‘The White Lotus’ Season 3, Episode 7: Calm Before the Storm

Speaker 1 episode of the Prestige TV podcast is brought to you by Coffee Mate. Coffee Mate has been searching the globe for flavors that pair perfectly with coffee.

Speaker 1 So when they heard that the new season of HBO's The White Lotus was set in Thailand, they were inspired to brew up two new flavors, Thai iced coffee and piña colada flavored creamers.

Speaker 1 They're available for a short time only. So for the love of coffee, go try them now.

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Speaker 1 The Prestige TV Podcast presented by the Ringer Podcast Network. You can watch us as a video on Spotify.
You can watch us on the Ringer-TV YouTube channel. Yeah.
Yeah. We have been here.

Speaker 1 That's Joanna Robinson, Mallory Rubin.

Speaker 1 We've been here every episode. This will be the last time we actually had a chance to prepare

Speaker 1 for an episode recap.

Speaker 1 Spoiler, I know you're, I know we put these up right after the show, but we actually taped them a few days before. The season finale, we're just going to be right after live.

Speaker 1 Maybe we go live on YouTube. Who knows?

Speaker 1 That would be interesting. I mean, if we're going to do it right away, it might as well.
Might as well go live. Otherwise, we should watch the episode three times.

Speaker 1 I know. I'm going to miss it because I feel like

Speaker 1 I watched this one three times because I really felt like

Speaker 1 I was missing stuff. Anyway,

Speaker 1 this is the each episode's had a theme. Yeah.
That we've talked about.

Speaker 1 This was the alcohol and violence episode. Okay.
Right? Yeah. We just start out with like little flashes of movie TIE Fighters beating the shit out of each other.
And then just

Speaker 1 kind of go sideways. There's booze and there's violence or the hint of violence.
And

Speaker 1 I know what my favorite part of the show was, but

Speaker 1 what was your big takeaway, Joanna? Was your favorite part Alexi's girlfriend slapping him in the dick? Or was that your favorite part, Mallory?

Speaker 1 I enjoyed the dick slap followed by the kind of just like batting Laurie's head as she fell out of the window the way a cat bats around

Speaker 1 a toy mouse. Right.
That was really remarkable stuff. That was, I think, a real dick slap.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 I was going to do this later, but I don't think that, I think they went method acting on that one.

Speaker 1 Sensational stuff. To answer your question in seriousness, do you want to know what's wild, what's true about me coming out of this episode? Yeah.

Speaker 1 I'm most deeply invested in Saxon Ratliff.

Speaker 1 It happened. We got it.
I knew it. We got her.
I knew it. I was so happy.
We did it. I knew it.
I was prepared today to come in and beg you to join us.

Speaker 1 I knew it.

Speaker 1 And I wasn't even going to say join us on the dark side because I don't think it is the dark side anymore. I never gave up.

Speaker 1 I always believed we got a really compelling email about how uh the buddha before he became thrilled right now like listen to this the buddha before he became the buddha was like a pampered prince who like goes through this sort of debaucherous night and comes out the other side and dedicates his life to spiritualism is saxon ratliff that's great the buddha of white lotus season three all he needed was mind-altering drugs and get jerked off by his brother and now he's come out the other side what a family wank what a great prescription for everyone else.

Speaker 1 Wholeness solved. Yeah,

Speaker 1 I felt like maybe we were heading this way in episode seven because I was like, wow, Saxon's a little more sympathetic than I was expecting. And then

Speaker 1 they really brought it back. Also, just another incredible performance.
Patrick Schwarzenegger. I mean, he's been great

Speaker 1 through the whole time. Despite what Chelsea would say.
Well, now he's just, he's growing a baby soul.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. You can't do it in 10 minutes.
We learned that from Chelsea, but you can start to do it in 10 minutes.

Speaker 1 Well, it's funny that the couple of Saxon and Chelsea are the most interesting combo on the show now. I could spend every time.
I'm just moment with them. I'm like, Moore, where's this going?

Speaker 1 And the way I think the acting is so good on her side.

Speaker 1 I just like her so much. What happened? When do we get her next?

Speaker 1 Amy Lou. Yeah, I don't want to give up on Amy Lou.
I need her in my TV life. I need her on another show.
My assumption is that Saxon and Chelsea. Oh, interesting.
I still haven't watched the pitch.

Speaker 1 My assumption is that Saxon and Chelsea will start a vlog after their journey in Thailand and we will be able to watch every day. They're wonderful.

Speaker 1 The meditation scene between the two of them, while like probably a total of 75 seconds, was some of the most riveting TV charts I've ever seen in my life.

Speaker 1 Well, you'll see the tension because, like, as much as I am rooting for Saxon and his baby soul, I still am a Chelsea Rick truther personally. And so

Speaker 1 I've got some challenges. Okay, but I work through on that front.
I'm struggling. Absolutely.
But I did not want them to hook up, but I did enjoy the tension of the will they won't they.

Speaker 1 You know, agreed. I need Chelsea to want more than Rick.
I also have been deeply invested in Rick and Chelsea. More than like fixing him and saving him.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And more than somebody who never answers her phone calls and always tells her she's a fucking annoying. Like she deserves better than that.

Speaker 1 You're deeply invested in a younger man settling for an older husband. Younger woman.
Yeah. That's it.
That's where you landed.

Speaker 1 You know, among, as you know, I believe that among consenting adults, age is but a number. You know, that's how I've long felt about it.

Speaker 1 You know, you mentioned the little glimpses of the Moise High Fights, the way that that was like stitched throughout the episode, these like really charged interstitials and the number of pairs or groups, trios throughout this episode who were facing off.

Speaker 1 That theme, we have the, we'll talk about, obviously, the Piper Locky scene, but the way that that, we went into that speech, how everybody has the capacity to kill, the nature of violence.

Speaker 1 Obviously, our guy guy talk has some stuff to say about this, but like we're first hearing that, even though it's a Piper Lockheed scene, while we're looking at Rick's face, I thought this was a great episode for taking these disparate plots and stitching them together thematically, to your point.

Speaker 1 And this, like, the prevalence of the con man, the prevalence of desire, the questions of identity, the question of whether you give into that instinct for violence or are afraid of it.

Speaker 1 Fascinating thematic episode.

Speaker 1 And I liked the kind of like hallucinatory, dream-like quality, too, of the slow-mo and the zooms, the close looks at faces as people were reflecting on the choices they were going to make.

Speaker 1 It was like a very moody penultimate episode. Can I hit you with one more hot take? One more hot take before I want to hear what your favorite part of the episode was.

Speaker 1 The Rick storyline? Yeah. It's not satisfying me.
Yeah. What happens here, if this is like the crescendo of Rick's storyline, this is not what I would use Wilton Goggins for, personally.

Speaker 1 I've been waiting and sort of reserving hope that we were going to get something sort of big.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 that's not what I felt like we got in the Scott Glenn confrontation, you know? Yeah. Billy.

Speaker 1 Okay. Counter.
Okay.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 As soon as they're in Bangkok

Speaker 1 and Frank is like, fuck this. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I'll be sober again tomorrow. Yeah.
Yeah. Let's go party.
I was the most excited I've been for TV in like three years. No, the Let's Go Parties economy.
That's great. I'll tell you this.

Speaker 1 That could have just been its own episode. We could have dumped everyone else on the show and done an episode nine bonus episode of them in Bangkok.
Like I said last week, signed up.

Speaker 1 Is that what you've written 200 episodes season? Made me mad. Have we gotten to the part where you're no, we haven't, we haven't nearly gotten to that part yet.
I agree.

Speaker 1 I was so pumped when they did the lower, the low going down shot of the strip joint with the cage and them in the room. And I'm like,

Speaker 1 let's go. I don't care about any characters anymore.
Let's see what this is.

Speaker 1 What's going on? And Rockwell, he's been unbelievable every second. I can't say enough.
I've been straight in this episode. I can't say enough.
Oh, I still have have notes about them as con artists.

Speaker 1 Well, we will. I owe more notes than ever because this was frankly an appalling performance.

Speaker 1 One other aspect of the violence part. Yeah.
Because it's all kinds of violence, right? There's actual violence. There's impending violence.

Speaker 1 There's

Speaker 1 kick slaps. There's verbal violence.

Speaker 1 But then we also.

Speaker 1 And kind of whatever Piper was doing to Lockheed in that scene, that's like almost like emotional violence. But my favorite kind of violence is three female friends who secretly hate each other.

Speaker 1 Oh my God. What is it? That was the friendship violence.

Speaker 1 Oh my lord. We were building.
We were waiting. We've been waiting since episode one.
When are they going to do it? And Carrie Kuhn, who's just been unleashed.

Speaker 1 She's been absolutely unleashed, like Jameer Gibbs and you know, getting 30 carries in a game. They're just, and then

Speaker 1 Laurie.

Speaker 1 I don't even know what Jacqueline's doing anymore. She just seems so over it and so angry.
And

Speaker 1 I read whole brother in Cap's marks when she said, I'll be the bad guy. I'm used to it.
I was just like, oh, bro.

Speaker 1 She's all like little words as possible and like really shitty faces. And then you have Kate who's like, I'm just not emotionally equipped to do that anymore.
That's a great Kate episode.

Speaker 1 And then Carrie Coons, like just riveting. Riveting.
Incredible. And yet I still wanted to be in Bangkok the entire time with those two guys.
Interesting. Like, where are we going next, guys?

Speaker 1 Send Laurie How many are we bringing back to the hotel room? Oh, four. Great.
So you would have spent the entire episode in Bangkok at the,

Speaker 1 okay, I'm supposed to be your lifelong friend, but you've ruined your sobriety for me. I've led you down this path and I'm just going to sit on a couch and smile.

Speaker 1 That's where you want the whole episode. I wanted the whole episode to be Chelsea and Saxon

Speaker 1 meet a knee before she throws all of all the books at it. Yeah, I just wanted to stay in that moment forever.
That's where you would have spent the whole episode, too. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Or the three ladies just drinking Rome say, where is this rose? Super rare? This rose killed me. It had been maybe 20 seconds.

Speaker 1 Sorting for 10 seconds. Great stuff.
I also thought Laurie looked amazing in this episode.

Speaker 1 Like all season, they've been trying to sort of sell us on Carrie Kuhn slightly rumpled mess, but she comes staring at that like a message.

Speaker 1 You can only fight that angle for so long.

Speaker 1 Kevin's winning out eventually. We are all Alexi just waiting to compliment Laurie's incredible hair and then saying, PayPal,

Speaker 1 Zelp. Well, his muzzer is relaxed.
Cash in cash up.

Speaker 1 I was actually quite nervous because, like, when he started that, that, you know, Nigerian Prince move on her, he had his hand on the top of her head. And I was like, is this

Speaker 1 violence somewhere terrifying? Yeah. But it just went Lori sort of bare ass rubber way out the window.
Bear ass ring. Bear ass sense.

Speaker 1 I liked when she joined them at the fight and the Russian showed up and she just took the guy's beer

Speaker 1 and just started swinging. Lori just feeling herself.
Yeah. Lori easily best hang on the show.
Ah, yeah. No question.

Speaker 1 Who are you hanging out with? Chelsea. Who's a safer person? Chelsea.

Speaker 1 He's a good hang, except every three minutes she's like, I need you to leave so I can call Rick, who won't answer my call, which I think gets a little old.

Speaker 1 Honestly, I do love Chelsea, but that's a little tough. If that's the.

Speaker 1 It just really comes to me. And I know

Speaker 1 that this is like a

Speaker 1 soft, romantic whatever, but like, I really feel like Rick is just going through something something specific. If it's always like this,

Speaker 1 that's terrible. If Rick is like having a crisis of his soul and he can go one way or another, and Chelsea's like, I need to keep this tether or else I'm going to lose him, then I understand.

Speaker 1 But yeah, if it's always like that, then it's not great. This is a good game.
Good hang, bad hang. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I mean, I worst hang, Tim. Yeah, Tim is some dangerous.

Speaker 1 Tim, what's wrong? No, nothing. No, no, no, no, no.
I'm fine. But like, bawling head as he was sitting next to Gary, he was just like swaying.

Speaker 1 He's like fucking looking at the Blair Witch wall. All season, you've been like, I need someone in the family to ask, to really sit him down and be like, what the fuck is going on with you once again?

Speaker 1 Saxon. Saxon.
The hero we needed. A man of character and quality.
I will say we got. Now he was entirely motivated by self-interest, but still, he asked if his dad was okay.

Speaker 1 We got a great email from listener David who was pointing out the fact that like Tim has just been walking, swaying around, stumbling around with a full bottle or a half bottle of La Razz Tim in his pocket.

Speaker 1 It would just be

Speaker 1 Ratlin Tim is like what he would be that way. Ratlin Tim is a great person.
Also,

Speaker 1 Ratlin Tim Ratliff? I love it. You only brought one sleeping t-shirt on the trip.
You're just going to wear that Duke shirt every night for 10 hours a day. He brought five Duke t-shirts.

Speaker 1 Oh, that's possible. Oh, that is possible.
He does love that.

Speaker 1 That seems right. But feels kind of like we would have the Duke Blue in the mix.

Speaker 1 Yeah, maybe a couple of gray t-shirts, though. Maybe we would, honestly, with Tim Ratliff.
Though I don't know. He has a lot of pastels in his wardrobe.
He does typically do not.

Speaker 1 I'm surprised Mike Waite didn't throw in the Duke La Crosse t-shirt at some point and just keep bent up to the bottom of the bottom. You're right.
That would have been just

Speaker 1 a little bit more. Or the great t-shirt.
Yeah, just a lot of Duke sense. When will we be talking about Saxon's wardrobe in this episode, which to me was just totally like madmen by way of Todd Snyder?

Speaker 1 I loved it. I thought it was wonderful.
Have you been served any Saxon shirts on Instagram ads? I have to be honest, I shop at Todd Snyder pretty regularly.

Speaker 1 I don't actually know that that shirt is from there, but it would be, I wouldn't, I wouldn't know if I had been served a new ad, unlike Ferlocki's wardrobe, which I'm still disturbed by.

Speaker 1 All right, here we go.

Speaker 1 I'm going to make Joanna mad with at least one of these. Okay, special thing.
You guys didn't know I was doing this. Great.
We love that so much. Seven episodes.

Speaker 1 We watch these episodes a bunch of times each. Have some nitpicks after seven episodes.
Okay. Start coming strong with the nitpicks.
Great.

Speaker 1 Number one, no particular order. Okay.
You won't get bad at this one. The movie Thai footage is just not that good.
I agree. I didn't like how it was shot.

Speaker 1 I think he should have hired like somebody who filmed sports for a little bit.

Speaker 1 Yeah, sports are if they had come to the sports, the sports helper, I would have said, go find like the guys who do 24-7 for HBO or something.

Speaker 1 I didn't mind the sort of like leading up to the fight, the sort of like balletic interlude with like warming up orchestra and stuff like that. But once you're at the fight.
Yes. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You were so excited for sports. I wanted some wide shots.
I wanted to see the guys circle each other.

Speaker 1 Like there was, I thought they left too much on the table. All right, there's one.
Okay. Number two.
Now this one might make Joan mad. Okay.

Speaker 1 I've felt this way deep down for a couple episodes, and now I'm just going to come out and say it. Do you want to guess before he says?

Speaker 1 I don't think Jason Isaacs, I don't think it's that hard of a part. Yeah.
And I think he's fucking boring. You know what? This is the episode where I agree with you.
Yeah. Oh, great.

Speaker 1 This is the episode where we're just like one more round.

Speaker 1 We did not modulate anything inside of this episode.

Speaker 1 It's not like I think he's doing a bad job. I'm just sort of like, you need to give me something more of, I'm having a dream sequence where I'm going to kill myself and my family.
I just think

Speaker 1 if you're going to, not that I'm going to give the great Mike White any notes, but I just think you'd be more manic. And the part's more fun if he's like all of a sudden super hyper.

Speaker 1 What are we doing today? And like trying to overcompensate. And then he goes back to being.
Can I say,

Speaker 1 here's my bigger nit to pick. Yeah.
Do you think we have a six episode story and an eight story? eight episode back.

Speaker 1 I think it's a great point. I think

Speaker 1 it could be a seven episode. Right.
Because last season was, so season one was six, season two was seven. This is eight.
And now we have four, the last four episodes have been two days, right?

Speaker 1 We did the day and the night.

Speaker 1 I just, we've solved Tim Ratliff two episodes ago. His career fell apart and he's, and his family is going to be disappointed and he might kill himself.
Like, that's like two scenes.

Speaker 1 Or something else happens if, again, like, he doesn't wind up being in trouble or whatever. It's just been too long in this sort of.
Yeah. Yeah.
I agree.

Speaker 1 I loved, I loved the monastery scene last week. I thought that was really, really good.
Really good. I really loved that.
But this week, I'm just like, you're giving me nothing else.

Speaker 1 When Saxon confronts him, and he just once again gives him the like, we're fine, kid response. I'm like, you're not going to give me any movement on this game.
It's interesting.

Speaker 1 I mean, I wonder if there's like the tracking the distinction across generations in White Lotus has always been kind of fascinating.

Speaker 1 And the Ratliff kids, in ways both good and bad, have all really been characters on an arc, right?

Speaker 1 They've all gone, they have all gone through some really notable change and reflection and introspection.

Speaker 1 We, I think, were most swept up by Tim's arc in the first few episodes and, like, now have felt the halting of that, the arrested development of that a little bit.

Speaker 1 And Vicki never had that, kind of by design, right?

Speaker 1 But so, like, something is, I think, the fact that we've moved so much with the kids has made that actually feel more palpably lacking over the last couple of episodes with the parents, which is interesting, just inside of that family unit.

Speaker 1 Is this show better if

Speaker 1 Rick had just brought Tim with him to Bangkok with Frank to? I just wanted everyone to go to to Bangkok. I mean, everyone comes to me.

Speaker 1 I'm just trying to think of a way to make Tim more interesting other than just having no personality. It's like, who would see Tim at a party and be like, yo, man, pull up a chair?

Speaker 1 I mean, I'm going to go to the front area, I guess. Yeah, I'm going to go have a drink with the super sad brooding guy over there who's just hammered at all times.

Speaker 1 Okay, you didn't succeed in making me mad. What else did I do?

Speaker 1 Yeah. Okay.
Bring it. Among the most boring scenes in the history of HBO, the moot guy talk scenes.
I've had it. I can't do it anymore.
You know what? I agree. Interesting.
Yeah. Whoa.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Because again, we're just, we're just drawing out and we're heading towards what feels like

Speaker 1 the inevitable conclusion, which is something that Mallory clocked really early on, which is this idea that like perhaps Guy Talk is involved in this gunfight in order because Mook, and I don't like, I don't like the way these characters feel so one-dimensional to me.

Speaker 1 It's like he is in love with her, but is shy and retiring, and she is wants

Speaker 1 ambition and violence, I guess. And

Speaker 1 Why the hell has she attracted him in the first place? Because everything we found out or the with about her in the seventh episode is kind of like the danger. Well, he's men should be men.

Speaker 1 Men should be ambitious and fight. An objectively attractive person.
No, I spend two minutes with him. And it's like, this guy's a sophomore.

Speaker 1 She's like, here's an objectively attractive person that I've been friends with my whole life. And I see him wanting more because that's sort of the indication that he gave her.

Speaker 1 Maybe I can get my hot friend in the exciting package that I've always wanted a twofer. Why not? You know, and I think she more likely she's with like one of the, one of Sitala's bodyguards.

Speaker 1 I'm sure that's where it's at. Like, that's that's like her type.
It's clearly her type. Yeah.
I think that's another interesting thing about this season where like

Speaker 1 Saxon

Speaker 1 has been so

Speaker 1 genuinely interesting to watch because he is

Speaker 1 routinely being confronted by people who are not a part of his life.

Speaker 1 Now, broadly, the premise of White Lotus is, as we've talked about many times, you could escape your, your, your, whatever's back home, but you can't escape yourself.

Speaker 1 And often you can't escape your family or your best friends or whomever you're on vacation with. But scene to scene, he literally does, right? He's with Chelsea, he's with Chloe.

Speaker 1 Lamented land memorably, he's with Lachlan.

Speaker 1 But, you know,

Speaker 1 Mook and Guy Talk have known each other. their entire lives.

Speaker 1 So it makes like, on the one hand, this idea that he finally musters the courage to tell her how he feels really interesting but on the other hand like the conversation in this episode where he's like you know i just like never i would never feel good about doing that you kind of like i just don't wonder why they never would have talked about that and not only that i just don't feel like i learned anything new about their characters this week about rick this week honestly like the rick on the bottom of my notes i have what's not working and i wrote guy talk and mook and i wrote rick

Speaker 1 because

Speaker 1 not just that we were headed towards a conclusion that we kind of saw coming because we saw incest coming. You like, it doesn't matter if we see it coming.
It's about how it's executed.

Speaker 1 And it wasn't executed in a way where I feel like I'm like,

Speaker 1 wow, that character really went through something. Can I, can I zag on Rick? Please.
Because maybe I interpreted it differently because I actually really liked that whole scene. Yeah.
Tell me.

Speaker 1 I might be wrong.

Speaker 1 But to me, it was about when you build something up in your head for years and years and years about

Speaker 1 how it's going to play out when it happens. And this becomes part of your identity in life.
Yes. And then he goes and it's like, he goes there, Scott Gwen's, this old frail right, which she says.

Speaker 1 Kind of near the end of his life. What she says, near the end of his life,

Speaker 1 has this moment, doesn't even, doesn't even want to hit him because it's like, well, I don't win if I do this. So shoves him out.
They leave. And that thing in the end where he's sitting this thing,

Speaker 1 to me, I interpreted that as

Speaker 1 I was haunted by this thing for 20 years, turned out whatever.

Speaker 1 And now,

Speaker 1 where am I going? And kind of where I'm going is, I think I'm just going to be a huge fuck up. That's so interesting.
I think it's slightly different. Okay,

Speaker 1 mostly the same. Like, I think you're, I share your interpretation of that scene.
Scott Glenn hits him with the Dawn Draper. I don't think about you at all.

Speaker 1 You know, like that, that's how that all goes down. He leaves.
He goes out with Frank. They party.
He's, you see him in that scene. You see Chelsea calling him and calling him and getting nothing.

Speaker 1 And if you're Mallory at at home, you're like, oh my God, come on.

Speaker 1 And then you see him get in the elevator and like surrounded by topless women, all sorts of stuff. Couldn't be happier.

Speaker 1 And I kind of think the smile on his face is like, I don't need this anymore. Honestly, and we'll see what it goes in the finale.
But I think that smile on his face is like.

Speaker 1 He's been drinking all night. He's been with them, but I don't think he's going to have sex with any of those women.

Speaker 1 I don't think he's going to smoke anything out of a pipe the way that like Frank is. Like, I don't think he's going to snort snort anything.
I think he's just sort of like, I drank a bunch of whiskey.

Speaker 1 I saw Bangkok. I'm going to go back to Chelsea and we're going to have a great life together.
Interesting, because he doesn't call her or reach out to her, which makes me think the opposite.

Speaker 1 I think they're kind of trying to fake you out with that last shot.

Speaker 1 But I mean, we'll see.

Speaker 1 I found myself wondering when Frank asked him, like, okay, so you got, you got closure? And he's like, yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Like, did he though? Because he didn't, it just feels like a lot of people.
Isn't that the whole point? It's like, sometimes you just don't get closure. But this is sure.
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 Like, man, someday I'm going to.

Speaker 1 And then you have the combo. And it's like, huh.
But if this were the defining truth of your life, like this quest and the absence of the...

Speaker 1 Maybe he realized that it shouldn't have been and that he was being stupid the whole time. For sure.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Well.

Speaker 1 I don't think he felt he was being stupid. I think he felt validated in his obsession.
And then like, well, it'll be interesting to see, like, you said what he says to Chelsea about it next week.

Speaker 1 That's probably the, the real tell. I mean, obviously, it was, we all wanted him to not use the gun to pull away.
And so the fact that he wanted to

Speaker 1 know that guy.

Speaker 1 I wanted Jim to be like, because he's like, Gloria, like, he obviously knows who he's talking about. I wanted him to be like, does he?

Speaker 1 So you're

Speaker 1 say something, like, to actually say something? I remember

Speaker 1 I run that scene multiple times. And I'm like, what is Scott Glenn trying to communicate in in that line read of Gloria Hatchett?

Speaker 1 Is it like, I know who she is, or I don't know who the fuck you're talking about? I actually don't have a clear read on that. I interpret it as I remember the name.
Yeah. But this is why you're here.

Speaker 1 Like,

Speaker 1 another follow-up question? Yeah.

Speaker 1 I think I needed that scene to just have like. two more exchanges.
Yeah. And then I agree with you that it's just sort of like, oh, I built this up and it was nothing.

Speaker 1 I think that is like a good story to tell and one I wouldn't wouldn't mind watching. But there was just something in that scene that just sort of like,

Speaker 1 but maybe, maybe to your point, that's how it's supposed to feel, just sort of like deflated by it, you know? You know what was great about that scene? All the cuts to

Speaker 1 Sitala and Frank/slash Steve watching her movie. That was incredible.
I love it. You should just put that whole thing on YouTube, first of all.
Remarkable. But Scott Glenn's office was just

Speaker 1 absolutely

Speaker 1 fantastic. Whole house was cool.
I was like, oh my God.

Speaker 1 I was looking at every like, every shelf he did, all the table choices. That was like a Nans Man office.

Speaker 1 Dark, glossy eyes.

Speaker 1 They checked every box. Were you looking at every photo of a young Jim Hollinger, waiting for Rick to say,

Speaker 1 huh? Is that Greg Gary in a cowboy ass? He looks a lot like me. I actually thought they were headed that way.
I was surprised they didn't do that.

Speaker 1 But then I was also enjoying the Scott Glenn career retrospective photos where it's like, oh, they grabbed something from Urban Cowboy.

Speaker 1 100% Urban Cowboy. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Can I take you quickly to a white people Buddhism corner? You can do that right after this break. Wow.

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Speaker 1 So in that exchange, Rick says, the secret in life is knowing when to stop. Someone once said the secret in life is knowing when to stop.

Speaker 1 The person who said that is Alan Watts, famous white guy Buddhist. And I grew up in Mill Valley, California, which is like Mecca for white people who have found Buddhism.

Speaker 1 And that's where Alan Watts like lived his life near Green Gulch Farm, at at the Druid Heights. Like this is, this is a guy, this is like a Bay Area.
I have brought Buddhism to the white people guy.

Speaker 1 He wrote The Way of Zen, 1957 was like this huge book. But

Speaker 1 he was a hugely controversial figure because

Speaker 1 plenty of people are like, thank you for bringing Buddhism to us. And plenty of people were like,

Speaker 1 is this the guy we want to be listening to about Buddhism? And I just want to, one last biological fact about

Speaker 1 Alan Watts, who I guess famously said, the secret in life is knowing when to stop.

Speaker 1 He married three times,

Speaker 1 had seven children,

Speaker 1 and died of alcoholism. So, that does not sound to me like a guy who knows when to stop personally.
But

Speaker 1 I loved all that information, but I think you should have said beudism.

Speaker 1 I just beudism. Okay, let me take it again saying, but it knows.

Speaker 1 I have two more small nitpicks. Please.
I'm so disappointed. I couldn't.
Anger me? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Is all you want in life?

Speaker 1 I was excited for a little attention um

Speaker 1 i don't think anybody would have not had their phone for this long but okay it's five rat lifts i just think

Speaker 1 but why does everyone else get to keep their phones pam's the only stickler chelsea's got her phone she's calling rick all the time

Speaker 1 like they all have their phones except the rat lifts i think i just think we don't know that he's off the hook but then that's kind of

Speaker 1 i just think dad is confused dad is such a mess at this point that they're like i'm gonna dad hasn't talked to us in three days. I'm going to go get my phone.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Or if you're Saxon and your dad is acting like a complete maniac like this, you're not going to be like, I got to get my phone. Like he's got to be hiding something from me.

Speaker 1 I just think you'd be more cunning about it than they are. I agree.
My last one. Yep.
It's a big one. I can't wait for your take.

Speaker 1 I just don't think the three fancy cougars would have stayed in touch.

Speaker 1 Period. At all.

Speaker 1 I don't think they're in touch anymore. I think it's like some occasional texting and maybe a happy birthday.
Let me take you to my favorite

Speaker 1 corner, which is I listened to an interview corner. And

Speaker 1 I was waiting.

Speaker 1 Leslie Bibbs said that she feels like Kate is the person who has like kept this group together. That makes sense.

Speaker 1 And that Lori and Jacqueline don't really talk to each other, but she talks to Lori and she talks to Jacqueline.

Speaker 1 And that it was like, even though Jacqueline's the one paying for this trip, it was sort of like Kate's idea of like, let's all get together and go on a trip, a girls' trip, a victory tour together as part of her perfectionism, perfect wife, perfect mom.

Speaker 1 I've got

Speaker 1 my Europe back home. Yeah.

Speaker 1 That kind of makes sense to me. My takeaway after seven episodes now? Yep.
I don't think Jacqueline and Lori

Speaker 1 have talked on the phone probably in three and a half, four years. I agree.
And I think they maybe text every once in a while. I think that's clear.
That's clearly.

Speaker 1 But the way they set it up in the first episode, it seemed like they were way closer. I've been thinking a lot about like the boat ride.

Speaker 1 You know, we get the boat ride here and then the boat ride back and the boat ride here in the opening episode. Again, like Mike White called them the blonde blob.

Speaker 1 They're the, they're like a three-headed sort of giggling and like as close as can be.

Speaker 1 And can't you just see them going, if they all make it, going back home, each sitting on like a different part of the ship? And they're like never.

Speaker 1 And that's how this are like never going to talk to each other again. Or perhaps more depressing than that, not doing that.
Because that would actually be the healthy thing.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Continuing to like engage in this shared delusion that they have something to hold on to.
Like that, that would be, I think, more tragic, right? Here's what I think.

Speaker 1 We have to keep telling each other we're committed to this friendship.

Speaker 1 I mean, is that rose? That rose looked good when it came.

Speaker 1 Beautiful hue. A large frosty glass of rosé.
Delightful. Can we add that for the finale? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Mike Wait just,

Speaker 1 he knows how to play the hits.

Speaker 1 This group is clearly clearly starting it out with Rose when there's this much tension.

Speaker 1 Can I hit you with my

Speaker 1 biggest nitpick? No, hottest take. Well, maybe it's a nitpick.
Okay. I also don't think the Belinda story has been interesting.
You've been saying this all season. It's, it's still

Speaker 1 there anymore. It's still falling flat for me.
But what I do suspect, I think she's going to take that money. For Zion.
Because he's like, do this.

Speaker 1 And for Pornchai, who's like, let's start a spa together. I mean, I think she's taking that money.
I think it's.

Speaker 1 if I were Belinda, I'm holding more than $100,000. You have seen the house now?

Speaker 1 You would have more. You have seen the house.
That's a first offer. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, it better.
$250,000. Maybe I won't tell anyone.

Speaker 1 You don't say yes for a cent less than a million. Oh.
Are you kidding? Okay. You saw that house.
Tanya was. Tanya was canonically worth half a billion dollars.

Speaker 1 I would say $500,000. That's what I'd say.
Half a mil. She counters at a million.
Maybe she settles at $500,000. you also don't want to get caught or you want to do it as seamlessly as possible so you

Speaker 1 managed to evade detection for

Speaker 1 two years that's another one of my small nitpicks was how did he escape with this much money yeah because could if the authorities how much money did jennifer coolies a ton 500 million dollars but if the authorities are looking for him can't they just follow the money right Wouldn't they be able to find him with the money trail?

Speaker 1 For the amount of money he apparently has that he could buy a house like that and live whatever and have a whole staff and a yacht and all that stuff, I feel like that's a lot of red flags all over the place for whoever.

Speaker 1 And then all of his crew died, right? So maybe it would be no trace to him.

Speaker 1 Well, these are the things that

Speaker 1 I don't know that they had any real connection to him other than his history with Quentin. Are you ready for me to slightly zag on Greg Gary?

Speaker 1 You're into it. I'm not into it.
But our favorite character is Saxon and your second favorite is Greg Gary. I'm just saying, do we think he's actually a killer? Because, yes,

Speaker 1 yes, everything went badly with Tanya, but I don't think he has it in him to kill Belinda. And now we know

Speaker 1 that he just wants to watch Saxon, and I actually believe that's I can't wait to talk about that. I can't wait to talk about that.

Speaker 1 We were like, oh, is he going to try to kill Saxon? Ooh, is he trying to kill Belinda? No, he wants to watch Saxon have sex with Chloe, and he wants to pay Belinda off.

Speaker 1 I think that he would, if it came down to it, have not an area of qualm about ending Belinda's life. I believe that he sincerely does not want to complicate his life.
He doesn't want the mess.

Speaker 1 He doesn't want a body on his doorstep, a doorstep he genuinely hopes he never has to leave. Once again,

Speaker 1 I just think bathing him in red light.

Speaker 1 Bathing him in red light and having him glower down at her feels like a little like Mike White, heavy-handed. I'm going to

Speaker 1 switch the flip, flip the switch on this. You know what I mean? Yeah.
We'll see. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Start of the episode.

Speaker 1 We start out with Rick and Frank meets a lot. Yeah.
Her husband. Crushed it.
The head monk. What's that guy's name? Do we know yet? Yeah, head guy.
Yeah. No.
Luong Portera.

Speaker 1 He's preaching against violence, spiritual harm to the victim and the perpetrator.

Speaker 1 This was great.

Speaker 1 I love the Yoda, the Yoda violence.

Speaker 1 Have you? So we literally get violence, aggression, anger stem from the same source, fear. Bill, have you ever heard that fear is the path path to the dark side?

Speaker 1 Remember last week we invoked Star Wars? I mean, this is it, right? Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to suffering.

Speaker 1 Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.
George Lucas took all of this from Eastern

Speaker 1 religion. You really feel it here.

Speaker 1 How did you feel about when he says fear and then we go on Guy Talk's face? Yes, I liked that we got every one of us has the capacity to kill Rick's face.

Speaker 1 Fear, Guy Talk's face, and the violence does spiritual harm to the victim and perpetrator, Tim popping pills. Like all of them mixed mixed in over that sequence.
Wonderful.

Speaker 1 Sit with your feelings. Not everybody can sit with their feelings.
Can you sit with your feelings? Only if I'm in an airplane and the Wi-Fi's out.

Speaker 1 Hell. Hell is a flight with no Wi-Fi.
If you're raw dog in a flight, you can sit with your feelings. Feelings.

Speaker 1 You don't just like listen to like, you don't have like anything downloaded already for the flight. I downloaded.
I do. I downloaded pods.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 some stuff.

Speaker 1 Saxon convinces parents to go to a party with the boat people. Just astonishing stuff.

Speaker 1 I'm already dolled up uh bond and zion debate going to greg areas party and the fancies go to dinner so they can just hate each other's guts so that's how we started

Speaker 1 all right we'll talk frank and rick first so this is so ridiculous that they're doing this like they're shit con

Speaker 1 but i actually loved the enforcer the executor and the notary that's a trilogy

Speaker 1 that was

Speaker 1 so fucking funny was that inspired by the accountant you think i think so yeah it's a fun

Speaker 1 part too yeah what's your movie it's a fun caper. It's a thriller.
There's killings. There's double crossings and action.
It's just like every

Speaker 1 genre that exists.

Speaker 1 If I'm Frank,

Speaker 1 Frank is a better person than I am because Frank comes out of there and he's like, let's paint the town red. I'm like, dude, fuck you.
Fuck you for giving me no prep whatsoever.

Speaker 1 Why are you doing the boat? Why don't they be like, hey, here are four titles that she did? Like, give her 50 minutes.

Speaker 1 Here's what I told her about what the movie was about. And Rick had the launch, right? Where

Speaker 1 he should be prepared for these questions because she asked him questions that he was not prepared for. And then Rick was in the

Speaker 1 prep. And then Rick was just sitting there staring down Jim Hollander.

Speaker 1 I was so unfortunate. What do you think Rick did for a living? Conman.
This and that, as Gary would say. Can't have survived this long on those shiny con man.
He's a terrible con man, though.

Speaker 1 So bad at it. They were both pretty bad at it.
He couldn't have made enough money to go to the white limits. There's a reason that Frank was like, I had to leave America.

Speaker 1 And Rick is like, I can't go back to Australia. I'm like, they're bad at Clearly.
Wait, do you guys have an updated theory for what show Jacqueline is on?

Speaker 1 Because Jim and Sitala were like, yeah, you know, this actress is saying it up. It's been CBS.
So it's something they watch. Something blue bloods-ish.
That was what Citala said at the beginning.

Speaker 1 She's like,

Speaker 1 my husband and I, she's like, my husband and I love it. The fact that he's like, we know it's a blue bloods type.

Speaker 1 We know from this exchange now that Jim is only watching stuff that Citila watches, right?

Speaker 1 So he's not the one who brought them to that. Does that any other? No?

Speaker 1 Same thing.

Speaker 1 It's a good question. Okay, we're sticking with it.
10 o'clock. Okay.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 She's either a detective or she's married to the sergeant. Or she's a doctor.
Oh, she's a doctor, right? Yeah. She's a surgeon.
Anatomy is sort of what

Speaker 1 I'm saying. But we've got a lot of people.
Oh, like an Ellen Pompeo type of. Yeah.
Oh, I like that. That's good.
Could be. I feel like they would have mentioned it if it was a doctor show.

Speaker 1 And by the way, Mike Waite, fuck you. This could have been a good scene.
Why couldn't we have learned what Jack Lynch shows? He didn't want. He deliberately didn't want to.

Speaker 1 He couldn't have seen it on the TV. And like,

Speaker 1 of the person

Speaker 1 we could be debating it right now just like we're debating why rick uh couldn't tell frank slash steve or by the way remember his cover name i mean that is just fucking shameful embarrassing shit from rick but also why does he have a cover name i don't right i exactly nobody knows who frank is the best part was the the prostitute part yeah

Speaker 1 right you're you're madam don't come up with the movies you directed don't actually get any titles for the films she's been in but if you're going to share one thing say by the way, I told her that we're coming to their house because you're interested in basing the character off her.

Speaker 1 So if you're going to offer up anything, maybe don't say that she's a prostitute.

Speaker 1 And if you're Jim Hollinger and you're not like actively senile, why are you going to a second location with this guy who's just been staring holes in you and is clearly there not to put your wife in a movie?

Speaker 1 Let's go to the dance. Yeah, let's go to my den alone without any of my security.

Speaker 1 Watching it, I always interpreted that as, oh, we're going to find out Rick's son. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
And then they didn't do that at all. And it just seemed like.

Speaker 1 Do you guys think that's off the table for the finale? I think that could still happen. Well, they did have one moment when he chugged the drink.
Yeah, he's like my kind of

Speaker 1 my kind of guy. Like

Speaker 1 my kind of drinker. Yeah.
And I think they picked young photos of Scott Glenn that look like Walton Glenn. I don't think it's off the table, but I would be surprised if

Speaker 1 we got more of this in the finale. Then again, it's a 90-minute finale and Rick is presumably going back to predictions.
Yeah. Walton Glenn.
Bare property. Okay, save it for for predictions.

Speaker 1 Cause yeah, the bodyguards have to pursue, but are they pursuing to kill him or to say he saw one movie, you were royalty or something, like a queen. And she's like, yeah.

Speaker 1 That one somehow. That's great.

Speaker 1 Scott Gwen says, after we take it to the then, this is a great country, not a lot of red tape. If you want to cut it, you have lots of options.
Yep. Interesting.

Speaker 1 Did you guys think that

Speaker 1 Frank slash Steve was going to maybe try to fuck Sitala?

Speaker 1 He's like, give him three more whiskeys. And I'm sure he wouldn't.
And he didn't get out of that. Also,

Speaker 1 when the drinks are delivered, and he's like, what's your name? You're lovely.

Speaker 1 I on the prize, Frank Steve. I on the prize.

Speaker 1 I've always been partial to the actors who order a drink who are falling off the rag and calling the waitress or the bartender Darlin. Oh, I'll take another one, Darlene.
Okay. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I'm just not cool enough to ever do that. I also don't know.
I hate falling off the wagon. Darlene's good.
Darlene, my favorite darling is like when

Speaker 1 a waitress calls you darling. Oh,

Speaker 1 that's a darling either way. It's great.
Darlin is good.

Speaker 1 I've fantasized about this moment a thousand times. You ruined my fucking life.
Can't do a quick exit. Some nitpicks on the quick exit.

Speaker 1 I think one bodyguard goes to the house and the other one is probably like, why are these fucking guys hype throwing it out of here?

Speaker 1 I hope that Rick tells Mook that those bodyguards are absolutely a nest.

Speaker 1 They're not any better than guy talk, honestly, at their job. They're like the Austin Powers bodyguards like just falling into an oil vat.
One thing before we get to their not-so-hasty escape is

Speaker 1 when Scott Glenn's Jim Hollinger says, I'm more careful, I have more to lose.

Speaker 1 I was sort of hoping, though I don't feel like I really saw it. I was sort of hoping I would see Rick absorb that and think about Chelsea and say, I have something to lose in this moment.

Speaker 1 I can't just like shoot this guy or whatever, because it puts at risk a precious thing that I have, which is Amy Lou Wood, our favorite.

Speaker 1 I think, particularly in this season, where

Speaker 1 for okay, for Jim Hollinger, this has been

Speaker 1 a source of clarity and perspective. But for someone like Tim Ratliff,

Speaker 1 that is like an anchor pulling him ever deeper into the abyss, right? All of the things that he fears to lose.

Speaker 1 So, like, characters respond to that idea differently, which I think would have made it even more compelling to see Rick really like interrogate it.

Speaker 1 But also, what are we talking about when we talk about things to lose? Are we talking about material things and stature? Are we talking about

Speaker 1 family respect? Yeah.

Speaker 1 For Tim, like, it's kind of everything right now, right? Like, the way that now he has Saxon on top of Vicky saying, like, I've got, I've basically got nothing.

Speaker 1 Are we sure Rick didn't come to the conclusion that maybe he doesn't need to be with Chelsea or shouldn't be? He could. I mean, so I.

Speaker 1 I'm just trying to hold on to the Saxon and Chelsea on the boat together. Okay,

Speaker 1 this is where we this is where

Speaker 1 we can be divided and fight. This is our tension.
Yeah. I will be a Rick and Chelsea truther, and you can vote for Chelsea and Saxon.
They have a yin-yang relationship. Yeah.
She's hoping he's paying.

Speaker 1 Something's going to win.

Speaker 1 Quite a combo. Well, anyway, they somehow got a win.

Speaker 1 All right, move to the fancies. Okay.

Speaker 1 How'd you feel about Fabian's performance? Astonishing stuff. Home.
Home may be cold and dirty, but it's still home.

Speaker 1 What singer is he channeling with some of those?

Speaker 1 Well, that was a soothing tune. He was in a show called Babylon Berlin where he sang a lot.
And so I think I feel like my fight was like

Speaker 1 sort of similar. Tapping into it.
Sort of similar to Rick and Frank being like, and you get to sing.

Speaker 1 Would you like to be in White Lotus? You get to sing. So we get some info when Carrie Kuhn officially just gets mad.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 what's Jackie's trying to be like, can we just move on? And Carrie Kuhn won't let it go. And then she says to Kate, was it a big deal when she did the same thing with Dave? Uh-huh.

Speaker 1 So what do we think happened? So Kate, because it was like 15 years ago, but it's longer than that because Kate's got kids, or maybe it wasn't. So we're saying Kate got married 15 years ago.

Speaker 1 It was Lori's wedding. Or Lori got married 15 years ago.

Speaker 1 And Kate was there with her husband, and Jackie was hitting on the husband.

Speaker 1 Or, or they were, they weren't married yet, or whatever. But yeah, yeah.
I believe the judge. This is again like we talked about.
I believe it, but I don't know if that one's recoverable.

Speaker 1 Well, Kate, I mean, Kate James moved on. She said we won.
And then, yeah, kind of just like one more thing. But this is again, like we talked about last week that remembers that we got Adam that time.

Speaker 1 At the wedding.

Speaker 1 He's a a handsome guy. He's got that.
You had him in the corner talking to Marvel, and then he just all of a sudden you're like, what's going on?

Speaker 1 The thing is, I know that's never happened simply because in the decade plus we've been together, he's never left our home.

Speaker 1 I like when Adam takes strays.

Speaker 1 He's the master. But you haven't left your home either.
That's why he's with you.

Speaker 1 Exactly. Just to be here with you, too.

Speaker 1 This is that memetic desire idea again. Like every

Speaker 1 season, here it is.

Speaker 1 I'm interested in why Mike White is like so interested in this.

Speaker 1 I think Jacqueline is the biggest monster in the show.

Speaker 1 She, once again, Timothy.

Speaker 1 For what Mike White's trying to do that. Once again, Greg Gary, like, I really do feel like they're...
But in terms of like emotional damage. Greg Gary, whatever.
He killed one wife.

Speaker 1 Jacqueline is just a serial.

Speaker 1 A serial relationship abuser. I would just like to keep it all in perspective while also not defending Jacqueline in any way.
No, I don't.

Speaker 1 But it's clearly Mike White's working some stuff out with this Jacqueline character. That would be my take.

Speaker 1 I thought that Jack, this was like a fascinating Fancy Coogs episode for so many reasons, but one of which is, and it's not the first time this season, but like

Speaker 1 there's just no accountability or self-awareness from any of them, honestly, including Laurie, who we love.

Speaker 1 Like that's, that's actually what's interesting about it is that Jacqueline, I agree, is a bad friend and seemingly a monstrous person who will justify her own behavior to herself as a celebrity monster.

Speaker 1 But when she has like the complete conviction to say to Laurie,

Speaker 1 like

Speaker 1 you kind of just keep fucking up your own life. There's a part of you when you're watching that that's like, oh, I wonder if she's onto something.

Speaker 1 And then we see Laurie in this situation at the end of the episode where she's like, I think that everything everyone at the table said was true. Exactly.

Speaker 1 If you're not happy with your own life, change it. Yeah.
Yeah. And so I think there's

Speaker 1 balance then. Like Jacqueline is terrible, but she's not wrong.
And Laurie is someone we've rooted for, but she's behaving poorly. No, that's been true all season.

Speaker 1 As they gossip about each other, it's all shitty and it's also all true. Yeah.
And it's just like at a fever pitch in this scene. Not a nice person.
No.

Speaker 1 She's doing something here that I found very, I don't have a Jaclyn Lemon specifically in my life, but just I found this very recognizable. The person who is like 100%.

Speaker 1 Just basically believes their own hype and their own lies and their own bullshit. They're like to to be in my orbit and they're always right.
Yeah. Like she just genuinely has convinced herself

Speaker 1 that everything about the way that she has conducted herself is like completely

Speaker 1 in her orbit. There's a projection going around at that point.
My wife pointed this out during episode seven.

Speaker 1 They, and I think it's intentional, made Michelle Monaghan not look as good in episode seven as she looked in previous episodes, but Carrie Kuhn's character looked better. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And I feel like it's... Carrie Kuhn's hair was sleeker.
The red dress looked better. Michelle Monaghan looks like a mess by the end of this episode.

Speaker 1 Well, she's still

Speaker 1 like,

Speaker 1 but she's wearing like boxers in a robe. You know, like it's slightly, she's slightly more lorry outfit than she's been.
Lori, right? She looks more normal. But I thought that was notable.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I agree. Because Michelle Monaghan was starting to get that Faye Dunaway mommy dearest kind of look to her by the end of this episode.

Speaker 1 You know what else she did that I hate

Speaker 1 when people do? It's like she started the ship, but then she's acting like the calm one. She's starting to like, are you, what are you getting so heated about? I feel like

Speaker 1 you did something shitty and I'm the problem.

Speaker 1 I loved when Kate was like, you're not, you're not mad about Valentin. And you could have hooked up with Valentin.
I'm not mad about Jacqueline, though. Yeah.
I could have hooked up with Valentin.

Speaker 1 Chose to marry Brian, chose to take that shitty job where she's not a partner. Tough one for Brian.
You always choose the short stick. Is that bad luck or are you life's victim?

Speaker 1 Are you doing it to yourself? Incredibly fucked up. Really, really happy in your life.
Really pointed.

Speaker 1 Jesus. Later, Kate saying, I feel bad, but I guess you don't.
So great stuff. Great stuff.
So then Laura's response is, you're always fake and friendly that your life is perfect.

Speaker 1 And you're vain and selfish. Yeah.
Yep. All true.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And then she goes to the fight.

Speaker 1 I also loved her fight, like her fight look. The like stripy pants and the t-shirt.

Speaker 1 Huge, huge winner this episode. Looks great.
Greg Gary's party.

Speaker 1 Vicki comes in. It's a cult.

Speaker 1 Chelsea and Saxon. That's going to be you in 30 years.
Not a nice person. Why are you so mean to me? Yeah.
Not a nice. Saxon showing a heart.
Oh, yeah. His baby feelings are.
Saxon is feelings.

Speaker 1 It's growing. Why are you being so mean to me? Yeah.
Right here. I'm a human being like you.
I just got jerked off by my brother two days ago. I'm going through some stuff.

Speaker 1 Schwarzenegger gave a great interview on the official pottery. He was talking about how the log line for his character was Southern Finance Bro who likes to flirt.

Speaker 1 And then Mike White's White's like, we need to really make sure that people don't hate this guy. Like he needs to be like enjoyable to watch.
Not a worry, Mike. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Mike, we were on board the whole time.

Speaker 1 But that also like that, that because Saxon's on this arc of change, this growth arc inside of the season, that he kept trying to like. rush that.

Speaker 1 And Mike White's like, no, we've only been here a few days. Like we want a realistic, this is just a few days of growth for Saxon.
So we still have miles to go and piles of books to read.

Speaker 1 We've got some incest that we've got to sprinkle in.

Speaker 1 But like we're on a very like slow growth journey. And yeah, putting him, making him vulnerable, making him all these other things has, yes, engaged my interest.
What did you really think of

Speaker 1 in that conver, in that conversation, because Saxon kind of volleys back, right? And he's like, well, you know, you're, you're dating this, this old bald dude with a bunch of money.

Speaker 1 How's that any different? What is another shot at Goggins' hair? Goggins' hair is a big loser this season.

Speaker 1 It looks great, but it has come up quite a bit. You're right.
What did you think of Chelsea saying? Because she's like, that's not the reason I'm with him. And Saxon asked what the appeal is.

Speaker 1 And she says, the first day we met, he told me his whole life story. And I just knew we were meant to be together.
Now we know that

Speaker 1 not true. Very key part because

Speaker 1 the season of television, which means mere days ago in their three-year relationship, he told her the most important thing about his life.

Speaker 1 So is this a lie she's telling herself that I know this person? Yes. Or is it she sees the good and

Speaker 1 truth? Yeah. But if she's, if she just wants to fix him, it's a yin yang battle.
Saxon's right there and he's like, fix me.

Speaker 1 Could be another yin-yang battle for her.

Speaker 1 There's a limit. Ride or die.
Rick and Chelsea, ride or die. I hope Saxon goes home and finds his own Chelsea.
I want that for him. Yes.
But he can't take Rick's Chelsea. That's how I feel about that.

Speaker 1 If she's home, Hope and Rick is pain and eventually one of them will win. I think we're going to find out the winner in episode eight.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's got to be hope. I sure will.
Saxon talks to dad for an answer.

Speaker 1 Everything's fine.

Speaker 1 I found that scene completely heartbreaking as a success. I don't have anything else but this.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I put all my whole life in your basket.
Yeah. If I'm not a success, then I'm nothing.
Now, interestingly, we've heard the other character who we've heard say, like, I'm nothing.

Speaker 1 is Rick, but he was, he was kind of saying it, I think that was episode three to Amrita, right? Like as like a, almost an embrace. We had a really interesting

Speaker 1 email from a listener who was talking about the way in which Westerners, when they try to embrace Buddhism,

Speaker 1 that they're set the American specifically idea of like the individual and how important the individual is.

Speaker 1 And then, as we as we learned in last week's episode, we are but a mere drop of water in a large ocean and we will return to that ocean.

Speaker 1 It's counter to that idea of individualism and how a lot of Westerners ingest that idea the wrong way and don't really take it to mean what it's supposed to mean.

Speaker 1 And so I think this idea that like Saxon is like, I'm nothing. I'm nothing, but that's actually like a step in the right direction.

Speaker 1 And when he says, I could be someone else if I wanted to Chelsea, like, this is a step in the right direction. That was great.
And it's like, no blender this episode for him. That was so hard.

Speaker 1 I am more concerned than I've ever been about the poison fruit. Here's my trait to you.
It's from our listener, Ben. I'm calling this section, will it Blend?

Speaker 1 And he says the fruit. You can't blend the season in the body.
He says the fruit in question,

Speaker 1 the cerebral mangus, it looks like a mango, but inside it is not fleshy like a mango. It's corky inside like cork.
It floats. It is indeed called the suicide tree all the way to the South Pacific.

Speaker 1 What is poisonous is the white latex, which comes out when you score, slice the outer skin. There's certainly no way to blend the fruit.

Speaker 1 Could you like grate it, peel it?

Speaker 1 I feel like Tim Ratliffe ended the episode looking for the gun and not finding it. And now he's going to find a way to make up poisonous moods.

Speaker 1 For the first time, I'm out on the blender theory. Are you officially out on the monkeys as well? No, I'm always holding on for the monkeys.

Speaker 1 Couldn't Mike White just pretend that the good thing doesn't exist? He definitely could. How would we know? Yeah.
Unless it's like

Speaker 1 a crazy reader on Chat GPT.

Speaker 1 Can I do one more quick fact check only? Because I've gotten ceaseless emails about this.

Speaker 1 Charlotte Bond, Charlotte LeBond is not Simon LeBond's daughter. Oh.
so it was a lot of people. The TR people about that.
Was it CR who lied to you? Who lied to you about that? Yeah.

Speaker 1 So it sounds like CR's work. Yeah, it was CR.

Speaker 1 Sounds like CR's work, but we don't know for sure.

Speaker 1 I'm so disappointed. What did you like? What did you think about the meta? You know, I'll always be seen by everyone else as Timothy Ratliff's son.
And I'm okay with that, right?

Speaker 1 It was very mega-related. Yeah, very like meta Nepo baby.
Like, I like that. I thought that was great.
And he had a lot of emotional heft behind delivering that line.

Speaker 1 But then, of course, how can we not think back to in the phone securing manipulation scene in episode three when Tim was saying, and again, he was doing this deliberately to get the phones, but like, we both know how gratifying work is, right?

Speaker 1 That scene. And he was like, we got to have something else to offer.
And even though it was a game,

Speaker 1 watching Saxon move to the point of actually confronting the fact that he doesn't feel like he has anything else to offer has been, I think, quite compelling.

Speaker 1 And then to see the way Tim has now, when he is engaging in his latest,

Speaker 1 what's the term? For the person who kills their entire family? Oh, and Family Annihilator. Family Annihilator Daydream.
Disturbing term. Disturbing term.
He's now added Saxon into that, right?

Speaker 1 He sees himself shooting Vicky and then Saxon comes in and shooting him because he's now carrying this exchange with Saxon.

Speaker 1 He had the prior line from Vicky about how she wouldn't want to go on living. And now he has Saxon saying, like,

Speaker 1 without... Without our professional success, like, what do I have?

Speaker 1 And so he feels like he has not only destroyed his own life and legacy, but that he has left his family like unequipped to find any purpose or meaning in their lives.

Speaker 1 And so, for Saxon through Chelsea or whatever, to like work toward a different state of being, I think, is really interesting and cool.

Speaker 1 He's sitting with his feelings. He didn't hear, he didn't hear, he wasn't at the monastery, he didn't hear that line about sitting with his feelings, but he's actually doing it.
Good for him.

Speaker 1 I liked your meta Arnold Schwarzenegger thing. I agree.
One other thing at the party, Vicki. Yes.
Tries to get one of the young pretties out of the restaurant of the old guy.

Speaker 1 Just come to North Carolina.

Speaker 1 I just think they're putting in scenes just so Parker Posey can cook for like 90 seconds. This was really funny.

Speaker 1 I support it. You have a lot of money.
You can't ask that.

Speaker 1 Also at the party, Greg Gary offers Belinda 100K.

Speaker 1 Tanya always talked about you a lot.

Speaker 1 I mean, that's interesting because it must be true for him to know this whole story. That's interesting to know about Tanya because I kind of was extremely.
She's really excited to help you.

Speaker 1 Was she? I kind of expected that when Tanya left the White Lotus, she never talked about Belinda again. But it seems like she has to have talked about her son for Greg Gary to know this story.

Speaker 1 I doubt that Belinda ever told Greg Gary really any of the story for more than like 10 seconds. I think to me, that's like more deplorable.
She was such a narcissist.

Speaker 1 I can't imagine her being aware of that. And that's why I think she did it because she would spend all her time saying, I made this connection with this person.

Speaker 1 She gave me this wonderful head massage. It was really transformative.
I should have done it. I should have given her the money.
I should have invested. I feel bad.
I wish I'd done it.

Speaker 1 And what was stopping her? Absolutely nothing.

Speaker 1 And Greg Gary's like, someday I'm going to murder you and then stay at another hotel chain as I hide away that's related to the same hotel where I've heard you.

Speaker 1 Definitely not Simon LeBond's daughter.

Speaker 1 I knew she'd want me to spend the rest of my years in peace. He's just full of shit.
Banda gets out of there. I wasn't that interested.
Chloe wants Saxon to stay for Gary Threesa.

Speaker 1 You have my interest back. Astonishing scene.
Astonishing scene. I'm not sure what porn search this is, but

Speaker 1 it's definitely sounds like it's a porn search. No, it's it's can we pretend to be me as a little kid watching my parents have sex? And then I'll be the grown up.

Speaker 1 I'll be the grown-up little kid and you'll pretend to be the parents. This was like a fucked up.
It's a combination at a pole elector complex

Speaker 1 in the blender together. Mike White, it's like, is this like, this is maybe why he doesn't need a writer's room because he can just come up with this

Speaker 1 can you come up with this maybe you don't need help okay well let me ask you guys i think so this seems

Speaker 1 true or at least partially true um but are we sure i don't understand it at all okay

Speaker 1 are we sure that this is true and not still just a ploy to lure Saxon into a vulnerable vulnerable position so that he could get his vengeance?

Speaker 1 Because there is yet again again another lie that we know is a lie. Like he, Greg Gary tells.
This whole thing's a lie. Greg Gary, right, Greg Gary tells Chloe,

Speaker 1 Tanya and I never had sex. But that is again not true.

Speaker 1 And we know it's not true because we see them have sex many times, including the possibly still this day, best moment in the history of the show where they're having sex in season two.

Speaker 1 And then Tanya has her like, as she says, I disassociated. And she starts to see his eyes.
And he looks like a shark. and then she just pushes him off i mean but what's true is that

Speaker 1 what's true is that he did not want to have sex with her certainly and i but the way that i like the way that translates it to chloe is a lie is a lie but i like the idea that

Speaker 1 the reason that he didn't want to have sex with her is that he was unable to talk about what he needed from a sexual situation because it is this

Speaker 1 up you know so i feel like tanya would have been like whatever you want my guy i think tanya would have been good with it i mean she would have been good about things well um gary needs Saxon to fuck Chloe while he watches.

Speaker 1 I believe this. What's sad is I immediately thought of what Mallory's reaction was watching this and how she couldn't be more excited to talk about this on the pod.
So, what do you think?

Speaker 1 Saxon, not into it. Helping Gary, helping Gary, helping Gary.
Saxon, he's like, I, you know, it's literally just been a day since my brother jerked me off. Yeah, I'm doing a lot.
Lot for this week.

Speaker 1 I'm going to pass. I'm still processing.
I'm not going to boner anymore. I can't do it.
I really love that Chelsea's like, sorry.

Speaker 1 Oh, I thought Chelsea's faces were great. Like, she seemed hopeful.
Yeah, but she's like, this would be really cool if you did this for Gary. She's like, looking back and forth.

Speaker 1 It didn't work out. Sorry.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 I'm going to unveil my Patrick Schwarzenegger impersonation. Okay.
Ready?

Speaker 1 Good. Have to have good posture.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 What? No.

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 1 What? No. The what no, recurring what no is the one.

Speaker 1 He's like, does a what no. He does.
That's one of his moves. Yeah.
But we cut back.

Speaker 1 Don't sleep on this part. Gary just kind of watching.
Yeah. Super creepy.
Well, kind of like, hey, guess. Either plotting murder or really genuinely into it.

Speaker 1 This is the sitting position I'll be in as I watch the two of you have sex before eventually pretending I'm upset about it. He has to be leaning.
I think he has to be leaning against the doorframe.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I think that's clear.
He can't be sitting comfortably. He needs to be leaning against the doorframe watching dad go to town on mom.
Saxon wouldn't even consider it. No, he left.
He whatnot it.

Speaker 1 He's like, oh, I found my limit. Here it is.

Speaker 1 Meanwhile, the Buddhist complex wasn't that exciting. Well, what, what is going on here? Okay, so first of all, okay, so what's clear is this? Piper goes, the food sucks.

Speaker 1 The bed's uncomfortable. She can hear the dripping water.

Speaker 1 We're done by the, she's done by the end of the day. Yeah, this is everything that Victoria wanted.

Speaker 1 Vic is praying against it. He didn't even have to pray.
This is everything Victoria wanted. Piper's done.

Speaker 1 I don't know that I have a full read on her weird reaction to Lachlan. I understand why Lachlan wants to stay.
Lachlan's like, I never want to go home. Because guess what?

Speaker 1 I jerked off my brother, and that's disturbing. So I'm going to live here forever.

Speaker 1 Did you catch a whiff of sexual attention, or was I so scarred by the side?

Speaker 1 Rob was worried that they were going to go there.

Speaker 1 Because he's shirtless and he's like, I want to stay with you. And I, for a split second, I was like, no, no, please don't.
Is that what you think?

Speaker 1 Like, because Piper's going to be a little bit more than that. No, it faded away.
She was grossed.

Speaker 1 What is Piper's like

Speaker 1 reaction? What is that? I, I, What I read in that was like, first of all, we've gone from the two, from, from the tug of, the Lockheed tug of war, right? Saxon and Piper warring for his

Speaker 1 loyalty, his presence, his soul, to now everyone's like,

Speaker 1 what? Get no. I don't want to share this much with you, whether it's life at the monastery or a hand job during sex with Chloe, whatever the case may be.

Speaker 1 What I read in that in Piper's response to Locky was like,

Speaker 1 okay. And this is, this is obviously in the same mix as like the dripping water pipe and the food and all the other stuff.
No conversation with the people around her.

Speaker 1 How much of this is genuine commitment, belief, interest? And how much of it has always just been, I will be the rebel. I will be the one.
I'm the zagger.

Speaker 1 Yeah, in my family who does something different. And you do it too.
That's Lockheed.

Speaker 1 Exactly. As soon as Zaki does it, it's like not bold of her to make the, to stake her claim to being the one that's going to be.
That's next to me.

Speaker 1 That's the one way to zag on everybody. I mean,

Speaker 1 it's by Gary. I think that's like, what's Gary's OnlyFans? I mean,

Speaker 1 my God. Gary has the worst OnlyFans.
He has no subscribers. I hold this idea of like, then again, thinking about the boat home.
Yeah. Thinking about Saxon as like, we start, we go there

Speaker 1 to the island and Piper's got her nose in a book. And what if we go home and Saxon's reading a book and Piper's far as far away from life as a monastery as she's ever been? You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Where she's like, the food sucks. Yep.
Bed's uncomfortable. Because I was dripping.
I don't like it. Not a lot of evidence that Piper is a good hang.
I just want to point that out, too.

Speaker 1 I can't disagree. Yeah.
No, not, yeah. Not really sure what she cares about other than trying to zag against her family, but being committed to it for about 18 hours.

Speaker 1 I mean, this is a huge, huge win for Vicky. Yeah, big L for Piper.
Huge L for Piper. Huge win for Vicki.

Speaker 1 Remember when Lachlan said to Saxon in episode five, but what if this life is just a test to see if we can become better people? And Saxon said, No, what? What? No.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 Mook and Guy Talk, we covered the fight,

Speaker 1 the Russian show up, which was, I guess, we should have mentioned this sooner. This is the other big thing we learned this episode.
We were guessing this for five episodes.

Speaker 1 Nihilistically, I did not like this either. Like us going into

Speaker 1 flashbacks, flashback mind. I hate that.
I hate an in-episode flashback. I remember.
It's like, this was... That's true.
If it's 22 episodes, I can see it.

Speaker 1 I mean, it was, they did enough to, it's clearly guy talk, remembering and piecing together the, you know, the dots. So, like, that's fine.
But kind of like, I don't know, we remember. We know.

Speaker 1 We don't need you to hold ourselves. I did forget the, I forgot the Valentine

Speaker 1 on the motorcycle as like inside man. I forgot that part.
So I did need the flashback for that. So Laurie also saw the loot, right? She saw the stash during her bare-assed escape.

Speaker 1 I had an issue. That was another small nitpick.
I think the loot's in a bag or something. You're just going to leave it out on it or sold already, right? Pawned off for coins.

Speaker 1 Well, so Guy Talk realizes it's them. Yes.
So now he's in the shooting zone. Greg Gary might be shooting somebody.
Rick's looking for, or Tim's looking for a gun from anybody.

Speaker 1 Sitala and Scott Glenn and the bodyguards might be coming back because they know

Speaker 1 Gargans is staying there. He's on the fucking clock to get back to the White Lotus if he's going to play a role in the shootout.
Yeah. As are the bodyguards.

Speaker 1 And he threw out his gun. He threw out his gun.
Here's my question. He did this.
Yeah. He knocked.
Okay, maybe.

Speaker 1 No, I'm still a Rick and Chelsea believer, but if I'm Rick, I'm hightailing it back to the White Lotus immediately. And I'm like, pack your bags, we got to go.
Right.

Speaker 1 I knocked an old man over in his chair. Yes.
You know what I mean? And we're staying at his hotel. Yes.
Yes. You can't stay in the city where you just did this thing.

Speaker 1 And you definitely cannot stay at the hotel where Cita Lucky goes. And you can't even give Chelsea a call.
She's doing the Packer style.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Maybe at the airport.

Speaker 1 Again, he's terrible at this. Rick and Gary are that meeting in Bangkok.
Terrible.

Speaker 1 I wish it had been the whole episode. You're sober, right? Sober, yeah.
That ship sailed.

Speaker 1 I love Rockwell. Yeah.
Rockwell's incredible. Rick is like, this is part of why I just want,

Speaker 1 I actually am also genuinely all jokes aside, I am still rooting for Rick and Chelsea, and I want hope to win and the hope of paying yin-yang. But Rick is a bad friend to Frank here.

Speaker 1 Dragging your friend out of sobriety and celibacy for your own gain and feeling zero remorse about it is shitty. And he's a terrible boyfriend.
Counter, here are my notes.

Speaker 1 Sam Rockwell, MVP, let's fucking party. Strip chats and shots.
Carcane crack for naked ladies. Rick sits there peaceful.
That's is your font always that big? No, I made it. I made it bigger.

Speaker 1 CR-esque for the camera. Incredibly compelling television, but he's not a kind and generous person.

Speaker 1 So if he, if that's his arc and he learns to to be more giving to other people, now that he has some peace with him. Rick's still a good guy.

Speaker 1 The only person who thinks Rick's a good guy is that one lady who did the spiritual massage with him. Yeah, yeah.
That's it. She's the only one who brings it at this point.

Speaker 1 By the way, maybe Rick should stay there and live with her and then Chelsea can be with Saxon. Guys, they can blend some drinks.

Speaker 1 Saxon has a lot of growing to do. It's true.
He does. He's just starting.
Blending and Zion. We don't know how that's going to turn out.
Do you agree? Do you think that she's going to take the money?

Speaker 1 Or are you going to save that for predictions?

Speaker 1 Let's save for predictions.

Speaker 1 So we see them arguing. We see Jackie and Kate.
That's mine. I'll be the bad guy.
I'm used to it. We see Saxon and Chelsea meditating, trying to teach better ways.

Speaker 1 Hand on the hand. Chelsea starts feeling little tinglies.
Yep. Oh, yeah.
Oh, we got to end this now. I got to call Rick.
Yeah. Eighth time she said that.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Throws the books at him. We see Vicky.
Genuinely hilarious. He takes them.

Speaker 1 Vicky praying for Piper, Piper waking up, and then Carrie Koon.

Speaker 1 We finally got the really, really out there Carrie-Koon sex scene. Knew that was coming in one of these episodes.
Incredible. Ask her for money, 10K, maybe sees the thing, runs out, dick slap.

Speaker 1 And then Tim Ratliff goes to grab the gun, and he's gone. And that's our episode.
So we can get to predictions.

Speaker 1 What do you got? Unlike Guy Talk,

Speaker 1 Tim acknowledges the possibility that the gun could have been in one of several drawers

Speaker 1 inside of that thing. So things to be interested in going forward.
Yes. A,

Speaker 1 when does Guy Talk cash in the Russians? I know who did the robbery, so we got that. Yeah.
Two, how does Rick get back?

Speaker 1 How does he get his stuff and how does he get the fuck out of the white Lotus?

Speaker 1 Three, Belinda and Greg Gary. Yeah.
Four, are the fancies even going to make it one more day altogether? Yeah.

Speaker 1 And then they've already booked an earlier flight back to Austin. Piper and Maki

Speaker 1 leaving the

Speaker 1 beautist place. Does Locky stay? What's going to happen happen with that? What else are we interested in heading into this last episode?

Speaker 1 Will Victoria ever show signs of Loraz of him withdrawal?

Speaker 1 Never.

Speaker 1 What's on Tim's phone when he gets it back? Or does he get it back? Is Tim off the hook?

Speaker 1 Is Tim off the hook? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Do we think this is the last day, White Lotus, or is it the last day just because we're going to have a shootout?

Speaker 1 Well, this is Friday night, right? Because again, the last four episodes have just been two days. So,

Speaker 1 yeah.

Speaker 1 I guess the

Speaker 1 if it were me and there's a shootout at the resort, that's the last day for me. Yeah.
Checking out. Yeah, you're leaving after that.
I'd say so. So

Speaker 1 with all the gunshots, it makes me wonder. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Again, not only have we not seen the episode, I haven't heard anything. You have the two bodyguards coming back to find Rick.
Yes. You have the Russians who robbed the place.

Speaker 1 So you have two sides that we know are going to have guns.

Speaker 1 Rick does not have his gun. He puts it in the game.
And maybe that's the shootout?

Speaker 1 The Russians versus the staff. I think I would be shocked if Guy Talk is not involved.
Guy Talk

Speaker 1 shooting at the Russians. Unless he holds

Speaker 1 bodyguards come, they get into it. And now it's like almost like a Tarantino freeway.
He's a human night, right? He hates them and has from the beginning. So like, what if

Speaker 1 he knows the Russians? Yes. are the villains.
He does, right? In the tradition of like,

Speaker 1 right, so that that's yes. So like in the the tradition of characters making a mistake, it would be interesting if

Speaker 1 the Hollinger bodyguards came to find Rick, not to kill him or hurt him, but to be like,

Speaker 1 can you come back so that you guys can finish that conversation? He's your dad. But Guy Talk sees them pursuing a guest.
Here's Fabian in his head being like, your job is to protect the hotel.

Speaker 1 Here's Mook in his head saying.

Speaker 1 I thought you were more ambitious and like tries to protect a guest at the hotel and pulls out his gun. But the

Speaker 1 guy talks about

Speaker 1 that I can be violent.

Speaker 1 Yeah. But the worst thing that's chasing down Rick being like, he's your dude.

Speaker 1 Come talk. Come talk.
Not about revealing that, but be like,

Speaker 1 that they're actually there.

Speaker 1 Not actually saying that, but that they're doing that. No guarantee is in a brainstorm, Miss David.
That is what Jacobi is saying. They're there to like basically, not for a violent reason.

Speaker 1 But just the fact that they're there is mistaken by all parties as violent intent. Counter.
Yeah. The security guards are there.
Guy Talk tries to confront Valentin

Speaker 1 and the Russians, and

Speaker 1 he has to decide whether he's going to draw or not. Yes.
You think doesn't? Because he believes he stands by his. I'm like, fuck Mook.
You know what I mean? Go back to episode one, though.

Speaker 1 Our guy Zion getting him wherever he was going on. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Gunshot. No noise for like 10 seconds.

Speaker 1 Another gunshot. Yeah.
And then gunshots. Yes.
So the first shot could be Guy Talk getting shot.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.
Oh, Joanna just got bummed out.

Speaker 1 And then the security guard shooting at the Russian back, and then we get a shootout. And then Rick's just diving in front of the bullets, hoping to get hit by one.
Not Rick, Tim. Time's fine.

Speaker 1 Tim's just diving.

Speaker 1 He's like, hey, both of them. He's going to take a bullet for Chelsea.

Speaker 1 That would be great. Rick takes a bullet for Chelsea.
And that way we get to celebrate both his commitment to her and her new budding relationship with Saxon. That would be ideal.

Speaker 1 Her impending nuptials with that would be ideal. Can I tell you something I'm concerned about? Yes.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 In an interview,

Speaker 1 oh no. Interview corner.
Lisa, who plays a MOOC, they were talking about how sometimes you have to fight for your love. Okay.
And I didn't know what that meant. That was like several episodes ago.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I don't know what that means.
And I don't know if, like, in their view or in someone's view, it is

Speaker 1 good for Guy Talk to show some macho masculinity. Right.
I think us watching at home are like, don't do it. Don't do it.
Yeah, don't do it. Don't do it.

Speaker 1 And especially because that would be a contrast to what many of the characters do, especially if Piper, if Vicki's right, and Piper leaves the monastery and is like, actually, I am going back home to just live my life, whatever happens with him aside.

Speaker 1 That's her decision. Absent that.
Mom, can I have one of your Lores panels?

Speaker 1 She's the Rachel character from season one, then, right? She spends the whole season talking about the thing she wants, the thing that's different. Why can't the people around me understand?

Speaker 1 Yeah, like why I have some sort of like moral integrity and fiber that is like separate from the trappings of money and status and class and then just gets like actually i do want to hold on to that and

Speaker 1 guy talk saying no like this is a thing i believe i'm not

Speaker 1 gonna compromise the actual like truth of my life would be very

Speaker 1 important and satisfying to see. But then if he died, like or got shot, what would the message of that be? Very sad.

Speaker 1 That would be deeply, deeply deeply tragic what if they kill guy talk off because he's the most boring character on the show just take him out

Speaker 1 belinda part of part of this too right

Speaker 1 if she walks off with the money yeah but like then there's honestly okay i want to be clear you know gary killed tanya it would not be the right thing to take the money and like let him live the rest of his life to be clear however

Speaker 1 why should belinda be the one person like she says like can i get like one fucking break in my entire life like why? Yeah. Why shouldn't Belinda benefit from this fucking shit show around her?

Speaker 1 All take the money she was due from Tanya in the first place. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Like when Rachel was in the spa at the end of season one and was like, oh, can I just sit here and cry to you about how sad my life is?

Speaker 1 And Belinda walked out and was like, you want my like time, my advice? Like, I'm fresh out. It's maybe time for her to be the one who does that.

Speaker 1 That would be interesting, but also, but what I like of some moral integrity.

Speaker 1 What I like about that is that Mike White has said that like her character is supposed to be the moral compass of the show but what if it's like is there a moral compass is there even a moral compass and maybe is it guy talk who's not shooting i'm just rooting for him and i don't think he should be with mook because mook wants some doesn't want mook doesn't like him for who he is mook might need saxon let's just set saxon up maybe they have to dating

Speaker 1 maybe saxon needs to spend some time with saxon yeah do you know what i mean he needs to sit with his feelings exactly one more it's not totally a prediction but i'm throwing it out there are we sure the three fancies are all making it to the end of this episode that not one of them is going to leave early?

Speaker 1 Could we get a leave early? Oh, I'd love to hear that. Like they wake up and Jacqueline's just gone with some fake excuse.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 I had to go back. They need me on set.
And it's just Kate.

Speaker 1 Enjoy your flights. You're a coach this time.
Yeah, no, seriously. Yeah.
Yeah. You have three connections.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 I got out a day early. We'll have to leave a day early and I've already left.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 You guys can get back yourself. Yeah, I can see.
I don't think she wants them to see her sweat, to see that she was flustered by the encounter at all.

Speaker 1 Like, she's not cutting her vacation a day short for them. I don't know.
I kind of like the idea where she's just like, oh, Harrison needed me. I had to go.
You need Harrison. They're addicted to me.

Speaker 1 She's like a short note. Talk to you soon.
T-T-Y-L. Love Jackie.

Speaker 1 All right. So things I want in this episode.
Love Jackie.

Speaker 1 Other than somebody watching her show on their hotel room TV.

Speaker 1 Where it's like CSI, CSI. You'll have to wait for a bonus episode between seasons, I think.
CSI, Seattle. What is it?

Speaker 1 What what is the yellow jacket show repo divorce a repo divorce days is great that sounds great uh any last predictions before we go

Speaker 1 i don't know 90 minute episode is kind of exciting um

Speaker 1 i'm just i'm just really invested in sex and i never saw that coming guys what a win i hope you feel great about your story i feel like the season was a success on that sex and hive has grown i mean Schwarzenegger.

Speaker 1 Proud to be a founding member. Nepo Baby is totally vindicated.
This is great.

Speaker 1 Any last predictions, Mal? I think we covered a lot of them.

Speaker 1 He's your dad.

Speaker 1 I am.

Speaker 1 I don't think they will shout. Security guards.
I am. I'm really.

Speaker 1 I'm processing that you can't blend

Speaker 1 the poison seed pods into a smoothie. That's a hit for Theory Corner, definitely.
I would love for Tim to try.

Speaker 1 The physical comedy of Lorazapam Tim, rattling Tim, trying to shove some quirky fruit into the blender, breaking it and being like, Pam,

Speaker 1 Blender's broken, Pam. And then she comes to fix the blender and gives him his phone, and he sees that he's off the hook.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Well, if it's hard to blend, maybe, maybe he starts blending it, and the blender

Speaker 1 does a spasm and knocks him out with the death by blender, physical blender. Death by blender.
Oh. Death by blender.
Death by blender.

Speaker 1 Are any of these people going to leave episode eight in any kind of a happy place? Saxon. Saxon.
I think he's. I'll see.

Speaker 1 Chelsea, maybe.

Speaker 1 Chelsea and Rick, I believe.

Speaker 1 I think Rick's dead at the end of this next episode. You think Rick is dead? I think he is dead.
Do you think he's the body floating towards Zion that we saw at the beginning? I think. I don't know.

Speaker 1 Zion wouldn't know who he is, though. I think it would have to be somebody Zion knew.

Speaker 1 Or at least that interacted with him. I don't think it's horrific enough to like find a dead body.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And also he wasn't. I don't except the way he looked at it.
I thought he knew who it was. That's not worry.
No, I thought the opposite.

Speaker 1 I thought he was like, because otherwise he would have been like, like, mom. Oh, no.
But who knows?

Speaker 1 I guess I would run from a body pretty quickly. Most disappointing deaths would be Frank.

Speaker 1 Frank's not coming back to back in the Lotus. Frank's not coming back to the Lotus.
He's going to live forever. He's fine.

Speaker 1 Maybe he'll be the new

Speaker 1 current character. Have you heard the rumor that Rockwell's going to go for supporting rather than guests, which would be a mistake, I think.
Oh, interesting. Interesting.
What's has that a rumor?

Speaker 1 Where did you read that? I heard it on the streets. You heard it on the streets? I did.
So he's been in three episodes. Supporting is a little sexier, right? Yeah.

Speaker 1 If he has a supporting actor Emmy, that's sexier than guest actor Emmy. But he's got guest actor in the bag.
I would just take a question. You know?

Speaker 1 It's a tough one. He's my favorite person on the show.

Speaker 1 Leaving Sarmaflow aside, if you were to award one other Emmy for this season, who are you giving it to?

Speaker 1 Good question. I'm changing my answer to this question most of the season was either Jason Isaacs or Walton Goggins.

Speaker 1 And I think they've obviously both been wonderful, but the last couple episodes, I haven't gotten quite as much.

Speaker 1 I would go either Goggins. Patrick Swift.

Speaker 1 He's really good.

Speaker 1 I'd either go Goggins or what about Amy Lou? I think Amy Louise. I think Amy Lou is Amy Lou's got it.
Just dynamite. And

Speaker 1 I would not be surprised if Parker Posey got it off of memes alone, honestly. And she's wonderful in the show.
She would deserve it because these memes are going to be,

Speaker 1 as we've been talking about,

Speaker 1 these memes are going to be a part of our lives. So, Parker, decades to come, Parker Posey, Parker Posey and Lee, it's all arbitrary and White Lotus.
They're all, it's an ensemble.

Speaker 1 Parker Posey for lead. Yeah.
Amy and Lou for supporting, even though I think technically

Speaker 1 has a deer screen time. That would be a good Emmys category.
Meme of the year. And the nominees are.
They'd all be from White Lotus. Yeah.
The nominees are Rick being unable to believe.

Speaker 1 Tramel Tillman from Severance. Yeah, of course.
Yeah. Milchik, meme lord, milchuk

Speaker 1 have you seen any milchuk memes though you must have i've seen the memes but i don't know what they mean yeah well sad well i have many hours of podcasts you can listen to i know

Speaker 1 i know

Speaker 1 um well i'm sad we're this is the last time we actually had to prepare for a podcast

Speaker 1 i'm gonna miss it but next week we'll go live if we have to where's that rose uh

Speaker 1 rose ready to go so we'll be we'll be right after that show somehow we don't know how if we can get screeners even better but i will see you next week. Thanks to the crew.

Speaker 1 As always, don't forget, bring our dash TV.

Speaker 1 And then Joe's got the deep dive with Rob. Can't wait for that one as always.
And I'll see you next week.