The White Lotus season 3 episode 5, titled "Full Moon Party," had the internet buzzing, yelling, and threatening to turn off their TVs.
This latest episode of the Emmy Award-winning HBO series about the scandalous lives of rich tourists and guests at exclusive and expensive The White Lotus resorts around the world took things even farther by having two brothers, college-age Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) and 18-year-old Lochlan Ratliff (Sam Nivola) kissing after being dared to do it by the beautiful women they were partying with.
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These two Ratliff brothers have had strange energy all season, with the younger Lochlan staring at his older brother longingly, and the older Saxon pushing sex on his little brother and talking about their sister in a sexual context.
While season 2 of The White Lotus did hint at potentially incestuous storylines, nothing this explicit had ever happened on the show until now. As expected, the kiss sent shockwaves through viewers, and apparently even shocked one of the actors filming the scene.
Charlotte Le Bon, who plays French Canadian model and party girl Chloe — introduced as Gary (formerly Greg)'s girlfriend — told Vulture in an interview that her character instigated the kiss between the two brothers because "she's just so detached from everything she's doing and saying all the time."
"I think Chloe is deeply, deeply bored. There's a void inside of her. She fills that void with partying, sex, and chaos," Le Bon told the publication. "This kiss between the two brothers for her is just pure entertainment, which is obviously really evil when you think about it. She's not attached to life — I don't know how to say it. She's just there. She's just incarnated in this body to live the experience of life and she doesn't really care about the rest."
When Vulture asked what "the vibe" on set was while filming the scene, Le Bon revealed that it was just another day at work for most of the actors — except for Schwarzenegger.
"Well, obviously, they're not brothers by blood, so that made it easier. I think for Patrick it was really difficult," she revealed. "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!'"
HBO's The White Lotus airs new episodes every Sunday on Max.
