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Our collective vacation in Thailand will come to an end on Sunday, and with it at least one dead body.
“The White Lotus” — created by Mike White — has posed plenty of questions that will surely be answered in the supersized Season 3 finale.
Who is floating face-down in the hotel pond? Who fired those gunshots heard at the beginning of the season? Will Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) accept Greg’s (Jon Gries) offer? Will Timothy (Jason Isaacs) succumb to the darkness, taking his wife Victoria (Parker Posey) or son Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) with him? Will Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) be able to fulfill her dream of staying in Thailand, and will her brother Lochlan (Sam Nivola) successfully latch on?
Will Sritala’s (Lek Patravadi) bodyguards come after Rick (Walton Goggins) and Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) after he aggressively accosted her husband, Jim Hollinger (Scott Glenn)? Will Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) confront the Russians after figuring out they were behind the hotel heist, and will he prove himself to Mook (Lalisa Manoban, a.k.a. Lisa)? Will Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan), Kate (Leslie Bibb) and Laurie (Carrie Coon) surmount their issues with one another and enjoy one last day of vacation?
Below, Variety explores some of the leading (and less common) “White Lotus” theories heading into the Season 3 finale, and how likely they are to occur.
Editor’s note: Joe Otterson contributed to this list.
Chekhov’s fruit
Image Credit: Fabio Lovino/HBO
In the first episode of the season, a hotel staffer warns the Ratliff family of a poisonous fruit growing near their villa. And while the fruit does not account for the gunshots heard at the beginning of the season, it could result in another death, likely within the Ratliff family. In a one-minute preview of the finale episode released by HBO, Timothy pulls the fruit off the tree as the staffer tells him that locals call it the “suicide tree.” “Don’t eat it,” she says, an ominous warning to a man who has been in a suicidal spiral since his first nights in Thailand, when he found out the feds had raided his office for financial crimes, and his life was about to come crashing down. But alongside his suicidal ideation, Timothy has also fantasized about killing his family to spare them of an uncomfortable life. The finale preview also zeroes in on Saxon’s blender, which he uses to make protein shakes. Might Timothy cook up his own recipe and feed it to his wife and kids, whom he’s left in the dark about his impending downfall? Or maybe Saxon, who works for his dad and in the penultimate episode worries about what his life might look like if the family business fails, willingly eats the fruit. Knowing how “The White Lotus” treats the ultra-rich, it’s possible Timothy gets off scot-free after all, but not before Saxon reaches for the forbidden fruit.
Odds of happening: It’s too obvious at this point, and White doesn’t do obvious. Timothy or Saxon will make a poisonous smoothie, but no one will actually drink it.
Belinda counters
Image Credit: HBO
In the penultimate episode, Greg offers Belinda $100,000 in exchange for her silence. He knows she knows that he arranged Tanya’s (Jennifer Coolidge) murder, and he’d like to live the rest of his years in peace, in Thailand. Belinda’s son Zion (Nicholas Duvernay) thinks she should agree to not turn him in, as Greg will come after them if she doesn’t. But Belinda is a principled woman, and it seems unlikely she’d make a deal with the devil. However, she’s spent much of this season scared of the various reptiles that slither around Thailand, so it would be a welcome turn if she held her ground with the most fearsome creature of all — Greg — and countered. She knows Greg has money. Maybe she’ll return to Hawaii with $1 million instead of a clear conscience. Of course, one of them could kill the other, but Belinda lacks “killer instincts,” and Greg would have already whacked Belinda if he wanted to.
Odds of happening: A twist in the Belinda-Greg relationship seems necessary, as it’s unlikely White would bring both characters back to the show for a conflict that easily fizzles out. In a series full of moral compromises, Belinda has always represented a sense of purity. It would be a fun send-off for her character if she broke bad, just once.
Bodyguards kill Rick
Image Credit: HBO
Rick has been plagued by thoughts of vengeance on the man who killed his father since he was a child. But when finally presented with the chance to take that revenge, he realizes that he can’t do it, instead just holding Jim at gunpoint before tipping his chair over. The final shot of him in Ep. 7 seems to show Rick has achieved some sense of peace. Maybe he returns to Chelsea and decides he is ready for some happiness with her, but Jim’s bodyguards follow him back to the resort and attack him for attacking their boss. A shootout ensues, leading to Rick’s death.
Odds of happening: Sritala knows Rick is staying at the resort with his girlfriend, so it seems only natural she would send her guards there to look for him in light of his deception and for attacking her husband.
Jim, you are the father
Image Credit: Courtesy of Fabio Lovino/HBO
Rick’s true intention for traveling to Thailand is revealed midway through the season, when he discloses to Chelsea that he’s there to confront Jim, the man his mother told him — on her death bed, no less — murdered his father. “My father was here trying to do the right thing. And one day, he disappeared — and they never found him,” he tells Chelsea. But was his father killed?
Before pointing a gun at Jim in the penultimate episode, Rick looks at several photos of a young Jim, and the two arguably bear a striking resemblance to each other. Rick then mentions his mother’s name, Gloria Hatchett, but Jim’s reaction doesn’t reveal that he’s thinking, “That’s the name of the widower of the man I killed decades ago.” Instead, he appears confused when Rick explains that Jim had Gloria’s husband killed “over some land deal, or some shit,” suggesting that Jim could be Rick’s father. Not to mention the actors’ resemblance to each other…
It’s possible that Jim abandoned Rick and his mother, married Sritala and started a new family in Thailand. Or Jim might have had an affair with Rick’s mother and then wanted nothing to do with her. He may not have known he even had a son. Could the story Rick’s mother shared with him about his father’s murder be a fabrication, orchestrated to seek posthumous vengeance on Jim?
Odds of happening: They’re pretty high, we think. Rick never knew his father (after all, he was always told his father died before he was born), and his mother succumbed to her drug addiction when he was just 10 years old. It’s very likely she didn’t keep any photos of the man who allegedly slighted her.
Gaitok goes Scarface on the Russians
Image Credit: Stefano Delia/HBO
This whole season, poor Gaitok has been friendzoned and subtly emasculated by his co-worker and crush Mook, who is more enchanted by the hotel owner’s bodyguards, who carry big guns and get to travel the world, than Gaitok, a glorified mall cop. Last episode, Gaitok tells Mook, “I never want to hurt people,” because the Buddha condemns all violence. But later, as they watch a Muay Thai match, Mook tells Gaitok that fighting is a natural, human urge. Then, he spots Valentin (Arnas Fedaravičius) and his Russian friends and pieces together that they were masked burglars behind the robbery at the hotel jewelry store. To protect the resort — and prove himself to Mook — maybe Gaitok confronts the Russians, and it escalates to shooting (hence the multiple gunshots). All that practice at the gun range can’t be for nothing.
Odds of happening: This plot seems plausible, given how desperately Gaitok wants Mook’s respect. In fact, it may be TOO predictable for White, so… forget it?
Boy in red
Image Credit: Fabio Lovino/HBO
In Episode 2, Lochlan wears a red swimsuit while relaxing in the ocean hammocks with his sister, Piper. Later, he shows the Ratliff family a video of a man — in a red swimsuit — getting swept away by a tsunami in Thailand. “The White Lotus” often uses clothing as a symbol of a character’s motives or fate. In the Season 2 finale, Tanya wore a floral dress resembling one worn by a mannequin at a “Godfather” filming location in Sicily. The mannequin represented Apollonia (Simonetta Stefanelli), Michael Corleone’s (Al Pacino) wife, who tragically dies in a car explosion. That floral dress was ultimately the one Tanya wore when she slipped off a yacht to her watery grave. So, Lochlan’s red swimwear could similarly allude to him being the body in the water at the beginning of this season.
Odds of happening: Details such as clothing have foreshadowed characters’ fates in the past, so it’s not that farfetched to think it could happen again.
‘Bad luck comes in threes’
Image Credit: Fabio Lovino/HBO
Chelsea’s words carry extra weight after surviving two near-death encounters in Thailand. First, a masked man threatened her with a gun while robbing the resort’s gift shop. Then, at a snake show, a venomous cobra bit her leg — an unfortunate result of a stoned Rick freeing them from their cages. “This could be some ‘Final Destination’ shit,” Chelsea says in Episode 4 after the two experiences. “Like, death is coming for me.”
The number 3 is a recurring theme throughout “The White Lotus’s” third season. From the three Ratliff children to the trio of girlfriends and even a group of three Russians, the number is prominent. In Buddhism, the number also holds significance, as there are three acts of the Buddhist faith practice, known as the Triratna (a.k.a. “The Three Jewels”): the Buddha, Dharma (the teaching) and Sangha (the community who follow the teaching).
White stated from the beginning that this season would explore “death and Eastern religion and spirituality,” so it should come as no surprise that elements of Buddhism — the predominant religion in Thailand — might play a role in the events of the finale. The presence of the number 3 seems far from coincidental and could foreshadow three deaths (or even three killers!) by the end. Even if it seems too obvious, did Chelsea predict her own fate with that superstition — and becomes one of the victims?
Odds of happening: While the Season 3 premiere only showed one body floating in the water, the show hasn’t shied away from multiple deaths in the past (i.e. Tanya McQuoid and, as Coolidge put it, those “evil gays” in Season 2). Plus, with several gunshots ringing out, it’s safe to assume a few guests and staff members could have found themselves caught in the crossfire.
Bad girl Mook
Image Credit: Fabio Lovino/HBO
Mook is introduced as the kind, doe-eyed health mentor at the White Lotus in Thailand. However, there may be a more deceptive side to her. Throughout the season, she interacts with Gaitok, occasionally flirting with him in ways that distract him and hinder his focus at work. While it could be just playful banter, Mook might also be using her charm as a tactic to keep a close eye on Gaitok and coax him into lowering his guard.
In Episode 2, Valentin distracts Gaitok with talk of a Muay Thai fight, which allows burglars to slip through the gate and steal from the resort’s boutique. When the robbers return to the gate, Gaitok confronts him but is injured in the process. Later that night, Mook checks in on Gaitok to ensure he’s OK. Was it an act of compassion, or was it a way to make her possible involvement in the robbery less obvious? Mook could be playing the Russians’ honeypot, having told Valentin about Gaitok’s shift and his interests.
Mook also consistently encourages Gaitok to seek a promotion as one of Sritala’s bodyguards, claiming it’s a chance for a better job. “They get to travel, see the world,” Mook says of the bodyguards in the Season 3 premiere. “I’m sure it’s exciting.” While she might genuinely want Gaitok to be more ambitious, it’s possible she’s projecting her own desire for a better life onto him — a desire like the one the Russians seek. Could this foreshadow another robbery involving Mook in the finale, allowing her to start the life she’s always wanted?
Odds of happening: Yes, Mook and Valentin work at the same resort, but the only times they’re seen together on screen are when they’re welcoming the guests in the Season 3 premiere and at the Muay Thai match in Episode 7 — and they never speak to each other. It seems unlikely the two would have had an off-screen dynamic that’s only revealed at the end.
Monkey goes bananas!
Image Credit: HBO
Regardless of whether the poisonous fruit comes into play, there were gunshots heard at the White Lotus hotel — a lot of ‘em. Given the camera’s focus on the shrieking monkeys who patrol the resort from the trees, many viewers started peddling an outlandish theory — that one of the animals gets its hands on the gun and goes apeshit (pun intended). Monkey truthers can move on, however, as “The White Lotus” star Michelle Monaghan debunked the theory on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” saying definitively, “The monkeys did not do it.”
Odds of happening: Let’s trust Monaghan here — these monkeys are a red herring.
