‘The White Lotus’ Finale Faked Us Out Twice, and Neither Worked

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for The White Lotus Season 3 finale.Ever since The White Lotus Season 3 premiere opened with an off-screen shootout, viewers have been endlessly theorizing over which of our new cast of characters would wind up dead. As the season progressed, two of the most likely candidates seemed to be Lochlan (Sam Nivola) and Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood), whose deaths appeared to be foreshadowed in the opening title sequence, with art depicting scenes of death corresponding to both actors’ names. But despite Tim (Jason Isaacs) contemplating suicide for most of the season, all five members of the Ratliff family ultimately make it out alive, while fan-favorite Chelsea sadly takes a bullet. In the show’s feature-length season finale, creator Mike White fakes us out twice in the lead-up to Chelsea’s death and Lochlan’s almost-death but neither of them actually work, giving both of these major storylines unsatisfying conclusions.

‘The White Lotus’ Should Have Followed Through With Lochlan’s Death

The White Lotus has been hinting at the death of at least one member of the Ratliff family for the majority of the season, and the men of the family – Tim, Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger), and Lochlan – seemed the most likely to die for different reasons. Tim because of his suicidal tendencies as a result of his financial crimes, Saxon because of his sexual trauma, and Lochlan as one of the most well-meaning but malleable personalities of the family and the series at large. After Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) steals the gun back from their room, Tim looks for an alternate way to kill himself and his family, realizing all of them, except Lochlan, could not survive without their wealth. Turning to the poisonous seeds of the fruit growing from the pong-pong trees around the resort, Tim tries to poison his family via piña coladas before quickly deciding against it, swatting Saxon’s glass out of his hand and insisting that “the coconut milk is off.”

White actually fakes us out twice with the Ratliff family, first making us believe Tim might actually kill himself and his family, and then again the following morning with Lochlan’s almost-death. Season 3 of The White Lotus gave us not only Chekhov’s gun but Chekhov’s poisonous fruit and Chekhov’s blender, both of which come into play when Lochlan decides to make a protein shake in the morning in an effort to show Saxon he wants to be a real man like his brother. This fakeout doesn’t really land, however, because the setup is absurd.

Surely even an 18-year-old boy as spoiled as Lochlan would have the sense to wash or at least rinse out the dirty blender from the night before, especially after his father’s theatrics about the coconut milk. ​​​​​​​Instead, the poisonous seeds are mixed in with the water and protein powder, and Lochlan seems to die while the rest of his family goes to breakfast without him. Naturally, Tim is the one to find his son unresponsive on the ground, but his eyes flutter open at the last minute, which just doesn’t pack the same punch as his actual death would have. Though Lochlan wouldn’t have deserved his fate, his death would have been the most impactful for Tim, considering he was the only one Tim wanted to spare anyway, and showed him that there were very real and deadly consequences for his recklessness.

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Chelsea’s Death Was Predictable and Avoidable in the Season 3 Finale

Of the three deaths in the Season 3 finale, Chelsea’s was the most predictable and seemingly inevitable, considering she kept mentioning that bad things happen in threes. Along with Parker Posey and her hilarious southern drawl as Victoria Ratliff, Chelsea became one of Season 3’s fan-favorite characters, thanks in large part to Wood’s infectious charisma, which made her death all the more tragic. Much of Chelsea’s character revolves around her mostly one-sided relationship with Rick (Walton Goggins), whose determination to confront the man who killed his father caused her significant distress. Chelsea’s death felt the most inevitable because of Rick’s short-sighted actions, though White fakes us out by leading us to believe that Rick was actually able to find closure when visiting Sritala (Lek Patravadi) and Jim Hollinger’s (Scott Glenn) home in Bangkok, only for a very last minute but equally predictable reveal that Jim was really his father (after Rick had already shot him).

Like Lochlan’s almost-death, this fakeout doesn’t work very well either, considering the showdown Rick already had with Jim. It doesn’t make sense for Jim to withhold the fact that he was Rick’s real father back when Rick was holding him at gunpoint in his own home, and showing up to the hotel and calling Rick’s mother a slut and a liar only served to put him in danger once again, though he felt safe enough to do so because of the number of witnesses. This reveal comes a little too late for Jim and both Rick and Chelsea, who are killed because of Rick’s inability to control his emotions and move on, as Chelsea begged him to do throughout the season.

The Season 3 finale of The White Lotus, despite earning record viewership numbers, saw mixed reactions from fans and critics, and it’s easy to see why. Both of these fakeouts regarding Lochlan and Chelsea’s deaths made for lackluster resolutions to two of the most important plotlines of the season, needlessly killing off one character and saving another character whose death would have been the most impactful by far.

All episodes of Season 3 of The White Lotus are available to stream on Max in the U.S.

The White Lotus

Release Date

2021 – 2024

Network

HBO

Showrunner

Mike White

Directors

Mike White

Writers

Mike White