The Internet Reacts to Incest Vibes on The White Lotus: ‘What Is Going On?’

Set at a fictional luxury resort in Thailand, viewers are introduced to the wealthy Ratliff family, and it’s quick something is off about this bunch from North Carolina, particularly where it concerns siblings Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook), Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) and Lochlan (Sam Nivola).

After a nude scene from Schwarzenegger — which also had the internet talking — fans were quick to call out what appeared to be a potential incestuous plot-line developing between them.

Towards the beginning of the episode when the family talks about room assignments, Piper said she would share her room with her younger child Lochlan, but Saxon insisted it was “weird” if a brother and sister sleep in the same room when they have “full grown genitals.”

In the end, Lochlan and Saxon do ultimately share a room, and things get pretty awkward as Lochlan not only calls their sister “hot” but began asking his brother what kind of pornography he’s into.

Lochlan nervously laughs it off as Saxon wonders how he is going to masturbate all week with his brother in the room.

“I’ll just go to the bathroom,” Saxon declares before walking to the bathroom fully naked.

Lochlan watches him in the mirror, a hint Lochlan may be gay and have incestuous feelings for his brother. Once Saxon realizes his brother can see him, however, he closes the bathroom door for some privacy.

Fans were shocked by this potential storyline, with many taking to X to share their hot takes, including one user who called Schwarzenegger’s character “creepy.”

“Saxon needs to lower his level of creep factor,’ with a GIF of a woman saying, ‘He’s creepy.'”

“The writers of #TheWhiteLotus hinting at incest in a wealthy white family,” one user wrote, sharing a viral clip from RuPaul’s Drag Race.

“No, they wouldn’t dare go where I’m thinking with his character, would they?,” another wrote, with one user adding, “the sibling vibe is gonna get gross, isn’t it?”

While Schwarzenegger has yet to address the potential plotline, he did open up about that full frontal moment and trusting show creator Mike White’s vision for his “wild” character in a new interview with Vanity Fair.

“[Saxon is] always kind of talking about things about sex and stuff for my brother. He’s setting up just these little Easter eggs of what is odd and off about this family, which is fun. The end of the first episode, that scene was one of my favorite scenes. I just thought it was so awkward and brilliant at the same time,” Schwarzenegger told the outlet.

“And it just showcases who my character is. He is just like, ‘p–sy, money, and freedom. Those are the things. That’s all that matters in life.’ And that’s a setup of what’s to come: when you don’t have those things, what does it do to you? And then he walks around just naked — it’s like a power shift and a power dynamic between the two of them. And I remember reading that and just being like, ‘what?'”

Schwarzenegger said he had no “qualms” about the being naked on camera either, teasing there’s “more to come.”

“No [qualms], nothing, and there’s more to come! When you’re working with a writer and director and a showrunner and a creator like Mike [White], you put trust in him,” he said. “When there’s someone like him that’s so brilliant at what he does, you put a different level of trust in someone like that. I think that the people that watch White Lotus, they know that he pushes the boundaries and says and does things that are wild.”

The White Lotus airs Sundays at 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET on HBO and streams simultaneously on Max.