The White Lotus writer-director Mike White has revealed that part of the finale of the show’s third season was written as a direct response to criticism he received over the ending of the first in 2021.
*Warning — Major spoilers for The White Lotus season three finale ahead*
The first season of The White Lotus, which was set in Hawaii, ended with the wealthy Tanya McQuoid (Jennifer Coolidge) reneging on her promise to spa manager Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) to help her start her own business.
At the end of the third season, Belinda belatedly receives a sizable financial windfall from McQuoid’s former husband and chooses not to go into business with Pornchai (Dom Hetrakul), the spa manager at another White Lotus in Thailand.
Speaking on The White Lotus Official Podcast, White explained that this moment was one of his initial ideas for the season, saying: “The ending was kinda the first thing I really thought of — Belinda leaving with money and leaving somebody in the same way she got left.”
He continued: “Just because there was some criticism: she was the Black character; she was the dutiful put-upon worker; and then she got this very sad ending where she’s consigned to work there forever, while everybody’s riding off into the sunset. And some people thought that was accurate. Some people thought that was too depressing or whatever… There was a lot of conversation about that part of it.”
White went on to say that, after McQuoid was killed during season two, the storyline provided some sense of resolution. “I loved working with Natasha, and obviously it was sad to kill Tanya, so I was like, what could be something happy that comes out of it?” said White. “But it’s easy to be virtuous and have certain kinds of ideals when you have no money and don’t have to really put your money where your mouth is. It’s one thing to be, ‘oh yeah, I’m gonna do this spa for women,’ whatever her sort of fantasy was – but she needs someone to bankroll it.
“And then you’ve got the money, and it’s like, ‘can I just be rich for like five minutes?’ I just feel like that’s very honest. ‘You know what, just let me enjoy this for a second.’”
White added that Belinda may go on to do “something meaningful” with the money, but he didn’t want that to happen immediately. “I think people do. I’m not that cynical,” said White. “That kind of was actually an anchoring idea, that she would go and have this kind of Stella-gets-her-groove-back kind of thing with somebody there and is maybe fantasizing about maybe starting a business with this person. And then this windfall comes and it’s like, ‘I’m outta here. Sorry.’
“And we love her because we are with her, you know, we get it. But at the same time, it feels very human and doesn’t make it the end of some 80s comedy where you see them put up the sign of their spa for less fortunate people and giving massages to housekeepers or something.”
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In a three-star review of the finale, The Independent’s Adam White argued that the show’s third season “was The White Lotus at its most un-fun.”
