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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).

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Dude the waves flowing backward was BEYOND!!! I almost screamed. It really is a show made possible by the context of social transition isn’t it? These people don’t know how to be!

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"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.

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I wish I'd had room to write about Cameron's toast at that dinner; I will never get over that restaurant, those scenes throughout the show: so many confrontations and sublimations around a 4-top resort buffet / restaurant combo!

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My highest aspiration in life is to successfully land the overall dinner / convo vibe after my buddy's wife accurately declares with disgust that I'm an idiot.

(I have noticed that in old movies / books that portray WASP culture and so-called high-society, people accept and persist evenly through shocking insults; maybe this is an homage to that world of coolly cruel exchanges studiously under-reacted to).

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Dec 19, 2022Liked by Mills, β„­π”¬π”«π”°π”±π”žπ”Ÿπ”©π”’ 𝔬𝔣 π””π”²π”žπ”©π”¦π”ž

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 that’s just the narrative he tells himself. All three of them bought into it a little. But the truth is that they’re three strange men who show up without warning. They don’t speak the language and fail to read the present moment. If you’re 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.

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Dec 14, 2022Liked by Mills, β„­π”¬π”«π”°π”±π”žπ”Ÿπ”©π”’ 𝔬𝔣 π””π”²π”žπ”©π”¦π”ž

Holy shit, Mills

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What do you think?!

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Dec 14, 2022Liked by Mills, β„­π”¬π”«π”°π”±π”žπ”Ÿπ”©π”’ 𝔬𝔣 π””π”²π”žπ”©π”¦π”ž

Me: I chuckled at the bit where Aubrey Plaza was maliciously eating pineapple.

Mills: THIS IS HOW THIS SHOW EXPLAINS OUR REALITY.

Object-level: I think it's worth mentioning that Mia and Lucia get what they want. And the Albie<>Dominic deal was... Something.

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Dec 13, 2022Liked by Mills, β„­π”¬π”«π”°π”±π”žπ”Ÿπ”©π”’ 𝔬𝔣 π””π”²π”žπ”©π”¦π”ž

Wonderful. Can you do Midnight Mass next?

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Dec 12, 2022Liked by Mills, β„­π”¬π”«π”°π”±π”žπ”Ÿπ”©π”’ 𝔬𝔣 π””π”²π”žπ”©π”¦π”ž

I just finished it!

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OMG HELLO! When I saw you in the subscribers list I couldn’t believe it and almost emailed you! It’s been forever!!! How are you, and what did you think of the season?!

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Dec 12, 2022Liked by Mills, β„­π”¬π”«π”°π”±π”žπ”Ÿπ”©π”’ 𝔬𝔣 π””π”²π”žπ”©π”¦π”ž

How are you?!

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You know, I had a rather good pandemic myself, guilt notwithstanding (and for me, it rarely does). I do think there's something about recovery in all this; it's probably where I got these ideas, such as they are, to begin with. I know that my psychiatrist was a source of many of them.

I'm well, we're well; I have a daughter now, and am still with my Tumblr-wife Abby. We live out here in California, though for who knows how long! My father passed last year. You know the drill: life continues to happen, and sometimes it feels rather good and sometimes not so good!

But I just cannot believe crossing paths with old friends online! It feels like real life! We weren't all just figments of imagination, and not only that, we're still all hanging out in the same places?!

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Dec 12, 2022Liked by Mills, β„­π”¬π”«π”°π”±π”žπ”Ÿπ”©π”’ 𝔬𝔣 π””π”²π”žπ”©π”¦π”ž

OMG oh yeah hello to you! I've seen your name around Quora and then found you here; that you're into White Lotus is *chef's kiss*.

I am short on time but will say that your ruminating on paying attention reminds me of what we are taught in the rooms (this January will be 27 years !!) - you cannot think your way into better living. You have to live your way into better thinking. What I turn my attention to makes my world and gratitude is always a useful starting place.

I don't know if being told that in my youth would have saved me any time or if I had to go through what I did to get here, but the past two and a half years have been my best. In a very real sense the pandemic saved my life. I got to use all the energy I was burning getting myself into the office and being palatable every day in ways that have made me much happier. Finally! Everybody can see how precarious our civilization is! We can realign our energy so it matches our priorities... or maybe we all just get used to the new normal and watch better TV now.

Anyway, Jennifer Coolidge is a treasure and Greg will never stop being the bad guy from whichever soap it was (with apologies to Uncle Rico).

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you writing fancy words

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