WARNING: if the title didn’t give you a hint, this is a warning that major spoilers for the White Lotus season finale – don’t say I didn’t warn you.
If you’re my neighbors and heard my roommate and I banging on the walls while we screamed the other night, then you can blame Mike White for that.
That finale, while receiving mixed opinions online, encapsulated the true themes that the creator, White, laid out for us before the season even began: spirituality, death and identity.
Even though I’m still furious about who ended up being the dead body we saw in the beginning of the season, it proves a point that needed to be made, which isn’t uncommon coming from the genius of the show. Enough tip-toeing around it, let’s dive into each trope and recap their season and ending.
The Ratliff family
I can’t tell you the constant anxiety I had when this family came on my screen; I can see why Victoria Ratliff is in constant need of a Lorezampem. Timothy Ratliff threw his rationality out the window as his new reality crept in, knowing all his assets and money were gone and potential jail time was waiting for his vacation to end. We uncomfortably watch as Timothy listens to Saxon, Victoria, and Piper as they express how they couldn’t live without their wealth and status. It seems as if now, the time has finally come to tell his family the truth.
But why would he do that because what good does that do? Obvious answer– poison your entire family (minus Lochlan) by lacing drinks with a lethal fruit. My roommate and I were screaming at the TV as if we could reach in and slap the drinks out of their hands. Timothy must have been listening to us though, because that’s exactly what he did. Thankfully, coming to terms about what he was actually doing, he made them stop drinking while screaming, “the coconut milk is off!” Unfortunately, the next morning Lochlan had no one to stop him when he used the leftover “piña colada” mix in his protein shake. The drink seemingly killed Lochlan, as he passed out near the pool and had an out-of-body experience that seemed to tie into Buddhism and spiritual awakening, with silhouettes of monks being shown at the bottom of the pool. Thankfully he’s saved by Timothy and comes back to life, but this ALL could have been prevented if he just cleaned the blender out.
Saxon Ratliff, where do I even begin? I have to applaud Patrick Schwarzenegger for making me utterly disgusted with his character in the first episode, then really empathizing with him and appreciating his newfound sensitivity in the last episode. We witness a power shift that kicks off his character development in episode six, where the one-sided incestual tension that Lochlan had for Saxon goes into effect as he takes advantage of a wasted Saxon. The power is now in Lochlan’s hands and Saxon struggles to rekindle their relationship (rightfully so) and turns to Chelsea, who gives him the harsh truth that she doesn’t want anything with him because he’s “soulless” and goes on to explain how she appreciates emotional connection over physical. She gives him spiritual books and ideologies and to everyone’s surprise, he reads and accepts them; we see him teary-eyed as Chelsea runs into Rick’s arms on the beach after returning to Thailand, Saxon yearning for something his looks and wealth can’t buy him.
We can see the shift in the siblings in their scenes on the boat taking them to the island and then back home: Saxon from flexing his masculinity to his femininity, Piper from conservative to free-spirited and Lochlan from calm to sunken and closed off. While Timothy warns the bunch that life will be different back home, and seemingly Saxon finds out what that means when he gets his phone back, I will forever be angry that I didn’t see Victoria’s reaction to losing everything– damn you, Mike White.
Belinda
While I love this queen and am so happy she ends up alive and well, I can’t help but be a little upset with how she ended her trip in Thailand. Throughout her trip she’s in constant fear of Greg/Gary, the husband of her late friend Tanya. This comes to a climax once he insists they meet in private to discuss his large offer of money for Belinda to start the spa business she was so close to putting into fruition, courtesy of Tanya. She immediately denies the money and explains this to her confused son, Zion, in her hilarious sass that she will not be accepting the “dirty” money coming from him. Zion persuades his mom to attend the meeting with Gary, with Zion doing all the negotiating and talking– twisting Gary’s initial $100,000 into a whopping $5 million. As she timidly nodded her head without saying a peep, Zion used his MBA that he bragged about the five minutes he was in the show and ultimately convinced Gary to wire the money. I’ll say Belinda wasted no time letting that money get to her head and pulled a “Tanya” on poor Pornchai, a mentor of hers in the wellness center of the hotel– as she promised to start a business for him and in the end blamed the “circumstances” for her reason to leave him. Still, I’m happy she’s safe as she rides into the sunset on a yacht, but when we see Gary untouched and living his life on Tanya’s dime, I can’t help but wish this season ended with Gary rotting in jail.
Girls trip: jaclyn, kate, laurie
If I’m being honest, a part of me is mad at myself for originally rooting for this trope to fall out by the final episode because their ending is the definition of what girlhood is. Straight from the get-go, these friends were insanely competitive. Jaclyn flexed her fame and beauty, Kate flaunting her family and fortune, and honestly Laurie was just keeping it real. Their drama reaches a peak, when Jaclyn gets with the hotel staff that Laurie had been flirting with– leading to Laurie crashing out, in a way making me feel like I was watching a high school drama unfold. Eventually, the bickering dies down once Jaclyn and Laurie reach an apology, and the creators give Laurie one of the best written monologues of the season (tie with Sam Rockwell’s SHOCKING speech).
“I’m happy you have a beautiful face, I’m happy you have a beautiful life, and I’m happy just to be at this table,” Laurie says to her childhood best friends with tears in her eyes following a realization of what has given her life meaning– in the end, being the women that she spent all of the season comparing herself to. We don’t hear much from this group as the show wraps up, but we do see montages of them laughing and being loving and affectionate to each other, showing us how beautiful female relationships and friendships can be when we aren’t pitting ourselves against each other.
chelsea and rick
I know from last season after Tanya’s death, that Mike White has no problem getting rid of a fan favorite, but he didn’t have to prove it to us again! Chelsea and Rick’s relationship was really summarized well by Chelsea herself in one of the last episodes, stating they’re in a “Yin and Yang battle, where [Chelsea] is hope and Rick is pain.” We can see this in their deaths as well, the last scene showing their gun-wounded bodies in the water side-by-side with Chelsea facing down, engulfed by darkness, and Rick looking up, staring into the sunlight beaming on his face.
Sadly, I can’t say this ending was unexpected, as a lot of the writing throughout the episode presented a variety of foreshadowing. For example, Chelsea saying, “If anything bad happens to you, that means it’s happening to me too.” I will say what was shocking, was the fact that Rick became who he was searching for in the first place: the man who killed his father. Why did his father not just come out and say it, but instead chose to tell Rick his mother was a drunk and a liar? I don’t know. Would Rick and Chelsea have been alive if that had happened? I can guarantee yes. I will say, though, that the fate of this plotline demonstrates something very important for young girls in toxic relationships: if you spend all your time and energy trying to fix someone, you’re going to hurt yourself in the end.
season 4 confirmed
The White Lotus already confirmed season four was in the works before season three could even premiere and speculation online has already begun on if anyone will return and the next location. With Hawaii, Italy and Thailand already off the list, the next location I would love to see would be the Swiss Alps, going for a wintery spot that the creators of the show have yet to pick. As much as I’ll say how excited I am for it, why are people still going to the White Lotus with all these deaths spanning across multiple locations? Guess we’ll have to tune in when season four drops to see if anyone will be safe or not.