‘The White Lotus’ Season 3 lastly reveals why Rick’s in Thailand

Rick Hatchett (Walton Goggins) has been brooding throughout The White Lotus this season, throwing full buckets over his girlfriend Chelsea’s (Aimee Lou Wooden) makes an attempt at vacation enjoyable and dropping a shock thriller Bangkok journey into their schedule — one he’ll take alone.

However now, after Season 3, episode 4, we have got a powerful thought about why they’re truly in Thailand in any respect — and it is not simply to have an costly vacation. Let’s get into why Rick selected this specific White Lotus and what his actual agenda is.

What occurs in The White Lotus Season 3, episode 4?

Through the visitors’ cruise across the islands on Greg’s (Jon Gries) superyacht, Chelsea hits her restrict of Rick’s unrelenting gloom. Pulling him apart on deck, she attracts a proverbial line within the sand and calls for her secretive associate let her in or she’s out. When Rick responds asking what Chelsea want to know, she begins with the query all of us have: “Why are we here? What’s in Bangkok?”

After resisting, Rick lastly tells the reality: “We’re here because the fuckin’ dude who murdered my father owns this hotel.”

OK!

What will we find out about Rick’s father’s homicide?

Rick’s deepest trauma occurred earlier than he was born.
Credit score: Fabio Lovino / HBO

The small print of Rick’s father’s loss of life come up throughout his stress administration session with religious counsellor and meditation trainer Dr. Amrita (Shalini Peiris) in episode 2. Right here, Rick reveals that his father was murdered earlier than he was born, a loss that kinds the core of his seemingly illegal life selections.

In episode 4, Rick tells Chelsea that whereas he by no means knew his father, he knew him to be a “do-gooder” who was in Thailand when he all of the sudden disappeared in suspicious circumstances. “He came to Thailand to help people,” Rick says on the boat. “He was trying to help these locals keep a shitty American from stealing their land — I really don’t know all the details. But my father was here trying to do the right thing, and one day he disappeared. They never found him.”

We additionally study in episode 4 that Rick’s mom, who died when he was 10 from a drug overdose, gave him the identify of his father’s assassin on her deathbed. And that identify? Jim Hollinger.

Who’s Jim Hollinger?

We have seen Rick watching glamorous resort proprietor, wellness creator, and well-known singer Sritala (Lek Patravadi) since arriving on the White Lotus, and he is not hid his disappointment over her husband’s absence on the resort.

When Rick and Chelsea first arrive in episode 1, Mook (Lisa / Lalisa Manobal) confirms to Rick that the house owners of the resort are Sritala and her American husband, Jim Hollinger. It is the identify Rick’s had etched in his mind since his traumatic childhood, and one which introduced him right here. Having learn it within the information, Rick knew Hollinger was in hospital on the island, however sadly he is sooner or later late to satisfy the person — Hollinger flew to Bangkok the day earlier than Rick arrived.

All we actually find out about Hollinger is that he is a robust American in Thailand, who owns the White Lotus “and half of Thailand” in response to Rick. Did he homicide Rick’s father for meddling in a land seize? Or is there extra to the story?

What’s Rick going to do in Bangkok?

“The guy ruined my life from day one. He doesn’t have to answer to me?”
Credit score: Fabio Lovino / HBO

Primarily, as Chelsea says to Rick on the yacht, “Is that this a bit ‘You killed my father, put together to die?’“

Contemplating Rick’s the kind of erratic man who’ll free a bunch of venomous snakes whereas excessive, something’s attainable as soon as Rick catches as much as Hollinger in Bangkok. Regardless of Chelsea’s pleas for Rick to not “do something stupid,” Rick says he merely needs to look the person who murdered his father within the face. However will he transfer past confrontation and precise revenge?

“The guy ruined my life from day one. He doesn’t have to answer to me?” asks Rick.

“You’re not going to just talk to him are you? I know you, Rick, this is what you do,” replies Chelsea, alluding to his probably violent or felony previous. In episode 1, Rick reminds Chelsea he “can’t go to Australia,” indicating he’d be arrested there, but it surely’s unclear precisely how a lot she is aware of about his profitable line of labor.

What’s going to come of this interplay?
Credit score: Fabio Lovino / HBO

One notable second we do not but have solutions for lies in episode 3, when Rick introduces himself to Sritala at breakfast. Pretending to be a producer and procuring her enterprise card, he guarantees a pretend assembly with a director in Bangkok, the place she is travelling to hitch her husband. We’re considering this may be a card Rick has to play in future episodes?

The large query is, what precisely will Rick do when he finds Jim Hollinger in Bangkok? Chelsea tells Rick he is a “victim of his own decisions” throughout their first dinner on the White Lotus — will he stay on-brand?

The White Lotus is streaming now on Max, with new episodes dropping weekly at 9 p.m. ET Sundays on HBO.