Spoilers for The White Lotus season three, episode six, “ Denials .” Mike White had been teasing White Lotus season-three viewers with some brother-on-brother action between Saxon and Lochlan, the Ratliff boys played by nepo-babies-in-arms Patrick Schwarzenegger and Sam Nivola, since the very first episode . The season practically marinates in the queasiness of the prospect, luxuriating in the taboo with Saxon’s whole “so hetero something’s gotta give” aura; his generally carnal disposition around his siblings; and Lochlan’s own inscrutable demeanor, capitalized upon with that early scene in the premiere where he quietly gazes at Saxon’s bare ass.
It’s a whole lot of setup, and it would either be malpractice or simply out of character for The White Lotus to simply nudge, nudge, wink, wink, then head-fake away from crossing that boundary. Sure, it’s reasonable to think that their make-out sesh in “Full-Moon Party” ( egged on by Charlotte Le Bon’s Chloe during their brotherly three-way) was going to be as far as it would go. But this is HBO we’re talking about.
Incest is like an every-other-Tuesday thing at that place. There was, obviously, the whole Lannister situation on Game of Thrones , which turned out to be grade-school stuff compared to the niece-uncle marriage-and-office rivalry that’s ultimately table stakes in House of the Dragon . HBO’s affinity for intra-bloodline paramour-ing isn’t just limited to the fantasy genre either: Recall t.
