Last week I lamented that White Lotus honcho Mike White seems to be forsaking the idea of gripping plot turns and turning up the tension as things come to a close.

Alas, White is up to the same lethargic, tension-free lassitude in episode 7.

Is White paying some kind of homage to Michelangelo Antonioni‘s masterful early ’60s trilogy (L’Avventura, L’Eclisse, La Notte) in which nothing really happens but all kinds of tremors are felt underneath? Because in episode 7 (streaming on Sunday, 3.30) not much happens again, and there’s only one episode to go….blimey!

SPOILERS FOLLOW:

Friendo; “Nothing really happens of any major consequence. Things inch along but there’s not much in the way of decisive behavior or holy-shit turns in the road.

“As the trailer reveals, Walton Goggins‘ Rick Hatchett points a gun at his father’s murderer but…you don’t want to know.

“Jason Isaacs‘ Timothy Ratliff continues to just sit there and do nothing…still refusing to come clean about his calamitous financial situation…STILL keeping it all buried inside…same crap!

“The wimpy Asian guy (Tayme Thapthimthong‘s Gaitok) identifies the robbers and realizes they’re the party-boy Russians.

“Jon Gries‘ Gary/Greg offers a pile of dough to the chubby black chick (Natasha Rothwell‘s Belinda Lindsey) in exchange for her not accusing him of any kind of second-hand complicity in the death of Jennifer Coolidge‘s Tanya McQuoid in Sicily.

“Carrie Coon‘s attorney character gets into a fight with Michelle Monaghan and Leslie Bibb‘s characters, and finally gets laid but…

“Sam Nivola‘s gay younger brother wants to join the Buddhist temple but…

“Sam Rockwell‘s Frank falls hard off the wagon (coke, hookers).”

“So not much happens in terms of any sense of an approaching climax. Fairly routine plotting this time. This happens, that happens. Nothing is building into something else.”