Everything You Need to Know About 'The White Lotus' Season 3 Fan Theories

The White Lotus has always been a gold mine of whodunnit clues, and season three is no exception. Kicking off with a shooting where both victim and murderer are kept under wraps, the story of the Koh Samui resort in Thailand and its unsavory guests unfolds from there, featuring the Ratliff family, a surprise appearance by Greg, and a whole lot of monkeys. And despite not loving this season's theme song, fans were quick to begin speculating as to what might happen to guests, employees, and random LBHs alike. Ahead, all of the best theories regarding season three of The White Lotus.

Laurie (Carrie Coon) is Portia's mom.

Carrie Coon plays divorced lawyer Laurie who arrives at the Koh Samui resort to reconnect with her friends Kate (Leslie Bibb) and Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan). After an unprompted discussion about her unnamed daughter, fans were quick to point out the similarities between her and Portia (Haley Lu Richardson), who was Tanya McQuoid's assistant in season two. Mike White rarely brings back characters, though, and there hasn't been any mention of her daughter since.

The monkeys did it.

After an overwhelming amount of monkey-related symbolism in episode one—which, you'll recall, began with a murder—the theories started rolling in: did the monkeys pull the trigger? If so, was it an accident or a pre-meditated attack?

Rick is a hit man (or a long lost son).

Rick's obsessive search for the hotel owner's husband raised eyebrows from the get-go, and two theories developed: either Rick (Walton Goggins) is a hired hit man, or he is searching for his long lost father, who has become the subject of his therapy sessions at the resort.

Lochlan (Sam Nivola) isn't actually a Ratliff.

Given Lochlan's black sheep status in the Ratliff family, some fans have begun to wonder if Lochan is even a Ratliff at all. If he was in fact adopted, that might explain some of his siblings's eagerness to claim him.

"Why do I think this?" one fan wrote on Reddit. "Because of the fight for his attention by his 'brother' and 'sister,' Lochlan's alleged physical interest in his brother, and the sense that they are still getting to know each other through the questions they ask one another."

Mook is secretly a villain.

The first hint of violence this season (other than the murder, of course) is the robbery in episode two. After Valentin distracts hotel guard Gaitok (who eventually gets whacked by two men in a getaway car) he immediately becomes suspect. But what about Gaitok's crush, Mook? Played by Lisa, she hangs out with the creepy security guards and seems like she might be hiding something from Gaitok.

The hotel owner, Sritala, is involved.

There's been a notable amount of attention paid to Sritala, especially when compared to the absence of owners in The White Lotus seasons one and two. Given Rick's interest in her husband, fans were quick to wonder: is Sritala mixed up in some funny business? What does she know that we don't?

"What if Sritala has been trying to kill her husband and inherit everything and Rick is a part of it (I don’t recall if he’s the owner or if they’re co-owners)," one fan mused on Reddit. "His being in Bangkok was an unexpected issue that complicates matters. Chelsea may or may not be directly involved."

Someone's going to eat the poisonous fruit.

In episode one, the Ratliff family is introduced to the pong pong tree, which produces a poisonous fruit called othalanga. Obviously this is a plot device used to foreshadow bad times to come, but as one TikTok user pointed out, I wouldn't put it past a member of the Ratliff family to accidentally (or, in the case of the dad, purposefully) take a bite of the forbidden fruit.

Rick and Timothy are brothers.

We know by now that the patriarch of the Ratliff family is in deep financial trouble. Rick's problems, however, are tad more opaque. One theory is that the two men have more than money woes in common—and that they are, in fact, estranged brothers who will eventually go toe to toe.

"What if Timothy is also Hollinger's legitimate son, coming from old money, who had everything handed to him, and still manages to fuck it up out of greed?" A fan wrote on Reddit. "Wouldn't that make Rick go from disliking him to hating him, enough to try to kill him?"

Chelsea gets murdered.

Everyone is wondering who the dead body is in episode one, and one theory is that it's Rick's girlfriend Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood), mostly based on the fact that she says, "This hotel is to die for."

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