The White Lotus Season 3 Finale: Ending Explained - E! Online

The White Lotus season three finale hit HBO Max April 6, revealing the fate of characters played by Carrie Coon, Leslie Bibb, Lalisa Manobal, Walton Goggins and more.

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Warning: This story contains spoilers for the season three finale of The White Lotus.

It's time to check out of The White Lotus.

The season three finale hit HBO Max Sunday April 6, revealing the fate of all the wealthy vacationers in Thailand. 

Viewers finally watched what happened during the shooting at the hotel as teased in the first episode, when Zion (Nicholas Duvernay), the son of Natasha Rothwell’s Belinda, fled for his life. Ultimately, it was Rick (Walton Goggins) and Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) who died during the dramatic finale.

The couple died in what became an intense shootout between Rick and the bodyguards of Sritala (Lek Patravadi) after the former shoots her husband Jim Hollinger (Scott Glenn), only to find out Jim was Rick’s dad all along.

As for who dealt the final killing blow, it was Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) who forewent his peaceful ways in order to obey Sritala’s wishes as he shot Rick in the back.

As for the other characters? Well, it wasn't quite a happy ending for the Ratliff family, with the financial problems of patriarch Timothy (Jason Isaacs) coming to a head after he was seen contemplating suicide throughout their tropical vacation.

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Hotels Featured in The White Lotus

And his looming legal issues weren’t the only scandal to rock the Southern family, with brothers Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) and Lochlan (Sam Nivola) engaging in an incestuous threesome in the yacht scene alongside Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon) earlier this season.

In the finale, the family’s troubles seemingly come to a head when Timothy serves his wife, older son and daughter a poisonous piña colada—sparing only his son Lochlan—before he has a change of heart and dashes the drinks from their hands. Tragedy almost strikes the following morning, however, when Lochlan unwittingly makes himself a smoothie with the remnants of the poison seeds, only to revive in his father’s arms.

Fabio Lovino/HBO

Viewers also got answers on another crime that rocked the resort: While Gaitok solved the case, he ultimately opted to keep the identities of the thieves a secret at the urging of Valentin (Arnas Fedaravicius), who preyed on the guard’s sympathetic side and noted he and his friends would be sent home if he turned them in.

And as for the trio of petty pals played by Leslie Bibb, Carrie Coon and Michelle Monaghan, despite bearing witness to the shootout, their reunion trip ended on a poignant note when Carrie’s character Laurie had an honest confession, reminding the three friends that their history together is what truly matters.

Surprisingly, even some of the cast members were in the dark before the shocking final episode. 

"I’m just excited to watch the finale with the rest of the world because I actually have no idea what happens," Schwarzenegger told The Hollywood Reporter in a cover story published April 2, while his onscreen mom Parker Posey admitted, "I forgot who died. It was so stressful when I read it. The dark stuff, I blazed through."

Fabio Lovino/HBO

As for the stars that did remember all the dirty details? They knew it was an ending no one would expect.

"Whatever you think you know," said Jon Gries, the only cast member to appear in all three seasons, "you’re going to get it wrong."

For creator Mike White, he wanted his hour-and-a-half finale to be truly epic.

"As a filmmaker, it’s probably the piece of work that I’m like, 'I can’t believe I did that,'" he told THR. "My hope is that it’ll feel like a cathartic sad or a satisfying sad and not a 'What the f--k?' sad, but people are going to have a million different opinions. You just hope you stick the landing."

But for those who can't get enough of The White Lotus? Well, season four may be coming sooner than you think. 

"There’s already pressure from HBO," White added. "When they have something they’re bullish on, they want to get it out there. We were supposed to start scouting in April, and I was like, 'You guys, I haven’t been home in three years.'"

Read on for more details on the cast of season three.

HBO; Christopher Polk/Shutterstock

Lalisa Manobal

How you like that? The singer known mononymously as Lisa went from being a rockstar on world stages as part of K-pop group Blackpink—alongside Jisoo, Jennie and Rosé—to donning the White Lotus staff uniform for her big debut as Mook.

HBO; Entertainment Pictures/Entertainment Pictures/ZUMAPRESS.com

Jason Isaacs

Looks like Lucius Malfoy missed the train to Hogwarts and instead landed at The White Lotus. That's right: He may look different without the luscious blond hair, but the Harry Potter star is returning to the screen as another uppity father figure, playing Timothy Ratliff, described as a "wealthy businessman vacationing with his wife and three children."

Isaacs has also made more recent appearances on TV shows like Robot Chicken, The Great and Sex Education (alongside his White Lotus costar Aimee Lou Wood.)

HBO; Moviestore/Shutterstock

Parker Posey

Don't scream when you see it, but Posey—who plays Timothy's wife Victoria Ratliff—may look familiar from her movies Superman Returns, Blade: Trinity, Scream 3 and Dazed and Confused. She's also had brief stints on such TV shows as Parks and Recreation, New Girl, Portlandia and Search Party.

But the real rom-com fans will know her from the 1998 classic You've Got Mail, in which she played Joe Fox's (Tom Hanks) girlfriend Patricia Eden.

HBO; Prime Video

Patrick Schwarzenegger

While you may know him best from family photos as the son of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, he has already made a name for himself acting in Gen V, The Terminal List and The Staircase before playing Saxon Ratliff in season three. 

HBO; Warner Bros. Pictures

Sarah Catherine Hook

Prior to taking on the part of the Ratliffs' daughter Piper, Hook got her feet wet in the horror and fantasy genres, portraying Debbie Glatzel in The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, Juliette Fairmont in First Kill and Elena Milak in Monsterland.

You may also know her from the 2024 Cruel Intentions remake as Caroline Merteuil or from the Ryan Murphy cinematic universe, in which she played Catherine Allday Davis in Impeachment: American Crime Story about the Bill Clinton–Monica Lewinsky scandal.

HBO; Netflix

Sam Nivola

Nivola—who is dating Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann's daughter Iris Apatow—rounds out the Ratliff family as young Lochlan. But before hitting the shores of Thailand, he was in another show about a rich family at the beach: The Perfect Couple, playing Will Winbury, the son of Nicole Kidman and Liev Schreiber's Greer and Tag Winbury. He even costarred on the Netflix drama with White Lotus alum Meghann Fahy, who appeared as Daphne Sullivan on season two of the HBO show before playing Merritt Monaco on The Perfect Couple.

Nivola has also acted in White Noise with Adam Driver, Maestro with Bradley Cooper and With/In with Anne Hathaway. 

HBO

Natasha Rothwell

Of course, White Lotus fans will recognize Rothwell from season one, in which she played spa guru Belinda in Maui. Not only is she reprising the part for season three, but the actress has also graced the screen in Insecure, Wonka, A Year and Change and Love, Simon. Plus, she lent her comedy chops to Saturday Night Live as a writer from 2014 to 2015.

HBO; Marvel/Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock

Leslie Bibb

The Iron Man alum is assembling to play Kate in The White Lotus after portraying Christine Everhart in the Marvel franchise. More recently, she starred in Palm Royale as Dinah Donahue and Jupiter’s Legacy as Grace Kennedy-Sampson.

HBO; 20th Century Fox/Regency/Kobal/Shutterstock

Carrie Coon

The Gilded Age star—who may also look familiar from The Sinner, Fargo and The Leftovers—steps into the role of Laurie, who joins pals Kate and Jaclyn for a girls' trip in Thailand this season.

HBO; Kobal/Shutterstock

Michelle Monaghan

While Monaghan plays TV star Jaclyn on The White Lotus, she’s also a TV star IRL, having been on True Detective, Bad Monkey, Messiah and The Path. On the big screen, she's starred as Julia in Mission: Impossible - Fallout and Angie Genaro in Gone Baby Gone.

HBO; Columbia/The Weinstein Company/Kobal/Shutterstock

Walton Goggins

You'll feel justified in knowing that it's not all in your head—Goggins really does look familiar. In addition to starring in two Quentin Tarantino movies (playing Billy Crash in Django Unchained and Sheriff Chris Mannix in The Hateful Eight), he is also known for being Boyd Crowder in Justified from 2010 to 2015.

HBO; Netflix

Aimee Lou Wood

The English actress joins the cast in season three as free-spirited Chelsea, who has an age-gap romance with Goggins' character Rick Hatchett. Yet, she is best known for her role as Aimee Gibbs on Netflix’s Sex Education and also appeared in Seize Them! and Daddy Issues.

HBO; One 31

Lek Patravadi

Her acting credits may trace back 50 years—starting with Grounded God in 1975—but she most recently portrayed Prani Chiraanan on In Family We Trust in 2018.

HBO; C More Entertainment

Tayme Thapthimthong

The singer and former military man has acting credits that include Mechanic: Resurrection, Skin Trade and Paradox, as well as playing Pao on the TV series Farang.

HBO; A24

Christian Friedel

If 13 minutes wasn't enough time to figure out where you recognize the German actor, allow us to refresh your memory. He played Rudolf Höss in The Zone of Interest, Reinhold Gräf in Babylon Berlin and Georg Elser in 13 Minutes.

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