This article contains spoilers for The White Lotus season three.
After the dramatic ending of The White Lotus season three and the mournful music that plays out as the guests leave the hotel - alive, dead, considerably richer, an awful lot poorer - the last song that plays out hits an unexpected joyful note. Some light relief to dry your tears alongside, perhaps?
As Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) and her son Zion cruise away in a speed boat (solo, not with the riff-raff like the Raitliffs!) the mournful music switches to the joyful opening bars of Billy Preston's 'Nothing From Nothing'.
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Well, as Aimee Lou Wood's Chelsea well knew, everything means something - and we know that in Mike White's The White Lotus that's especially true.
So what did that final song that played over the end credits mean?
'Nothin' from nothin' leaves nothin' / You gotta have somethin' if you wanna be with me' the song's opening lines rang out. The lyrics of the song, below, seem to tell the story of a man telling his partner that they need to bring something to the relationship. And that something seems to be money. 'Don't you remember I told ya / I'm a soldier in the war on poverty, yeah' he later adds.
Of course money and its importance in providing happiness is a constant theme of 'The White Lotus'. There's more than a tongue firmly in cheek with those lyrics closing a drama obsessed with wealth. But what does it mean playing over Belinda's joyful face? Well it depends on if you're thrilled for Belinda, feel she's betrayed Tanya, or just committed a Tanya herself. Is it fair distribution of wealth, or just a repetition on a pattern playing out before our eyes? Depends on your viewpoint. The song plays with the idea, brightly and unlike other love songs, that love isn't all you need - some cold hard cash needs to come into play too. It's those without money that understand that best often, so in many ways it's a song you can imagine giving Belinda some pause for thought. Refusing to be in service of the rich for all of her life, she took her opportunity to demand more than nothing this time.
According to Stereogum, Preston and his co-writer drews inspiration from Shakespeare's King Lear - fitting for an ending to a show that had all the Elizabethan dramatist prized when it came to the final deaths. '“Nothing will come of nothing.”' the article says. '(Lear says that after one of his daughters says that she can’t put her affection for her father into words. Lear is letting her know that that’s not going to be good enough.)'
Here's the lyrics to the song if you want to delve deeper yourself after that epic 90 minute finale.
Nothin' from nothin' leaves nothin'
You gotta have somethin' if you wanna be with me
Nothin' from nothin' leaves nothin'
You gotta have somethin' if you wanna be with me
I'm not tryna be your hero
'Cause that zero is too cold for me, brrr
I'm not tryin' to be your highness
'Cause that minus is too low to see, yeah
Nothin' from nothin' leaves nothin'
And I'm not stuffin', believe you me
Don't you remember I told ya
I'm a soldier in the war on poverty, yeah, yes, I am
Nothin' from nothin' leaves nothin'
You gotta have somethin' if you wanna be with me, oh baby
Nothin' from nothin' leaves nothin'
You gotta have somethin' if you wanna be with me, that's right, ha yea
Gotta have somethin' if you wanna be with me
You gotta bring me somethin' girl, if you wanna be with me
The White Lotus: The Complete Third Season is arriving on DVD September 8, 2025 and available now on Digital
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