Nevada City, CA — HBO is bringing its signature cocktail of wealth rot and hot tub dread to the Sierra Nevada foothills. Season 4 of The White Lotus plants itself in Nevada City, a place where side hustles, ghost stories, and restraining orders against PG&E are considered basic residency requirements.
Production begins this spring, with creator Mike White selecting the historic gold rush outpost for what insiders call “a bold departure” and locals call “Tuesday.” A press release thick with jargon and denial claims the season will explore spiritual tourism, failed reinvention, and the emotional fallout of a former tech executive attempting to open a tantric speakeasy in a fire-prone zone.
The casting is as chaotic as the town itself. Demi Moore, Ryan Gosling, and a possibly resurrected Walton Goggins headline a lineup filled out by crystal peddlers, rogue baristas, and at least one Bigfoot truther. Whether Goggins reprises his Season 3 role as tragically waterlogged Jim Shoemaker or emerges as Jim’s mysterious twin brother Rick remains the season’s core mystery—and the sole topic of a 42-minute voicemail left by local alignment consultant and former mayoral candidate Saihra Ramun.
“Shoemaker didn’t die. He was absorbed,” she said. “This is clearly a karmic recycling event. Anyone who’s studied municipal shadow work can see it.”
Goggins, neither confirming nor denying his identity, was spotted leaving the Miners Foundry clutching a wrench, wearing a thousand-yard stare, and exuding a faint scent of mildew and lavender. When approached, he muttered, “Pressure’s building. All the way to the surface.”
A Cast as Eccentric as the Town They’re Doomed To
Demi Moore portrays Marla Tripp, a once-relevant wellness influencer whose critically acclaimed comeback in The Substance thrusts her directly into the emotional and legal turmoil of Nevada City. Fleeing scandal in Topanga Canyon, Tripp arrives with rebranded trauma, expired adaptogens, and mason jars labeled “lion’s breath extract.” Her business plan involves launching an ayahuasca-themed boutique hotel chain. Her actual journey veers into territory best described as spiritually compromised and possibly haunted by an abandoned 2017 Kickstarter.
Ryan Gosling plays Chase Willoughby, a crypto-spiritual nomad attempting to digitally detox after his NFT commune in Taos collapsed under mysterious goat-related circumstances. Hoping to find inner peace, he instead becomes ensnared in the operations of a psychedelic DJ cult headquartered in a condemned Victorian whose leader believes NFTs were “digital parasites feeding on our astral bodies.”
Tommy Chong appears as Toby “The Doob” Carnevale, an unemployed check-writer and local folk hero known for allegedly hotboxing a Bigfoot den. Serving as both spirit guide and narrative speed bump, Doob spends most of the season warning other characters with phrases like “The vortex is clogged” and “Greg was Gary, Rick is Jim, but who’s to say I’m not Tammy?”
Walton Goggins returns as Rick Shoemaker, or possibly Jim Shoemaker, or maybe both. His role is deliberately unclear, his behavior increasingly erratic, and his relationship with the town’s plumbing system both literal and symbolic. “He arrived with storm drain energy,” said one anonymous crew member. “And never left it.”
And rounding out the central ensemble is Juliette Lewis as Saihra Ramun, the current and questionably elected mayor of Nevada City. A former liberal mystic turned red-pilled sovereign influencer, Saihra has gone from presiding over Earth Day celebrations to warning of FEMA mind fog and electromagnetic zoning conspiracies. On-screen, she is equal parts civic overseer and spiritual antagonist, wielding gongs, expired notary stamps, and unfiltered conviction. Her presence destabilizes the retreat’s fragile equilibrium and threatens to unravel reality itself—or at least the weekend itinerary.
Plot Possibilities and Unintentional Documentaries
(Leaked, possibly divined, but definitely not verified.)
HBO has not disclosed plot details, but a blend of production leaks, misdirected emails, and an overly candid barista at Java John’s illustrates the classic White Lotus entropy. This time, the unraveling occurs amid vortex tourism, gluten witchcraft, and post-liberal moral confusion.
One leaked script references an ayahuasca ceremony hosted by Moore’s character behind a deconsecrated church. Participants claim to witness the manifestation of someone’s inner child, who now reportedly attends Bitney Prep and excels in interpretive dance.
Another storyline centers on a tech billionaire installing Starlink over Crystal Hermitage, disrupting the town’s chakra grid and unleashing psychic chaos. Gosling’s character reportedly spends two episodes speaking only in abandoned tweet drafts from 2019.
A Scandinavian funeral at Scotts Flat Lake is mistakenly filmed as set dressing. The burning longship turns out to be an actual unsanctioned Viking sendoff for local legend Torbjørn “Bearclaw” Halvørsen. Footage may serve as either the cold open or the basis for Emmy campaign reels.
A sourdough starter smuggling ring emerges from behind the Madelyn Helling Library, run by a precocious ten-year-old named Clover. The child trades fermented cultures for deeply compromising emotional confessions, operating from a retrofitted school bus that may or may not hum at dusk.
Cryptid sightings around the catering tent reach a fever pitch. Crew members swear they saw Bigfoot vaping behind the Miners Foundry. Sasquatch researcher Keith Bradenshauer later discovered a tuft of fur, vape residue, and a pine cone engraved with a John Prine lyric.
And then there’s Saihra Ramun.
Currently serving as the self-proclaimed mayor of Nevada City, a title technically confirmed by a runoff election, a public drum circle, and an Instagram poll, Saihra is no stranger to power or pageantry. Once a beloved figure of New Age liberalism, she first rose to prominence after her 2015 Earth Day keynote on chemtrails and “atmospheric sovereignty.” Since then, her ideological arc has taken a wide orbit through vaccine skepticism, constitutional sheriff fandom, and enthusiastic support for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. She insists her recent policy initiatives are guided by “higher frequencies” and several laminated visions from 2014.
In White Lotus: Nevada City, Saihra begins as a hired vortex consultant for the retreat but soon asserts her authority as both spiritual guardian and municipal overseer. She bans digital clocks, replaces guest Wi-Fi with a resonance therapy chamber, and conducts midnight “municipal spirit audits” using gongs, an expired notary seal, and a slideshow titled The Deep State in Your Drainage System.
Her confrontation with Goggins’ character, possibly Rick and maybe Jim, climaxes in Episode 5 during a thunderstorm over Cement Hill. What begins as a zoning dispute erupts into a full-blown psychic duel, ending with one of them partially vanishing through a manhole.
Community Reactions: Fame, Paranoia, and Organic Jealousy
The HBO incursion has divided the locals. Some see it as validation. Others see surveillance. Most just want to know if they’re eligible for residuals.
Lisa Fellows, speaking from the SPD parking lot, insisted, “This is my truth on screen. Unless Goggins publicly apologizes for invading my dream space, I’ll be holding a one-woman protest in front of the Nevada Theatre every night at dusk.”
David X, transmitting from a geodesic dome, warned, “Disrupt the ley lines, and I walk. Coordinates for negotiation available for .012 BTC.”
Jem Seminary, furious, declared, “They called my energy too authentic. I’m launching The Scarlet Tincture as a TikTok microdrama with NFT-based character arcs.”
Skyy Wolkford claims his kombucha stand made it into a Gosling crying scene. “He wept directly into my rosehip tap. I saged the entire apparatus afterward. Legal and spiritual protection.”
Even Mineshaft Saloon owner Alex Jones (not that one) voiced concerns. “Last time filmmakers came through, they unionized the open mic night. That’s never happening again.”
Saihra Ramun declined to be interviewed but faxed a statement written in lavender oil. It read, “This town is a lens. I am the focal point. When you film here, you film me.”
What Happens Next?
Filming will continue through the summer at key locations, including the National Hotel, a condemned mushroom barn on Cement Hill, and an undisclosed cave that allegedly emits tones only dogs and IRS agents can hear. Whether the final product airs on HBO or rips open a pan-dimensional rift in county zoning law is not yet clear.
As for the central mystery, whether Rick Shoemaker is Jim Shoemaker in disguise, reborn, or simply misunderstood plumbing energy—audiences will have to wait for the premiere or for Walton Goggins to finally break character.
One thing is clear. The White Lotus doesn’t need to invent the absurd when it films in Nevada City. It just needs to turn on the cameras and listen.
