Spoilers for The White Lotus finale ahead. Viewers spent the entirety of The White Lotus Season 3 guessing who would be the victim of the murder previewed in the very first scene. Now, the results are in: Star-crossed lovers Rick (Walton Goggins) and Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) wound up in the show’s infamous body bags, as revealed on the April 6 season finale.
In the previous episode, Rick confronted Jim Hollinger (Scott Glenn), the man he believed killed his father, and threatened him with a gun at his Bangkok mansion — but ultimately fled the scene without firing. The finale then saw a seemingly healed Rick return to the White Lotus to pick up Chelsea, only for Jim to confront him the next day and insult both of his parents.
Rick attempted to recenter himself by meeting with the resort’s stress management specialist, who asks him to wait for her session to finish. But before that happens, Rick spots Jim again without his bodyguards and rage takes over, as he seizes Jim’s gun and shoots him to avenge his father. This leads Jim’s wife Sritala (Lek Patravadi) to reveal that Jim was actually Rick’s dad.
At that moment, Sritala’s bodyguards return and try to shoot Rick, who kills them first — only for Chelsea to get hit by a stray bullet. Getting tearful for the first time, Rick carries her body and promises they’ll be together forever — a promise that’s fulfilled when Sritala tells Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) to shoot him, causing both Rick and Chelsea to fall together into a pond.
Naturally, fans got emotional about the couple’s fate, with social media commentators expressing particular distress over Chelsea’s death. However, there were some signs that Chelsea would die before checking out of the White Lotus. Below, the clues that foreshadowed her and Rick’s demise.
The Robbery
Chelsea experiences her first near-tragedy in the second episode, when she’s threatened at gunpoint during an armed robbery of the resort gift shop. Sadly, this turned out to foreshadow how she died in the season finale.
Chelsea’s Necklace
Fashion writer Tara Gonzalez noted on TikTok that throughout the season, Chelsea wore a necklace that read “stay gold.” This is a nod to S.E. Hinton’s famed novel The Outsiders, in which one character says the words on his deathbed: “Stay gold, Ponyboy, stay gold.”
Notably, The Outsiders was adapted by Francis Ford Coppola — and in The White Lotus Season 2, another Coppola film, The Godfather, was cited to hint at Tanya’s death.
The Rule Of Threes
After Chelsea gets bitten by a venomous snake during a snake show, she tells Rick that bad things happen in threes. Her first near-death experience was the robbery, and her second was almost dying of snake poison. Ultimately, her death completed the triad.
The Soulmate Breakfast
After Rick returns to the White Lotus to pick up Chelsea, the two seemingly get their happy ending at breakfast. Chelsea tells Rick that she thinks they’ll be “together forever,” and for once, Rick agrees, happily replying, “That’s the plan.” Sadly, it would be their last moment of joy.
Yin & Yang
Throughout the season, Chelsea said she and Rick were like “yin and yang,” pointing out how their opposite personalities balanced each other out. As noted by many fans, Rick and Chelsea’s bodies formed the “yin and yang” symbol after they dropped into the pond dead, proving that Chelsea was right all along.
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