CUE THE BRITNEY SPEARS SONG

‘The White Lotus’: Rick and Chelsea Are Toxic, Not Romantic

Were they tragic lovers, or just plain tragic?

The White Lotus finale just proved that men will literally do anything and everything except go to therapy.

Okay, fine. Technically, Rick (Walton Goggins) did try to go see the spa therapist Amrita in the finale, only for her to be booked. But it’s probably not a good sign that the one time a person seeks help for their mental health is right before they are about to murder someone.

By now, most people know that Rick and Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) are the ones leaving Thailand in body bags. Despite his claim to Chelsea that he got “the monkey off [his] back,” Rick ends up killing Jim Hollinger, the man he believes is responsible for his father’s death, only to realize moments later that the person he murdered wasn’t his father’s killer but his actual father.

Despite the horrifying realization, it’s already too late for Rick to stop what he put into motion. And it ultimately costs his girlfriend, Chelsea, her life, as well as his own.

“It’s a classic theme of Greek tragedy: someone killing the thing they love while trying to get revenge,” Mike White, the show’s creator, said in the official White Lotus podcast. “Chelsea has this kind of romantic fatalism about their relationship, and you want to buy into it.”

After the finale aired, fans and critics alike seemed to agree with White’s assessment of Rick and Chelsea’s doomed love story. Their relationship certainly had a fatalistic vibe. It was tragic, even “Shakespearean” as my Daily Beast colleague described it.

But as the finale fog began to lift, some viewers started to wonder: Were Rick and Chelsea really tragic lovers, or did they just watch a woman give everything she had, including her own life, to some middle-aged balding loser who didn’t deserve her?

“Chelsea dying over a man twice her age? You’ll pay for this, Mike White,” one person posted on X, and a chorus of agreement followed.

“Seriously, what was she doing with that middle-aged weirdo?” another user asked, hopping onto the Rick hate train.

It’s not just the age gap between Rick and Chelsea that has fans up in arms; it’s the way they think Rick treated her throughout their relationship. He was dismissive, rude, and, most importantly, never once prioritized her needs over his own. Even the supposedly romantic moment when Rick says, “That’s the plan,” in response to Chelsea’s declaration that they would be together forever, left some viewers feeling cold about the whole thing.

“[Rick] gave [Chelsea] nothing the entire time and got her killed in the end,” one Redditor wrote. “I don’t know how people interpret the ‘that’s the plan’ [line], but it actually broke my heart to see her eyes get big and teary when he gave her a crumb.”

Of course, Chelsea isn’t without faults. Some may remember her conversation with Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger), where she explains to him that they’re like Yin and Yang fighting in a battle; she’s “hope” while Rick is “pain,” very much giving off “I’ll fix him” energy. Chelsea was never going to “fix” Rick, but she tried, and in the end, he still chose his revenge over her.

A tale as old as time.

Mike White wants us to think of Rick and Chelsea’s love as a doomed epic. And honestly, he’s not that far off, because when you look at the Greek tragic canon, it’s full of men who ruin everything and everyone around them, all in the name of satisfying their rage (here’s to you, Oedipus and Achilles). And Rick is just the latest in that long line.

To be clear, it’s obvious that Rick and Chelsea loved each other a lot. In their final goodbyes, their love shined as bright as the sky they died under. It’s just sometimes, love can’t make up for everything else.

At the end of their story, the camera lingers over Rick and Chelsea’s bodies floating in the pond, mirroring the Taoist symbol for Yin and Yang.

Looks like Rick’s pain won the battle in the end. If only he sought out better alternatives to releasing his anger, he could have saved everyone a whole lot of trouble... and death.

Clare DonaldsonEditorial Intern

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