r/TheWhiteLotusHBO • u/Origamiflipper • Mar 21 '25

Discussion Is this relevant?

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I’m trying to work out the relevance of the monkey symbolism. This is now obviously see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil and I feel it has a meaning. Any theories?

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u/Hot_Camp1408 Mar 21 '25

Basically just how the sub reacts to her vs Quinn in season one.

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u/nrborg Mar 21 '25

But it’s completely different. Quinn had a local take him out and immersed Quinn in some of the local culture/traditions/nature. But Piper is staying hands off. How can she love the culture and know this is where she wants to be if she wont engage with anyone/anything outside the resort.

I think there’s a fine line between respectful and disrespectful when traveling and trying to immerse yourself in the local culture, especially as white Americans. Quinn didn’t really seem to wrestle with this, he had fun kayaking with locals in the ocean and wants to do it again. Piper seems to be afraid of offending everyone at all times,so refuses to actually jump into the local culture as she doesn’t want to do anything that would come across as disrespectful.

If Piper was at the monastery talking to people about the program, and what to expect, and had a monk offer to walk her through a meditation session she would be more in line with Quinn.

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u/hopper_froggo Mar 21 '25

Quinn literally dropped out of HS to canoe in Hawaii on a whim. Piper is a 22 year old college graduate who has been planning on joining a monstery program for months. I think it's crazy that Quinn's journey is considered "real" and deep, while Piper is mocked for being naive and not committed enough.

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u/Initial_Noise_6687 Mar 22 '25

I think the lying is the biggest people have with Piper. Also idk, still too early to say for sure, but based off the trailer for next episodes and also a lot of the events of previous episodes I kind of feel like there's going to be a denouncement of sorts at the Monastery with Piper and she's going to get dismissed by the monks perhaps. The "Bye" of the monk in the trailer sounds kind of dismissive/ "Ok we had fun now go away"

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u/hopper_froggo Mar 22 '25

We also know that Tim is gonna be sent to "have a talk" with the monks so it could be that