Hit series “The White Lotus” aired its highly-anticipated season three finale last Sunday, receiving many mixed reviews as fans aren’t quite sure how to feel about its ending.
Midway through the season, we looked at some popular fan theories about what was to come later in the season. Now that the final episode has played out, let’s recap if they were accurate and see how viewers feel about the season. Fair warning that there will be spoilers for the final episode.
Southern housewife Victoria Ratliff, played by Parker Posey, was theorized to be involved in the legal downfall of her husband Timothy Ratliff, played by Walter Isaacs. For all we know, this theory could technically remain a mystery since there isn’t a big reveal to the family about what is waiting for them when they get back home.
Timothy ended up with a botched plan to poison himself and his family using the local “suicide fruit” and blender which were frequently featured all season. He planned to poison any member who admitted to not being able to live without comfortable luxury, this being everyone except Lochlan, played by Sam Nivola. In a twist of irony, Lochlan is the only one who ends up drinking a full glass after he tries to recreate his brother Saxon’s protein shakes, yet he seemingly recovers from his near-death experience which is largely ignored for the rest of the episode.
Besides Lochlan’s near-death experience occurring next to a pool, there was also no large water event or drowning that led to the family’s demise. The talk of tsunamis early in the season didn’t really make an appearance in the second half and wasn’t really touched on again.
Some fans have pointed out that the family’s seemingly normal return home after this vacation is actually social commentary that circles back to an overarching theme for the show. All three seasons of “The White Lotus” have touched on privilege and wealth, the Ratliff family may end up being the largest example yet. While anticlimactic for viewers, the Ratliff family leaving vacation like everything is fine is telling that given their privilege, the family will most likely be able to bounce back from the legal troubles waiting for Timothy.
Aside from some unaddressed details, one reason fans might not feel as satisfied with the finale is that the outcomes were more symbolic and character based than an all-out chaotic bloodshed like in previous season finales.
Many of the characters became something that they previously hated. Lochlan became a masculine and sexually driven mirror of how his brother was at the beginning of the season. On the boat home, he even is a visual mirror of what Saxon, played by Patrick Schwarzenegger, looked like on the arriving boat.
And no, we didn’t see Tanya McQuoid become reborn as a monkey to get revenge, but we did get reminded of her in another way. Similar to how Tanya backed out on her promise to Belinda, played by Natasha Rothwell, Belinda herself ended up backing out of a plan to open a wellness center with her coworker Pornchai. Instead, leaving with $5 million after going against her morals and agreeing to be paid off by Tanya’s ex-lover in exchange for her silence.
Personally, I was a bit thrown off by the last episode since it felt like things were rushed to be tied up, leaving character actions to feel out of place. While I overall enjoyed watching the season and reading up on all the fan theories as each episode was released, I feel like the season could have benefited by a few more episodes for better pacing.
“Overall, it was pretty okay,” said San Diego State University sophomore Sonor Liotta. “Too much focus on the drama, not enough plot.” Liotta felt like the connections between all the characters tied in a lot smoother in the first two seasons and that this season’s plot choices “fell a little flat”. “I thought Mook and Gaitok would be a bigger thing but they were just minor characters,” said Liotta regarding if he had any theories for the season.
Season three “started off a bit slow, but really picked up for me around the midpoint,” said SDSU sophomore Troy Chung. “The finale though completely threw me off,” Chung states “between Piper’s sudden 180, Belinda and Gaitok being rewarded for abandoning their morals, and Tim’s near murder-suicide was intense and left me wanting more closure.”
The common theme for viewers this season seems to be that the season was enjoyable but the finale itself was lacking. With a fourth season in its future, fans are already excited about the possibilities of potential location spots as well as the possible return of plot and characters. Time will tell if the series will be able to maintain the hype surrounding the show and have a possible rebound from this season’s lacking finale.
