[ad_1]
“Do you have goals?‘ she asks.
Jack, laughing,: “That? Targets?“.
“Yup“.
“What are yours?“.
“I do not know – says Portia, before pausing -. Be satisfied. It would not be bad“.
“For me we have to live day by day – he replies –. At least that’s how I do it. I wonder if we’re still here tomorrow“.
“Already – the girl says -. The world is going to shit“.
“What do you mean?”, asks Jack.
“Are you serious?“
“For me it’s not bad, however“.
“Everything is literally falling apart“.
The dialogue reflects a feeling shared by at least one other character in the series earlier in the season, Harper. Portia’s words seem to have the fatalism imposed by climate change as the most obvious reference, but they could also be a hint of a series of other events: fears about the erosion of democratic values; the deadly effects of social media; the possibility that when the next pandemic arrives, humanity will again be caught unprepared. At least emotionally, Portia is right. For much of 2022 the feeling was that everything was falling apart. At this point, however, comes Jack’s monologue.
“Would you rather live in the Middle Ages? When did people go to war? Worse than Isis or any other terrorist. Shit, it’s a miracle there’s anyone left in Europe. All this time we have done nothing but slaughter and persecute each other. I want another beer“.
Jack gets off the bench. In the background he begins to play music that instills hope: “I mean, fuck, we’re lucky. We live in the best historical moment there is, on the best planet. If you are not satisfied with living here now, you will never be satisfied“, he explains standing in front of Portia, trying to persuade her. She, a little uncomfortable, smiles: “Let’s drink?”, he closes, before taking her by the hand and exiting the scene.
Before the end of the episode (SPOILERS from here on), we discover that Jack is not exactly the carefree type that he claims to be and, indeed, at the end of the season we understand that he was probably an accomplice to an attempted murder. It is possible that Mike White, the creator of the series, wanted to make fun of us. Maybe he meant to make viewers who bought into Jack’s motivational speech feel a little dumb. It is an absolutely plausible hypothesis: a common opinion on White lotus it’s that the series is compelling precisely because all of its characters are terrible. There is no one to root for, just like in the real world. But in that moment, on that bench, the impression is that White believes Jack’s bullshit.
.
[ad_2]
Source link
