AzureOwl

It really needs to be said again, but Alexandra Daddario is a seriously good actress. At the start of the episode your could feel her silently freaking out, and your exactly what Rachel was feeling without her having to say a word. That is true, but I wouldn't imagine that things would be cleared up fast enough for Shane to leave in less than a day. Hell, Armond's body was released to be sent back home just as fast. There couldn't possibly be time to even do an autopsy. Only if they were motivated to keep investigating. The police already caught the guy and recovered all the loot. They really have no incentives to keep looking just in case he had accomplices. And in a place that lives off of tourism, I would imagine the police would be in a hurry to close the case as quickly as possible. Definitively the first time they showed the actual matter coming out. Other movies/shows they just show the person squatting and doing a face, but they always keep the camera on their face. That was a pretty fat envelope. At least 20,000 dollars would be my estimation.

In case anyone is interested, Mike White gave his own explanation as to why Paula didn't call Kai to warn him.

I don't know. It will depend on Kai's behavior if he gets caught, which I won't take a guess at predicting because so far Kai has not been acting in the manner I would've expected given his situation. I mean, for starters, his behavior vis-à-vis the fling with Paula is the exact reverse of what it should be. Ordinarily, you would expect the person working in the hospitality industry in a high end resort to be the one who is more aware of the temporariness of any relationship with a guest, specially a sexual one; but we see that he is the one who immediately starts thinking that she's going to drop everything to stay and be with him. The future actions of someone who would get so emotionally invested with a person who they've only known for a few days, and with whom he has only shared a few hours of clandestine hot sex and and a few semi-intimate conversations, are not going to be guided by rationality. I could totally see him taking a page out of a romantic movie and deciding to take all the blame to spare "his beloved". As for Olivia figuring it out, given what we have seen of Olivia she is more likely to keep quite and hold it over Paula's head for the rest of their lives. Olivia would frame it as "I understand, and I am your friend so I will keep quiet", but they would both know that the subtext would be Olivia letting Paula know that she can destroy her life any second she wants if Paula doesn't do exactly what she wants. It the exact type of passive-aggressive blackmail that I would expect from Olivia. Never actually threaten her with anything (that would go against her own self image as an "ally"), but making damn sure Paula knows that she knows.

Selfishness maybe? Olivia was right next to her, if she'd pulled out her phone the second the parents left the boat and he had already taken the bracelets and left, Olivia could've put 2 and 2 together.

Season 2 is a go. It will feature a different location and cast, as it will focus on a different hotel in the White Lotus chain.

Recall that Olivia made a point of mentioning that her mother used Olivia’s birthday as the code to the safe. Family member birthdays are the first thing someone trying to guess your password will try, and this day and age, easy to find out. And those hotel room safes don’t lock themselves after a few mistakes, as far as I recall. There is a reason why hotels don’t take any responsibility for valuables that you leave in them. Another small thing in Paula’s favor is that Quinn blabbed about how much the bracelets were worth in the middle of restaurant, the night before the break in, which expands the suspect pool to the entire staff and makes an inside job less likely.

On another note, color me surprised that Shane didn't put the screws on Armond any harder. I would've imagined he would've tortured him every second. And speaking of the "happy" couple, I like that they're clarifying that what is dawning on Rachel is not that Shane is an asshole (there's no way she could've married him without realizing that until the honeymoon) but the fact that she's essentially a trophy wife.

OK, we can add one more to the list of assholes that have a valid grievances, because Nicole was absolutely right that if was a shit move for Mark to tell Quin about the affair. It was unfair to Quin to have the emotional stress of that information dumped on him, and it was unfair to Nicole precisely because of the reasons she mentioned. I came here to write that. Basically Kai's only chance in hell is to fortuitously pick a crooked pawn broker who wouldn't report the bracelets, and someone like that would've only given Kai cents on the dollar. At best.

I wouldn't assume that just because she's a c***, that Olivia is dumb or only capable of getting into college though money/connections. It is a sad reality of the world we live in that a person can be extremely smart and extremely competent in their chosen field, but also be an absolute nightmare of a human being to be around. Case in point, what recently came to light abut how Joss Whedon runs his shows/movies. The man has created may of my favorite pieces of fiction ever, but the way he treats his actors is apparently beyond toxic. Just look up Charisma Carpenter's account if you're in for a disappointment. At this point I don't think he is thinking all that rationally. Or he thought that with his mother present, he would be too distracted to remember that he'd asked for the card. Recall that he didn't actually intended to give it to him, Shane had to ask for it again during dinner, so his Plan A was probably to play dumb and not give him anything, and the fake card was a Plan B in case he insisted.

I would attribute that more to a miscommunication with the wardrobe department, because they seem to be doing everything in their power to obfuscate the fact that Sydney Sweeney's body is just as impressive as Alexandra Daddario's. At first I thought it was because she's supposed to be playing a high school aged character and they were trying not to sexualize her too much, but now I'm pretty sure Olivia and Paula are supposed to be college sophomores, so that's not it.

Having slept on it, I also realized that calling corporate would’ve been useless for what he wanted. There’s no chance in Hell they’re going to give a general manager’s cellphone number to a random customer with a complaint. Shane wouldn’t have made it past a supervisor, guaranteed.

The tagline of this show might as well be "Assholes may have a valid point some times, but they’re still assholes".

Ah, but if he did that, then he wouldn't be asserting dominance over Armond by making Armond give it to him. Shane clearly feels that Armond doesn't respect him (which he would be right about) and wants to "put him in his place", sort to speak.

Also impressive? That Shane's mother still managed to find something to passive aggressively criticize about Rachel's physical appearance. That's is some next level passive aggressive bitchiness right there. Granted, Alexandra Daddario probably does need a couple coats of SPF 50 before even looking at a beach, but it is hardly something anyone would hold against her.

I couldn't agree more. The fact that her deal is actually worse than romantic possessiveness is quite impressive. It really isn't the direction I thought they were going.

I agree with the notion that he was more upset by the fact that he realized his entire knowledge of his father turned out to be a lie. I could've sworn that was her kid. I'll have to go back and confirm. ETA: Yep, just checked with the captions on and the person on the phone calls Belinda mom.

That type of drunk is the most awkward to be around, because they make it very difficult to disengage and run for the hills. You could see Rachel was looking for an excuse to run for the hills practically since he started talking.

Some thoughts on tonight's episode. Why am I not surprised that Shane and Olivia hit it off so well? I am really disturbed by how much I related to Nicole obsessing about the Zoom background. I take the X-Wing painting of the wall every time I have a work one. While I suspected before, now I am pretty sure Olivia is gay. The look on her face when she saw Paula having sex with that guy sealed the deal. Speaking of which, are hotel employees allowed to fraternize with the guests? I remember reading a story a few years ago about the bartender at a London hotel getting fired because the manager found out she’d had sex with some celebrity that was staying at the hotel (the name will come back to me). With regard to the person who dies, right now my top candidates are: Armond, via overdose; Mark, via drunken scuba accident; Tanya via accident while scattering the ashes On another note, I like how the show is leaning into the fact that while Shane is an insufferable prick, he is completely right that Armond is plain fucking with him at this point.

You can have a perfectly legitimate grievance and still come off as the bad guy if you are an asshole in pursuit of it. Which Shane is doing, at least as it pertains to his wife, as he is ruining their honeymoon by making it all about the room. I first noticed this phenomenon many years ago while watching The Wonder Years. Shane is running the risk of pulling a Becky Slater in this scenario.

I've speculated in the next episode's thread that the husband is probably the one who paid for the vacation and he makes a lot less than her.

Nicole seems very, very touchy about the implication that she only got the job because her company needed to improve their optics due to a "Me Too" situation. Touchy enough to remember those articles in particular.

Rachel's problem was that she was trying to have her cake and eat it too. First she tries to take credit for writing the article, but the second Nicole reacts badly to it she claims she was only repurposing someone else's writing. He said is was a bad reaction to a virus.

Between her reactions to Paula flirting with the hotel employee and her reaction when Rachel disrobed during the first episode, I'm pretty sure Olivia is supposed to be a lesbian. The husband probably paid for the vacation. I remember that its been established that he makes significantly less than her, so letting him pay for the trip is her way of avoiding emasculating him.

First teaser for the reboot.

Just looked up the trailer for that one. Damn that kid is a chameleon!