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That moment in episode 5 where Lochlan lays down on the sand facing the sky, stomach exposed, legs open, while he’s basically convulsing and tripping on drugs (it almost looks like he’s laughing)…and it happens right after he caresses Saxon’s hair 1950’s femme fatale style and Saxon just has to look back and I swear there’s an expression that Patrick Schwarzenegger makes that’s basically Saxon going “uhhhh”. There’s a wonder there. Yes, he’s high out of his mind but he’s also admiring? Amazed?…there’s a smirk there.

What a fucked up moment. I swear it’s worse than the actual handjob.

Mike White literally had Lochlan act like some mildly evil temptress that entire episode 😭

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Lochlan is 100% gonna go full Bella Swann in New Moon and try the craziest shit so that Saxon fully goes back to him oh lord…this crazy ass character reading (I agree with him 😔)

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The Lochlan and Chelsea of it all…

I have to say that this isn’t so much an analysis as it is an observation/ pondering on what Mike White was trying to do when paralleling these two characters.

For me this all started after the finale when I read an Aimee Lou Wood quote about Chelsea and Rick’s relationship where she referred to Rick as “the religion Chelsea is subscribed to, and ultimately, the thing that gets her killed”.

I thought this was similar to how Sam Nivola had described Lochlan during this press tour, saying he’d go to any lengths necessary to be loved/foster a special connection in his life. (More on this later.)

And then I rewatched the show and boy, there’s a lot of little threads between Chelsea and Lochy, especially in relationship to their respective bonds to Rick and Saxon.

One of the first things that grabbed my attention is that both of them are sort of obsessed with the idea of fatalism (bad things happening). Chelsea is a deeply spiritual person and she spends the entire season saying she has a bad feeling about Rick’s fate, which ultimately turned out to be true.

Lochlan is not a spiritual person, this is in fact highlighted at the beginning of the season, but he’s the character Mike White chose to ominously warn his family of what’s coming for them. Lochlan’s obsession with tsunamis played a similar role in the narrative to Chelsea’s intuition.

Chelsea and Lochlan don’t interact a ton on the show, but she first approaches him in episode 4 while he’s doing magic tricks. Lochlan is referred to as “the little magician” by Chloe, and obviously this is an aspect of his chameleon/deceptive nature when it comes to adapting or shifting his personality according to who he’s around. Lochlan is all smoke and mirrors. But so is Chelsea. Aimee Lou Wood has mentioned in post finale interviews that Chelsea’s “happy go lucky” attitude and new age vibes are a bit of a front, a role she plays in hopes that it’s aptly complimentary to Rick’s personality. She’s hope, and happiness, and coolness, but she’s also a bit void inside because it’s well…a bit performative. I think aspects of this can be seen in how easily Chelsea accepts the batshit insanity that happens around her: Chloe’s crazy comments, the incest situation, Rick’s issues. Lochlan does this too, he tends to go with the flow of others.

This is not me saying they’re pushovers, they’re not, but they try to be peacekeepers, often at their own detriment.

I think both of them are deeply lost people, but Chelsea just does a great job at pretending she’s not. Above anything else, they’re both desperate for connection and to be loved, and unfortunately for them, they’ve hitched their fates/set their sights on emotionally unavailable people.

There’s a delicious contrast in episode 5 by having Chelsea abstain from the debauchery of the Full Moon Party because she’s loyal to Rick, and that’s what he would want, while Lochlan fully lets loose and pushes things to the extreme, because that’s what he believes Saxon wants of him.

This becomes a bit amusing when you throw in Saxon’s attempts at sleeping with Chelsea, despite her constantly shooting him down.

This moment of Saxon getting Chelsea a drink (“pink for the lady”), while she completely ignores him and Lochlan snatches the drink for himself. Very subtle Mike White…

Another moment, but this one is actually just painful, happens in Episode 6, while Chelsea talks to Rick on the phone after the Full Moon Party.

Chelsea is chastising Rick for not saying “I love you” to her properly (he never does in fact, and she dies without hearing it), meanwhile the camera also focuses on Lochlan alone on the boat. Given what happened between Lochlan and Saxon the night before, choosing to focus on him during this moment is pretty devastating. And again, it’s another instance showing how desperate him and Chelsea are for love and connection.

And then we get to episode 8…

Chelsea drops this line to Saxon, but based on what we see later on in this episode, I’m more inclined to believe that this actually applies to her and Lochlan.

This next scene was deleted, but originally, Lochlan has a dream in episode 8 where he sees Saxon dead out by the pool with vomit all over his face. Basically, Lochlan dreamt of Saxon being poisoned. According to Patrick Schwarzenegger’s description of the scene, it’s this nightmare that prompts Lochlan to go to the blender in the morning and make a protein shake. Sam Nivola has also mentioned that Lochlan made the shake because he wanted to feel close to his brother.

And then Lochlan basically fucking dies. His devotion and love for his brother leads him to his almost death.

“It’s okay for you to worship me, but don’t like WORSHIP me…”

But he does, because just like Chelsea with Rick, this is the religion Lochlan subscribes to.

I think it’s very interesting that episode 8 was supposed to include two fake out scenes of Lochlan and Saxon dead (one a near-death and one a dream) especially because it would’ve happened right before Chelsea and Rick actually die.

And the circumstances of Chelsea’s death are eerily similar to Lochlan’s near one. Rick tells her to go away, to leave him, but she decides to follow him and gets caught in the cross fire, and that’s it. It is also her love and devotion for him that kills her.

I have so many feelings about these moments. The way they both quietly die, the way their loved ones don’t notice until a bit later. The way they’re literally shot in the exact same way.

And of course, the way that once Chelsea and Rick finally make it back to the water (death) is when Lochlan opens his eyes and basically comes back to life. I don’t think that scene was shot that way just for aesthetic purposes, which leads me to believe it’s a nod to Chelsea’s “groups of people coming together to form a divine plan” comment.

Something to be said for characters that are so desperate for love, attention, and care that they’re willing to modify and uproot their inner self in order to satisfy the people they love, because it is through that purpose only that they themselves can be satisfied. It just so happens that more often than not, that love ends up being wasted or not fully reciprocated.

I do feel like I have to clarify that I don’t think Saxon is as bad/doomed as Rick. There’s a reason Saxon didn’t die, he IS capable of change, while Rick was not…but the parallels are there lol.

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I’m crying HBO knows who pays the bills…the official MAX, HBO, and White Lotus accounts keep posting Saxloch scenes on all their social media since the show ended 😭…and the comments are all people saying they wanna see more of them and they need a Ratliff family spin off lmaooo

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Tell me why I was casually listening to music and Inbred by Ethel Cain started playing and I literally had to pause the song and look up the lyrics because…this is literally Lochlan and Saxon like??? 😭

Obviously I know the context of the song is completely different but I have White Lotus brain rot rn and god help me if this isn’t Lochlan’s POV of this whole thing I mean…

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Sarah Catherine filming, Jason and Patrick busting out the white boy moves, Sam giggling and appearing mid video wrapped in a towel lmaooo….

This makes me kind of emotional because I remember how Jason said in an interview that when he first got to Thailand they put him in a beautiful villa all by himself and his wife would call him and he’d tell her it was beautiful, but he was actually very lonely. And then his on screen kids “adopted” him and started showing up to the villa every day 😭

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a normal family.

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Currently cooking up a Lochlan and Chelsea being somewhat connected by the narrative post, and it’s also making me see the obvious Lochlan/Saxon and Chelsea/Rick parallels….well.

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Sam’s new photoshoot for VMan and wow…these are incredibly devastating pictures.

I think Lochy will be just fine back home if he gets into modeling. AU anyone? 😂

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Just perfect. No notes…

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Ummmm….care to elaborate?? these weirdos lmaoooo

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I loooove this video. Sam (stuttering king) talking about Jason being concerned for him while they filmed Lochlan’s “death” scene.

Cracking up at Patrick cheesing in the back cause he already knows the story and Jon Gries raptly following along.

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Mike White cut so much of the Ratliff storyline that I swear every day we find out about a new (and crucial) scene that didn’t make it into the show. And they are SO important to better understand the family dynamic.

A few weeks ago Patrick said there was a scene that got cut of Victoria talking to the boys about how they have to block strangers out and prioritize family. There’s a similar scene like that in episode 2 but her saying it directly to Saxon and Lochlan…I mean c’mon

Jason Isaacs just said in an interview that they cut a scene that actually contextualizes how rich and isolated the Ratliffs are. In episode 1, Timothy explains to the hotel staff that this was their first time flying in a commercial plane, and that they always fly private. Jason also said the Ratliffs would vacation in the Caribbean in PRIVATE mansions and they would avoid hotels, in order to be away from people.

Sara Catherine mentioned a scene from episode 8 where Piper tells Lochlan that the true cult is their family, and that they have to get away from each other because it’s all “borderline incestuous”. Apparently Lochlan was supposed to freak out when she says that and ask her if Saxon had told her anything.

Patrick just gave us the most insane lore drop and mentioned that there’s a cut scene where Lochlan has a nightmare in which he finds Saxon dead by the pool with vomit all over him (full on death vision)…and Lochlan wakes up and goes to try and find him in the kitchen. Minutes later, it’s Lochlan that ends up almost dead by the pool with vomit on his face.

Mike White….what is your damn problem???

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He’s insane…not only this little skit but I watched the full interview and like the first thing he talked about was his fiancée wanting to know if he hooked up with anyone on the show and him being like “I can’t tell you” and then her seeing episodes 5 and 6 and being like “you hooked up with your brother???”

And then him and Jimmy Fallon start making a protein shake and he goes “unlike my brother, start with a clean blender” lmaooo

The Saxon/Lochlan dynamic has rotted his brain he’s obsessed 😭

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN. PATRICK? WHAT DOES THIS MEAN

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35k likes thread comparing Lochlan to Echo and Saxon/the rest of the family to Narcissus. This lady also compares him to Loki and Jesus Christ further down the thread….I fear we have never been more back.

The Ratliffs characters of all time tbh 🤷‍♀️

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Wanna make it worse? I watched a Patrick interview (can’t remember which one it was now because I’ve consumed so much content about this show) where he mentions a scene in the early episodes of Victoria talking to the boys about how they need to keep their circle small and only trust each other, and that outsiders shouldn’t get in the way of family (a creepier version of the dinner scene where she echoes a similar sentiment). Patrick said the scene had a very weird/ominous vibe.

That coupled with the deleted scene of Piper telling Lochlan that their family was cult-y and incestuous-like and Lochlan getting freaked the fuck out thinking Saxon had spoken to her about what happened and I’m just like….why Mike White? Why??

The incest plotline seems to have been more fleshed out and a bigger component of the story that I’m really starting to believe that rumor that some higher ups told him to tone it down.

I honestly think the Ratliffs needed more focus because they’re such great characters and the story is so good, but sadly they weren’t done proper justice in such a meandering season imo

the deleted scene between piper and lochlan where they discuss the ratliffs being like a cult would have tied so nicely with tim wanting to kill them all since so many cult leaders end up as mass murders who kill their followers. not to mention the encouragement to only date those within the cult or bring them into it, perfectly fitting with the saxloch storyline. mike white why did you edit that scene out? life could have been a dream

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Everyone look at these preppy, functional, and totally normal siblings…😂

Sarah Catherine, Sam and Patrick for the LA Times today.