This article contains spoilers for The White Lotus.
Every Sunday at 9 p.m. for the past month, The White Lotus took its viewers through a rollercoaster of emotions. The nail-biting show aired its season three finale on Sunday, April 6, and my roommates and I are still recovering from it. Thanks to Mike White’s perfectly twisted brain, every episode was a perfect build-up.
The finale set the mood with the unsettling soundtrack, preparing everyone for what could’ve happened in the first episode. If you’re struggling to remember, the first episode began with Zion’s (Belinda’s son) therapy session being interrupted by gunshots.
While hollering for his mother, he eventually runs into a floating body in the pond. Strong start, I know. Hence, viewers were left on a cliffhanger all season, patiently waiting for the hour-and-a-half episode to uncover everyone’s rocky last day in Thailand.
After watching all eight episodes, let’s dive deep into the storyline and the scattered hidden signs that are now coming together like puzzle pieces. Buckle up because it’s going to be a long ride with many spoilers ahead.
the Ratliffs
I think the Ratliff family is one of the most twisted families in White Lotus history, not only due to the incestual incident between the two brothers, Saxon and Lochlan, but also the shallowness of the family altogether. Chelsea definitely would have described almost everyone as “soulless” due to their separate, dirty actions.
The opening scene of the finale reveals Piper Ratliff’s discomfort after an overnight stay at the Thai monastery where she wanted to spend a year meditating. Later, she cries to her parents, Victoria and Timothy, while giving a speech on materialism. This was terrible news for Timothy, who had been struggling to tell his family about his money-laundering secret for fear of knowing they wouldn’t be able to live poor.
The whole season, Timothy copes with his wife’s lorazepam pills to calm himself down. Still, it only makes him go crazier and results in suicidal thoughts. These thoughts evolve into attempting to kill each of his family members with him, besides Lochlan, who expresses he could live without a lot of money. The attempt with the poisonous pong-pong tree seed blended into a piña colada fails as Timothy changes his mind at the last minute.
However, on the last day, Lochlan accidentally has the leftovers in the blender and suffers a near-death experience before waking up in his father’s arms. I can’t wrap my head around someone who doesn’t rinse the blender before using it, but I guess the people-pleasing young brother got lucky again.
On a better note, Saxon seems to have developed some character after Chelsea’s wise intake of life and spiritual books. In a nutshell, I hope Victoria hides her lorazepam better when they’re back in Durham because she’s going to need it.
The monkeys?
Monkeys were a prominent symbol throughout this season, with each character demonstrating different forms of being lost in the “monkey mindset.” This Buddhist term describes many characters, as their restless minds don’t seem to take a break to internalize their emotions and meditate.
Specifically, there’s a theory that the three wise monkey statues being shown at one point represent the Ratliff siblings. Initially, Saxon sees no evil in his arrogance, Piper hears no evil by not listening to her family or suppressing parts of herself, and Lochlan speaks no evil as he always keeps secrets or avoids confrontation.
Interestingly, people start to say that each sibling switches monkey roles by the ending scene, each to a different version of themselves. Even after the full moon party, Saxon and Lochlan are unintentionally wearing each other’s pants the morning after, not remembering the sinful night, which indicates the reversed roles as well.
As you can see, White is great at telling multiple stories that are ultimately connected and intentionally places symbolism everywhere. So what else was he trying to tell us all season?
Belinda
If you’ve watched previous seasons, Belinda’s dream of being a business owner has been ongoing. In this final episode, she is offered $5M by the one and only Greg. Belinda falls into the bribe with Zion’s encouragement, despite ethically reflecting on what this decision may mean after her friend Tanya was killed by Greg in season two.
Then she lets Pornchai, her trainer and love interest, know that she is leaving and won’t be able to be business partners anymore. Pure irony, am I right? Many people compare Belinda to Tanya because Tanya did the same thing to her. Belinda slightly channeled into her Tanya instincts here, blinded by the hush money of the same guy who played her friend.
Our favorite friend group
On the other hand, we have resolved the narrative of the three lifelong friends, Laurie, Kate, and Jaclyn, who bonded after their ups and downs during their wellness week. Firstly, how did White represent a female friendship so scarily accurate? Perhaps the director learned about crazy female dynamics when he was a contestant in Survivor back in 2018.
A toxic trio like these three “two-faced monkeys” go through jealousy and arguments before finally finding meaning through Laurie’s tear-jerking speech. Despite her life being so different from her two best friends, she finally accepts that she is simply happy to be there with them.
Specifically, realizing life still has a meaning even if she didn’t end up where she thought she would, which can touch a lot of the White Lotus audience’s hearts. Laurie’s personality and character are so honest and real that I still don’t think Kate and Jaclyn deserve her after this emotional monologue.
Rick and Chelsea
Regardless of optimistic resolutions, some were not as lucky to have such happy endings. The biggest tragedy of all was the fan-favorite: Chelsea. She spent all season worrying about her boyfriend, Rick, and she ended up heartbroken. The whole trip, Rick was so blinded by finding the guy who killed his father, Jim, that his girlfriend ended up being sacrificed for it.
The chaotic shootout starts with Rick killing Jim, who he finds out seconds later was his biological father this whole time. Even though I had this inkling, my mouth still dropped wide open. The rest of this scene consists of the guard, Gaitok, finally having the courage to shoot Rick on Sritala’s orders, hoping to become her bodyguard (which he does), and Mook loves him again.
The minute Chelsea said “amor fati” for being eternally connected to Rick and how they’re like a yin-yang, I knew something bad was coming. She had mentioned previously about dying after being robbed, bitten by a cobra, and then shot. I guess bad luck does happen in threes.
This resulted in the two lovers’ lifeless bodies floating on opposite sides of each other. Not only is it one of the few times Rick is smiling again, but the placement of his open eyes contrasted with the gunshot spot seeping through Chelsea’s back looks like a yin and yang.
I read a comment saying, “She fully drowned in his darkness for him to bathe in her light,” which hit me harder than this season as a whole. This ending can also be interpreted as a classic Greek tragedy aside from its Buddhist themes, where White explained it as “someone killing the thing they love while trying to get some revenge.”
There is more symbolism about the ocean, monks, and life after death, but in true White Lotus fashion, I’ll let it all sink in for now and let you figure out the rest. I will patiently wait for season four to take me on a faster roller coaster with more twists and turns.
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