By Dan Heching, CNN

(CNN) — Hello again, fellow “White Lotus” guests. How’s your stay so far?

Last week’s Season 3 premiere had so much setup, we didn’t even get to all the characters. Let’s start off with the trio of traveling girlfriends who open this second episode: there’s Jaclyn, a famous TV actress living in Los Angeles (Michelle Monaghan), upscale Austin socialite Kate (Leslie Bibb), and Laurie (Carrie Coon), a New York City corporate exec who shares just a tad less enthusiasm for everything as compared to her beaming travel companions.

Typical of loving childhood friends who also love to dish, Kate and Jaclyn start out talking about how “great“ Laurie looks, only to unpack her divorce and work troubles with Kate ultimately mentioning how “defeated” their friend looks. “I thought you said she looked great,” Jaclyn points out with a mischievous smile. Caught out, Kate replies, “Well, she does, but she also looks tired…” (Don’t pretend you haven’t said similar about a friend.)

Over breakfast, the friend group are approached by their impossibly sexy Russian wellness mentor Valentin (Arnas Fedaravicius), who informs them that he will be conducting biomarker tests to help design their care plan. The ladies are intrigued by him, and Jaclyn in particular urges Laurie to have a fling: “Somebody’s gotta try that, and you’re the only one who’s single,” she says. Later, some vague barbs of catty competitiveness come out when the trio trade the stats and findings from their respective tests. All I can say is: watch this space.

There’s also the most mysterious of the traveling bunch, the brooding Rick (Walton Goggins) – a weathered older man decked out in Hawaiian shirts who looks tortured all the time, despite the fact that he’s on this trip with the lovely Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood), a happy-go-lucky younger woman from Manchester who seems inexplicably devoted to him. Soon after arriving, Rick asks about the famous owner of the hotel, but is frustrated to learn that the man is not there – he’s recuperating from a stroke in Bangkok.

At Chelsea’s behest, Rick has a stress management session with Amrita (Shalini Peiris, from the harrowing first scene of this season), where we finally get a little more insight into his seemingly permanent issues: his mother was a drug addict who died by overdose when he was 10, and his father was murdered before he was born. Ouch. Rick says “weed helps,” but he didn’t travel with it. Amrita promises that meditation can bring relief to his “psychic pain,” saying that “it helps you see that the identity you’ve created brings you suffering.”

Rick has an answer for this too, saying, “I never had an identity. I don’t need to detach. I’m already nothing.” There’s not much more she can say, but Amrita seems visibly moved and taken with Rick.

Finally, we spend a little more time with some of the other White Lotus staffers: Gaitok (Tame Thapthimthong), a smiley but shy security guard who is besotted with Mook (Lalisa Manobal of the uber-popular K-pop girl group Blackpink, making her acting debut). At lunch, Gaitok tells Mook he likes her, listing why they should go out: “Our families know each other, your brothers like me, we’re from the same town,” he reasons, adding that even though she’s smarter than him, he’s pretty handy. Laughing it off, Mook points out that they’ve never even been on a date.

A burst of violence

This relatively slow buildup – as always punctuated by moody, foreboding music and lush photography of the verdant islands of Ko Samui and Phuket, along with beguiling monkeys in their natural habitat – is abruptly interrupted by another instance of gun violence, when an armed robber bursts into the high-end hotel gift shop where Chelsea and her new friend Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon) are shopping. Might be important later: the criminal was able to gain entrance to the White Lotus property when Valentin pulls up on his motorcycle to the security gate to chat with Gaitok, at the exact moment a random SUV containing the thief sails through. Hm. While Gaitok manages to stop the vehicle on the way out, he ends up getting hit hard in the head with the butt of the gun.

But let’s also not forget the Ratliffs – and we’re not talking about mega-snob Victoria Ratliff (Parker Posey) being very rude to Kate (who recognizes her from back home), coddling her pervy son Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) and then turning around and discussing “good values.” Still being hounded by the press, her husband Timothy (Jason Isaacs) finally connects with a professional contact named Kenny (Ke Huy Quan, in a delicious surprise voice over cameo), who we learn is at the root of an embezzlement scheme that made Tim “only $10 million” and which has now been leaked to the press. Kenny tells Tim, “They have everything,” and Tim asks point blank, “Am I implicated?” “Yes, for sure,” Kenny replies. Perfectly representative of a wealthy, entitled man who is used to always getting his way, Timothy then tries to hedge: “What does that mean, ‘Yes’? That’s a definite yes?” YES, Tim, you’re cooked. Somehow, the robbery wasn’t even the climax of the episode.

More on that eerily familiar face

Oh yeah. After the bombshell reveal that Greg-now-Gary (Jon Gries) from previous “White Lotus” seasons is living on top of the hill where the Thai resort is located, he and his younger girlfriend Chloe have a meal with Chelsea and Rick. Urged by Chelsea, Rick tries to get more information out of “Gary,” who we learn has been in Thailand for a year. When Rick asks what he does, the ever-cagey Gary says he’s retired after a career doing a little of “this and that.” (We think we have an idea what he might be referring to, and it has to do with somebody named Tanya.)

Not to be outdone in the mysterious-and-vaguely-threatening-older-traveler department, Rick counters with the same phrase when Gary asks after his occupation. “You meet a lot of people here who do ‘this and that,’” Gary says, to which Rick replies, “Decent line of work.”

At this same dinner, fresh from a day of trading massages (sounds nice), Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) dines alone, and soon her eyes fall on Gary. She recognizes him, but we get the sense she can’t quite place him… yet. The lotus seeds continue to be planted.

“The White Lotus” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. EDT on HBO, with the episode available to stream on Max. HBO and Max, like CNN, are owned by the same parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.

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