The finale is coming! Soon we will know the identity of the dead body that appeared six minutes into the first episode of Season 3 of The White Lotus. However, for funsies, here are my theories. If you disagree, yes, I can fight.
Reminder of what we know about “The Body:”
Zion finds a body floating face down in the water after multiple gunshots. I observe dark, short hair, but a c***y blonde bob might look darker when wet so Leslie Bibb is not automatically disqualified. We can’t assume the hair is short, also, because of how it might be falling into the water. HOWEVER, the full bald Losers Back Home are out—Greg/Gary namely, though Sam Rockwell’s character, Sritala’s husband, and the bald Russian are also out.
Also, in the previous two seasons, an employee and then a guest have died, both of which were main characters we’ve seen since the first episode.
It looks like they’re wearing a collared shirt and the build looks male, but it’s a three second glimpse and we don’t get past the shoulders. It could be any of the following, in order from most to least likely.
Saxon
He’s soulless, he’s wearing a collared shirt, and multiple people seem to hate him. Plus, he might just get in the way of whatever’s coming for his dad—he just told Timothy he’s nothing without his job. Since, in previous seasons, the square jawed white dude got away without consequence, this might be the time he goes down.
Timothy
He’s suicidal, knows where a gun is, and might take out himself and others…or might get shot in the process of protecting his family, knowing he’d be in jail if he lived. He and Saxon most closely resemble the body.
Lochlan
I think there’s a Southern Gothic tragic perfection to having the youngest son go down at the end of the season. What better lesson to his parents that money isn’t everything to have him taken from them before he can decide his future? Plus, he seems able to get into trouble more than we initially gave him credit for.
Chelsea
I’m worried for my astrology queen, Chelsea. She’s had two brushes with death so far, thinks bad things come in threes, and thinks either hope or pain will win out in the end, regarding her and Rick. I’m voting for pain either way, and know it might come at the cost of Chelsea’s life. We also had the Final Destination call out making it seem she’s marked for death.
Laurie
Trying to get her groove back, Laurie unearthed the robbery plot during her tryst with a Russian. Might that spell her doom? She’s also a bit more reckless than her friends—going to the fight alone, aforementioned tryst, drinking like a fish, so she might wander into trouble.
Mook
Mook is a bit of an innocent (not that innocent, though, I suspect), and her death might serve a cosmic lesson to Gaitok to be better at his job. However, despite Blackpink being a huge hit in my house with the tween, I find her character boring and we’ve never lost a boring character.
Gaitok
This idiot. I don’t really think he’ll die, mostly because I think he’ll be punished to live knowing the violence is in part his fault. However, he is on the front lines of trouble, might sacrifice himself for Mook or the guests, and fits the physical description.
Piper, NO!
Again, Southern Gothic logic dictates the precious daughter might fall (I did my thesis in college on The Sound and the Fury, can’t you tell? In it, the older brother is obsessed with his sister’s virginity and claims incest—she does live and he does not…old spoiler there.). Her being so close to enlightenment might mean something.
Rick
Rick is on a journey here, and he might die to symbolize that his revenge wasn’t worth it (Hamlet) or that his journey to enlightenment is complete. However, it seems to me just as likely he’s the one doing the shooting.
Jaclyn
There’s a certain poetry to having a dead actress at the end of the show. It’s a great way to preserve her legacy, something she seems preoccupied with. However, Jaclyn’s destruction seems interpersonal, so I don’t think it’ll be a mortal wound.
Kate
Kate has thus far shown a self-preservation that makes me think she’d hide before she’d get shot. She no doubt knows how to wield a gun (Republican), which makes me think she could snap and do the killing. Unlikely, though, considering the consequences. She has too much to lose by killing or dying.
Belinda
Zion prayed to Buddha that she be safe and I really want Belinda to live and triumph, so.
Victoria
This placement is also wishful thinking, because I love her and want her to come back. Parker Posey has said in an interview she wants to appear in future seasons (with Jennifer Coolidge as a ghost), which tells me she’s not incarcerated or dead at the end of this season…or is faking us out.
Chloe
I don’t think the body matches her enough, she isn’t at the hotel all the time, and she seems like someone who will go on to boink two brothers again.
Sritala
I might be way, way off, but I bet Sritala is staying in Bangkok with her husband for the duration. If anything, she’ll sic the guns on her guest, Rick, and things could go awry from there.
Valentin
A punishment for the crime of breaking up a friendship, or when they find out about the robbery, Valentin might be the one to go down, but he seems like more of a plot device than a central character. The death of a butler is too easy to walk away from, and usually, the dead character has more of a reach. Valentin really only interacts with the three ladies.
Pam!
I love Pam and feel she is underutilized. Like Valentin, though, she doesn’t interact with the whole cast enough for me to think she’ll die.
Pornchai
His hotness must not be wasted in death. Also he only interacts with Belinda.
Fabian
This milk toast hotel manager (especially compared to managers in previous seasons) is safe because of the faulty logic that the hotel manager died in the first season so will not die again.
Listen, I may have called the ending to Shutter Island in the first two minutes and I always knew the Losties weren’t dead the whole time but Bruce Willis was, but I do love to be surprised by mysteries. I’d love to be surprised next Sunday, when we find out who goes down.
Remember, there were multiple gunshots fired, so we might have more than one victim in the end. When interviewed for Time during filming, Creator Mike White likened this season to Hotel California (“you can check out any time you like but you never leave”) and said of the characters, “Like, they’re all dead, but they don’t know it.”
I know he meant spiritually dead, but them being (emotionally) dead the whole time makes me think perhaps there will be lots who end up (literally) dead in the end because they either fail or succeed at reaching wholeness.
