Mike White, creator, writer, and director of The White Lotus, has responded to critics of the show’s season 3 pacing, addressing backlash from fans who complained about the season’s slower tempo. Although The White Lotus continues to be a fan favorite and a critical success, some viewers have voiced their frustration over what they deem “horrible pacing” and “too slow” storytelling in the third season.
White Defends His Vision
On the official podcast for The White Lotus, White acknowledged the criticism, explaining that the pacing and tone of the series could “get under their skin.” He responded directly to fans who felt the season lacked plot, saying, “There was complaining about how there’s no plot. That part I find weird. It never did… part of me is just like, bro, this is the vibe. I’m world-building.”
White’s unapologetic stance comes with a bold analogy to how he feels about his viewers. “If you don’t want to go to bed with me, then get out of my bed,” he said. “I’m edging you! Enjoy the edging. If you don’t want to be edged, then get out of my bed. Don’t be a bossy bottom. Get the fuck out of my bed. Don’t come home with me. Don’t get naked in my bed. Get the fuck out of my bed. Obviously, something is going to happen.”
Season 3 Finale Wraps Up Major Plotlines
The season 3 finale, which aired on April 6, wrapped up several key storylines, including Rick’s revenge mission, the Ratliff family’s financial crisis, and the “white lady trio’s” decades-long friendship. The season also provided a resolution to the controversial incest storyline involving Saxon and Lochlan (played by Patrick Schwarzenegger and Sam Nivola), two brothers with a tumultuous and shocking bond.
The finale, which ran for 87 minutes, was met with mixed reactions but marked an emotional end to many of the season’s plot threads. However, the finale did not answer all questions, leaving room for speculation and more storytelling in the future.
Laurie (Carrie Coon), Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan), and Kate (Leslie Bibb) in ‘The White Lotus’ Season 3. Photo: HBO
The Future of The White Lotus
White has already confirmed that The White Lotus will return for a fourth season, though he has teased some significant changes for the next installment. After three seasons set in locations like Hawaii, Sicily, and Thailand, White is looking to shift away from the oceanic settings that defined the show’s aesthetic.
“For the fourth season, I want to get a little bit out of the crashing waves of rocks vernacular,” White shared. “But there’s always more room for more murders at the White Lotus hotels.”
While exact details about the cast and location of season 4 remain under wraps, HBO’s drama chief, Francesca Orsi, recently shared that location scouting is underway. “We’re going on some location scouting in the next couple of weeks,” Orsi said. “I can’t really say where we’re going to land, but chances are somewhere in Europe.”
All three seasons of The White Lotus are available for streaming on Max.
As the highly anticipated season 3 finale of The White Lotus approaches, fans aren’t the only ones eagerly awaiting the dramatic conclusion to the hit HBO series. Cast members, including Parker Posey, who portrays Victoria Ratliff, are also on edge, eager to uncover the fate of their characters. Posey admitted during a recent interview that although she might have known how the season would end at one point, the details have slipped her mind.
“I forgot who died,” Posey shared in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “It was so stressful when I read it. The dark stuff, I blazed through.” While Posey’s character may not be the one meeting an untimely end, she, like the audience, is left in suspense, eagerly awaiting the final moments of the season.
The season 3 finale, which will air on April 6, promises to be another gripping conclusion that will likely keep viewers on the edge of their seats. Fans of The White Lotus know all too well that each season concludes with a shocking death, and creator Mike White has hinted that this finale will be no different.
Posey’s co-star, Patrick Schwarzenegger, who plays her onscreen son Saxon, revealed that he, too, is in the dark about how the season will conclude. “I’m just excited to watch the finale with the rest of the world because I actually have no idea what happens,” Schwarzenegger told The Hollywood Reporter. His excitement to experience the finale alongside viewers underscores the level of secrecy that surrounds the show’s plot twists.
Parker Posey, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Jason Isaacs, Sarah Catherine Hook, Sam Nivola in The White Lotus. FABIO LOVINO/HBO
As is typical with The White Lotus, the season 3 finale has been tightly guarded, with spoilers kept to an absolute minimum. Jon Gries, who made a surprising return to the show after possibly being involved in the shocking death of Jennifer Coolidge’s Tanya in season 2, teased that viewers will be left shocked. “Whatever you think you know, you’re going to get it wrong,” Gries teased, building anticipation for the highly secretive ending.
Mike White Promises an “Epic” Finale
Creator Mike White has been known for his meticulous attention to detail, particularly when it comes to the finale of each season. White expressed his excitement about the upcoming finale, which will run for an hour and a half. “As a filmmaker, it’s probably the piece of work that I’m like, ‘I can’t believe I did that,’” White said, hinting that the episode will be a major achievement in his career.
White also addressed the inevitable reactions to the finale, acknowledging that viewers will have differing opinions. “People are going to hate Mike White,” said Charlotte Le Bon, who plays Chloe in the new season. She jokingly added that the finale will likely leave fans in emotional turmoil.
White, however, hopes the finale will leave viewers feeling a bittersweet sense of closure. “My hope is that it’ll feel like a cathartic sad or a satisfying sad and not a ‘What the f—?’ sad,” White said. “But people are going to have a million different opinions. You just hope you stick the landing.” Given the history of shocking twists on the show, fans are bracing for an ending that will likely leave them talking long after the credits roll.
Keeping the Finale Under Wraps
To ensure that the series finale remains a mystery until it airs, The White Lotus team has taken extreme measures to prevent leaks. Executive producer David Bernad explained that the show goes to great lengths to keep the secret of the finale under wraps. “We have fake endings to the scripts,” Bernad said. “So we wrote up — we have six different endings — and we kind of distributed fake endings to people just in case someone leaked anything, and then we could say there’s different fake endings.”
This attention to secrecy extends to the set as well. Bernad explained that when filming the final scenes, the set is “locked down,” and non-production personnel are never allowed access to crucial scenes. This level of security helps to preserve the mystery of the finale and keeps spoilers from reaching the public before the episode airs.
Maria Shriver’s Curiosity About the Finale
The anticipation surrounding the White Lotus season 3 finale is so intense that even those close to the cast are feeling the suspense. Schwarzenegger’s mother, Maria Shriver, took to Instagram on April 3 to address the question she has been asked repeatedly: What will happen to her son Saxon?
“I may be on a book tour promoting my new book, I Am Maria, but everywhere I go everyone keeps asking me about @patrickschwarzenegger, about @thewhitelotus, about what’s going to happen to Saxon, if he’s going to die,” Shriver wrote on Instagram, alongside an edited image of her book cover, which read “I Am Patrick’s Mother” instead of “I Am Maria.”
Shriver humorously noted that, despite being the mother of one of the show’s central characters, she knows just as little as the rest of the world about Saxon’s fate. “I may be Patrick’s mother, but I know NOTHING! No one believes me, but it’s true,” she wrote, inviting fans to speculate on what might happen in the finale before encouraging them to check out her own book.
The humorous post illustrates the level of curiosity that surrounds the fate of The White Lotus characters, even among those closest to the cast.
The White Lotus Finale Is Almost Here
As the clock ticks down to the highly anticipated White Lotus season 3 finale, both the cast and the fans are on edge, eagerly awaiting the revelations that will come with it. With promises of shocking twists, emotional farewells, and possibly another shocking death, the finale is set to be one for the ages.
The season 3 finale of The White Lotus will air on Sunday, April 6, at 9 p.m. ET on Max. Fans can expect the unexpected as the series continues its tradition of exploring the darker side of luxury, human relationships, and the secrets that lie beneath the surface of the idyllic locations where the show is set.
As viewers prepare for the final moments of the season, the cast and crew are just as eager to see how the story concludes, with many of them admitting they are just as much in the dark as the audience. One thing is for certain: when The White Lotus wraps up on April 6, it’s sure to leave fans talking long after the credits roll.
Actor Sam Nivola has offered his perspective on the complex sexuality of his character, Lochlan Ratliff, in HBO‘s The White Lotus following a series of sexually charged scenes that have sparked online debate.
In the show’s third season, Lochlan’s interactions with his brother, Saxon, played by Patrick Schwarzenegger, have drawn particular attention. A drunken kiss in an earlier episode escalated to a scene in episode six where Lochlan engages in sexual activity with another character, Chloe, portrayed by Charlotte Le Bon, while simultaneously involving his brother in the act.
Photo: Fabio Lovino/HBO
These scenes have led viewers to question Lochlan’s sexual orientation, especially after an earlier moment where he appeared to gaze at his brother’s naked body. While Saxon is depicted as conventionally heterosexual, Lochlan’s behavior suggests a more fluid or confused understanding of his own sexuality.
Speaking to Variety, Nivola addressed the speculation, stating that series creator Mike White “doesn’t look at the world through a gendered lens.” Nivola suggested that White’s portrayal of characters transcends traditional gender and sexual categories, focusing instead on the shared human flaws and desires.
“The point he is always making is that people are all the same — lovable, yet rotten at their core,” Nivola said. He interpreted the intense sibling dynamic as more reflective of their shared lifestyle than a specific exploration of gender or sexuality.
Nivola characterized Lochlan as driven by a desire for “love and attention,” which he believes could stem from either men or women. He suggested that Lochlan is still exploring his attractions and that a potential discovery of same-sex attraction would be complicated by his character’s “rich, conservative Southern” family background.
Regarding the explicit scene with his brother, Nivola acknowledged his initial anxiety but praised White’s “calming” presence on set. He clarified that Lochlan’s actions are not driven by sexual attraction towards Saxon but rather by a sense of insecurity and a desire to understand and connect with his brother.
“It’s more curiosity, and trying to figure out which kind of person he is going to become,” Nivola explained. He described Lochlan as a “people pleaser” who seeks approval and connection through any means possible.
Photo: Fabio Lovino/HBO
Nivola emphasized that Lochlan’s observation of Saxon is not sexual but rather an attempt to “study” him and understand how to gain his affection.
“The White Lotus” season three continues on HBO, with new episodes airing Sundays.
Patrick Schwarzenegger’s uncomfortable moment in The White Lotus has certainly left an impression on viewers. The actor, who plays Saxon Ratliff in the hit HBO series, had a notably awkward on-screen kiss with his on-screen brother Lochlan, portrayed by Sam Nivola. This tense scene in the March 16 episode sparked curiosity among fans, and now, co-star Charlotte Le Bon has opened up about how the scene was filmed, revealing that Schwarzenegger himself was as uneasy as the audience seemed to be while watching.
In an interview with Vulture, Le Bon, who plays Greg Hunt’s new girlfriend, Chloe, explained that the kiss was not easy for Schwarzenegger. “Well obviously they’re not brothers by blood, so that made it easier,” she said, noting that the actors’ real-life relationship didn’t add to the discomfort. However, Le Bon admitted that Schwarzenegger was still hesitant about filming the intimate moment. “For Patrick, it was really difficult,” she said. “For Sam, he was kind of like, ‘It’s whatever, let’s just do it well one time and it will be over.’”
She went on to share that the emotional reaction seen on-screen was genuine. “Patrick’s reaction in the episode is his genuine reaction,” Le Bon revealed. “We all thought he was going to throw up. And Sam was like, ‘It’s fine, it’s just a kiss, calm down!’”
From left: Charlotte Le Bon, Sam Nivola, and Aimee Lou Wood in ‘The White Lotus’. Fabio Lovino/HBO
The scene in question, which involves Saxon and Lochlan sharing a kiss on Chloe’s yacht, is one of the more shocking and unsettling moments of the series. Chloe, who is looking for chaos and excitement during her stay at the White Lotus resort in Thailand, encourages the kiss after taking a mystery pill with her new friends. As the night progresses, Chloe’s reckless behavior culminates in the kiss, which fans are still trying to unpack.
Le Bon described her character Chloe as someone who fills the emptiness inside her with partying, chaos, and reckless behavior. “I think Chloe is deeply, deeply bored,” she said. “There’s a void inside of her. She fills that void with partying, sex, and chaos. This kiss between the two brothers for her is just pure entertainment, which is obviously really evil when you think about it.”
Chloe’s casual indifference to the situation highlights her detachment from any consequences, something Le Bon believes defines her character. “She’s not attached to life — I don’t know how to say it,” Le Bon explained. “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.”
Patrick Schwarzenegger in ‘The White Lotus’. MAX
The scene also shows Chloe locking lips with another character, Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood), further emphasizing her disregard for social norms and relationships. For Chloe, everything is about living in the moment, no matter how damaging it might be to others around her.
While Chloe may seem to live a carefree, impulsive life, Le Bon suggested that her character likely never thinks about the consequences of her actions. “She’s the kind of person who’s never thought about that, or else she was just always able to manage her way through it,” Le Bon said. “She’s probably smart like that. It is really chaotic and dark.”
The tension between the characters of Saxon and Lochlan Ratliff has been building since the first episode of the season. Fans were quick to notice the odd dynamics between the two brothers, particularly after Lochlan seemed to fixate on Saxon when he was fully naked. This moment raised eyebrows, and Schwarzenegger hinted at the unusual nature of their relationship in an earlier interview with The Radio Times. “I think that the relationship with his brother — although it’s very odd and weird, which is what [creator] Mike [White] wanted — it’s still very loving at the same time,” Schwarzenegger said. “I mean, it’s just that Saxon has this false perception and idea of what he thinks makes a man and who he thinks he is, and he’s trying to groom his younger brother to become that.”
The intriguing and at times uncomfortable relationship between the two brothers is a key element of the show, adding layers to the plot’s complexity. The controversial kiss is sure to be a topic of discussion among viewers as The White Lotus continues to unravel its unpredictable storylines.
New episodes of The White Lotus air every Sunday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and Max.
