Themes of Season 3

OUR ANIMAL NATURE

Monkeys, snakes and lizards, oh my!! They are writhing on the credits and crawling, leaping and slithering through the scenes.
- snakes: Christian connotations aside, they are pathetic when caged and dangerous when let loose. Could this be Greg/Gary? - monkeys: well we know the see no/hear no/say no motif, but monkey brain is pretty much the human id- letting it all hang out so to speak. Tim’s open bathrobe comes to mind. Monkeys are also known for the rigid social hierarchies which seems to apply to the upstairs/downstairs themes of WL as well. Blending of rigid hierarchies may endanger Alexi, Gaitok and Natasha.
- lizards are lurking and we also have a lizard brain that is considered primitive and is the home of our response to immediate threat (ie gunshots)

WATER

Well all the WLs are on water but in this one the water seems particularly “troubled.” Whether a real tsunami is coming or just the metaphorical one, these people are going to get wet. So far - the three Blondes get wet when they come in contact with the Thais (note they never dipped in the pool previously). Their baptizing in the “native” waters was unpleasant- is there more distasteful native water in their future? - Saxon cannonballs into the sea- will he sink like a stone? - Victoria dreams of a tsunami - her dream life is more attuned than her waking state - the waters are rising for her. Note that she worries about herself, her house and her children being subsumed - but where is Tim?

“SPIRITUALITY”

It’s a big topic and maybe cliche but the lack of spirituality and meaningfulness in their lives is palpable. - Kate goes to church and the other girls snark. The downfall of churchgoing in the US is that is seems unbearably tied to a political stance. Whatever spirit or fellowship that is derived is swamped by the cruel politics associated with it. What WOULD Jesus do? - the shrine at WL seems to be maximally designed for westerners to play at Buddhism, just like our little Piper will do in her desire to hang with the monks. Buddhism in this sense is extracting money from westerners (the monk was very business oriented) in exchange for some blush of meaning to seeking westerners - empty headed and lacking any core of belief - the Ratliffs WASPiness is expressed more in their club membership than churchgoing even if they are nominally Episcopalian - Chloe knows a little Bible but it was Rick handling the snakes