The Righteous Gemstones series finale gave Walton Goggins‘ character a happy ending with his love interest, which is something he didn’t get on The White Lotus.
During the Sunday, May 4, episode, Goggins’ Uncle Baby Billy got a newfound appreciation for life after surviving a near-death experience. He shut down his production of the Passion Play to focus on his wife, Tiffany (Valyn Hall), and their children.
The ending was quite different from what went down in another recent finale featuring Goggins. One month before The Righteous Gemstones came to an end, HBO’s The White Lotus wrapped up with Rick (Goggins) and his girlfriend, Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood), dying at the resort in Thailand.
“With the heaviest of hearts … To me, ours was a love story. It was only ever a love story, hindered by unresolved, childhood trauma,” Goggins, 53, wrote alongside photos of him and Wood, 31, in April. “We all have them … but can we move past them.”
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The actor opened up about how he related to Rick and Chelsea’s story, adding, “In the depths of our despair there is always beauty around us. If we can sit with our pain, just sit with it … not react … not be defined by it … It’s there … the love the world is constantly giving in any given moment is there. Always waiting for us to see it… Trust me I know.”
Goggins went on to praise creator Mike White for “your imagination, your tender heart, for the privilege of giving us the opportunity to tell it.” He also thanked Wood “for being my partner,” adding that they shared “a journey I will never forget.”
After season 3 of The White Lotus came to an end, however, the drama kept going. Following Jason Isaacs’ hints about tension on set, eagle-eyed social media users noticed that Goggins and Wood were no longer following each other. Fans began to suspect that Goggins and Wood were at odds, which neither have addressed publicly.
Goggins recently made headlines for shutting down a question he was asked about his friendship with Wood.
“I’m not gonna have that conversation,” Goggins replied in an interview with The London Times, which was published on Thursday, May 1. According to the writer, Ed Potton, Goggins’ American publicist interrupted the interview to say, “We’re not going there, thank you.” Goggins’ British rep also allegedly jumped in to ask they move on to the “next question.”
The journalist pivoted to discuss Goggins’ upcoming movie The Uninvited before referencing Wood again. Goggins allegedly called out his “thinly veiled” attempts to discuss unsubstantiated rumors about a feud between him and Wood.
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“There is no conversation to be had about that,” Goggins fired back. “Sharing politics on social media — it’s in a vacuum.”
Potton brought up the drama one more time, and Goggins replied, “What the f***, Ed! Come on, buddy. Wow.” (Per the article, Goggins’ U.S. rep immediately cut the conversation short after an “off the rails” interview.)
Isaacs, 61, later posted a photo of himself and Goggins while joking about the controversy, writing via Instagram on Friday, May 2, “Guess who was on my plane? Hey, all you genius online sleuths – see any beef?!! #RicksAlive!!!”
Last month, Isaacs clarified his comments about tension on the set of The White Lotus.
“I told the truth, while we were there, it’s a whole community. It was a city and it wasn’t just the actors. People need to remember it was the actors and the crew and the administrators and all these people were in a little pressure cooker together. And like anywhere you go for the summer, there’s friendships, there’s romances, there’s arguments, there’s cliques that form and break and reform and stuff like that,” he shared on SiriusXM’s TODAY Show Radio series The Happy Hour. “I’m not stupid. I look at the internet. I only read every single word written about The White Lotus and about everybody in it.”
