my white lotus recaps are back 👀🪷

and yes, i'm as disappointed as you about the missing theme song

thanks to my shameless inconsistency with this substack, you may or may not have subscribed for my white lotus and/or succession recaps (if not something else entirely). now that season 3 is back, you’ll be getting an email from me on a consistent basis for the next 8 weeks. after that, you can expect more of that ~anything goes~ vibe from this channel unless i suddenly change my mind.

for the white lotus regulars: this season I’m switching it up and doing a weekly recap podcast, but since many of you followed me for my recaps last season, I’m also going to send those episodes out through this email…and to make it worth your while I’ll add a few more thoughts that I didn’t include in the podcast, and also pre-announce who my special guest will be each week. for the first episode, I recorded mostly solo with some help from Betches’ producer Hannah Trageton, and my guest next week will be Tinx!

listen to my first recap on Spotify and Apple on the @betches podcast

if the rest of the season is anything like the first episode, it will darker and less comical than the previous two, but there was also a ridiculous amount of information and character development packed into this hour. literally zero wasted seconds.

even though I’ve watched the episode three times and the new theme song has grown on me, I still can’t grasp the decision to scrap the most popular TV theme song in years rather than adapt it as they did between seasons 1 and 2. but i’m holding out a little hope that they’ll potentially build on the new beat throughout the season, based on the fact that the last few seconds of this trailer (at 2:37) sounds *very much* like what was going to be the Thai-themed version of the song.

a few more things I noticed (spoilers below):

• I’ve been belatedly questioning the normalcy of a family that would organize their vacation schedule around their college-age daughter’s thesis. it’s especially odd because Piper doesn’t seem super obsessed with spending time with her family in general, and wouldn’t a college student want to travel either alone or with people their age for such a trip? would this be considered standard in this type of southern family or is this some new gen z helicopter parenting norm?

• I talked about in the podcast how the natural prediction seems to be that Greg wants to kill off Belinda to get rid of any potential ties to Tanya. on my last watch I noticed that when Belinda was shown to her room she asks Pomchai, “so I’m here for the whole 3 months?” in a way that suggested maybe not. even though Belinda as victim still seems a little obvious to me.

• someone on Reddit pointed out that this frame is arranged as ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’ 🙈🙉🙊

so I’m guessing this could relate to something each of the kids will see/hear/say (or not) later in the season. and now I’m wondering if this frame is also referencing something:

that’s all for now. leave me your theories in the comments!