Divine Intervention, Masculinity, and the Ratliff Family from the White Lotus Season Three Finale
CONTAINS SPOILERS
The season 3 finale of The White Lotus aired last Sunday, delivering a gripping 90-minute drama titled Amor Fati. As the beloved and precious Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) explained to Rick (Walton Goggins) over their last supper, "Amor Fati" translates to "love of fate," – the episode fittingly revolved around the characters surrendering to fate and embracing their true destinies, as written in the cosmos.
The finale brought out a mix of opinions from fans online, but one thing was certain: the love was undeniable. Whether it was between mother and son, three friends, or twin flames in more than one universe (#ChelseaandRickforever), this episode had me–an unapologetic lover of love–glancing around the living room at my friends through teary eyes.
Thankfully The White Lotus has been renewed for Season 4, and I’m already looking forward to it. I love TV shows and movies that critique the rat race while also exploring the alienation of modern capitalism. Many share the sentiment, which explains the fan popularity and critical acclaim of shows like The White Lotus, Succession, and Severance.
To put their popularity into perspective, Succession leads the pack with an impressive average of 8.7 million viewers per episode, while The White Lotus Season 3’s finale drew 6.2 million viewers– a 29% surge from its previous season. Meanwhile, Apple TV’s Severance Season 2 has dominated, amassing over 3 billion minutes of watch time. Critically, all three series are powerhouse contenders. On IMDb, Succession holds an 8.8/10, closely followed by Severance at 8.7/10, and The White Lotus at a still-strong 8.0/10. Their consistent acclaim is reflected in their Emmy dominance, each show frequently securing top nominations and wins. I think it says something about how we unwind as a society. Or maybe it’s just Hollywood virtue-signaling... but that’s a conversation for another day.
I knew I would be obsessed with the Ratliff family from the get-go when Parker Posey's iconic Victoria Ratliff has a narcotic-induced Virginia Woolfian dream of her walking into the ocean, letting the waves take her away. Then there’s Lachlan's obsession with tsunamis, which adds another layer to the water imagery—an uncontrollable force of nature, unprecedented and all-consuming.
The Ratliff children are clearly lost—spiritually and emotionally. Each undergoes significant, yet vastly different, character growth this season. Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) goes from rejecting her material life to realizing it's exactly what she wants. Meanwhile, Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) evolves from a sex-obsessed finance bro to a spiritually awakened soul, taking advice from Chelsea (whom he’s hopelessly in love with) and reading a book on interconnectedness. Spoiler alert: people can do hard things!
The show blends class warfare, colonialism, and sharp satire with a deep dive into sexual relationships, where sex becomes a powerful tool for control,particularly in Saxon and Lochlan’s bond. Their relationship reflects not only a power struggle but also the toxic pressures of masculinity. The touch of incest adds a disturbing layer to their complex dynamics, exposing the darker side of masculine dominance.
And there’s something chillingly monarchic about the incest subplot—like a desire to preserve the purity of a bloodline. It feels eerily relevant to contemporary structures of power, where legacy and bloodlines are often held above all else. Side note: Both actors portraying the Ratliff boys, Sam Nivola and Patrick Schwarzenegger, are nepo babies, which adds to the intertextual exploration of celebrity and power.
Sam Nivola plays Lochlan as an interesting litmus test for coming-of-age masculinity. Is his insistent need to please somewhat predatory? I'm still not entirely sure, but I have to admit, I found myself intrigued rather than put off by this probation (pun intended).
The most gripping part of the finale was Lochlan’s death and spiritual rebirth. In classic Mike White fashion, the supposed guarded member of the family becomes an accidental casualty. Making that protein shake, Lochlan was trying to "be a man"—echoing his brother’s cold words that no one would make him one, he’d have to do it himself. This desperate quest for masculinity became his undoing. As we watched Timothy (Jason Isaacs) cradle his lifeless body, knowing he was to blame, it felt like a suckerpunch to the gut.
The water imagery came full circle as Lochlan faded away, evoking a womb-like surrender, a stunning visual of rebirth. Amidst it all, he saw his family and four Buddha figures floating just out of reach, symbolizing some sort of divine intervention. This ties into the season’s deeper inquiry of spiritualism and Buddhism, with reincarnation and karma closely connected to Lochlan’s character development.
A popular fan theory suggested that each season of The White Lotus explores one of the seven deadly sins—the first season focused on greed, the second on lust. Fans on Reddit have debated which sin this season tackles. Could it be pride? Envy? What do you think?
There’s so much to unpack in the finale alone. While the season had its fair share of highs and lows in terms of story progression, there's no denying that the finale was absolutely captivating and left fans wanting more