New trailer for The White Lotus S3 suggests a return to themes of S1

Guests are greeted at the luxury Thai hotel where the third season of The White Lotus is set with the words, “At the end of the week, you will be an entirely different person”. It sounds like a promise, but as fans of the HBO series well know, in the hands of writer and creator Mike White it’s really more of a threat.

With the second trailer for season three released today, we start to get more sense of what shape the threat might take. Or at least on who it’s going to be focused.

Walton Goggins as Rick Hatchett and Aimee Lou Wood as Chelsea in season three of The White Lotus.

At the centre of everything is the Ratliff family, a clan with distinct echoes of season one’s Mossbachers (the wealthy family over which Sydney Sweeney’s teenager Olivia cast a surly pall).

When patriarch Timothy (Jason Isaacs) asks his wife Victoria (Parker Posey at her most withering) what they would do if they lost all their money, she replies, “Honestly, I don’t know if I’d want to live; I just don’t have it in me”.

Cue Timothy on the phone, yelling, “What am I supposed to tell my family – we’re poor now, and Daddy’s going to prison?”

The cutaway shots of the monkey god Hanuman – a symbol of resilience and renowned for his ability to bounce back against impossible odds – suggest Timmy won’t be going down without a fight. But if he does, at least he’ll be surrounded on the descent by his loved ones.

“I’m so happy,” says Victoria. “All my babies together.”

There’s daughter Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook), whose expression suggests she’s been cast as this season’s Sydney Sweeney; there’s younger son Lochlan (Sam Nivola), who is starting to wonder if the reason they’ve been put on Earth is to try to become better people; and there’s older brother Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger), who responds to that suggestion as if it’s proof his bro has lost the plot. Like, totally.

Meanwhile, we have serial screen villain Walton Goggins playing Rick Hatchett, a man who is on the island seemingly under sufferance with his much younger girlfriend, Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood). But he is also a man on a mission.

“Everyone comes to Thailand, they’re either hiding from someone or they’re looking for someone,” says a young woman in voiceover as Rick scrolls to an image on his phone of an older man (Scott Glenn). Father? Criminal associate? Assassination target? Who knows.

And, of course, there’s Belinda (Natasha Rothwell), the hotel’s in-house massage therapist from season one, who has come to Thailand on an exchange (Tanya’s promise to gift her the funds to set up her own business having evaporated in the Hawaiian heat), with plans to “learn everything I can and bring the magic back to Maui”.

Whatever White has in store for our guests, you can bet they’ll all be different people – and one or more will be ex-people – by the end.

The White Lotus season three premieres on Monday, February 17, on Binge and Showcase.

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