Review: The White Lotus, “Full-Moon Party” | Season 3, Episode 5

Here it is: the first proper night episode of season three, complete with a family argument, an aborted (or not) suicide attempt, some drug use, and multiple drunken hook-ups, including the most explicitly incestuous moment yet. Are we having fun yet?

I expect that fraternal kiss to dominate the White Lotus conversation this week, especially since we don’t know for sure it ends there; everybody on the yacht seemed pretty awake, and so we’re left with a week of dread about where this could go next. This moment is season three’s equivalent to Tanya walking in on Jack having sex with his “uncle” Quentin last time—a shocking, taboo escalation—and they even both take place at the end of the fifth episode.

It’s hard to know what exactly is motivating Lochlan in this moment: a desire for closeness with the brother he admires? A desire to become Saxon, or at least as reckless and fun and confident as him? I’d say the drugs and Chloe’s peer pressure played a role, but those feel like excuses that gave him permission to act out something he already may have imagined. We already had some idea Loch had an erotic interest in his brother, and it’d almost be strange not to go there in some capacity at this point. Regardless of what motivations are at play here, it’s a big moment for the two characters, the crossing of a boundary that can’t be uncrossed even if it never goes further than this.

For some people, this might play as empty shock value, and Mike White certainly does have a taste for that. I can only admit to my own reactions watching this play out, though, and for me, the shock value is working. I can’t look away, especially because I genuinely have no idea what to expect from the aftermath. This wacky show always keeps one foot rooted in the psychological reality of its characters, and seeing how two brothers might actually work through something like this could be as compelling as it is excruciating.

Compared to that Lochlan-Saxon moment, Belinda sleeping with Pornchai is far less complicated and much sweeter. We haven’t seen that much of these two, all things considered, and the show hasn’t delved into Pornchai’s story at all. But he’s a calm, endearing presence, and it’s nice to have one coupling to actually root for. That sweetness is a good counterbalance to Belinda’s frustrating run-in with Fabian earlier in the episode, during which he downplays her concerns about Greg. Her race and gender are likely factors in the swiftness of Fabian’s dismissal, but this conversation is also indicative of this particular resort’s relationship with the local criminal element, including rich, sketchy Americans. The threat that Greg poses is still somewhat abstract at this point—would he really break into Belinda’s villa and kill her, or does he have other associates to do his dirty work?—but it’s hanging threateningly over everything, making her dalliance with Pornchai both a nice distraction and a reminder of how much she has to lose.

“Full-Moon Party” features more sex than the rest of the season combined, really, feeling more like a season two episode than a season three episode. That extends to the victory tour trio, which experiences its first potential rupture when Jaclyn secretly sleeps with Valentin, cheating on her absent boyfriend and essentially stealing her friend’s man.

No, Valentin was never technically Laurie’s to begin with, but it seemed like she was open to it. It’s clear that Jaclyn is getting something out of screwing over her friend, putting so much effort into setting her up with a guy only to take him for herself. She’s insecure in some way, perhaps scared that she peaked in life. So she acts out to prove that she’s still young and chaotic and free, that she can still have whatever she wants. Just look at her expression while she dances with the Russians at the club, showing off to the women watching from nearby. Laurie’s brand of drunken chaos, on the other hand, arouses more pity than desire. “Spousal support” isn’t the sexiest phrase.

“What is desire?” asks Rick’s friend Frank, played by Sam Rockwell (longtime partner of Leslie Bibb) in a surprise cameo. That was a central question of season two, and it’s still relevant in season three, with more of an emphasis on the metaphysical side. Chloe enjoys the flattery of young, innocent guys. Chelsea has no interest in anybody but her boyfriend, whom she likens to her child. Jaclyn wants whatever will make her feel younger and hotter and better than her peers. Loch wants … his brother.

Outside of providing Rick a gun and agreeing to help with his trickery in confronting Jim Hollinger tomorrow night, Frank is mainly here to offer a thought-provoking monologue about sex and identity. Rockwell nails it like he always does, though I’m still not totally sure what to think about all the ideas therein. We all know that eros and identity are intertwined, that our sexual and romantic desires often contain insights about what we want for ourselves. And Frank’s desire to escape his own bodily form, to transcend and become someone else, is also a familiar concept, especially as it applies to gender (and his interest in “ladyboys”).

I’m less sure about how race comes into it; Frank is very specifically attracted to being with and becoming an Asian girl, which gets into “transracial” territory like that skit from Atlanta. Still, this scene gets us closer to the heart of this season’s exploration of identity and spirituality, with Buddhism as an unlikely salve in helping Frank detach from the man he knows himself to be. If Rick’s lucky, he too will be able to “get off the never-ending carousel of lust and suffering.”

Again, delaying Rick’s meeting with Jim another week or two is frustrating if you’re laser-focused on narrative progress. But conversations like this one are an important part of this show, especially in an introspective season. Ditto Piper’s argument with her mom about meditating in Thailand for a year after graduation. Between the two, Victoria seems like the obvious wrong party, especially with her hilarious slip-up in exclaiming, “You want to live in Taiwan?” (Piper’s flabbergasted “what?” makes the moment.)

But there’s nuance here, like there was with Victoria’s ridiculous but accurate comments about the crooks on the yacht party. She may have no strong attachment to Christian values, but it makes sense that it would hurt to hear her daughter wanting to escape her parental influence and discover new values of her own. And while she’s obviously wrong to say that Piper can’t be a Buddhist simply because she’s not from China, Piper also might not fully understand what she’s committing to here. She seems keen on rebelling against her parents, but might lack the actual cultural context to understand the spiritual journey ahead.

And yet I keep finding myself coming back to Tim, and to Jason Isaacs’ performance. I’m still surprisingly touched by the turn this character arc has taken, though I suppose it hasn’t taken much of a turn at all. On a plot level, it’s pretty static; early in the season, Tim finds out he’s fucked, and everything after that is just waiting to see how he reacts. But the moment when he sings his old Christmas solo from his altar-boy days in this episode got to me, especially when the camera holds on his wistful smile as he thinks to himself about that pure early memory, when money and image weren’t everything. It’s like after years of defaulting to agnosticism, he’s faintly remembering God.

Maybe it’s that brief reminder that leads him to pray in the arresting final moments of the episode. Tim may have a family that adores him, but that love is stifling and isolating in a moment like this; it would be easier to tell them the truth if they already hated him. He’s entirely alone, with no other person out there he can turn to, and so he turns to a higher power. Just like everyone else this season, he wants and needs to transcend in some way, to make peace with the life he has lived and find some path forward. So to answer Frank’s question, no, we are not our forms. And is each of us ultimately all alone in the universe, eternally hemmed in by others’ expectations of us and our own expectations of ourselves? It’s a matter of perspective.

Stray observations

• Gaitok is still basically useless, only directly confronting Tim briefly about the gun he stole and then backing down immediately at his first denial. You know it’s him, dude! Muster up some energy!
• “What if this life is just a test to see if we can become better people?” “No. What?”
• Saxon’s suggestion that Loch keep his wits about him while the women lose control is pretty creepy, not gonna lie.
• Interesting that both Tim and Saxon stay away from drugs, and that bad things happen for both when they make an exception on this trip.
• Frustrated with Rick, Chelsea tells Chloe, “I have pain too.” This season is generally more interested in Rick’s internal issues than Chelsea’s, but I like that this conversation acknowledges that’s by design.
• Compared to the hard-partying Jaclyn and Laurie, Kate is content to head to bed earlier, or at least sit at the pool in her pajamas. Love Bibb’s vibe in these scenes.