TV viewers were left reeling for another week after watching the latest episode of The White Lotus.
The Emmy-award winning, HBO drama aired its penultimate episode and yet again featured an eye-raising storyline about sex and fetishes, including incest.
This week's shock scene came at a dinner party hosted by Gary (John Gries) and his much younger girlfriend, Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon).
Chloe sits with Saxon Ratliff (Patrick Schwarzenegger) at the party after in last week's sleeping with his younger brother, Lochlan (Sam Nivola).
During the tryst, Saxon watched them and Lochlan also pleasured his brother.
As a means of smoothing things over with Gary, who learns of the romp, Chloe agrees to once again sleep with one of the brothers so that her boyfriend can watch them in the act.
She explains it ties into a fetish he developed after watching his parents have sex as a young child.
Chloe begs Saxon to sleep with her at the party so that Gary can walk in on them and catch them in the act and then she would “go off with Gary,” to have sex with him.
People watching at home reacted with strong feelings after the show featured an incest story for the second week running.
“You know this s**t getting messy af when saxon the only one in the whole episode that sounds sane,” wrote one person on X, formerly Twitter.
“Never thought there'd be a conversation where saxon was the voice of reason,” added another.
“This Gary/Greg plotline just outdid the insane sibling incest, did NOT see that coming. White Lotus writers sitting around just dreaming up ways to become more depraved, love it,” posted a third.
Viewers' strong reactions to the latest episode comes after fans were left shocked by flashback scenes in last week's instalment that showed Saxon and Lochlan kissing and engaging in sexual acts.
Following the sexual encounter, it was confirmed to viewers that both brothers had blacked out during the night.
Later on in the episode, Saxon found Chloe and Chelsea by the pool and said how kissing his brother was a ‘joke' and that they both had made them do it.
Swiping back, Chloe declared: “I didn't force him to perform a sex act on you.”
Meanwhile, Lochlan's memory of the entire night eventually came flooding back to him whilst meditating in the Buddhist temple with his sister Piper.
The drama's executive producer David Bernard previously defended the incest scenes.
Asked whether they went too far, he replied: “No, in terms of that — that’s all [creator Mike White].
“Mike is brilliant, and I think those big story turns are not just for shock.”
Bernard added to the New York Post: “There’s a specific reason in terms of the narrative storytelling, and the larger thematic idea Mike is trying to get across.
“As the season wraps up, you’ll see the purpose of that story turn.”
