What’s New (and What’s Not) In The White Lotus Opening Credits

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Welcome back to a new stay at the White Lotus. We’ve checked in so many times at different locations of the resort that we should be accruing credit-card points (and maybe receiving character-actor-death-related PTSD therapy). But the real reward for loyal viewers comes in the form of a new remix of the show’s theme music, once again by Cristobal Tapia de Veer, over another tantalizing credits sequence. Back in season one when The White Lotus took place in Hawaii, we got images of oceanic flora-and-fauna wallpaper that started to bleed. In season two, when Mike White’s series decamped to Sicily, the credits riffed on Italian frescoes that got increasingly debauched — with a beat drop from opera to EDM. Now, after many months of waiting, it’s time to speculate about all the adaptations made to fit the series’ Thailand setting and a season very intent on playing with our expectations of the show’s past.

The Artistic Style

White loves himself some arts décoratifs, so we’re still in the mode of wall painting, this time referencing Buddhist altar pieces. As in the first two seasons, the credits begin with relatively idyllic details before ramping up to more elaborate set pieces. We see Leslie Bibb (as always, the actors’ names are listed alphabetically by last name) credited among a small herd of elephants. (White loves a safari and loves elephants.) Carrie Coon gets an elephant surrounded by dogs. By the time “Walton Goggins” appears, however, we’re in the realm of humans, with a man looking out from some sort of wall parapet. It all seems consistent with the overall themes of the series, especially the uncomfortable give-and-take between people and the natural world, as well as the specific focus White has pointed to regarding this season, Western fascination and fetishization of Eastern philosophies. Exactly what these credits are doing!

The Music

Tapia de Veer has taken the contours of the original melody, that familiar up-and-down ululation, but slowed it to a mellower groove. The orchestration is still heavy on the winds, and it even builds to moments where you might expect a season-two-esque beat drop. But the drums remain restrained, encased in haunting yelps that sound like modified human voices, and the release you expect doesn’t come. Perhaps it’s a clue to how well this trip is going to go for the Americans searching for enlightenment at a wellness retreat.

The Debauchery

Let’s continue through the images associated with our lead actors. After Goggins, a series of scenes imply intrigue within a palace. Characters lounge together. Some spy on each other. A guard seems to miss a lizard sneaking in. Sarah Catherine Hook, a student doing her thesis project on a local temple, is listed next to a person meditating in the woods. Our resident ascetic! Her father, Jason Isaacs, meanwhile, is listed next to a man precariously stuck in a tree (in the premiere, we learn he’s getting some uncomfortable phone calls). Then Blackpink’s Lalisa Manobal, sweet hotel-employee Mook, is seen next to a woman holding an umbrella and flirting, while Michelle Monaghan, a vapid TV star within the universe of The White Lotus, is seen next to a woman with her breasts fully out. Good for her! Finally, his name coming much later alphabetically, Patrick Schwarzenegger, who plays a bro so horny he’s got incest vibes with his own sister, is credited next to men leering at topless women, natch.

The Water

In case you were in danger of forgetting, this TV series is obsessed with water metaphors: Cleansing, drowning, and flooding are all on the table. Back in season one, the credits sequence included scenes of Polynesian men in outriggers fighting big waves. We’re definitely not getting out of the water here, or even that shipwreck imagery, which overwhelms the latter part of the credits. Sam Nivola, the younger son of Parker Posey and Isaacs, is credited next to a man face up in some water. It’s an interesting position, considering he’s the most Fred Hechinger–esque character. Is he at peace? Will he also run away, or will that not pan out this time around? Do we need to worry about him? Lek Patravadi’s character, the hotel’s glam owner, may have a chiller relationship with water, as she’s credited next to a woman hanging out by some frolicking fish with a human-bird creature resting on her finger.

Monkeys!

Here’s where things get very semiotically interesting: In the first two seasons of The White Lotus, Jennifer Coolidge was credited next to a monkey. In the first, the primate had a flower in its hair. In the second, her name was positioned next to a woman watching a monkey on a chain from her window, an unwelcome portent for Tanya. Now, tragically, this season has no Coolidge, but it does have a new character actress of a certain age beloved by the gays: Parker Posey. She’s credited next to two monkeys, one of whom is blowing smoke (perhaps because Parker’s character loves herself some lorazepam). Do with that what you will! Monkey-wise, it’s also worth noting Parker and Isaacs’ three children are introduced sitting on the boat with Schwarzenegger’s character’s sunglasses on, Hook wearing headphones, and Nivola’s mouth covered because he’s sipping a bottle of Coke. A real see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil moment.

The Rothwell

This season does have one major returning character: Natasha Rothwell’s Belinda, sent from Hawaii to Thailand for some intra–White Lotus franchise building. In season one, Rothwell was credited next to a bleeding flower (kind of like the flower Coolidge’s monkey had in its hair). This time, however, she’s an egretlike bird, though one seemingly in the crosshairs of an alligator. We know that her son hears something very bad go down in the season’s opening moments. Praying for Belinda.

Our Downfall As a Species

The show’s first season leaned on references to climate collapse, while the second went more intimate with a dark bedroom farce. Here, the credits have that same debauchery but weave in more elements of the original end-times vibe. Tayme Thapthimthong, who plays the White Lotus’s cheery if maybe not entirely competent security guard, is credited next to a man trying to talk down a tiger. By the time we see Aimee Lou Wood, our last actor alphabetically, a tiger (maybe that same tiger) has mauled a dog and is staring down two others. Do I have to be worried about her relationship with Goggins? Then, as the credits sequence continues through the creative team, things get more ominous: Monkeys assemble together, climbing the parapets, even as someone tries to hold them off (?) with a spider. Humans go to war with one another, and the monkeys seem to participate. One is even biting a guy’s ass. (Really starting to believe a monkey might have done it.) A group of men is caught in a giant storm while hounded by sea monsters. Things are not looking good for humanity! Well, until we arrive at the show’s title, which opens up to reveal a glorious tableau with a Buddha sitting on a throne. Is that the arrival of enlightenment? Is it possible to escape all these worldly traumas, that endless cycle of suffering caused by our addiction to earthly pleasures? Subscribe to HBO to find out.