Goodbye Gaitok or bye-bye Belinda: Who will die in The White Lotus’ final episode?

They are the gunshots heard around the world. For seven episodes, season three of The White Lotus, creator Mike White’s deliciously catty takedown of the wealthy on holiday, has kept audiences captivated with its central murder mystery. Were the gunshots linked to the body in the water or is it just a coincidence?

When the final, 90-minute episode airs on Monday, all will be revealed, but in the meantime, we asked some reporters to cast their experienced eyes over the series and predict who dies and who did it.

Gaitok trying (and failing) to stop a robbery at The White Lotus resort.

Meg Watson, deputy TV editor: I have to state up top: I don’t care who dies. I don’t watch this show for the murder mystery, and the obsessive discourse over the now-obligatory death obscures the broader themes Mike White is trying to explore. But, judging by past seasons, I can also tell you the death will 100 per cent be accidental. People don’t die on The White Lotus by suicide or co-ordinated execution, they’re victims of their own folly and end up doing something dumb like doinking their heads after falling off a boat.

So let’s choose chaos. I’m backing the growing theory that a member of the Ratliff family is going to cark it after accidentally ingesting the poisonous pong-pong fruit outside their room. The now gunless Timothy Ratliff (Jason Isaacs) has already been spotted fondling the fruit from the so-called “suicide tree” in the episode preview, but when he inevitably gets cold feet again, it will mistakenly be blended up into a big ol’ Saxon smoothie.

And what about the gunshots? Greg/Gary (Jon Gries) coming to hunt down Belinda (Natasha Rothwell)? Unlikely. Jim Hollinger’s hired goons? Could be. But my money is on Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) confronting Valentin (Arnas Fedaravicius) and his Russian robbers, immediately dropping his gun because he’s terrible at his job, and it gets picked up by a rogue monkey who runs wild around the resort. It’s the only thing that makes sense.

Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) and her son Zion (Nicholas Duvernay). It’s Zion who finds the floating body in episode one.

Michaela Whitbourn, legal affairs reporter: Observing human behaviour in court cases has made me suspicious about, well, most things. But it’s also taught me not to buy into theories too readily. What do we know has happened in the third season of The White Lotus? We know a human body – or something that looks like one – is found floating in a body of water in the first episode. Your honour, may I stop the tape (and I did, repeatedly).

If it is a person, they appear to have dark hair, although the water may have affected its appearance. Could it be Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) or Belinda? We hear a series of pops, a pane of glass shatters, and we see people running and hiding. But do we know there has been a murder, or that the person in the water died of a gunshot wound? Not yet. If there is a killer, Greg emerges as an obvious suspect. But it is so obvious as to be suspicious. I think Mike White has crafted anything but a neat whodunnit. The jury is still out.

Frank (Sam Rockwell) and Rick (Walton Goggins) could both have it coming in The White Lotus.

Karl Quinn, culture reporter: In my wildest desires, it’s Frank (Sam Rockwell) floating in the water. But he’s not just the victim, he’s the killer too. Why? Because he’s on a quest to be both subject and object of his actions. Recall that remarkable scene in episode five, by far the standout moment in this season, when Frank tells his old buddy Rick (Walton Goggins) he’s given up booze and “found religion”, before flooring him with the tale of his sexual exploits. He could have shagged a million women, he tells him (and it sounds like he came pretty close), but it still wouldn’t have satisfied the craving inside.

And then the kicker: “I got it into my head that what I really wanted was to be one of these Asian girls, getting f---ed by me and to feel that.” Frank seeks the annihilation of self, the embrace of the other, the merging into universal oneness. It’s a debauched twist on Eastern mysticism, and that’s what this season has been about: privileged Westerners dipping their toes in the pool of enlightenment, and then going back to their material comforts (since that episode Frank has, of course, fallen off the wagon).

But as much as I want it to be Frank, in the spirit of renouncing my desires and embracing simplicity, I’m going to opt for a far more prosaic scenario: Gaitok has shot one of the Russian gangsters in a bid to prove to Mook (Lisa Manobal) he does have the killer instinct and is thus a worthy match.

Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) has checked into, but may not check out of, The White Lotus.

Katherine Scott, Traveller reporter: Oh, Chelsea. Everyone’s favourite toothy Manchester native has it coming – and The White Lotus’ hapless security guard Gaitok, desperate to prove his killer instinct and win Mook’s affections, will be the one to do it. Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) foresaw this in episode six, following two brushes with death, both weirdly involving a snake. “Bad things happen in threes,” she warns on a phone call with curmudgeonly boyfriend Rick, who has a knack for emerging unscathed as those in his orbit cop snake bites or relapse from role-play stress. The guy is poison.

Now, Gaitok knows it was Valentin and his friends behind the hotel robbery, and the stolen serpent choker that Chelsea was eyeing before the jewel thief snatched it away has reappeared in the closet of Laurie’s sketchy holiday squeeze, Aleksei. I don’t know what they’ll do with that information, but I’d bet my last lorazepam the snake necklace will be Chelsea’s downfall. Gaitok, of course, will try to play hero and catastrophically botch it all up. Take it from a travel writer well-versed in haughty hotel guests – at The White Lotus, as in life, annoying elites rarely get their comeuppance. Oh, and did we mention that 2025 is the year of the snake in the Chinese zodiac? Nice knowing you, Chelce …

Is it goodbye to Rick (Walton Goggins) in The White Lotus’ final episode?

Thomas Mitchell, culture reporter: Remember in episode one when Pam (Morgana O’Reilly) tells Tim Ratliff (Jason Isaacs) about the poisonous fruit: “Locals actually call it ‘the suicide tree’ … so don’t eat it,” she warns. I believe they call that a Chekhov’s gun, meaning the fruit is likely to return, perhaps in the form of a fatal smoothie. We’ve been led to believe the death is the result of a gunfight, but an unfortunate accident feels much more Mike White. As for the victim, sadly, in The White Lotus, there is no such thing as a happy ending, which could spell bad news for our boy, Rick. Having something of a positive breakthrough when he decided not to murder that “pathetic, frail old man” who maybe killed his dad, it would just be Rick’s luck to end up dead right as he was coming good. Chelsea said bad things come in threes, and I suspect Rick is about to learn that the hard way. Don’t drink that smoothie!

The tranqued Timothy (Jason Isaacs) has lost the gun, but could be in the line of fire.

Michelle Griffin, federal bureau chief: Such an unpleasant crew this time checking into the White Lotus. Whoever the killer is, I really hope they do a good job and wipe out most of the cast so they can’t return next season. Maybe spare Victoria Ratliff (Parker Posey) because she is improving when medicated with gin instead of pills, but all three of her awful kids and her lying, tranqued husband can all go. There’s no need to kill the three besties on holiday (Michele Monaghan, Leslie Bibb and Carrie Coon) as they’re so busy stabbing each other in the back. Gaitok should be fired if not shot.

Belinda isn’t even trying to escape scary Gary/Greg. Rick is clearly not the killer he thinks he is, but boy, his childhood trauma story is deadly dull. Chloe is fun – maybe she gets sick of all the soulless brats and goes postal. I doubt it, but she is welcome to turn up next season. Maybe it turns out to be the monkeys that did it. Never trust a monkey.

Who do you think will die in The White Lotus’ final episode? Tell us your theories in the comments below.

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