Mike White has done some ambitious things over the course of these first 3 seasons of The White Lotus. Jennifer Coolidge launched thousands of memes, won two Emmys, and nabbed a Golden Globe for her turn as the ill-fated Tanya McQuoid in seasons 1 and 2. Murray Bartlett spurned plenty of discourse as the doomed hotel manager in season 1, who famously (infamously?) got caught in his office eating the ass of his employee, Dillon (Lukas Gage). Theo James and Will Sharpe turned heads as the homoerotic straight guy best friends who may or may not have wanted to fuck each other (and both showed plenty of skin). Aubrey Plaza's Harper let us know she didn't watch Ted Lasso (same, girl!). Sydney Sweeney gave us the iconic "Maybe grandpa was a power bottom" line.
Every season, the show gives us a ton of meme-able moments while still feeling like a really great collection of short stories. Tina Turtle on Twitter said, "You cannot convince me that White Lotus wasn't made for people who are nosey af. There's really no plot. We in these people business fr." We get to see a glimpse into these characters' vacation and lives while knowing at least one of them will be dead by the end of the season. Ranch Devereaux on Bluesky correctly stated that, "Mike White is Ryan Murphy for people who can read." Watching White Lotus is much like watching a horror movie — I watched a certain poolside threesome discussion with my hoodie pulled up to my eyes. The vibes of the show are both beautiful and rancid in the best way possible.
But the current season, the show's third, has upped the shock value in a whole new way — and I'm not talking about Carrie Coon, Leslie Bibb, and Michelle Monaghan's gossipy frenemy group (which I'm also living for). I'm talking, of course, about Patrick Schwarzenegger's Saxon Ratliff and Sam Nivola's Lochlan Ratliff — two brothers with wild levels of sexual tension.
The Ratliff family is basically the Rose family from Schitt's Creek if they never lost their money (but maybe soon!) and two of the siblings wanted to fuck each other. The internet, in typical fashion, is torn on if the Ratliff brothers plot is a thing to be an annoying scold about ("Disgusting! How can you think this is okay") or an annoying contrarian about ("That's it? I expected hardcore sex"). It also energized many an AO3 writer. Who ever thought a handjob could feel like the climax of a story?
The Ratliff brothers have had these vibes right from the start — with Saxon asking his little brother, in detail, what porn he likes to Lochlan staring longingly at his brother's bare ass. In fact, we got two separate scenes of Lochlan staring at his brother's bare ass. I expected some yearning to be the farthest this went — but boy was I wrong. These brother's kissed in one episode and then, in the next, we saw they had a threesome where Lochlan gave his brother a handjob. Their roles reversed in that moment, with Lochlan becoming the more confident one and Saxon becoming more submissive — an interesting switch-up to their dynamic going into the final episode.
And, sue me, I thought it was hot!
The taboo of it all is for sure a reason folks find it hot — hell, incest is a whole-ass category on most porn sites. Twin porn has been a thing for a long time. Ted Cruz's official Twitter account even once liked a tweet containing a video of stepmom porn, which had its own 15 minute of news cycle fame. But, for me, what makes it so hot is the yearning.
I've never yearned for a family member because no thank you but I've one thousand percent yearned for a douchebag of a straight man in my youth (and sometimes even in my 40s) not unlike Saxon. Saxon's character does in fact represent that kind of straight guy — where you find yourself questioning if y'all are flirting or he's just really fun and friendly. In my 20s, I spent a lot of time hooking up with those types. The yearning mixed with the chase mixed with the mystery is hot in a way I've never watched played out on screen before and why yes I am single why do you ask?
I know that we, as queer people, have moved beyond pining after a straight person, but it still happens sometimes! I always think yearning is hot. I didn't exactly love the book, but I can remember reading Stephenie Meyer's first Twilight book and, when our overly chaste couple finally kissed on like page 895, I felt like I needed a cigarette — and I don't cigarettes. Much like all vampire/human relationships, this fictional brother/brother relationship can be interpreted however you see it. It can be a metaphor or it can just be incest. I watched the entirety of The Babadook and was more scared than I was thinking how it was a metaphor for grief.
But, also, I have media literacy — I know these fictional brothers are played by actors. I know my characters don't all have to have the same morals as me — I mean, I love the cannibal lesbians on Showtime's Yellowjackets but I myself am not a lesbian nor do I endorse cannibalism. I also know the difference between fantasy and real life. I can say something is hot in fiction while knowing it's not something I'd ever find hot in real life. I can think Interview with the Vampire is hot while knowing full well that I hate any kind of biting during sex, let alone bleeding. I can think the ending of the Oscar-winning Anora is extremely hot, yet know in real life I hate car sex. It's ridiculous to have to even feel the need to explain this. But here we are.
Incest is not something new to media or new to an HBO show, specifically. I can remember one drunken brunch where a friend told me about that Boardwalk Empire plotline and my mouth was wide open in shock the entire time. I never watched Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon, but the two things I know for sure about both shows are that major characters die all the time and family members fuck.
Last season of White Lotus even gave us a giant misdirect making us think Leo Woodall's Jack was having sex with his uncle (he wasn't though!). Saxon and Lochlan are both dealing in their own way — which involves avoiding each other and not wanting to talk about it. But Saxon seems more affected than Lochlan, which is interesting. I hope they're not punished more than this — as it has weirdly humanized Saxon, who seems to have suddenly become more human and less Chest-Puffing Jackass Conservative.
I don't pretend to know where this season of White Lotus is going other than someone will end up dead in that pond and a shooting will happen. Natasha Rothwell's Belinda better take that money, Carrie Coon's Laurie better dump her shitty friends, Amy Lou Wood's Chelsea better get the love she deserves from Walton Goggins's Rick, and Parker Posey's Victoria better get her god damned lorazepam. But I do have confidence all these plot lines, incest-y brothers included, will pay off. Lochlan and Saxon need some sort of resolution, even if it's that they'll never talk again.
White Lotus mixes all the ingredients of a soap opera, prestige TV, and an erotic thriller — and it's what makes it so delicious. I can't wait to see who will be floating in that pond and I truly hope it's not anyone from the Ratliff family (or Belinda or Chelsea).
