Spoiler alert! The following contains details from the season finale of HBO’s “The White Lotus.”
That’s certainly not how anyone thought their vacation would end.
HBO’s “The White Lotus,” the outrageously funny limited series from creator Mike White, aired its season finale Sunday night, finally solving the mystery offered in the premiere about who died at the White Lotus resort – and who killed them.
The ending was as inevitable as it was shocking, brilliantly plotted and masterfully acted. And while conclusions to mysteries in many TV shows provide justice and resolution, the ending of “Lotus” offers the far more realistic sense of unease and unfairness: The privileged guilty are treated as blameless, while the victims and bystanders are left to clean up the mess.
Shane (Jake Lacy) killed Armond (Murray Bartlett), but he leaves Hawaii a free man with a clean conscience and the woman he calls his “hot wife,” Rachel, (Alexandra Daddario) back in his arms.
“Lotus,” fundamentally, was a series about the odiously rich acting in a predictably (and harmfully entitled) manner. And White resists the urge at every turn to tip the scales of justice to favor the marginalized, working-class people caught in their wake. Although the world of “Lotus” may be heightened by drama, the availability of drugs and the eccentricity of at least one mother-in-law, it is firmly grounded in the messy, unjust world we all actually live in.
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The final episode, “Departures,” picks up in the aftermath of the robbery at the Mossbachers’ suite that Paula (Brittany O’Grady) pressured her vacation boyfriend Kai (Kekoa Kekumano) into committing. Shane sees Mark’s (Steve Zahn) black eye at breakfast and gets the whole tale of the encounter with the robber the day before (while Paula squirms in her chair at the table).
Shane is enraged that the hotel didn’t inform him of the presence of a “dangerous criminal,” gets his mother’s travel agent to raise hell with the hotel’s owner and hangs onto a knife he used to eat a pineapple from room service (pay attention to that knife). It’s in this moment, after a facial and a kind word from Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) at the spa, that Rachel attempts to break up with her new husband. But Shane simply refuses to accept it, ending the conversation to go for a swim.
Over at the Mossbachers, Quinn (Fred Hechinger) and Mark (Steve Zahn) finally go scuba diving (while Paula vomits over the side of the boat). Quinn also expresses his desire to stay in Hawaii and train for a canoe race with his new friends. Mark and Nicole (Connie Britton) brush off his teenage folly, and prepare to leave the next day. Olivia Mossbacher (Sydney Sweeney) confronts Paula about the robbery and the two fight, sending a crying Olivia into her surprised mother’s arms. Eventually, the two friends reconcile and Paula sobs that she messed up (to be fair, she really did).
Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) is feeling pretty confident about her new fling with Greg (Jon Gries), brushing off the advances of a pretty-boy gold digger at the pool and planning more vacations for the couple. She tells an excited Belinda about him and breaks the news that she needs more time to think about Belinda’s business proposal for a new wellness center. She shoves a wad of cash into Belinda’s hands and runs away, while Belinda breaks down. Later, when Rachel calls Belinda for advice about her crumbling marriage, Belinda simply can’t take any more burdens from guests, and leaves Rachel alone in her new room.
Spurred by Shane’s conversation with the travel agent, Armond receives a call from his boss, with the ominous promise of a meeting the next day. Convinced he’s about to be fired, he grabs Dillon (Lukas Gage) and heads for his office for one last night of partying. The two are soon joined by other employees, drinking and doing quite a few drugs. Armond slaps his veneer of a smile on for one last dinner service and then decides he has unfinished business with Shane.
More:How HBO satire ‘The White Lotus’ hit uncomfortably close to home for creator Mike White
An intoxicated Armond breaks into Shane and Rachel’s beloved Pineapple Suite and graphically defecates in his nemesis’ open suitcase, just before Shane walks back into the room. Shane discovers the “present” Armond left him and immediately calls the front desk in a fury. Armond tries to quietly escape the suite, but Shane hears him and grabs the pineapple knife, fearful of an intruder.
The two men dance around each other, and for a moment the audience might be lulled into believing Armond can get out of this. But a wrong turn from both men leaves them face to face, with Shane’s knife plunged into Armond’s chest. The hotel manager falls back into the suite’s luxurious tub and Shane flees, spluttering, “I’m sorry.”
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The final moments of “Lotus” float by after Armond’s death. Shane is seen shaking hands with the cops, clearly off the hook for his manslaughter. At the airport, Rachel reunites with Shane, promising she can be “happy” with him. Tanya and Greg get on the plane together, followed by the Mossbachers (although at the last second, Quinn makes a run for it, reuniting with his friends in their canoe). On the island, Belinda is back on shore, waving at a boatload of new guests ready to check in.
Everything changes; everything stays the same.
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