Daphne's speech to Ethan was the high point in the series to me. She delivered her truth with intended meaning (write your own narrative to avoid playing the victim, in her case taking her own sexuality and power outside of the marriage) but Ethan's path to rewrite power back into his narrative (from a light pink t-shirt to a serious black button-up) was to return to Harper and be a "man." Whether Ethan or Harper were unfaithful is immaterial, and Mike White seems to agree based on what he does and doesn't show us (a red hair-ing). I believe Ethan wandered into that garden isle to reverse the original sin of temptation, not to repeat it (then the tides flowed backwards).
I enjoyed so much the juxtaposition of marital problems through the lens of gender (a concept in lightnspeed transition with a heavy anchor surely still attached).
"The White Lotus, as a resort, is an island of self-immersion in the seas of a stupefyingly beautiful world we aggressively ignore so we can nurse our belabored grievances and fantasies."
I saw a number of people people say it felt contrived that they kept eating at the hotel restaurant when this whole town is filled with amazing food, and... yes, that's the point! Cameron is even sick of the menu by the end of the trip.
I think your framing does explain the visit to the three Di Grasso women. Afterwards, Bert says that he had this vision for how the visit would be this big homecoming, healing experience. But thatβs just the narrative he tells himself. All three of them bought into it a little. But the truth is that theyβre three strange men who show up without warning. They donβt speak the language and fail to read the present moment. If youβre looking at the show as a tension between abstraction vs reality, then the idealized reunion was the abstraction and the three suspicious and incomprehensible women are the reality.
Daphne's speech to Ethan was the high point in the series to me. She delivered her truth with intended meaning (write your own narrative to avoid playing the victim, in her case taking her own sexuality and power outside of the marriage) but Ethan's path to rewrite power back into his narrative (from a light pink t-shirt to a serious black button-up) was to return to Harper and be a "man." Whether Ethan or Harper were unfaithful is immaterial, and Mike White seems to agree based on what he does and doesn't show us (a red hair-ing). I believe Ethan wandered into that garden isle to reverse the original sin of temptation, not to repeat it (then the tides flowed backwards).
I enjoyed so much the juxtaposition of marital problems through the lens of gender (a concept in lightnspeed transition with a heavy anchor surely still attached).
"The White Lotus, as a resort, is an island of self-immersion in the seas of a stupefyingly beautiful world we aggressively ignore so we can nurse our belabored grievances and fantasies."
I saw a number of people people say it felt contrived that they kept eating at the hotel restaurant when this whole town is filled with amazing food, and... yes, that's the point! Cameron is even sick of the menu by the end of the trip.
I think your framing does explain the visit to the three Di Grasso women. Afterwards, Bert says that he had this vision for how the visit would be this big homecoming, healing experience. But thatβs just the narrative he tells himself. All three of them bought into it a little. But the truth is that theyβre three strange men who show up without warning. They donβt speak the language and fail to read the present moment. If youβre looking at the show as a tension between abstraction vs reality, then the idealized reunion was the abstraction and the three suspicious and incomprehensible women are the reality.
Holy shit, Mills
Wonderful. Can you do Midnight Mass next?
I just finished it!
you writing fancy words