We Need to Talk About The White Lotus's Daphne
Meghann Fahy's character refuses to fall into patriarchal stereotypes.
In a series all about the awful way people can act and treat each other, somehow we’ve gotten a character like Daphne (Meghann Fahy of The Bold Type). HBO’s The White Lotus is back for its second season. Largely an anthology–Jennifer Coolidge and Greg Hunt only are returning–we’re at a new location of the fictional resort chain–this time Sicily–and that means a whole new cast of characters. We’ve got a couple that seems to hate each other (Aubrey Plaza and Will Sharpe), a family with scandalous drama (F. Murray Abraham, Michael Imperioli, and Adam DiMarco), and a rich asshole (Theo James as Fahy’s on-screen husband), but in the midst of all that there’s Daphne.
We’re only two episodes in, but so far, Daphne comes up smelling like a rose. There with her husband Cameron (James), his newly rich former college roommate Ethan (Sharpe), and Ethan’s wife Harper (Plaza), the tension is thick between these mismatched couples. Cameron tends to belittle Ethan–as Harper puts it, he “alpha dogs” him–and Harper acts cold and distant, uncomfortable being on vacation with two people who only wanted to be friends with them once they became rich. The result is that Daphne often winds up playing peacemaker in the group.
“It can be hard to synch up,” she says in response to an awkward conversation in which Ethan admits he and Harper don’t have sex very much. She successfully smoothes over Cameron’s more blunt statement of, “So what you’re saying is, you don’t have sex.” And later on when it’s just her and Cameron in their hotel room, and Cameron is questioning what Ethan even sees in Harper, Daphne refuses to put Harper down.
It’s not the first time Daphne’s had the opportunity to bad mouth Harper behind her back. Instead, just like in episode 1, she makes excuses for Harper, and does her best to give Harper the benefit of the doubt. Never mind that Harper rags on Daphne and Cameron to Ethan every chance she gets. In a show that not only is mostly populated by purposefully unlikable characters, but tends to lean into cattiness with its female characters, Daphne is exceptional.
It does seem like the show wants us to like Daphne. They imply that she’s a great, hands-on mom–not someone who lets nannies raise her kids–by dropping little references to how often she check in with them. It’s clearly hard for her to be away from her children. Add to that Fahy’s charismatic performance of someone with grace and charm. She even livens up the often stiff James, robbed of much of his appeal by an American accent replacing his native British one. One scene depicts the couple having a fun and sexy fashion show, as Cameron buys new clothes to replace his lost luggage. Sure, Daphne can be a little shallow, mentioning how she never pays attention to the news, but mostly, she’s portrayed pretty positively.
Knowing White Lotus, I can’t help but be suspicious. It’s probable they’re just gearing up to portray a more unfavorable side of Daphne. This article could wind up super outdated in just a couple of episodes! But, for now, in a TV landscape that likes to pit female characters against each other, I’m enjoying a character that refuses to fall into the patriarchal stereotype of women being out to get each other. Even when Harper doesn’t deserve it, Daphne sticks up for her. We’ll just have to see what they have in store for Daphne next week when we’ll be getting a full episode of Harper and Daphne having a girls’ day together (while the guys party with prostitutes, oy!). White Lotus is such a pessimistic show that I’m not expecting it, but if it upended our expectations and made these women unlikely friends, it might just achieve something deeper.