Warning: This article contains major spoilers for the fourth season of The White Lotus.

The White Lotus star Walton Goggins is celebrating the doomed romance at the centre of this year’s season.

Season three concluded with a bumper-length finale in which both Walton’s character, Rick, and his girlfriend, Chelsea (played by Aimee Lou Wood), were killed in a mass shooting at the luxury Thai resort.

Rick and Chelsea’s relationship has already been one of the most divisive aspects of the current season – and the fact that his actions ultimately led to her death (despite her pleading with him to not “do anything stupid” shortly before the shooting began) looks set to only exacerbate these discussions.

Posting on Instagram in the early hours of Monday morning, Walton shared his take on the relationship.

“Rick + Chelsea. With the heaviest of hearts,” he began. “To me, ours was a love story.

“It was only ever a love story, hindered by unresolved, childhood trauma. We all have them… but can we move past them.

“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.”

Walton went on to thank White Lotus creator Mike White “for your imagination, your tender heart, for the privilege of giving us the opportunity to tell it”, co-star Aimee “for being my partner” on “a journey I will never forget”, and Sam Rockwell (who he dubbed “Sammy Rock”) “for being the best wing man a fella could ask for”.

After paying homage to the rest of the cast and crew, Walton ended his post with a quote from the Greek tragedist Aeschylus, which read: “Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.”

Interestingly, Mike White previously compared Chelsea and Rick’s love story to a Greek tragedy in a behind-the-scenes video posted online after the episode aired.

“It’s a classic theme of Greek tragedy, somebody killing the thing that they love by trying to get some revenge,” Mike claimed.

Walton’s post sparked a big reaction from some of his co-stars, with Patrick Schwarzenegger commenting that he’d been moved to tears, and Michelle Monaghan writing simply: “This quote.”

Before the finale aired, Walton also posted some candid behind-the-scenes photos, telling his followers: “We all were invited to this party… and we partied our asses off. It was a collective experience, an individual experience… an experience of real growth I believe for us all. Certainly it was for me.

“I think we all lost our minds willingly or otherwise somewhere along the way. I know I did. It was a wild ride. In the pantheon. What a time. Last lap tonight.”

All three seasons of The White Lotus are now available to stream on Sky and Now in the UK.