SPOILER ALERT!

According to Deadline magazine, the Season 3 finale of “ The White Lotus” shattered a record from previous seasons with 6.2 million U.S cross-platform viewers.  This was a 30% increase from the previous series high and a 51% increase compared to the season 2 finale.

But was Season 3 of “The White Lotus” that good of a season finale?   

“White Lotus“ is a wickedly intriguing show created by Mike White. The show is about a bunch of eyebrow-raising characters who are rolling in money at a luxury hotel. They dabble in some crazy behavior that potentially ends badly. Each season takes place at a different exotic White Lotus resort. The ambiance of the show is beautiful, and the writing of the show is well done. 

The first 2 seasons were focused on the characters enjoying their vacation, while the 3rd season focuses more on the characters trying to better themselves on a spiritual retreat in Thailand. My overall impression of this third season was that the flow of the show was off, compared to the other seasons. Some of the episodes dragged on, while I felt the finale was rushed and glossed over some key moments.

Have you ever had a wild shindig on a yacht? Well, Lochlan and Saxon sure had a wild night.  

Episode 5 is by far the strangest episode of television I have watched, and we saw Saxon and Lochlan having a drug-induced sexual escapade at the encouragement of Chloe, Greg’s new woman.

In the finale, some characters make intriguing choices, while others nail it with their good decisions. 

Belinda, who was introduced in Season 1, makes an appearance this season with her son Zion. When Belinda was in Season 1, which took place in Hawaii, she met Tanya and Greg. When we meet Belinda, she is trying to start her own spa business with Tanya. Tanya then falls in love with Greg. During Episode 8, Belinda and Zion blackmail Greg to give them $5 million.

Rick’s helplessness from the past and anger lead him and Chelsea into a sticky situation in the finale. Sritala tells Rick that Jim was his father. Chelsea gets caught in a dispute and gets hit in the chest with a bullet from Hollinger’s bodyguard, and sadly, Chelsea passes away. 

Rick and Chelsea’s relationship reminded me of a deep and mysterious love story in literature, “Wuthering Heights”; the relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw is intense, passionate and tumultuous. Their love is marked by obsession, revenge and a deep connection that transcends even death, just like Rick and Chelsea’s.

I felt at peace with how Chelsea and Rick died, falling into the lily pads. After Gaitok shoots Rick and Chelsea, they are seen floating in the lily pad water. The lily pads symbolize tranquility and peace. In some cultures, they represent the cycle of life and death, as they grow from the mud at the bottom of a body of water, rise to the surface and bloom.  This can symbolize life emerging from death or the beauty that can arise even from difficult circumstances.

Mike White used a lot of water imagery related to death in Season 3. For example, during Episode 8, we see Lochlan battling for survival on the ground next to the pool. We see him visualize himself swimming up a pool with 4 silhouetted figures standing above him in the water, potentially seeing “God.”

His sister Piper was seeking spiritual enlightenment by joining a Buddhist monastery but instead decides to keep her privileged lifestyle at the end of the season. 

The ending for the Ratliffs kind of left me with bittersweet feelings. It felt like in each episode, something dramatic was going to happen with Tim, the father, who had the FBI investigating him and was facing prison time. Tim, in episode 4, stole a gun left unattended by Gaitok and attempted suicide. I also felt the mother, Victoria, was a liability who was heavily medicated and was imparting her privileged views on her kids. She had a complex relationship with her whole family.

In the finale, Tim moves his suicide plan to homicide by crushing up the poisonous seeds of the local fruit from the trees and making pina coladas. Tim is feeling distraught because they will lose all their assets in the states. He tempts his family to drink with him on their last night in Thailand, and he leaves Lochlan out of the festivities because he feels Lochlan can handle being poor. In a knee-jerk reaction, Tim knocks Saxons’ drink out of his hands, then he grabs everyone else’s. In the end, the family makes it out alive.

All viewers, including me, thought, “He’s going to clean the blender out, right?! ” Yet we would be wrong. The next morning, Lochlan makes a protein shake with residue of the poisonous pina colada mixture still in the blender and almost dies poolside.

While nothing major happens with the Ratliffs, we see them on the boat leaving Thailand and getting their electronics back, which means Tim realizes the family is going to figure out that they are broke and have no money. We see Tim staring at the water droplets on the boat, finding a sense of peace in the monk's teachings about life as a water droplet, with death as a happy return to the ocean. 

The three middle-aged women have quite a doozy of a relationship in the season: Jaclyn, Kate and Laurie. Jaclyn, a Hollywood actress, has recently married a fellow actor; Kate, who lives in Austin, Texas; and Laurie, a corporate lawyer and a single mom from New York. We see them dig deep into a toxic friendship among themselves, including jealousy and how their lives are on the rocks. The ladies are constantly chirping at each other, giving back-handed compliments and funny, sarcastic remarks about one another. 

In the end, they assert their relationship after a tearful dinner, finding meaning and belief in their time together. After witnessing Jim’s death and the trauma they had gone through, it was such a traumatic experience. 

This season reminded me of a song, “Another Life “ by SZA. In this song, she talks about the idea of what could have been and wishing for another chance but understanding the reality and moving forward. Many characters face this problem of love, longing and thinking deeply about troubling situations, and wanting a different outcome. It was average at best, but highlighted

embracing fate, both good and bad, as characters struggle with their sense of self and belonging. 

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