White lotus season 3 episode 4 scene review

The hit HBOMax series, White Lotus, has returned for its third season and episode 4 is the show’s best episode yet.

The scene that stuck out to me most when watching included Jaclyn, Laurie and Kate. These three ladies are the middle aged, well-off guests in the hotel, with Jaclyn being a famous actress. While watching this scene I could not stop thinking about how realistic it was and how I’ve had these same horrifying realizations when talking to a friend about politics for the first time. 

All three of them are having a conversation that ends up turning political. An important factor of this scene is their geographic locations within the United States. Kate lives in Austin, TX, Jaclyn lives in L.A. and then Laurie lives in NYC. 

Kate is raving about her new conservative community and church that she and her husband attend while saying how he’s a Republican, but she’s an independent. The conversation then turns to Trump and Kate deflects the question of whether or not she voted for him. 

Kate fails to realize in this scene what her voting for Trump really means and how important it was to have that crucial conversation and not try to change the subject. 

The recent personal experience this scene reminded me of was when I found out my friend didn’t vote at all in this past election. I already had a feeling this friend didn’t vote, she comes from a conservative background and tended to shut down when our friend group would have political discourse. 

She came over a day following the election and I didn’t bring it up because I had a gut feeling I wouldn’t like what she had to say about it. Without me even bringing it up she straight up told me she didn’t vote, and I couldn’t help but rip her a new one over it. It’s a different sense of betrayal to not care about voting and be a contributing factor to the ignorance that runs rampant in America nowadays. The same shocked feelings Laurie and Jaclyn showed in that scene are what I felt with my friend following the election too. 

I have always been taught how important voting is and how we should fulfil our civic duty of doing so. It’s important to me to be a voice for myself and those that cannot vote. I come from a liberal family and have also adopted those similar values. 

It affected me so much because of what was on the line for women in this past election, specifically our reproductive rights. It seemed like she didn’t care about things that affect me specifically as a Black woman and then also us as women in general. I would’ve much rather her not told me than to find out about her not voting. It almost seemed like she felt guilty and needed to get it off her chest. Later on, Laurie and Jaclyn pick back up with the conversation they were having earlier, but without Kate around, which is the exact same thing my other friend that heard the conversation and I did later on. 

 I thought Mike White, the writer and director of White Lotus, wrote this scene perfectly. It truly represented the divides between women today even amongst all-white women friend groups. I’ve witnessed people in my life grow up to eventually develop different value systems, sometimes based on experiences, lack of knowledge and blatant disregard for other people. More shows should be inspired by this scene and take notes. It’s a real-life topic and conversation that was relevant even five years ago in context and still is today.