As we come to the end of The White Lotus season three, there are still so many questions remaining. Among them: Why is this season feeling slower than usual? Who is the meanest white lady friend? Where will Lochlan decide to go to college? And where does Chelsea get her neverending supply of cute tops?
Of course, the biggest mystery remaining is who’s going to die. As with every installment of The White Lotus, the death takes a back seat to all the interpersonal drama until we realize the finale is right around the corner. Remember, the adventure in Thailand opened with a tease that was something out of Chekhovâgunshots ringing through the resort. Are those related to the body that Belindaâs (Natasha Rothwell) son Zion (Nicholas Duvernay) finds floating in the water? Or is that a misdirection, and weâll see an unrelated bit of violence break out in the opulent property? Anything could happen in Sunday night’s 90-minute White Lotus finale, especially if you take into account some of the fan theories that have been circulating. Speaking of which, letâs break them down.
The monkeys are shooting people.
One of the most bananasâsee what I did there?âtheories that has gotten some traction on the internet is that the sounds of gunfire we hear at the opening of the premiere come from a monkey who has gotten a hold of a gun. Now look, security guard Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) hasn’t been very careful with his firearm and creator Mike White does love a touch of absurdity, but I still don’t think we’re going to see a primate go all John Wick on everyone. (For what itâs worth, Michelle Monaghan also shut this one down.)
Timothy is going to poison at least some members of his family.
Of the characters at The White Lotus this season, corrupt businessman Timothy Ratliff (Jason Isaacs) has been thinking the most about death. Initially, he was focused on suicidal ideation. He stole Gaitok’s gun and held it to his temple, too afraid to pull the trigger for fear of the pain he would cause his family members. In the penultimate episode, though, he starts to add murder into his fantasies. His wife Victoria (Parker Posey) can’t imagine living without his wealth and his son Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) explains that his dream of being like his father is all he has. Realizing they would be desperate if they found out that Timothy drove them to financial ruin, he starts imagining killing them as well. But there is a snag in this theory now: he no longer has the gun since Gaitok pilfered it back from the chest of drawers where Timothy hid it. Another possible murder weapon? The deadly fruit growing on their compound from what is known as a “suicide tree.” The trailer for the finale cuts from Victoria saying “no one has lived better than we have” to a shot of Saxon’s blender. Perhaps Timothy slipped some of the poisonous fruit into his golden boy’s protein shake?
Lochlan drowns.
What if Timothy isn’t responsible for one of his children’s deaths? For a while now there’s been a speculation that Lochlan (Sam Nivola), our confused teen who gave his brother a handjob, meets a watery end. The theories spring from a couple of sources, including the fact that Nivola’s title card is paired with an image of a man floating and he went into a sensory deprivation tank. Still, it seems like a reach to me.
Chelsea is on her way to a Final Destination situation.
This would be so mean. Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) is the absolute sweetie pie of this season. She loves her older boyfriend Rick (Walton Goggins) despite all of his flaws, has the best reaction faces, and just is a genuinely good time. That said, she was in the hotel‘s shop when it was robbed at gunpoint and was bitten by a venomous snake shortly afterwards. Chelsea is tapped into the kind of thinking that recognizes that bad things come in threes so maybe she’s in for a tragic end. I hope not.
Rick’s daddy issues come to bite him in the butt.
Goggins’ Rick has been on a side quest in Bangkok this entire season to find the man who he believes killed his father, Jim Hollinger (Scott Glenn), who owns The White Lotus property with his Thai wife Sritala (Lek Patravadi). In the seventh episode, Rick finally confronts Jim, a frail looking old man. Rick, despite bringing a gun, does not go full Inigo Montoya and kill him. Instead, he just tips over Jim’s chair and bolts.
Speculation has been running rampant about this interaction, which brings us to a couple of compelling sub-theories One idea: Jim isn’t actually the man who killed Rick’s dad, but Rick’s dad himself. That seems reasonable. Less reasonable, but still fascinating: a theory that Sritala is actually Rickâs father.
Should either of those be true, what does that mean for Rick’s fate? Notions of filicide seem to be all the rage this season, so one possibility is that Jim takes revenge and puts a hit out on his own son, making the whole affair especially sad.
Mook isn’t all that sweet.
My feeds have been teeming with the suspicion that wellness mentor Mook (Lalisa Manobal, a.k.a. global pop star Lisa) is a femme fatale. Iâm not sure I buy that, but the argument goes that she’s been luring Gaitok into some sort of trap. She might even be working with the Russians, who we now know robbed the hotel’s gift shop. I think people may just be side-eyeing her because she’s pretty, though.
Greg’s at it again.
We absolutely know that Greg Hunt (Jon Gries) is capable of having someone killed. After all, he orchestrated the death of his ex-wife Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge). The gays, they were trying to murder her. Is he up to his old ways? And if so: Who gets got? I, for one, doubt it’s going to be Belinda. That both seems too obvious and not in the spirit of White Lotus deaths. Belinda, over two seasons, has only been a beacon of light. With that in mind, maybe Greg turns his ire at his Québécois girlfriend Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon), a chaos agent who took part in the threesome with the Ratliff guys. Then again, what if Greg’s the one who bites it? Honestly, that would be a relief. He’s such a menace.