The Prestige TV Podcast
‘The White Lotus’ Season 3, Episode 2 Deep Dive and Theories: The Incest Vibes Are High
Wed, 26 Feb 2025
Joanna Robinson and Rob Mahoney respond to some email theories (3:23) before analyzing the Ratliff family identity (17:13), a connection from Walton Goggins’s character to ‘King Lear’ (23:29), and the cracks beginning to show in the blond friend group (30:58). Plus, discussing a potential Russian connection to the hotel robbery (44:37), keeping an eye on the nice guy character, Gaitok (48:25), and talking about the strong incest vibes coming from the Ratliff kids (54:11). Email us! [email protected] Subscribe to the Ringer TV YouTube channel here for full episodes of ‘The Prestige TV Podcast’ and so much more! Try Coffee mate Creamers Now: http://coffeemate.com Hosts: Joanna Robinson and Rob Mahoney Producers: Kai Grady and Donnie Beacham Jr. Video Supervision: John Richter Additional Production Support: Justin Sayles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What theories and emails are discussed in this episode?
I'm Rob Mahoney.
And we're here today to talk to you about listening to audiobooks while reading books at the same time. We sure are. Rob, have we ever gotten as many emails about, you know, a subject matter? I think this massively dwarfs the chicken-washing emails we've gotten from the Severance listenership this week.
I am on the right side of history about that. I feel very confident in my opinion and our listeners who emailed in to... Just to concur, really. Just to stand with me against you and other chicken washers out there.
I don't think it's against me. Okay, this is a severance. We're going to talk about this in the severance pod. I don't think it's against me. I think it's out of concern for me.
Yes. So I consider that people being on my side. You're right. They're with me. But... The important thing, if you are out there listening to a book, audio book, as you read it, immersive reading, as we've been told many people call this, we see you, we hear you, we acknowledge everything that you're doing out there. Clearly, there is an incredible market for this that we did not realize, Joe.
There's a lot of reasons why people do it. This is something we brought up in last week's discussion of White Lotus. We were noting that Piper was listening to an audio book and reading at the same time. And Rob and I were asking, hey, is this something people do? And we got a resounding, yes, this is something people do. Some of it has to do with neurodivergence or ADHD and stuff like that.
But there's a million different reasons to do it. And I should have known. That the great multitaskers of the world, the podcast listeners out there would would have this skill on lockdown. So thank you for all of your emails about that.
So that's what the whole pod's about today, right? We're just going to do an immersive reading exercise together.
Yeah. Get out your texts. We'll be starting on page 12.
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Chapter 2: How is the Ratliff family's identity explored?
Correct. We're here to talk to you about season three, episode two of White Lotus. And this is, I guess, what we're calling kind of the deep dive where Rob and I a couple days after the immediate aftermath pods that Mallory, Bill and I are doing on Sunday nights where we're just sort of vibing and talking about things we liked and.
And Mallory's baffling and enduring crush on Patrick Schwarzenegger's character. All of that sort of stuff is in the mix. And a couple days later, Rob and I get your emails. We look at Reddit. We read interviews with people. And we dig into some corners of the episode. So, yeah, we got a lot of emails, too. Rob, where can folks contact us for this episode?
I'm so glad you asked.
Joe they can email us at monkey shootout at gmail.com or as always prestige tv at spotify.com but we all know the monkey shootout is coming it has been foreshadowed it has been foretold it is monkeys are in every interstitial in this entire episode somehow the monkeys are here and they will be shooting out soon so please email us at monkey shootout at gmail.com we did get an email from our listener Rachel who asks under the umbrella of the monkeys did it
Does it have to be a monkey literally picks up a gun or can it be a monkey spooks, startles, attacks someone and the ensuing shootout is sort of incited by a monkey? In other words, if a monkey is involved in the shootout.
A monkey related shooting. Yeah. Monkey involved shooting.
Will we still feel vindicated in the monkey theory?
I'm going to say this. If a monkey is even in the background of the scene, we're going to claim victory on this.
What about a monkey statue or a monkey mural?
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Chapter 3: What are the connections between Walton Goggins's character and 'King Lear'?
How could we possibly tell them apart?
couldn't possibly do it okay so on the one hand that is true and i love that point i'm glad you brought that up on the other hand inside of their blonde loveliness yeah i was thinking about this is you know you're slightly younger than me there's there's this like early era of internet did you ever watch teen girl squad is that ever something that came across your transom no joe those words mean nothing to me what is teen girl squad it's like early
early internet uh like cartoon sketchery but teen girl squad which is genuinely great and i think about all the time if the intro would be like the pretty one the ugly one what's her face so and so um and so um This idea that like the Blonde Blob, despite their blobbiness, have these set roles that perhaps they played.
Jacqueline was always the face is something that they talked about earlier, right? Like there are distinct roles inside of their friendships that they've always had. And what is challenged inside of this episode when Valentin does his thing, which is tell the women the same thing. what does that do to Jacqueline?
Well, nothing, nothing gets between friends like data, Joe, like metrics, like body fat percentage. So like Jacqueline having to consider that Lori could be compared to her. Yeah. Is as you said, devastating to Jacqueline. So these identities inside of their same demo are,
Jacqueline's power as the pretty one the face is so important to her and it is personally devastating to her to have that challenge and it makes me think about like when you think about Tim Ratliff or Jacqueline Lemon here they're the power that protects them I'm the rich provider I'm the hot TV star also the provider who's paying for this trip for the most part Exactly. It's so brittle.
It's so fragile. And like what happens when it cracks or is exploded?
You know, let me tell you, we'll be cracking imminently within episodes if it isn't already. But you're absolutely right about Jacqueline. And I think it's tied to into her standing in the broader world. Right. There is who she is in this friend group. And it feels increasingly as we learn more about her. Like, this is a bit of a retreat.
This is a bit of a circling the wagons for somebody who's going through a lot, who has a lot of neuroses, who has this husband who she's obsessed with healthfully. And there's definitely nothing weird going on there at all. And she's definitely not insecure about the fact that he's 10 years younger than her and clearly very, very, very hot.
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Chapter 4: What dynamics are emerging within the blonde friend group?
uh an unbalanced power like if you think of like Portia in season two working for Tanya like the only reason Portia's there is because she's in Tanya's employ and stuff like that yes um if Mike White an incredibly successful and rich yet deeply insecure uh person is someone who has gone around the world thinking hey are these people just hanging out with me because I'm rich because I'm successful because I'm famous and like uh Jacqueline Lemon
Why are Kate and Lori there? Because they really care about Jacqueline. Are Kate and Lori there because... it's an all-inclusive cool trip to Thailand with their famous, they can draft off the fame a bit of Jacqueline.
Maybe a little of all of the above. And this is what I love about this friend group is there is so much being critical of each other under the guise of care, under the guise of like, oh, I'm so concerned about their well-being. I'm so concerned about their life. But they always double back to like, oh, but she's so great. Oh, but she's so beautiful. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
On the one hand, that could be very superficial. I also think it can kind of be true of the people that you're closest with and like who have you have the longest lasting connections with is you can be critical of them and wonder what the hell they're doing, but also care about them. I don't know that that's the case here. And maybe it's not.
Maybe this is a long, a long lasting friendship that should have petered out years and years ago. And these women are kind of holding on to. But I think there's something true in that, or at least something true in the way people try to act, which is they want to be close, even if they aren't.
Yeah, and I've definitely done that with friends of, you know, out of concern, also veered into shit-talking territory. That is, I'm merely a human. I like to think I don't do it very much anymore, but definitely when I was younger, that was the thing that I did. I want to talk to you about... The robbery.
Yes.
And our guy, Valentin. Who is not just our guy.
He's not my guy.
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