The white lotus gay

For romantic couples in particular, we've gotten a working woman, Rachel Alexandra Daddariowho tries to assimilate into the wealthy world of the family she married into while navigating the shallow preoccupations of her husband, Shane Jake Lacywhich ended in the tantalizing decision of giving up her previous values to save her marriage.

While the couples have given us meaty conflicts to bite into during the show, like socioeconomic differences, illicit affairs, or one-sided affection, there is still one kind of couple I am begging to see. The show has veered close to properly delving into queer relationships and has shown potential for compelling arcs, but still hasn't really taken that crucial step.

Mike White, the bisexual creator of The White Lotus, reflects on queerness, expat culture and emotional truth in Season 3 of his hit HBO series, now streaming on NEON.

the white lotus gay

Just a few years ago, a plotline around gay sex between straight men would’ve earned rebukes online. But who among Mike White’s gallery of rogue, evil gays reigns supreme?. More recently, in Season 3, we had two brothers that participated in a non-consensual threesome together after taking drugs, but that was also a twisted extension of Lochlan's Sam Nivola self-image and insecurities rather than something more inherently sexual.

In Season 2, we had a deal between Quentin Tom Hollander and Jack Leo Woodallwho paraded around as uncle and nephew when, in reality, Jack was able to tag along Quentin's wealthy lifestyle in exchange for sex. Though it certainly hasn't taken away from the quality of these three seasons, it still feels like a missed opportunity — please White, give me at least one proper queer couple in Season 4!

In Season 2, Daphne Meghann Fahy and Cameron Theo James make an intriguing couple where the former turns a blind eye to her significant other's indiscretions for the sake of her marriage and lifestyle. In fact, the show tends to focus more on queer identity and its manifestations of the psyche rather than the actual relationship between two people in a queer couple.

Each of these major relationship conflicts in the three seasons aren't necessarily restricted to just hetero-normative relationships. While the show does focus on the psychological landscape of each individual, it also delves into the relationships between the guests, from family members to friends to couples.

Each season of The White Lotus has seen a number of filthy rich guests check into the titular resort with their literal and metaphorical baggage dragged alongside them. Although it was the first time the main hotel guest cast included a queer sex scene, the surrounding implications were more psychological and familial.

Here 39 s our : The White Lotus is defined by its subversion of expectations, and its second iteration of the show does that perhaps most elaborately in its inversion of the male gaze

Season 2 also had another minor queer scene where Valentina Sabrina Impacciatore had an unrequited crush on her staff member, but this didn't end up panning out to anything meaningful. While gender and sexual identity certainly play a role and add to the complexity of the subtext, queer couples would certainly face issues like this as well, just with different gender implications.

This relationship was less about its queerness and instead contributed to the season's commentary on sex and power dynamics. Is the Controversial ‘White Lotus’ Hookup the End of Queerbaiting Backlash? If we look at the latter, they end up being either inconsequential or predatory.

Season 3 gave us the sunshine-grumpy dynamics of Chelsea Aimee Lou Wood and Rick Walton Gogginswhich were pervaded by Rick's thirst for revenge and Chelsea's inexplicable need to fix him, ultimately ending in tragedy. The three seasons have had a number of queer characters, each playing a pivotal part in the story, whether that be one of the many corpses that pervade this hotel chain or as part of a money-hungry conspiracy that we still scratch our heads about.

Within each relationship, the series has found so many fascinating strings to tug at, wringing out the dark nuances and serving them up on a golden platter. But despite the presence of queerness in the show, genuine queer relationships are actually sidelined.

Honestly, it’s cis, straight people who need “good representation,” or whatever; The White Lotus is precisely the kind of depraved gay nonsense we want to binge. In Season 1, we had Armond Murray Bartlettthe head of staff in the hotel, who bribed his staff member to have sex with him using drugs and promised shifts, which ended up simply being part of his self-destructive spiral.

It feels like each season is taking one tentative step closer to having a queer couple that doesn't have that weird narrative baggage attached and is genuinely a couple in its central cast and I need Season 4 to take that leap.

The couples that are part of the main cast in the series are generally in hetero-normative relationshipswhich are dissected through creator Mike White 's intoxicating narratives. So far, the queer "relationships" in the loosest sense of the word we have seen in The White Lotus haven't necessarily been genuine ones that pave the way to a wealth of dark commentary as the heterosexual ones do.

The White Lotus has explored a wide range of different relationshipsincluding romantic, familial, platonic, and working ones.