For Kate, it seems everything in her life has mostly ended up in a way that makes her happy. As she says during the group’s final dinner, she views her current circumstances as a fruitful result of every choice she has made thus far.
“Our pastor at our church talks about how there’s a time in life, after years of watering and weeding and nurturing your soil, and then one day you look around and your garden is in bloom,” she tells her friends. “And that’s how I feel right now. Everything is in bloom. All our flowers are in bloom.”
Jaclyn agrees but Laurie, quite obviously and painfully, doesn’t. Laurie has worked as an attorney and made her career a focal point of her life, but she isn’t in the place she wanted to be. She’s resentful of the fact that, despite working as hard as she can to climb the corporate ladder, it apparently hasn’t been enough.
Laurie’s personal life is similarly unfulfilling. After what seems to have been a contentious divorce, she is now struggling with raising her difficult teen as a single mother. And while Jaclyn views her single status in Thailand as a way for Laurie to get her groove back, her attempts only lead to further humiliation and self-loathing. She attempts to get with hunky hotel wellness expert Valentin, only to get passed over for Jaclyn. Then, she hooks up with his friend, Aleksei, only to have him beg her for money (and then have to jump out his window when his angry girlfriend shows up).
Laurie’s sentiments instantly heal the tension simmering between the friends all week, and they depart on solid ground. Because what the trip did for her was help her to realize that just because her life hasn’t ended up the way she thought it would, doesn’t mean it has no meaning. And her relationships are a part of that.
Carrie Coon’s monologue and the character’s arc overall is instantly relatable to many, even if it may be hard for us to admit. In an interview with the official White Lotus podcast about the finale, show creator and writer Mike White said he gleaned the monologue from his own feelings over the years with his long term friends.
“I like the idea of Carrie Coon’s final speech about time and how those relationships are, at least for me, where I find a deep meaning in my life,” he said. “…It’s like, they’re not always the deepest friendships, but there’s something deep about reconnecting with those people and how everybody has their own religion, but there’s something inarguable about how time creates meaning.”
He added: “It was really just more how we have these touchstones in our lives and how those people can create suffering for you just by existing, because they went a different way and you went one way and you always sort of feel like you’re defending your choices just by being in the presence of someone who you came up with.”