One ‘White Lotus’ character’s dilemma was the funniest and most terrifying decision the show has ever made
All season long on The White Lotus, the Ratliff family was in limbo. Primarily because of Timothy Ratliff (Jason Isaacs). With visions of murdering his family, we never knew what he was capable of.
Early on, we learned that Timothy was being included in a fraud scheme and everything the Ratliffs thought they had was going to go away. Time and time again, he tried to ask his family if they could live without money or the life they had. He knew Saxton (Patrick Schwarzenegger) was a lost cause but Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) was trying to connect with Buddhism and Lochlan (Sam Nivola) was too young to really understand it all.
But as the show went on, Timothy seemed more determined than ever to end his own life along with the rest of his family. Especially when Piper came back from her night in the monastery and was in tears, telling her parents that she was too materialistic for it.
Timothy then found the Pong Pong fruit. Known to the locals (on the show) as the Suicide Fruit, ingesting the seeds of the plant could kill you. So he decided to go ahead and make Piña coladas for everyone in his family but Lochlan. Why? Lochlan said he would be okay without having money.
All of this to say that Timothy’s will he/won’t he kill his family in the finale was both the most terrifying example of male ego and lack of critical thinking and yet one of the funniest parts of the entire season. Timothy could not think of a world where his family had to suffer and so his only idea was to just kill them all and save them from going through that. If that’s not dad logic…
A terrifying yet okay outcome for the Ratliff family
The murder Piña coladas didn’t end up happening. Timothy saw his family start to drink them and panicked. But then no one told Lochlan that you should not use a dirty blender and he almost died all because he wanted to be like his brother. Lochlan uses the blender that had the Pong Pong seeds in it, almost dies by the pool side, but ends up surviving.
All of it is a metaphor for men, in a lot of ways. I remember very clearly how my dad tried to use logic to make sure we stayed living in California when I was a kid but his logic was to just win the lottery. You know, a totally reasonable way to do that.
But it made me see Timothy in a different way. He could not comprehend letting his family down and instead of just being honest, his first idea was to kill them all and spare them. My guy. What!? But we do see his reasoning, however flawed it is. He tells his family that he never wanted them to worry or be without and it has led to this.
Luckily, the voice of reason won that battle and Timothy got out of the White Lotus hotel with all three of his children (by some miracle). But it was, unfortunately, hilarious watching this man contemplate killing his entire family and then slap a murder Piña colada out of Saxton’s hand.
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