‘White Lotus’ Star Aimee Lou Wood on Chelsea’s Fate and Why Her Relationship With Rick Is ‘Post-Toxic’

Aimee Lou Wood discusses Chelsea's death in 'The White Lotus' Season 3 finale and her relationship with Rick.

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SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for the Season 3 finale of “The White Lotus,” now streaming on Max.

Death came for Chelsea.

In “The White Lotus” Season 3 finale, Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) faced the third and final premonition of the saying “bad luck comes in threes” after she was caught in the crossfire during a shootout between Rick (Walton Goggins) and Sritala’s (Lek Patravadi) bodyguards at the resort.

Throughout this season of the Mike White-created show, Chelsea had warned Rick that something bad was going to happen, especially after learning that he was in Thailand to confront White Lotus owner Jim Hollinger (Scott Glenn), who had allegedly murdered his father. (Rick ends up having a “Star Wars”-esque father reveal about Jim in the final episode.)

Chelsea had already narrowly escaped death not once, but twice, during her anything-but-relaxing vacation. First, a masked man pointed a gun at her while robbing the boutique at the White Lotus. Then, at a snake show, one of the venomous offerings bit her leg. “This could be some ‘Final Destination’ shit,” Chelsea says in Episode 4 after the two experiences. “Like, death is coming for me.”

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After leaving Chelsea behind to embark on his quest for vengeance in Bangkok, where he ultimately refrains from killing Jim, instead pushing him out of his chair, Rick returns to the resort and reunites with his girlfriend on the beach. At dinner, Chelsea tells Rick that she was never too concerned about him not coming back to her, quoting the Latin phrase amor fati (translation: “a love of fate”).

“It means you have to embrace your fate, good or bad. Whatever will be, will be,” she says to Rick. “And at this point, we’re linked, so if a bad thing happens to you, it happens to me.”

That expression indeed sealed Chelsea and Rick’s fate, as they are both killed the following day after Rick shoots Jim, who had visited his own resort to take a photo with TV star Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan).

The morning after the finale aired, Wood spoke with Variety about Chelsea’s death, her character’s relationship with Rick, and what she was originally supposed to say in those final moments.

I was actually told in my callback, so that’s how long I’ve been holding this in. Honestly, I can’t stop talking to everyone who’s asking me questions, because it’s like a dam’s burst.

In my first audition, I did the scene where Rick and Chelsea — she’s like, “Get a gentleman’s facial.” And the other one I did was the, “Scorpio, you’re so secretive.” Then in my second audition, they gave me new scenes, and one of the scenes was, “I think we’re gonna be together forever, don’t you?” I read it, and I went, “Oh.” And I didn’t have the other script, I didn’t have anything else except for that scene, but I just went, “It’s Chelsea.” My whole image of her shifted, because in the first round of scenes, I thought, “Oh, it’s sugar daddy vibes.” And then this one, I was like: “It’s a love story. Oh my God, it’s a tragic love story. This makes me love her even more. She truly loves him.” And I’m going, “Oh my God, but she dies. She fucking dies! She’s Ophelia.” I just got really emotional in the scene, and Mike intuited my intuition that I knew.

One of my friends did know, because he is my best friend, and we also live together. I accidentally left out stills of me dead, basically — me with the blood on me. And he was like, “Why did you leave those out on the washing machine? Oh my God, I’ve just seen the most harrowing thing!” And then he was with me last night, and we were holding hands for the whole screening. He almost had to space out a bit because there’s so much of me in Chelsea, so it feels so deeply personal watching me go. And Leslie [Bibb] was like, “I can’t fucking watch you die. I’m not watching it.” And she didn’t watch.

She was going to say something about “bad things happening in threes” originally, and then Mike got rid of that. I was so glad that he did, because the silence is really heartbreaking. She speaks so much, and words are her armor. Sometimes she speaks so that she doesn’t have to be vulnerable — the words and aphorisms and astrology and mottos. Then, in that moment, she can’t speak. And there is nothing Rick would want more in that moment than for her to be a machine gun asking him loads of questions — for her to be talking about astrology. He wants to get a headache from her. He wants to hear her say, “You’re so pretty! You’re so pretty!” He wants it back, and it’s gone. She’s never gonna speak again. The thing that he was so irritated by, he would give anything for it now.

I think that was perfect that she doesn’t talk, because for once, he’s doing the fucking talking. And that’s how it should have been. If they could have met somewhere in the middle, it would have been beautiful.

I don’t think she was angry with him. I wish she was, because I think if she’d been angry with him, she wouldn’t have followed him into the danger. It’s amor fati. Because she’s like, “This is my fate, and I embrace it, good or bad. If a bad thing happens to you, Rick, it happens to me too, because we’re connected now.” In a way, this is what she wants, which is disturbing but also kind of gorgeous.

Her death drive and her life force are equally as big. If she had just let her life force be a bit bigger than her death drive, she probably would have walked off and picked herself. But she’s proving herself right in that moment. She’s got a very strong unconscious drive, and I think she’s proving herself right by being like, “I said we were cosmic feelings. I said I would follow you to the next life. And I’m gonna prove it.” So, she walks into the firing line; it was an accident that she gets hit, but she doesn’t leave the danger zone, right? She sees Rick shoot Jim, and she just stays still. She’s just seen that her boyfriend, the love of her life, is a killer — and she doesn’t walk away.

People are so mean about Rick, and as they should be. It’s not nice watching someone be mean to a ray of sunshine, but she is nuts. She’s just as nuts as he is. His God is his own pain, and she’s made her God him. Both of them are crazy. I love them so much, but they are crazy, and they die because they’re crazy. They don’t die because it’s a love story. They die because they’re crazy.

I think it’s even post-toxic. It almost goes full circle to being very pure, because I don’t think there’s malice in it. I think for something to be a toxic relationship, there’s got to be some kind of control. There’s a power dynamic. There’s a this, there’s a that — and there is in Rick and Chelsea. But there’s also not, because they’re both as willful. It’s almost like it’s so nuts, that it can’t even be judged by other people. It can’t even be judged by those standards anymore, because it’s so beyond that. He’s getting what he wants, which is revenge, and she’s getting what she wants, which is him, right?

They both get what they want, but both of them want really destructive things. But I would say it’s self-destruction. I don’t think Rick is trying to destroy Chelsea, and I don’t think Chelsea is trying to destroy Rick. I think they are both trying to destroy themselves.

Chelsea has a responsibility to herself, and she doesn’t want to be responsible. She’s making the choice, and she’s got choice — as much as she says she doesn’t, and that it’s determined and it’s fate. And as much as Rick says he doesn’t have a choice — he has to go an confront this guy — they both have choice. And Chelsea chooses to stay.

Also, did Rick bring her to Thailand? From the beginning, he’s like, “Go away.” And she’s like, “Then we go here, and then we go to Mexico, and then we go here.” She goes wherever he goes. I highly doubt that Rick was like, “Chelsea, please come to Thailand with me. I really want you to come with me on this revenge quest.” I think he’s been like, “I have to go to Thailand,” and she’s going, “Well, I’m fucking coming with you. I go wherever you go.”

I’ve seen people be like, “Rick should never have brought Chelsea,” but Chelsea has a say in this too. And Rick’s passiveness, that’s part of the problem. What is he gonna do? Is he gonna bundle her up and put her in a car and send her away to safety? She would get out on the other end of that car and come straight back. That’s who she is.

That’s why it’s so clever. Because he’s done this double red herring. Like, “Oh, it can’t be that, because that’s too obvious.” It actually has thrown people off the scent. And then he’s gone, “Haha, no, I’m doing that.” He’s done a double maneuver there. So I think that’s actually Mike being really clever, and also giving Chelsea more of a noble ending. She’s kind of dismissed a few times as being stupid and silly — and she was right. So everyone should have just listened to Chelsea. For me, I think that was Mike giving Chelsea the status of the oracle — that she was correct. I actually think it’s beautiful that he does that, because it’s like, “Let Chelsea be the mystic that she thinks she is.”

This interview has been edited and condensed.

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