‘We were all crying’: The White Lotus cast unpack the epic finale

This story contains major spoilers for the season finale of The White Lotus.

As the credits of the final episode of The White Lotus’ third season began to roll, the reaction at the cast screening in Los Angeles was complete silence. Some people wiped away tears. Others were quietly trying to comprehend what we had just seen.

Three main character deaths, a resurrection, a gunfight that claimed the life of the show’s sweetheart, and a tension knot over a blender jug of poison that turned minutes into what felt like hours of sickening unease.

Say cheese? The cast of The White Lotus after the Los Angeles screening of the 90-minute season three finale.Credit: FilmMagic for HBO

However you unpack it, this episode delivered a wallop. It was certainly not for the faint-hearted.

“We were all crying backstage, holding each other for a long time,” said Jason Isaacs, who played wealthy financier Timothy Ratliff, as the cast took to the stage at the Four Seasons.

“I don’t know if it’s because this thing is coming to an end – that’s part of it – or because just it is such a beautiful story,” Isaacs said, the emotion thick in his voice. “It is tricky for us all to be here, talking.”

True to form, the season finale demonstrated just how the show’s writer and director, Mike White, seems to revel in destroying the innocent.

Last season, the series bumped off the adorable and daffy Tanya McQuoid (Jennifer Coolidge). This season, it was Chelsea’s (Aimee Lou Wood) turn, with the free-spirited fan favourite dying in the arms of her lover-turned-gunman Rick (Walton Goggins) after he was taken out by hotel security officer Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong).

“It was like this odd, ominous thing that was just hanging over us,” Wood said of the weeks leading up to shooting the show’s narratively complex 90-minute final episode.

Aimee Lou Wood as Chelsea in The White Lotus.Credit: HBO

“And then it was the hottest day ever, and Walton had to carry me so many times,” Wood added, revealing the death sequence was shot over several takes. “It was so hard. I didn’t expect it to feel like that for such a long time before. It’s still not sunk in.

“There’s a lot in that [final] episode that made me sob a lot from the beginning,” Wood added. “It’s so clever because at the end, you want to hold the joy of the triumph, but Mike White makes you sit in that really achy place.”

One of the season’s big twists was the return of Tanya McQuoid’s husband, Greg (Jon Gries), who had seemingly set her up to be killed in the final episode of season two. Now hiding from investigators in Thailand, a chance encounter with the White Lotus Hawaii spa manager, Belinda (Natasha Rothwell), threatened him with exposure and ratcheted up the tension.

Gries revealed he had gone to great lengths to hide the fact that he was working on the series for a third season. He told family and friends that he was shooting a remake of The Sand Pebbles, the 1966 Steve McQueen war movie, in the Philippines. (The White Lotus was filmed nearby, in Thailand.)

Working on the series is “never taken lightly”, Gries said. “I can actually say every time so far it’s been crazy. I’m terrible at keeping those secrets. I tell everyone, it’s hard to lie. But the people who are good at it? It’s amazing. It’s been good practice.”

Isaacs, Wood and Gries were joined on stage after the screening by their co-stars, including Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sam Nivola and Sarah Catherine Hook – who played siblings Saxon, Lochlan and Piper Ratliff – as well as Tayme Thapthimthong, who played the hotel’s gentle security guard, Gaitok. There was a lot of laughter, with the group gathering at the end to pose for a selfie. And there was a lot of emotion as the end of the journey for the cast – after months of media attention – was suddenly in sight.

Wood fought back tears for much of the discussion, having just watched her character die on screen. It was the first time she had seen the episode. And Leslie Bibb, who played Texan country club wife Kate, broke down in tears as she reflected on the collective experience of working on The White Lotus for seven months.

“This is the best job in television. You get to feel like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory every day ... I had the f---ing time of my life,” Bibb said.

“These people are so incredible; they’re just the best people, and we have such good friendships. We were just in Australia holding hands with a kangaroo,” Bibb added, reaching out and taking Schwarzenegger’s hand. “It’s an amazing life.”

The White Lotus is streaming on Max

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