Who Is The Mysterious Caller In ‘The White Lotus’ Season 3 Episode 2?
SPOILER ALERT: This piece contains spoilers for Episode 2 of The White Lotus Season 3.
Yet another famous face — or voice, rather — has joined the cast of The White Lotus Season 3.
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In the second episode of the new season, set in Thailand, you won’t see the new cast addition, but you’ll hear his voice. For those thinking maybe it’s a certain actor, you’ll find the answer below.
Final warning before the spoiler explanation commences!
In Episode 2 of Season 3 of The White Lotus, which aired Sunday, February 23, Timothy Ratliff (Jason Isaacs) finally gets in touch with his old friend Kenneth “Kenny” Nguyen. The first episode watched Tim receive a call from a Wall Street Journal journalist who had some questions about a fund that Kenny had started back in 2018 called Sho-Kel. Timothy worked with Kenny to help set up the fund, but he claimed that he hadn’t spoken to Kenny in at least 4 years. After the Wall Street Journal reached out, Tim called Kenny right back asking if he knew what was going on. The journalist said that the story would run the week that the Ratliffs were on vacation.
Kenny calls Tim back frantic after having had the feds raise his home, and if the voice made you double take, it is because it’s the voice of none other than Everything Everywhere All At Once Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan. HBO confirmed this voice cameo to Deadline.
“I don’t care about the f*ckin’ story,” Quan’s voice spats out of the phone nearly five minutes after Tim gets up from the dinner table to take his call. “Because 20 agents just raided my office. I’m done. I can’t go to f*ckin’ prison!”
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“You told me this couldn’t happen,” Timothy says back calmly before he raises his voice. “You f*ckin’ swore that this could not happen.”
Kenny went on to explain that he didn’t think a whistleblower in his office would rat him out to the FBI and the media. Tim then aksed what exactly they know.
“They have everything, Tim. My accounts, my emails, all the f*ckin’ documents,” Kenny says back, adding that he hasn’t told them anything. “I got a f*ckin’ lawyer. I should’ve never gone to Brunei. I should’ve never taken’ that position. Everyone was making a killing. Why not me?”
After Tim asks if he’s implicated, Kenny replies, “Yes! For sure, Tim, yes. That’s why I bought this burner, to call you! You need to get a good lawyer, like yesterday.”
Tim reminds Kenny that this was a favor to him.
“You gotta be kidding me. I didn’t wanna do it. This was all you, now I’m wrapped up in some f*ckin’ money laundering, bribery situation,” he said. “And I only made 10 million dollars out of your stupid, f*ckin’s scheme? I swear to God, Kenny, if you f*ck me on this, I will kill you.”
The initial phone call from the journalist, who was also looking into Mr. Nguyen’s relationship to the government of Brunei, in episode 1 took place shortly after another big reveal for the Season 3 cast — the return of Jon Gries, who has appeared in both Seasons 1 and 2.
Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) struck up a chat with Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon), who is now dating Gries’ character Greg, to whom she refers to as “the bald guy with the orange shirt.” Chloe also mentions that bald white men are referred to as LBH, or losers back home, in Thailand.
The show’s previous pattern has had viewers knowing to expect at least one character from a previous season of the show to come back in a succeeding season, and Natasha Rothwell’s Belinda Lindsey was known to be that character after she starred in Season 1, which was set in Hawaii. Gries appeared in Seasons 1 and 2 because his character Greg began dating Jennifer Coolidge’s Tanya McQuoid in Hawaii, and he accompanied her to the Taormina White Lotus in Season 2.
As of the second episode, it turns out Charlotte only knows Greg as Gary. The name change signals something sinister going on with Tanya’s ex-husband. At dinner the second night in Thailand, Belinda spots Greg aka Gary, but she only gives him a second glance before shaking her head and moving on with her perusal of the dinner menu.
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Only time will tell how Gries’ return factors into the plot as well as whether or not Kenny (Ke Huy Quan) will make an appearance later on in the show.
Quan recently starred in Universal Pictures’ Love Hurts as Marvin Gable, a wholesome realtor with a much more shady, action-filled and blood-filled past that involves Ariana DeBose’s Rose Carlisle. The film hails from 87North. He will also appear in the upcoming Netflix film The Electric State alongside Millie Bobby Brown, Chris Pratt, Anthony Mackie and more. As a child actor, Quan appeared in classic films like The Goonies (1985) as well as Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984).
The actor follows in the footsteps of Laura Dern, who voiced the wife of Dominic Di Grasso (Michael Imperioli) in Season 2 of the drama series.
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