An up-and-coming TV show, The White Lotus, has successfully captivated the attention of audiences everywhere, with an intense plot and plenty of hidden meanings to decipher. Each season showcases a completely different plot and typically a brand-new cast. At the beginning of every season, the death of a character is introduced, to which the audience is tasked with trying to figure out the victim as the season commences.
Season 3 takes place in Koh Samui in Thailand, where the characters stay in a fictional resort chain. One of the dynamics within the season that’s hit home for a lot of viewers is the three-way friendship between lifelong friends Jaclyn, Laurie, and Kate. “Jaclyn is a Los Angeles-based actress (played by Michelle Monaghan); Laurie is a divorced lawyer in New York City (Carrie Coon); and Kate is a Texas housewife (Leslie Bibb)”, The New York Times. With each woman being in their early 40s, it’s apparent that the friendship between the three has lasted a long time. Because they hadn’t spent much quality time together in recent years, they planned this trip to the island of Koh Samui to get away and reconnect.
The friendship between these women is seemingly wonderful, where each individual leads a successful life and they all remain very complementary to each other during the beginning episodes. As the show continues and the walls come down, the audience realizes that they all have a lot of judgment to pass about each other behind closed doors. The tension becomes more and more apparent with each new interaction where two out of the three women discuss the shortcomings of the other. Jaclyn and Kate discuss Laurie’s divorce, drawing conclusions about her personal life and generally leaving her out during a majority of the activities and interactions. Jaclyn and Laurie dive into Kate’s political stance, criticizing who she voted for and making commentary about her character. Laurie and Kate voice their concerns about Jaclyn and her husband and often make commentary about her success and beauty, alluding to a continued feeling of underlying jealousy. Their dynamic is often analyzed as Kate is the aggressor in the friendship expressing constant jealousy, while Jaclyn is too passive to try to address and redirect it and Laurie isn’t necessarily upset because she feels like a third wheel, but rather she realizes that the basis of the friendship is very broken and surface level, even after so many years.Â
Competition is such a real part of female friendships that typically gets brushed under the rug. This show depicts the many aspects and roles of friendship between women, specifically in adulthood. Although, in reality, these scenarios apply to so many age ranges of women. As female sympathizer of the series, Ms. Fredrickson adds, “Let’s just say this show is validating,” she added, laughing” The New York Times. Jealousy and competitive nature will never go away, no matter how old one may get. And the fact that so many women are able to relate to this feeling from any one of the characters, speaks to the commonality in this issue.
A clinical psychologist in Manhattan, Lisa Moore, suggests that “in our society, so much about friendship is so sanitized. You see people’s Instagrams, and they are all on these girls’ trips and everybody looks happy, and it’s so flawless” The New York Times. The White Lotus really has hit the nail on the head in depicting the difficulties of navigating female friendships and blatantly addressing it through the progression of these characters during the show.Â
As the season comes to a close with a satisfying ending where Laurie discloses her insecurities about their friendship and lets her walls down, the women sympathize and the realness that has been lacking all season pours out. She confronts Jaclyn’s beauty and Kate’s beautiful life and admits to not feeling like she fits either of those, explaining that she feels she has failed at “religions” such as love and a career. She humbly states that she is “happy to be at the table”, which is met with tears and “I love yous” by both friends. It leaves one to wonder what may happen between these three in the future and if their friendship will survive after they all go their separate ways, but one thing that is guaranteed is the connection that these three women have regained in their friendship during their unconventional vacation in Thailand.