The White Lotus
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The episode picks up where the last installment left off.
Neither do our young lovers Kai and Paula escape the post-coital comedown.
He wants her to stay on the island.
She thinks hes selfish; he thinks shes emotionally closed-off.
Even if theyre both right, gormless Mark is way more wrong.
I do wish I had a better sense of how long Nicoles been rocking those diamond bangles.
When did this affair happen?
And when did Nicole find out about it?
By the time the guests hit the breakfast buffet, the show is already priming us for death.
Shane, though, is finally on vacation.
You getting excited, bud?
You shouldnt kill people, steal their land, and then make them dance.
Everybody knows that, Mark says.
BUT, on the other hand, Should we give away all our money?
Would you like that?
Mark is a low-key troglodyte; Paula is outspokenly progressive.
Theyre both sleeping between Egyptian cotton sheets on stolen land.
She attempts to steer the conversation to the wellness center, but its no use.
Tanya has a new toy with more complicated instructions.
Its hard to watch, but still not the ugliest thing going down at the lido.
That distinction belongs to the confab between the Misses Pattons.
To be fair to her, the suddenness of the problem is hard to understand!
Everything Rachels upset about was just as true the day before the wedding as the day after.
I dont steal from people, Kai tells her.
Its all so bad.
The theft will be front-page news.
The heist is hardlyThe Italian Job.
But Mark runs after Nicole, and Kai is forced to punch his way out of the suite.
Its all so, so bad.
Nicole is traumatized; Mark is bleeding.
Paula didnt even get off the boat.
What did she think would happen?
Dinner is a downbeat affair all around.
Tanya doesnt want to talk about the fact that Greg never called or the wellness center.
Shes content to sit across from Belinda in spacey, self-pitying silence.
She hasnt read the business plan; shell never read the business plan.
In a stunning reversal, though, Tanya rejects Greg in an act of deranged self-preservation.
Shes just self-aware enough to know that eventually her neediness pushes people away.
In a brilliantly batshit moment, she even tries to foist her mothers ashes on him.
Alas, her nerve doesnt hold.
I still want to fuck you, Greg tells her.
Thats whats wrong with you.
Rachel just sits there, not unlike a trophy wife.
Meanwhile, the Mossbachers are rallying around each other.
Which brings us back to Belinda and Armond and Tennysons lotos-eaters.
The narcotic on this island isnt release from the obligation of home, but from the world of consequence.
Tanya will never care or perhaps even notice the accidents she leaves in her wake.
Shane will claim them, like prizes.
That ache in her stomach isnt fructose intolerance; its her humanity.
She should get on a plane far away from these people before she can no longer feel its tug.
