“The Core of ‘The White Lotus’ is Seen in Saxon and Lochlan’s Provocative Incestuous Encounter”

One of the most surprising moments in Season 3 of “The White Lotus” may not have been so shocking after all. The latest episode, titled “Denials,” unraveled a scandalous scene involving brothers Saxon and Lochlan Ratliff aboard Chloe’s yacht during the Full-Moon Party. The episode revealed that the drugged Ratliff siblings engaged in a threesome with the Quebecois model-turned-escort. As Lochlan lost his virginity to Chloe, he involved his brother Saxon in the intimate encounter.

There were indications throughout Season 3 of “The White Lotus” that fans could have been prepared for this incestuous development. The brothers already had a provocatively close relationship, as seen in earlier scenes where Lochlan displayed interest in watching his brother masturbate. This disturbing revelation aligns with the recurring narrative style of creator Mike White, where privileged individuals gather at a luxurious resort, grapple with personal issues, and eventually experience a tragic event. Each season of the show builds up tension with sharp dialogue, exquisite costumes, and a talented ensemble cast, culminating in a scandalous moment involving two male characters.

In Season 1, Belinda and Shane stumbled upon Armond with employee Dillon engaged in a questionable act. Season 2 saw Tanya uncovering a disturbing relationship between Portia’s love interest and his supposed uncle. Now, in Season 3, Chelsea and Chloe witness firsthand how disturbing the bond between the Ratliff brothers truly is.

White has framed these acts as scandalous or shameful not because they are homoerotic, but because they transgress other boundaries. Armond was high on the job and taking advantage of his authority to seduce an employee (who then turned the power dynamic back on him). Jack is supposedly Quentin’s nephew, but actually clearly a sex worker hired by the wealthy conman. Saxon and Lochlan are literally brothers.

What might be most shocking about the Saxon/Lochlan hookup is how comparatively tame it was.

When DECIDER spoke with White Lotus star Patrick Schwarzenegger, he insisted that Mike White purposely directed the sex scene to be “ambiguous.”

“Why did it happen? Was it the drugs? Was it not? Was it the relationships leading up to it? Was it that this power shift? All these different things,” Schwarzenegger said. “I think Mike White wrote it in that specific way to have that conversation at home and to leave it up to the audiences to interpret it how they how they want.”

Ambiguity is something else that shouldn’t feel new or surprising to White Lotus fans. After all, White has left other sexual hookups — like a potential affair between Daphne (Meghann Fahy) and Ethan (Will Sharpe) — up to the audience’s imagination. What we’re supposed to glean from Saxon and Lochlan’s hookup is that something sexual occurred between the two brothers, one that upends their power dynamics and pushes against their assumed moral code.

The Ratliff family’s storyline in The White Lotus Season 3 has been about the dissolution of dynastic wealth, power, and all the confidence that comes with its trappings. While Timothy Ratliff (Jason Isaacs) contemplates killing his wife and himself to avoid the pain of public shame and poverty, sister Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) is turning to Buddhism to fill the void that all of her designer duds can’t cover up. Saxon has roared into the season defining himself in terms of sex, money, and power. It would be inevitable that Mike White would rip that first, most important, sign of success away from the character.

Again, the brothers’ incest was essentially inevitable.

What’s interesting now is to trace the fallout of the latter two transgressive sex scenes from past seasons of The White Lotus. Fans will remember that Shane eventually stabbed Armond and that Quentin and Tanya had their own grim ends.

If Saxon and Lochlan’s hookup serves a similar structural role in this season of The White Lotus, does that mean that one of them is the dead body that floats by Zion (Nicholas Duvernay) in the show’s cold open? Are Chloe or Chelsea doomed to be caught in the crosshairs of the impending shooting? Or is this yet another one of Mike White’s elegantly drawn red herrings?