'White Lotus' Fans Have Some Wild Theories About That Season 3 Trailer
Bags all packed? Good, because we’re just about to jet off to Thailand, where the third installment of The White Lotus is set to commence.
It’s been a long old wait for the return of showrunner Mike White’s critically-acclaimed anthology series – a murder-mystery among one per centers in a luxury resort – and now the trailer has finally dropped. It's pretty long, clocking in at almost three minutes, and gives us a comprehensive look at what to expect.
So who’s checking in? We’ve got a bunch of gal pals, who look like they’ll be at each other’s necks right after the welcome cocktail; a southern-states family where the dad’s about to be busted for some sort of money issue; an age-gap couple where the man appears to be tracking down an older Thai woman; a new security guard and of course, the return of our beloved season one spa manager, Belinda (Natasha Rothwell), on a cultural wellness exchange.
There’s also footage of a masked-robbery in the resort, and, as is ubiquitous on the Thai islands, a wild full moon party. Like we said, there’s more than enough info there to tide us over until the series release date on 16 February on Sky Atlantic. But the White Lotus fans over on Reddit have gone deep into the trailer – and needless to say, they have some theories:
Monkey theory
“Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil” is a recurring theme in The White Lotus – as are monkeys in general – and the 17th century Japanese proverb is often interpreted differently in the West than it is in the East. For Buddhists, the 'three wise monkeys' maxim suggests that people should avoid engaging in evil thoughts and deeds; meanwhile, in the Western world, many understand it as the act of turning a blind eye to the evil taking place around you.
In season one, the hotel manager Armond had a little bronze statuette of the monkeys on his desk. In the season two credits, there was a monkey stuck on a chain which was thought to represent Tanya McQuoid (RIP). Now, in the season three trailer, viewers peeped the shot of three teenagers with sunglasses on, headphones on and drinking from a beer bottle – replicating those three monkeys again.
Another comment on how those with money are shielded and/or look away from the troubles around them? Looks likely!
There’s a wellness-scam-cult situation
Sadly, the wellness world is beset by grifters taking advantage of people trying to gain some form of enlightenment, and it could be that the resort featured in the latest season is itself performing a mindfulness hustle of its very own. One Reddit user predicts: “Owner of the hotel starts an Eastern spirituality scam program that the dad in debt joins… The program costs tens of thousands of dollars in "donations" to the owner". He ends up losing it all because it was just a scam for the hotel owner and he goes to the hotel to confront her in person to get his money.”
The dad-in-debt goes rogue
Another theory for the busted dad-in-debt (Jason Isaacs): could he be behind the masked gun-point robbery? Another user comments: “I was thinking he’s the one robbing the jewelry store, possibly to invalidate what his family seems to buy, maybe steal product to resell and then go on the run.”
Belinda has a key role in this all
Not so much the trailer, but look at the official poster for the series: all the other characters are looking away but Belinda is one of just two people looking straight out at the camera. As one Reddit user comments: “She's breaking the 4th wall, like we are with her from the beginning,” while another adds: “Belinda already looks tired of their shit already.” Also true.
Someone is going to die
Well, duh, that’s pretty much a given. But who? It’s anybody’s guess right now, but there’s several votes for the Walter Goggins character (“Maybe he's the unfortunate victim this season?”) bolstered perhaps by the fact he’s the only other person on the poster looking at the camera; while another person suggests that it will be someone from the trio of friends (“My bet is on Michelle Monaghan”).
Greg again
Could we see a return from Greg, Tanya’s now presumably loaded widow? Maybe. One person hopes that he does, just for Belinda to get some sort of justice for Tanya’s death: “Would be pretty great if she manages to scam him out of his inheritance— could still be time for Tanya’s money to fund her ‘spa for poor people’.”
Another person thinks that if he does show up, it’ll just be in a passing reference to the troubles at other White Lotus resorts: “I have a feeling they'll tie up that whole story in some sort of dark, flippant passing comment…’did you hear what happened at the White Lotus in Sicily? So sad... anyway, let's book massages’”, which does feel very on-brand.
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