Mike White reveals surprising ‘White Lotus’ coupling that ended up on the cutting room floor

By Dan Heching, CNN

 2 minute read 

Published 7:23 PM EDT, Mon April 7, 2025

Mike White arrives at the Los Angeles Premiere Of HBO Original Series “The White Lotus” Season 3 at Paramount Theatre on February 10, 2025, in Los Angeles. Maya Dehlin Spach/WireImage/Getty ImagesCNN — 

Mike White, the mastermind behind “The White Lotus,” had even more to pack into the just-concluded third season, but he says some juicy things had to be cut from the 90-minute finale.

In the companion podcast to the buzzy series, White – the show’s creator, writer, director and executive producer – revealed that Piper’s (Sarah Catherine Hook) story had to be thinned considerably, including a fling she has with Zion (Nicholas Duvernay), which White said was “very disappointing.”

In the original script, White shared, Piper decides to lose her virginity and has sex with Belinda’s son.

“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,’” he continued, in reference to Saxon’s (Patrick Schwarzenegger) estimation earlier in the season that his sister lacked experience in the bedroom. “After she leaves the monastery, she’s just like, ‘I need to have sex.’”

White said the sequence would have added 10 minutes to the finale and tonally felt like a mismatch to have “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,” he added.

Nicholas Duvernay and Sarah Catherine Hook in Season 3 of “The White Lotus.” Fabio Lovino/HBO

After a screening of the finale on Sunday night, actress Hook had more to say about Piper’s potential sexual conquests, or lack thereof, that didn’t make the final cut either.

According to Hook, every episode initially contained a moment when an “LBH” (that is, a bald Loser Back Home who is living it up in Thailand) hit on Piper – like the one moment that did make it into an episode, during a yoga class.

In all, Hook said, Piper “did the reverse of everyone” – instead of seeking or finding some kind of enlightenment, the finale episode revealed that she ultimately did not want to stay at the monastery as she initially intended. At one point, Piper confesses to her snobby mother Victoria (Parker Posey) that she hated the food and loves air conditioning too much to give those amenities up at the spare meditation center.

While everyone else in this season is looking for enlightenment and finally came into it in this episode, “Piper is trying to find enlightenment the whole time, and then she’s like, ‘Oh, I guess I’m spoiled!’” Hook said. “I love that. It’s so funny. It’s so good. I couldn’t be happier for her and I’m ready for her to be a ho now!”

As her mother might say, “Piper, NOOOO!”

“The White Lotus” is an HBO original show. HBO, like CNN, is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.