Did The White Lotus Season 3 earn that ending?

The guests have checked out of this season of The White Lotus — or at least, most of them.

The highly anticipated third season set in Thailand saw the typically intense formula of the smash HBO anthology series brought down to a slow burn. But did the change of pace make for a more explosive finale?

Today on Commotion, CBC entertainment reporter Jackson Weaver and University of Toronto East Asian Studies professor Michelle Cho join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to discuss who died, who survived and whether this season lived up to audience expectations.

Please note there are spoilers ahead for The White Lotus Season 3 Episode 8, titled "Amor Fati." We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.

Elamin: Jackson, we get this slow burn of a season, story-wise, and then we get to that finale. How'd you feel about that finale? 

Jackson: I mean, everyone's talking about the slow burn. I started watching White Lotus for this show [Commotion]. I watched half of Season 3, all of Season 1, finished Season 3 and now I'm going back through Season 2. So I'm in a very strange way to go about it.

Elamin: Yeah, you're not living the normal experience that everybody else is living with White Lotus, but yes. 

Jackson: But seeing it in such a quick fashion, I think I'm getting a hyper-specific … aspect of what all the seasons are like. And they're fine. I think it's really kind of a literary way to tell a story. It ratchets up the tension all the way through until it finally releases it at the end. You have all these disparate, different storylines that are more about the central theme … and then you release it in that final moment. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I don't think there should have been shootouts every episode. I am a fan of this finale. I think they did a really good job of wrapping it up there. 

Elamin: Wow, different ends of the spectrum in terms of relationship to the shootout, but that's okay. I'll reserve my thoughts for a moment. Michelle, what are your thoughts on the finale?

Michelle: I feel as ambivalent as one can, I think, because it was technically brilliant. Every element — the music, cinematography, pacing, editing, acting, which has been just so phenomenal this whole time — were all A++, but narratively it is for me a series of letdowns…. It's like when you have an assignment, and you are doing great on everything but the content. It's a little bit of a problem. So I don't know, it had a lot to do, but can I give it like a B-? That's how I would grade it.

Elamin: Wow, first of all, I think that's a low grade. Let me pick up on what Jackson was saying — the idea that this is a pretty literary show, because I think that's true and that's why I think people embrace it and have a relationship with it. Carrie Coon's character, Laurie, had this monologue in the finale that in theory should have been the climax of the show. In theory, this was the thesis of the show. She's tearful and she's like, this vacation wasn't what I thought it was going to be. You know, I tried religion. It didn't work out for me. I tried paying attention to work. It didn't work out for me. I tried love. It didn't work out for me. But then I realized I have time. And I have you guys. I've had these two friends my entire life, and just the very fact of our endurance says something about our presence in each other's lives. You know?

It's this really beautiful monologue that is kind of about waking up and recognizing the thing that you've had all along and the value of that. And you see that kind of play out in the Ratliff family, who are like, "Things are gonna go real badly in just a moment, but we at least have each other." There's a parallel to Walton Goggins' character, Rick, who suddenly realizes he actually had everything that he needed in front of him the whole time, and he just didn't use it, but tragically that ends in his death. This is a great thesis, but the way that you go about executing that thesis, I'm not sure that they built the scaffolding for that throughout the whole rest of the season. Is that what you're reacting to, Michelle?

Michelle: I think it's related. I think that there's this kind of like cynicism plus all of a sudden a humanistic ending at the end, and that's what I wasn't quite prepared for, maybe. Like, you haven't really given us too many indications that that's kind of what you want us to take away. 

Elamin: You have to earn it.

Michelle: Yeah, you have to earn that kind of epiphany or finding real meaning in the midst of a lot of meaninglessness.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Ty Callender.