(Warning: Spoilers ahead)
Nothing is certain except death, taxes, and someone letting it all hang out on The White Lotus. Season 3 is no different, as the Ratliff family continues to be the source of nudity on Mike White’s luxury vacation hit.
Freud did say that “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar” but is a d--- just a d--- on The White Lotus? In the past, Theo James’ sizable (prosthetic) member was a source of temptation to tease a hook up that may or may not have happened. Whereas, Steve Zahn’s swollen testicles in the first season were a mid-life crisis and reckoning with mortality manifestation. It was this scene in the first ever episode that established The White Lotus full frontal bar.
Season 3 takes another approach to exposing all.
Yep, another full frontal moment is upon us once more and it isn’t genital-obsessed Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) stripping bare for once on the HBO series. Youngest sibling Lochlan (Sam Nivola) has previously struggled to avert his gaze from his brothers’ peachy behind, but he has no such issues when his father’s robe flops open. Apparently, underwear is optional in this clan.
The vaguely incesty undertones continue to percolate as Saxon’s quest to get his virgin brother laid intensifies. Taunting sister Piper’s (Sarah Catherine Hook, fresh off the horny step-sibling Cruel Intentions update) more demure—or prudish—approach to the world is another Saxon fixation. During yet another chapter of Saxon going full manosphere on his siblings, their spiraling patriarch, Tim (Jason Isaacs) forgets his state of undress because he is numbing the world using the lorazepam he stole from his wife. So far, so The White Lotus.
Unfortunately for Tim—who claims he is still jet lagged—the pills can’t drown out the sound of Saxon using the blender. Sex is Saxon’s number one preoccupation, with his protein shakes coming in a close second—making fun of his sister is at number three. Insisting that Lochlan chug the disgusting drink because it will give him “high-T and BDE” is all part of the alpha male persona Saxon is enforcing on the nerdy teen. Let Lochy read in peace, you monster!
Piper’s remarks about girls not being into “super jacked guys” prompts Saxon to lean into the worst (maybe only) parts of himself including overtly transphobic remarks, using terms like “gender goblins” while miming tucking his penis between his legs. Piper calls him a “walking dildo” in response to him referring to her as “agender, asexual.” Before he devolves into more bigotry, matriarch Victoria (Parker Posey) interrupts about a pressing issue: her missing pills.
If anyone in this expensive villa opened their eyes, they would immediately realize that Tim is dosed to the eyeballs. Throughout this scene, he sits with his legs spread and his half-closed official White Lotus robe, temporarily concealing the family jewels. But when Saxon mentions the exclusive country club back home, Tim, in his stupor, realizes that the elite community will learn of his financial scandal, prompting him to raise his arm in worry. In doing so, Tim unleashes a different kind of snake from the one that bit Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) last week.
Screams of horror erupting from Lochy and Piper alert Tim to his wardrobe malfunction, but not before his children and the audience have seen the whole flaccid package—prosthetic or not. Victoria and Saxon find it hilarious, while Piper keeps hiding her face. Who can blame her considering she was staring right down the barrel of this gun. Considering how much White likes symbolism, the shot of the three wise monkeys (an image used repeatedly with the Ratliff siblings) feels particularly pointed.
Tim is shedding his inhibitions in front of his family, even if he would sooner die than they find out they are “poor.” Hence, why Tim takes the gun security guard Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) didn’t lock up. Stealing a phallic shaped object to assert masculinity is Freud all over, but it isn’t going to bring Tim’s dignity back. Nor will it erase the image from Lochlan and Piper’s minds—no matter how much they meditate or drink.
