Here's What's Really Going On With The Ratliff Brothers In The White Lotus Season 3

This article contains spoilers for "The White Lotus" season 3 episode 6, "Denials."

As anyone who isn't a regressive dork can already attest, sex scenes are a necessary part of film and television, and the inclusion of sex scenes can also be the source of some of the most fascinating expressions of storytelling. Audiences can learn a lot about a character based on their relationship with sex and intimacy, and much can be gleaned from how sex and sexuality are used within the confines of the film or TV show's narrative. James Cameron's "Titanic" fundamentally does not work without the inclusion of Rose's sexual autonomy and passionate love shared with Jack on that fateful ship, and both "Game of Thrones" and "House of the Dragon" have been exploring the ways sexual exchanges double for political bargaining for over a decade.

So as shocking as the sexual politics on season 3 of "The White Lotus" have been with moments like Sam Rockwell's surprise cameo (to deliver what will likely be the most-discussed monologue of the year) and the relationship between brothers Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) and Lochlan (Sam Nivola) Ratliff becoming incestuous, it's important to remember that there's so much more going on than just "Ew, the brothers are kissing." As the Brothers Ratliff wake up after a night of drugs, debauchery, and yes, kissing for the entertainment of fellow White Lotus guests Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) and Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon), flickers of fragmentary blackout start flooding back. Saxon remembers being in the same bed as Lochlan while his little brother had sex — possibly for the first time — with Chloe but the blanket covering his genitals moves up and down to imply that he's getting off to the visual. Could Saxon really be jerking off to his little brother losing his virginity?

No, he's not ... Because as it turns out, Lochlan is pulling double duty and stroking his own brother to completion while having sex with Chloe and putting the "evil" in Devil's Triangle.

Throughout "The White Lotus" season 3, the dynamics between the Ratliff brothers have been straightforward. Saxon, the eldest boy, is alphabro, toxic hypermasculinity incarnate, while Lochlan aka "Lochy" has been quiet, submissive, and desperately seeking the approval of his older brother and older sister, the middle child Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook). When the three siblings are first introduced on the boat taking them to the resort, Saxon is wearing sunglasses, Piper is wearing headphones, and Lochy is covering his mouth with a drink — embodying the three wise monkeys pictorial maxim aka "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil." It's perfect, because Saxon does plenty of speaking evil while being completely unaware of the danger simmering right in front of his face, while Lochy stays silent, observing absolutely everything around him.

When Lochlan has his first spiritual session on the resort, he's told, "You're protecting yourself with your feminine side." In Eastern philosophies, like Buddhism, it's encouraged to recognize and cultivate the masculine and feminine energies found within us all, rather than tying them to biological sex or gender assigned at birth. These are instead, universal principles. Masculine energy is closely associated with action, clarity, and overcoming obstacles through that action, while feminine energies are related to wisdom, intuition, and the ability to be attuned to the world. Lochy is protecting himself with his ability to assess the situation around him. During episode 5, he asks Saxon, "What if this life is just a test, like, to see if we can become better people?" And later, he playfully teases, "One day, I'm gonna take you down."

He knows that he can't out-alpha someone like Saxon, so the quickest way to usurp him is by finding ways to emasculate his brother. He's essentially taking a page out of the femme fatale handbook, and throwing his big bro off balance by injecting some chaos into their dynamic. And because Saxon is so against connecting to his own feminine energy, he's incapable of being attuned to the situation at hand, and doesn't see any of Lochy's actions coming.

For the first few episodes, Saxon spent much of his time imparting wisdom to his younger brother in an attempt to mold him in his own image. "Most people don't know what they want," he philosophizes. "They just wanna be used ... They're just waiting for someone to come tell them what to do." As we've already established, Lochy isn't the type to tell someone what to do, so if he's going to follow his brother's advice that people "wanna be used," he's going to actually embrace his masculine energy and take action in the most perversely twisted way possible, knowing full well the change it will make to their relationship is irreparable.

Saxon has been sexually forward and very creepy toward both Lochlan and Piper (Dude, why do you care if your sister is getting laid? GO TO THERAPY!) and Lochy is clearly responding to this weird, psychosexual power imbalance. Saxon has been urging Lochy to drink the same protein shakes he does because he wants to imbibe his brother with his power. Instead, Lochy takes his brother's protein (I'm so sorry) on his own terms.

Lochy seemingly wants to match Saxon's position in the family, and to do so he needs to emasculate him on a nuclear level and does so by treating Saxon the way his big brother treats the women in his life. He uses him, and the kicker is that he was breadcrumbing his actions the entire night, but Saxon refused to see what was right in front of him.

Lochy is the one who convinced Saxon to take drugs. Lochy is the one who played with Saxon's hair on the beach. Lochy is the one who was not content with a consensual peck as a joke and went in for the kill by tongue-kissing his brother in front of the girls. Lochy was the one who reached over and gave his brother the five-knuckle shuffle. Lochlan has no inhibitions and knows that this will mentally destroy his brother, but by immediately falling into his passive behavioral pattern the next morning and acting calm while Saxon spirals out of control, he knows he's won. It's like a serious, deeply twisted reflection of the "Slow Jerk" sketch from The Whitest Kids U'Know, but Lochy seems to be having buyer's remorse. Not because of what he did, but because Saxon, the person he wants to impress more than anyone, is avoiding him.

The way Lochlan looks at Saxon could be interpreted as "I want him," but it's more likely that he's thinking, "I want to be him." Before the night escalated to the point of legitimate sexual contact, the second kiss between Lochlan and Saxon — the one where Lochy took charge of the situation — was reminiscent of a Judas Kiss or Il bacio della morte, also known as the kiss of death. Readers of /Film might also know it as a "Fredo kiss," from the moment in "The Godfather Part II" when Michael Corleone gives his brother Fredo a hard kiss on the mouth, essentially marking him for death. There's always a death at the center of "The White Lotus" that the entire season builds toward, and right now there's no telling who will be the body at the end. There's a chance that by kissing his bother, Lochy has marked Saxon for death.

Men like Saxon tend not to look inward when faced with uncomfortable or traumatic situations, and instead lash out. There is no way that Saxon is ever going to be the same again, and he knows that Lochy now has immeasurable power over him that he can hang over his head forever, especially because Chelsea and Chloe know what happened. The only way to escape that shame or be forever relegated to the "beta cuck" position while being completely incapable of ever speaking on why Lochlan suddenly has control over him is to take himself out.

Or perhaps there's an even more violent route, and Lochy has unintentionally marked himself for death. Men like Saxon do not take being embarrassed or emasculated lying down (pun intended), and there's a strong possibility that Saxon will retaliate by killing the threat to his power by extinguishing his brother before the truth is revealed. We better hope none of their mom's lorazepam ends up in a protein shake.