That Dirty Blender on "The White Lotus" Has More Meaning Than You Think

We've entertained plenty of fantasies from "The White Lotus" this season: extraordinarily lavish yacht parties, a frantic mid-hookup escape, the notion that anyone would ever be friends with Jaclyn. But we draw the line at the dirty blender.

To recap: in a halfhearted attempt to put his loved ones out of their inevitable misery, Timothy Ratliff (played by Jason Isaac) uses the hotel's blender to mix poisonous fruit seeds into his family's piña coladas. Despite an eventual change of heart, Tim neglects to wash the tainted blender, leaving the fateful remains to rot in the sink overnight.

Already, we have questions. Is the Mar-a-Lago mindset truly so strong that one would rather risk poisoning their entire family than wash a single dish? Or is this yet another dangerous decision to blame on the lorazepam? Either way, Tim's precarious choice ultimately lands the blender in the hands of Lochlan Ratliff — his youngest son.

To Lochlan, the blender is the ultimate symbol of manhood; a source of tension between him and his older brother, Saxon (who he, ahem, deeply admires). Maybe Lochlan's last-minute protein shake — the first we've seen him make himself — is some desperate attempt to get even closer to Saxon. Or maybe it's a direct consequence of him never having to clean anything in his life — a grim foreshadowing to his family's impending financial downfall.

Either way, in one of the least relatable moments in the entire season, we see Lochlan pick up the dirty blender, peering down in disgust at the slimy fruit guts lining the bottom of the plastic container. Rather than giving the blender a quick wash (as someone from a different tax bracket might've), he simply adds a few scoops of protein powder and a splash of water, expediting his near-death experience. "Is it harder to believe that he didn't clean the blender or that he put no fruit in that smoothie and just used a blender to make protein water?" Roxanne Werner wrote on X following the finale. Mmm, delicious protein water.

While Lochlan does survive his concoction in the end, we're still left with some strong feelings. For starters, even if you didn't know that the fruit was poisonous, shouldn't you be worried about all the bacteria that may accumulate from leaving fruit out overnight? Can wealth really leave you with such a massive Achilles heel? Sure, we can suspend our belief when it comes to robberies and shake downs and revenge plots, but drinking from a dirty blender? It's such an outrageous detail, we have to believe it was intentional.

In the grand scheme of things, blender-gate is not going to shift the tides of "The White Lotus" season 3. To some viewers, the blender is entirely unbelievable, no matter how much money you come from. But in our minds, it's is an important easter egg that speaks to how a privileged life can leave you vulnerable.

The biggest takeaway? Wash your damn dishes — it could save a life (at the White Lotus, anyway).

Chandler Plante (she/her) is an assistant health and fitness editor for PS. She has over four years of professional journalism experience, previously working as an editorial assistant for People magazine and contributing to Ladygunn, Millie, and Bustle Digital Group.