The coconut milk probably was off

More White Lotus spoilers ahead

And I repeat: SPOILERS.

Previously, in Colleen’s predictions for The White Lotus, based on one brief piece of music.

Ok, I was pretty far off. Which is a good thing because my speculation was DARK.

The family annihilation fantasy was still going strong with Duke’s least favorite fictional alumnus Timothy (Jason Isaacs). But fantasy is all it ended up being, no matter how close he came. And it was close! Poisoned piña coladas (pong pong coladas?) were slapped out of the Ratliffs’ hands when his conscience caught up to him.

I was right about one thing though: that hymn was important.

Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming returned as all the stories wrapped up neatly, and often sadly at the very end of the season finale.

Every choir director’s face this coming Christmas, when congregants now call it “the one from The White Lotus.”

Timothy recalls the song as the mostly-unscathed (should Lochlan see a doctor?) family sails away from their reprieve of a vacation. Circling back, the verse 3 lyrics do speak of the dispelled darkness he seems to be feeling.

This Flower, whose fragrance tender
With sweetness fills the air,
Dispels with glorious splendor
The darkness everywhere.
True man, yet very God,
From sin and death He saves us
And lightens every load

But in the soundtrack, the song circles back to the second verse instead of playing the actual ending of the hymn.

It’s a story that shows rather than tells, but Timothy has the most visceral experience of inner darkness of all the characters this season. And they’re all fighting it - that “taboo inner feeling” that Mike White has mentioned leaning into as a character trait throughout this season. But we see Tim’s illustrated onscreen over and over again, and just how awful it is. It actually makes it to the surface while he’s living in fear over the consequences of his embezzling actions.

While to most of us it’s unimaginable, it’s not unheard of. Timothy is palpably relieved to have stopped himself, and he’s actively embracing the part of him that remembers his faith. Not just hearing Lo, How a Rose again, but also watching the wave return to the ocean, like the monk described.

Of course that’s also after Timothy almost accidentally poisons his youngest son Lochlan with the residue in the blender - nearly killing the one family member he meant to have survive.

Maybe now that you’re poor you can learn to wash your blender.

In fact, it’s a terrific fake out, as we think Lochlan is already lying dead by the pool. But, like the song has “foretold:” Timothy’s son rises from the dead. And that’s what saves him in the end. It gives Tim the shock needed to snap out of his dark fantasies and face what’s coming with the FBI.

Maybe the coconut milk really was off. It’s possible for TWO things to be wrong with a cocktail.

Timothy Ratliff isn’t the only one who experiences a crisis of faith. Laurie (Carrie Coon) redefines the term for herself in a dinner table speech with her girlfriends. And in Rick (Walton Goggins) and Chelsea’s (Aimee Lou Wood) tragic ending we watch an evocation of the Father (Jim Hollinger), Son (Rick), and Holy Spirit (Chelsea) coming together in death. It’s a heinous shootout scene where multiple artworks are evoked - first a Pieta, and then Ophelia in the water.

First of all: how dare you?

Talk of the show’s music lately has been focused on staff composer Cristóbal Tapia de Veer, and the apparent dispute with creator Mike White over the theme song’s truncation this season. It’s led de Veer to leave the show, much to audience dismay. I love seeing these strong feelings about a piece of music.

The heart of the matter is the “ooh loo loo” section of the theme. White found the vocals to be too much, wanting “something like you might hear in Ibiza” (in a show set in Thailand, but maybe that’s a hint for next season).

The theme has updated every season, to fit the respective locations, with de Veer acting as the architect from the beginning.

Music history nerds would notice what the theme’s “loo loo” echoes, which might be part of why de Veer is so loathe to lose it. It sounds a lot like the Dies Irae chant, a melody that has come to symbolize death in music in all kinds of works.

From the Romantic era (Berlioz, Liszt, Rachmaninoff especially) to soundtracks since the golden age of Hollywood, once you hear it, you’ll catch that Dies Irae all the time.

That White Lotus finale left me with almost as many questions as answers, but I’m relieved that the speculation is pretty much done, as fun as it was. Well, “fun” with a little bit of heartbreak there at the end. Chelsea, you deserved better.

Second of all… HOW DARE YOU? She never got to eat that green donut. And… she kind of matched it at the end.