The White Lotus season 3 is over, and fans are craving more. Thankfully, while the fan favourite TV show is done for now, there’s still loads of new information coming out that’s almost as mind-blowing as the actual plot.
One new piece of information we’re struggling to digest? A revelation from White Lotus creator Mike White about a scene that almost featured in the finale, which involved two very surprising characters having sex.
The revelation was shared on the official HBO White Lotus podcast, hosted by Jia Tolentino and Josh Bearman. Mike was their guest on the latest episode, which dropped on Monday following the finale airing, and he discussed a scene that, though it was never filmed, had been written—and it involved Piper Ratliff, the daughter of the rich North Carolinian family played by Sarah Catherine Hook.
“The part that was cut too, which is very disappointing, is that she decides to lose her virginity in the script in the last episode,” Mike said on the podcast, to the hosts’ apparent shock, as reported by The Daily Mail. “And she actually has sex with Zion.”
The reason this scene might have made sense in the overall plot is that Piper’s older brother Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) tells their younger brother Lochlan (Sam Nivola) earlier on in the season that he’s pretty sure Piper has never had sex, even though she’s “hot.” (This is all part of the pretty disturbing sibling relationship they all have with one another throughout.)
But why Zion, Belinda’s son whom Piper hasn’t even met at all so far in the season?
“There’s a whole scene where she’s like, ‘It’s true. Saxon’s right about this one thing. I need to get this over with,'” Mike further explained. “And you know, like after she leaves the monastery, she’s just like, ‘I need to…’ You know, ‘I need to, like, have sex.'”
To that end, Piper would go to the hotel restaurant and find Zion there. But ultimately, Mike decided to cut the scene because it would have made the episode too long, and would have added yet another narrative element to an already very complex story.
So there you have it: Piper and Zion almost had sex in The White Lotus season 3 finale. Thanks, Mike White!