'White Lotus' finale recap: Rick's tragic blunder, one blender and a $5M payout

Spoiler alert! This story contains plot details of HBO's "The White Lotus" Season 3 finale.

The mystery of who dies in "The White Lotus" Season 3 is finally over.

The much-awaited finale showed that the gunshots, previewed in HBO's Feb. 16 season premiere, were brought on by the tragic Rick Hatchett (Walton Goggins). Rick's misguided actions led to five deaths in a gunfight at Thailand's White Lotus Resort — including his own and his innocent girlfriend Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood).

There is heartbreaking tragedy in the finale (now streaming on Max), along with a nearly-avoided Ratliff family tragedy, friendship reborn, a Bosch blender and one hell of a of a satisfying $5 million payout for visiting White Lotus Maui spa manager Belinda Lindsey (Natasha Rothwell).

Here's what happened:

Rick seemed to have exorcised his demons meeting with Jim Hollinger (Scott Glenn), the hotel owner whom Rick thought had killed his saintly father decades ago (his body was never found). Rick threw Jim to the floor at their first meeting in Bangkok in last week's episode, but ran off. In the finale, Rick happily embraces his beloved Chelsea and is ready to follow her hopeful spirit. But Jim collars Rick at the resort and informs him that his mother had lied. "She told you a fairytale, kid. Your father was no saint," he snarls.

Rick is enraged, and finds Jim happily taking a photograph with his wife, Sritala (Lek Patravadi), and the three galpals on vacation. Rick yanks the gun out of the holster hidden in Jim's jacket and shoots him in the chest. It's only after Jim is dead that Sritala screams at Rick, "He is your father! He told me."

Without even having time to process that tragic whopper, Chelsea gets shot in the ensuing firefight that kills two bodyguards. Rick grabs Chelsea and runs for help, holding her limp body in his arms. But Sritala yells at arriving security guard Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) to shoot. After hesitating, Gaitok shoots Rick twice in the back. The dead lovers fall into the water.

During a Sunday night "White Lotus" press panel, Wood said she had been sad about creator Mike White's choice to kill Chelsea. "It's been like 'Mike kills hope!'" Wood said. "Because Chelsea is hope."

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The Ratliff family has a tragedy averted: No one died from the blender

Many “White Lotus” fans were sure the resort blender, beloved by Saxon Ratliff (Patrick Schwarzenegger), would factor into the finale deaths. It did not. But it was close. Besieged businessman Timothy (Jason Isaacs) had planned to kill his entire family, except for son Lochlan (Sam Nivola), with a batch of pina coladas blended with the poisonous seeds of a Thai fruit. Timothy wanted the family dead rather than have them live less-rich and shamed for his financial scandal. Just as Saxon, daughter Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) and wife Victoria (Parker Posey) start to sip, Timothy changes his mind and destroys the lethal cocktails.

Unknowingly, Lochlan uses the blender leftovers to make a next-day smoothie. Posioned Lochlan collapses next to the pool, but pulls out of going to the light and vomits as his horrified father runs to hold him. "I think I just saw God," Lochlan tells his father.

Belinda gets her $5 million payout from guilty Gary in 'White Lotus'

Belinda was wrecked when multi-millionaire heiress Tanya McQuoid (Jennifer Coolidge) pulled out of bankrolling her dream spa near the end of Season 1.

In Season 3, she discovers that Tanya died in a suspicious yacht incident (as seen in the Season 2 finale). Tanya's husband, Greg (Jon Greis), who goes by Gary in Thailand, is hiding from Italian police who want to question him about his rich new wife's suspicious death.

Gary/Greg offers Belinda $100,000 to keep quiet about his secret identity. She's repulsed, at first. But visiting son Zion (Nicholas Duvernay) convinces his long-suffering mother to take the cash, perhaps to start her dream spa after all. Belinda and Zion negotiate to make the bank transfer a reality. The $5 million drops into her online account. Belinda uses virtually the same words to weasel out of opening a spa with her sort-of boyfriend Pornchai (Dom Hetrakul) that Tanya used to stiff Belinda in Hawaii.

Belinda and Zion are Season 3's last joyous images. They are shown departing the island, very happy and very rich, to Billy Preston's "Nothing From Nothing." As Gary/Greg tells Belinda in their final talk, "It's what Tanya would have wanted."

The frayed childhood friends reunite, freeze out Valentin

The longtime friendship between Kate (Leslie Bibb), Laurie (Carrie Coon) and TV actress Jacyln (Michelle Monaghan) came apart through much of Season 3. The married Jacyln secretly spending the night with hunky wellness guru Valentin (Arnas Fedaravičius) is the final straw for Carrie — after Jaclyn had outwardly been pushing for a Carrie-Valentin spa hook-up.

In the finale, the three learn to appreciate their decades-long bond despite their growing differences. "I'm just happy to be at the table," the tearful Laurie says. The reunited trio gleefully ice out the visiting Valentin. The finale could have been much worse for the Russian. At least security guard Gaitok will not report on the connection between Valentin and his childhood friends from Vladivostok. The Russians were involved in the great White Lotus Resort jewelry heist.

Gaitok and Mook come together in 'White Lotus' finale

Gaitok was already struggling with the growing conflict of his security job and his Buddhist principles before shooting Rick. However, the devastatingly bold action that goes against his spiritual beliefs has immediate real-world benefits, including the bodyguard job he once sought. Gaitok beams as Sritala's new personal driver. A bigger victory: Gaitok wins back Mook (Lalisa Manoban), who is impressed with his heroic ambition. Contributing: Charles Trepany