‘The White Lotus’ Star Reveals The 1 Reason He Feels ‘So Guilty’ Over The Show’s Season Finale

Warning: This post contains spoilers for “The White Lotus.”

The Season 3 finale of “The White Lotus” has been met with a flurry of mixed reviews. While some fans complained about its seemingly unresolved plot lines, others rejoiced over the series’ violent wrap-up. But according to star Patrick Schwarzenegger, the final episode left him feeling “so guilty” for one reason.

While appearing on Thursday’s episode of “Today with Jenna & Friends,” the actor, 31, revealed that he wasn’t fond of how his co-star Aimee Lou Wood’s character Chelsea died at the end of Season 3.

In the finale, which aired April 6, Chelsea was fatally struck by a bullet amid a gunfight at the resort between her boyfriend Rick (Walton Goggins) and the bodyguards of Jim Hollinger (Scott Glenn), who was revealed to be Rick’s real father.

Calling Wood “such a great friend on set and so much fun to work” with, Schwarzenegger candidly admitted that he felt uneasy over Chelsea’s cruel demise, adding he wished his character, Saxon, would’ve met her bloody fate instead.

“I was telling [Wood] that I felt so guilty. I wanted this arc for Saxon where I told her, ‘I wish I took the bullet for you. I wish I came at the end and saved you or something, this beautiful moment,’” he explained.

Schwarzenegger went on to speak on Saxon’s character evolution and his “coming of age” moment, which many social media users have praised as “insanely good and unexpected.”

“I mean, he started on such a one note and ended up in a different place … I was disliked. I was severely hated. And I told people, you know, ‘Just wait. It’s only three episodes, the show’s eight episodes, let the character arc build,’” he said.

Schwarzenegger added: “But yeah, when I was walking the streets of New York in the first weeks, people were like, ‘Oh, I hate you. I love to hate your character.’ But now it’s sweet to see people saying how much they love Saxon.”

While the finale wrapped up with Saxon and his family’s financial future in limbo, Schwarzenegger shared a fan theory about how his character could come back in another season of “White Lotus,” as several other characters notably have.

In the last episode, Saxon and his family members — played by Jason Isaacs, Parker Posey, Sam Nivola and Sarah Catherine Hook — remained alive after Timothy Ratliff (Isaacs) tried to poison them all with a toxic fruit amid his impending imprisonment for embezzlement and fraud.

“I saw a funny tweet that said, ‘I hope in Season 4, Saxon comes back as the janitor, or he’s the health guru at the new hotel.’ But I don’t know,” Schwarzenegger confessed. “Obviously [director] Mike [White] leaves things open-ended and wants the conversation to be had amongst the viewers, and who knows where the Ratliffs go?”

Watch Schwarzenegger’s appearance on “Today with Jenna & Friends” below.