‘The White Lotus’ Episode 4: Timmy Gets His Gun

This post contains spoilers for this week’s episode of The White Lotus, “Hide or Seek,” which is now streaming on Max. 

After the different groups of guests and staffers have been largely siloed from one another, the barriers start to come down throughout “Hide or Seek.” The Ratliffs spend the day on Greg’s yacht, along with Rick and Chelsea. And Tim’s ongoing legal calamity eventually collides with Gaitok’s attempt to prove himself in the aftermath of the robbery. But for the most part, the stories continue to stand alone just enough that we will once again touch on them group by group — at least until we get to the matter of the missing gun. 

Jaclyn, Kate, and Laurie

For once, the friends aren’t breaking down into smaller groups to secretly gossip about one another. Instead, their ire is aimed outward, first at Valentin, and then at the local kids. 

Realizing that they aren’t taking as much advantage of the locale as they could — and desperately seeking a distraction from the fact that her hot young husband isn’t responding to her messages — Jaclyn insists that the trio get away from the resort and explore what the island has to offer. But when she asks Valentin to find them a fun spot, he instead sends them to a hotel down the beach that caters to retirees on a travel budget. Why would he point them to such a place? Perhaps it’s because, despite his constant flattery about what youthful shape Laurie and Jaclyn are in, he can’t help thinking of them as old, and is at an age where he considers everyone above 40 to be interchangeable. Perhaps he’s annoyed that they expect him to be, as Jaclyn later puts it, their “butler,” and is amused by taking them down a peg. Perhaps he has secrets we haven’t even gotten to yet. 

Regardless, the ladies quickly bail on the old(er) folks and order Valentin to take them someplace more exciting. The problem is, it’s too early for the club he chose to open, so they wind up in town in the middle of the full moon celebration — where a bunch of squirt gun-wielding kids decide these three rich Americans make perfect targets for soaking. Mike White shoots the assault like it’s a parody of Sam Peckinpah or another blood-loving action filmmaker of generations past. Still, it’s a bit disappointing to have the tension among the three set largely to the side this week. 

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Rick and Chelsea

If Rick’s agenda for coming to the resort wasn’t clear before, he spells it out to Chelsea while they’re out on Greg’s boat: He blames Sritala’s husband Jim for the murder of his father, and intends to exact revenge on the guy. Though Chelsea quotes The Princess Bride in this scene, it’s starting to feel like the more appropriate pop-culture reference might be Empire Strikes Back. At this point, would anyone be surprised if Jim turned out to not be the man who killed Rick’s father, but the father himself? 

While we wait to find out whether that theory is correct, the most compelling part of this story this week is a small one. Amrita runs into Rick at the hotel, and when he informs her that he’s skipping another session with her to go to Bangkok, she makes one last attempt at getting through the emotional armor he’s built up around himself. “You have touched my heart,” she tells him. “And I hope you

will hear me when I say, you are not stuck. You understand? You can let go of your story. You can escape the karmic cycle. Find peace in this life. I have hope for you.” Pot-fueled snake-prison breaks aside, Walton Goggins has been doing some very small, carefully calibrated work so far as Rick. This moment where he thanks Amrita and we realize that she has gotten through to him, even just a little, is lovely. 

Belinda and Greg

Greg mostly tries to stay out of the way as his obscenely large yacht plays host to a mix of his fellow LBHs and Chloe’s various guests. That’s in part because he doesn’t seem to like other people, and in part because his mind is occupied with what to do about the troublesome Belinda, who puts two and two together regarding Greg and Tanya, after which her friend Google tells her all about the events of White Lotus Season Two. When “Gary” tells Chloe that he has to go back to shore for something “important,” it does not sound like a promising development for our favorite massage therapist. 

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Gaitok 

The good news for Gaitok is that he’s not being fired over the robbery, even though Fabian still very clearly wants to can him. The bad news is that Fabian and security chief Lek have decided that what Gaitok needs to be the best security guard he can be is a loaded weapon — specifically, a Walther PPK, best known as the gun that 007 uses in the James Bond movies. The worst news is that Gaitok once again proves highly distractible, leaving the unsecured gun out on his desk while he’s distracted with more seemingly futile flirting with Mook. When he returns to the hut, the thing is of course gone, for reasons we’ll get to in a moment. Gaitok seems like a nice enough guy, but security would not appear to be the ideal career for him. 

The Ratliffs 

Near the end of the episode, after the rest of the Durham clan has left Saxon and Lochlan behind on Greg’s yacht, Victoria once again complains about having to be around people other than the ones she knows from the country club. At one point, she suggests that the family is vacationing in such a lawless place, she wouldn’t be surprised if there were fugitive killers among them. As it turns out, Victoria is correct about this — she even just took a ride on the yacht of such a person! But this insight comes at the same moment she’s completely oblivious to the fact that her husband is a criminal who’s all but guaranteed to serve jail time and lose the family fortune in the process. Tim’s family information blackout is working so far, as is his attempt to medicate his way through the rest of the trip by stealing his wife’s Lorazepam. But eventually, he can’t resist getting his phone back from Pam for a few minutes so he can check in with his attorney Chuck, who has nothing but bad news. And wouldn’t you know it, said bad news arrives right as he’s strolling past the unmanned security station, where a pistol is lying in wait for any particularly despondent guest to grab. 

We know there will be an active shooter on the property in a few days. Now we know there’s at least one gun already in place, and that the person who has it feels like his world is coming to an end. That is a recipe for bad things only.