Originally appeared on E! Online.
Warning: This article contains major spoilers for the April 6 finale of “The White Lotus.”
Multiple guests have checked out of “The White Lotus” — permanently.
Indeed, during the heartbreaking season 3 finale, Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) and Rick (Walton Goggins) were the guests whose vacation ended in tragedy.
While Rick had seemingly found peace, his happiness was disrupted when the man he thought killed his father, Jim Hollinger (Scott Glenn), returned to the White Lotus. And when Rick shoots him in a fit of rage — only for Sritila (Lek Patravadi) to tell him Jim was Rick’s father all along — Rick and Chelsea are both killed in the subsequent shootout.
It was a heartbreaking, yet epic, 90-minute conclusion the season that maybe shouldn’t have come as a surprise. After all, actress Charlotte Le Bon (who played Chloe) warned The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the finale, “People are going to hate Mike White.”
And indeed, the creator and writer knew his finale may bring about mixed reactions.
“My hope is that it’ll feel like a cathartic sad or a satisfying sad and not a ‘What the f—?’ sad,” he added to THR in the interview published April 2. “But people are going to have a million different opinions. You just hope you stick the landing.”
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For the “Survivor” alum, even bringing to life the feature-length finale episode was a labor of love.
“As a filmmaker,” he added, “it’s probably the piece of work that I’m like, ‘I can’t believe I did that.’”
But while fans were on the edge of their seats heading into the April 6 finale to see how everything unfolded, as it turns out, some of the cast was, too.
Parker Posey, who played Victoria Ratliff, confessed to THR, “I forgot who died. It was so stressful when I read it. The dark stuff, I blazed through.”
Plus, some cast and crew members were specifically left in the dark as to prevent spoilers — including Patrick Schwarzenegger, whose portrayal of Saxon Ratliff caused quite a stir throughout the season.
“I’m just excited to watch the finale with the rest of the world,” he admitted, “because I actually have no idea what happens.”
As producer David Bernad explained, “This season, our script supervisor wrote these crazy fake endings that we distributed on set. We didn’t distribute the real last script. People on set didn’t know.”
Which means, some cast and crew also didn’t know about the fates of other beloved characters, whose fates were wrapped up in the finale.
For the Ratliff family, tragedy almost strikes when Lochlan unwittingly serves himself a poisoned smoothie, however, he revives in his father’s arms, and the Southern family returns home — their lives about to be forever changed due to Timothy’s misdeeds.
The three friends — Laurie, Jaclyn and Kate — ultimately forgive each other’s jabs and leave the White Lotus closer than before, while Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) leaves $5 million richer after she strikes a deal with Gary/Greg (Jon Gries) to keep silent over the mysterious circumstances of his wife’s death.
But no matter how fans feel about saying goodbye to Rick and Chelsea, no one feels more bittersweet about their check out from the White Lotus than White.
“To be honest, I’m a bit of a head case right now,” the “School of Rock” alum admitted, telling THR he was crying in his car thinking about it. “This show is my whole life, then it’s over and I’m back in my house with my dog, trying to remember who my friends are and what did I do before the show.”
