"The Lotus-Eaters" is the fifth episode of the first season of the American black comedy drama anthology television series The White Lotus.
The season is set on Maui, and follows two couples, the Pattons and the Mossbachers, along with a woman named Tanya, as they each have different conflicts during their stay.
According to Nielsen Media Research, the episode was seen by an estimated 0.541 million household viewers and gained a 0.1 ratings share among adults aged 18–49.
Nicole (Connie Britton) talks with Mark (Steve Zahn) over his infidelity confession, which they agreed to evade during their vacation.
Wanting to avoid problems after the events of the previous night, Armond (Murray Bartlett) moves Shane (Jake Lacy) and Rachel (Alexandra Daddario) into the Pineapple Suite free of charge.
Feeling that the Mossbachers were benefiting from the theft of his culture, Paula meets with Kai and gives him the code to their safe, which contains a pair of expensive bracelets to pay for a lawsuit against the hotel.
In June 2021, HBO announced that the fifth episode of the season would be titled "The Lotus-Eaters", and that it would be written and directed by series creator Mike White.
"[5] Alex Noble of TheWrap wrote, "Well, we are over halfway through HBO's limited series The White Lotus and we still have the same number of potential murder victims (and suspects) as we started with.
"[6] Breeze Riley of Telltale TV gave the episode a 4 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "The characters on The White Lotus who end up losing are the ones who never held much power to begin with like Paula or Belinda.