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"The White Lotus": 2.2

 Mike White's strange, mesmerizing voice still works; he's still "got it."


One theme he likes is addiction. In "Enlightened," the Luke Wilson character asks not to be saved. "I'm sad. My dog died, my marriage ended. Let me have my drugs." Similarly, Laura Dern's character has a history with drug abuse--and she has a kind of addiction to her married colleague, who has abandoned her. You can draw a line from these people to Michael Imperioli, in "The White Lotus"; here, we have a guy who says, "Sex has ruined me," and who then (once again) chooses sex. Imperioli's sadness is wonderful. Also, we have a sense of why he is who he is; this guy's father will blithely borrow moral lessons from Greek myths. "Hades raped Persephone, and Demeter forgave everything. A transgression isn't bad; you just have to be sure you get away with it."


Another favorite Mike White topic is uncertainty. He loves to have one character speculating about an unknowable second character. A stand-out episode of "Enlightened" has Robin Wright visiting; Laura Dern is made to suffer with all the questions she can't ask. Does Wright actually like Dern? Is Wright secretly mocking Dern? Is Wright filing away little "judgments" in her head? These questions aren't actually answered; the episode is less about Wright than about the way we all torture ourselves with speculation and "status" assessments. We see this theme in Aubrey Plaza's scenes; Plaza wonders if her new friends are "in their room right now, just shitting on me, shitting on my character." Additionally, there is the moment when Theo James disrobes in front of Aubrey; this could mean quite a bit, or it really could mean nothing. And it's possible we won't get an answer. That's life.


Finally, White feels fascinated by money (and he explores money in ways that seem "forbidden" to many other writers). In "Beatriz at Dinner," the title character wishes to thank her rich hosts, so she performs a song. ("You're another guest here? I thought you were just the help. Sorry. You were hovering....") White seems to allude to Beatriz, this season, with his new gifted artist/performer, who may also be a prostitute. The artist doesn't get a great deal of recognition--because of her outfits, and because of the company she keeps--but she does have a minute in the spotlight, and it's a minute that she uses to make fun of rich people. "The moon belongs to everyone; the best things in life are free..."


My prediction for the murder: it won't involve Theo James. This guy seems like a new version of Jake Lacy--"I TOLD YOU: DO NOT SEND THE LUGGAGE BACK TO AMERICA!"--and it would be odd to have Jake Lacy 2.0 as an "agent of destruction" (given that Jake Lacy 1.0 is already a murderer).

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