A popular HBO drama’s latest season features a family from the Triangle — a house divided by the Tobacco Road rivalry. The show uses both sides of the rivalry to illustrate a deeper point about the family, and families like them.
The White Lotus is a dark comedy-drama set at a fictional line of resorts. The first season takes place in Hawaii, the second season takes place in Italy and the third season is set in Thailand. What each season has in common is a star-studded ensemble cast of characters, usually consisting of rich white vacationers and the native resort workers who have to deal with their antics. This time around, our cast includes a shady man and his younger girlfriend, a group of three women on a girls’ trip hosted by their successful actress friend, and of course, a well-off family of five from the Durham-Chapel Hill area.
The Ratliff family from the White Lotus season three. From left to right, Parker Posey as Victoria Ratliff, Patrick Schwarzenegger as Saxon Ratliff, Jason Isaacs as Timothy Ratliff, Sarah Catherine Hook as Piper Ratliff, and Sam Nivola as Lochlan Ratliff. (Photograph by Fabio Lovino/HBO)
Our family of focus, the Ratliffs, is a stereotypical old-money southern nuclear household. Jason Isaacs plays Timothy Ratliff, the patriarch and breadwinner, and Parker Posey plays Victoria Ratliff, the spacey mother. Their three kids, Saxon, Piper, and Lochlan, are played by Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sarah Catherine Hook, and Sam Nivola respectively. Saxon is the oldest, a recent Duke graduate who has begun to work for his father in finance. Piper is the middle child, is a UNC senior, and she has a deep fascination with Buddhism. Her study of the religion is the reason that the family has chosen to stay at the White Lotus Thailand in the first place. And then there’s Lochlan, the youngest son, who has recently been accepted to both UNC and Duke. He is facing pressure from both sides of his family. His father and Saxon both went to Duke, and see it as a given that Lochlan will do the same. Victoria and Piper are both Tar Heels and are pushing just as hard, if more subtly, for Lochlan to follow their path.
While many have covered all of the references to the UNC-Duke rivalry present in the show, there is a deeper question to be answered. What purpose does including it serve within the larger plot of the season?
In the first episode, the differences between the men and the women of the Ratliff family are apparent. Both Saxon and his father are successful and business-minded. They scoff at the idea of giving up their phones for the week, a practice encouraged by the resort to allow the guests to connect with the experience more directly. Piper and her mother on the other hand are enthusiastic about the idea, embracing the different forms of spirituality offered and gladly giving up their devices. Here is an early example of characters’ mindsets being split along the lines of who went to UNC and who went to Duke.
The Ratliff siblings. (Photograph by Courtesy of HBO)
A simple read of this dichotomy is that it is exploring the differences between more conservatively minded and more liberal rich white people. On the surface, there is a lot different between the members of the family. Saxon openly flirts with any attractive woman he sees, and expresses disappointment at not getting a “happy ending” at the end of his massage. He humorously mispronounces the Thai greeting “sawadika” as “swastika” in episode four. Saxon is an example of a vacationer who is only concerned with his immediate enjoyment. He expects for his entire experience to be pleasurable, and is not interested in learning more about Thai culture, or trying to gain any sort of spiritual guidance from his experience. He simply wants what he wants.
Piper on the other hand is much more considerate, at first glance. She is deeply interested in the Buddhist tradition, and seeks to learn about it in any way she can. She is highly vigilant about staying politically correct, and frequently calls out Saxon’s rude behavior. She is the most socially conscious person in the family, and seeks to impart a similar level of sensitivity on her younger brother Lochlan. However, the White Lotus is cynical to its core, and loves to deconstruct characters who believe that they are morally superior to those around them. At the end of the day, Piper is just as rich and white as Saxon, even if she acts morally superior to him. She wants to embrace Buddhism, and even expresses a desire to live at a local temple for a while. She is also in Thailand to get something out of it — to exploit its culture in one way or another. She might not be as outwardly malicious about the transactional nature of her trip, but that nature exists nonetheless.
Finally there’s Lochlan, who is easily swayed by either of his siblings. Piper encourages him to remain sensitive, while Saxon is trying to push him into a traditional masculine mold. Not only are they trying to sway him to go to their preferred college, but they’re also pushing him to be more like themselves. Whichever of the two schools Lochlan picks will push the needle one way or another, deciding the fate of the Ratliffs as either a Tar Heel or a Blue Devil family.
Only half the episodes of the season have been released as of March 14, so there’s still more to see before Lochlan makes his choice. However, there’s another option which stays true to the cynical nature of the White Lotus. Lochlan may decide to pick neither school, rejecting the pressure from both sides of his family and carving out his own path. It is likely that as the episodes progress, the ways in which both sides of the Ratliff family seem different will continue to crumble away, until viewers are left with the truth, which is that family members aren’t so different after all. That’s the point. UNC and Duke are both schools that have a lot of rich white students. Those students would like to act like the schools are entirely different, but look closely, and you’ll see the same elitist attitude present in both.
So what does the presence of this rivalry mean for the season? It shows the way that those with privilege either embrace or reject that privilege, and the superficial ways that people try to differentiate themselves from those who are ultimately similar. Lochlan would get a great education at either school, but for the Ratliff family, that isn’t the point. The point for his parents and siblings is getting him to pick their team — to validate the choice they made. And for the show itself, the point is demonstrating how those teams aren’t so different after all.
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