In the penultimate episode of Season 3 of The White Lotus, Rick confronts his father’s killer Jim Hollinger, brandishes his gun, decides not to commit murder, kicks over the old man’s chair, and finds closure. Now he and Chelsea can live happily ever after, right? Probably not. This is The White Lotus after all, and to quote a certain monk, “You cannot outrun pain.”
Pain will find Rick in the finale. And we have a theory as to how Rick’s life may yet turn upside down: Hotel owner Jim Hollinger—played by veteran actor Scott Glenn of The Right Stuff, Silence of the Lambs, The Leftovers, and Daredevil—is actually Rick’s dad.
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The White Lotus has been dropping hints throughout the season that Rick and Jim may be related, and the interaction between the two men in Episode 7 cemented our suspicions that Rick has inherited a number of traits from Jim. Here are all the clues that suggest Jim is Rick’s father—and what could happen next.
The “do-gooder” story about Rick’s dad is too good to be true
During a conversation with his girlfriend Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) on the yacht, Rick (Walton Goggins) gives the full account of what he believes happened to his dad. “I never knew my father,” he says. “He was a do-gooder. He came to Thailand to help people. He was trying to help these locals to keep a shady 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. And they never found him. My mother told me the name of the guy who did it, and he owns this hotel and half of f-cking Thailand, I guess.”
The story is vague. Why was Rick’s white father in Thailand helping locals? What exactly was he doing to help them? Even Rick admits he doesn’t know the details. The White Lotus has explored colonialist themes before: Wouldn’t it be far more likely that Rick’s dad was the “shady American” than some white savior?
After hearing the story, Chelsea asks Rick, “Is this a bit, ‘You killed my father. Prepare to die’ kind of?” quoting The Princess Bride. (For those who have not had the pleasure of watching that film: Mandy Patinkin plays a master swordsman bent on avenging the death of his dad and, when he confronts the killer, famously repeats over and over, “Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”)
The Princess Bride is a literal fairy tale, albeit one that delivers its fantastical adventures with a knowing wink. The fact that Chelsea immediately compares Rick’s situation to one of the most famous fantasies of all time indicates that something about this story doesn’t ring true.
The closer analogy may actually be to Star Wars, a story about a boy named Luke Skywalker who is told that a dastardly villain called Darth Vader killed his father, Anakin Skywalker, only to discover that Vader is his father. Turns out, Vader killed Anakin in the metaphorical sense. Jim Hollinger may have similarly shed the identity of his younger self—perhaps even changed his name—in order to manifest the robber baron he became in Thailand.
It would be fitting for this particular season of The White Lotus, which focuses on spiritual enlightenment (or lack thereof), if what Rick interpreted as a literal death was meant by his mother as a spiritual death: The man she knew died, and this monster replaced him.
Chelsea casts further doubt on the story
As they leave the yacht, Chelsea asks Rick, “How can you be sure this is the right guy? It happened so long ago. I mean, how do you know?”
Rick shoots back, “Because my mother told me who he was on her deathbed. You don’t forget sh-t like that.” Again, we’re putting a lot of stock in the word of a dying woman we know very little about, except that she was a person who ultimately succumbed to her drug addiction. The fact that she struggled with sobriety shouldn’t mean we doubt her word. But it is easy to imagine that any mother would spend her last moments conjuring a nice fairytale to spare her 10-year-old child from a lifetime of hurt.
Chelsea immediately recognizes that Rick might do something “stupid.” She says, “I know you, Rick. This is what you do.” She later tells her friend Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon) that Rick is a “hot-head” and “f-cking mental” who always gets into fights. Does that sound like the child of a do-gooder…or might it be possible that it’s the child of a man renowned for morally questionable actions?
Jim recognizes Rick as “my kind of drinker”
When Rick and Frank (Sam Rockwell) finally make it to the home of Jim and Sritala (Lek Patravadi), Rick asks for a whiskey. He drinks it all in one gulp—in part because his old buddy Frank is falling off the wagon before his eyes. Jim says, “My kind of drinker” and smiles at him. It’s a very “like father, like son” moment.
Jim discusses his (other) children’s idyllic childhood—in contrast to Rick’s miserable one
Rick asks Jim if he has kids. Jim says he has two daughters. “I bet they had a happy childhood growing up here,” Rick says.
“You bet. Spoiled rotten,” Jim replies.
“Well that’s good because if you don’t have a childhood you don’t have much, right?” Rick says.
There’s really no reason for Rick to ask about Jim’s kids except for White Lotus creator Mike White to draw our attention to the differences between Rick’s upbringing and that of Jim’s daughters.
Rick has been obsessing over the fact that his childhood—his entire life—was “ruined” by this man who killed his father. He had previously told Chelsea, “The guy ruined my f-cking life from day one. He doesn’t have to answer to me?” That may be true. But the comparison between the two sets of children suggests that Rick was disadvantaged not because his father died but because his father was giving his financial resources and love to his other children.
Jim recognizes Rick’s mother’s name
When Rick confronts Jim with the gun, Rick asks, “Gloria Hatchett ring a bell?” citing his dead mother.
Jim clearly recognizes her name, squinting. Rick interprets this moment of hesitation as Jim searching his memory for a woman he doesn’t remember. But it looks to us like he is surprised and recalling a previous sexual entanglement with a woman he hasn’t heard about in decades.
“She had a husband!” Rick yells. Jim shakes his head slowly. Again, Rick interprets this as lack of recognition, but it could be Jim saying, “No, she didn’t have a husband.” Perhaps Jim and Gloria were never married, or he even had an affair with her while already married to Sritala. (Jim tells Frank he first came to Thailand in 1962. In an earlier episode, when Chelsea says Rick is like “her child,” Chloe shoots back, “He’s 50.” Assuming that number is accurate, Rick would have been born around 1975, probably after Jim started doing business in Thailand. It’s unclear when Jim would have wed Sritala, but either Jim was traveling back and forth to the U.S. or Rick’s mother traveled to Thailand.)
As Rick recites the various details of his mother’s story, Jim repeats the name back to him with disbelief in his voice: “Gloria Hatchett?” We don’t get to hear any more from Jim because Rick pulls out the gun and tells Jim to “Shut the f-ck up.”
Ultimately, Rick doesn’t shoot Jim. He chooses to bury the hatchet. (This may sound corny, but note Rick’s mother’s last name is literally Hatchett.) Rick tells Frank that he couldn’t pull the trigger because Jim was nothing but a frail old man. But on a subconscious level, does Rick maybe recognize the possibility that Jim is his father, not his father’s murderer?
Rick is the architect of his own misery
Now that we’ve watched this confrontation between Rick and Jim, let’s look back at Rick’s conversation with the spiritual counselor Amrita (Shalini Peiris) at the White Lotus. Rick says his father was murdered and insists, “I never had an identity…I’m already nothing.” He then adds, “Nothing comes from nothing,” which interpreted literally could mean that Rick believes because his father “died” before he was born, he never got the benefit of forming himself in his father’s image—or even in contrast to it.
Amrita gently tries to show Rick that he is compounding his own misery by defining himself by this tragedy. “The identity you’ve created brings you suffering,” she tells him. Rick has made being an orphan his entire personality. That’s not entirely his fault: He believed a possibly false narrative. But he bought into his mother’s tale so wholeheartedly that it has warped his life.
On a show filled with ironic twists, it would be fitting for that identity that defines him to be false. A random killer isn’t responsible for ruining Rick’s life. Rick has to take responsibility.
Rick hasn’t found closure, but he still can
Rick seems finally—finally—satisfied at the end of the episode that he confronted his father’s killer. He tells Frank that he achieved closure. But we still have another hour of television to come. If Rick finds out that Jim is actually his father, it will upturn not only his perception of that confrontation but his entire life. He could spiral into an even darker place than when he first arrived at the White Lotus hotel.
Or he could find something rare on this television series: peace. Before Rick leaves for Bangkok, Amrita tells him, “You are not stuck. You can let go of your story, escape the karmic cycle, find peace in this life. I have hope for you.” Amrita can’t know when she says this to Rick that Rick is about to confront his father’s supposed killer—or that that man may be Rick’s dad. But her advice to stop the karmic cycle holds. If Rick’s father is a violent man, Rick can choose to not enact violence himself. He accomplished that by deciding not to shoot Jim.
Satisfaction is rare on The White Lotus. Arguably only Quinn Mossbacher (Fred Hechinger), who ran away from his family in Season 1 to paddle off into the sunset, achieved something close to it. (And even that happy ending is undercut by the practical fact that he is a minor whose parents will surely find a way to retrieve him.) Perhaps Mia and Lucia in Season 2 achieved happiness with Mia securing a singing gig and Lucia conning a guest out of money—but they are not guests at the hotel and, as locals, seem exempt from the torturous travails of the ultra-privileged.
What happens next?
Rick and Chelsea’s story is far from over. A few practical questions linger.
If this theory is correct, will Jim feel compelled to explain the confrontation to his wife, and maybe even tell her about the child he conceived either before their union, or possibly out of wedlock? Did Jim even know about Rick until now?
How will Rick find out about his parentage? And how will he react? Will he want to hurt the father who abandoned him? Reconcile with the parent he never knew? Scheme to inherit his immense wealth?
And what happened to the already frail Jim after Rick pushed over that chair? Was he fine? Or did he perhaps suffer an injury or even die later on? Rick is responsible for whatever happened to Jim, and Rick’s bodyguards might come looking for him, either in Bangkok where he’s partying with Frank or, more ominously, the White Lotus where Chelsea will be staying in their shared hotel room.
We know a shooting will take place at the White Lotus. And Chelsea has been ominously repeating that bad things happen in threes, and she’s already almost died two times, when the hotel boutique was robbed and when Rick set those poisonous snakes free. Then again, trios are major part of White Lotus this season: There are three Ratliff children, three friends on vacation, three Russian jewelry thieves, a threesome with Chloe and the two brothers.
So perhaps Chelsea will be spared and have plenty of time to work with Rick through his new revelation about his parentage. Rick, after all, is her soulmate and she repeatedly says that she is the light in his life, counteracting his darkness. Plus, it’s clear that she’ll do anything for her love. To quote The Princess Bride again: “Love is many things, none of them logical.”