Walton Goggins has built a career around characters who make questionable choices yet remain difficult to dismiss. From Boyd Crowder in Justified to Sonny Burch in Ant-Man and the Wasp, his performances often leave viewers torn between disapproval and the hope that his character might somehow come out on top.
That tension has made Goggins one of television’s most watchable performers. He played Baby Billy Freeman in The Righteous Gemstones, moved into science fiction with Prime Video’s Fallout, and later joined HBO’s dark comedy-drama The White Lotus.
The series began in 2021 with wealthy guests arriving at a Hawaiian resort. From the opening episode, viewers knew a death was coming, but not which guest would be lost. Each season has used that same mystery-box structure: introduce a new group, reveal that someone will die, then spend the season making the audience care about people who may not survive.
Rick Hatchett gives Goggins a more vulnerable role
In season 3, Goggins plays Rick Hatchett, a guarded man travelling through Thailand with his much younger girlfriend, Chelsea, played by Aimee Lou Wood. Rick presents the trip as a holiday, but his real purpose is revenge.
Rick believes his father was murdered and suspects the person responsible is connected to the events unfolding around him. As he conceals the truth from Chelsea, his grief and uncertainty begin to shape the relationship. The age difference attracted plenty of attention, but the emotional unease between the pair became one of the season’s strongest storylines.
Sam Rockwell’s Frank is the perfect counterpoint
Sam Rockwell appears as Frank, a supporting figure who has an outsized impact on Rick’s journey. Frank supplies Rick with a gun, helps him pursue his revenge, and eventually explains how Buddhism changed his life.
Rockwell also delivers one of the season’s most memorable monologues, but Frank matters for more than his spectacular speeches. His presence gives Rick practical help, emotional friction and an unexpected perspective on the path he has chosen.
Season 3 generated especially intense discussion. The resort setting keeps every guest under suspicion, while the audience already knows that a gunfight will erupt at the hotel. Other storylines add to the pressure, including Timothy Ratliff, played by Jason Isaacs, contemplating violence against his family to hide his financial troubles. That follows the previous season’s devastating farewell to Jennifer Coolidge’s Tanya.
Goggins makes Rick impossible to write off
Goggins’ performance works because it gives Rick a recognisable humanity beneath the secrecy and anger. His treatment of Chelsea can be troubling, and his plans become increasingly extreme, but the character never feels empty or purely villainous.
That complexity changes the way the couple’s story lands. Rather than simply waiting for their relationship to collapse, viewers are encouraged to hope that Rick and Chelsea might understand one another. It is an unusual emotional investment for a series built around suspicion, danger and doomed holidaymakers.
The combination of Goggins’ restrained vulnerability and Rockwell’s unpredictable energy makes Rick and Frank an irresistible pairing. A spin-off centred on the two men would have an obvious appeal, even if the series is at its best when it leaves their futures uncertain.
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