The White Lotus season 3 sees a new batch of ultra-wealthy guests heading to a luxury hotel on the sunny shores of Koh Samui in Thailand.
The White Lotus season 3 recaps
But, once again, they’re about to see their trip of a lifetime descend into a living nightmare as the series opens with a flash forward where we see at least one character meet a grisly end.
The holidaymakers this time around include successful businessman Timothy and his family, while actor Jaclyn has brought her two best friends to the resort for a much-needed girls’ catch-up. Then there is free spirit Chelsea, who arrives with her tetchy boyfriend Rick. But as each resort guest finds their holiday thrown off course, who will make it home from the vacation in one piece?
Here is everything that happens in The White Lotus season 3 episode 4…
The fourth episode opens with Jaclyn leaving a voicemail for her boyfriend, who isn’t returning her calls. She asks him to ring her back, but she doesn’t sound very hopeful.
Belinda is speaking to her son, Zion, on the phone, he has just finished his final exams and is at the airport ready to fly out and meet her in Thailand. She is excited to see him, and when she hangs up she nears the odd tapping noise in her room again that she also heard the night before.
Tim is still struggling with the enormity of his money laundering fallout that is playing out at home, and his family still has no idea what he is hiding. He takes more of his wife, Victoria’s anti-anxiety medication, and when she asks the kids if someone has stolen some as she knows they’re missing, they all deny it and Tim keeps quiet.
Rick and Chelsea are having dinner and they talk about the fact he is going to Bangkok that night and won’t make it onto Gary and Chloe’s boat trip. Chelsea cries about the fact Rick is abandoning her and won’t tell her why, and he relents and agrees to go on the boat before his flight that evening.
Jaclyn, Kate and Laurie are having breakfast and, missing her boyfriend and cross he isn’t ringing her back, Jaclyn tells her friends they should skip yoga and pool lounging that day and find somewhere with a bit more excitement. They ask health mentor Valentin if there is somewhere with music and dancing, and he says he knows exactly where they should go and promises to organize a car for them.
Elsewhere Gaitok’s meeting with his boss takes a surprise turn when he tells him there has been an increase in crime on the island and he now wants him to carry a gun. It is clear Gaitok’s not overly happy about this, especially when his boss tells him to practice at the shooting range that evening after work when Gaitok had promised to watch Mook dancing in the after-dinner entertainment slot.
Amrita corners Rick after breakfast and asks him if he would like another session, but he turns her down. She tells him he has touched her heart and she knows that he can turn his life around, and he seems surprised.
The Ratliff family arrives for their trip with Gary and Chloe and introductions are made. When Victoria asks Gary what his line of work was before he retired, he is evasive, clearly not wanting to share. Chloe is thrilled they have guests and shows them to the bar as Chelsea and Rick arrive, who are shocked to see the boat is so huge.
Tim pretends he needs to use the bathroom but instead sneaks downstairs on the boat to find Victoria’s handbag. He takes more of her medication before stealing the lot and putting it in his pocket.
At the beach club, Jaclyn’s hopes of letting her hair down fall flat when she realizes that everyone else at the resort is over retirement age. She is fuming that Valentin has recommended this place to them and tells Kate and Laurie to get their stuff, becasue they’re leaving!
On the boat Gary is getting drunk while his guests party, and Piper takes her brother, Lachlan to one side, telling him she needs his backup later becasue she is going to tell their parents at dinner that after she graduates she is moving to Thailand to stay at the meditation center. She says she is going to live there for at least a year, and Lachlan is upset that she lied to them all about wanting to come to Thailand to interview a monk for her thesis when really it was to scope out the meditation center and move there. As they’re talking, Saxon catches Lachlan’s eye and beckons him over. He is on a mission to get his little brother to lose his virginity and points out some women he thinks he should flirt with. Soon Lachlan is doing card tricks and impressing all the women.
Meanwhile, Victoria is worrying about Tim, telling him that he is acting strangely, not realizing that he is taking her medication and then drinking heavily at the same time. She goes to find her handbag and is shocked to see her tablets have gone.
Rick is his usual cagey self as other guests on the boat try and talk with him, and Chelsea has had enough of his grumpiness and takes him to one side. He eventually opens up when she asks him why they are in Thailand and he admits he’s there becasue the man who owns the hotel – Khun Jim Hollinger (Sritala’s husband) – murdered his father. He explains that he thought Jim was going to be here, but he’s had a stroke and is in a hospital in Bangkok. He tells Chelsea that he never got the chance to know his father, but that he was a good man and came to Thailand to help locals stop Americans from taking their land. One day he went missing and was never seen again, but Rick’s mother told him it was Jim who killed him. Chelsea is shocked and asks if he wants revenge by killing Jim, but Rick says he doesn’t know.
Laurie, Kate and Jaclyn go back to The White Lotus and find Valentin, telling him the place he recommended was rubbish and that he needs to take them somewhere better. They drag him out with him, even though he is meant to be working, and he takes them into town. As he heads off to get his friends to join them at a beach club, Jaclyn notices everyone in the street has water pistols and soon they are being soaked by the local kids.
Belinda talks to Pornchai about the fact she recognizes Gary (or as she knows him – Greg) from the night before, despite the fact he claimed not to know anyone called Tanya. Later, in her room, Belinda is still being bugged by the feeling something isn’t right with Gary, who she is convinced is Tanya’s husband. She googles Tanya and is stunned to learn she’s not only dead but also died in mysterious circumstances in Sicily. She is also horrified to read a news report about the fact Greg is wanted for questioning in connection with Tanya’s death, but that he has failed to get in touch with the authorities.
As the boat trip ends, Tim and Victoria can’t wait to get back on dry land, but Lachlan and Saxon tell their parents they are staying on the boat as they are sailing to another island with Chloe for a full moon party. Piper is cross that Lachlan won’t be there when she tells her parents about her move to the meditation center but her brothers head off for the party anyway. Chelsea tries to stop Rick from going to Bangkok, convinced he is going to do something stupid when he finds Jim, but he won’t listen and tells her to go to the full moon party with Chloe. Chloe is thrilled when Chelsea returns to the boat, especially becasue Gary refused to come to the party as he had ‘something to sort’ at home.
At the beach party Valentin arrives with his friends and Kate, Jaclyn and Laurie are happy their day finally seems to be looking up.
Tim is struggling at dinner when Victoria talks about what a good man he is in comparison to the tax dodgers and conmen that were on the boat trip. He makes his excuses to leave the table and goes to ask Pam for his phone back out of the safe. She tries to change his mind, but soon realizes he isn’t going to be swayed, and when he turns it on it pings continuously with missed calls and messages.
Tim calls his lawyer and he is fuming to find out his business partner has struck a deal with the police and has told them everything. His lawyer tells him he should also make a deal but Tim doesn’t want to as it means he will never work in finance again if he is linked to embezzlement and fraud. Tim tells his lawyer that he tried to move some cash around the night before, but his lawyer tells him they are well beyond that and the police will have frozen his assets already and that being linked to fraud is the least of his worries right now. Tim’s lawyer tells him that he is likely to lose everything, including his house, and is facing at least a few months in federal jail.
At the security office, Gaitok is looking at the gun he needs to learn to use when Mook turns up in her traditional dance costume and looks a million dollars. She asks him about his meeting but he is evasive and offers to walk her to the stage for her performance. But he forgets to lock the gun away and leaves it out on the desk in the security office.
As Tim gets off the phone with his lawyer he yells at him that he would rather be dead than tell his family they’re poor and that he is going to jail. As he hangs up Tim sees the gun that Gaitok left out, and when Gaitok gets back to the office he panics when he finds it gone.
At his huge house on the beach, Gary is looking up Belinda on social media, knowing that she has worked out who he is and could report him to the police. As he scrolls through her social media he sees a picture of her with her son, Zion, and is clearly plotting something bad.
The White Lotus season 3 airs in the US on Sundays at 9 pm ET/PT on HBO and Max. In the UK new episodes land on Sky Atlantic and NOW every Monday.