'The White Lotus' Episode 5 Ended on Another Shocking Sexual Cliffhanger
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Well, Mike White has done it again. After dropping everyone's jaws last year with that now-infamous rimming scene at the end of the fourth episode of The White Lotus, the showrunner delivered another genuinely shocking moment of sexual scandal at the conclusion of Season 2, Episode 5.
It was all so romantic to begin with. Breaking off from the central location at the San Domenico in Sicily, Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) and her assistant Tanya (Haley Lu Richardson) found themselves being swept away to Palermo by wealthy Englishman Quentin (Tom Hollander) and his nephew Jack (Leo Woodall). While Tanya enjoyed a night at the opera with Quentin, Portia allowed her affections to transfer from Albie (Adam DiMarco) to the "naughty" Jack, and slept with him.
But this is The White Lotus, where nothing is as it seems and happy endings are hard to come by, so of course the episode then ended on a real rug-pull moment, with Tanya walking in on Quentin and Jack engaged in some uncle-on-nephew action. It's a heartbreaking moment for Tanya, and also begs some questions about Quentin and his cohort of gay pals: is Jack really his nephew, or are they acting out some kind of role-play scenario and Tanya and Portia have simply become embroiled in their game?
"One of the amazing things about Season 2 is that it seems to retain some of the tropes of Season 1 without repeating Season 1, which is a testament to Mike's amazing gifts," Hollander told ET. "And this is one of those moments. It's the curtain being pulled back on people's secret lives... And as an actor, you go, 'Oh brilliant. We can be playing two different things at the same time... Whenever Leo and I talk to each other about anything prior to that moment, we have a little secret. And there's nothing more fun than playing a secret on camera."
Of course, this isn't even the first instance of uncle-humping to take place in an HBO series this year. Much of the drama in Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon revolved around the attraction between Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock and Emma D'Arcy) and her uncle Daemon (Matt Smith), which evolved into a tempestuous affair and marriage later in the series. Of course, that took place in a fantasy setting where the interbreeding of silver-haired dragonriders is par for the course. It's probably fair to say that the fallout from Quentin and Jack being discovered in flagrante will be considerable when Tanya inevitably spills the beans.
"Oh boy, Portia. Sweet Portia. Poor Portia," said Richardson. "Oh man, she was finally getting what she wanted, on paper, just to find out that he's fucking his uncle. And it's not what it seems. You never want to find out that the guy that you're dating and who has whisked you away is fucking his uncle! You don't want to find that out... Oh my god, HBO loves something about uncle-fucking!"
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