A Deleted White Lotus Line Explains That Odd Victoria & Kate Interaction

Finally, fans have an explanation for that awkward interaction between Victoria Ratliff (played by Parker Posey) and Kate Bohr (played by Leslie Bibb) in The White Lotus. According to Jason Isaacs, who played Timothy Ratliff in Season 3, the uncomfortable moment can be explained by a deleted line.

ICYMI, in Episode 2, Kate goes up to the Ratliff family during breakfast to say hello, having previously met Victoria at a baby shower in Austin, Texas. Victoria, however, completely blows her off — a social slight that is not explained throughout the rest of the season. After the finale premiered on April 6, fans questioned this particular loose end. “what 👏 was the point 👏 of this scene 👏,” one wrote about the interaction on X, formerly called Twitter.

According to Isaacs, Victoria’s dismissal of Kate has nothing to do with not recognizing her. “No, no, she has a perfectly good idea [of who Kate is],” he explained during an April 11 episode of the I’ve Never Said This Before podcast. “She doesn’t want to be on holiday talking to strangers.”

The dynamic was better explained by a line of dialogue in Episode 1 that did not make the final cut. “There was a lovely line that was cut, which bothered me, but we all had many, many lines cut because Mike writes so much fabulous stuff there’s half an hour cut from every episode,” Isaacs said.

“But when we landed in the beginning,” he continued, “[they] said, you know, ‘How’s your journey?’ And I said, ‘We had a long layover.’ And I think I said something like, if I’m remembering correctly, ‘Flew commercial. Save the planet.’ Because [the Ratliffs] don’t normally fly commercial, they fly private and they go to mansions with staff. So he’s kind of slumming it, staying at the White Lotus at all.”

With that background in mind, Victoria was simply not up for making small talk with the other hotel guests. “They’re not used to other people being in their business,” Isaacs continued. “So, the fact that somebody from another table comes and gets in Victoria’s face, she just doesn’t want to be chatting to people by the pool. She doesn’t want other people to be around.”

“That’s all it was,” he added. “Just, ‘I don’t want these trashy people being in my life. I don’t really want other people to talk to.’” (This also helps explain Victoria’s hesitation when the family is invited on a boat day and to a house party with other guests.)

Isaacs also said that the viral theories he’s seen about the two women — and about the show in general — are off-base. “Literally everybody has got everything wrong,” he said before joking, “All these Sherlock Holmeses out there, they better make sure they’ve got a day job.”