“The White Lotus” season 3, unlike its predecessors, also has several characters who pretty much have no faults at all. Wood’s Chelsea, the perpetually sweet and free-spirited girlfriend to Walton Goggins’ Rick, is one noticeably transgression-free guest, but so are Belinda and her son Zion (Nicholas Duvernay). Season 1 raised some eyebrows by consciously minimizing the roles of the local characters as the season went on, but season 3 doesn’t have that problem: Dom Hetrakul’s Pornchai is a soft-spoken and sexy love interest for Belinda, and Tayme Thapthimthong’s Gaitok, the hotel’s security guard, has committed no crime besides being a big old softie. Lalisa Manobal’s Mook is a bit unreadable (she could easily be in on the robbery plot), but so far, she’s been nothing but nice.
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Even several of the season’s more shaded characters — from sad sack Rick to bitter, fed-up Laurie to spirituality-seeking Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) — are tougher to categorize as “bad people” than a large swath of former “White Lotus” ensemble members. “Seeking” might be the operative word here; while past White Lotus locations were known for their peacefulness and sunshine, Westerners often undertake pilgrimages to Buddhist countries in hopes of finding some inner fulfillment, peace, or self-understanding. A handful of these people, flawed, exploitative, and culturally insensitive as they are, are actively choosing to look for a way to make their lives simpler and more full of love. That sense of seeking (and, importantly, seemingly earnest listening), in contrast to the willful ignorance of so many past White Lotus vacationers, makes it just a little bit tougher to gleefully take bets on who will die in the finale.
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Someone will die, though, and it probably won’t be whoever most deserves it. The idea of karma, spiritual cause and effect, has come up a few times this season, but White has never seemed particularly eager to incorporate the practice of karma into “The White Lotus.” Stupid, violent things happen, the show seems to say, and everyone sees themselves as the hero of their own story. More often than not, White seems to posit, people don’t get what they deserve. If they did, the finale would end with Belinda killing Greg, but it’s just as likely that Timothy will kill his family, Rick will be killed for hurting Jim Hollinger, or Gaitok will misfire while attempting to prove his courage. Who knows, though? “The White Lotus” already surprised us once this season by introducing so many characters worth rooting for: it might surprise us again by letting a few of them live.
New episodes of “The White Lotus” air at 9pm EST on HBO and Max each Sunday.