Welcome to Your White Lotus Recap
This hotel chain is starting to seem dangerous to me.
First of all, because I can’t wait to get into this part: FUCKING GREG IS BACK!! I literally gasped when he showed up. That man took all the millions he got after he hired Tom Hollander and his gang of squirrelly gays to kill poor Tanya and now he’s got a whole-ass house in Thailand and is dating1 a model!!!?!?! THE DISRESPECT. I hope she haunts him. (Can you imagine being haunted by Tanya? It would likely be very annoying.)
It’s also very ballsy of Greg to continue to show his face at a White Lotus after his late wife got MYSTERIOUSLY KILLED AT ONE. (Maybe they’re giving him free room upgrades for life as an apology but if I were a noted con-man/murderer and TWO PEOPLE died under mysterious circumstances at the same hotel chain while I was present, I might lie low for a bit. Maybe he just cannot resist their brand of body wash.) Anyway: This first episode of the new season of my favorite HBO show about Generally Sad Rich People Behaving Poorly in Gorgeous Locales was mostly character introductions and scene-setting, and of course, the requisite Murder That Ends With a Mysterious Victim In or Near a Body of Water. This time, there is apparently a shooting and the Body of Water of Doom is a beautiful, serene lily pond on the truly exquisite grounds of the hotel. Whether this event has multiple victims or not remains to be seen.
Our suspects/possible victims/guests/beleaguered White Lotus employees are:
Walton Goggins is Rick, who is visiting White Lotus with his much-younger girlfriend Chelsea, who is played by Aimee Lou Wood, and who is thus far a breezy, chipper DELIGHT. In complete contract, he is in a BAD MOOD — he’s already made enemies with Jason Isaacs’s character after a dumb testosterone-fueled fight about smoking on the boat transport to the hotel — and he seems to be in Thailand to try to meet with one of the owners of the hotel, who is not yet in residence, for mysterious reasons that are clearly not good ones. Whatever he is up to, it’s likely shady, and he already seems desperate and sweaty. He is not having fun, he is not relaxed, and he is not at home for any of this wellness shit!
PS: I had to laugh when Greg’s girlfriend/fellow con-artist (???) came up to Chelsea, and said, “I love your teeth.” Because I ALSO love Aimee Lou Wood’s teeth. It is so refreshing to see actors with their real teeth instead of fake chompers2. Hers are so charming! She’s just so likeable. I hope Chelsea and her cute teeth don’t get shot.