Ryan Kirksey
The following recap contains spoilers for The White Lotus S3E8, “Amor Fati” (written and directed by Mike White)
The monk Luang Por Teera (Suthichai Yoon) opens the Season 3 finale of The White Lotus with a mysterious and layered piece of advice when considered in the context of this show.
“We take life into our own hands. Our solutions are temporary. They are a quick fix. They create more anxiety. More suffering. There is no resolution to life’s questions. It is easier to be patient once we finally accept there is no resolution.”
Among the many themes explored in this third season of the Mike White creation—religion, wealth, purpose—perhaps this quote, the title of this episode, and this finale can finally nail down that coming face to face with our individual fate is what it was about all along.
With a backdrop of Buddhism across these eight episodes (or if you’re Parker Posey, “Boooodhism”), we can not help but think about the idea of the individual, and how an individual can find enlightenment, or accept their fate by a deeper understanding of who they are.
But this does not mean living an individualistic or selfish life. Buddhism also focuses on how all beings are in one way or another interconnected. Our fates are our own, but we are still tied to one another as our fates send us down different paths.
As the resolutions pile up throughout “Amor Fati,” it’s clear that this current guest and staff list at The White Lotus in Thailand are, and always will be, more interconnected than they ever thought they would be. Several have now experienced their final fate, others have a long journey of discovery ahead of them. But did everyone have a moment of enlightenment and selflessness?
It wouldn’t be The White Lotus if they did.
The Ratliff Family
The “Amor Fati” for the Ratliff family this entire week has now clearly come into view. Each member of the family has stated who they really are at some point this season, and now they are each facing a tsunami of reckoning that is going to crash into them when they turn those phones on and get on a plane back to North Carolina.
Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) has to admit to her smirking mother, Victoria (Parker Posey), that she is a spoiled princess and doesn’t want to live in a temple with no air conditioning, organic food, or unstained mattresses. Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) is finally on a path to enlightenment after the “assistance” he got from his brother. He’s almost read through one whole book in three days!
Victoria has admitted on multiple occasions that she simply could not live if she were poor and that it would be wrong for her not to enjoy all they have (“if we don’t it’s offensive, it’s offensive to all the billions of people who can only dream that one day they could live like we do.” Call me back in about four days, Victoria, and let me know how that’s going for you!
Only poor Lochlan (Sam Nivola), who has seen and done way too much on this trip, seems to be free from the trappings of this mortal coil, as his dad Tim (Jason Isaacs) actually believes Lochlan would be happy if he had nothing with which to live.
Lochlan is perhaps the one guy who deserves a pina colada more than anyone for having to put up with this family of “narcissists” (his word!) this week, but Tim won’t let him try one because he’s not 21 Tim doesn’t want Lochlan to be part of the murder-suicide by way of the poisonous fruit Tim ground up in the blender.
At the last moment, Tim comes to his senses and won’t let them gulp the pina coladas (The coconut milk is off!), but he is still in such a Lorazapam haze he doesn’t remember to clean the blender before bed. Lochlan, wanting to follow in his brother’s very deranged footsteps, makes himself a morning smoothie, but fortunately is able to vomit out the poison after a scary moment or two (and some visions of God) before waking up in his father’s arms.
“Things are about to change,” Tim says on the boat as the family leaves The White Lotus. This is certainly true, as they are likely headed back to a life of shame and poverty, but every member of this family was changed already during their trip to The White Lotus. Will they “get through it as a family?” They’re going to need more than books, pina coladas, and Lorazepam to make it to their next vacation.
Gaitok and Mook
Gaitok’s (Tayme Thapthimthong) strict faith in Buddhism has led him to live a life that is strictly nonviolent and confrontational. His faith has already been at odds several times with his chosen profession as a security guard, and it is put to the ultimate test in “Amor Fati” when he is faced with a choice of kill a man (more on that below) and position himself as a hero to both Mook (Lalisa Manobal) and Sritala (Lek Patravadi) or double-down on his nonviolence.
Gaitok already told both Mook and his supervisor that he was not the right man for a security job after he figured out the identity of the men who robbed the store in the hotel earlier that week. His nonviolence even extends to the position of not turning in Valentin (Arnas Fedaravicius) and his friends because Valentin convinces him he will die because he will be deported back to Russia if he is found to have committed a crime.
However, enlightenment apparently doesn’t always mean a change for the better because Gaitok’s love for Mook and his desperation for approval within his work wins. Gaitok becomes the man he hated and never wanted to be, but the tradeoff is a relationship with Mook, a pair of fancy sunglasses, and a role as Sritala’s new bodyguard.
Was it worth it? It appears Mike White thinks that doesn’t matter. It was Gaitok’s “Amor Fati” moment and he stepped into who he was always meant to be when the situation called for it.
Jaclyn, Kate, and Laurie
The relationships and resolutions between the three lifelong friends are, on one hand, emotional and sobering, but on the other hand, complicated. Laurie (Carrie Coon) delivers the Emmy reel moment of her character when she confesses that her devotion to work, love, children, and status all have left her empty. “I don’t need religion or God to give my life meaning, because time gives it meaning.”
It’s a wonderful sentiment and a sharp turn from the bickering between these three ladies over the last two episodes, but even when Laurie tells Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan) she has a beautiful face and Kate (Leslie Bibb) she has a beautiful life, the two friends can’t find it in them to give Laurie a compliment back.
For once, Laurie just wants to be real and recognize that she is not only the product of the decisions she has made—good or bad—in her life, but the life itself was what made it all worth it. The three friends have reconciliation and their moment of peace (at least before they witness a murder, that is), but it appears Laurie’s enlightenment has lifted her to a plane above Jaclyn and Kate.
Just like Laurie standing on a balcony, lonely, while Jaclyn and Kate take selfies of each other in the pool, she will always be the one of the three on the outside looking in. Not willing to live the fake, superficial life, but also not willing to part with the friends who helped give her life meaning.
Belinda, Zion, Gary, and Pornchai
Using “business” skills Zion (Nicholas Duvernay) picked up along the way during his MBA at the University of Hawaii (good for him since the U of H business school ranks 92nd out of 124 business schools in the country), Belinda’s (Natasha Rothwell) son has a plan to negotiate $5 million out of Gary (Jon Gries) before they get the heck out of Thailand.
Belinda actually plays this hand much better than Zion, because instead of proclaiming they are “team Gary,” Belinda storms off, stating loudly she will never take money from that man. But then she sends Zion Glengarry Glen Ross back in for the kill. Even though Gary says he will think about it, $5 million of hush money shows up in Belinda’s account by the next morning. Good luck explaining that one to the IRS!
Unfortunately, Belinda starts to walk down a similar path that Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) did in Season 1. Despite how much she loves Pornchai (Dom Hetraful), she tells him her “circumstances have changed” and that she won’t be able to open that new spa with him after all. At least not right now. She wants to enjoy “being rich for five minutes,” which is really code for “let’s get the hell out of this place where Gary lives and has random robberies and shootouts over the course of a week.”
Rick, Chelsea, Sritala, and Jim
We finally know who the body/bodies were in the water during the first scene of Episode 1, and it’s a group of people all within the Venn diagram of Rick’s (Walton Goggins) grudge against Jim Hollinger (Scott Glenn). Was it a predictable ending for many in this group? Perhaps, but that does not make the ending any less tragic, especially considering the enlightened, almost transcendent state Rick finds himself in after returning to Thailand from Bangkok.
Rick, with an understanding that he has found peace not by killing Jim but just being willing to have the confrontation, leaves Frank (Sam Rockwell) and several ladies behind in the hotel to return to his true love, Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood). He has found his peace and finally a full understanding that Chelsea is his soul mate and the one he wants to be with forever (“that’s the plan” is about as romantic as Rick gets).
While it’s easy to question why Rick stumbled back onto The White Lotus Thailand property for more than two minutes, considering the man he attacked is co-owner of the hotel, we can forgive Rick for a moment of lucidity since he has been haunted by his quest for decades. He finally feels free and is clearly not thinking rationally.
In a twist many saw coming, Jim turns out to be Rick’s father, but they won’t get to rule the galaxy as father and son because Jim finds Rick and calls his mother a drunk and a slut. To Rick’s credit, he first seeks out Amrita (Shalini Peiris) to try and talk him down. But in a cruel twist of irony, Zion, who now has everything going right in his life, has a session scheduled with her. Rick, whose newfound peace is crumbling, needs her but resorts to shooting Jim when she says she can’t see Rick for an hour.
In the ensuing gunfight, the two (worst of all time) bodyguards both end up shot, but Chelsea is caught in the crossfire and dies in Rick’s arms. When Gaitok makes the fatal decision to give in to the violent desires of Sritala and Mook, he unknowingly gives Chelsea what she wanted for her and Rick all along.
They die together in the water, notably in the yin and yang position, symbolizing they were always meant to be together, whether that’s in life or in death. They are perfect opposites and complements to one another; representations of “Amor Fati,” accepting one’s fate no matter the outcome.
