A tearful Aimee Lou Wood reacts to ‘incredibly uncynical’ ending to ‘White Lotus’ Season 3

By Dan Heching, CNN

 2 minute read 

Updated 9:26 AM EDT, Mon April 7, 2025

Aimee Lou Wood in Season 3, episode 1 of ‘The White Lotus.’ Fabio Lovino/HBO

Editor’s Note: This story recaps major plot points from the Season 3 finale of “The White Lotus.”CNN — 

After the surprising and truly fateful finale of Season 3 of “The White Lotus” on Sunday, Aimee Lou Wood had some takeaways that underscore all the feels that viewers are sure to be having amongst themselves and over social media for some time.

At a cast panel immediately following a screening of the finale, a stricken-looking Wood – who had just watched the episode in which her character Chelsea dies in the crossfire between her love Rick (Walton Goggins) and hotel security – remarked on how “there was a lot of hope in it” in spite of the tragic end to her storyline.

“Do you know what I loved about that last episode?” Wood said. “There was a lot of hope in it. There was a lot of softness.”

Wood added that that feeling came from “all the connections” that are made and ratified at the season’s conclusion, specifically the ones between the three girlfriends, as well as the Ratliff family.

“I found it incredibly uncynical, especially for ‘The White Lotus,’” Wood remarked. “It was very, very, very moving.”

And yet, of course, she also addressed the emotional weight of Chelsea’s tragic ending. “Obviously, being the one that dies, this whole time I’ve been like, ‘So sad, Mike (White) kills hope. Because Chelsea is hope, and he kills her.’”

“And it’s like, yeah, but then what I saw just then was like, there was so much love in it!” she added. “That’s why it’s so much more painful, because you have to hold it all at the same time.”

Wood concluded by saying that dichotomy “is life, isn’t it? Just love and pain all the time.”

Goggins was not present at the panel, but he echoed his onscreen love interest’s feelings in a heartfelt Instagram post on Sunday night, timed close to the airing of “The White Lotus” finale.

“Rick + Chelsea. With the heaviest of hearts… To me, ours was a love story,” he wrote alongside a beautiful carousel of pictures showing the pair on location in Thailand. “It was only ever a love story, hindered by unresolved, childhood trauma. We all have them… but can we move past them. In the depths of our despair there is always beauty around us.”

Later in the post, Goggins thanked Wood “for being my partner… a journey I will never forget.”