WARNING: As is hopefully obvious to anyone reading this, everything about this article falls squarely in the SPOILER category when it comes to the third season finale of Mike White’s The White Lotus. Proceed with caution if you’re not caught up.
Pain won.
In a previous episode of The White Lotus, Aimee Lou Wood’s Chelsea described her relationship with the troubled Rick, played by HBO mainstay Walton Goggins, as a battle between hope and pain. “Eventually, one of us will win,” the character, an early fan-favorite in the Thailand-set third season of Mike White’s ubiquitously popular series, said of their push-and-pull romance.
Rick and Chelsea's fate revealed
Sunday, while the Ratliff family narrowly dodged a poisonous piña colada fate, Chelsea and Rick saw their own battle reach its arguably inevitable conclusion, and to heartbreaking effect.
The Ratliff family has a serious blender problem
Meanwhile, Rick also learned, though it was already too late for the realization to matter, that the very man he had spent his life blaming for the death of his father was, in fact, his actual father.
The Season 3 finale was fittingly rife with life-altering realizations and come-ups, ranging from Natasha Rothwell’s Belinda getting a hefty payout from Jon Gries’ Greg (only to then ditch a would-be partner in a fashion not unlike what happened to Belinda in a previous season) to Carrie Coon’s Laurie delivering one of the series’ all-time great monologues.
Belinda comes out on top, but at what cost?
Even the episode’s title, “Amor Fati,” points to an embracing of one’s fate, good or bad. Speaking about this, and much more, on The White Lotus Official Podcast hosted by Jia Tolentino and Josh Bearman, White detailed his draw to the characters of Rick and Chelsea, specifically, as being rooted in the idea that their love can transcend their tragic end “in some bittersweet way.”
White also pointed to the tenets of Buddhism as “the organizing principle” in the creative process behind the series’ third season.
“It's a little more hard-boiled than something that I usually write,” he said, likening this season to “a kind of dramatic investigation.”
Of course, those of us who have been deeply invested from the outset had a lot more to say about Sunday night’s season-closer, with reactions ranging from full-hearted mourning to coping-enabling jokes. Get a healthy sampling below, though I would again remind you that even more spoilers lie ahead.
Check out Complex's list of The Best TV Shows to Watch on HBO Max Right Now and see where The White Lotus ranks on our list of The Top 20 HBO Shows Of All Time, Ranked.