The White Lotus Incestuous Kissing Scene Has Fans Freaking Out
The White Lotus fans were freaking out while some were in shock over the incestuous kissing scene between the Ratliff brothers, played by Patrick Schwarzenegger and Sam Nivola.
In the Sunday, March 16, episode titled “Full Moon Party,’ the siblings took an unidentified pill along with plenty of booze during a full moon party in Thailand. The brothers accompanied Charlotte Le Bon‘s Chloe and Aimee Lou Wood‘s Chelsea to the event, but it was the two men kissing by the end of the evening.
While aboard Chloe’s boyfriend Gary’s yacht following the bash, the foursome engaged in a kissing game. Chloe and Chelsea locked lips first, then the former motioned to Patrick’s Saxon and Sam’s Lochlan to do the same.
Lochlan smiled and leaned in to give his brother a peck on the lips. After Chloe told them, “Oh, come on!” seeming to be disappointed, the high school senior grabbed his older sibling by the back of the head with both hands and went in for a longer make out as the ladies cheered.
“OH MY GOD THE INCEST HAPPENED THE INCEST HAPPENED HELPP,” one shocked viewer wrote on X, while another added, “Lochlan was a little too eager to kiss Saxon, like sir that is your BROTHER.”
“We all called the Saxon and Lochlan kiss happening in episode one and yet it still was surprising,” a third person wrote, referring to the first episode when Saxon asked Lochlan about his virginity, as well as how much porn his brother watched before walking naked toward the bathroom to pleasure himself as Lochlan looked on.
A fourth fan pointed out a scene earlier in the episode while the brothers were at the full moon party, when Lochlan told Saxon, “One day, I’m going to take you down,” before his older sibling told him, “Come here,” and lovingly gave his little brother a kiss on the head.
“After seeing Lochlan kiss Saxon two times … this feels like a threat and a promise,” the viewer wrote while posting the scene to X.
Patrick, 31, discussed The White Lotus creator and writer Mike White‘s motive behind the incestuous kissing scene.
“He wants to leave that up to the interpretation of the audience of what is happening,” Patrick told TODAY.com about Mike, 54, on March 16. “Was a power shift happening? Is there a different power dynamic between him and Lochy? Is Lochy coming on to him? Is it the drugs? Is it the girls pressuring him? What is it? So, I think he leaves that open-ended for the audience to try to decipher.”
Patrick hinted at the character development to come following the kisses.
“One of the themes really is you enter the White Lotus as one person and you leave as another,” he told the outlet. “Who are you when everything that you thought you were is taken away? And I think that’s something that’s really relevant and prevalent for Saxon. Him walking into the White Lotus as the most confident and sure person of who he is, and everything gets completely questioned in his experience there.”
The White Lotus producer David Bernad said the incestuous kissing scene has a “purpose” that viewers will see in season 3’s three remaining episodes.
“No, in terms of that — that’s all [Mike White]. Mike is brilliant, and I think those big story turns are not just for shock,” he told The New York Post on March 16.
“There’s a specific reason in terms of the narrative storytelling, and the larger thematic idea Mike is trying to get across,” he continued. “As the season wraps up, you’ll see the purpose of that story turn. The show goes there for a larger thematic idea. I love that family storyline, especially the brother story –and, it culminates in a very satisfying way.”