Expand the three increments into their eight monomial products. Exactly one term has every driving-sign index appearing an even number of times: take at−2at−1 from Xt, at−1 from Xt−1, and at−2 from Xt−2. Their product is at−12at−22=1. Every other term leaves an unpaired mean-zero sign. Thus
If the increments were independent, their three zero means would instead give zero. The nonzero third-order moment is therefore a direct demonstration of nonlinear temporal dependence despite vanishing nonzero-lag autocovariances.