‘The White Lotus:’ A Theory Ahead Of Sunday’s Season Finale

Mike White’s The White Lotus wraps its sensational third season on Sunday. If you’re caught up, then here is a theory about the identify of the shooter first heard in the pilot. Spoilers of course…

Several people have asked about my opinions on the upcoming The White Lotus season finale. People know I love the series, and they know I very much vibe with Mike White’s investment in character-driven drama. I more than vibe with it. White’s literary approach to the material is very much my jam. It kills me to see people claim, “Nothing happens in The White Lotus.”

To that, I say, “Look closer.”

This season, as with the two before it, offers a murder plot as a red herring. The identity of the victim and of the killer are incidental, the garnish on a much more interesting entrée. The main course, as devised by White, is the exploration of these fascinatingly flawed characters. For my money, he’s an artistic descendant of the great Robert Altman whose brilliant 1975 Nashville was also criticized because “nothing happens.”

Again, to that I say, “Look closer.”

At any rate, for a show where nothing happens, The White Lotus is doing extraordinarily well in the ratings. People seem to be tuning in for something, and I hope it’s not just to find out who’s firing all those bullets in the Thailand resort. But, in case you are, here’s my theory that I’ve shared with a few friends. Tune in Sunday night to see just how right (or wrong) I am.

It’s Probably Not a Man. Here’s why. 

I believe the aggressor heard firing off round after round of bullets in the opening scene of season three is not a man. It would be incongruous with the theming and the tone of what White already established over the previous seven episodes. Of the main cast, the men either attending or working within the White Lotus resort are largely men of inaction. They’re men plagued by doubt, insecurity, and deeply felt pain. Frozen to the point of inaction, they all believe they know what they want out of life. When that turns out to be the wrong path, they don’t know what else to do.

The most prominent example of male inaction, based on last week’s episode, would be Walton Goggins’ Rick Hatchett. Here’s a man who dragged his younger, deeply devoted girlfriend (Aimee Lou Wood’s Chelsea) to Thailand, diverting her from a previous vacation destination. He wants to find the man he believes killed his father and exact some sort of revenge, assigning blame for his aimless, messed-up life to Scott Glenn’s Jim Hollinger. Rick so deeply blames Jim for everything wrong in his life that he fully dedicates a stress management session to revealing their troubled past.

The problem is that Rick’s extraordinarily bad at revenge plotting. After flying to Bangkok, Rick engages the unwitting assistance of Sam Rockwell’s Frank (a whole lot of weird) but fails to give him any details about his ultimate plan. Rick sets up a personal meeting with Jim’s wife Sritala (Lek Patravadi), framing Frank as a film director who wants to cast her in his next movie. Rick, of course, doesn’t actually give Frank any of the details of previous conversations with Sritala, and Frank suffers through a painfully funny meet and greet. It does, however, allow Rick to join Jim in his private office where he confronts and threatens to shoot him. But he can’t. Instead, he tips Jim’s chair over, leaving the frail man sprawled on his back.

You could say that Rick shows Jim mercy, as he alludes when later revealing the events to Frank. I suppose that’s possible, but the way Walton Goggins plays the scene highlights the fear and doubt in Rick’s own eyes. Who could blame him? It’s a hell of a thing killing a man (nod to Kevin Costner). Whatever the justification, Rick’s life seemed riddled with insecurities and inaction. It would be unrealistic and the stuff of bad movies to suddenly find Rick overcoming these issues enough to take another man’s life. Instead, he retreats to the comfort of inaction, pain soothed by booze and drugs in a Bangkok club.

Talking about medicinal soothing, take Jason Isaacs’ Tim Ratliff as another example of inaction. Earlier in the season, Tim became plagued with bad news from the States: a highly illegal deal in which he participated has now attracted the attention of the FBI. His partner in that deal made a plea deal. When Tim leaves Thailand and arrives back in the States, he will likely be arrested, and his family will be subject to financial ruin. What does Tim do? He becomes addicted to his wife Victoria’s (Parker Posey) Lorazepam and either sleeps or stumbles through the next few days in a drug-induced stupor. He’s kind of flip-flopping with Victoria who enters the series in the same Lorazepam haze. Just as she becomes clearer, he becomes more opaque.

Tim does make a rash decision, a hint of action, by stealing a gun from the resort’s security booth. But he does nothing with it aside from fantasizing about killing himself, Victoria, and even his first-born son Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger). Of course, he does not carry through with any of these actions and eventually loses the gun. He is another man paralyzed by inactivity. His two sons – Saxon and Lochlan (Sam Nivola) don’t fare much better. Yes, they free themselves of social norms through booze and drugs and engage in a wild, incestuous threesome, but they’re perhaps irreversibly shaken by that night’s escapades. In the last episode, Saxon nearly sobs to his father that his professional identity is the only identity he has, and Lochlan (a sad, aimless character completely devoid of a personal identity) grabs onto his sister’s fascination with the Buddhist culture. It’s as if he’s looking for a lifeline to save him from a lifetime of nothingness.

There’s Jon Gries’ “Gary” a.k.a. Greg who talks a big talk. We all know him from seasons one and two as the boyfriend / husband of Tanya McQuoid (Jennifer Coolidge). While he didn’t directly kill Tanya (“These gays! They’re trying to murder me!”), he was definitely up to something very shady. Now, hiding from the police in season three, he apparently leverages his lover Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon) to enact some sort of plan that has yet to be revealed, potentially involving Saxon Ratliff. When he’s discovered by Natasha Rothwell’s Belinda, Greg attempts to bribe her with $100,000. You expect him to do something far more nefarious, but again, he’s a man of inaction. Maybe he works behind the scenes. Maybe he’s secretly pulling all kinds of strings. Sunday should reveal more.

You have hapless security guard Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) whose single act of bravery and decisiveness comes in his declaration of affection for co-worker Mook (Lalisa Manobal). Otherwise, he allows Tim Ratliff to steal a gun, fails to report it out of fear, and refuses to fully confront Tim about it (opting instead for a vaguely worded, very polite meeting). He’d rather break into a guest’s room to retrieve the gun than face losing his job. He also allows two masked men to flee the resort after robbing its jewelry counter. However, there may be a change in Gaitok coming for the finale. Certainly, episode seven established a rift in his relationship with Mook, who is turned off by what she believes is his unrealistic clinging to a pacifist believe system. Maybe he becomes a man of action in the finale to fully impress Mook. We’ll see on Sunday.

Finally, there’s the hilariously bland resort manager Fabian (Christian Friedel). He’s a character so riddled with inaction that he barely registers at all. Throughout the season, he gradually reveals a longing to perform at the resort as other employees do, but it’s upon the encouragement of a trio of guests that he actually goes through with it. And when he does, White cuts away within 10 seconds, revealing only that Fabian appears to have some actual singing talent.

“I have a lot of feelings,” he randomly shares with guest Kate (Leslie Bibb) who then ignores him and praises his shirt.

I do too Fabian. A lot of them.

So Who Is the Shooter?

If White constructs a narrative of male inadequacy, then the shooter must be female. I suppose you can argue that one of the three Russian men, con artists of the finest class, could be the shooter, but they don’t exactly come across as murderers to me. They would never risk their sweet connections at The White Lotus over something as highly visible as a mass shooting. Granted, Gaitok figured out who attacked him at the front gate, but it remains to be seen if he’ll actually do anything with that information.

But I do believe the identity of the shooter is linked to the Russians.

Look back at interactions between the Russians and the three “childhood friends” of Kate (Bibb), Laurie (Carrie Coon), and Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan). These scenes evolve over several episodes with an increasing sexual intensity underscored by a threat of violence. Consider the nightclub scene in episode five where the women dance suggestively with their Russian dates. Suddenly, one of the Russian’s apparent girlfriend appears at the table, furious that he’s involved with these three American women.

Cut to episode seven where Laurie hooks up with Julian Kostov’s Aleksei. Just as he’s trying to fleece her for $10,000, the same enraged woman from the club bangs on his apartment door. They argue, Aleksei buys time for Laurie to escape, and the woman slaps his semi-erect cock. As Laurie tries to escape out the window, the woman sees her and nearly attacks her. Aleksei intervenes, and Laurie escapes.

But I don’t think it’s over.

HBO has NOT released the finale to critics yet, but I believe this woman obtains a gun and heads to the White Lotus to exact revenge against Laurie. After all, no one at the resort has a gun other than the security team, and that’s under lock and key. Rick threw his gun in the trash in Bangkok. I believe this unhinged Russian woman steals one from Aleksei and attempts to shoot Laurie.

So, that’s my take on The White Lotus and its upcoming third season finale. Will our male cast continue to be men of inaction? Is our shooter a spurned Russian girlfriend? Catch up with our Contending at the Water Cooler podcast next Monday night as we discuss the finale and the season overall.