You weren’t the only one tearing up during90-minute finale of The White Lotus. Season 3 of Mike White’s series has officially concluded, with viewers left shocked, heartbroken, and all-around emotional. And it turns out, the cast felt the same (warning:lots of spoilers ahead).
In preparation for the series' end, Max took over the Four Seasons Hotel in Westlake Village, California, to create a Thailand-inspired White Lotus wellness oasis. The retreat included cooking and mixology classes with Ketel One Vodka and Tanqueray Gin, meditation sessions, and a moving panel discussion (hosted by Queer Eye’s Tan France) with the ensemble after they, too, watched the finale for the first time.
During the cast’s Q&A, we got the tea on how Aimee Lou Wood truly felt about her character’s death, plus Patrick Schwarzenegger’s initial reaction to the explosive ending.
Scroll to see The White Lotuscast's reaction to that heartbreaking season 3 finale...
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The White Lotus Cast's Reactions to Chelsea and Rick’s Death
As audience members know, Chelsea and Rick were the characters that met a gruesome end.
Wood said of her character’s death, “For about two weeks before we shot it, I felt super weird. It was this odd, ominous thing that was just hanging over us.” Her character is a casualty of an intense gunfight ignited by her boyfriend Rick (played by Walton Goggins), who attempted to save her by carrying her to safety. “And then it was the hottest day ever. Walton had to carry me so many times, and it was so hard.
In that time, Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) achieves his vindication by shooting Rick in the back. “Chelsea doesn’t know what’s going to happen to her,” Wood said, adding that the scene “looked exactly how it felt, which was really strange.” There’s a final, dark shot of Chelsea dead, faced down in the pond and Rick faced up, mimicking a Yin and Yang symbol.
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Meanwhile, Thapthimthong felt like his character’s actions were “justified.”
Thapthimthong said, “At first, I felt like, ‘I don’t want to shoot him in the back.’ I wish he would turn around and have a little gunfight with me so we can have a little action scene. But we had a discussion with Mike, and I remember he said, ‘Trust me,’ it will be justified. I feel like it really was.” Gaitok then goes on to receive the promotion he’s always wanted, so you can say things worked out for him.
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Patrick Schwarzenegger, who arguably conveyed the biggest character arc in Saxon Ratliff, built a spiritual connection with Chelsea that translated IRL.
Schwarzenegger told France, “I knew something happened to Chelsea, but I didn’t know the extent of everything. It’s this really surreal weird feeling right now of just spending so much time with all of these cast members and then watching someone die. I don’t know how to describe it. You feel like something really happened.” We did too, Patrick, we did too.
As Aimee Lou Wood said on the panel, “There’s a lot in that episode that made me f---ing sob.” And we couldn’t think of a more perfect way to describe the series ending.
Other Can’t Miss Cast Quotes From The 'The White Lotus' Finale Panel:
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Patrick Schwarzenegger (Saxon Ratliff)
“I think once it happened with Chelsea, I started crying in the theater. I looked over at Charlotte [Le Bon] — it was an emotional moment.”
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Sarah Catherine Cook (Piper Ratliff)
“I was like, ‘Wow everyone in this episode really came to some enlightenment, and she’s trying to get enlightened the whole time.’ Then she’s like, ‘No, I guess I’m spoiled.’ I love that.”
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Sam Nivola (Lochlan Ratliff)
“I've never died in anything before. It was fun to get to do that.”
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Leslie Bibb (Kate Bohr)
“I remember when we were filming because the girls were the first ones to shoot our villa, and we all read the scripts and we were like, ‘Oh, our storyline is boring’....I don't think, honestly, we thought that it was going to take off the way it is.”
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Nicholas Duvernay (Zion Lindsey)
“Finally getting even just a little bit of justice for Tanya was amazing. Amazing to finally, over three seasons, give her that closure, essentially."
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Jon Gries (Greg Hunt)
“I think Season 2 surprised me more somehow. But I guess the enormity of the wealth surprised me.”
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Jason Isaacs (Timothy Ratliff)
“I look at my kids I love in real life, these three, and I love them on screen as well. I think there’s more to them. I doubted them, and they will be fine. They just won’t be fine in gigantic houses with huge Tesla trucks.”
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