Another member of the Ratliff clan develops a deep love of Lorazepam in last night’s all new episode of The White Lotus on HBO. The White Lotus Season 3 Episode 3 “The Meaning of Dreams” sees the noose closing in around Timothy Ratliff (Jason Isaacs). The feds are on to him, his assets may be already frozen, and he’s trying desperately to keep his family from finding out how badly they are all screwed.
Tim finally takes his wife Victoria (Parker Posey) up on her offer and pops a Lorazepam. Not only that, but does it in secret, raw-dogging the pill without a single gulp of water.
“I think he can’t bear to think. He can’t bear his thoughts,” Jason Isaacs told DECIDER during The White Lotus press junket. “His thoughts are all of everything that he believes in, everything that he is, everything his family is, imploding and disappearing.”
“He cannot imagine for a split second how they’ll survive and who they could be without their reputation, all this generational wealth and privilege and state and local status.”
Timothy’s only solution? “He just drugs his brain into being unable to think.”
Lorazepam is a sedative designed to help with insomnia and anxiety. The prescription drug is also sometimes known as Ativan and belongs to a class of pharmaceuticals called Benzodiazepines (or Benzos).
We’ve seen in the last few weeks just how dependent Victoria Ratliff is upon her Lorazepam. She takes it before bed, to help her sleep, and even pops one before a massage to numb herself even more. The wealthy woman is incapable of engaging with her reality, even if her reality is (currently) so very comfortable and privileged.
Isaacs teased that Tim “tries to drug himself into a coma, but it doesn’t quite work.”
“He’s still thinking catastrophic thoughts,” the actor said, gently teasing the Lorazepam won’t work quite as well for Tim as it does for his wife. “He’s around in this gorgeous place where people are having these ludicrous conversations about what they’re going to do next, what his daughter’s going to do… None of that’s going to happen as far as he knows.”
When Jason Isaacs stopped by DECIDER HQ last week, he further explained that part of Timothy’s downward spiral is thanks to the fact that he’s never had to experience consequences before. He comes from the type of massive, generational wealth that allows him to employ lawyers specifically tasked with working around an ever-changing tax code.
“Only idiots get caught, as far as Tim’s concerned,” Isaacs said. “What comes as an incredible shock to him is that something isn’t fixable. And that lawyers won’t fix it… It’s unimaginable to him.”
As the metaphoric tsunami comes for Timothy Ratliff, his only recourse is Lorazepam.
“The drugs are a way of just putting his brain in a blender because the alternative is, well, watch and find out,” Isaacs teased.
The White Lotus Season 3 Episode 4 will premiere on HBO and MAX on Sunday, March 9 at 9 PM ET.