"The White Lotus" Season 3 recap

*Warning: this article contains spoilers and mentions self-harm*

After weeks of hanging onto the edge of our chairs, the third season of Mike White’s The White Lotus has come to an end and left everybody gossiping. The slow burn of the season built up to a chaotic ending, resulting in multiple murders in the finale.

With many character arcs, impulsive decisions and foreshadowing symbols, White produces a storyline that gives fans a new story of mischief. The ties of the plot and characters come together to reveal Rick’s family history, address the Ratliff’s future and solidify friendships and relationships to complete the season.

Last week, viewers were let down when Rick left Bangkok, and his entire plot was dismissed with no discovery of what happened to his father. However, when he returns to the hotel, he sees that Jim and Sritala have come back as well. Rick acts out of fear for previously accusing Jim of killing his father and decides to use his own gun against him. As Jim dies, Sritala reveals that he was Rick’s father all along.

While fleeing from his mistakes and shooting at guards, Chelsea gets struck by a bullet, causing instant stress to Rick, who also gets shot while carrying her away. Chelsea foreshadows her destiny by repeatedly preaching her trust in fate and connection to Rick as well as facing numerous near-death experiences throughout the season. Rick and Chelsea had finally mended their relationship into a trusting position to leave them with a bittersweet forever ending.

The Ratliff family has reunited and Piper ultimately chooses her wealthy lifestyle at home over the Thai monastery. Victoria has already made it clear to the family how important their fortune is and Saxon claimed to be nothing without his job and luxuries earlier in the season.

However, Lochlan seems okay with having nothing materialistic in life. Timothy, who is still facing dark thoughts of suicide and family murder, decides to celebrate Piper’s decision with cocktails in their hotel room. What the family is not aware of is that Timothy poisoned all of their drinks, thinking it is easier than telling them they are about to be poor when he goes to jail.

Luckily, Timothy stops the family just as they begin drinking them out of regret, but this does not keep Lochlan from using the leftovers for part of his protein shake the next morning. It is ironic because Lochlan was the only one who did not get a cocktail. Lochlan is lucky to survive after most of the audience was convinced that he would die of his poison-stricken sickness throughout the majority of the episode.

The irony contains symbolism of culture in that it is not the father’s job to play God and decide who lives and dies.

The entire cast does not face danger within the ending of The White Lotus but rather comes to a consolidation, like Laurie, Kate and Jaclyn. A friendship from the age of nine years old must hold pretty strong, but as seen can still get shaky.

After too much boy drama with Valentin and his friends, the girls decide to forgive each other. Laurie realized that she did not care enough about Valentin to be mad at Jaclyn for spending the night with him, and Jaclyn made the first move, insisting on being friends again. It is great to see their strong bond, but the three girls may have been the most irrelevant plot in this season.

This season did give a pleasant sense of clarity to the existing characters, Belinda and Gary. Belinda makes it away with her son and $5 million from Gary to keep her silent about his “unconfirmed” involvement in Tanya’s death. Some may see this as justified in her attempt to stay safe, and others may see it as an act of bad morals. However, it took a lot for Belinda and her son to come to this decision.

As for Gaitok, it seems he is finally a bodyguard for Sritala and has also won over Mook for defending the hotel and shooting Rick. This may be why he decided to no longer care for Valentin's involvement in the hotel robbery.

It is the debate of viewers whether this proves Gaitok's growth of asserting discipline or his loss of innocence within the season, after he was not able to think about getting involved in violence previously.

There is a foreshadowing of both Gaitok’s and Timothy’s indecisiveness as the gun switches back and forth between the two throughout the season, but both end with clarity.

A prominent feature of the series always involves the setting and music. In this season, White decided to portray samples of Thailand's culture after previously examining Hawaii and Italy. This resulted in showing Thai dance styles, athletic fighting, religious association, music, characters and more.

This contributed to characters' backstories like Piper’s and Rick’s. It also allows the audience to learn about different cultural experiences and see parts of Thai media.

Overall, the season was enjoyable to watch and built up suspicions in a perfect manner to address the ending. The only flaw present in the plot was the stuff left out and unanswered in the end.

For example, nobody ends up finding out whether Kate and Victoria actually knew each other before Thailand, and if so, why Victoria would lie about it. Also, a lot of moments with the Ratliff family are unresolved, such as the reaction to Lachlan’s near-death experience and the family being poor.

While it is not promised, Patrick Schwarzenegger, who plays Saxon, has rumored a future “all-star” season of The White Lotus, which will focus on past problematic characters. It is possible that the Ratliff family drama is being saved for a special future in The White Lotus content, but only time will tell.

It is hard to compare Season 3 to the others, knowing they are each so unique, but this season certainly does stand out. If you enjoy The White Lotus, try watching more shows like Big Little Lies and The Resort.

Rating 4/5

Jessica Goldstein is a second-year majoring in digital and print journalism. To contact her, email jng5536@psu.edu.