Oh No They Didn't! Sam Nivola and Patrick Schwarzenegger Talk about Their 'Brotherly Love' on 'The White Lotus'

This article contains spoilers for 'The White Lotus' Season 3.

Actor Sam Nivola has opened up on the shocking revelations dropped by the latest episode of "The White Lotus," when his character, Lochlan Ratlliff, and that of co-star Patrick Schwarzenegger, Saxon Ratliff, have some incestuous moments while at a party and in a group sex situation on a yacht.

In comments to The Hollywood Reporter, Schwarzenegger argued that the show isn't simply out to titillate.

"What is that going to do to who he thinks he is?" the actor, who is the son of Arnold Schwarzenegger, asked. "His thoughts on, 'What is it like to be a man? What is a man?' What makes all these different things that he thought he stood for in the episode and the days before?"

For his part, talking with Variety, Nivola recalled getting the first hints of what the past entailed while talking to Schwarzenegger, who described an audition scene that included dialogue from the latest episode – an exchange that suggested Lochlan took a hand, literally, in his brother's gratification.

"Then we both had to sign in our contracts that we were comfortable with nude scenes on camera," Nivola recounted. "Then we got the scripts about a week later, and I read all of them in one sitting, on the plane to Thailand."

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Nivola described the challenges of committing that sort of performance to film. "It's kind of impossible for it to not be charged when you're literally naked with all these cameras in front of you."

Despite being "a very anxious person" who found the demands of the shocking yacht-set sex scene to be "nerve-wracking," Nivola gave credit to writer-director Mike White, in his comments to Variety, for being "calming about it" and making work on the erotic scene proceed "smoothly."

White's highly popular HBO series is nothing if not bold with its storytelling, including its portrayals of sexuality. The show created a sensation when its first season introduced the idea of rimming to American viewers courtesy of a moment between Murray Bartlett and Lukas Gage; Season 2 gave us eyeful after eyeful, with the cup running over when Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) spied a hunky "nephew," Jack (Leo Woodall), having athletic sex with his supposed "uncle," Quentin (Tom Hollander).

In Season 3, White is challenging viewers and sparking cultural conversation once again with the incest storyline. In the March 23 episode, incomplete memories flash Saxon back to the night before, when his mission to get younger brother Lochlan laid seems to have paid off. But there's more to it than that: Saxon remembers being in bed next to Lochlan and Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon) as Lochlan lost his virginity. But there's even more to it than that: Saxon also remembers masturbating as his brother and Chloe had sex... except that it was Lochlan who had a grip on Saxon's junk; not Saxon himself.

Meanwhile, Lochlan starts to recall bits and pieces of the night separately.

The flashbacks don't come out of nowhere. The brothers have had an incestuous vibe all season, starting in their shared room when Saxon talks to his brother about sex before retreating, naked, to the bathroom to masturbate over porn on his laptop. Saxon watches his brother then and also the next morning, when his bare backside is exposed as he sleeps. Then, in Episode 5 last week, the two brothers shared a jocular kiss, egged on by Chloe and Charlotte (Aimee Lou Wood). That they end up together in a night of steamy passion seems almost inevitable, and it's sure to lead to even more complications between them.

But are we seeing forbidden love? An accidental outcome of taking drugs at a party? Or a disturbing power struggle between a self-described alpha male and the younger brother determined to live up to, and surpass, the example he's been given?

Schwarzenegger told THR that White is "always bringing something that is really fun and outrageous and sparks a conversation that gets people talking," but, he added, the incest scene "also has to do a lot with the pilgrimage of the characters' story and where he's going."

Added Schwarzenegger: "There's always more than what just meets the eye of the shock value on the screen."

Noting that "Saxon is the sex guy" whose "primary motive in life is to make money and get laid," Nivola suggested to Variety that Lochlan simply wants to have a closer bond to his big brother and "the thing on the boat is Lochlan's tragically misguided attempt at being like, 'So, you're the sex guy. Let's do something in that realm and try to connect in some way.'"

"It's obviously a big swing and a miss," Nivola added, before noting that sex isn't the primary driver for his 18-year-old character. "Lochlan has such a one-track mind. He wants love and attention – it could be from a guy, it could be from a girl. I don't think he knows what he's attracted to yet."

Added Nivola: "I think he's incredibly misguided, and his circumstances have put him in a bad spot, but I don't think he's evil or malicious in any way. It's important to the story that he's not some psychopath."

Time Magazine had a different suggestion, however. In an analysis pf the brothers' relationship, the publication recalled that earlier in the evening, during a kissing game, "it is Lochlan who initiates the kiss with his brother and intensifies it" while the women encourage them, "and it is Lochlan who presumably initiates touching his brother."

Recalling a line of dialogue that's uncharacteristically aggressive for the mild-mannered Lochlan – "Dude, I'm gonna fucking take you down one day" – Time said, "As Lochlan presaged earlier in the evening, he has used sex to flip the siblings' power dynamic on its head and wrest control from his brother, turning the elder Ratliff into a victim."

But is that really what happened? Nivola expressed his faith in the openly gay writer-director, telling THR, "We really trusted Mike because there's always a very shocking, crazy, intense moment in every season. It's never just for the sake of being shocking, it always serves the story."

"And that [incest] scene is really the inciting incident for where our relationship goes next," Nivola added. "It's a great storytelling tactic. Going into this, we really trusted Mike because he's a fucking badass and a genius."

We already know that the story is headed to gunplay – that was teased, along with a floating corpse, in the season's opening moments. But will Saxon and Lochlan's more-than-brotherly love play a role in the impending tragedy? The next two episodes are sure to be a wild ride.