Warning! The following contains spoilers for The White Lotus Season 3 finale. Read at your own risk!
The White Lotus Season 3 is over, and while some are already looking ahead to where Season 4 is set, I'm still hung up on the finale. In a season where the tension slowly built the entire season, and we didn't get any resolution until the finale, there was a lot of time to build suspense. That slow burn worked well for a lot of the storylines, but I can't help but think it did a great disservice to the one popular theory involving Rick that panned out.
Weeks before the Season 3 finale was available with a Max subscription, CinemaBlend wrote about the theory that Jim Hollinger is Rick's father, and it turns out that theory was right... I think? Let's get into the whole thing below, including why I didn't like how the scene played out and would've rather seen it cut entirely.
The Reveal That Jim Hollinger Was Rick's Father Came All Too Late
When Sritala told Rick that Jim was his father in the Season 3 finale of The White Lotus, all I could think of was, "Huh?" Rick finally gets his revenge on this guy that killed his dad, and his wife spews out some line about him being his biological father? I imagine I had the same face watching that Rick did because I didn't even know how to process what I had just heard.
I think it's understandable, considering The White Lotus revealed that Rick was responsible for the shootout that was teased at the beginning of the season. I was a little let down that my theory that there were multiple events unfolding at once didn't exactly play out, though I was on point about there being more than one gun in the mix. All that aside, the only thing on my mind was Rick shooting Jim and whatever was going to happen next.
So the reveal is made, and then not long after that, we see Chelsea die and Gaitok shoot Rick to death. His story in The White Lotus ends there, as no one else has much to do with his arc.
I should also note that we have no idea if Jim Hollinger is telling the truth. All we've heard from Rick is what he's heard from his mother, and we have no clue whether or not she's a reliable narrator. The same can also be said about Jim, who wouldn't have flashed a gun at Rick in the buffet if he had no ill intentions. Also, Sritala was easily duped into believing Rick was a movie producer from the United States, so I think it's fair to speculate that Jim could've lied to her about several things regarding his past. The bottom line is that we have no idea at the time of the reveal if this information is accurate, which kills its impact.
The Reveal Would've Hit A Lot Harder If Done Earlier
It's strange that The White Lotus prioritized fleshing out the incest storyline well before Rick's, especially when I think about what could've been. For example, imagine if Jim had told Rick upon their first meeting that he was his son, or even when they met in the buffet line?
He still could've been just as much of an asshole to him and kicked him out of the resort, but the audience would've seen Rick reconcile with this new information he was given. This terrible guy, who supposedly killed his father, is the dad he's been missing this entire time? We don't even have to imagine the emotional weight of that moment; readers can just fire up Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back with a Disney+ subscription and see it for themselves.
Imagine how much more impactful it would've been had Rick known that Jim was his father before he shot him. He would've had time to weigh that information, digest it, and decide what he wanted to do at that point. If everything after played out the exact same way after with that exception, I think the reveal would hit a lot harder. It would be the opposite of what Star Wars did, in which the hero actually takes down the deserving villain that isn't deserving of redemption. Instead, we got a confusing reveal that felt like there was more to tell, and unlike Tanya McQuoid, I doubt The White Lotus will ever reference Rick again.
For Me, The Reveal Killed A Great Ending To Rick's Story
While I think the reveal about Jim would've hit harder had the audience learned it sooner, it might've been just as good had the line never been included. We were so deep into the action on what was Rick's most significant moment in The White Lotus Season 3, and that slight detour did nothing but suck me out of the moment entirely. Receiving new information that wasn't even previously hinted at in the season finale never feels like a good move, and this scene further proved it.
While Season 3 presented very realistic scenarios with the three friends, it kind of went off the rails with Rick's story too much. I was along for the ride until the reveal, and it just gave me that same feeling I'd have if I were watching a soap opera and a character revealed that they had an evil twin with a beard. It's certainly not the type of twist I would expect from an HBO series that has won six Emmys, but as Game Of Thrones showed us many years ago, not every show is infallible when it comes to bad story reveals and plot twists.
The White Lotus is available to stream on Max, and much like Rick's reveal, there's no time to dwell on that because the 2025 TV schedule is buzzing along with new shows to check out. I'm psyched about the return of The Last Of Us for Season 2 and excited to see what else HBO has on tap for the rest of the spring schedule.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
