Warning: The following contains spoilers for HBO’s The White Lotus
HBO’s twisty murder mystery tragicomedy The White Lotus concluded its first season Sunday night. We’ve already supplied our own deep dive thoughts on the final episode, the season’s strengths and weaknesses, and its unexpected breakout success. And while we have great confidence in our own takes and appraisals (why do you think we shout our opinions from the digital rooftops?), we won’t be offended if you’re more interested in hearing directly from creator Mike White.
White spoke with Entertainment Weekly and Vulture to answer a handful of burning questions after the sixth episode. But what really stood out was his take on the death of Armond (Murray Bartlett) and the central message the finale’s parting shot leaves audiences with.
On Armond’s death:
“Well, the thing is, I was like, ‘We got to have a death here,'” White told EW. “Because otherwise it’s just going to be like My Dinner with Andre in Hawaii or something. So it was engineered from the beginning and I just felt like the guy’s like an actor who plays King Lear. He has his best scene ever. And then he has the ultimate act of defiance where he craps in someone’s bag. And I was like, ‘There’s really nowhere else to go from here.’ But this is your swan song. So it felt like the right ending for him.”
It did indeed feel as if Armond’s fate was inevitable. The character was submerged in gloriously self-destructive behavior all season and a happy ending seemed to be a leap too far at this point. White revealed that it was always the plan to bookend the season with Chekov’s casket and the final big reveal of who was in it. Filling in the blanks became increasingly clear as Armond became increasingly erratic. RIP you sad and wild man.
On Rachels big decision:
After summoning up the courage to leave Shane on their honeymoon, Rachel ends The White Lotus by going back to him and the life their marriage represents. As it turns out, this move was always in the cards.
“I always knew she’d go back to him,” White told Vulture. “There was something about her, even in the way she’s approaching him; it’s like someone who wants to get a response. Honestly, it feels true to life for me. I’ve seen peers who may not have been in this exact situation. She’s started to feel the limits of what she thinks she’s capable of, and it’s the reality of the seduction of a lifestyle. Some people read it as cynical; to me, the thing that I feel about Shane is that even though he is a privileged asshole, he does really love her. Even if it’s just an idea of her.”
On first read, this move suggests an underlying weakness to Rachel’s character. But White didn’t necessarily see it that way. It’s not a binary problem with a simple solution.
“To me, it’s an indictment in the sense that it’s sad that principled actions don’t always win the day,” the creator said. “But it’s also — she already married him! They had the wedding. I can see how you’d just be like, No, never mind, I don’t want to have to unravel this. It’d be interesting to come back and revisit them down the road and see what happens.”
On whatever happened to Lani:
In the first episode, we meet Lani, a pregnant hotel employee who gives birth in Armond’s office and then we never see her again. It turns out, that was both practical — The White Lotus was shot in the fall of 2020 with COVID restrictions — and thematic.
“It’s not just her, too. We meet Kai and then he just disappears,” Whit says. “There’s a practical aspect to that, which is that we were forced to shoot in the bubble, so other than when we were out on the boats, we couldn’t shoot anything else. That was the mandate.”
He continues: “But I thought it would be interesting to do that. At the very beginning, [Armond says], ‘We’re interchangeable helpers.’ It’s like they don’t exist, this idea that once they exit the hotel, they’re pulverized, they vanish. I thought that would be maybe controversial, but it’s like a steamrolling. The people waving in the beginning, by the end they’ve been replaced, and it’s like the experience of these hotel guests — oh, she had a baby, he’s in jail, whatever. My hope is that the critique of that is built into the DNA of it.”
On the final image:
The White Lotus ends with Belinda and the other employees burying their true feelings as they smile and wave at a new group of guests arriving to the resort. The heartbreaking image is something of a thesis statement for the season’s exploration of socioeconomic class divides.
“In the end, I think that having money is the difference between being able to continue to make mistakes and fly out to Honolulu with the guy you just met and whatever, and then being stuck in the job that you want to get out of, or where you want more,” White explained to EW. “And I just thought bookending the show where you have all of these people greeting them at the beginning. And then by the end, either they had a baby, they were murdered, they ended up in jail, or their dreams have been shattered. And the guests move on to the next thing. It just felt like it was, ‘Well, this is kind of a devastating moment.’ But it feels like it’s true to the story.”
HBO has renewed The White Lotus for a second season with a new cast and location to be determined. Here’s to hoping we go from sunshine beaches to whiteout winter wonderlands.
