The White LotusSeason 3 is the show’s most ambitious season yet, with an electrifying finale and twists and turns that are seriously anxiety-inducing. Here’s everything you need to know about the ending and how the stories wrapped up.
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What happened in The White Lotus Season 3 ending?
First, let’s big-picture some stuff. Here are the key takeaways and major developments in the final episode ofThe White LotusSeason 3:
There’s a lot to unpack here, so let’s get right into it.
Chelsea has had a couple of near-death experiences this season, and she’s been telling Rick that “bad things come in threes.” It seemed like very obvious foreshadowing for Chelsea’s death. In fact, it was so obvious that you probably thought there was no way Chelsea was going to die this season.
The problem is, Rick has proven time and time again that he is a victim of his own rage and inability to let go. He’s constantly putting his feelings above Chelsea’s (and everyone else’s, for that matter), and he has spent this entire season doing what he wants to get what he wants, with no concern for the damage he causes to the people around him.
At the snake show, he releases the snakes because he believes that they, like him, are misunderstood and deserve to be free, but this results in Chelsea being rushed to the hospital after getting bitten by a poisonous snake. When Rick confronts Jim, Frank is caught up in his plan and ends up breaking his sobriety and celibacy. Even after that confrontation, when Rick believes that he has finally achieved peace and enlightenment, he fails to see that it comes at the cost of other people: Frank’s beliefs and Chelsea’s well-being.
When Jim shows up one last time to insult Rick’s dead mother, Rick loses control. In all fairness to him, he tries to talk himself down from the ledge by looking for Amrita. Unfortunately, Amrita is unavailable, and when Rick sees Jim again, that’s the point of no return. He lets his emotions take over, and he succeeds in his mission to kill Jim, but at the cost of Chelsea’s life this time.
Gaitok and Mook: Tossing away your beliefs for profit
All season long, Gaitok has been locked in an internal struggle of doing what he needs to as a bodyguard while staying true to his beliefs of non-violence as a Buddhist. He tries incredibly hard to remain true to himself and even decides not to rat out Valentin for the robbery.
However, he ultimately loses himself when Sritala tells him to shoot Rick. Picture this: you have a gun trained on the back of a crying man who’s carrying his dead girlfriend to the water. He’s clearly no longer a threat. Old Gaitok probably wouldn’t have fired the gun, but new Gaitok did, and that was everything.
His character is motivated primarily by Mook, who keeps pushing him to be more ambitious and to climb that career ladder even if it means turning back on his beliefs. Gaitok becomes Sritala’s bodyguard, just like Mook wanted, and he gets the girl as well, but at the cost of his own self.
Jaclyn, Kate, and Laurie: A flawed, but repaired friendship
This friend group has been my favorite dynamic to watch all season, and I loved that they managed to get out of this stronger than ever. Jaclyn apologizes to Laurie for being shady and sleeping with Valentin, and that apology actually seems sincere.
Laurie, on the other hand, owns all of the decisions she’s made in her life and admits that her friends were right, that she could’ve made different choices and maybe be in a different place now. She tells Jaclyn she’s happy that she’s beautiful, she tells Kate she’s happy that she has a loving family, and Laurie wraps up the speech simply by saying she’s just happy to get to witness her friends live their best lives.
Don’t get me wrong; this doesn’t discount all of the cattiness and backstabby gossip we’ve witnessed from the three women for the past seven episodes, but it honestly looks like they’ve gotten even closer together even with all of that out in the open. It’s a very wholesome conclusion that you rarely ever get to see in The White Lotus, and I’m here for it.
The Ratliff Family: Everyone is spoiled (except Lochy), and they’re about to be poor
The Ratliff storyline has been a rollercoaster. It all culminates with Tim attempting to poison his entire family, but he ultimately decides against it, unable to bring himself to do it. But of course, the one person who wasn’t supposed to drink the poison fruit blend ends up doing it, and for a moment there, it actually looks like he’s about to die. Thankfully, Lochy throws up by the poolside, and Tim is able to resuscitate him.
Piper reaches enlightenment and self-awareness while in the monastery, though not in the way she was expecting. She realizes that she can’t live without her creature comforts after all, and just like her mother, she’s not prepared to rough it out for a year.
Surprisingly, Saxon comes out of this looking pretty good. He starts the season as the gross, hypersexual douchebag, but ends up humbled and open to new ideas thanks to Chelsea.
When the Ratliffs leave Thailand and get their phones back, Tim tells his family that things are about to change. With Tim facing charges of bribery and money laundering, he’s accepted that he’s going to jail, and his family’s going to need to get used to being poor, or whatever the rich person’s definition of “poor” is. He’s hopeful that his family can survive it, though, and we end up getting a pretty solid conclusion to the Ratliff story, too.
Belinda: Tanya 2.0
Belinda finally accepts Greg’s offer in the finale, but thanks to Zion, she gets $5 million USD instead of the originally proposed $100,000. Before she leaves, she tells Pornchai that her circumstances have changed and she’ll no longer be able to entertain business plans with him. This is a clear callback to the end of her Season 1 story with Tanya, who had also backed out of her business plans with her after she met Greg.
It’s poetic, and also very sad, that Belinda ends up doing to poor Pornchai what Tanya did to her. That’s the whole MO ofThe White Lotus, though. There are no good people in this show. Just shades of grey all around.
