Posted in: HBO, Max, TV | Tagged: The White Lotus

The White Lotus S03 Pacing Too Slow For You? Mike White Has a Response

The White Lotus creator Mike White responded to those criticizing Season 3 for moving too slowly and revealed why a Piper/Zion scene was cut.

Based on the numbers released by the cable giant earlier today, it's pretty clear that a lot of folks were interested in knowing the fates of a whole lot of characters on Sunday night when HBO and Mike White's The White Lotus wrapped up its third season – 6.2 million viewers across linear and streaming. While the reactions to what went down seem to be strongly positive – and with speculation over where the fourth season will take place – White is offering some post-finale thoughts on those who criticized the season's storylines for moving along too slowly. In addition, the series creator also explained during the show's official podcast (which you can check out below) why a scene where Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) loses her virginity to Belinda's (Natasha Rothwell) son, Zion (Nicholas Duvernay), was cut.

"The pacing and the vibe… it definitely gets under their skin. There was complaining about how there's no plot. That part I find weird. It never did… part of me is just like, 'Bro, this is the vibe,'" White shared before dropping an interesting analogy. "I'm world-building. If you don't want to go to bed with me, then get out of my bed. I'm edging you! Enjoy the edging. If you don't want to be edged, then get out of my bed. Do you know what I mean? Don't be a bossy bottom. Get the fuck out of my bed. Don't come home with me. Don't get naked in my bed. Get the fuck out of my bed. Obviously, something is going to happen," White added.

In terms of the scene between Piper and Zion that didn't make the cut, White explained that the decision was based on the scene's running time and tone. "[Piper] decides to lose her virginity in the script in the last episode, and she actually has sex with Zion. There's this whole scene where she's like, 'It's true. Saxon is right about this one thing. I need to get this over with.' And you know how after she leaves the monastery, she's just like, 'I need to have sex," White revealed before adding the two biggest factors that worked against the scene making our screens. "It would have added 10 minutes to the thing. And it had a little bit of a rom-com vibe in the middle of trying to kill the family with the pong pong fruits. It just felt like I was trying to do too much narratively."

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