The White Lotus Season 3 Episode 7 Confirms What We Suspected About The Robbery

This post contains spoilers for "The White Lotus."

The most crucial pieces of the puzzle have started to fall into place in "The White Lotus" season 3. A lot is going on in Thailand's White Lotus wellness resort, where key players are currently at the cusp of their arcs before the season's bloody, climactic finale. As we're already aware that things are going to end with multiple gunshots and at least one dead body, that's all the more reason to play close attention to Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong), who managed to retrieve his officially mandated gun in the previous episode.

I know what you're thinking: Gaitok isn't the kind to shoot someone, let alone kill them, as he inherently lacks the instinct to be violent (even in self-defense). However, episode 7 casts some doubt on this assured belief, as we see Mook (Lalisa Manobal, famously known as BLACKPINK's Lisa) repeatedly egg him on to toughen up and ultimately expressing disappointment in his non-violent stance. Will Gaitok finally crack under pressure when his back is pressed against the wall?

Gaitok's inner conflict can be traced back to a single inciting incident. In episode 2, he tries and fails to prevent a robbery inside one of the hotel's luxury stores, with the perpetrators managing to wound him before escaping. At first glance, the robbery seems random: Two masked dudes enter the premises in a car while health mentor Valentin (Arnas Fedaravičius) is chatting with Gaitok and then peel away in their vehicle after a skirmish. While inside the store, they hold Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) and the sales associate at gunpoint and proceed to steal a few trinkets, including an expensive serpent choker. Gaitok's inability to prevent this robbery almost gets him kicked out of the White Lotus, but hotel owner Sritala (Lek Patravadi) decides to give him another chance.

With his security gun being stolen at one point (though he thankfully manages to retrieve it), Gaitok has been having a pretty tough time of late. However, he discovers the cause of his misery during a fighting match, allowing him to silently piece together the truth about the robbery and pinpoint the exact people involved. Episode 7 also confirms our long-time suspicions about the incident, which further complicates what might happen in the finale. Let's break it all down.

In episode 7, Gaitok and Mook go on their first date while also attending a fighting match that's teased throughout the episode. Although Mook has been presented as a well-meaning character so far, her motivations feel oddly one-dimensional, casting doubts on her true nature. Is she genuinely a sweet person who cares about Gaitok? Or is she feigning interest to mask an ulterior motive? Mook's pointed insistence about embracing violence as a part of life feels a tad odd, especially when Gaitok is so torn about his innate nature. 

But things get interesting when Gaitok sees Valentin with his buddies Aleksei (Julian Kostov) and Vlad (Yuri Kolokolnikov) among the audience in the same fighting match. Everything suddenly makes sense: Aleksei and Vlad perfectly match the build and appearance of the masked robbers, while Valentin's association with them suggests it was no accident that he was distracting Gaitok during the robbery.

But this could simply be a misplaced assumption on Gaitok's part, right? Well, this hunch is confirmed once we witness the fiasco that happens with Laurie (Carrie Coon) after she hooks up with Aleksei the same night. At first, Aleksei spins a dubious sob story about an ill mother and brazenly asks Laurie to help him with an inordinate amount of money. Although Laurie gently refuses, he keeps pestering her, proving that his intentions were always to rob Laurie and her friends in some way. The extent of this scheme is revealed once an angry woman (who is presumably his girlfriend) confronts Aleksei right after, prompting Laurie to sneak away and escape before she's caught. This is when her eyes land on the gold serpent choker stashed away along with the other stolen trinkets in Aleksei's room.

Now that Gaitok is onto the robbers and Laurie is partially aware of the trio's schemes, will these developments impact the finale in significant ways? The answers remain unclear. Although Gaitok seems firm about his disinterest in settling things with violence, any combination of factors could flip that sentiment on its head, especially with so much at stake. Conversely, the gunshots from the season 3 premiere could be related to a completely different character: Jon Gries' Greg/Gary, who deserves to be smacked with some karmic retribution for his crimes (which would also honor the current season's overarching theme).

Episodes of "The White Lotus" season 3 drop every Sunday on HBO.