The White Lotus Season 3 Finale Review: Bloody and Shallow

[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers through the Season 3 finale of The White Lotus, “Amor Fati.”]

Having just given a lot of thought as to which characters I would most like to see survive the White Lotus Season 3 finale… It’s hard not to feel at least a little bummed by the events of “Amor Fati” — not to mention disappointed at the lack of depth found in the conclusion.

If you didn’t watch and just want to know the body count, here you go: Jim (Scott Glenn), Jim’s two bodyguards, Rick (Walton Goggins), and, oh no, Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood). All of them perished in the gunfight teased in the opening of the season premiere, which began with Rick being unable to let go of his anger towards Jim’s supposed crimes against his father… and included the not-that-shocking-at-all reveal that Jim was Rick’s father the whole time.

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The two bodyguards were killed by Rick as well after Rick stole Jim’s gun, with Chelsea catching a single stray to the heart in the crossfire. Bringing things to a close was Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong), who shot Rick in the back as the man carried away Chelsea’s body in search of help. Rick did ultimately make good on his promise at breakfast, in a way: He and Chelsea were together forever. For all the forever they had left, that is.

While things clearly didn’t work out for all of the characters above (save Gaitok) in the finale, creator/writer/director Mike White couldn’t resist giving comparatively happier endings to the rest of the surviving ensemble. Gaitok shoots an unarmed man in the back, and gets rewarded with a cushy new job as Sritala (Lek Patravadi)’s driver — along with the respect and affection of Mook (LISA from BLACKPINK). Our girls trip trio didn’t exactly push past any of the toxic issues weighing down their friendship, but did reconcile after a lovely speech from Laurie (Carrie Coon). Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) and her son Zion (Nicholas Duvernay) successfully negotiated a $5 million payout from Gary/Greg (Jon Gries). The Russians got away with it. And oh, the Ratliffs….

Now that we’ve reached the end of the season, it’s time to declare that of all this season’s storylines, the Ratliffs were at the center of the worst one. Not because of any lines that were crossed in the name of brotherly love, but because of Tim (Jason Isaacs)’s ongoing cowardice, made manifest by his determination to murder-suicide his way out of his legal issues.

Right to the end, the writing made things heavy-handed to the point of satire: “Have a wonderful last day,” Pam the porter (Morgana O’Reilly) says to Tim after literally explaining that the fruit Tim is holding is from a tree called “the suicide tree”. Oh, and as part of that explanation, she mentions exactly how to prepare the seeds from said suicide tree for the purpose of suicide.

Oh, but not just suicide, as Tim plans a special pina colada toast that night for the entire family — save Lochlan (Sam Nivola). [Presumably Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) is now worthy of death because after spending that night in the monastery, she has made her mother’s dreams come true and embraced her inner spoiled princess — perhaps to keep Lochlan from following her, but Tim doesn’t know about that.]

The tension is unceasing yet aggravating, as White drags out every beat of this narrative, including the fateful blender being left unwashed on the counter, ready and waiting for Lochlan to make himself a smoothie the next morning. (Chekhov’s blender, if you will.) White even teases out Lochlan’s fate for a substantial period of time, only revealing that he survived after the heartbreak of Chelsea’s death. And there’s a catharsis that comes from that choice — if both Lochlan and Chelsea had bit it, that would have been rough — but it still makes every unsubtle, painful beat preceding Lochlan’s survival feel like a waste of time.

Whether it’s because of Lochlan’s near-death experience or the simple fact that he just couldn’t avoid it anymore, the Ratliff storyline does end with them all being reunited with their devices, and Tim finally ‘fessing up about how “things are about to change, but we’ll get through this as a family.” Whether they actually get through things as a family is a whole other question, of course: How fast does one think Victoria (Parker Posey) ends up divorcing his ass? To satisfy my own need for catharsis, I’m going to say immediately.

While the finale might have been 87 minutes long, so much screen time was devoted to dragging out some of these storylines that it clearly could have come in at a shorter length. And even at that length, it doesn’t feel like White really got around to saying anything with the episode — or the season at large.

As far back as 2022, the creator was talking about how Season 3 of the series “would be maybe a satirical and funny look at death and Eastern religion and spirituality.” Lip service was paid to some of that here, but “it is easier to be patient once we finally accept that there is no resolution,” as the monk intones at the beginning of the episode, feels less like spiritual insight and more like a cheeky nod to the audience.

What did we learn about death, aside from the fact that it comes for even the most pure-hearted of us all? Nothing of note. There’s no question that White’s skill at crafting a wide range of idiosyncratic characters has been a huge factor in the show’s buzz factor, as brought to life by the remarkable ensemble this season. But the whole experience ended up feeling more shallow than this ensemble deserved.

The White Lotus is streaming now on Max.