Note: This story contains spoilers from “The White Lotus” Season 3, Episode 5.
While “The White Lotus” Season 3 already shocked viewers with a drunken kiss between brothers Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) and Lochlan (Sam Nivola), Episode 6 escalated the incest storyline even further.
In the aftermath of the full-moon party, Saxon flashed back to glimpses of the night’s drug-filled shenanigans, which saw Lochlan hooking up with Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon) with Saxon just feet away, seemingly pleasuring himself. A subsequent flashback, however, revealed that it was Lochlan who was pleasuring Saxon at one point — a part of the script Nivola first thought was a “typo.”
“I thought that there was a typo that screwed up the names — I was like ‘me and him?’ ” the actor told TheWrap. “I was blown away — I was shocked but … Mike [White] is a total genius … and is a brilliant writer, obviously. Nothing is for shock value — it’s all to to serve the story and help flesh out these characters that are so complex. I ran with it. It made sense.”
“The first time I read it and got to that scene, I thought ‘Oh boy, we’ve got a wild [ride]. This is classic Mike White, classic ‘White Lotus,’” Schwarzenegger told TheWrap, adding that he “gasped” when he read the scene. “It was going to be this hilarious moment throughout the script that was a big shift and changing point for Saxon, and for Saxon and Lochlan’s relationship … and the power shift between the two of them.”
With Episode 6 leaving it unclear which brother initiated the action, Nivola said he and Schwarzenegger played the scene “naturally.” “We did it a bunch of different ways, and we just sort of let our instincts drive the scene, as we do in any scene.”
“Mike wants it to be an open-ended conversation for the viewer to come up to their own ideas,” Schwarzenegger said of which brother initiated the intimate moment. “Did Saxon want it? Did he not want it? Does he even remember it? Does he not? Was it the drugs? Was it not? Was is it these girls that pressured him into doing it? Was it not?”
“For most intents and purposes, it doesn’t matter who initiated it — it happened and it’s crazy,” Nivola added.
While fans noted that Lochlan appeared to be a little too into his kiss with Saxon in Episode 5, Nivola maintained that Lochlan doesn’t feel attraction towards Saxon. He instead molds himself to his brother’s sex-obsessed behavior, just as quickly as he conforms to Piper’s (Sarah Catherine Hook) more subdued interests.
“Lochlan is a very insecure person, and I think he is just looking for attention wherever he can get it, and looking to find himself and to try and relate to people,” Nivola said, adding he’s “trying on these different masks of personality,” which include versions of himself with Saxon and Piper. “He’s like, ‘my big brother is really into sex — he’s the sex guy, maybe I should see what this sex stuff is all about.’”
While their intimate moment shakes up Saxon, he had been leading the way on any sexually-charged inappropriate moments by asking Lochlan about porn and calling Piper hot — things that Saxon finds “masculine,” according to Schwarzenegger.
“I don’t think he truly knows the definition of masculinity and what it stands for,” Schwarzenegger said. “It’s just a power thing and he … has no idea what he’s saying and he has absolutely no filter whatsoever.”
In fact, Schwarzenegger said Saxon “has no power,” as he lives in his father’s shadow, saying “he’s constantly vying for his attention, for his approval … all he cares about in life is being successful, having money, having power, but [also] having his dad say that he’s proud of him.”
When Saxon realizes what happened the night before, he’s “internally having this full panic button moment,” that sends him into a “state of despair,” according to Schwarzenegger.
“[He] can’t believe what possibly happened, and just feels this inferior back-at-the-bottom-of-the-totem-pole part in his life,” Schwarzenegger said. “I think that everything around him and himself feels like is shattering from who he thought he should be.”
While Saxon shuts down once the memories come flooding and avoids connecting with Lochlan, who doesn’t remember what happened, Nivola said Lochlan starts to freak out, saying “He wants love … and he wants to feel connected to people — That’s all he wants. And when it feels like that’s not happening, especially because of something he did, it’s really scary to him.”
Lochlan doesn’t remember the events of the previous night until he’s in the monastery and the memories come flooding in as well. “He knows that something bad happened and that it was wrong.”
“The White Lotus” airs Sundays on HBO and Max.
