Mike White reveals the two ‘White Lotus’ characters who were supposed to meet before the scene was cut

There were multiple moments from The White Lotus’ season three finale that raised eyebrows, but a recent admission by series creator Mike White about the unaired fate of two characters might just take the cake. 

The eighth and final episode of the HBO show’s third installment aired the week, and while fans have been left with dozens of unanswered questions (what was the point of Mook? And what is with the slow pacing?), White has revealed that he almost raised more questions in the form of a pivotal scene between Piper Ratliff (played by Sarah Catherine Hook) and Zion Lindsey (played by Nicholas Duvernay) that never made it into the season finale episode. 

While the storylines of the two characters never intersect in season three, White said that wasn’t always the case, revealing he had actually written a scene in which Piper loses her virginity to Zion. So, excuse me for a moment while I howl like a Ko Samui monkey. “The part that was cut, too, is that [Piper] decides to lose her virginity in the last episode, and she actually has sex with Zion,” White said on an episode of the official White Lotus companion podcast.

“There’s a whole scene where [Piper] leaves the monastery she’s like, ‘I need to have sex’ and she’s scoping the restaurant,” White added. While that description alone is enough to provide ample material for my upcoming White Lotus fanfic, the series creator went on to explain why the scene was cut from the episode, citing timing and the jarring tone of a “rom-com vibe” within the otherwise-sombre finale. “The finale is an hour and a half already and it would have added ten minutes to the thing,” White said. 

Piper was originally going to lose her virginity to Belinda's son, Zion, in #TheWhiteLotus Season 3 finale.

“That part was cut, which is very disappointing," says Mike White. “There’s this whole scene where she’s like, ‘It’s true. Saxon is right about this one thing. I need to… pic.twitter.com/psuF6hYJET

— Variety (@Variety) April 7, 2025

“It had a little bit of rom-com vibe, in the middle of [Tim] trying to kill the family with the pong-pong fruits, so it just felt like I was trying to do too much narratively.” While it (regrettably) never made it to screen, the sex scene does provide context for Piper’s character arc, since she finishes her Thailand holiday in complete contrast to her brother, Saxon (played by Patrick Schwarzenegger). “It’s a reversal,” White said. “At the end when they’re on the boat, [Piper is] just thinking about how she got nicely f***** and Saxon’s reading his self-help book.” 

Speaking of Saxon, I’m glad White didn’t reveal any scrapped scenes involving the eldest brother and Piper, since season three has enough incestuous vibes as it is. Piper wasn’t the only Ratliff sibling who had a scene cut from the finale, with Sam Nivola — who plays the… shall we say, handsy, youngest brother Lochlan — also revealing that a scene involving him and a body bag was removed from the episode. Of course, we now know the fate of the twisted (yet utterly watchable) Ratliffs, and something tells me that even a spicy rendezvous with Zion wouldn’t have saved Piper from her doomed family. 

the way this is the funniest scene of white lotus though 😭😭 she gave him the thumbs up and he added piper to the list pic.twitter.com/EIOhVcMR6h

— keshawn (@shawnzlyfe) April 7, 2025

Elsewhere in the Lotus-verse, it was revealed earlier this week that Woody Harrelson was in talks to play Frank before the role went to Sam Rockwell, and we also learned the one location where season four definitely won’t be taking place. It’s admissions like White’s that make me yearn for the DVD era, so I could watch the scene he mentioned in the extras. For research purposes only, obviously.