Warning: Spoilers ahead for season three of The White Lotus
“I’m gonna help you get your joy back, even if it kills me,” Aimee Lou Wood’s happy-go-lucky Chelsea promises her older, far grumpier boyfriend Rick (Walton Goggins) in the White Lotus season three premiere. It’s a throwaway line, but worth noting in series creator Mike White’s new Thailand-set season—especially when we have an inkling of how the season will end.
More than halfway into the doomed getaway, viewers know that the tranquil wellness center will eventually erupt into gunfire. Zion (Nicholas Duvernay), son of visiting spa center manager Belinda (a returning Natasha Rothwell), is the only cast member we know will be safe from the violence (as it begins, anyway). We don’t know who is pointing the weapon, and which unlucky vacationers will check out of the resort in a body bag.
As we did in Italy, Vanity Fair will be on the hunt for all White Lotus callbacks to seasons past, as well as potential clues about who could be this season’s killer or victim(s). If you’re watching weekly—especially you, Parker Posey!—come back after each episode for a breakdown of all the Easter eggs scattered throughout the series’ third season.
Episode 6: Denials
New Lease on Life
At the beginning of the sixth episode, we see Jason Isaacs’s Timothy point the gun that he stole from hotel security to his head, killing himself. But in reality, he’s just imagining going through with it—and the thought of his wife, Victoria, and daughter, Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook), finding his body makes Timothy think twice. Instead of pulling the trigger, he stows the weapon away, pops some trusty lorazepams, and goes to bed. Later, Timothy dreams of killing himself and then Victoria after she tells him she wouldn’t want to live as a poor person at her age.
While the Ratliffs are away from their suite visiting the monastery where Piper plans to spend the next year, security guard Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) steals back his gun, and—unlike the White Lotus employee who attempted to steal from guests in season one—he goes undetected. But disturbing dreams coupled with a missing firearm spell doom for next week’s episode.
The Prodigal Son Returns
Fabio Lovino/HBO
Belinda’s son Zion, who is the only character we know survives (some) eventual gunfire at the resort, makes his official entrance to the show in episode six—just in time to see his mom shacking up with fellow spa employee Pornchai (Dom Hetrakul). Both mother and son laugh off the awkward run-in, but it’ll be more difficult to play it cool at the home of Jon Gries’s Greg (who now goes by Gary). After multiple tense interactions with Belinda, he invites her and Zion to dinner at his house, adding in a vaguely threatening tone that there are “things we need to discuss.”
The Second Coming of Sam Rockwell
After his headline-making debut in last week’s episode, Rockwell’s Frank returns as Rick comes face-to-face with the man who killed his father. At this point, it’s unclear what Frank’s role in the confrontation will be—but one can bet that whatever he’s been hired to do probably conflicts with his newly reformed, ultra-zen lifestyle.
Episode 5: Full-Moon Party
Capable of Killing
Fabio Lovino/HBO
