The White Lotus season 3 ending explained – Who died in Thailand?

With check-out day looming for our guests and the search for spirituality ever-present (for some more than others), the finale delivered quite the number of surprise deaths.

The morning saw Lochlan (Sam Nivola) and Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) wake up in the monastery with differing feelings about their impending journeys to enlightenment, while apologies were delivered by Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan) after the previous night's disagreements.

After his first date with Mook (Lalisa Manobal), Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) was also sure that he'd sussed out that Valetin's friends were the mystery masked robbers – but could the discovery lead to his demise?

The feature-length finale was one that Charlotte Le Bon had already teased would lead viewers to "hate Mike White", and the Shakespearean tragedy of it all may very well leave plenty of viewers reeling.

But who died in the finale of The White Lotus season 3? Read on to find out, but be warned as there are full spoilers ahead.

The White Lotus season 3 ending explained – Who died in Thailand?

After plenty of speculation over who would meet their demise in the finale, a total of five people were killed in the Amor Fati episode of The White Lotus.

Those unfortunate souls included Sritala's (Lek Patravadi) two bodyguards, who were caught in the shootout that ensued once Rick got a hold of Jim Hollinger's (Scott Glenn) gun.

Rick was on his own path of redemption after the previous night's antics in Bangkok, and returned to the hotel resort to an excited Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood), keen to forget that path and move on with their life together.

But when Jim and his wife Sritrala return to their hotel the following day, Jim corners Rick over their fiery confrontation the previous night. Rick didn't follow through with his death plot but did push a helpless Jim over in his office chair, likely thinking they'd never cross paths again.

When Jim does confront him the following morning, he references Jim's mother, saying that he remembers her to be a "drunk", a "liar" and a "slut", which understandably only fires Rick back up.

Jim also tells Rick that his father "was no saint", adding that Rick "didn’t miss out on much".

Jim orders Rick to leave his hotel, threatening him outright as he lifts his blazer to reveal a gun in his holster.

Trying to quell his rising anger, Chelsea tries to get through to Rick, but he says that the only person that can help him in that moment is stress counsellor Amrita (Shalini Peiris). He runs through the resort to find her, but with a pre-booked Zion (Nicholas Duvernay) already in tow, Amrita tells Rick to wait just one hour for her.

He sits down on a nearby bench, but his racing mind means he can't relax, and so, when Jim, Sritrala and their bodyguards come into view to take pictures with TV star Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan), his desperate last-minute plan becomes all too apparent.

He strides over, telling an approaching Chelsea to "get the f**k out of here" before he walks over to Jim, pulls out the gun from his holster and says "f**k you" before pulling the trigger twice.

Jim collapses dead in Sritala's arms, and when she asks Rick why, Rick simply says that Jim killed his father. "He's your father," she tells Rick, saying that Jim told her the truth last night.

Hearing the gunshots, Sritala's bodyguards aim to come to the rescue, but ultimately fail and get shot themselves by Rick.

It's only after he shoots the final one that Rick turns around to see Chelsea lying motionless on the floor, a pool of blood spreading on her chest, clearly shot and caught in the crossfire. Rick pleads with her not to die and picks her up, seemingly trying to carry her to safety and assistance.

As Gaitok finally snaps into gear and retrieves the hotel's new gun from its store, he runs to the scene of the crime. Sritala yells at him and orders him to shoot Rick, telling Gaitok where he went.

Gaitok, our series pacifist who doesn't believe in violence, sees Rick walking across the bridge with Chelsea in his arms and shoots Rick. Both dead, Rick and Chelsea fall into the pond and are left floating, echoing the pair's sentiment shared just that day that they'll be together forever.

What happened to Gaitok?

Although Gaitok sussed out who the armed robbers were, he played his hand too early and made Valentin aware of his suspicions regarding his friends. Valentin finds Gaitok and tells him that his friends only do their criminal activities because of visa issues and their inability to work a regular job in Thailand.

Valentin appeals to Gaitok's good nature and pleads with him not to tell anyone, saying that if they get found out, they'll be sent back to Russia, where they will be killed.

Gaitok initially sees the whole scenario to tell his boss about the uncovered mystery as an ample opportunity to get a promotion, something which Mook (Lalisa Manobal) relishes after initially seeming unsure about their second date.

But after Valentin's admissions, Gaitok admits to Mook that wants to quit his job and doesn't see himself as a guard.

"I don't want to hurt anyone," he tells her. However, Gaitok's words will come back to haunt him, as he later is forced to go against his non-violent disposition to save the day.

Under Sritrala's orders, he shoots Rick dead, and it seems that was the very thing he needed to do to become one of the lauded bodyguards that he thought he'd never live up to being.

In the episode's closing scenes, Gaitok is seen saying goodbye to Mook and getting into the front of Sritrala's car with sunglasses on, clearly now one of her trusted henchmen.

What happened to the Ratliff family?

If there was one assurance we had going into the finale, it was that some serious stuff was set to go down with the Ratliff clan.

Although we didn't quite know what would happen, Timothy's (Jason Isaac) death plan seemed to be finalised in his head as it became apparent that it would include wife Victoria (Parker Posey) and son Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger), who both appeared unable to fathom living a life not in their usual avenue of luxury or success.

Timothy had assumed that his youngest children, Piper and Lochlan, wouldn't default to such feelings, but after returning from the monastery, it became all too clear that Piper – like her mother – wasn't destined for a life of simple means.

After admitting that the lack of organic produce and air conditioning in her "tiny box" room was enough to send her over the edge, Piper resolved that the monastery life just wasn't for her, much to her mother's joy.

Why not bask in the pleasures of buying whatever jewellery your heart desires in the hotel gift shop instead? Victoria revels in the newfound opportunity to reintroduce her daughter to their default life of opulence, but it all leaves a sour note in Timothy's mouth as he understands that he must now include Piper in his deadly plan.

Timothy remembers what Pam (Morgana O’Reilly) told him about the poisonous pong-pong seeds and picks up a bunch of the fruit, extracting the seeds and whizzing them up in the blender.

That evening, Timothy tells the family that in a bid to celebrate their final night on holiday, they should do homemade piña coladas in their room.

The staff send up the ingredients and Timothy uses the poison-filled mix as a base for the tropical cocktail, handing it out to everyone but Lochlan, who earlier told Timothy that he would be able to lead a simple life and is of course too young to drink alcohol.

Making a toast to his family on their final night, Saxon realises that the cocktail tastes weird, and although each of them take several pained gulps, Timothy seems to have a moment of clarity over the horrendous act he's committing. He slaps Saxon's glass out of his hand, saying that the coconut milk is off, and thus, order is somewhat restored.

But Timothy – likely used to other people cleaning up after him – leaves the blender with its poisonous contents still at its bottom. In the morning, Lochlan wakes up intent on making his own protein shake.

Saxon had previously referred to their incestuous sexual escapades and told his younger brother that "no one's going to make you a man". What better way to do that then to make your own protein shake, right?

Wrong. Lochlan doesn't care to clean out the blender, and so ingests a whole glass of the protein/pong-pong mixture and, later, throws up by the side of the pool.

With most of his family at breakfast, Lochlan becomes motionless. However, spotting the blender and then his lifeless son, Timothy rushes out to Lochlan's side and is genuinely distraught to find his son seemingly dead.

Lochlan has a vision of himself drowning underwater with his family figures – which soon turn to four faceless monks – above him.

Just when we thought that the teenager could've met his demise, he opens his eyes while in Timothy's arms and tells his father that he think he saw God.

So, no Ratliffs were harmed in the making of the White Lotus finale, but on the boat back to the mainland, they're given their phones back and soon find out just what Timothy has been hiding from them all.

He plucks up the courage to try and warn them, telling them that "things are about to change" but that they'll get through it as a "strong" family, saying that nothing is more important than that.

What happened to Belinda?

Having feared for her life ever since she laid her eyes on Greg (Jon Gries), the penultimate episode saw Belinda offered $100,000 in exchange for her silence over Greg's real identity and his connection to ex-wife Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge).

Belinda had felt weird about Greg all along, suspecting him of murdering Tanya, and didn't initially feel comfortable taking his hush money.

But that all soon changed after Zion (Nicholas Duvernay) reminded his mother that it could be the financial opportunity she had been waiting for.

Belinda had always wanted to open a spa, so Zion says why don't they try their chances at haggling for more money? They agree that they'll go up to Greg's house together to negotiate a deal, and Zion surprises Belinda by telling Greg that they want $5 million instead.

Belinda abruptly walks out, seemingly in disgust, but tells Zion it's all part of her act to make Greg scared of her rather than vice versa. Zion later returns to Belinda telling her that he secured the deal and that Greg said he'd wire her the money.

They wait all evening, and the following morning, Greg pulls through with his promise and Belinda has a whopping $5 million in her bank account. Belinda tells Zion that Greg called her to say that he was giving the money to Tanya as much as to Belinda, but also to check that she'd hold up her end of the bargain and keep quiet.

Belinda says they need to get out of Thailand quickly in case Greg changes his mind and wants to be hard to find, not sparing a thought for her blossoming romance with Pornchai (Dom Hetrakul).

While the first episode's opening scene hinted at Zion potentially being caught in the crossfire, he made it out of the shootout unscathed, and the episode's final scene is of Belinda and Zion – now $5 million richer – riding off into the sunset in a luxury boat of their own.

What happened to Kate, Laurie and Jaclyn?

After falling out over Valentin and Laurie going on an epic night out with his friends, she awoke to Jaclyn at her bedroom door wanting to apologise.

Laurie simply wanted to sleep the day away and left Kate and Jaclyn to their own devices, but later joined them for dinner, where she laid out just what their friendship means to her.

Laurie admits that she's been unhappy in her career, motherhood and romantic life, but that having this lifelong friendship with two of her childhood pals is one of the true senses of fulfilment in her life.

As always, it seems as though Laurie has had to push her true feelings to the side in order to maintain this (painful) friendship dynamic, but alas, they all seem happy.

While they all did get caught up in Rick's shootout with Jim, they all checked out of The White Lotus unharmed and are later seen embracing on the boat back to mainland.

Trauma-bonded for life, perhaps? That'll sustain their confusing dynamic for some years to come, we're sure.

The White Lotus season 3 is available on Sky Atlantic and NOW.

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