Character Deaths Revealed in Explosive ‘White Lotus’ Finale

The White Lotus finally delivered on the storylines it’s been slow-cooking all season long with Sunday’s season finale—including a bloodbath that led to the deaths of five characters.

The hit HBO drama has been teasing the deaths of one or more characters all season, as the first episode opened with Belinda’s son Zion hearing gunshots in the distance before rolling back to one week prior.

In the finale, titled Amor Fati, both Rick Hatchett and his girlfriend Chelsea died in a shootout after Rick shot Jim Hollinger to avenge his dead father (who, by the way, was revealed to be Rick’s secret, actual father immediately after his death). Rick put two bullets into Jim’s chest, then took out both of Jim’s bodyguards—but not before one of them missed a shot at Rick and hit Chelsea in the heart with a bullet. Finally, security guard Gaitok finally gets his hero moment when he arrives on-scene and shoots Rick, causing the couple to be “together forever” in death as they had proposed just thirty minutes prior.

Most watchers expected one or all of the Ratliff clan to die in the finale, given that the show has been heavily teasing Timothy Ratliff’s suicide. It seemed at the episode’s halfway point that the eldest Ratliff was going to pull a Jim Jones and feed his family members some poisoned smoothies, using the “suicide fruit” with poisonous seeds that showed up all the way back in episode one. But that turned out to be a massive red herring, as Tim instead stopped his family members from consuming the drinks.

Lochy, the youngest Ratliff, ended up consuming the poisoned drink the next day, and the episode showed him dying. However, it was yet again another fakeout, as the teenager came back to life in the finale’s final moments.

In the end, White Lotus pulled a White Lotus yet again: the season’s most despicable characters escaped unscathed, while the fan favorites met their untimely end.

“People are going to hate [series creator] Mike White,” said actress Charlotte Le Bon to THR ahead of the finale’s airing. She was, in fact, correct. Hats off.

The White Lotus has already been renewed for season four; after this jaw-dropping finale, it’s safe to say that most of America will be tuning in whenever it drops.