What happened on the shocking ‘White Lotus’ Season 3 finale

This article contains spoilers for the Season 3 finale of “The White Lotus.”

This article contains spoilers for the Season 3 finale of “The White Lotus.”

The third season of HBO’s “The White Lotus” has finally come to a close. With eight episodes — the last of which ran for 90 minutes — it is the longest iteration of the show, stuffed with all manner of plots, subplots and marplots.

Greg Braxton, Mary McNamara and Yvonne Villarreal, platinum-status members of “The White Lotus” frequent guest program, watched Sunday’s finale in real time and are ready to break down all the big moments. If you want to avoid spoilers, go pick up a book and lounge by the pool with a drink until you’re ready.

Braxton: Tim’s expression after Piper tells him that she is not going to stay in Thailand after all. I’m not sure what emotion it was — bewilderment, anger, frustration? It seemed to be a mix of a lot of things, but I also thought it was a highlight of Jason Isaacs’ performance. He finally registered a real emotion.

McNamara: Victoria’s near-orgasmic pleasure in the same scene when Piper complains about the Buddhist center’s lack of A/C and the stained mattresses. Parker Posey did a lot with a little in this series.

Villarreal: You took mine, Mary! I’ll be sappy and give my award to the lovesick exchange between Chelsea and Rick at dinner. Can’t wait for the supercut of their best moments on TikTok.

Greg Braxton, Mary McNamara and Yvonne Villarreal, platinum-status members of “The White Lotus” frequent guest program, watched Sunday’s finale in real time and are ready to break down all the big moments. If you want to avoid spoilers, go pick up a book and lounge by the pool with a drink until you’re ready.

Braxton: I can’t stop at one because I was hoarse by the end credits. For starters, Jaclyn and her friends having this kumbaya moment at the end of this totally dysfunctional trip seemed false to me. After all the toxicity that passed between them, it did not feel realistic that there would not be at least some kind of lingering tension over all the bad stuff that passed through them during the trip. I would say Lochlan’s remarkable recovery would be my second. I just thought the buildup and all the attention surrounding it was a cheap shot.

The whole brother incest storyline was also a manipulative throwaway that this show didn’t need? Lochlan helping out his brother during the evening of sex because “I’m a pleaser?” Jaw-droppingly bad.

But my top two have to be: No. 1, The Darth Vader/Luke Skywalker “He’s your father” revelation. Really? C’mon. Jim had plenty of time to inform Rick of that little nugget when he had a gun pointed at him! No. 2, Frank’s return to the monastery after his night of unrestrained sin. Yeah, that’s believable. Which makes the whole ladyboy monologue more irrelevant. It had NOTHING to do with the show. Pathetically contrived. If Rockwell is nominated or wins an Emmy, I’ll be tempted to visit the pong pong tree.

(Fabio Lovino / HBO)

McNamara: The blender (see above). Also Rick returning to the hotel as if he hadn’t just threatened the guy who owns it. Also Mook brushing off Gaitok when he eschews violence and then embracing him after he shoots Rick, in the back. Also Belinda becoming Tanya when she shuts down Pornchai. And of course when Chelsea died. I did a lot of screaming in this episode.

Villarreal: Can I just use this time to highlight the guttural scream from that monkey that came about an hour into the episode? Emmy-worthy delivery. But my screams came when Tim gave his family, minus Lochlan, the poisoned piña coladas (Don’t do it, Tim!); when we see that Chelsea was hit by a bullet (“Piper, nooo!” in my best Victoria accent) and when Gaitok pointed his gun at Rick (“Really, Gaitok, there are other ways to get a promotion!”).

Greg Braxton, Mary McNamara and Yvonne Villarreal, platinum-status members of “The White Lotus” frequent guest program, watched Sunday’s finale in real time and are ready to break down all the big moments. If you want to avoid spoilers, go pick up a book and lounge by the pool with a drink until you’re ready.

When I was not screaming “rinse out that damn blender, Tim,” I was bemoaning, as I have been all season, the waste of Jason Isaacs on what was essentially a one-note character. The whole “suicide tree” bit made me laugh out loud. (Why on earth would a fancy hotel have potentially deadly fruit strewn around when you can’t even get peanuts on an airplane anymore? And why would a staff member blithely inform a guest of it?) I did not believe FOR ONE MINUTE that Tim was going to kill most of his family simply because they had each voiced some kind of apprehension over life without wealth — or in Saxon’s case, his career. I will go to my grave thankful for the line “the coconut milk is off,” which I honestly think should be adopted as a national code for potential danger, but the idea that Tim wouldn’t rinse out a freaking blender that was chock full of poison was just one creaking plot device too many. I get that he’s a rich dude, unused to cleaning up after himself, but even a rich dude knows enough to destroy evidence of attempted murder. As for how the Ratliffs’ story ends, well, I guess Tim learned that family trumps wealth. But his shirt matched the sheet cushions on the boat as they all sped into the sunset, so I’m not sure how much of a change that family is going to face. And I refuse to now associate “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming,” which I too sang in church choir, with “The White Lotus.”

Greg Braxton, Mary McNamara and Yvonne Villarreal, platinum-status members of “The White Lotus” frequent guest program, watched Sunday’s finale in real time and are ready to break down all the big moments. If you want to avoid spoilers, go pick up a book and lounge by the pool with a drink until you’re ready.

First off, at least they’re all alive despite being caught in the initial crossfire — so I guess that helps not make it the worst girls’ trip ever. But that moment, and their harrowing attempt to make it out alive, is definitely the story they’ll retell incessantly to everyone who will listen and it’ll become lore — and only strengthen their bond. But their gathering at dinner the night prior was so compelling to watch — the contrast of Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan) and Kate (Leslie Bibb) trying to make peace with their respective hollow declarations of what their friendship means to them alongside’s Laurie’s (Carrie Coon) gut-wrenchingly honest reflection about what it has stirred up for her as it relates to her life’s choices really illustrated why this trio works even when their toxicity flares up. “We started this life together — we’re going through it apart, but we’re still together,” Laurie says. “And I look at you guys and it feels meaningful. And I can’t explain it, but even when we’re just sitting around the pool talking about whatever inane s—, it still feels very f—ing deep.”

Sisterhood can be twisted. I do, though, wonder what was left on the cutting room floor with the ladies and how it would have peeled back the layers some more. Coon has mentioned there was a detail about her character’s child that didn’t make it in. And when I spoke with the actors, there was mention of a pickleball monologue delivered by Kate that got cut. Release the director’s cut, Mike White!

Greg Braxton, Mary McNamara and Yvonne Villarreal, platinum-status members of “The White Lotus” frequent guest program, watched Sunday’s finale in real time and are ready to break down all the big moments. If you want to avoid spoilers, go pick up a book and lounge by the pool with a drink until you’re ready.

I’m not totally convinced that Belinda has seen the last of Greg/Gary. The last time we see them does not convince me he is through with her. As long as Belinda and her son are alive, they are a threat. Even though she got the money, Belinda should sleep with one eye open. But I am glad that she finally got her happy ending. I also thought it was a nice touch for her to do to Pornchai what Tanya did to Belinda. It was a bit cruel, yes. But it was also revealing that Belinda did not think about that when she broke Pornchai’s heart. She was just so happy about the money. Does it make us feel differently about what Tanya did to her? Perhaps.

Greg Braxton, Mary McNamara and Yvonne Villarreal, platinum-status members of “The White Lotus” frequent guest program, watched Sunday’s finale in real time and are ready to break down all the big moments. If you want to avoid spoilers, go pick up a book and lounge by the pool with a drink until you’re ready.

(Fabio Lovino/HBO)

Villarreal: As a student of Ace of Base earworms, I’ve long known one should never dismiss a woman who saw the signs. And Chelsea tried to warn us! The hopeless romantic Brit with the refreshingly non-veneered smile had an eerie feeling about her fate early on. In a now ominous foreshadowing, she spoke about how bad luck comes in threes when deciding whether she should venture onto Greg/Gary’s boat in Episode 4 — she had already experienced a robbery and being struck by a deadly cobra (thanks to her man-child Rick going Ace Ventura rogue at the snake farm). It was just a matter of when the third shoe would drop. Their sun-kissed reunion at the shore in the finale wasn’t signaling a happily ever after. But Chelsea, later over breakfast, did speak of amor fati. “You know what that means?” she asks Rick. “It means you have to embrace your fate, good or bad. Whatever will be, will be. And, at this point, we’re linked. So if a bad thing happens to you, it happens to me.” Oh, Chelsea, you didn’t know how prophetic you’d be. I was less shocked by Rick’s death because, from the beginning, it felt like the outward crankiness, which masked a tortured man carrying so much misery, would get him into a bad situation. For that misery to swallow up Chelsea may not have been unexpected, but it sure made me mad and terribly sad. And, yes, Chelsea of all people would find it hopelessly romantic that she met her fate alongside Rick — floating among the lily pads, no less — but I can’t help but feel the need to point out how all this might have been avoided had Rick and Frank come up with an actual plan for their Bangkok scheme … or had Rick worked out his daddy issues sooner in therapy.

Braxton: I feel vindicated with my guess that Chelsea was going to meet an unfortunate end. The “bad things come in threes” throughout the season was a major clue. Also, the dinner conversation between Rick and Chelsea was a major clue, as was Chelsea saying, “If a bad thing happens to you, it happens to me.” It’s a lesson that when you pull a gun on someone, you better use it. It was foolish for Rick to go back to the White Lotus and not think that there would be some fallout. I did not think that made sense for the character. But then, so many things that Rick did were not sensible to me. I do feel it was a cheap trick for Mike White to let us believe that Lochlan died. That is not a cool thing to do to the audience. I felt he should have had the courage to let Lochlan die. But I guess you have to have the “I think I just saw God” moment to justify the theme of spirituality that was supposed to be at the center of the season. It was a bit of a cop-out.

McNamara: Is it just me or has Mike White abandoned dark comedy for straight-up tragedy?

Although I’m sure he’s laughing his head off at all of us trying to guess who the corpse was in the pond when he had no intention of ever revealing it. Since it wasn’t Rick or Chelsea, I’m assuming it was one of the random bodyguards. Seriously, five people dead in a shootout and ye olde White Lotus doesn’t close for a day? Killing Chelsea certainly fit with all the “clues” you guys have listed, particularly the conversation about her and Rick being together forever (I mean, if by “forever” you mean for the next half-hour) but her innocent-bystander death is very different from those of the victims in Season 1 and 2. Unless White is trying to send a warning to all young women who think they can save troubled/pathological men by simply loving them, which, I suppose, is a warning worth issuing. Guys like Rick, who have turned their grudges into millstones, tend to drag their loved ones down with them. The reveal that Jim was Rick’s father may have been intended to underline this, but it was so Darth Vader sudden that it honestly made me laugh. If only Chelsea had allowed herself to succumb to the wiles of Saxon, is a phrase I thought I’d never write. But even with Lochlan’s miraculous recovery, which I knew would happen because even this show is not callous enough to kill off a teenager and not have it be the climax, this season has trended so much darker than the previous two — how I long for the violent absurdity of Armond and Tanya’s ends in Season 1 and 2, and not just because I am super sad monkeys were not involved.

When it premiered back in 2021, “The White Lotus” was a sharp class satire aimed at skewering high-end tourism and the elite one-percenters willing to pay $9,000 a night to relax. Written and directed by Mike White, the darkly comic mystery followed the entitled guests and beleaguered employees at a luxurious Maui hotel over the course of an increasingly tense week.

A destination that was supposed to be a refuge from the world’s problems instead became a microcosm for them, a place where the class divide and legacy of American imperialism were on vivid display. “The White Lotus,” which filmed its first season on location at the Four Seasons in Maui, somehow made an exclusive resort seem like a toxic pressure cooker. Working there was not just soul-crushing, it could even kill you.

The latest installment of “The White Lotus” comes to an end on Sunday and everyone is speculating about how the series will wrap up its loose ends, who will die and how.

We asked readers to share their theories for how Season 3 will end.

“They call us ‘The Ladies,’ ” Leslie Bibb says proudly assessing the name given to the video call (TWL Three Ladies) we’re on.

“That’s our text thread — The Ladies,” adds Carrie Coon, her co-star on “The White Lotus.”

The knockout blows and roundhouse kicks of Muay Thai fighting hit “The White Lotus” this week — with flashes of a fight spliced throughout the episode — but the more intense combat was happening outside of the ring for our gaggle of rattled characters.

The episode picks up with Rick (Walton Goggins) and Frank’s (Sam Rockwell) arrival at the Bangkok home Sritala (Lek Patravadi) shares with her husband Jim (Scott Glenn) — Rick’s target in the plan to avenge his father’s death. And it’s as hilariously unplanned as you’d expect from two dudes who can make a catch-up session between friends feel like a fever dream. Wearing a baseball cap with the Lowe’s logo, Steven (Frank’s alias as the fictional director in this Hollywood movie scheme) is totally winging this meeting. What has he directed? Uh ... “What haven’t I directed? Mostly action films. ‘The Enforcer.’ ‘The Executor.’ ‘The Notary’ — that was a trilogy.” What’s the role in this so-called movie that he wants Sritala to portray? “She is a former prostitute, now a madam, and she owns a popular bordello.” Wait, isn’t the role supposed to be based on her? And has he seen any of her past work? Name ‘em!

Another blue-hued Ratfliff nightmare sets in motion an episode that delves into worst-case scenarios for some of the show’s characters.

The episode opens with Tim (Jason Isaacs) raising a gun to his head and pulling the trigger, leaving his wife and daughter in hysterics. But Tim comes out of his daydream, seated at the patio table where things left off in last week’s episode. He stashes the weapon he took from the guard booth in a nearby apothecary cabinet before popping another lorazepam and climbing into bed. Victoria (Parker Posey), thinking he’s preoccupied with Piper’s (Sarah Catherine Hook) recent news, attempts to ease his worry. But his panic only intensifies when Victoria makes it known, in no uncertain terms, that she’d rather die than live a potential life of poverty: “I just don’t think, at this age, I’m meant to live an uncomfortable life. I don’t have the will.” It prompts Tim to have another hallucination, this time a murder-suicide of him and his wife. But any gun action from Tim is now thwarted because Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) successfully retrieved the gun from the cabinet while the Ratliff’s are away.

It’s a full moon over on “The White Lotus” and several characters are grappling with their awakening, spiritual or otherwise.

Things begin with Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong), who after frantically poring over security camera footage for the missing handgun, concludes it’s Tim (Jason Isaacs) who swiped it. But his attempts to confront Duke’s finest white collar bandit are fumbled — Gaitok leaves the security kiosk unattended (again) and gets distracted by Mook (Lalisa Manobal) as she performs a traditional dance. (Gaitok, sweetie, a promotion is never going to happen this way!) When he does approach Tim in the bathroom, Gaitok lacks the imposing demeanor to intimidate him into fessing up to the theft, let alone returning the gun.

Victoria (Parker Posey), on the other hand, is concerned with a bullet that’s been fired at dinner. Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) finally tells her parents the real intention for the trip was to check out a Buddhist meditation center she plans to join for a year. Tim is in a fog of lorazepam and dread, so the news barely registers, but its a SOO-NAH-ME of emotions for Victoria, who, unlike her husband, can’t temper her reaction with pills. It leads to another Grade A unchristian-like meltdown from the matriarch who is convinced the center could be a sex cult — ala NXIVM — and is not impressed that the monk who runs it has authored books: “So, Charles Manson wrote books! Bill Clinton wrote books. The list goes on. Hillary Clinton wrote five books ... Look at the Catholics! Organized religion and deviant sex can go hand in hand.”

From the opening moments of Episode 4, the characters telegraphed duress through some phone calls. Whatever Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan) is feeling about her bestie Kate (Leslie Bibb), who might be a Trump supporter, takes a backseat when a call (and text) to her younger husband goes unanswered. Meanwhile, Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) connects with her son, Zion, as he prepares to board his flight to meet up with her: “Please be safe,” she tells him.

But it’s when genial hotel guard Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) is given access to a gun and encouraged to familiarize himself with it after a robbery (and a lecture from his bosses) that the puzzle pieces seem to start locking into place.

This episode moves many of the characters outside the White Lotus resort. In an effort to keep from spiraling about her husband, Jaclyn rallies the ladies for a shift in scenery. But when another resort’s pool turns out, to Jaclyn’s extreme dismay, to be an oasis for older normies, she insists Valentin (Arnas Fedaravičius) take them on a better excursion. He obliges, leading them into the city center as Songkran, a celebration of the Thai New Year that involves water fights, is underway. In a moment crafted to provide us with endless GIFs, the friends are chased by kids armed with super soaker guns who hose the women in water, but you can’t wash away entitlement. They eventually meet up with Valentin and some of his friends at a party — what happens next remains to be seen.

Episode 3 opens with the Ratliff family (minus their patriarch, Tim, played by Jason Isaacs) on the shore, under foreboding gray-blue skies that saturate the surrounding area. The three siblings are sitting together — “This is what it looks like before a tsunami,” Lochlan (Sam Nivola) says — while matriarch Victoria (Parker Posey) is staring out to the sea. Their North Carolina home, lighted up inside with a fiery glow, stands behind her, signaling it’s all a dream. As Victoria wakes up, she overhears Tim taking another stressful call about the scandal he’s caught up in but that she knows nothing about. After sharing the contents of her dream with her family over breakfast, Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) suggests: “It could be some kind of warning ... [dreams] are a window into something.” Dun, dun, DUNNN. As the calls keep coming in — and Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger), who works for his father, nearly learns that something’s amiss — Tim challenges the family to do away with all their devices for the duration of the trip, letting Pam collect them into a jumbo bag. What could possibly go wrong?

Elsewhere, Rick (Walton Goggins) sidles up to hotel owner Sritala Hollinger (Lek Patravadi) at breakfast, claiming to be a producer who is working on a secret project and asks the former actor if she would be open to taking a meeting in Bangkok with a director he’s working with. She agrees. Before all that, Rick has a hankering for some weed and takes a trip out of the hotel, with Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) tagging along. The pair wind up at a snake show, where tourists marvel at the reptiles while munching on potato chips. Rick, high as a kite and feeling a kinship to the misunderstood animals, takes it upon himself to set some of the snakes free. A cobra bites Chelsea and she’s whisked away to a hospital. Her resort pal Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon), who had invited them for a dinner date, makes the keen observation upon her return: “Chelsea, you’ve had two brushes with death in two days. Maybe you guys shouldn’t come on the boat tomorrow.”

Episode 2 picks up right where Episode 1 left off: with Kate (Leslie Bibb) and Jaclyn gossiping about Laurie. We find out that Laurie (Carrie Coon) has just gone through a bitter divorce, has a seemingly troubled daughter who throws furniture and may have been passed over for a partnership at work. The toxic dynamics intensify later in the episode, as Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan) gushes about her marriage to a younger man and Kate and Laurie speculate about the true state of the relationship. Jaclyn’s married bliss, Kate claims, is just a front. “You know what they say about fronts. The bigger the front, the bigger the back.”

Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) continues to befriend Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon), whose boyfriend is Tanya’s scheming ex, Greg (Jon Gries), who apparently now goes by Gary. At Chelsea’s insistence, Rick (Walton Goggins) reluctantly sits for a session with Amrita (Shalini Peiris), where we learn more of his backstory. Rick says that his mother was a drug addict and that he never knew his father, who was murdered, which perhaps explains his misanthropic personality. Chelsea and Chloe are shopping at the resort boutique when it is robbed by a masked man who manages to slip past a distracted Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) at the front gates.

Peace out, paradise! It’s time for the vacationers at “The White Lotus” to step aboard their boats back home. But don’t expect all of them to leave Ko Samui alive.

The third season of Mike White’s black comedy anthology series comes to an end April 6. Episodes this season air Sunday on HBO’s cable channel at 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET. At the same time, they become available to stream on Max, the Warner Bros. Discovery streaming service.

Stay tuned as we recap this season and answer your burning questions about the finale.

It has been more than two years since Season 2 of “The White Lotus” ended its run on HBO with a spectacularly meme-worthy finale that saw Tanya McQuoid head to that great luxury resort in the sky.

Now the wait is over and “The White Lotus” has finally returned, with a gorgeous new location; a fresh cast of rich, terrible people to obsess over; and lots of mystery to unpack.

The action has moved several thousand miles east to the lush island of Ko Samui in Thailand. Season 3, once again written and directed by Mike White, opens as we all knew it would: with a dead body. A young man named Zion (Nicholas DuVernay) is meditating with hotel staffer Amrita (Shalini Peiris) in a scenic pavilion when gunshots ring out. Zion takes cover behind a statue of Buddha in the lily pad pond, and a corpse floats by.

After lounging on Hawaii’s beaches and yachting in Sicily, a new star-studded cast has headed to Thailand for a luxurious, deadly vacation in “The White Lotus.” Season 3 of HBO’s dark comedy anthology is set to premiere Sunday.

Among the new vacationers are Aimee Lou Wood (“Sex Education”), Parker Posey (“Dazed and Confused,” “Scream 3”), Patrick Schwarzenegger (“Scream Queens”) and Walton Goggins (“Fallout,” “Justified”). While fan-favorite Tanya, played by Jennifer Coolidge, won’t be returning, this season will feature one other familiar face — Natasha Rothwell, who appeared as spa manager Belinda in the first season.

What would “White Lotus” be without its titillating score and those warbled “ooh-loo-loo-loo’s?” That will no longer concern the series’ original composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer.

The Times confirmed Thursday that the Emmy winner has checked out of HBO’s “White Lotus,” and will not return to bring his musical stylings to the hit series’ fourth season. In an interview published Wednesday, the Chilean Canadian musician told the New York Times that creative differences with showrunner Mike White led to his departure.

If your go-to move for destressing is to get out of town, you’re in good (fictional) company. In Season 3 of HBO’s “The White Lotus,” hotel guests fly “half way around the world” — as loopy Southern matron Victoria Ratliff (Parker Posey) puts it — for the ultimate restorative retreat. The resort’s Thailand location is a “wellness center” that offers guests spa services, fitness analyses, gluten-free food and even an assigned personal “health mentor.”

“Everyone in L.A. is talking about it,” says glitzy actress Jaclyn Lemon (Michelle Monaghan).

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And so we turn to chapter three in Mike White’s semi-anthological omnibus luxury travel mystery series, “The White Lotus,” premiering Sunday on HBO. As before, the season begins with an unidentified corpse, then steps back in time to set the stage for murder — or whatever it turns out to be — as guests arrive by sea at their fancy resort hotel.

The current series was filmed in Thailand (the Four Seasons Koh Samui standing in for the eponymous resort), following the Maui-set first and the Sicily-set second. This iteration of the White Lotus is a posh wellness retreat, tending to the mind and body, with electronic devices locked away, for those willing — though, of course, not everyone is willing. (To be sure, there are also bars and restaurants and splashy entertainment.) Creator-writer-director White — I have only just realized his name is in the title — digs into spiritual matters here, as he did into sexual last time around. That isn’t to say there are no sexual matters, though they reflect in different ways on the spiritual, and vice versa. In a way, it’s a sequel to “Enlightened,” the 2011 HBO series created by White and its star, Laura Dern, about a businesswoman who, after a nervous breakdown, comes back changed after a tropical spa experience.