Warning: This article contains spoilers for The White Lotus season 3, episode 7, “Killer Instincts.”
The entire third season of The White Lotus has been building towards the inevitable collision of Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) and Greg (Jon Gries). And it finally happened in this Sunday’s episode, “Killer Instincts,” at Greg’s party. But did their short conversation live up to expectations?
Ever since Belinda noticed Greg at the resort, she had a weird feeling about him. She knew he was the man who essentially stole Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) away from their big plans to open a wellness business together — even though he claimed his name was “Gary” and that he didn’t recognize her. She immediately saw through his flimsy lies, and a quick internet search alerted her to Tanya’s tragic demise, and she knew that he was to blame. So when he invited her and her son Zion (Nicholas Duvernay) to a party at his mansion, she was rightfully wary of what “Gary” had planned.
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This week’s episode revealed Greg’s nefarious plan to — offer her $100,000 to keep quiet about his current location. That’s all? He pulled Belinda aside at the party to talk, offered her the money, and although he was annoyed that she wanted time to think about it before accepting, he just let her leave without a fight. Is this really all that the season has leading to, a simple bribe? It can’t be, right? That just feels incredibly anticlimactic, especially knowing the lengths Greg went to with having Tanya killed to steal her inheritance.
Back at the resort, Zion told Belinda she should say yes, take the money, and keep quiet, but Belinda didn’t think it was the right thing to do. But Zion pointed out that if Greg killed Tanya, then he could have Belinda killed too. And that would mean Zion’s life is also at risk. Smart boy! Belinda didn’t make a final decision by the end of the episode, but she’s definitely feeling the heat.
Elsewhere in the episode, Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) finally took Mook (Lalisa Manobal) out on a date to see the Muay Thai fights, and from across the room, he saw resort guest Laurie (Carrie Coon) out with Valentin (Arnas Fedaravicius) and his two friends Aleksei (Julian Kostov) and Vlad (Yuri Kolokolnikov), and he recognized Vlad’s face from the robbery earlier this season. Gaitok realized that meant Valentin was in on the robbery, and his suspicions were confirmed for viewers when Laurie slept with Aleksei and saw the stolen gift shop jewelry in his closet as she was escaping out the window from his jealous girlfriend.
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As for Rick (Walton Goggins) and his big plan for revenge, he didn’t actually follow through in another anticlimactic moment. After confronting Jim (Scott Glenn) about having his father murdered, he didn’t shoot the old man with his hidden gun, or even land a single punch. He just pushed him out of a chair and left for a night of partying with Frank (Sam Rockwell) — who broke his sobriety, hard.
And not much happened with the Ratliffs, aside from Lochlan (Sam Nivola) telling Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) he wants to stay in Thailand with her (much to her dismay) and Timothy (Jason Isaacs) discovering that the gun he stole was stolen back. How did he realize that? By seemingly making the decision to kill Victoria (Parker Posey) and Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) before committing suicide. He was spurred into action by Victoria’s declaration that she’d rather die than live an uncomfortable life, and Saxon’s panicked confession that since his entire life is connected to Tim’s career, he would have nothing if that went away. But instead of confessing the truth to Saxon, Tim continued denying that anything was wrong — instead, he’d rather kill his family and himself.
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Too bad for Tim that Gaitok secretly stole the gun back — he just saved three lives (for now).
The White Lotus airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and streams on Max.