Oh, Mike White, I just don’t know. The White Lotus Season Three finale, Amor Fati, aired on Sunday night and was a mixed bag. There was tension, shock, clutch-your-heart anxiety, violence, and then a montage of the guests returning to their lives. Full of action and intrigue, but it still left me wanting at times. The storylines were wrapped up, albeit not so neatly. A tsunami of events cascaded down on top of one another and then suddenly smooth waters; an open sea with no indication of what’s to come.
Trigger Warning: This article contains mentions of sexual assault, gun violence, and murder. Please exercise personal care when reading.
“The Blond Blob”
We left Jaclyn, Laurie, and Kate on the brink of disaster in last week’s episode. Decade-old resentments reared their ugly faces, damning and painful judgments were made, Laurie slept with a criminal who then tried to scam money out of her, and Kate and Jaclyn stopped seeing eye-to-eye when it came to their friend’s safety. Jaclyn went to bed “the bad guy” but woke up the good guy? Suddenly thawed, Jaclyn goes out to Kate with a gentle face and smile and then checks if Laurie wants to join them for breakfast. Laurie, woken by Jaclyn’s knock, declines the invitation to catch up on her sleep. Jaclyn lingers in the room with niceties and then tells Laurie, “I really want to be your friend.” It’s hard to tell how this hits her; she’s definitely surprised and maybe softening.
When they reunite at dinner for their final night, things take an unexpected turn. Kate and Jaclyn are beaming and gushing over what a great time they had. It feels genuine despite the toxicity we’ve seen. Jaclyn calls the world “a lonely place” where “people judge you for your superficial defects,” whereas Kate and Laurie judge her for her “profound defects.”
The tone shifted here for me. There’s a beautiful ring of truth to her statement. Real friends don’t bother themselves with “superficial” issues; when they call you on things, it’s because they see you and why you do what you do. It was a beautiful setup for one of the best monologues of the show coming from Laurie (Carrie Coon). Laurie listens to her friends appreciatively, but when it’s her turn to speak, she reveals that she’s been sad all week because they reflect her choices so clearly back to her.
The friends tell each other they love one another — and when you hear it, you know it’s a deep, familial love — and finish the night laughing and drinking wine. Mike White’s writing and character-building shined brighter than possibly ever before here. He gives us these three women with intense unresolved issues in their friendship and makes us root for their relationship to explode.
We see them shit-talk each other relentlessly, gang up on one another, wrong each other, and then deliver us this remarkable moment of unity and recognition. Whatever they are, toxic at times and undercutting, they’ve seen each other through life. They started this world together, and while they’ve built their own lives in different ways and changed and grown, their friendship still has true meaning and value.
The idea that setting emotional boundaries with your friends is gaining more and more traction, and I’m not saying I completely disagree. But there’s beauty in these women saying I see you, I see your flaws, and this friendship is still worth cherishing. Stunningly delivered by Carrie Coon and with nuanced writing by Mike White, this unexpected turn ended up being the most profound moment of the show for me.
The Deal
Belinda and Zion head to Greg/Gary’s to negotiate his $100,000 offer to buy Belinda’s silence. Zion insists that they should just “see” what else they could get; it wouldn’t mean they’d take it. I should’ve known she was going to take a deal the minute she agreed to go back. Zion runs the meeting, quite cringely I may add — “MBA babyyy!” He immediately counters Gary/Greg’s offer with a jump to $5 million. Zion comes out with a pretty convincing reason for the number.
He researched what Gary/Greg was set to inherit from Tanya’s demise — a whopping $500 million. He pushes Gary, asking him if a measly 1% of his total winnings should risk him losing it all. Belinda gets up abruptly and storms out, insisting they aren’t taking a cent from this man. We’re teased for a moment with the possibility that Belinda’s integrity will win out; she’ll risk a fortune for a woman she hardly knew. But Mike White doesn’t write saints, he writes people.
Zion rushes out to reason with her mother, but she whispers to him to use her exit to leverage Gary into the deal. With that, Zion goes back, leaves Gary his mom’s bank details, and they wait. The next morning, Belinda checks her bank account at the crack of dawn. Welcome to the newest millionaire at The White Lotus. After the initial excitement, Zion asks Belinda what she’ll do. Would she open the spa with Pornchai as they discussed during their night together? Belinda sighs: “Can’t I just be rich for five f*****g minutes?” She tells Pornchai she’ll be leaving Thailand immediately because her “situation” has changed. Tentatively and sadly, Pornchai asks about their business idea.
Another stroke of genius, Belinda’s excuse to Pornchai lines up uncannily to Tanya’s excuse to Belinda in season one. We see how easily and quickly money can corrupt morality. I’m not saying Belinda’s a bad person; I think we all would’ve done what she did, but she’s already changed. Already removed herself from Pornchai’s social and economic circle and moved on.
The thing is, how would it have benefited her to refuse the money? What if she does call the police and tell them about Gary? How likely will it be that he sees justice? What if she does the “right thing” as always and misses her opportunity to change her life? Belinda gets her bag, but as she and Zion’s boat fade off in the distance and we get a glimpse of Gary drinking at his gorgeous villa while his young girlfriend goes to great lengths to set up an erotic fantasy for him, I can’t help but feel the sting of loss.
Family Matters
In my opinion, this is where the bulk of the letdown happened. We get fleeting interactions between the siblings that were meaningful but too short-lived. On the beach back to the hotel, Lochlan brings up moving to the monastery again, this time as if it’s been decided, and Piper reacts poorly, telling him she doesn’t want to be responsible for his life. With Saxon, Lochlan tries to evade the incestual issue by continually asking to hang out and acting confused and hurt by Saxon’s reluctance. After a bit of awkward hedging around the subject and an irritation at Lochlan’s innocent avoidance, Saxon got direct about what had occurred between them the other night:
“Loch it’s okay for you to like worship me, but [gesturing to his groin] don’t like worship me. Okay?”
Lochlan admits that he remembers and did it to help his brother out because Saxon looked lonely. Saxon was completely out of it, and Lochlan knew what was going on. I’m sick of pretending Lochlan’s a misguided kid: that’s assault. Lochlan blamed it on his aptitude for “people pleasing” and flipped it around on his family, saying this is how he survives in a family full of narcissists. This blatant denial of responsibility, coupled with his sense of entitlement in assuming he can take over Piper’s plans, suggests that Lochlan isn’t the odd one out in this family of narcissists. Mike White takes this to new heights in a sly ode to Greek mythology later on.
Piper goes to breakfast with her parents, where they ask her about her experience at the monastery. Tim is hopeful, praying that Piper tells them how fulfilling it is to live a simple life, while Victoria is anxious to hear Piper realize that she needs more. Money, comfort, and Victoria win out. Piper conveys her displeasure slowly at first:
“Like the food. I mean it was vegetarian, but you could like tell it wasn’t, like, organic.”
Considering they grow the food themselves, I’d say it’s organic. It’s a meal of sustenance, not excess. This final break in Piper’s enlightened superiority was incredibly hilarious and poignant. Money is catching. Piper realizes she may be a “spoiled princess” after all. This hits Tim like a brick, but Victoria is relieved. As Piper cries about the painful reality of class imbalance, Victoria comforts her:
“We’re lucky it’s true. No one in the history of the world has lived better than we have. Even the old kings and queens. The least we can do is enjoy it. If we don’t, it’s offensive. It’s an offense to all the billions of people that can only dream that they can live like we do.”
Piper seems to heed her mother’s advice and further pushes along Tim’s homicidal ideation. Tim goes back to the room, miserable over his daughter’s self-realization. He sees Lochlan and interrupts his reading to ask him if he could live with no money and no house. Lochlan thinks for a second before confidently answering yes — much to Tim’s pleasure. He sends him off to enjoy their last day while he hatches his plan.
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Not to brag, but much to this writer’s predictions, Tim decides to use the seeds of the poisonous fruit that hangs around their villa and Saxon’s much-featured blender to carry out the visions that have been tempting him for the past several episodes. He breaks open multiple fruits, takes their seeds, and pregrounds them in the blender before heading to dinner with the family, where he asks a waitress to send up materials for pina coladas to their room to celebrate their last night. The family is surprised but seemingly touched by their father’s attempt at connection.
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The bone-chilling music that plays as Tim prepares four deathly drinks for his family adds an overwhelming sense of anxiety to the scene. Bringing them over to his family and insisting Lochlan gets a coke, Tim toasts to their perfect family and life. As he watches his loved ones drink, he has a change of heart, knocking Saxon’s glass to the ground and yelling that the coconut milk is off. Narrowly avoiding wiping out the bulk of his family, Tim puts his fears to bed and finally decides to face the music. If only it were curtain call.
The next morning, Lochlan sees the used blender that Tim left behind the night before (for God knows what reason, he decided to make a protein shake without washing out the blender). He moves out to the pool with the drink and starts to get woozy. Victoria, Piper, and Saxon head off to breakfast and call Lochlan to join them. As they walk off, a purple-faced Lochlan scrambles to the side of the pool and begins vomiting.
His close gaze down at the water and his subsequent reflection mimics the myth of Narcissus, further confirmation that Lochlan isn’t the innocent boy he’s been depicted as. We get an incredibly indulgent scene of Lochlan seeing his family’s faces as his vision skews. The scene shifts into a drowning montage where Lochlan slips further and further under the water as the outlines of four monks look down on him until he eventually stills.
I don’t mean to sound cruel, but this plot would’ve been so much better if Lochlan hadn’t miraculously come back to life in Tim’s arms. It felt forced, fake, and too idealistic. All we hear from Lochlan is “I think I saw God,” and that essentially closes the curtains for the Ratliff family. Such a huge build-up to tragedy the whole season for this family, only to see none of it unfold. The audience isn’t even clued into what happens once they leave.
I know this is a show about vacations, and it should end once the vacation does, but I mean, come on. We don’t get to see an arrest, the children grappling with their new lives, or Victoria’s undoubtedly hilarious and miserable reaction to the news. This had the juice to be the darkest, most frightening plot on The White Lotus yet, but instead, it fell a bit flat.
Once they’ve gotten their phones back, Tim walks up to them and tells them things are about to change, but they’ll get through it. There is a nice nod to the opening scene where the siblings lined up: Saxon had his sunglasses (see no evil), Piper had her headphones (hear no evil), and Lochlan was drinking (speak no evil). Now we see Lochlan with the sunglasses, suggesting he is ignoring the evil in himself, Piper smiling upwards no longer icing out who and what she comes from, and Saxon reading, suggesting his personal growth.
We get a slight look from Saxon suggesting he may have seen a headline and then return to Tim watching the water jump up and down as the boat sails off. We don’t see the family’s reaction to Lochlan’s poisoning, any questioning from Lochlan over what the hell just happened to him, or, maybe the most devastating, Saxon’s reaction to Chelsea’s fate.
“I Think We’re Gonna Be Together Forever. Don’t You?”
My first question is, why would Rick ever come back to The White Lotus after assaulting its owner? Why would he not grab Chelsea, head for a boat, and live out the rest of their life unhindered by childhood trauma? I don’t have the same love for this couple as others seem to; Rick’s treatment of Chelsea has been nothing short of appalling. Though I do understand Rick is weighed down by his demons, and I feel for him, and underneath it all, he has the potential to be a good man, he’s just simply a bad boyfriend. However, his sins are all wiped away the moment he returns.
When Chelsea sees him in the distance on the beach, she abruptly stops the meaningful conversation she and Saxon were having to run into Rick’s arms. A little cheesy for my taste, Rick and Chelsea embrace, glowing in the sunlight, and show the depth of their connection. It’s a beautiful moment that can only mean tragedy is on its way. Saxon watches them as they hug with a face that can only be described as devastated. I think he recognizes that he can be someone different, find a purpose, and love someone as pure as Chelsea. But, like all tragedies, it’s just too late.
At dinner, Rick is rejuvenated. You can practically see the darkness evaporating from him. Chelsea is glowing. She looks at Rick and says, “I think we’re gonna be together forever. Don’t you?” Expecting him to ignore her as usual, she’s quite taken aback when Rick says, “That’s the plan.” With a delivery that’s equal parts adorable, heartbreaking, and beautiful, Chelsea, slightly dumbfounded, says, “Really?” We should’ve prepared their caskets right then and there.
The next morning at breakfast, things rapidly go downhill. Getting seconds at the buffet, Rick runs into Jim Hollinger, who is aghast at Rick’s presence and tells him to leave, flashing the gun strapped by his side in the process. Can’t say I blame him on that front. Hollinger goes on to degrade Rick’s mother in more ways than one and finishes off by telling him his father was no saint. Rick stumbles back to the table, seething with rage, telling Chelsea “he” is here, he insulted his mother, and he cannot just let it go. Sensing his return to acting out of pain, Chelsea says:
“Stop worrying about all the love you didn’t get. Think about the love you have. I love you. I’m right here.”
Feeling the tension rising, Chelsea, with tears in her eyes, begs Rick not to do anything stupid. He pushes back from the table in search of the meditation aid. Chelsea follows shortly after him whilst Jim’s bodyguards make their way over to their deserted table. Rick finds his “Indian lady,” as he calls her whilst she heads to the hut with Zion. He begs her to talk to him, but she tells him to wait: “You’ll be okay.” Oh, if only she knew that talking to him then and there would’ve saved us all a lot of heartache. We know now that the shooting from the first episode is moments away.
As Rick tries to calm himself down, he catches sight of Hollinger and Sritala walking down to take pictures with Jaclyn by the pond as Kate and Laurie stand close by. He studies the bodyguards, and as he watches them both turn around and start to wander off, he decides his fate. Chelsea tries to intervene, but he can’t be reasoned with. Rick marches over to Hollinger, grabs the gun inside his jacket, looks him in the eye, and gives a hearty “f**k you” before shooting him in the chest twice. Fabian, the hotel manager, is so startled he falls into the pond, the girls sprint away (with Laurie looking like an absolute track star), and Sritala drops to the ground, holding her dead husband in her arms, and reveals Jim Hollinger is Rick’s father. Predictable.
Shocked, Rick runs away and grabs Chelsea to shield her behind a gong. Shots ring out from the Hollinger’s security guards. Rick shoots them both dead. As he turns around, we see Chelsea lying on the ground with a bullet wound in her chest. A shot meant for Rick is what kills the woman he loves. How… cliche. Chelsea’s been my favorite character throughout this whole series, but something about the way this death went down just left me a little angry and slightly annoyed, not devastated.
As Rick scoops up Chelsea’s body, whispering sweet nothings about them being together forever, Gaitok is on the way with the gun. Despite struggling with his occupation and Buddhist faith, he aims the gun at Rick’s back as Sritala repeatedly screams to shoot. He listens. Two shots to Rick’s back, and he falls into the pond. The final frame of the two lovers is an incredibly meaningful one. In the previous episode, Chelsea was explaining to Saxon why she and Rick are fated for one another:
“It’s like we’re in this yin and yang battle, and I’m hope and Rick is pain, and eventually, one of us will win.”
As Rick and Chelsea lie in the pond, her face down with a bloody bullet wound and he face up with a vague smile on his face, their heads resemble Yin and Yang. In their battle, pain won out.
This season was a slow burn, and contrary to popular opinion, I think it mostly paid off. The complexity of having so many intricate characters coupled with such imaginative plots can lead to a scramble in the finale. A few things were cliche, some a bit confusing, and many I wanted a deeper explanation of, but as always, The White Lotus ultimately delivered. We could’ve done with another episode, but vacations are short. You check in, you check out, and you remember fondly — if you survive.
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