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The White Lotus star Patrick Schwarzenegger has revealed that he was left blindsided by the incest storyline twist in season three, which left viewers ‘screaming’.
On last week’s episode of the black comedy drama, those tuning in were left floored after seeing Ratliff brothers Saxon (Patrick) and Lochlan (Sam Nivola) kiss whilst taking drugs on a yacht.
In the scene, they had been dared to lock lips by Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon) and Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) – but many said the scene left them feeling ‘horrified’ and ‘sick.
However, in the most recent episode, things were taken up a notch on the boat when Chloe had sex with the siblings, leaving them with hazy memories of the night after taking drugs and drinking heavily.
But the next morning it was made clear that Lochlan masturbated Saxon while having sex with Chloe, with the brothers then struggling to process what unfolded.
Unpacking the dramatic turn in a chat with Entertainment Weekly, Patrick shared that he had no idea that his brotherly storyline would ever cross that boundary before getting the scripts for the episodes in question.
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‘First off, I was ecstatic,’ he said. ‘It was such a surreal moment for me to get the audition and to actually book the job, because at that point we just had audition sides. We didn’t have the script and we didn’t really know what we were getting into.
‘I mean, we had an idea, it’s The White Lotus and there’s going to be something crazy.
‘And then I started to read the scripts and, yeah, when I got to episode 5 and episode 6, it was like, “Whoa. This is wild. This is crazy.”
‘I have to see it – I haven’t seen it yet – but I think it’ll be fun and funny, and it’ll be very White Lotus.’
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Unpacking filming those pivotal moments, and the aftermath, Patrick heaped praise on creator Mike White for how he explored their wild storyline.
‘What Mike does so brilliantly is it’s a slow roll of Saxon remembering bits and pieces and it’s just this, ‘What the f**k happened?!,’ he added. ‘All these different things.
‘It’s a big power shift for Saxon, and how Mike even writes it, from him bossing around his brother and bossing around the girls and stuff like that, to then the dynamic switching and Lochlan having this upper hand, and then the girls antagonizing me at the pool.’
Although the series has become known for its boundary-pushing scenes, the incestual twist proved to be a step too far for many viewers.
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‘The incest is weird #TheWhiteLotus. Did we need that???’ Jo posted on X.
‘I can’t with the gay brother storyline. It’s so nasty and foul. Incest is so sick and twisted. This plot is making me hate the show,’ Mary shared.
‘My face is so screwed up right now I really wish they dropped the incest plot,’ guccianddior added.
Others said it was ‘unhinged’, ‘disgusting’ and ‘crossed a line’.
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Despite the backlash, both Patrick and Sam defended the storyline.
‘There’s some sensationalism, but then there’s also the stuff behind the wall of the character and what he’s dealing with in the conflict of what just happened. What is that going to do to who he thinks he is?’ Patrick told The Hollywood Reporter.
‘His thoughts on, “what is it like to be a man? What is a man? What makes all these different things that he thought he stood for in the episode and the days before?”’ he added.
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Meanwhile Sam added: ‘We really trusted Mike because there’s always a very shocking, crazy, intense moment in every season. It’s never just for the sake of being shocking, it always serves the story.
‘And that [incest] scene is really the inciting incident for where our relationship goes next. It’s a great storytelling tactic.
‘Going into this, we really trusted Mike because he’s a f**king b***ss and a genius.’
The White Lotus is streaming on Now.
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