The White Lotus Season 3 Has One Subplot That Went Nowhere

This post contains spoilers for "The White Lotus" season 3 finale.

In Mike White's "The White Lotus," every detail matters until they don't. The show is designed to keep audiences guessing, luring us in with intriguing set-ups and loaded character dynamics that look like they could boil over into violence at any minute. For three seasons and counting, the show has taken a somewhat absurdist approach to the murder mystery at its heart, delivering deaths from misunderstandings and freak accidents and leaving several plot points hanging by season's end.

In the past, plenty of "White Lotus" storylines have gone unresolved, from the potential infidelities of married couple Harper (Aubrey Plaza) and Ethan (Will Sharpe) in season 2 to the disappearance of hotel staffer Lani (Jolene Purdy) in the Hawaii-set season 1. This season was no exception, with the fate of two of Jim Hollinger's bodyguards unknown and the Ratliff family's reaction to their lost wealth never shown. The biggest red herring of the season, though, was one that came and went early on: a mysterious, non-starter of a conversation between Texas housewife Kate (Leslie Bibb) and lorazepam-popping matriarch Victoria Ratliff (Parker Posey).

The exchange in question took place back in episode 2, on the second day of the group's Thailand-set getaway. At breakfast, Kate approached Victoria to say hello, noting that she'd met her before. She eventually pinpointed their meeting to a weekend trip for a baby shower years ago, and a mutual acquaintance named Claire Popovich. Victoria then awkwardly (and rather rudely) rebuffed Kate, insisting she didn't remember her and trying to make the conversation end. Viewers quickly latched onto this exchange as the seed of a possible twist being planted. "Was the baby shower really 10 years ago?" a Reddit user named Fluffy-Feedback7125 questioned, while a YouTube comment from user @StuartDixon2010 on a clip of the scene theorized, "The fact HBO Max published this clip is something to remember; a significant nugget for the future of the plot."

Needless to say post-finale, it did not turn out to be a mystery-significant plot point. The cringeworthy breakfast encounter never came up again after episode 2, and we never heard more about Claire Popovich or the baby shower. Despite Purewow dubbing the shower mention "suspicious" and Mashable insisting that "conversations like this aren't throwaways" on "The White Lotus," the exchange ended up having zero bearing on any of the season 3 plot threads. And that's okay!

It's interesting to see "The White Lotus" take hold of the zeitgeist so firmly, because it's a show that often subverts viewers' expectations for closure while still asking them to guess at the story's ending. In some ways, it feels like a collective exercise, with White trying to get viewers to think outside the boundaries of the typical "good wins out over evil" storytelling that saturates so much of the media landscape. Think weirder than that, he seems to be saying. Think more random and (ironically, given the Buddhism woven through this season) less karmic. The monk who speaks at the beginning of episode 8 feels like he's talking directly to us when he says, "There is no resolution to life's questions. It is easier to be patient once we finally accept there is no resolution."

It's fine that the Kate and Victoria conversation went nowhere, because this is a show that's often about people refusing to go beyond their comfort zone and, more often than not, learning nothing in the end. On a most basic level, though, the scene does serve a purpose: filling in some of the details of the still-developing images of two characters we met in episode one. Kate seems to be "new money," a woman who married rich, whereas Victoria always speaks about wealthy people as if they're intrinsically different from the poor — an old money sensibility. This comes through in their exchange, with Victoria immediately clocking Kate as someone whom she believes is not worth talking to or even thinking about.

The encounter also reveals more about each character individually. Victoria is at her foggiest point here, obviously hooked on pills and far from the detoxed, clear-eyed version of the character we see in the series finale. She's high enough that she may not remember Kate at all, and she also doesn't get why her family might think it's weird for her to dismiss the woman so casually. We learn that Kate, on the other hand, is still striving to climb the social ladder. Despite her constant comments about the beautiful life she's built in Austin, she's still trying to make affluent friends — a sign that she hasn't been fully accepted into her community despite all the humble-bragging.

The scene also plays into the season's theme of forcing connections where there are none. Throughout the season, characters attempt to mine meaning from their choices, but often find themselves short on depth or understanding. Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood), the most fate-driven character at the resort, died senselessly thanks to a chain of easily avoidable events. Maybe all meaning in the world of "The White Lotus" is artificial and constructed. But then again, Lochlan (Sam Nivola) saw God after drinking a poisonous protein shake, and that's pretty meaningful. Maybe we should expect a Claire Popovich appearance in season 4.

All episodes of "The White Lotus" season 3 are now streaming on Max.