Frank (Sam Rockwell) in season 3, episode 5 of HBO’s The White Lotus
HBO
Season 3, episode 5 of The White Lotus was spilling over with drama, sexual tension and repressed emotions, but somehow, Sam Rockwell managed to steal the show with a single scene.
As Rick (Walton Goggins) makes his way to Bangkok, planning to confront the man who killed his father, he stops to have a drink with an old friend, Frank (Sam Rockwell).
Frank provides Rick with a mysterious package, presumably a pistol for when Rick finally faces his nemesis, but expresses his hope that Rick will never have to use it.
When Frank declines a drink and reveals that he has been living the sober life, Rick is surprised, and curious about his life in Thailand. Frank, it turns out, has a lot to talk about.
His monologue sparked a deluge of praise, and memes.
It’s clear why a performer like Rockwell was hired for such a small part—this was a tricky monologue to pull off, and could easily fall flat if delivered by a less experienced actor.
Rockwell managed to imbue his speech with just the right balance of madness and pathos—Frank stares at Rick with crazy eyes that seem to have glimpsed a flicker of truth from behind the veil.
What Did Frank (Sam Rockwell) Say In ‘The White Lotus’?
Frank explains to Rick that after he moved to Thailand, sex addiction quickly consumed him, and he began to indulge in his wildest fantasies with the local women.
Frank describes indulging with all ages and body types before the excitement began to fade and a kind of melancholy set in.
Frank’s hedonistic binge forces him to face what he’s really searching for in the female form, until he wonders if “maybe, what I really want is to be one of these Asian girls.”
Goggins, it must be said, doesn’t have much to do but react to the increasingly wild story, but he plays his part perfectly, reacting with amusement and shock, but not judgement.
Frank goes on to explain that a role-reversing, sexual encounter with a “ladyboy” sparks a new urge in him—the great penetrator quickly becomes the penetrated.
Frank goes on to indulge in a second era of sex addiction, now having sex with men that resemble himself, while he cross-dresses and imagines himself as an Asian woman.
Frank even admits that he pays Thai sex workers to sit on the sidelines and watch him, a visual reference of sorts, to help him imagine himself in their place.
Frank finally reaches the peak of this stage of his sex addiction and finds himself at a dead end. He turns away from indulgence, toward Buddhism, to understand that desire is to be transcended.
What Does Frank’s Speech Really Mean?
It’s not quite clear if Frank is trans, a curious cross-dresser, or just a guy who has experienced a mind-altering amount of casual sex, but it’s clear that the man has been riding the circular track of the hedonism train for too long, and has come to the conclusion that he needs to get off.
Frank’s speech also mirrors the state of Rick, who has spent his life unmoored and depressed, haunted by the death of his father.
Like Frank, Rick is obsessed with desire, but his ultimate goal is to commit bloody murder, rather than indulge in a series of increasingly elaborate hookups.
Eventually, Frank wants to be on the receiving end of his own unquenchable lust, and perhaps Rick wants something similar—to be on the receiving end of his own insatiable rage, and experience the bliss of death.
Rick’s revenge fantasy might be more of a death drive, a desire to finally end his misery at the barrel of a stranger’s gun.
After all, Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) has spoken about Rick’s incessant rage, his fights with strangers, how she feels like she must “mother” Rick and protect him from himself.
Rick has been on a hedonistic spree of violence his whole life, and in the end, perhaps he craves to end it in a violent showdown. But after listening to Frank’s story, has Rick changed his mind?
Before saying goodbye to Frank, Rick seems to hatch a new plan, and tells Frank that he might need him again for a bit of “role play” (presumably not the sort that Frank is used to).
It remains to be seen if Rick can escape the endless cycle of suffering without resorting to violence, or if he is doomed to experience the same fate as his father.
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