Scott Glenn Brings His Legendary Presence to The White Lotus as Jim Hollinger

The following story contains spoilers for The White Lotus season 3, episode 7, “Killer Instincts.”

FOR THE ENTIRETY of The White Lotus season 3, Rick Hatchett (Walton Goggins) has been fueled by a lust for vengeance. Very early on, we learn some defining things about Rick: His mom died when he was just 10 years old, and he believes that his dad was murdered before he was born. This, he says, is the reason why most of his life has treaded water in what’s essentially been a sea of pain and existential dread. His trip to Thailand, we learn, was to get back at the man who he believes is responsible for his father’s death: Jim Hollinger, who owns The White Lotus hotel, and, we learn, is in Bangkok recovering from a hospital visit.

In episode 7—with Rick and his friend Frank (Sam Rockwell) posing as a Hollywood film producer and director—we finally meet Jim Hollinger in the flesh, at home with his wife Sritala (Patravadi Mejudhon). Rick and Frank are there under the pretense of wanting to give Sritala a role in a movie, but needing to see her at home in her natural habitat; after Frank fumbles his way through a pitch, Rick finds a way to head back to Jim’s office along with him, with the chance to take care of business.

A few episodes ago, Frank provided Rick with a gun. We don’t know how, exactly, those two know each other, but some subtext leads us to theorize that they might have a history as some kind of professional fixers or criminals. Either way—Rick comes face to face with Jim, and doesn’t take long to tell him why he’s really there. Jim doesn’t seem to know exactly what Rick is talking about, as far as having someone killed over a land deal. But he does react when Rick mentions his mother’s name: Gloria Hatchett.

Maybe Rick was once a hitman (or some kind of adjacent career), but if that’s the case, he’s clearly by now lost the ice cold factor you need to succeed in that line of work; When he’s looking Jim in the eyes, he can’t kill him. He can’t even hit him! Something in that moment doesn’t feel right—for all the years he’s spent thinking about this moment, he didn’t think it would feel like this.

All he does is push him over in his seat, before grabbing Frank (who was having a great time watching Sritala’s old movies with her after breaking his sobriety) and getting the hell out of there. At 86, Scott Glenn (who we’ll talk about more shortly) is such a good actor for this part; stoic enough to express confusion and eventual acknowledgement but without a hint of anger. There’s a lot more to discover here.

Obviously, none of this is going to work out well, because Jim is still alive and fine, but knows what happened and what Rick’s true intentions are, and Sritala knows that Rick is still a guest at their hotel and that his girlfriend, Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) is still back there.

Regardless: It’s clear that there’s something to the Jim Hollinger portion of the story that we aren’t quite getting. Is he actually Rick’s father? Did he know Rick’s father? The finale will certainly return to this thread. But from Rick’s point of view, he’s not lying when he later told Frank that he felt a sense of closure; as the two are taking in a night of their famous debauchery, we see Rick smile for the very first time. Jim may have more to say about that in the finale, but for right now, Rick is somehow in a good place.

Stream The White Lotus Here

Scott Glenn plays Jim Hollinger in The White Lotus season 3

Glenn, who is now 86, has been acting on television and in films since the mid ’60s, and always manages to imbue his characters with a signature stoic, brash masculinity. HBO viewers may remember him as Kevin Garvey Sr. (father of Justin Theroux’s character) in the fantastic series The Leftovers, which aired between 2014 and 2017. Marvel television fans may remember him as Stick from Daredevil and The Defenders. Just last year, he played Vince Vaughn’s father in Apple TV+’s Bad Monkey.

But Glenn is best known for his roles in all kinds of fantastic movies through the decades. Some of his most notable early roles came in Robert Altman’s masterpiece Nashville and Francis Ford Coppola‘s Apocalypse Now, while he also appeared alongside John Travolta in Urban Cowboy. Movies like The Right Stuff, Personal Best, and The Hunt for Red October are also among many standouts on his CV.

Later on, Glenn made even more notable appearances, including in the Western Silverado (alongside a young Kevin Costner), and as Jack Crawford in The Silence of the Lambs. Supporting roles in movies like The Virgin Suicides and Training Day found his strong body of work continuing into the late ’90s and early 2000s.

Glenn recently filmed a role in an intense action movie called Eugene The Marine (which will be released later this year); Coincidentally, Glenn enlisted in the Marines before he was ever an actor, and his role as a reporter there eventually led him to his first television roles.