About halfway through WHITE LOTUS 203, Daphne leaves Harper for a minute to get money. As she waits Harper notices some men looking at her. She tries to walk away but everywhere she goes there are just more men.
Here's a video clip of it:
From Harper's point of view all of those men are visible right from the start, but we're close enough on her that we only discover them slowly, which captures much more viscerally the experience that she's going through.
Did that moment really happen? Or is it meant to be a metaphor for how Harper feels? The show seems generally very grounded in reality, but that's such a weird scene, it's hard to know. The fact that it is such a specific and clear movie reference only adds to the confusion.
But also to its significance: Slowly we've learned how awkward Harper can be around anything sexual. Earlier in this episode she made a real effort to try with Ethan, but it still felt awkward and forced. This moment is pretty much of the pinnacle of that discomfort, a bird's eye view into what it feels like to be Harper when she's confronted with sexual attraction.
Most writers would probably question themselves for inserting a scene like that because WHITE LOTUS is not a show that does fantasy or dream sequences. But it fact it only adds to our understanding and appreciation of Harper. For me it definitely begs the question, Am I making room for the strange or unexpected in my own writing? Am I choosing the most interesting approach for each beat of my story?
