‘The White Lotus’ star Aimee Lou Wood recalls filming Chelsea’s heartbreaking fate
Warning: This post contains spoilers for Season 3 of “The White Lotus.”
Bad things happen in threes, Chelsea warned early on in Season 3 of “The White Lotus” — and viewers saw just that during the show’s final episode, which aired April 6.
Early on in “The White Lotus,” Chelsea, portrayed by Aimee Lou Reed, tells her curmudgeonly boyfriend Rick (Walton Goggins) that bad luck comes in threes after she experiences a jewelry store robbery at the hotel, as well as gets bitten by a venomous snake.
The third and fatal event for Chelsea came after she got caught in the crossfire during a shooting between Rick and hotel owner Sritala (Lek Patravadi) and Jim Hollinger’s (Scott Glenn) bodyguards.
During a panel following the screening of the final episode at The White Lotus at Four Seasons Presented by American Express, Wood reflected on filming her emotional death scene.
“It’s weird,” she told moderator “Queer Eye” star Tan France. “For about two weeks before we shot it, I felt super weird. It was like this odd, ominous thing that was just hanging over us.”
Wood explained that when filming her scene, it was “the hottest day ever” and Goggins had to carry her “so many times.”
She also said that she didn’t expect to feel so emotional for such a long time before that tearful moment.
“Chelsea doesn’t know what’s gonna happen to her, but I know,” she said of her character’s fate. “So it’s this odd thing and, yeah, it’s really weird.”
The actor added that her gut-wrenching death scene, “Looked exactly how it felt, which was really strange.”
Rick had gone to Thailand to seek revenge and confront Jim, who he accused of killing his dad.
In the finale episode, Jim insults Rick’s mother, which in turn infuriates Rick to the point where he shoots and kills him. In a surprising twist, Sritala tells Rick that Jim is actually his father.
The wealthy couple’s bodyguards then get into a heated shootout that results in Chelsea accidentally getting shot in the chest and dying.
A heartbroken Rick picks up Chelsea and carries her across a bridge when Sritala yells at Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) to kill him. The White Lotus security guard shoots Rick twice in the back and he and Chelsea fall into the water.
Wood said during the panel that it was hard for her to watch that scene.
“Yeah. It was weird. I think it’s not soaked in. There’s a lot in that episode that made me f—— sob a lot,” she said, also mentioning Saxon’s (Patrick Schwarzenegger) sad face when Chelsea gets so happy seeing Rick return to the resort.
Wood also took a moment to praise creator Mike White for taking her and viewers on an emotional ride throughout the season.
“He’s so clever,” she said, “because at the end you want to hold onto the joy of the triumph but… Mike just makes you sit in that really achy place. So I feel achy.”
