HBO’s buzzy drama “The White Lotus,” a six-episode exploration of wealth, privilege and the existential crises that surface on vacation, teased a character death in the show’s opening scene. Viewers learned that over the course of the week at the White Lotus, a luxury Hawaiian resort, someone was going to die. In the closing minutes Sunday’s season finale, we finally got the answer.
It all started in the pilot, when Shane (Jake Lacy) was bewildered to learn that something didn’t go as planned in his charmed life: He — well, technically his mom — booked the most expensive room in the resort, the Pineapple Suite, for his honeymoon with his new wife, Rachel (Alexandra Daddario). But when they arrived, they were given the slightly-less-fancy Palm Suite. The manager, Armond (Murray Bartlett) assured them it had better views, but what it did not have was a private patio with a plunge pool. Shane, by any means necessary, was going to get his plunge pool.
This sparked an epic feud. Armond tried to convince Shane that there was no mix-up. Shane realized the truth and repeatedly harangued him about the mistake, and Armond politely continued to insist there was nothing he could do — and sought his own brand of mild revenge, such as booking Shane and Rachel on a romantic sunset cruise with Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge), the grieving guest who wanted to use the boat to spread her mother’s ashes.
The back and forth continued: Shane demanded Armond’s boss’s phone number. Armond gave him a fake number. Shane complained to his mom’s travel agent, who knew the hotel co-owner. Armond then learned that he was going to be fired. Armond had lost his battle with substance abuse through the course of the season, and he decided to spend his last night on the job using every drug he could find (which he stole from two college students, played by Sydney Sweeney and Brittany O’Grady) and get his ultimate comeuppance: Break into Shane’s room and defecate in his suitcase.
Unfortunately, Shane returned to his room early, and Armond ran to hide. Shane smelled, and then saw, what happened, and predictably lost his mind. After calling and screaming at the hotel staff, Shane heard a sound (Armond, hiding in the bathroom) and grabbed a knife he had put by his bed earlier in the episode. That happened after he and Rachel were finally moved to the Pineapple Suite and learned there was a robbery in the room belonging to a tech CEO (Connie Britton) and her husband (Steve Zahn).
“That’s the knife they gave us to cut the pineapples,” Rachel told him at the time.
“What, are you going to cut a bunch of pineapples? I’m going to keep this by the bed. I’ve got to protect my hot wife,” Shane said. He raged about how Armond hadn’t warned any of the guests there was a thief on the loose — and now that he and Rachel were staying in the most expensive suite, they could be targets. “This Armond guy is unbelievable. He’s going down.”
That is exactly what happened. Shane, looking for an intruder, turned a corner just as Armond did and Shane accidentally plunged the knife into Armond’s chest. Shane looked horrified and contrite for the first time and dropped the knife. “I’m sorry,” he whispered before running away.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, the “White Lotus” creator Mike White talked about how his characters can be nice in one moment and horrible in the next. “People can be kind and cruel, and every person has that capability,” White said. “I think there’s a tendency to want to project virtue on the underdog and some kind of negative to the person who has money, but the truth is, it’s situational.”
Indeed, Shane seemed like a terrible person intent on ruining someone’s life (“Leave that poor man alone,” even Rachel sighed at one point as Shane fumed about Armond), but he did have a reservation for the Pineapple Suite all along. Armond spent years catering to obnoxious guests who treated him like garbage, but he lied, stole drugs and sexually harassed one of his employees. Out of all the characters, no one was ever completely in the wrong, even if they were really not in the right.
Either way, Armond didn’t deserve to die, and the end result captured the show’s recurring displays of unchecked White privilege. Viewers saw ambulances outside the hotel and Shane talking to two people who appeared to be in charge in some capacity. Though no dialogue was heard, Shane shook their hands and walked away, free to go and fly home. Apparently, they took his word for it that it was an accident.
(Still, Shane probably is not doing great, given his look of devastation at the airport. There’s also the fact that Rachel realized on their honeymoon she didn’t actually love him, even if she showed up for the flight and promised she would be happy.)
It rang similar to another disturbing scene in the finale that centered on Belinda (Natasha Rothwell), the spa manager who wound up entangled with Coolidge’s character. The very rich and very tone deaf Tanya became fixated on Belinda as the answer to her problems, and essentially demanded that Belinda be her companion for the week. She even convinced Belinda that she should quit the resort and start her own wellness center, and though Belinda was doubtful at first, she started to get excited and drew up a detailed business plan.
Then Tanya met a guy and ditched Belinda completely. In the finale, she came to the spa with a speech about how she probably wouldn’t be willing to invest in Belinda’s wellness center after all.
“Belinda, you’re an amazing person, you are. You have helped me so much,” Tanya said. “But I’m realizing I’m getting back into this pattern again where I latch on to somebody and then I use my money to control them. And see, right now, the last thing I need in my life is another transactional relationship. It’s not healthy. For me.” Tanya guiltily shoved a cash tip in Belinda’s direction, and pretended not to notice when she started weeping.
Even worse? Seeing Belinda in one of the final moments, sadly gazing out at the ocean. At first, viewers think she might be contemplating everything that happened. But then her mouth lifts up and she smiles and waves. Turns out, she’s gathered on the beach with the rest of the staff, forced to happily welcome the next boat of vacationers on their way to the resort. (More guests! Maybe this explains why HBO has ordered a second season.)
Belinda may have just had her dreams crushed right after her longtime co-worker was fatally stabbed, but there’s another group of rich people ready for vacation, and she has no choice but to smile and start her job all over again.
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