While most episodes of “The White Lotus” roughly follow one day of vacay for the hapless luxury travelers, episode 5 of the third season of this sprawling Mike White-created series lingers on the night of the Full Moon party in Thailand, with Saxon and Lochlan Ratliff getting dangerously close to some pretty icky territory.
No one signed up for this game of spin the bottle.
The Ratliff boys accompany Chloe and Chelsea – both solo, since ‘Gary’ had to stay home to “do something important,” and Rick headed to Bangkok for similarly nefarious-sounding reasons – to the party, where bucketloads of drinks abound and Chloe scores some party drugs. Saxon at first resists the narcotic temptation, much like his father did, but soon gives into peer pressure (…much like his father did too, to woeful results). After an inebriated night of dancing and sky gazing, the foursome are back on the boat, where a bottle of alcohol is passed around and we see Chloe and Chelsea urged to kiss. Then it’s Chloe and Lochlan’s turn (this, after Chloe previously mentioned her interest in the “little magician”). Then… Lochlan and Saxon are urged to kiss, at first with a peck. Somehow that’s not good enough, and the peck becomes a real kiss. NO! But yes, it happens.
The partying extends to the traveling ‘blonde blob,’ who are back on Koh Samui with White Lotus staffer Valentin and his Russian cohorts. After some alcohol-fueled clubbing, the group ends up back at the resort, where they all jump into the pool in various states of undress. After Laurie drunkenly begins venting about her life – which includes troubles at her law firm and the fact that she has to pay palimony – the night ends for everyone except Jaclyn, who surreptitiously summons Valentin back into the villa and into her bed (THIS, after spending the first half of the season valiantly urging her single friend Laurie to be the one to bed him). That’s low, Jaclyn.
Meanwhile (and it’s a big meanwhile) in Bangkok, Rick meets up with his old buddy Frank, played by Oscar-winner Sam Rockwell in a surprise
