White Lotus returned Sunday night to HBO, delighting those who enjoy juggling the anxieties of eccentric rich people while trying to solve a murder mystery. A few minutes into the premiere, we were treated to what promises to be a captivating plot centered around a family divided by the rivalry between the North Carolina Tar Heels and Duke Blue Devils.
* Spoilers Ahead *
Among the three vacationing groups — a hallmark of the show — the most cringe-worthy by far was the Ratliff family, an affluent clan from North Carolina. Timothy Ratliff (Jason Isaacs), the head of a finance company, faces imminent scrutiny for past financial misdeeds, but that’s not even his biggest conflict. Early on, he mentions that their trip to Thailand is solely because their middle child, Piper, is a senior at UNC and is there to interview a monk for a school project. Just like that, the family vacation escalates into a full-blown rivalry of Tobacco Road allegiances.
Timothy’s wife, Victoria (Parker Posey), whose North Carolina accent might just earn a spot on the Mount Rushmore of HBO moments, elaborates to the hotel staff in her delightful drawl, “I was also a Tar Heel, but Timothy went to Duke; Saxon graduated from Duke. Lachlan, our youngest, just got accepted to both. You can imagine it’s a whole thing.” And there we have it: battle lines are drawn. We have a wife and one child supporting UNC, a husband and one child for Duke, and the youngest Ratliff child caught in the middle, contemplating his choice while in Thailand. Timothy later insists, “What’s the decision? You got into Duke. You’re going to Duke.”
Many viewers, including myself, were captivated by the Duke vs. North Carolina family rivalry plot.
White Lotus including some stereotypical Duke grads in the new season is going to make the real ones insufferable lmao
— JUNK BOND ANALYST (@junkbondanalyst) February 17, 2025
white lotus recurring conversations about a north carolinian twink choosing between chapel hill and duke is so intimate to me pic.twitter.com/mgZKfFoWyr
— jason (@jm0ney666) February 17, 2025
oh to be in the duke student group chats after this premiere of white lotus… the jokes will be generational
— modern prophet #SCISSORANCE (@olympiantier) February 17, 2025
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S3 of White Lotus has Parker Posey back in WASP mode as a bougie UNC-Chapel Hill mother with a Duke alum husband, I am locked IN
— Allison Hussey (@allisonhussey) February 17, 2025
It’s incredibly engaging, and I can’t wait to see more of this family’s tensions unfold. I’m already predicting an Emmy nomination for Parker Posey. This season presents us with two major mysteries: Who will be murdered and why? And, perhaps even more crucially, will Lachlan decide on Duke or North Carolina — assuming he survives the chaos?
This should be fun.
