The brilliant Natasha Rothwell, who plays Belinda on the show, joined a recent episode of the podcast Las Culturistas With Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, and all this debate over the trio was a hot topic.
“I’m talking to some people who are like, ‘Oh, those women really hate each other.’ But then I’m like, I think they really love each other,” co-host Matt Rogers says. “I think they’re all really trying to connect with each other. Of course they have their own envies and jealousies, but I don’t think we’re watching three people that hate each other.”
Of course, those insecurities all hit a fever pitch during their night out with Valentin and his buddies. What could have brought them closer—dancing! Releasing their inhibitions! Feeling the rain on their skin!—turned sour purely because they don’t know how to communicate or read each other’s extremely obvious body language. When Laurie failed to seal the deal with Valentin despite pressure from Jaclyn, the latter took it upon herself to hook up with him herself. As we learn in the latest episode, the women are all repeating old patterns, straight from high school.
On Las Culturistas, Rothwell pointed to the unspoken feeling of regressing to your younger self when with old friends. “When you go back home for the holidays or whatever, you revert back to the person who knew you when,” she says. “So I think we’re seeing them in high school, in middle school, trying to behave with their actions instead of their words.”
To Rothwell’s point, I feel 12 years old again anytime I’m with my friends (complimentary). Not in the sense that we can’t talk to each other—in fact, quite the opposite. With your oldest friends, I’d argue your guards should be down, rather than up.
I would be remiss not to mention that the group was inspired, in part, by real-life “friends” White observed on vacation. “He was like, One person would leave and then the other two would start chatting. Why is it that women do that?” Monaghan says. “And I’m like, We are socially kind of conditioned to do that.” She may be right. But when you pick the right group of friends, you shouldn’t be worried that they’ll talk shit about you as soon as you’re out of earshot.
For the record, I’m not arguing that a group of three friends can’t be toxic. I just don’t think the White Lotus trio is the cautionary tale everyone says it is. If you feel like the show is holding a mirror up to you and your friend group—and I’m gonna hold your hand when I say this—there are larger forces at play. Because you know what else can be toxic? A group of two, four, five, or six. The number is just a contributing factor.
Three can be a crowd, but it can also be a party. I choose the latter.
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