HBO has long had a reputation for pushing the boundaries of television, but the channel’s recent fascination with incest storylines isn’t a twist we wanted to see in 2022.
Gossip Girl is the latest show to bring the taboo subject to the network, but HBO phenomenon Game of Thrones seemed obsessed with the subject, so maybe we shouldn’t be caught off guard by the trend. This show deserves a lot of the credit for normalizing the twisted fantasy’s presence on the small screen.
Fans of the Gossip Girl reboot were shocked to learn that twins Grace and Jake met in a fancy New York hotel room, and it wasn’t the only show to feature an incest storyline in 2022.
The Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon (predictably), the popular animated series Rick and Morty, and the cult favorite The White Lotus all aired on HBO Max, and all dabbled in inappropriate family relationships.
Here, looks at the top shows that brought incest to our screens in 2022…
Episode four of Gossip Girl season two featured a shocking incest plot involving twins Grace and Jake
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The fourth episode of the second season aired on December 15 and many fans were shocked to see a sexual relationship between twins Grace and Jake.
The bombshell was dropped in the last 10 minutes of the show when Grace’s friends planned to expose her publicly for cheating on boyfriend Obie at the Kiss on the Lips party.
Her friends Julien and Luna have invited Grace’s mother, Charlotte, and brother, Jake, to witness the confrontation, which they believe they are pinning her for jumping in bed with another man, Matias, at the Crosby Hotel in SoHo.
Gossip Girl fans were stunned by the taboo storyline, which revealed a family secret
However, this theory soon begins to unravel and the family secret is unraveled when Grace’s mother recalls that Jake also stayed at the Crosby Hotel while he was in town for a college interview.
“Jake, you said that wasn’t going to happen again,” she said on the show, revealing her children’s incestuous act.
“Even I didn’t see that Twincest coming,” Luna said.
Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) and his niece Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) have an incestuous relationship in the Game of Thrones spin-off House of the Dragon
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In the seventh episode of the Game of Thrones spin-off, Daemon Targaryen and his niece Rhaenyra get married and have sex.
The Game of Thrones universe has many examples of incest
Before getting married, Rhaenyra and her uncle engage in another incestuous activity in the fourth episode of the HBO show.
He takes his young niece to the Westeros capital of King’s Landing, where she visits a brothel and the two kiss.
Milly Alcock, who plays a young Rhaenyra, said she had no idea what to expect as she first saw the brothel when she arrived to film her scenes.
She explained: “That was the first time we went through the brothel and he’s walking her around the room with all these other bodies.
“Well, that was pretty shocking. They’re like, ‘That’s kinda weird and silly.’
She said: “There were extras that we had just met who were 69-ing for 12 hours.
Milly Alcock plays the young Rhaenyra Targaryen in House of the Dragon
“It’s pretty gnarly, we felt pretty overdressed because everyone else was naked.”
She praised her co-star for making her comfortable during the scenes, adding that the couple had an intimacy coordinator to help them perform convincingly and said it wasn’t awkward to film.
“No, oddly enough. [Matt Smith and I] were just kind of buddies. So it was quite comfortable. We had an intimacy coordinator and we worked with her during the rehearsal process and blocked him months before.
At the end of an episode of The White Lotus, Tanya stumbled across Quentin having sex with his “nephew” Jack
The White Lotus
In November, The White Lotus left viewers stunned by a graphic sex scene between “two family members” in a fifth episode cliffhanger.
At the end of the fifth episode, socialite and heiress Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) woke up in the middle of the night taking a stroll through a majestic mansion in Palermo, Italy, to which she had been invited by her new boyfriend Quentin, played by Tom Holländer.
However, Tanya was stunned when she stumbled upon Quentin having sex with his “nephew” Jack in the final seconds of the episode.
Viewers were just as surprised as the character, with many flocking to social media to share their shock and ponder what this could mean for the plot.
One fan said: “So he fucks his uncle? Is that really his nephew? What’s going on here?’
‘Screaming at the end of this episode! Jaw is on the floor,” wrote another, while one fan added, “THE END WAS SO UNEXPECTED?!??!?”
Speaking of the surprising scene with E! News, Hollander explained, “Tanya sees it, it’s delicious and it makes you realize that [creator Mike White] really has a plan and the author is really going somewhere. He didn’t get lost with this story. It’s very, very confident.’
Hollander noted that the scene resembled The White Lotus season one, in which the character was caught in a sexual act by Murray Bartlett and Lukas Gage.
The actor said: “In a way it was ‘Ah, there it is! There is this scene!”. That unforgettable moment when someone pulls back a curtain and you see something very private that shouldn’t be seen by everyone else.
Oh my god: Jennifer Coolidge’s character is stunned by what appears to be an illicit tryst at the end of episode five of The White Lotus season two
Speaking of the surprising scene with E! News, Hollander explained, “Tanya sees it, it’s delicious and it makes you realize that [creator Mike White] really has a plan and the author is really going somewhere. He didn’t get lost with this story. It’s very, very confident.’
Hollander also noted that the scene resembled The White Lotus season one, in which the characters Murray Bartlett and Lukas Gage were caught engaging in a sexual act.
The actor said: “In a way it was ‘Ah, there it is! There is this scene!”. That unforgettable moment when someone pulls back a curtain and you see something very private that shouldn’t be seen by everyone else.
He continued, “I just find transgressive sex sexier. I guess I’m old school. There’s that gothic vibe when you walk through a haunted hotel or haunted house and people are having sex behind closed doors.”
As for whether Quentin and Jack are actually related, White teased, “Well, you have to see that.”
One storyline in Rick and Morty revolves around the possibility of incest between Jerry Smith and his mother
Rick and Morty
In the episode titled Final DeSmith, Jerry Smith receives a fortune cookie at Panda Express that predicts he will have sex with his mother.
The ghostly character worries that fate will come true, although his wife Beth tells him not to worry about it.
As the family prepares to go to the zoo, Rick says his probability detector senses something with Jerry and that the father should say to stay back for a checkup.
The detector warns that Jerry’s luck may come true and the two head back to the Panda Express.
After a shootout with Chinese restaurant employees, Rick and Jerry are referred to a company called the Fortune 500, run by a Gwyneth Paltrow-inspired character named Jennith Padrow-Chunt.
Padrow-Chunt tells Jerry that her fortune cookies can manifest fate and the cheesy, normal ones are used to find the real ones. She also says that Jerry is temporarily immortal until his fortune comes true.
Later in the episode, Padrow-Chunt brings Jerry’s mother to the factory to set him closer to his destiny, but ultimately the fortune is never fulfilled.