HBO show The White Lotus features graphic incest scene between uncle and nephew

The Home Box Office television show The White Lotus ended the fifth episode of its second season on Sunday night with a graphic sex scene between an uncle and his nephew.

In the scene, one of the main characters, Tanya McQuoid (played by Jennifer Coolidge) walked in on a friend of hers, actor Tom Hollander's character Quetin, having sex with his nephew Jack, played by Leo Woodall.  Many on Twitter have speculated that the pair are hustlers and not related, but at the moment the incestuous sex scene is cannon.

Many on Twitter shared their reaction.

According to the Daily Mail, the show's creator Mike White said, "Well, you’ll have to see" if the two turn out to be related.

White also said, "I just think transgressive sex is sexier. I guess I’m old school. There’s this Gothic vibe of walking through a haunted hotel or haunted house and people are having sex behind closed doors."

"There’s a pleasure to me as a guy who is gay-ish to make gay sex transgressive again," White said. "It's dirty… men are having sex and you have this 'Psycho' music underneath. It just amuses me."

In an interview with the New Yorker, White said of his work, "I see myself as a pseudo-intellectual in the sense that I am very interested in the cultural conversations, but I’m a little bit of a dilettante."

Warner Bros, who owns HBO and other properties such as CNN, merged with Discovery+ earlier this year. New CEO David Zaslov has cut many programs across the newly merged company's landscape. The company owns TBS and canceled Samantha Bee's late night program as well as shows "The Big D" and "Chad." CNN recently fired Brian Stelter in a move that was predicted soon after the merger was announced.