This White Lotus Theory About Rick's Dad Is So Convincing

Spoiler alert: This post discusses events in The White Lotus Season 3, Episode 4.

Rick Hatchett has been shrouded in mystery since the start of The White Lotus Season 3, but fans may have figured out a potential twist in his story that even he isn’t aware of yet. At the end of Episode 4, the secretive wanderer finally told his inquisitive girlfriend Chelsea why he really came to Thailand. He is dead-set on confronting the man who murdered his father. Except... the man he’s hunting may hold more answers than Rick is expecting.

After cantankerously brushing off all of Chelsea’s questions about their Thai vacation, Rick at last told his girlfriend about his vengeance plot. He revealed the story his mother told him as a child: that his father came to Thailand to try to stop a shady American from stealing local land. This evil businessman was Jim Hollinger, the husband of White Lotus resort owner Sritala Hollinger. According to Rick’s mom, Jim killed his father during this venture. So now, Rick has come to Thailand to get his revenge all these years later.

However, there are some important details that should stand out in this story. Rick says that his father’s body was never found. He also adds that his mother told him this narrative on her deathbed. These factors, plus Rick’s overarching struggle with identity, have led fans to create a prominent theory that Jim Hollinger didn’t kill his dad — he is Rick’s dad.

There are several reasons to buy into this notion — not the least of which is just how much The White Lotus loves a good twist. Even Chelsea was a bit skeptical when Rick told her that his dad’s body wasn’t found, and it would make sense for a dying mother to tell her young son that his dad was a hero he can idolize instead of a money-hungry runaway.

Most of all, this theory about Rick’s dad being the exact opposite of who he always thought fits perfectly into what seems to be his central tenet of the season: the mutation of identity. In therapy, Rick emphasizes how his intense focus on his father’s death has taken over who he is, reiterating that he’s “nothing” to his therapist. Finding out such a shocking truth about his not-so-martyred dad, who’s taken up a core part of his selfhood, would be the ultimate lesson in how identity can shift and reform, a prominent teaching in Buddhism.