Sam Rockwell Makes Surprise Visit To ‘The White Lotus’ As Incest Storyline Heats Up

SPOILER ALERT: This piece discusses plot points from the fifth episode of The White Lotus. 

The White Lotus is in its full moon party era and “sh*t’s about to get crazy”, according to Patrick Schwarzenegger’s Saxon.

The fifth episode of the HBO series’ third season is pure hedonism as Saxon, Sam Nivola’s Lochlan, Aimee Lou Wood’s Chelsea and Charlotte Le Bob’s Chloe head to the beach with some mind-altering substances and Michelle Monaghan’s Jaclyn, Leslie Bibb’s Kate and Carrie Coon’s Laurie bring some men back to theirs for a pool party.

There is, however, a dark side to the frivolity as Jason Isaacs’ Timothy struggles to deal with the fallout of his legal problems, not helped by the fact that he stole Tayme Thapthimthong’s Gaitok’s gun, and Walton Goggins’ Rick is in Bangkok looking for the man who killed his father, who turns out to be The White Lotus resort owner.

Rick meets up with an old friend, played Sam Rockwell in a surprise cameo. The Fosse/Verdon star was never announced as part of the cast of the show, although he does share a connection to one of its guests: he is the long-time partner, in real life, of Leslie Bibb.

Rockwell’s character evidently owes Rick a favor. But now sober and having found religion, he’s not interested in getting drunk with Rick, but rather explain why he’s in Thailand himself.

“I took the partying thing as far as it could go,” he said before handing Rick a bag with, presumably a gun in it. “I moved here because I had to leave the States but I picked Thailand because I always had a thing for Asian girls and when I got here I was like a kid in a candy store. I got money, no attachments, nothing to do. I started partying. It got wild, I was picking up girls every night, always different ones, petite ones, chubby ones, older ones, sometimes multiple ladies a night. I was out of control, I became insatiable and after about a thousand nights like I started to lose it. I started wondering where am I going with this. Why do I feel the need to fuck all of these women. What is desire?”

He explains to Rick that he decided to let men have sex with him in order to try and feel like “one of these Asian girls”. “We all have our achilles heel. Why are some of us attracted to the opposite form? Sex is a poetic act, it’s a metaphor. Then I realized I gotta stop. I got into Buddism, which is all about spirit versus form, detaching from self, getting off the never-ending carousel of lust and suffering. Being sober isn’t so hard, being celibate that’s tough,” he added.

By the end of the episode, Rick is still in Bangkok but everyone is seemingly still alive.

Over at The White Lotus resort, Chloe kisses Lochlan and tells him everyone gets laid at these parties. “I like the little magician; I just like innocent young guys, when they see you naked, they shake. I just want some attention,” she admits.

That’s when things start to get even weirder. There’s a steamy scene involving Chloe and Chelsea before the ladies encourage brothers Lochlan and Saxon to kiss. Previous episodes have suggested an incest storyline but this marks the first time that the relatives get intimate.

Elsewhere, Jaclyn, Kate and Laurie are enjoying the company of Arnas Fedaravicius’s Russian health mentor Valentin and his friends, in particular Jaclyn, who ends up sleeping with him.