A ‘Simpsons’ Easter Egg May Have Spoiled the ‘White Lotus’ Finale

This article contains possible SPOILERS for the Season Three finale of The White Lotus 

The third season of The White Lotus began with an off-screen shooting, followed by the discovery of a yet-to-be-identified corpse. Which wasn’t exactly a huge shock for viewers considering that the first two seasons similarly kicked off with a mysterious death, followed by an extended flashback that ultimately revealed which character met their demise. 

Although, should the show continue this trend in future seasons, the bigger mystery might be why anyone keeps booking their vacations at White Lotus resorts when the company’s fatality rate is verging on Cabot Cove-levels of alarming.

While the season finale doesn’t air until Sunday night, some fans believe that they may have cracked the case, all thanks to The Simpsons.

As we’ve mentioned before, a recent White Lotus episode from earlier this season inadvertently referenced The Simpsons’ parody episode “The Yellow Lotus.” But a more deliberate homage to the animated series was hiding in plain sight in Episode Six. Per NME, fans on Reddit and TikTok have pointed out that Chloe, the ex-model girlfriend of the shady Greg/Gary, was seen wearing a Maggie Simpson necklace after hosting that surprisingly incestuous boat party. 

That could just mean Chloe is a big fan of TV’s most famous mute cartoon baby, or it could be the show’s way of hinting that she is going to be the shooter in the finale. After all, Maggie was a key figure in another TV mystery involving a bloody shooting: 1995’s “Who Shot Mr. Burns?”

Despite what some fans would have you believe, it was Maggie who pulled the trigger and nearly bumped off Springfield’s most elderly resident, after accidentally taking possession of Mr. Burns’ revolver as he was attempting to steal her lollipop. 

Some White Lotus fans even suspect that the potential “Who Shot Mr. Burns?” reference could go even deeper, and indicate that the gunshot victim will, in fact, be Gary – not just because he’s the character closest to Chloe, but because he’s a bald, morally unscrupulous rich guy, not unlike Mr. Burns. 

And is it possible that the finale of The White Lotus will parallel the ending of “Who Shot Mr. Burns? Part Two” to some extent? While we don’t expect that the climax of a multimillion dollar HBO drama will involve a battle over hard candy, Maggie’s shifty eyes in the episode’s closing moments implies that Burns’ shooting may not have been an accident after all.

So perhaps Chloe will similarly get away with shooting Gary by pretending it was completely unintentional, when in fact, it was deliberate? This twist would also be especially fitting for the Greg/Gary character, seeing as how he claimed that the death of his wife Tanya was simply an accident. Okay, technically it was an accident, but it happened in the immediate aftermath of a botched assassination attempt that Greg seemingly arranged.

Sadly, nobody gets a free house in Nevada for guessing the ending of The White Lotus.