The White Lotus Has More Brotherly Love to Give

Intimate spoilers for The White Lotus season three episode five follow.

After weeks of the weirdest “Will they?/Won’t they?” on television, Mike White’s two favorite sons finally Lock-ied lips, even if they haven’t had Sex-on … yet. Actually, they kissed twice. Toward the end of White Lotus season three episode five, Lochlan (Sam Nivola) and Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger), in the throes of a non-specific high, end up back in a room with Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon) and Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood), who they’ve been attempting to flirt with for several episodes now. Lochlan whispers to Saxon and Chloe and Chelsea (not sisters) kiss. Saxon gets Lochlan and Chloe (not siblings) to kiss. Finally, with minor cajoling from the girls, Lochlan walks over to Saxon and gives him a peck on the lips. Then, a real kiss. There was definitely no tongue but lots of effort.

“Well obviously they’re not brothers by blood, so that made it easier,” Le Bon said of the filming process in a March 16 Vulture interview. “I think for Patrick it was really difficult. For Sam, he was kind of like, It’s whatever, let’s just do it well one time and it will be over. You know? Because if you don’t do it well the first time, then you have to do it over and over again. But Patrick’s reaction in the episode is his genuine reaction. We all thought he was going to throw up. And Sam was like, ‘It’s fine, it’s just a kiss, calm down!’”

Online, the reaction ranged from amazement to horror to horny to disappointment that the incest stopped with a kiss. It really shouldn’t have been a surprise — before the season even began, a profile of White Lotus creator Mike White in The New Yorker promised that, “The new season includes a hint of incest, or perhaps more than a hint.” As in, there is still more to come. A March 17 profile of Schwarzenegger in the New York Times promised that his role required “nudity and at least one disturbing sex scene.” At least!

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