Natasha Rothwell, Mike White explains the end of Belinda

(This story contains major spoilers of The white lotus Final of season three, “Amor Fati”.)

The first thing White lotus Creator Mike White knew that season three was how it was going to end.

“The end was a bit the first thing I really thought of – Belinda shares with money and leaving someone in the same way she left on the left (in the first season),” said White, who wrote and produced the final of season three “Amor Fati” The official podcast of white lotus After the release of the episode on Sunday evening. The ender of the 90 -minute season, brought the character of Natasha Rothwell, when she essentially becomes Tanya, the favorite character of deceased fans played by Jennifer Coolidge. Or does she become Greg, the ex-husband of Tanya who orchestrated the murder (played by the star Jon Gries)?

Rothwell was asked this question in a separate interview for the The official HBO Show podcast which also released after the final on Sunday evening.

“Maybe she’s a bit of both,” said Rothwell.

In the end, Greg gave Belinda for $ 5 million in exchange for his silence and his son Zion (Nicholas Duvernay) on the suspicious death of his deceased wife. Back in the first season, White Lotus: the Hawaii staff member, Belinda, and the rich guest Tanya made a friendship and planned to get started before Tanya disappeared (she died tragically during the season two on a boat in Italy, after having defended herself against a plot of murder for the rental orchestrated by Greg, and his death was covered).

After taking the money, Belinda’s last act at the White Lotus: Thailand, where season three takes place, is to do the staff and the lover, Pornchai (Dom Hetrakul) what Tanya did to him. Belinda rushes and Pornchai’s plans to embark on business together, and the saga in Thailand ends with Belinda and Zion leaving on a jetboat, $ 5 million richer, the winners of season three.

“I think that this moment (from Belinda leaving with money) will look like the public because of what happened to him,” said Rothwell of Tanya’s comparison, “but I think that if they look at him closely, you will see that she leaves with kindness. She reiterates several times …

Rothwell calls the final exchange between her and Pornchai “tearing”, but she does not stop drawing a clean line from Belinda to Tanya, the latter who chose his life with Greg about his plans with Belinda. “I think there is more sorrow from Belinda than maybe the share of Tanya,” she said. “Tanya is about to get Dick. So she’s like, “Bye Girl. I have to go. Belinda is a little more broken – and she does not say no.

Rothwell explains that if Belinda had brought Pornchai for the journey, it would be like she “obtained another dependent” at the moment of financial freedom. “She even said to Sion:” Can’t I be rich for five minutes? ” Right now, nobody asks me for anything, “said Rothwell, quoting his first days as an actor who works as being able to relate to the” endless fear “of Belinda about money. “It is like,” pompards the brakes and we sit in the space where I do not do something for someone else, and I do not make plans. I just appreciate the comfort of security. I think that is why she does not bring Pornchai on the trip for this next chapter, because she does not know who she is out of trying to work.

This line from Belinda asking her son “I can’t be rich for five minutes?” Return to the end of White’s full circle for season three.

“There were criticisms,” admitted White on the podcast after the show at the end of season one in Belinda. “She was the black character; She was the conscientious worker and she had this very sad end where she was recorded to work there forever, while everyone was heading towards sunset. And some people thought it was correct. Some people thought it was too depressing or other. ”

He added: “There were a lot of conversations on this subject.”

So, after the sadness of his decision to kill Tanya – which meant the departure of her nearby friend, Emmy Winner Coolidge – White returned to the drawing board to ask: “What could be something happy that comes out?”

He said the choice of Belinda: “It is easy to be virtuous and have certain types of ideals when you have no money and you don’t have to put your money where you are a mouth. It is one thing to be:” Oh yes, I will do this spa for women “, whatever its kind of fantasy – but it needs someone for five minutes. I just have the impression that it is very honest.

When White now imagines what the future of Belinda looks like, he said, “Maybe she will do something significant. And I think people do it – I’m not so cynical. It was actually an idea of ​​anchoring, that she would go and would have this kind of stella-he-Her-Groove back of thing with someone there and perhaps fantasizing with perhaps a matter with this person, and then this flaw

He continued: “And we love her because we are with her. We get it. But at the same time, it seems very human and does not make it the end of a comedy of the 80s where you see them set up the sign of their spa for less lucky people and give massages to cleaning women or something. ”

Rothwell, for her part, said that she collaborated with White to contribute scenes that felt authentic through the lens of Belinda as a black woman, citing the look she gives to another black couple at the White Lotus: Thailand as an example. “I launched the scene and it came out of talking to us (from) when I see blacks when I travel. No matter where I’m in the world, I’m going to go up and say something if they like to be seen and we want to feel seen by me, “she said, adding White’s value.

As for her vision of Belinda now, Rothwell says that she believes that her character probably goes towards a new life, not too different for Greg to become “Gary” in Thailand.

“I think she is trying to adapt to this higher level of society,” she said, imagining her future. “You get out of Dodge fairly quickly. She is worried about being prosecuted by Greg, and so I think she may want to get out of the grid. Maybe she’s going to go with her second first name.”

The end could also open it at the same time and are getting back to return for the fourth season already renewed by HBO and the winning success of the Max Emmy. “Likewise, I want to come back. I don’t know if I will be, but who knows? she said.

Gries, on the other hand, has also not excluded a return. “You never know,” he said The Hollywood Reporter in his final interview. “There is no try to predict anything that Mike White does. I never presumed that I would be in season two. Same thing for season three. Everything he does to a surprise. Yes, I would like to come back. But the book on Greg seems to be complete? I can’t tell you.”

In the end, Rothwell considers Belinda as a conduit for the public THE White lotus – Or at least, it was, until it becomes rich. “I think that is why the public is so attracted to Belinda,” she says. “She has such real and relatable reactions (like),” I’m going to die. Let’s call all the police. She tries to stay alive and she grabs her bag as she was a nanny on a bus.

Season two of White Lotus is now in trouble on Max. Head here for all the interviews and coverage of season three of th And a final interview with Jon Gries.