Was Jaclyn The Victim Of A Romance Scam On ‘The White Lotus’?
Next week’s season finale of The White Lotus has a lot of unanswered questions to wrap up. For me, one of the most interesting set of characters this season is the three girlfriends: successful actress Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan), Texas wife/Trump voter Kate (Leslie Bibb) and freshly divorced New York City lawyer Laurie (Carrie Coon). It’s clear that these friends have repressed drama for so long that confrontation is starting to boil over and become unavoidable.
The three women have been friends for decades and travel to the White Lotus together to help them reconnect now that they live on opposite sides of the United States. From the beginning, power dynamics were on display as the friends bond over moments when one of the three is excluded (for instance, Laurie and Jaclyn bonded over shock and disapproval that Kate voted for Trump and Kate and Jaclyn bond over Laurie being “sad and divorced”). The latest point of contention is a wild night out where Jaclyn ended up cheating on her husband.
In the “Full Moon Party” episode, the women are partying at a club where they meet Valentin, Alexei and Vlad. The three Russian men ditch their age-appropriate girlfriends to party with the older women. (Their ages are not stated but the actor who portrays Valentin, Arnas Fedaravičius, is 33 and the actress who plays Jaclyn, Michelle Monaghan, is 49). Despite pushing for Valentin and Laurie to hook up, Jaclyn ends up having sex with him herself, cheating on her much younger husband back home.
The next day, this causes drama when Kate sees Valentin leaving and tells Laurie. This leads Laurie to confront Jaclyn at dinner. From Laurie’s perspective, she’s upset because Jaclyn is repeating past behavior. It’s alluded to that Jaclyn even flirted with Kate’s husband at Laurie’s wedding. Ostensibly from Jaclyn’s perspective, she is upset at her integrity being questioned by her friends and doesn’t want to draw attention to the fact that she cheated on her husband. However, there could be more to it.
What if there’s more Jaclyn is hiding?
Later that night, Laurie leaves her friends to have a night out with the Russian men and ends up sleeping with Aleksei. After what appears to be a great night together, even cuddling Laurie affectionately after sex, Aleksei asks her for money with a thinly-veiled ruse about a sick mother. Laurie says no and is able to escape when his angry girlfriend interrupts them. However, this begs the question of whether Valentin pulled the same grift when he slept with Jaclyn since the three men are involved in other grifts together (like stealing jewelry).
Laurie and Kate have repeatedly made mention of Jaclyn’s obsession with appearing young and attractive. Sleeping with Valentin would have confirmed to Jaclyn that she is still desirable to attractive men. Valentin asking for money would have then torn this fantasy to shreds by revealing his true motivation for sleeping with her.
While in reality Jaclyn could be both desirable and the victim of a romance scam, there is a big stigma to being a romance scam victim. Jaclyn would have been incredibly ashamed and desperate to keep her friends from learning the shameful truth — that Valentin may have seduced her as part of a romance scam and not out of pure desire. This could be at least part of the reason why Jaclyn is so angry when the topic comes up at dinner.
Of course, we won’t really know what series creator/writer/director Mike White has in store for the character until next week’s season finale. The finale will stream on Sunday, April 6 at 9 p.m. ET on Max.