Mike White Reveals Cut Sex Scene in The White Lotus Season 3 Finale — And Why It Didn’t Make the Final Cut
As if The White Lotus Season 3 finale wasn’t already packed with emotional reckonings, romantic implosions, and (of course) a fatal shootout, creator Mike White just revealed that one more twist was left on the cutting room floor: Piper and Zion were supposed to have sex.
Yes, really.
On the official White Lotus Season 3 podcast, White shared that in the original script for the extended finale, Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) was meant to lose her virginity to Zion (Nicholas Duvernay) — the son of Belinda (Natasha Rothwell), who returned this season in a new locale after debuting as the spa manager in Season 1.
“She decides to lose her virginity in the last episode,” White said. “She actually has sex with Zion. There’s a whole scene where she’s like, ‘It’s true. Saxon’s right about this one thing — I need to get this over with.’”
After fleeing the monastery, Piper was supposed to be seen scoping out the restaurant for a potential partner — and she lands on Zion. The scene would’ve added a new layer to both characters’ arcs and completed a running theme for Piper throughout the season.
Why It Was Cut
The reason the steamy scene was ultimately dropped? Timing. The finale already clocked in at an hour and a half, and White said adding another 10 minutes for the Piper-Zion subplot risked muddling the pace and tone — especially as it collided with the episode’s darker elements, including attempted murder.
“It had a little bit of a romantic, rom-com vibe in the middle of, like, trying to kill the family,” White explained. “It just felt like I was trying to do too much narratively.”
Instead, a more subtle implication made it to air. When Piper reappears on the boat and her brother Saxon remarks, “You look different,” the moment was meant to suggest her transformation — and, in White’s words, she’s “thinking about how she got nicely f—ed or whatever.”
Even More Deleted Humor
According to Hook, another recurring gag was also scrapped in the edit. At a White Lotus cast event, she revealed there was a recurring bit written where creepy men — specifically, always bald men — would leer at Piper in nearly every episode.
“There was this funny thing Mike wrote where a guy would check Piper out and she’d just go, ‘Ew.’ It happened all the time in the scripts,” Hook said. “It didn’t make it, but it cracked me up.”
“Always a bald guy,” added Jon Gries (Greg/Gary), with a laugh.
While those moments may not have made the final cut, the third season of The White Lotus still delivered plenty of dysfunction, sexuality, and psychological commentary — and shattered viewership records in the process.
All episodes of The White Lotus Season 3 are now streaming on Max.