Breaking Down THAT ‘White Lotus’ Uncle/Nephew Gay Sex Scene – Out Magazine

November 28, 2022 News Editor

Editor’s note: this post contains spoilers for episode five of The White Lotus season two.

It’s giving SayUncle…

After a weeks-long tease, we finally got a gay sex scene on season two of The White Lotus. Since the beginning of the season, viewers had been suspecting that something was bound to happen between Cameron (Theo James) and Ethan (Will Sharpe), as there’s always been some palpable tension – though it is unclear whether that tension is sexual or romantic – between the two. In a classic White Lotus twist, though, a gay sex scene came from somewhere else entirely.

Introduced in episode three, wealthy gay man Quentin (Tom Hollander) is at the White Lotus hotel in Sicily with a group of gay friends. Though most of them are rich older gays, there are a few younger men in their company, including Jack (Leo Woodall), a charming and sexy guy from Essex who refers to Quentin as his “uncle.” Alas, the dynamic between Quentin and Jack is never really highlighted in episodes three or four. Quentin is shown spending a lot of time with his new BFF Tanya McQuoid (Jennifer Coolidge), whereas Jack is just having a vacation romance with Tanya’s assistant, Portia (Haley Lu Richardson).

As these characters step out of the White Lotus for a bit to spend time together in a beautiful (but also haunting) villa, things initially go as expected. Quentin and Tanya go to the theater to see opera. Jack and Portia go out on a date in town. But episode five then ends on a shocking cliffhanger: Tanya walks into a room and sees Quentin on all fours getting absolutely pounded by Jack. (She wasn’t eating a salad at the time, but she might as well have been.)

A lot of viewers are shocked by this particular sex scene because they are taking Jack’s word at face value. That Quentin is, indeed, Jack’s uncle, which would mean that Tanya witnessed an uncle and a nephew having sex. However, there are plenty of cues suggesting that this might not be the case, actually.

First of all, though they’re both from the U.K., Quentin’s accent and Jack’s accent could not be more different. Quentin’s personality, accent, and tastes fit the archetypical “proper wealthy British gay man,” whereas Jack looks and sounds like a future cast member of Love Island. While this could just be a generational thing, it could also mean that they aren’t at all from the same family.

Secondly, if a rich gay man like Quentin were to hire a few younger guys to “entertain” him and his group of friends during a trip to Sicily, it stands to reason that someone like Jack would lie to Portia about Quentin being his uncle, not his “employer.” There are other sex workers featured in season two of The White Lotus, and they don’t go around saying exactly what they’re doing at the hotel, either.

The entire familial relationship between Quentin and Jack hinges on the fact that Jack refers to Quentin as his “uncle,” but that could very much just be a convenient label to attach to Quentin so that Jack can still enjoy his time with Portia as well. While there is a universe where we just witnessed a Targaryen-like incestuous sex scene between an uncle and a nephew, odds are that this is strictly business.

One way or another, it’s still a shocking turn of events as far as Tanya and Portia are concerned, so it will definitely be interesting to see how they will handle this discovery in the coming episodes.

The White Lotus season two airs Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.

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