‘The White Lotus’ season 3 characters, ranked from worst to best

16. Mook (Lalisa Manobal)

Look, Gaitok isn’t the only guy who’d (literally) shoot his shot for a chance to date someone like Mook. But her character’s scenes were paper-thin compared to this season’s other, meatier arcs.

Most memorable moment: Her dance routine in episode 5 is stunning.

15. Zion (Nicholas Duvernay)

Belinda’s son Zion was originally meant to romance Piper in the season 3 finale, but that scene got scuttled due to time restraints. Maybe we’d be more attached to him if it worked out, but the most personality he gets to flex comes during his negotiations with Greg, which feel a bit forced and inorganic.

Most memorable moment: Zion is an excellent, empathetic anchor for viewers when shots fire in the season’s opening flash-forward. The way he prays for his mother is harrowing.

14. Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook)

Piper feels more or less like a plot driver for most of the season — she’s the reason the Ratliffs came to Thailand and also the one implicating the family for their crass privilege.

But her character comes into full focus in the finale, when she reveals that she no longer wants to spend a year studying Buddhism due to the temple’s terrible food and living conditions. It’s a hilarious reveal, exposing her as the kind of smug nepo baby who loves critiquing her privilege but recoils at the idea of relinquishing it.

Most memorable moment: “The food. I mean, it was vegetarian, but you could tell it wasn’t organic. It was just kinda bland, and I dunno, I was like, ‘Could I really eat this for a whole year?’ And then, oh god, I went back to my room and it was like this tiny, little box with a mattress with stains on it and no air conditioning. And I know I’m not supposed to be attached to this stuff, and I don’t wanna think that I am… but I think that I am. I know I am.”

13. Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong)

Gaitok began the season as someone to root for — a quiet, kind-hearted security guard with a crush on his coworker. He ends as a hero (?) who finds success (and romance) after overcoming his insecurities and shooting an unarmed man in the back.

It’s a curious journey that can be interpreted several ways — did Gaitok sell out his values by pulling the trigger, or did he achieve self-actualization by finally doing what his job demands? We’re not sure, though it does leave us a bit ambivalent.

Most memorable moment: That tense conversation with Timothy about his missing gun ripples with anxiety.

12. Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan)

A popular actress fretting over aging like the rest of us, Jaclyn is certainly a compelling archetype. Michelle Monaghan, too, inhabits the role with charm and ease. But Jaclyn spends much of the season on the defense, which results in plenty of good drama but not much of a spotlight for her.

Most memorable moment: The way Jaclyn performs during her fling with Valentin speaks volumes about the insecurities of her character.

11. Greg/Gary (Jon Gries)

Greg (known in Thailand as Gary) is more of an avatar of menace than a fully fleshed-out character. Jon Gries is scary as hell playing him, though.

Most memorable moment: Greg/Gary and Rick bonding with knowing grins over their mutual careers of doing “this and that.”

10. Lochlan (Sam Nivola)

We’re sure Lochlan’s near-death vision, one of the finale’s most beautiful moments, will linger with the Ratliff’s youngest back in the States, but not even a brush with God is going to fix whatever’s going on inside this kid.

Granted, we’d be hard-pressed to articulate what that is, but it manifests in some disquieting relationships with both of his siblings. It’s compelling stuff, but lacks a satisfying resolution. What the hell — bring him back next season. We’ve got to see what this freak gets up to next.

Most memorable moment: Do we have to say it?

9. Kate (Leslie Bibb)

We all have a friend like Kate — curiously polite, questionable politics, and adept at playing both sides of any given conflict. Leslie Bibb is fantastic, responding to the most loaded questions with subtle gestures and inflections that speak volumes.

Most memorable moment: Her face when Laurie and Jaclyn ask if she voted for Trump. Truly one of the best acting moments of the season.

8. Belinda (Natasha Rothwell)

Belinda first appeared in The White Lotus season 1, wherein a fickle Tanya reneged on a promise to invest in her wellness spa. This time around, Natasha Rothwell gets to play several new shades.

Not only do we see her romance the sweet Pornchai (Dom Hetrakul), but we also witness Belinda’s shrewder side when she ultimately lets her son squeeze more hush money out of Greg.

Her ending is happy, but it comes with a stormy lining. After discussing a business collab with Pornchai, she leaves him in the dust after working Greg for a cool $5 million. “My circumstances have changed,” she says, which is certainly one way of justifying her pulling a Tanya. It’s a very White Lotus twist.

Most memorable moment: Her move on Pornchai was tender and amusing — as was Zion walking in on them the next morning.

7. Rick (Walton Goggins)

Rick, who came to Thailand with a vendetta, is the season’s cautionary tale. His inability to let go of his self-imposed (and self-perpetuating) misery led to the deaths of several security guards, his girlfriend Chelsea, and Jim (Scott Glenn), who turned out to be the father Rick meant to avenge. His anger was a bomb, and the blast radius ruined a lot of lives.

Walton Goggins is fantastic while navigating the character’s highs and lows, but while his arc is thematically satisfying, it could sometimes be a drag spending time with him. Also, his revenge story (and his dad’s Darth Vader reveal) felt a touch derivative in a show that’s typically much more surprising.

Most memorable moment: The snakes.

6. Frank (Sam Rockwell)

We don’t meet Frank until episode 5, but his delirious monologue about sex, drugs, sobriety, and Buddhism remains one of the season’s strangest and most exciting stretches. Many thought Frank would be a one-off, what with the character being played by Oscar winner Sam Rockwell, but Rick’s old friend orbited some of the season’s most tense scenes (some of which he escalated by abandoning his sobriety).

But Frank’s journey, abbreviated as it is, speaks to the redemptive soul of The White Lotus. Sure, he fell off the wagon, but instead of retreating into destruction or self-hatred, Frank ended the season back in a Buddhist monastery, looking content.

Most memorable moment: That monologue, obviously, but an honorable mention goes to that little flip he did in the hallway chasing Rick.

5. Timothy (Jason Isaacs)

Timothy, the Ratliff patriarch who discovers his business (and life) is falling apart back in the States, had one of the more tumultuous journeys this season. It was bleakly hilarious to watch him dream of murdering his family while stumbling around in a Lorazepam haze, but also repetitive after so many episodes.

Still, Jason Isaacs finds layers in a fairly despicable character, especially when he visits the monk Luang Por Teera (Suthichai Yoon), who forces him, if only for a moment, to think beyond himself.

Most memorable moment: I’m still laughing at how sloppy he was on booze and pills while stumbling around Gary’s boat and trying to carry on conversations with his children.

Still, Jason Isaacs finds layers in a fairly despicable character, especially when he visits the monk Luang Por Teera (Suthichai Yoon), who forces him, if only for a moment, to think beyond himself.

Most memorable moment: I’m still laughing at how sloppy he was on booze and pills while stumbling around Gary’s boat and trying to carry on conversations with his children.

4. Laurie (Carrie Coon)

From moment one, it looked as if the combustible trio of Laurie, Jaclyn, and Kate was poised to detonate. And the penultimate episode, when Laurie and Jaclyn clashed over the hunky Valentin, brought us right to the brink of fisticuffs.

But the finale took a more compelling route, with the women realizing that their relationship existing at all is a damn fine reason to set aside the pent-up resentments that inevitably surface amongst old friends. Single mother Laurie, whose journey was the most satisfying of the trio, punctuated this revelation. Coon delivered one of the seasons best moments when she said that it’s not God or religion that gives us meaning, but “time.”

Most memorable moment: Laurie letting loose on a rowdy night out with the Russians was a pearl-clutcher to remember.

3. Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger)

We love an arc, don’t we, folks? Saxon, eldest child of the Ratliff clan, strolled into Thailand as a protein-obsessed finance bro with a malevolent undercurrent. (Who masturbates with their brother in the room?) But, as is so often the case with post-college failsons, Saxon’s bravado masked a festering insecurity that Patrick “Son of Arnold” Schwarzenegger allowed to emerge with equal parts humor and pathos.

Wisely, White and Schwarzenegger didn’t give Saxon a full face turn. Rather, they instilled in him a curiosity that will no doubt serve him well in the Ratliff’s uncertain future.

Most memorable moment: The teary-eyed look of longing he couldn’t hide during Chelsea and Rick’s finale reunion. It’s the image I’ve seen regurgitated the most on social media over the past 36 hours.

2. Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood)

Chelsea arrived to the White Lotus with stars in her eyes and an older boyfriend with a chip on his shoulder. Aimee Lou Wood played the character’s fierce and starry-eyed faith in her and Rick’s spiritual bond with an intoxicating balance of naivety, stubbornness, and self-assurance, making it all the more gutting when she failed to save him (or herself) from his own self-imposed anger.

Fans demanded justice for Jennifer Coolidge’s Tanya following season 2 — don’t be surprised if Chelsea gets a similar campaign next season.

Most memorable moment: The look of utter joy (and disbelief) in her eyes when Rick confirmed to her that he sees them together “forever.” (Honorable mention for every moment she managed to twirl Saxon around her finger.)

1. Victoria (Parker Posey)

It’s tough to say Ratliff matriarch Victoria changed all that much throughout the season — and it would’ve been disingenuous to give her some kind of spiritual awakening — but Parker Posey delivered what’s easily the season’s funniest performance. There wasn’t a single scene that her presence didn’t make better.

As a posh, prescription drug-addled Southern belle, Posey exudes oblivious cruelty, cackling at Saxon’s ribaldry while wrinkling her nose at Piper’s longing for spiritual release and worldliness. But Posey also gives the character dimension — shallow as Victoria may be, she’s aware of her own privilege and has leapt through enough mental hoops to justify it.

Most memorable moment: Victoria’s blank eyes and dismissive one-word replies when Kate approaches her at breakfast is a masterclass.