‘The White Lotus’: Patrick Schwarzenegger and Sam Nivola Break Down That “Ambiguous” Incest Threesome Scene

The White Lotus Season 3 Episode 6 “Denials” on HBO reveals that the Ratliff brothers might have done way, way, way more than just kiss each other during the debauched Full-Moon Party.

**Spoilers for The White Lotus Season 3 Episode 6 “Denials,” now streaming on MAX**

Tonight’s episode of The White Lotus confirms that Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) and Lochlan (Sam Nivola) had something of a threeway with Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon), while Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) retired for the night.

Saxon wakes up with vague memories of the tryst, which leaves him absolutely disgusted. Chloe remembers the whole thing. While Lochlan was in the midst of losing his virginity to the Quebecois model and escort, Saxon began masturbating along side them. Lochlan then began, uh, helping his brother out. Chloe insists the next day that what they did was a “threesome,” something Saxon vehemently denies. He goes so far as to complain that the girls “forced” the brothers to kiss.

“I didn’t force him to jerk you off,” Chloe retorts, prompting Saxon to fall into an existential tailspin.

“The ambiguous nature of what happened, it’s hard to summarize because we don’t know exactly what did happen,” The White Lotus star Patrick Schwarzenegger told DECIDER during a recent press day. “And Saxon doesn’t know.” 

“I could tell you what happened,” Jason Isaacs said, interjecting. “I saw it. You wanted it. Well, yeah, maybe…” 

“Well, actually, I haven’t seen it,” Schwarzenegger said, “but from how we filmed that, [creator/writer/director Mike White] leaves a very open interpretation of who did what or what happened.”

“Who started it, and stuff,” Isaacs said with a nod.

“Why did it happen? Was it the drugs? Was it not? Was it the relationships leading up to it? Was it that this power shift? All these different things,” Schwarzenegger said. “I think Mike White wrote it in that specific way to have that conversation at home and to leave it up to the audiences to interpret it how they how they want.” 

Like Isaacs, Chloe is absolutely certain that the brothers slept with each other. Saxon seems to recall something that viscerally crossed the line into incest, hence why he avoids Lochlan for the rest of the episode. Lochlan, initially doesn’t remember a thing. He is blissfully ignorant and confused why his big brother has suddenly shunned him.

When DECIDER spoke to Sam Nivola about the episode, he pointed out that Lochlan currently feels adrift from both siblings.

“Piper tells Lochlan that she’s going to stay in Thailand and that freaks him out because he just wants to feel close to these people,” Nivola said. “And she’s basically saying — or it feels like to him — she’s like, ‘I’m going to abandon you for a year.’ And he’s like, ‘Fuck you. That’s, no, that’s not nice.’”

According to Nivola, this reveal, that Piper wants to live in Thailand for a year at the monastery, is why “he leans full force into into Saxon” in Episodes 4 and 5.

“The way I played it is that he sort of has burned his bridge with Piper, which is really sad, because then when the whole thing goes down in Episode 6, it sort of also burns the bridge with Saxon,” Nivola said. “Then he doesn’t want to talk to me anymore.”

“That’s when my character just goes into full sort of catatonics because it’s like, you know, I’ve burned all my bridges and both my siblings are upset with me for one reason or another. And I’m truly alone.” 

“Yeah,” Sarah Catherine Hook said, “but then you redeem yourself when you’re like, I’ll go to the monastery with you.”

“Exactly!” Nivola agreed. “Then eventually we get back together.”

“Then I’m like, ‘Okay, Lochlan’s back on my side.’”

The White Lotus Season 3 Episode 6 “Denials” ends with Lochlan joining his sister for a no-frills night at the local meditation center. It is during a group meditation that the memories begin to seep back in. Lochlan appears horrified to remember what actually went down.

So if you’re wondering if the Ratliff brothers had sex on The White Lotus Season 3, the implication after Episode 6 is they definitely did. The ramifications of everyone knowing what happened will probably be felt in seismic ways in the final two episodes of the season.