The White Lotus Recap | S3E5: Full-Moon Party

All right, Aaron, we are back and we have quite the episode to discuss today.

How are you feeling?

I'm feeling good.

It like finally happened.

We've all been waiting for the episode where things would start to pick up steam and we, we got there and you know what, I was chatting with a friend of mine and she was like it's always around episode five that stuff starts to pick up.

So it is happening.

I thought this episode was fantastic.

Like I was at the edge of my seat the entire time.

The dialogue was fire.

Like everything about this episode was just so good, just so good.

And it again left us on a great cliffhanger.

So.

Oh yeah, Mark also said the same thing as you, which was.

Yeah, it's usually like four, like episode five that things start to really rev up here.

I was definitely getting impatient and this cured that impatience.

So I'm very excited.

This.

Okay.

Remember Aaron, when we said that our recaps were going to be 30 minutes?

Har har har.

There is so much happening in this episode and I think I'm sort of thinking we go storyline by storyline.

Cuz there was a lot of back and forth here.

So I've organized it a little bit and we can go with it this way.

So I think the first place to start here because there's a more bigger things that we're going to dive into here.

I want to start with Belinda.

So this from my perspective is Belinda's very own true crime thriller romance novel that she has entered into this era of her true crime thriller romance novel era.

So off the top, Fabian asks Belinda how her exchange is going so far.

And she finds out that Gary has been asking the front desk and hotel staff about her.

And after processing things, she goes back to Fabian in kind of a hilarious scene where she's sort of like whisper yelling at him about why she's like super freaked out about Gary asking about her.

And she tells him the whole story.

She tells him like everything that she knows and that she's super worried that he's dangerous and that like maybe we should call the police.

Should we call the Thai, the Thai police?

Should we call the American police?

Should we call the Italian police?

Should we call all the police?

So funny.

But Fabian replies basically gaslighting her and reminding her that she is not a guest at the resort.

She is there working and says that we shouldn't be gossiping.

Focus on your job.

I think you'll survive.

I think this is an episode where we got much more of Fabian's personality and I'm Sort of gathering that he is the ultimate gaslighter.

I don't know what he's.

He's that.

But he's also just like a company man.

He is a company man.

Company man.

He's like, just none of this matters.

All that matters is that our guests are happy.

Exactly.

Exactly.

He's just corporate.

Corporate guy love.

I mean, to be fair, I can kind of understand why he would have that response, because I'm just, like, putting myself in his shoes.

If someone came to me and unloaded all of this information about this person that, like, hangs around the resort all the time, I probably also would be like, but she did bring the receipt.

She brought the receipts.

The receipts exist.

She brought everything.

But I can understand how that would be his reaction.

Was it the right reaction?

No.

Yeah, but because we.

It's easy for us as viewers to be like, what are you doing, Fabian?

Like, it's true.

But he doesn't know.

I want to know how much he's told Gary about.

About Belinda.

Because if he's told her a lot, that is red flags and hotels shouldn't function this way.

But let's talk about that more later.

So, having gotten basically zero remorse from Fabian, Belinda later decides to turn to Porn Chai that night.

And she also tells him everything.

She shows him the articles about Greg Gary, and she's basically like that Charlie Day meme where, like, he's got, like, the string and the photos, and he's like, it's true.

Go on.

This guy is nuts.

Like, it's so funny.

And Pornchai replies that, I'll keep you safe.

And in that moment, they also hear rustling in Belinda's room.

Pornchai investigates and discovers a pretty big lizard of which he carefully guides back outside.

Very hot.

Very hot.

How are you feeling about this relationship?

Because I've heard some chatter that people think this is all an act from Porn Chai and that he is just, like, treating her like one of the other guests, just giving her the VIP experience.

But I.

I don't know.

I don't think so.

I don't buy that he genuinely likes her.

He's treating her better than guess, I would assume.

I don't know.

Valentin's doing a pretty good job.

That's true.

Like, no, I think it's genuine.

I think it's genuine.

Too genuine.

What I worry about is, like, we don't know anything about Pornchai's life outside of the resort.

Like, what if he has, like, a wife and kids somewhere?

I just.

You can never trust men as much As I want to trust Porn Chai, you just.

You cannot trust them.

So he could have a whole life outside the resort.

She doesn't know.

She hasn't left the resort.

And we've not learned anything about Porn Chai's outside life.

And this is, like, the thing about tourist bubbles and the people that work at these places where you really don't know, like, what the intention there is and how, like, this is the thing.

I've heard a lot about Vegas, where, like, a lot of the bartenders and stuff in Vegas, they have, like, lives, women, children, outside of their work, but they are, like, constantly going home with, like, people who attend, going back to the hotels and, like, having sex with people who, like, attend their bars and just live the Vegas lifestyle.

I'm curious how that translates overseas, not in America.

But it's just interesting to think about the dynamics there.

He is very spiritual and religious.

That's true.

Which makes me want to believe that he would not be doing that.

Yeah, but she loves and cares for his family also.

Victoria would disagree with that.

Yeah, we'll get into that.

Also, though, his removal of the lizard, his very gentle removal of the lizard does play into this whole theme that we've been touching on in previous episodes about how local Thai people are at one with wildlife and have respect for wildlife, whereas foreigners are, like, afraid of the wildlife.

And it also is actually representative of Buddhist values, which is to, like, not harm animals.

So his gentleness kind of, like, reflects that.

It made me think.

It's funny, when Luke and I were in Sri Lanka, we were in a hotel room, and it was just like a small, little, like, guest house room.

And we had, like, a bathroom that was a wet bathroom, which is pretty typical in South Asia.

So it had, like, outdoor access.

And I found a massive, poisonous centipede in our bathroom.

I've posted video of it.

Like, it was terrifying.

And it made me really, like, the rest of the trip, I would not get out of bed to go pee in the middle of the night because I was like, what if I step into the bathroom and step on a centipede and it bites me?

Because they are poisonous.

It's really painful.

So anyways, we found the centipede.

We were freaking out.

I was not going to go anywhere near it.

Luke was not going to go anywhere near it.

So I went to the hotel guy, and he was just this, like, young Sri Lankan man.

And I was like, could you please help us get rid of the centipede?

Fully thought he was gonna come in the room.

And like, kill it.

Yeah, he did not.

And you could tell he's very experienced.

He took a massive water bottle and he went in there and he somehow guided the centipede into the water bottle and brought it outside and released it.

And Luke was like, that's very Buddhist of him.

Because North Americans, we just kill whatever we find inside our homes.

You know, colonizers, that's what we do anyways.

Made me think of that.

So, of course, Belinda is super freaked out by all the things that are happening around her.

And she asks poor Chai to stay with her that night.

And after what this man has demonstrated around her, his gentleness, his kindness, the fact that he said he's going to protect her, duh, obviously she wants him to stay in her room.

Room that night.

And there's a hilarious moment where Belinda is like a bit flustered navigating, like, where Pornchai is going to sleep and like, how to subtly tell him, like, it's okay if you sleep in my bed kind of thing.

And she says, she's like, oh, you know, whatever is clever.

It's just like the funniest uttering of lines.

And I felt very seen in that moment where it's like you're trying to be sexy and subtle, but you just like, can't.

You just are a little dingus.

Anyway, the two kiss and I'm very stoked.

I am willing to bet they also have sex.

But if they just kiss, I love that.

I love that for Belinda.

I love that for porn.

Chai, get it.

Wasn't there a comment about consent?

Was it between them or someone else that I thought was really funny.

She's like, I don't know if you do that here.

Yeah, I thought that was so cute.

Good writing.

Like, this episode had such good writing.

We forgot to touch on this.

But when Fabian is talking to her about Greg's interest in her, he also suggests that Greg is interested in her for other reasons.

Like potentially to become his, like, I don't know, like his sexual interest.

And he kind of like implies that, oh, this is an opportun for you.

Like, you want to have a relationship with a rich guest, like an lbh.

Yeah, yeah.

And actually, like, on further reflection, maybe that is why he is so unwilling to believe her rendition of, like, who Greg is, because he can't understand why she wouldn't be interested in this opportunity.

And also the other side of that too is that he says, he says outright Greg is a loyal customer.

Like, he's a.

He's a regular at their resorts.

So there's going to be no way that he wants to, as a corporate guy, go against this loyal customer who's spending millions at their resorts.

Probably.

Exactly.

But yeah, I just thought that was funny.

It kind of like, points to the.

And you do.

And it's interesting, too, because Belinda actually did.

That's how she found herself in this situation.

Right.

She created a relationship with a guest in season one in hopes of bettering her own life.

And now Fabian is, like, suggesting she do that again.

And she's like, last time I did that, it didn't turn out so great.

That's such a great point.

I hadn't even thought of it that way.

I love that.

Okay, so that's Belinda's story.

Belinda and Pornche.

Let's move over to the Ratcliffs and the reckoning of Piper's lies and ambitions and Timothy's descent into darkness.

So we are at dinner and Piper tells her parents that the monastery where she's been going to do the quote unquote interview with her monk for her quote unquote thesis actually has a meditation center.

And surprise, that's actually why she's here.

There is no thesis.

She came to check out the meditation center.

And this is what she wants to do when she graduates.

She wants to move to Thailand for a year to, quote, meditate and develop her spirituality.

And in this moment, we get so many great lines from Parker Posey and Victoria's character.

You mentioned so much good writing this episode.

I'm just going to go through a couple of the back and forths here that I wrote down because they were just so funny.

The whole scene, like, the whole scene was just iconic.

Like, it's exactly what you and I expected the scene to be, I'm pretty sure.

And it was everything we expected but wanted and more.

Yeah, it was amazing.

So first, Victoria says, you're not a Buddhist.

You're not from China.

We're an entire.

We're from an entirely different world.

Then she says, you want to live in Taiwan, a completely different country, completely different.

Piper says, listen, she wants to stay because she wants to find out what makes her happy.

And she's not going to sign up to all the.

This is interesting.

And you and I have talked about this already before on the show and in these recaps about how Piper is, like the ultimate seeker right now.

It's interesting that she is trying to seek out happiness and purpose in life somewhere other than what she can do at home.

I mean, America is a troubled, troubled nation for sure.

And I think there's a, at this point, a lot of opportunity to find happiness at home and community at home and purpose at home.

But it's interesting that she's, you know, taking this to Thailand.

Well, it may be a reflection that she doesn't have that community at home, because you do see this parallel sometimes that people who come from immense privilege become seekers.

Like, this is something I've noticed just in my own travels in encountering people that are, like, buying into the seeker mentality.

A lot of them come from a really great place at home, a situation in which you would think that they are happy and fulfilled because they have all of their basic needs met and more.

So I just think there's probably a correlation there between, like, unhappiness at home because she's coming from this, like, wealthy family that doesn't actually give her, like, security and happiness and comfort.

Yeah.

And clearly wants her to stick to the status quo.

Like, you should be happy with what you've got.

You've everything you need now.

You can do anything you want to do in this world as long as you stick to the status quo.

So Victoria says, I'm just trying to understand how you became so extreme.

You could come back with a totally different set of values than we raised you with.

And Piper says, yeah, that's kind of the idea.

An iconic line, how you became so extreme and you could come back with a totally different set of values.

Yeah.

This is something that Victoria's character is so funny for on this show is always just pointing out the obvious, like, exactly what is happening.

This is what's so funny about her.

Like, she basically.

Narrator.

Yeah.

And it's like, one minute she doesn't know what country she's in, as per the you want to live in Taiwan comment.

But then the next minute, like, another thing she says in this conversation is, you don't need to go halfway around the world to figure out what your purpose is.

And I was just like, yes, yes, you're right, Victoria.

That's, like, so true.

She says a lot of.

Okay, she says a lot of hilarious things that are both.

She's wild.

Somewhere in there.

She is very wild.

Whole time.

She asked Piper, what if it's a cult?

And Piper says, it's not.

The monk who runs it wrote a book.

I'm pretty sure there are numbers of cult leaders out there who have also written books, but that's besides the point.

And then in looking at the guy on the book, Victoria says, well, he doesn't look normal.

He looks very hare.

Krishna, which is a Hindu thing.

Sanskrit thing.

Yeah.

Different religion.

Totally different.

Totally different.

And then Victoria says it could be a sex cult.

And Piper's like, it's Buddhist.

And Victoria says, well, organized religion and deviant sex go hand in hand.

Another great line, like, and also accurate.

Pretty accurate.

Also, though, I thought this was funny.

Just like a little Canadiana for us.

She refers to nxivm.

I don't know if you know about Nexium.

I do know.

Yep.

So anyone who doesn't know this is a homegrown Canadian cult started in Vancouver.

Hashtag Made in Canada.

Yeah.

Very, very bad cult started by this guy.

It's always a white dude that starts these things.

Always.

Keith Ranieri.

He is now a convicted racketeer and sex offender.

We're laughing about this, but really, this was, like, a really horrif.

And there's a great podcast.

I don't know if it's CBC.

It might be CBC's uncover.

Really good CBC Uncover did a fantastic podcast with.

Featuring a woman who wasn't.

She actually is a journalist, and she ended up in nxivm.

Oh, no.

Her friend was a journalist.

Yeah.

And they ran into each other shortly after she had left the cult.

And so the whole series is him, like, investigating through her perspective, like, the experience of the cult and, like, what had happened to her.

And it really is, like, a wild story.

So if you're interested in that kind of stuff and want to hear about our Canadian cult activity, it's great.

Definitely listen to it.

It's a great series.

I just thought.

I always thought that was kind of, like, not mainstream knowledge, like, nextiv.

So I just.

The reference made me laugh.

So during all of this, Timothy is reckoning with the fact that he is definitely going to jail and also has the gun from the security office.

Guy Talk also has uncovered through security cam footage that Timothy likely has the gun.

So he knows.

And he's sort of, like, lingering around at dinner waiting and figuring out how to confront Timothy.

So Timothy, during this entire conversation, it doesn't really reply to Piper's admission.

It's like, clearly just, like, another thing on his plate that is, like, stressing him out.

And he doesn't really, like.

I don't even think it's stress.

He's just not absorbing the information at all, which I understand.

I think if I was, like, on vacation in Thailand and knew, unbeknownst to any of my family members that I was headed straight to jail, I also would not be absorbing any conversation, like.

None of this matters.

None of this matters.

Honestly, you should stay in Thailand.

Like, please.

So he leaves the table clearly, like, looking overwhelmed by all of just everything.

He leaves the table, goes to the bathroom to splash some water on his face, and that's when Guy Talk follows him and confronts him.

But, like, doesn't, like, kind of, like loosely, lukewarmly confronts him.

I know.

I love guy Talk, but this was disappointing.

Guy Talk.

I know.

He says, I think you have something I'm looking for.

And Timothy just sort of is like, no, I don't.

And then leaves it at that.

This also, though, could be conditioning from his job because they're definitely told never to have a negative interaction with a guest.

So he's kind of in a rock and a hard place because he's not meant to ever accuse a guest of something.

So maybe that was his goal, to try to address the situation without being accusatory.

But yeah, but then when the person denies it, what do you do?

Right?

You're not.

I think what he needs to do is he needs to try to remember what kind of gun it was, which I definitely would not be able to do.

They all look scary to me, so I would not know.

But try to remember and then try to go buy the same one and put it in the box.

This is what I would be doing if I was Guy Talk.

I would be like, I'm not dealing with these rich people.

I'm just gonna go find a gun.

I don't know how hard this is to.

This is to do.

Like, if you asked me to do that here, like today, I would not know where to start.

No, me neither.

I don't think we can even buy anything.

I think we don't.

And I think that guns in Thailand are not.

I think it's similar to Canada.

You can't just.

It's not America.

You can't just like, walk into a bank and get a gun.

I'm looking this up.

How do you buy a gun in Thailand?

Please don't come for me.

CIA.

Simplest way to obtain a gun is by purchasing from a dealer.

Okay.

Okay.

So easier than here, a citizen of Thailand purchase a gun in his or her name.

So I guess you can just buy them.

So this is the answer.

Guy Talk.

Just buy another gun.

Just replace it.

Idiot.

No, but I think the problem is he probably doesn't know why, what kind of gun it was.

Yeah, and the other guy's gonna say, this isn't the same gun.

Yeah, I would just say it is.

It is the same gun.

You just gotta.

You gotta Buy into the story completely.

Gaslight them and tell them this is the same guy.

This is what guy talk needs to learn the art of gaslighting because he's being gaslit all over the place.

He needs to fight back.

He's too good and pure.

This is what it is.

He's just too good.

He's.

He's too pure.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So dinner is over.

We're back at the room, and Timothy is clearly in some capacity.

Eats either lorazepam or too many whiskeys on the rock.

At dinner, Piper approaches him, kind of seeing that he's, like, a little bit wonky, but also, like, she wants to know what her dad thinks about everything because he hasn't really said anything.

And Timothy kind of just goes off about his time as an altar boy and his church days and then starts, like, singing hymns.

Piper doesn't get much from him.

Doesn't get anything from him, and she just sort of walks off.

So clearly, Timothy is not in a great place.

And later that night, we see him writing his suicide note.

His note just says, so sorry.

I love you all.

So, like, clearly, it's just too much.

There's.

He's not thinking too much into any of this.

He's just, like, very overwhelmed.

And he puts the gun to his head, and he cannot pull the trigger.

He's really struggling here.

And this is when Victoria finds.

And he hides the gun so she doesn't see it, but she does ask what he's doing.

And he just says he can't sleep.

But Victoria notices, says that she notices that he hasn't been acting himself lately.

And to this, like, Timothy gets kind of, like, intense and is like, I'm just, like, super overwhelmed.

I'm super stressed.

And I'm constantly feeling the prayer, like, constantly feeling under pressure to, like, be the one in charge and keeping things going.

And Victoria's answer to him is not super helpful for him in this instance where she's like, well, there's no need to be stressed.

You've already achieved every success in every way.

You have a wonderful life.

You're doing great.

And clearly we know this is the opposite.

In Victoria's defense, he hasn't shared anything concrete with her.

So what is she supposed to say?

From her perspective, it is true.

I mean, they're on vacation in Thailand.

They have three beautiful, mostly children.

Let's leave Saxon out of that.

Yeah, I mean, I'm, like, empathetic to, like, what Timothy is going through in this situation.

He is, like, obviously, if he's doing Fraud.

He's fucked over a lot of people.

So he's not a great person, but he really has.

There's nothing anyone can say to him in this moment that can, like, change how he's feeling about all of this.

Like, Victoria can't say anything.

And even if he tells anyone, like, he.

He has to just reconcile the fact that he's fucked.

Like, that's all there is to it.

I mean, he has to own up.

He has to own.

I think it's like the ultimate expression of people realizing there is an end to their privilege because he's reached the line, he has crossed the line.

It has not worked out for him.

And now for the first time in his life, probably he has to face consequences.

And honestly, it's a bit cowardly to not be willing to face those consequences.

I mean, you cannot commit fraud.

You committed fraud.

You fucked around and you're finding out.

Basically.

I feel bad for him from an empathetic point of view, but I'm also like, this is what happens when you break the law, Timothy.

Yeah, this is the thing.

Like, you're totally right in that, like, you can't just escape the consequences of your privilege and your actions.

A lot of rich people do, though, look at who's leading America right now.

A lot of people do, but.

And that's why it's so jarring, I think, for these people when they don't.

Yeah.

I think, like, the big thing here for him is shame.

Like, obviously he's not even.

He's not just going to experience shame from his family, but when he goes back to America as a guy in the corporate world, he is going to feel shame from.

He's going to be shamed by all of America.

Every single person in America is going to be watching his trial on tv.

Probably.

Like, that's going to be a lot.

And this is something that I don't think a lot of these people in these privileged positions think about ever having to experience is like feeling.

Yeah.

Having to be accountable or feel shame or.

Yeah.

Just like, doing good by the people that exist around them.

It's always sort of like their own personal bubble.

And now it's popped and he's like, shit, I exist in the sphere of everyone else in my country at home, and this is going to be crazy and intense to deal with, but he's going to have to deal with it.

He shouldn't take the.

I don't want to call it easy way out, but he shouldn't take this way out.

Like, he is.

He's got to come to terms with the fact that he's fucked over a lot of people, and now he has to face the consequences.

This is just how it works.

Yeah, I've seen some commentary that.

So we see it ends with Timothy sort of praying to God, asking, like, what do I do?

I was gonna say this.

I think that this is his arc.

Is this turning to the arc into the spiritual journey?

Do we think he maybe joins Piper at the end, so sticks around for the meditation?

He's clearly, like, turning to religion.

And, I mean, it's, like, totally reinforced at the very end of the episode because instead of the usual credit roll music, we get church music.

I don't know what else to call it, but, like, it just goes fully into, like.

It brought me back to my childhood of going to church.

I was like, oh, I know this song.

But it ties into the discussion, I think that Greg has.

With or not Greg.

It ties into the discussion that.

Why can't I remember his name?

Hold on, back up.

It ties into the discussion that Rick has with this person he meets who we don't really know who he is.

He's some sort of fixer.

And this person talks to him about how finding religion in Thailand changed his life.

And so I'm thinking that that's maybe foreshadowing for what will happen to Timothy and maybe Rick too.

Who knows?

Yep.

I.

I wouldn't be surprised if that happens.

Okay, so finally, we're back at the security office, where Fabian finds Guy Talk, who is clearly, like, a little bit stressed.

And he says, oh, you know, maybe it's just the PTSD from what happened at the robbery.

And if you want, I have an antacid for your stomach if you want some.

And that's pretty much all he offers.

Recognizes that he might have PTSD.

PTSD.

Doesn't offer time off.

Instead, offers, like, a little tummy thing.

So not much there.

Fabian, to my still.

I still say this.

Ultimate gaslighter, ultimate corporate dude.

Just, you know, gotta keep the ship running, gotta keep it on the road.

Speaking of ships, it's time to talk about the full moon party.

So we are on the boat.

Saxon is in the midst of sort of indoctrinating Lachlan into his.

His creepy game plan for the night.

And there is this interesting line that he says to Lachlan, quote, confidence is how you get people to do what you want.

Most people want to be used, but don't know what to do.

They're just waiting for someone to tell them what to do.

Hardcore line Hardcore line.

And obviously we're seeing.

We're gonna see this come up in the show in numerous ways.

Curious to hear what you think about this.

This.

Yeah, I mean, basically, I'm just really sad that Saxon is not a beautiful child.

He is not a beautiful child.

And I mean, it's also, like, interesting because, like, I feel like the choice, the ultimate decision happened on the boat where Lachlan decided, I'm going to go to the full moon party instead of supporting my sister.

That was the fork in the road, and now we're gonna see things play out.

But throughout this episode, even Lachlan's body language, you can just see him becoming Saxon.

I know, it's so distressing.

So on the boat, Saxon tells Lachlan to make a move on Chloe, who is also already creeping on Lachlan in her own way already.

Anyway, she tells Chelsea at one point that she likes innocent young guy.

She also wants attention because Gary isn't giving her any.

And she's really vibing with Lachlan's magic tricks, which you mentioned in the last episode you would be vibing with too.

Oh, yeah.

So do we think Chloe is just the female version of Saxon?

She kind of is, yeah.

Like, she's creeping on young men.

That's, like, pretty.

Is he underage, though?

We don't know how old age.

He's like 18.

He's still a senior in high school.

It's definitely growth.

Gross.

Definitely gross.

Definitely gross.

So Chelsea this whole time is mentioning how she's super worried about Rick and thinks that something is gonna.

Something bad is gonna happen to him while he's in Bangkok.

And we're also seeing on the bow before we get to the full moon party that the brothers are being brotherly.

They are bonding.

There's a lot of brotherly love happening.

Definite foreshadows for sure, for what's to come.

So they arrive at the full moon party.

Lachlan turns to Chloe and says, what even happens at these parties?

Like, what is this?

And Chloe says, this is where vampires come out and everyone gets laid.

Hardcore.

Pretty hardcore.

This is.

I mean, from what I hear from other people, that's an accurate description of full moon parties.

I don't know.

I haven't been to one.

Also, we forgot to mention the iconic line from Chelsea when she says to.

Well, I can't remember anyone's name today.

No, she says to the other woman, Chloe.

When Chelsea says to Chloe, he's like my child.

Chloe says back to him, he's 50.

They're just this whole episode, like, the writing was.

So I need to check if it was a different writer for this episode.

And there were so many perfect, perfect, like, short exchanges like that that were just so funny.

Yeah, yeah.

So Lachlan is in his early days of partying.

He is, Yeah, a senior in high school.

And so they start to get, like, buckets of beer and stuff like that.

It's like, a pretty interesting depiction of, like, the full moon parties.

It must be.

Those buckets are a thing in Thailand, though.

The buckets, are they for ice or, like, is it like, the drink is in the bucket?

No, they fill it with liquor and, like, juice.

I don't recommend it.

Liquor.

The one time I had a bucket, it was a rough day the next day.

So just be careful if you do that.

When I went to Thailand in November, I told my colleagues, whatever you do, don't drink a bucket.

Just whatever you do.

Also, this is a psa because this is actually really important that people know.

In Southeast Asia, there's a lot of, like, bootleg, illegally made liquor.

And there's been increasing instances of people getting poisoned by drinking liquor.

And you don't know.

You.

You'll look at the bottle, it'll look like it's the typical labeled alcohol.

But they often come in the buckets because it's mixed in with so many other things.

Like, you wouldn't notice the difference when you drink it.

And there have been a couple people who've died, backpackers, in the last year even.

There was a huge poisoning last year.

So that's the real reason why I tell people now, do not drink buckets.

If you're in Sessy stage, your safest bet is to just drink a bottled beer.

Yeah, okay, great tip.

Great tip.

On that note, Saxon tells Lachlan to pace himself, and Lachlan turns to him and says, dude, I'm a senior, bro.

So, yeah, we are definitely seeing Lachlan's arc into his big brother, Saxon.

And then the group does drugs.

I think it's ecstasy.

Might be MDMA in some capacity.

Either way, they're all feeling, like, super lit and happy and they're feeling ecstasy, I guess, in some capacity.

This is the first time I've ever seen, like, a full moon party.

Like, I've never seen photos of them or anything like that.

I've heard stories about them.

This is the first time I've ever seen it depicted.

And it is, like, crazy busy.

Way bigger than I expected.

I think I imagined them to be more of, like, a beach party with, like, A.

A bonfire or something like that.

They're massive.

They are massive.

Huge.

So many white people.

Just all white people.

That's all they are.

Yeah.

And as you mentioned in the last.

It's just backpackers.

And you mentioned in the last episode, there is no tradition around this.

This is just like a thing that came from white people in like, what, the 80s or something you said, or the 70s.

Yeah.

So at this point, everyone is feeling the drugs.

And this is when the show is sort of cutting between the moon party and the gal pals getting buck wild.

So before we get to the.

What happens after the moon party?

Let's talk about the gals before.

Let's talk about the gals and figure out what they're doing because they are also in the midst of getting wild and sexual.

So the gals, this is their continuation of their night out with the Russians.

They are at a bumpin club, notably called Cafe de la Moon.

I don't know if you noticed that.

So they're also at a moon party of their own in some capacity.

And the men that they're with are named.

We've got Valentin and then we've got his friends Alexei and Vlad.

And Vlad is the hilarious, troubled one.

I think I got such a kick out of his character at one point.

They're talking about like all the different exercises and stuff that they do.

And Vlad's like, I do exercises with ropes in Russia or something like that.

Then he also says, my mother is dead, my sister's a bitch, my friends are everything.

I get woman hating vibes from Vlad.

But throughout the rest of the episode, I thought he was actually kind of funny and a welcoming personality for Kate, especially to hang out around and just shoot the shit with.

But I definitely, if I was around Vlad, I wouldn't necessarily feel safe.

My question about Vlad, I actually have a friend who is Russian, came to Canada a couple years ago.

I'm gonna ask her what she thinks about this representation of a Russian.

I'd be really curious because I did think, like, is this just playing into a bunch of stereotypes about Russians?

Because the representation of Valentin, he doesn't come off as stereotypical Russian in terms of what you see portrayed in the media.

So I thought it was kind of funny that they introduced this character that was kind of playing into that.

And I don't know, maybe.

Maybe it's not fair.

It might not be.

I thought it was also interesting because Alexi is the same, honestly, like basically the same person as Valentine.

Like, he looks very similar.

I got them mixed up during the episode.

And I don't know if that was intentional or not, but they have very similar, like, facial features.

I think Alexi is just shorter than Valentine.

And then you got Vlad, like, the bald, super pale dude over there.

So you've got, like, these two sort of, like, hot Russians.

And then you've got, like, the one guy who's, like, the stereotypical Russian.

I guess I'm curious what all of this is, like, pointing at, but it was just very interesting.

So the girls, the gals.

The gals, they dance the night away, and things are getting pretty steamy, particularly for Laurie and especially for Jacqueline, who is, like, dancing with the men, getting all sweaty and steamy, and she spots other women kind of watching her from the sidelines, and she's, like, kind of loving the attention.

Like, she likes.

Loves to be, like, this sexual being that's getting all of this attention.

She is an actress.

Victoria has told us what our actresses.

I forget her line about that.

It's funny because Jacqueline is, like, playing into the trope that, like, actresses want attention and are, like, super sexual.

Yeah, I didn't actually catch that.

That's such a funny point.

So this is when I was watching it with Mark, and he said to me, didn't take long for these ladies to go from wanting a cultural vacation to just an American club.

Yeah, yeah, pretty much.

Pretty much.

Notably, Kate, straight up, cannot dance.

She's just, like, kind of flailing a little bit while, like, Jacqueline and Laurie are, like, moving and grooving and so funny.

And it's clear that Laurie is feeling Valentin.

He calls her a sexy dancer.

And Jacqueline is, in this moment, entertaining Alexi, who is also a very hot man.

And Kate is just sort of stuck chatting with Vlad.

Eventually, the men bring the women shots.

Immediate red flags for me.

I immediately was like, something's in those shots.

And then they all cheers to Shia LaBeouf.

And notably, Kate does not take a shot.

This.

I was like, okay, we're gonna see the difference between everybody and Kate.

I liked this.

Like, this.

I don't like Kate, but I was like, you know what?

Kate is setting boundaries here.

She's respecting her marriage.

She's being cautious because she's getting drunk in a foreign country.

I was like, you know what, Kate?

You're doing the right thing here.

I think so.

I think so.

Eventually, a bunch of women at the club come up to the guys, and then they all start yelling at the guys in Russian.

So obviously, the guys have been here before.

This is their regular stomping Grounds.

And they've fucked around with women before as well.

Well, my impression was that these people were their potential girlfriends.

Oh, we think so.

I wasn't sure if they were girlfriends or maybe just, like, girls they've, like, ghosted at some point.

The problem is all the dialogue was in Russian and there was.

It's up to interpretation.

So let me ask my Russian friend to do some interpretation for us.

Please get back to us on this.

I will ask her today.

Yeah.

So Kate, sensing the tension and honestly just like, kind of ready to go, she says that maybe we should all leave and she's kind of hoping the night is wrapping up and we're done.

But then Jacqueline and Laurie are like, let's bring the men back to the villa to drink and keep the party going.

Kate doesn't love J this.

She just wants to go to bed.

But the men come back to the villa anyway.

And back at the villa, the gals are drinking with the boys in the pool.

Things are getting pretty rowdy.

And there was definitely something in those shots for sure, because things are, like, getting.

I don't know, it's the same sort of vibe that we're getting between the full moon party and back at the villa.

There's, like, the toggling between the two parties happening.

So I think that Laurie and Jaclyn and possibly the men are definitely on ecstasy or some type of drug that was, like, slipped into their shots.

This is just my theory, though.

This is the vibe that I was getting.

Jaclyn and Laurie are swimming with the men.

They're taking off all of their clothes, and Kate is just sitting beside the pool in her full pajama set just, like, watching the girls.

And this is where I was also, like, listen, I'm like, kind of feeling Kate here because she wants to go to bed.

She's not.

She's not into this party, but she has the suspicion that something could go wrong.

So she's going to stick by her girls the whole time anyway, even if she's uncomfortable and, like, tired and wants to go to bed and ready to call it a night.

So she's watching the girls get inebriated, getting drunk, getting naked in the pool, and she's just there kind of keeping an eye on things.

Entertaining conversations with Vlad.

Basically, yeah.

By the end of the night, everyone but Kate is, like, drunk, rambling to each other, and Kate insists on sort of wrangling the gals to bed and sending the men home.

Home.

So this.

She seems to be successful at this.

She is the ultimate sorry Mother hen.

Yes.

I used to have a joke when I lived in Italy, and I would go out often with my group of friends that one of us would be assigned.

Mother hen.

Yes.

I.

E.

The person to, like, ensure everyone is safe, everyone is comfortable.

We go home at the right time.

It was like, you are the responsible one tonight.

So Kate was mother hen.

She was mother Henry.

Maybe not by choice.

We're not sure.

It didn't seem like by choice.

It's.

It seemed like of her own.

Like, she just didn't want.

She just went into it.

Yeah.

She's so.

Honestly, the dynamic of the evening is a dynamic that I feel I have seen play play out on nights out with.

I've been a part of these, and I have been the mother hen who's like, can we stop talking to these creepy dudes and go home now, please?

Yeah.

But at the same time, I was annoyed by it because I did feel like they were just so firmly playing into these tropes.

Like, each woman in the Gal Pals was, like, representing a specific trope of women that you often see on screen.

Like Laurie is the fun drunk one, and Jacqueline is the backstabbing one who's gonna go sleep with the man behind her friend's back.

I was just like, these are tropes that we see all the time about women.

I feel like we could have done something a little more complex and interesting with these characters.

Maybe the point was I just feel like they're feeding us this narrative of this dynamic amongst women.

But it's been done, and I don't need to see it on screen again.

Interesting.

I'm not loving it.

This is the one part of the show that I'm just not loving because it's not revolutionary.

What are you telling me?

All you're doing is reinforcing this idea that women's relationship can be so toxic and they pretend to be friends when really they aren't, and they backstab each other.

It's just, like, not the best representation of women that I've seen in a show.

I totally agree and also respectfully disagree as well.

I was gonna say, not that I'm against negative representations of women.

I just think they need to be more nuanced, and this one isn't nuanced.

Like, what is nuanced about this representation?

Really?

Nothing.

It's interesting to me because I feel like I haven't seen this type of representation a lot.

And I guess it felt nuanced to me in that moment, but it felt particularly like relatable.

Because when I was in my early 20s, like, there were multiple instances where I just found myself in motherhood, mother hen role and felt, like, very uncomfortable with, like, some of my girlfriends maybe getting a little bit too at ease with people that we didn't know and often found myself feeling very stressed about.

Like, how are we going to get out of this situation?

How do I, like, wrangle a friend and not abandon her when I feel like she might be in a precarious situation?

So this is the first time I actually felt like that had been.

I've seen that in media, like, perfectly, like, sort of nuanced and how messy it can be in those conversations.

Like, I thought the actresses did a really great job, like, showing the frustration there or like the.

The ignorance to the situation or whatever it might be.

But, yeah, I haven't seen that too much.

But, like, maybe it's just our media.

Diet is different for me also, I've studied this exactly.

Like, I wrote papers about this stuff.

I think for me, it depends on how it all plays out.

Like, what is the conclusion of these relationships?

I think that's, like, where the nuance will come out.

So that's what I'm curious to see as this narrative continues.

I agree.

I totally agree.

Like, we'll see what happens in the next episode and how they approach.

Approach what happened that night.

And as you mentioned, yes, everyone goes to bed, or so we think.

Jacqueline is actually up and sort of like, drunk texting someone.

And that's when we find out it's Valentine who shows up to her room.

They have sex.

She's betraying her husband, and Laurie, who this entire time she's been telling has should be going for Valentin.

So we'll see what happens with all of this.

Okay, so at this point, the moon party is over and the crew is headed back on the boat to the White Lotus.

Everyone's feeling drunk, full of ecstasy and sexual.

But Chelsea is still super worried about Rick.

And she talks about her own pain in this moment, which is really interesting, how she talks about, like, things really bad things have happened to her in her life.

But we don't see her walking around feeling sorry for herself.

She's kind of just like, venting all of this stuff to Chloe.

And I'm seeing a lot of this stuff come up now.

More and more with commentary around the show about how Chloe is or Chelsea is like this fighter.

So I'm excited to see where, like, this sort of ends up.

This comment from her also, I thought was interesting because I think In a previous episode, I mentioned that we don't know anything about Chelsea, and this reinforces that.

Right.

We don't know anything about Chelsea because no characters ask anything about Chelsea.

When does Rick ever ask Chelsea about Chelsea?

So we purposefully don't know anything about her, and she's the character I'm the most sympathetic to.

Well, it's almost like she's trying to tell us stuff about her.

Right.

Like, we have this sense that she hasn't always lived in privilege.

Like, she's come up from less money and that kind of thing.

She's constantly in awe of the things that she's seeing.

And it's seen seems brand new to her.

And then she says she's been through a lot of pain and a lot of shit has happened, but we don't know those nuances.

I don't know if that's necessarily relevant to the show and we need to get into all of that.

But you're totally right.

We know the little features, but nobody asks her about that.

Yeah, it's relevant because it would give us more context about her character and what drives her and all the other characters.

At this point, we know quite a lot about them, but we know literally nothing about.

Yeah, yeah.

So we know.

We don't know what drives her motivations or, like, what got her to this place.

Like, we literally don't know anything.

We only know, like, vague pain and that she's a fighter in some context, but we don't know why.

And to your note, Chloe fully ignores everything that Chelsea says and is basically, like, dead set on wanting to have an orgy with these brothers.

But she listens to Chelsea's, like, note about pain, like, very vaguely, and says, like, yeah, I think, like, Gary also has dark darkness inside him.

I think he's capable of murder.

Anyway, over to the orgy.

So that's, like, basically what happens.

So all that goes out the window.

Things get rowdy, the brothers kiss, reactions.

I noticed Saxon, notably, seems weirded out, even though I think we were getting, like, homoerotic things from him.

I don't know if he's necessarily into incest, erotic things, things, but Lachlan thinks it's funny.

And this was very interesting to me.

What do you think?

Well, I thought it was interesting because I've seen theories floating around that Lachlan may be queer.

So for me, this was just like, oh, is this where that's going, then?

Like, he's going to, like, have this orgy experience and realize that, like, he might be gay or bi.

Yeah, but I didn't think it was going to be with Saxon.

The kiss, that's the thing.

I mean, I kind of love it.

It's so messy.

I love this mess.

So messy.

So mess.

And I really hope that it throws Saxon into a crisis of identity.

Like, that's really what I'm hoping for.

I hope that Saxon just, like, goes along with it, because he'll do anything to sleep with a woman, and then he's just going to be, like, in a total crisis afterward.

Totally.

And you know what?

I think this is the perfect segue to talk about Rick and.

And his friend, because I totally see possible parallels between Saxon's journey and Rick's friend.

Maybe Saxon will realize things about himself that he hasn't known to this point.

Yes.

Yes.

Okay, so let's address the incredible scene of Rick and his nameless pal, AKA Sam Rockwell, who is the actor.

So Rick arrives in Bangkok, and he meets up with his old palace.

I thought he might be just, like, an arms dealer, but I think you're right.

Like a fixer of some kind.

He's some sort of fixer.

That's just what I assumed.

You call him when you need something.

Yeah.

And Rick's storyline mainly revolves around this conversation that he has with Sam Rockwell.

I'm just gonna call the character Sam for now.

So we get some great exposition from Sam.

He's been sober for 10 months.

And Rick says it's weird because we've never actually hung out sober before.

And we find out that's because Sam has found religion and he had to because he was taking partier partying as far as it could possibly go.

And we get the monologue that everyone is just.

Everyone's like, the monologue, the monologue.

So good.

And Sam Rockwell, an iconic actor, so everything he does is always great.

So he goes on to tell us that he moved to Thailand because he had to leave the States.

As expected, you either come to Thailand and stay here because you had to, or you're finding something.

He's always liked Asia, Asian girls, and he was picking up girls in Thailand every night.

But he was getting out of control.

And after a while, he started to lose it.

And he was questioning, like, what is desire?

Like, what does all of this mean?

So he realized that maybe what he really wants is to be one of these Asian girls.

So one night, he took home a ladyboy and let the ladyboy fuck him.

And he says it was magical.

And then he realized maybe what he really wants to be is this Asian girl getting fucked by himself.

So he started looking for a white guy to fuck him and even dressed up as a woman.

He found these white guys and even paid them.

And then he started getting addicted to white guys railing the shit out of him.

And he would even hire Asian women to come and watch.

And it felt like, I am her.

I am fucking white me.

Rick has absolutely no words listening to all of this.

He's just kind of, like, absorbing being like, holy shit, this is an awakening that's been happening over the last.

Yeah, ten months, I guess.

Or I guess more than that, because he's been sober for 10 months.

Ultimately, Sam says that he's been trying to fuck his way to an answer for fulfillment and realized that he had to stop.

And that's when he got into Buddhism.

That being sober isn't what's hard.

Being celibate is.

And I miss that pussy, man.

So I'm curious.

First of all, I think I mentioned this parallels here to, like, possibly what we might see happen with Saxon.

I think maybe this is foreshadowing.

But also I'm curious about how you compare this to Piper's journey, because she's also looking for fulfillment.

Okay, well, the first thing I'll say is, like, my main takeaway from this conversation, how proud I am of these two men for having such a vulnerable conversation together.

100%.

Like, I think we can look at Rick's face and see, like, possible judgment there, but absolutely no judgment vocalized or said or shame put on Sam.

Which is great.

Yeah.

I think, like, obviously they're very two different scenarios, but the parallel for me is that they're both lost.

So they're both lost in some way, and finding Buddhism is the answer for them.

And it just makes me think about how I've read.

Like, I'm very interested in stuff, like I mentioned before, Nexium, like cults and spirituality and how people get wrapped up in these things.

I've always been extremely critical and suspicious of such things.

So I think this is where my interest in it lies.

And the one thing I always see talked about when I read about this stuff or, like, watch documentaries about it is that all humans want to be part of something.

Like, all humans feel comfort in believing the same thing and being part of a social fabric that believes that thing.

And so all of us are seeking out this kind of community, and people seek out toxic versions of it when they don't have access to, like, the safety and comfort of that community in their already established life.

And so I think that's the correlation between These characters.

Is that the Fixer?

I'm just gonna call him the Fixer.

The Fixer was clearly lost and potentially confused about his sexuality and his desire.

And finding Buddhism gave him an answer to that.

And then you look at Piper, and she's confused about what life means for her, what her future looks like at home in Texas.

And Buddhism is gonna find answers for that.

So it's interesting.

It just boils down to them just both being seekers because they're lost.

Yeah.

And it's funny because I don't know if Buddhism is necessarily what both of them feel a connection to or if it's maybe just a puzzle piece that some.

That just fits into the slot.

It could be that, like, they could have replaced Buddhism with really any religion or cult.

Yeah.

Or even, like, a wellness exercise, like a wellness diet kind of thing.

Like, I do think Buddhim is interesting to me because I do think a lot of Westerners view Buddhism as a very peaceful and safe religion, which I think is, like, very true to a degree.

But I don't know if I've ever talked about this on the show, but years ago, when Luke and I were in Myanmar, we hired a local guide to take us walking around a region, and we had really interesting conversations with him, especially in the context of what was happening at the time politically.

And I will say we were afraid to have these discussions because at that time in Myanmar, like, most foreigners were told, like, do not talk politics at all.

But he would kind of motion towards what was going on with the genocide happening that is still happening in one part of the country.

And he told us straight up.

He was like, this is an extremism born out of Buddhism.

And what he tried to say to us that day, like, how we interpreted it, was he was trying to tell us that, like, every religion has the potential to be extreme.

We see that in North America as well.

Like, look at America.

Yeah.

So, yeah, I always find it interesting that Westerners, like, view Buddhism as such a peaceful religion because it, like every other religion, does have the potential to become extreme.

It all depends on how you interpret it.

Yep.

Okay.

So the episode finally ends, and Rick says that he's probably going to need another favor from the fiction mixer.

A little role play.

The next evening, this is where I'm fully seeing Sam Rockwell returns as the producer to talk to Sritala.

And I think we're gonna go from there.

So that's the episode.

Yeah.

A lot has happened.

There's a couple extra theories and tidbits that I've Seen floating around the Internet and.

Yeah, I'm just curious what else you're thinking about this episode.

Any extra things you want to throw out there before we award our conscientious traveler and talk about our top cringe moment?

Well, so I normally reference my friend Shir, who watches this show with me every Sunday.

I noticed of her this episode.

There is an absence of Sheer this episode.

And this is why Sheer is in Taiwan.

Oh, but we have a load of.

The White Lotus for me.

I know, but we have been texting and we were talking about how funny Victoria is.

Honestly, Victoria is my favorite character right now and how Parker Posey is such an iconic actress.

And she sent me this video of Parker Posey doing an interview about Jennifer Coolidge.

Yes.

You said in it the way she talks.

I texted Sheer back and said she reminds me of Jennifer Coolidge in the way that she talks about things.

And then Sheare said, she is Moya Rose.

Yes.

And it clicked for me.

Yeah, it clicked for me.

I saw an interview of Parker Posey talking about how she was kind of doing this Southern lady, and she said that there was something that she really admired and noticed from a lot of, like, southern women and sort of like, in the.

More of the, I guess, elitist space or something, was like a romanticization of, like, each of the words that they say.

And that's why she sort of like has this long, drawn out way that she talks.

Yeah.

And she's like, every word is just like romanticized and emphasized.

And I was.

As soon as she said Moya Rose, I was like, that's so true.

Yes.

If you haven't.

If you.

If anyone listening doesn't know the show.

Schitt's Creek, another Canadian piece of content.

Great show.

Just look up a clip of the character Moya Rose, and they are really similar.

It's kind of funny.

I wonder if Moira Rose was some inspiration.

It's a great parallel, for sure.

Okay, here's a theory that I found online also.

The blender.

The blender and the poison fruit.

People are noticing that in the last episode, not this recent one, but the blender is getting a lot of screen time.

And we had that little Chekhov's gun of the poisonous fruit in episode one.

And people are pointing out that Saxon has been shoveling these smoothies into Lachlan's body and that Lachlan might be the one to drink a poisonous smoothie.

And that's why he might be the dead guy at the very beginning.

Interesting.

I do like that theory.

Yeah.

And then I also saw another interesting theory that in the paintings, the opening credits, somebody was reading it as, you know, how you talked about how the monkeys were taking over the people inside and you seeing these depictions of nature sort of taking over humanity.

Somebody else was reading it as the monkeys are actually a depiction of foreigners taking over local customs, which I thought was really interesting too and kind of like coming in and just like destroying local culture to appropriate it for themselves, which I thought was also another interesting theory.

Or just read, read on it.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah, I like that.

I do like that.

So I have one, one theory to throw out which literally just popped into my head.

I'm wondering if Rick is going to learn an alternative history when he confronts Jim.

I bet you he will listen.

Listen.

All he knows is what his mother, who he told us has a drug addiction, has told him about this story.

And it does sound like a bit of a far fetched story because she frames it like Rick's father was doing all this good work here in Thailand and that's what happened to him.

Like that's what led to his demise.

I'm wondering if Jim is going to say a completely different story and it's going to challenge Rick's understanding of what happened to his father.

Like maybe that's not at all what happened to his father.

Maybe Jim is his father.

We don't know.

This is a theory I was hearing.

So there is a theory that Jim and his and Rick's mom were together and that Jim left his mom for Sritala, went to Thailand and then she was super depressed and was with Rick's dad.

And I guess, yeah, some messiness there or something.

So we'll see.

I have a feeling there's going to be some sort of bomb dropped.

We're going to learn something different.

Totally, totally.

Okay.

What was your top travel cringe moment?

Definitely Victoria saying to Piper, you want to live in Taiwan?

I think not knowing the country you're in currently is probably.

I don't think it gets any cringier than that, for sure.

Cruise ship energy.

You know when they say that people get off of cruise ships and they think they can use American dollars and they don't know what country they're in.

It's cruise ship energy.

It's cruise ship energy for sure.

I also was quickly noting, I don't know if this is like a travel.

I guess it's kind of a travel cringe moment, which is my thoughts on Fabian's conversations with Gary about Belinda.

There's a lot of stuff out there that says, when you go to a hotel, make sure that you're the person checking you in doesn't say your room number out loud so that people in the vicinity don't know what room you're staying in.

I'm worried that Fabian gave Gary too much information about where Belinda is staying, staying, who she is, all the things about her identity that he knows.

So we will see what happens with that.

Okay, who are you doling out your Conscientious Traveler Award to?

Oh, my gosh.

In a wild turn of events, I am giving my Conscientious Travel Award to Saxon.

Okay, explain.

Who would have thought Saxon gets my Conscientious Travel Award because he resisted taking drugs at the Full moon party.

But then he did.

But then he did.

But he was the only person to resist.

And he actively tried to stop Lachlan.

Yeah.

And he was even telling Lachlan, like, pace yourself.

This is gonna be hardcore.

So I thought, you know what?

He gets it, because that is truly a good practice.

To wild.

Wild turn of events.

For this podcast, it was literally I.

Stopped the show, and I thought to myself, saxon, thank you.

You've finally done something good, even though it didn't last and you gave in after some resistance.

Yeah, he gets my award.

Good.

I'm not gonna lie.

It was really hard for me to select someone for this.

This episode because it was just so chaotic and, like, a lot of different things happening.

At first I was like, oh, it's got be Rick for, like, listening and absorbing Sam's story.

But that has nothing to do with travel.

It just.

I guess it kind of does, but I don't know.

I think my Conscientious Traveler Award, in a shocking turn of events for me, I think, is going to go for Kate.

I think Kate was also, like, looking out for the gals, adopted the mother hen role, which is super important when you're partying in an un, like, unfamiliar country, and just, like, was just, like, watching out for her gal pals to make sure that nobody was going overboard or taking advantage of them to the best of her abilities that she could as a skinny little white lady in a foreign country.

Yeah.

So I think I'm going to give it to Kate.

Okay, I agree with that.

Okay, well, next episode's going to be even more Buck Wild, I think.

So best of luck to you as you recap it, because this one was a doozy for me.

So, yeah, it's gonna be a challenge.

I think we vastly underestimated how hard it is to recap a show like this.

I think White Lotus in particular, a definite challenge.

Yes.

If you are listening to these episodes and these recaps, we would love to hear from you and hear what you're thinking of them and also just tell us what you want to know more about what we can dig into more.

Also, I want to know everyone's thoughts and theories.

I also want to know because now I'm curious, like how people feel about the gal pals, like the different interpretations there.

Yeah, tell us what you're thinking.

So you can send us a DM or DM me on pinotravels or you can also leave a review if you would like.

Yeah, yeah.

But yeah, let us know because we were curious to hear from everyone.

We know people are listening to this, but we haven't heard from any of.

We don't know at this.

Think.

Tell us.

Tell us.

Okay, Erin, well, I guess I'll see you at the White Lotus next week.

Yep.

See you next week.