Warning: This article contains major spoilers for the latest episode of The White Lotus.

The White Lotus star Patrick Schwarzenegger has spoken out after the shocking kiss in this week’s episode.

Earlier in the series, fans speculated there could be something more to the Ratliff brothers’ relationship after Patrick and co-star Sam Nivola’s characters shared a very inappropriate nocturnal conversation that ended with one of them walking nude to the bathroom to masturbate, while the other’s eyes lingered.

In this week’s episode, things kicked up a gear when the two siblings shared a drunken kiss – at the encouragement of two girls they were trying to impress while partying on a yacht.

Speaking to Today, Patrick described this episode as one in which “everything starts to unravel”.

As for that kiss, he claimed that White Lotus creator Mike White wants to leave it to our imagination whether there is more at play.

“He wants to leave that up to the interpretation of the audience of what is happening,” Patrick claimed. 

“Was a power shift happening? Is there a different power dynamic between him and Lochy? Is Lochy coming on to him? Is it the drugs? Is it the girls pressuring him? What is it? So, I think he leaves that open-ended for the audience to try to decipher.”

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Patrick also teased: “There’s always more than what meets the eye of the shock value on screen.”

Meanwhile, his on-screen brother opened up more about his own character’s motivations.

“He’s just an incredibly insecure guy, a real people pleaser who needs something from the people,” he told The Hollywood Reporter, claiming Lochlan needs “love and support from the people around him in his life”, and is “willing to go to all the lengths to find the people he loves”.

“There’s a push and pull between sex, and then Piper trying to control his future,” he continued. “But for me? I don’t think Lochlan really gives a shit which path he goes down.

“I think it’s more that he’s going to choose whichever path feels like it’s with the person who loves him the most.”

The White Lotus continues on Mondays on Sky and Now.