#The white lotus gay sex scene series
The big mystery of the series - “Who is the body in the coffin?” - ends up being the greatest critique of privilege. But in the final episode “Departures,” not all characters leave the island in better shape. By the end of the series, after six episodes of cringe-inducing scenes meant to teach its vacationers how good they actually have it, they depart the same as they had arrived: clutching their power and washing their hands of the chaos their privilege brings. Mike White isn’t afraid to hold back in his skewering of white cis gay men or the other privileged characters. Only when they’re confronted with their privilege, they claim they identify with the LGBTQIA+ community, implying that their privilege is less powerful than that of white cis straight men. They move further away from their community because they don’t see themselves as a part of it, but more so a part of an elite society that offers them what they want. Historically, when we look at how the LGBTQIA+ community interacts with itself, there’s a clear dichotomy to who is “superior.” White cis gay men have always been elevated to a higher status than other members of their community because they’re the most accepted and privileged in society. And unfortunately, that’s the same attitude a lot of white cisgender gay men have. He uses the privilege he believes he doesn’t have as a manager to influence his subordinate into a compromising position because he believes he’s entitled to Dillon. And what results in the most talked-about scene of the series happens to be a moment that reveals Armond to be just as reprehensible as his guests. As soon as he decides he’s going to have Dillon, he doesn’t stop until he has him. That brings us to the turning point with Armond. He believes he’s owed and he finds his own ways to get what he wants. He’s relegated to his lower-class service role, so he acts out. He wants to be one of them, regardless of how often he expresses his disgust toward them. It’s easy to imagine Armond expecting more from his life, and he believes he should be able to enjoy what his guests take for granted. But White is clever to scrutinize Armond’s privilege along with that of the wealthy guests. Anyone who works in the service industry can relate to dealing with entitled customers.
Armond’s removal of his service-oriented mask reaches a boiling point when he propositions his subordinate Dillon (Gage) to join him in a drug-filled party that includes the aforementioned salad-tossing.Īt first, one could be sympathetic to Armond. He engages in a war with Shane and comes on to a practically blacked-out Mark. And here’s a hint: He doesn’t like where he’s at.Īrmond, a recovering addict who knows his way around uppers and downers, starts to push the boundaries between himself and the guests while intoxicated. It’s not until his trainee goes into labor that Armond begins to question his place in the world.
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When we first meet the new batch of vacationers, Armond is in full hospitality mode, advising his new trainee to become an indistinguishable helper, because as he says, they are “asked to disappear behind their masks.” Armond at first acts like a customer service automaton, going through the motions of appeasing as many guests as possible. Especially in what is now considered an iconic queer scene, Armond uses his privilege to get what he believes he deserves (which is tossing Lukas Gage’s salad). His privilege and entitlement don’t appear at first glance because of all the other characters, and because he serves them, but as the narrative unfolds, Armond spirals because he isn’t privileged, yet feels he deserves to be. What’s more challenging is interrogating the queer character at the center of the series, Armond (played with delicious fervor by Looking’s Murray Bartlett), who is manager of the White Lotus, one in a chain of exclusive resorts.
They’re joined by Shane’s “trophy wife,” Rachel (Alexandra Daddario), the grieving and neurotic heiress Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge, finally getting her due), and the Mossbacher family: tech CEO Nicole (Connie Britton), her husband, Mark (Steve Zahn), and their children, Quinn (Fred Hechinger) and Olivia ( Euphoria’s Sydney Sweeney), who brings along a “friend,” Paula (Brittany O’Grady). For example, one of them is the trust-fund bro type Shane (Jake Lacy), who is on his honeymoon and whose “mommy” (Molly Shannon) comes to visit to sort out a petty room change war. I’ve seen all six episodes of this miniseries, and one could easily interrogate the cluelessness of the vacationers: They’re all pretty good targets. The White Lotus, writer-director Mike White’s ( Enlightened) just-concluded Hawaiian resort-set series on HBO, is an idiosyncratic skewering of American privilege and entitlement, and ditto on white upper-class vacationers.