She was just a girl standing in front of a boy, begging him not to do something stupid. But he did. And she ended up in a body bag.

By the time the Season 3 finale of “The White Lotus” reached its conclusion, there were multiple dead bodies: Rick (Walton Goggins) and Jim (Scott Glenn) die in the central shoot-out. But Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood), a free-spirited former yoga instructor with meme-worthy expressions, became the collateral damage caught in the crossfire of her boyfriend’s trauma.

Things came to a head after the poorly conceived (and poorly executed) plan by Rick to avenge his father’s death. He set out to kill his father’s supposed murderer, Jim — owner, with his wife, Sritala (Lek Patravadi), of the White Lotus resort in Thailand — during a side trip to the couple’s home in Bangkok but didn’t follow through.

Rick returns to the White Lotus resort, when Jim arrives and confronts him — revealing a gun under his jacket and hurling some insults about Rick’s mother. Rick tries to suppress his simmering rage but, later, when he spots Jim posing for photos with Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan) and her besties, he marches over, reaches for Jim’s gun and shoots him. That’s when Sritala reveals that Jim is actually Rick’s father.

But there’s no time to process any of it because a shoot-out with Jim’s bodyguards ensues and a bullet hits Chelsea. A grief-stricken Rick scoops her up and, as he carries her away in his arms, security guard Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) shoots Rick from behind. Rick stumbles with Chelsea into the nearby water; their bodies floating alongside lily pads.

Is it Mike White’s twisted version of “The Notebook” ending? Chelsea, ever the astrology girly, foreshadowed her doom, noting that bad things happen in threes after she evaded death twice — the jewelry store robbery and the venomous snake bite.

She didn’t know how right she’d be.

This interview with Wood has been edited for clarity and length.

Q: Your death is a secret you’ve had to keep for a long time. But when exactly did you find out that Chelsea was going to be killed off? Did Mike White invite you over for piña coladas and explain what’s going to happen?

A: He did not invite me over for piña coladas. It was at my callback. In my first audition, I did the scene where it’s Chelsea saying to Rick “You need to get a facial.” And I also did “You’re a Scorpio.” So, I had an idea of Chelsea and Rick from those two scenes, which was that it’s a kind of sugar baby thing. When I got my call back, I got this new scene and it was the one where she says “I think we’re going to be together forever, don’t you?” And Rick says “That’s the plan.”

For some reason, I got so upset reading it and I got so upset doing it. I think my intuition just told me. I knew. (Mike’s) intuition told him that I was intuiting it. He was like, “I think you kind of know,” and I was like, “Yeah, I know, I know.” And he’s like, “Yeah, she dies, she has a tragedy.” And I was like, “He’s just told me that. So maybe that means I’ve got the part?”

Q: Did you really tell no one? Not even your mom?

A: The other day, my mom was like, “Baby, please say it’s not you.” And I was like, “Mom, you don’t want to know because I don’t want to spoil it.” But now I’m like, should I have warned her? Because now she’s having a real, real tough day. But I didn’t tell anyone. I accidentally told my best friend, like sideways, because my friend who lives with me, he saw some stills on the washing machine. I forgot to put them away. It was me lying on the ground with blood all over me and Walton crying on top of me.

Q: What did you think about how Chelsea met her fate?

A: On a human, real-life level, I wish it hadn’t have happened to Chelsea, but on a story level, it’s perfect. It’s her. She walks towards the danger. She does not leave. She sees Rick shoot Jim, and she doesn’t walk away. Her life force is so big, but her death drive is so big. They’re both at full speed ahead at all times.

Chelsea is addicted to the relationship and to him and to the excitement, and she’s got an intolerance for the mundane. If she’d have allowed herself to enjoy the mundane a bit more and have some more balance, then this would not have happened. People blame Rick, and I understand why — because Chelsea is sweet — but she makes choices and so does he. And both of them are similar in the sense that he has decided that his higher power is his pain and his vengeance, and she has decided that her higher power is this relationship and they are just worshiping those things at all times and not taking responsibility for themselves. It’s self-destruction. Rick did not turn that gun and shoot Chelsea. She walked into it. They both get what they want. He gets the revenge that he’s always wanted and she gets the love that she’s always wanted from him. When people say “He should have never have taken her to Thailand,” I mean, he was always saying “Go away, go away!”

Q: Do you think Rick really loved Chelsea?

A: Love is a verb, isn’t it? When you’re more naive, you think of it as like a noun, but it’s a doing thing. I don’t doubt that Rick has love for Chelsea, but he is not loving as a verb. She’s not getting the benefits of that love because he’s feeling it but not doing it, you know. She’s quite lonely in that relationship, but so is he. They’re both two lonely people sat next to each other. And for one night, they connect properly, fully when he says, “That’s the plan,” at breakfast. They have togetherness for a split second, and then it’s taken away.

Q: Tell me about the art of dying on-screen. You knew this would be a big moment. What was your approach to the reveal?

A: It was so weird. I couldn’t die. I was like, I can’t go. I couldn’t bring myself to let Chelsea die. My instinct was to fight for my life and that’s why I love that Mike took the words away. Originally, she was going to (speak) about things happening in threes, and he took that away to let her just be silent for the first time. Rick sees her — because words are her armor — and all of a sudden that’s all gone. She can’t speak. So he just has to look at her in her purest form, and he sees her, and he loves her.

But it was so hard listening to Walton getting so upset. I just wanted to get up and go, “No, I’m here!” It was weird, as soon as he picked me up, I was like, “I can die now.” This is what Chelsea wants. He’s finally doing the labor for them. She’s done it all, she’s carried him and now he’s carrying her. But it’s a really intense thing to do, especially when you’ve got Walton crying. And I think you can see that there’s a tear falling out of my eye at that bit because I was having to listen to it, and I wasn’t able to respond. How tragic for Chelsea that the time that Rick finally says all this stuff, she can’t say anything back.

Q: Even as he’s carrying you and gets shot, you both tumble into the water. I imagine that’s some choreography you have to keep in mind. Did it require a lot of takes?

A: It was hard for Walton because he was having to carry me in on the hottest day of the whole shoot. We were both covered in sweat by the end of it. The stunt coordinators were talking to me about how it takes a lot of trust to let someone just carry you and then fall with you. I was just gone, and it was him doing all the work. He did that walk so many times.

It felt like the perfect ending because Rick had to hustle for Chelsea, finally. He had to do it all by himself because she wasn’t there to help him. I just loved being the weight he had to carry.