Yahoo Lifestyle The White Lotus: Fight Night! Who Came Out Swinging? And Who Ran for the Hills?
It’s fitting that this week’s episode of The White Lotus centered on a Muay Thai kickboxing fight, because plenty of people were exchanging blows outside the ring, too. But who’s in real danger as we head into next week’s sure-to-be-deadly season finale?
Let’s start with Rick, who finally makes his way inside Sritala’s house to come face-to-face with her husband Jim Hollinger (hi, Scott Glenn!), aka the guy who Rick thinks murdered his father. Rick’s pal Frank plays the role of big shot movie director, bulls–ting Sritala about the “fun caper” he wants to cast her in… and breaking his sobriety to order a whiskey. (Uh-oh.) Rick pulls Jim aside to give them some privacy, and they retire to Jim’s den, where Rick admires old photos of Jim with local dignitaries. Jim says Thailand has been good to him over the years. And if someone got in his way, Rick asks? “Lots of ways to take care of that,” Jim smiles.
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Jim says he has two daughters with Sritala, and Rick grumbles: “If you don’t have a happy childhood, you don’t have much, right?” He reveals that he first heard Jim’s name at age 10, when his mother was dying. He brings up the name Gloria Hatchett, but Jim doesn’t recognize it. Rick accuses Jim of having his father killed over a land deal: “I never got to meet him because you’re a f–king piece of s–t.” He pulls out the gun Frank gave him and points it at Jim’s head, telling him: “You ruined my f–king life. You may not remember him, but you are sure as f–k going to remember me.” (And it’s kind of funny how, in the other room, Frank and Sritala are giggling and drinking watching her old movies, blissfully unaware.)
Rick puts the gun down, but he steps menacingly towards Jim, acting like he’s going to swing at him… but he stops himself. Instead, he pushes Jim backwards so he crashes to the ground, hitting his head on the floor, and Rick runs off, grabbing Frank and beating a hasty retreat. Once they’re safe, Rick tells Frank that he had built Jim up in his mind for years, but “he’s just this pathetic, frail old man.” He feels like he got closure now, and he and Frank decide to party hard, hitting a Bangkok sex club and bringing girls back to a hotel room for drinks and drugs — and Rick just sits wearing a serene smile. But did his assault on Jim actually hurt the old man? (We didn’t get to see the aftermath.) And Jim never really responded to Rick’s accusations. Did Rick have the story wrong this whole time?
LAURIE LETS LOOSE | After learning that Jaclyn slept with Valentin behind her back (and lied about it), Laurie is still fuming as the three ladies head to dinner, guzzling rosé and needling Jaclyn with passive-aggressive digs. Jaclyn doesn’t understand why Laurie is so bothered, and when Kate takes Jaclyn’s side, Laurie brings up how Jaclyn hit on Kate’s husband Dave at her wedding (!). Jaclyn thinks Laurie just likes to play the victim: “If you always choose the short stick, is it bad luck?… Or are you doing it to yourself?” Kate agrees that Laurie is “always disappointed,” and Laurie lashes out, calling Kate fake and Jaclyn selfish before storming off to attend the Muay Thai fight solo.
She meets up with Valentin there, and Aleksei and Vlad soon join them, with Aleksei getting cozy with her and offering her a swig of his beer. While Jaclyn and Kate turn on each other back at the hotel, Laurie goes home with Aleksei and has uninhibited sex with him — so she’s winning! Well, not so fast: After they do the deed, Aleksei tells Laurie he can’t leave the country because he’s overstayed his visa, and his mother is old and sick back in Russia. He just needs $10,000 to pay off her debts and fly her to Thailand… can Laurie help him out? She tries to politely decline, but he presses her: “I know you’re rich.” She claims to not have that kind of money on her, but he’s undeterred: “You have PayPal? Zelle?” (Ha!)
Just then, there’s an angry knock at Aleksei’s door: It’s the jealous Russian girl from the club, and Laurie scrambles to put on her clothes before she’s discovered. She runs to the back of Aleksei’s apartment and looks out a window when the Russian girl barges in, slapping Aleksei in the nether regions and asking, “Where is your little bitch?” Laurie climbs out the window and dangles from the ledge, with the Russian girl slapping her in the head as she drops to the ground. She hails a taxi back to the resort — and hey, she has a good story to tell, at least. But are we worried that the Russian girl might come looking for her at the resort?
INDECENT PROPOSAL | Saxon heads to Chloe’s party with his parents, and when he makes fun of the old balding dudes with young Thai girlfriends, Chelsea offers: “That’s gonna be you in 30 years.” (Ouch.) Saxon is still worried about Greg/Gary after his night on the boat with Chloe, but she reassures him she and Gary had a long talk and he finally opened up about his sexual fantasies. You don’t say? Gary told her as a kid, his parents would have loud sex with the door open, and he would watch (ew), and as an adult, he was always paranoid that his girlfriends were cheating on him… but he kind of wanted to catch them doing it: “His worst nightmare was his erotic fantasy.” So Chloe asks Saxon if he’s interested in sticking around after the party and… “helping Gary.”
Saxon says absolutely not, but Chloe assures him Gary wouldn’t touch him: “He just wants to creep up on us.” She really thinks it would help their relationship, but Saxon turns her down flat and walks Chelsea home instead, insisting to her that he’s not a bad guy: “I could be somebody else if I wanted.” Chelsea offers to help him get started, guiding him through a seated meditation on her bed — but when he tries touching her hands, she pulls away and ends the night to call Rick. Do we think a small part of Chelsea is actually entertaining giving Saxon a shot, especially as Rick continues to ignore her? (She does love a man she can fix.) And was Greg/Gary just trying to concoct a scenario so he could kill Saxon and get away with it? With Chloe’s full knowledge and help, even?
A DECENT PROPOSAL | Belinda is still petrified of Greg (for very good reason!), but her son Zion talks her into going to the party anyway. At the party, Greg pulls her aside, and Belinda braces herself — but Greg surprises her. He tells her yes, something tragic happened to Tanya, but he didn’t have anything to do with it, and he came to Thailand to avoid all the questions and assumptions: “I just don’t want to have any more headaches if I can help it.” Tanya used to talk about Belinda, he reveals, and she felt guilty about not opening that spa with her. So he’s decided to offer Belinda $100,000 (“Tanya would’ve wanted that”) and hopes that if she accepts it, she can let him spend his days in peace.
Belinda calls the offer “very generous,” but she tells Greg she needs time to think about it, grabbing Zion and ditching the party. Zion thinks she should take the money, but she doesn’t want to be an accomplice to murder. Zion points out that it’s enough money that she could take a whole year off… and if she doesn’t accept it, Greg may come after her, and him, too. Belinda is still torn as the episode ends — and if she doesn’t decide soon, will Greg come back to the resort to demand an answer? Possibly packing heat?
Elsewhere in “Killer Instincts”:
* Piper and Lochlan spent the night at the Thai monastery, and Lochlan wasn’t a fan of the bland food. But he seemed to get something out of the head monk’s teachings, and he told Piper he wants to join her and stay at the monastery for a year! “Right now, I really don’t feel like going home,” he admitted. “Like, ever.” (And we know why.) But Piper didn’t look thrilled to hear that. Will this be what actually changes her mind and brings her back to Durham, just like Victoria wanted?
* Gaitok took Mook on a cute date to a night market, where she encouraged him to be more ambitious and embrace his killer instinct. Then at the Muay Thai fight, Gaitok scanned the crowd and spotted Valentin with Laurie, Aleksei and Vlad — and recognized Vlad as the driver from the jewelry store robbery in Episode 2! (Bonus points if you guessed that one already.) So Vlad and Aleksei were the robbers, and Valentin distracted Gaitok at the gate to get them inside. Will Gaitok end up confronting them — and show the kind of strength that Mook wants to see in him?
* Timothy is still woozy on Victoria’s pills, and he felt even worse after Saxon demanded to know what’s wrong, telling his dad that this job is all he has: “If I’m not a success, I’m nothing. And I can’t handle being nothing.” That, coupled with Victoria’s statements last week that she couldn’t handle being poor, led to Timothy reaching for the stolen gun and contemplating a family murder-suicide… but when he looked, the gun was gone. Can he complain to management about this? And will he find another way to spare his family the pain of not being rich anymore?
* Victoria just kept being Victoria this week at the party, cornering the young Thai girl from the boat and asking her, “Why are you with this middle-aged weirdo?” She even offered to have the girl come to North Carolina, where Victoria could introduce her to some “respectable” men. Plus, before going to bed, she prayed that Piper would “be miserable in that temple tonight. Maybe Jesus will save her from those Buddhists.” Never change, Vicky.
* Oh, and Fabian sang! He finally worked up the nerve to perform for the hotel guests at dinner, getting out his keyboard and introducing a song he wrote about being homesick. We only got to hear a few notes, though, before the three ladies’ argument drowned him out. We’re sure you were just fabulous, Fabian.
Got thoughts on this week’s White Lotus? Predictions for next week’s grand finale? We’re at your service: Drop a comment card below.
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