Another group of local women watch as Jaclyn puts on a show with Valentin and his buddies, and their fixation on her only seems to motivate the Hollywood star more and more. Do they recognize her as the famous actress she is? Do they know she’s newly married to a man 10 years her junior? Or is she just getting off on making them jealous? Whatever the case, Jaclyn doesn’t care.
When the local women later confront Valentin and his buddies (I can’t tell you what they were saying since it was in Russian), Laurie suggests the guys come back to The White Lotus villas with them. Kate doesn’t think it’s a good idea, but Laurie and Jaclyn are all for it. And now that we know Jaclyn could care less about getting hot and heavy with guys who aren’t her husband on a dance floor, there’s no telling what she will do next.
But we know what she’ll do next, don’t we? Sure enough, later in the night, once the guys have come over for a nightcap to Jaclyn, Laurie, and Kate’s villa, Jaclyn and Valentin make plans to meet up after that. If she technically wasn’t cheating before, she’s about to now. But it’s not just her husband (who has yet to return her calls) who she’s betraying; it’s her supposed childhood friend as well. It didn’t matter if Laurie had yet to hook up with Valentin; Jaclyn basically declared that he was Laurie’s for the taking if she—and he—wanted to.
Personally, I’ve never had a friend go this far—ever—but I know it happens. And maybe just as bad, I have had friends (now ex-friends) betray my trust by telling people I had a crush on a guy, knowing it would get back to him. It felt like the most cruel betrayal, and I never understood how people who portrayed themselves as girl’s girls could be so careless with my feelings and their words. These are the same women that preach supporting other women, which makes you wonder if they’re just that clueless or if they just don’t care?
But does it even matter? No. Whether you ‘steal’ a friend’s crush or reveal something they swore you to secrecy, both are betrayals.
TBD on what unfolds next; the episode ends just as Valentin strips down and begins having sex with Jaclyn. Will she stop it? Does it even matter at this point? And if she doesn’t, how will Laurie react?
It brings me back to Coon’s quote: “[This storyline is] going to spark a lot of conversation about about female friendship and what it is to be a woman in the world.”
