he mentioned in the last episode, his grandpa was governor and his dad was a successful businessman. He had a lot to live up to since he was born. She tries to cheer him up by saying he’s already achieved so much, and goes back to bed.
Tim gets on his knees and prays in desperation. He’s going to need all the help he can get.
