The White Lotus Season 2 Episode 6 “Abductions” sure does ratchet up the tension on the HBO show. Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) is in Quentin’s (Tom Hollander) clutches, Lucia (Simona Tabasco) is struggling with her pimp Alessio, and Jack (Leo Woodall) finally clues Portia (Haley Lu Richardson) in on the true nature of his “uncle.” But no one seemed to be quite as unhinged this week as Ethan (Will Sharpe). After noticing Cameron (Theo James) and Harper (Aubrey Plaza) flirting at a beach bar and disappearing, Ethan became convinced that the two hooked up in secret. Ethan’s paranoia overtakes him in the episode…but is he right? Did Theo James’s Cameron and Aubrey Plaza’s Harper have sex this week on The White Lotus?
Ever since The White Lotus Season 2 began, there’s been friction between Harper and Cameron. In episode 1, Cameron made a point to get naked in front of Harper and has been seen secretly touching her thigh at dinner. Harper doesn’t seem to like Cameron, but she revealed a dirty side in last week’s episode.
In The White Lotus Season 2 Episode 6, Ethan initially is mad at Harper because she doesn’t believe that he didn’t cheat on her with local Italian girl Mia (Beatrice Grannò). He confronts her about this and she counters that they aren’t sexually attracted to each other anymore. As Ethan begins to see more and more of Cameron’s duplicity, he also notices Harper hanging out with his college roommate. They appear to be flirting and when Ethan comes back from a swim, they are gone. Harper claims via text she went to their room to get a hat. Ethan rushes to the room in a panic only to find a suspicious series of circumstances. Harper has bolted the room door while the door to the couples’ adjoining suites is unlocked.
By the end of The White Lotus Season 2 Episode 6, Ethan is not only confronting Cameron about the situation, but also imagining the adulterous scene. As he zones out in his and Harper’s room, he sees Cameron and his wife having sex on a table until his own knock on the door breaks them apart.
Did it really happen? Is Ethan’s theory correct? Did Harper and Cameron have sex in The White Lotus Season 2 Episode 6?
The White Lotus Season 2 Episode 6 Ending Explained: Did Harper and Cameron Have Sex?
We don’t know! Sorry to be a downer, but The White Lotus creator Mike White has done a very good job of making it explicitly unclear if Harper and Cameron had sex.
Let’s look at the timeline:
- Cameron, Daphne (Meghann Fahy), Ethan, and Harper go to the beach. Daphne bails when she gets the last available massage slot. She really wants that massage!
- Cameron and Harper go to the bar, where we’re later told Cameron does Ethan a solid by telling Harper that Ethan did not have sex with Mia. However, from Ethan’s perspective, it looks like the two are flirting.
- Ethan goes for a very emotional swim. When he returns Cameron and Harper are nowhere to be seen. Harper has left a text message that they went to the room to pick up her hat. Knowing that Cameron got naked in front of Harper the last time they went to the hotel room together, Ethan follows.
- When Ethan gets to his room, he can’t get in because Harper has bolted the door. She awkwardly says, “Just a minute.” It does, indeed, take a beat for her to open the door.
- Ethan immediately notices that Harper not only bolted their door, but the door to Cameron’s room is not locked. Ethan freaks out, but Harper simply says she was getting her hat and Cameron came with to get a book. Harper says she bolted the door by accident because she had a tequila shot.
- As soon as Ethan and Harper leave their room, Cameron comes out of his as if on cue.
So…what is the truth?
It is entirely plausible that a tipsy Harper just went to the room to get her hat and didn’t realize she bolted the door. Ethan’s increasing paranoia seems to suggest this is what happened. Harper needed a hat, Cameron wanted a book…case closed.
That said, the narrative structure of The White Lotus Season 2 has both proven that Cameron is a toxic alpha male who covets what Ethan has and that in reappraising her own marriage, Harper has expressed a desire for more sex. She is unhappy with Ethan for multiple reasons, but primarily because — as she puts it — they’re too young to be this old. It would fit both Cameron and Harper’s characters to hook up. (And if Cameron got naked in front of Harper the first time he entered her room, what’s he going to do when they’re actually getting along?)
It’s really up in the air. What matters more than whether or not they did it, though, is the fact that Ethan is convinced they did. We’ll see how this affects Ethan and Harper and their “friends” in The White Lotus Season 2 finale next Sunday on HBO.
