Introduction to Aimee Lou Wood’s Character Fate
This article contains spoilers for the Season 3 finale of “The White Lotus.” She was just a girl standing in front of a boy, begging him not to do something stupid. But he did. And she ended up in a body bag.
The Finale’s Shocking Twist
By the time the Season 3 finale of “The White Lotus” reached its conclusion, there were multiple dead bodies: Rick (Walton Goggins) and Jim (Scott Glenn) both die in the central shoot-out. But Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood), a free-spirited former yoga instructor with meme-worthy expressions, became the collateral damage caught in the crossfire of her boyfriend’s trauma.
Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) foreshadows her death, saying that bad things happen in threes.
(Fabio Lovino / HBO)
The Events Leading to Chelsea’s Demise
Things came to a head following the poorly conceived (and poorly executed) plan by Rick to avenge his father’s death. He set out to kill his father’s supposed murderer, Jim — owner, with his wife Sritala (Lek Patravadi), of the White Lotus resort in Thailand — during a side trip to the couple’s home in Bangkok but didn’t follow through. Rick returns to the White Lotus resort, when Jim arrives and confronts him — revealing a gun under his jacket and hurling some insults about Rick’s mother. Rick tries to suppress his simmering rage but, later, when he spots Jim posing for photos with Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan) and her besties, he marches over, reaches for Jim’s gun and shoots him. That’s when Sritala reveals that Jim is actually Rick’s father.
Rick (Walton Goggins) and Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) meet their fate. “For some reason, I got so upset reading it and I got so upset doing it. I think my intuition just told me. I knew,” said Wood about her audition and knowing her character’s fate.
(Fabio Lovino / HBO)
Aimee Lou Wood’s Reaction to Her Character’s Death
The Times caught up with Wood on Monday to discuss her character’s death, what’s going on with Saxon and the backstory she and Goggins imagined for how Rick and Chelsea met.
You’re alive!
I’m alive. I know it feels really like that — everyone who’s saying hi to me now, it’s like it’s my funeral. Now I’ve been reborn.
I’m not OK. I felt like I should have taken a bereavement day, but then it meant I couldn’t talk to you.
I need to grieve today; it feels so weird. We had to do a panel [last night] straight after we watched it. That was the first time I’d watched it. Patrick [Schwarzenegger] was like, “Seven months, we’re a family. And we’ve just watched one of our family have that fate, and it feels like we need time to process it.” I probably could have taken today and tomorrow and probably the next day to just really process what I had to see and the end of this huge, long experience that has been so deep, so profound, so complicated.
Fan Reaction and Aimee Lou Wood’s Response
In true American fashion, we’re making you work even after death. So, I apologize for that. It’s been less than 24 hours and I’m sure you’ve had to silence your notifications by now. But what are you hearing from people?
People are pretty upset. I’m getting a lot of very sad messages, to the point where I’m going, “But I am not dead! You are texting me. You’re talking to me. I am here.” It does feel personal because there’s a lot of Aimee in Chelsea — a lot — and there’s a lot of Chelsea in Aimee; there’s a lot of Rick in Walton, and there’s a lot of Walton in Rick. I understand why it’s emotional. One thing that I loved reading was someone being like, “Maybe Chelsea can come back in Season 4 as Saxon’s inner …” — did you see that?
No, I haven’t, but I like where this is going.
Maybe she can be there as his imaginary friend that guides him through life. What they’re actually hitting on there, which I think is true, is Saxon is gonna internalize all the things that Chelsea’s taught him. So, she is living on; she’s living on in all the people that she has touched.
The Backstory of Chelsea’s Character
Your death is a secret you’ve had to keep for a long time. But when exactly did you find out that Chelsea was going to be killed off? Did Mike White invite you over for piña coladas and explain what’s going to happen?
Oh my God, how funny was that? “The coconut milk is off!” And the throwing on the floor was so funny. I was laughing so much. He did not invite me over for piña coladas. It was at my callback. In my first audition, I did the scene where it’s Chelsea saying to Rick, “You need to get a facial.” And I also did, “You’re a Scorpio.” So, I had an idea of Chelsea and Rick from those two scenes, which was that it’s a kind of sugar baby thing. When I got my call back, I got this new scene and it was the one where she says, “I think we’re going to be together forever, don’t you?” And Rick says, “That’s the plan.” For some reason, I got so upset reading it and I got so upset doing it. I think my intuition just told me. I knew. His [Mike’s] intuition told him that I was intuiting it. He was like, “I think you kind of know,” and I was like, “Yeah, I know, I know.” And he’s like, “yeah, she dies, she has a tragedy.” And I was like, “He’s just told me that. So maybe that means I’ve got the part?”
We know very little about Chelsea, except that she’s a former yoga instructor and is an astrology girly. Did you come up with a backstory for her?
I always loved the way Chelsea was, like, “Rick’s so mysterious.” She’s so mysterious. There’s that moment with her and Chloe on the boat where she says, “Why is it always about his pain, his feelings? I have feelings too. Bad things have happened to me.” Chelsea and Rick are similar in the sense that Chelsea is running away. She’s adventurous and she’s impulsive. I had a lot of stuff in my head for Chelsea that was also really personal. Me and Walton definitely think that she saw Rick at a bar, she approached him. And they’ve been just traveling around ever since.
The Character Dynamics and Chemistry
I struggle with their dynamics so much because if I was her friend, I’d tell her, “You can’t fix a broken man, you’ll only break with him.” But I’m also delulu like Chelsea and I see their connection. Do you think Rick really loved Chelsea?
Love is a verb, isn’t it? When you’re more naive, you think of it as like a noun, but it’s a doing thing. I don’t doubt that Rick has love for Chelsea, but he is not loving as a verb. She’s not getting the benefits of that love because he’s feeling it but not doing it, you know. She’s quite lonely in that relationship, but so is he. They’re both two lonely people sat next to each other. And for one night, they connect properly, fully when he says, “That’s the plan,” at breakfast. They have togetherness for a split second and then it’s taken away. I’m the same as you, “If that was my friend … ” But she doesn’t have her friends with her. She’s made it all about him. She’s in a vertical relationship and she’s in tunnel vision and so no one would be able to stop her. Patrick was like, “I wish Saxon had died and taken a bullet for her” because everyone wants to have saved Chelsea. Everyone. But she can only save herself. It’s hard with Chelsea because she does a lot of deflecting through the spirituality and all of that stuff that makes her seem more wise than she actually is.
What about Saxon? As much of an eye roll as that character was, she unlocked something in him that changed his outlook or has put him on a path to see things differently. What intrigued you about their dynamic?
I actually love Chelsea and Saxon because he listens. It actually moves and works on him really quickly. She says, “Read these books,” and he comes to the beach and he’s already read half them. And he’s still reading it at the end, on the boat. I don’t think Chelsea knows what to do with that. There’s a visual representation of that when Saxon is talking to her about the book, he’s not saying, “Shut up. That’s stupid,” which is what Rick would say. He’s listening. But then she sees Rick at the beach and she runs to him. That’s what she wants. She wants to be the seer, not the seen. And Saxon is trying to see her in his own way and be seen by her and that is true intimacy and she can’t do that. Saxon is such an interesting character. At first he thinks he just wants to sleep with her, but actually he genuinely is moved by her and changed by her. That could have maybe turned into something, but Chelsea wants the sieve, she wants to pour down the
