The 7 Most Delightfully Chaotic Characters in The White Lotus, Ranked
It’s been another wild ride for fans of the premiere satire, The White Lotus.
As with each season that’s come before, the latest installment of HBO’s genre-smashing dark comedy has eloquently mocked, ridiculed, and underscored the sheer hypocrisy of its upper-class characters, each of whom appear hopelessly self-absorbed – yet somehow continually dazzle and delight us every time we hit play on a new episode.
While there’s few constants in the vividly-drawn world of The White Lotus, one notable feature throughout the series is the presence of characters who, in spite of their vast wealth and undeniable privilege, seem to possess off-beat personalities and hilariously dysfunctional traits and worldviews. With that in mind, we wanted to take a look back at some of The White Lotus’s most joyously unhinged characters, ranking them in order from slightly off-kilter to straight-up screwballs.
7. Mark Mossbacher (Season 1)
While nowhere near as problematic as his wife or daughter, Mark Mossbacher does come with a fair amount of baggage upon checking into the White Lotus’s Maui location. Plagued by fears over a potential cancer diagnosis, Mark soon uncovers a life-altering secret about his deceased father’s closeted past. Grappling with questions over his own sexuality and struggling to connect with his emotionally estranged wife and equally distant kids, Mark’s constant neuroses make him a character we can’t help but sympathize with – even as we laugh aloud at his increasingly strange plight.
6. Bert Di Grasso (Season 2)
His middle-aged son Dominic might give him a run for his money, but there’s something undeniably memorable about F. Murray Abraham’s aging Lothario, Bert Di Grasso. Looking to reconnect with his ancestral roots in the countryside of Sicily, Bert’s outwardly jovial manner often clashes with his womanizing lifestyle (something his son and grandson regularly point out in their travels together). Describing his unwavering love for female companionship as being akin to an ancient Greek curse, Bert makes for one of the most light-hearted characters in an otherwise dark season of The White Lotus, providing as many laughs as he does genuinely thought-provoking observations on love, relationships, and the frailty of interpersonal connections.
5. Laurie Duffy (Season 3)
Though each character faces some crisis of identity throughout The White Lotus’s third season, few have demonstrated as massive a change as Carrie Coon’s lovably gruff Laurie Duffy. Vacationing with her childhood friends along the idyllic coast of Thailand, it isn’t long before the seemingly close-knit trio is driven further and further apart from lifelong jealousies, long-kept secrets, and judgmental gossip whispered behind each other’s back. Fed up with the mental mind games and the artificiality of her friends’ interactions, Laurie instead chooses to embrace her inner wild side during her time at the White Lotus. From skinny dipping with hunky Russians to picking fights with Kate and Jaclyn, literally anything can happen whenever Laurie waltzes on-screen, establishing her as one of the most compelling characters featured on The White Lotus yet.
4. Armond (Season 1)
To say Armond didn’t deserve any of what happened to him in Season 1 of The White Lotus would be a massive understatement. The genial manager of White Lotus’ Maui location, Armond begins The White Lotus as an outgoing, competent, painstakingly reliable professional at the resort, bending over backwards to meet his guests’ demands whenever they request his help. Unfortunately, the strain of the job (and Shane’s antagonistic entitlement) prove too much for Armond’s burnt-out psyche, pushing him towards a disastrous relapse after five years of sobriety. At the end of the day, however, we’ll always maintain a special fondness for this charismatic Aussie, bemoaning his cruel fate at the end of Season 1 and giggling at his not-so-subtle advances towards the insecure Mark.
3. Frank (Season 3)
Leave it to Academy Award-winner Sam Rockwell to unexpectedly walk onto The White Lotus and completely steal the show. Taking viewers’ by surprise with his random appearance halfway through Season 3, Rockwell somehow draws audiences’ attention the moment he pops up in “Full-Moon Party.” Delivering an electrifying monologue recounting his bizarre escapades in Thailand, Frank somehow makes otherwise unhinged characters like Armond or Bert Di Grasso seem as relatively normal as Mr. Rogers by comparison. He might come across mild-mannered and put-together on the surface, but the only thing stopping Frank from becoming an alcohol-fueled Don Juan prowling the streets of Bangkok is a single glass of whiskey and his shaky Buddhist convictions.
2. Victoria Ratliff (Season 3)
Oh, what we wouldn’t give for a conversation between Tanya and Season 3’s eccentric Southern belle, Victoria Ratliff. A self-professed materialist (and proud of it), Victoria is the perennial glue that holds the Ratliff family together: an endearing, if overly class-obsessed matriarch who believes wealth is the most important thing in life – a lesson she regularly emphasizes to her three children. Between Parker Posey’s colorful accent and the character’s unabashed obsession with comfort, money, and her beloved lorazepam, Victoria is the breakout character of Season 3 we never expected to see.
1. Tanya McQuoid (Seasons 1 and 2)
There’s a reason Jennifer Coolidge won a Golden Globe Award for her performance in The White Lotus. Creating an anarchic character from the ground up, Coolidge outfits Tanya McQuoid with one of the most vivid personalities in modern TV history. Possessing an unending number of distinct character quirks, Tanya readily acknowledges her mental instability throughout The White Lotus, demonstrating her inherent unpredictability time and time again. Whether forming co-dependent relationships to her assistants, lovers, and hapless hotel staff members, or drunkenly tossing her mother’s ashes from the side of a ship, it’s clear from the get-go that Tanya is an absolute mess of a person – and for that, we utterly adore her.
