Let's Break Down Meghann Fahy's Big The White Lotus Season 2 Finale Scene

It's been two days and I'm still blown away when I think about Meghann Fahy's Daphne and her pitch perfect scene on the beach with Will Sharpe's Ethan on the season 2 finale of "The White Lotus." Fahy has been the MVP this season to many, myself included, for the way she has crafted this character to compartmentalize in favor of the brighter side of life. It's an admirable goal, the way Daphne is able to absorb the wrongs done to her and comes out on the other side unbothered and flourishing. But it takes a special kind of suppression to be sensei to your emotions in that way — something that Daphne has down pat. 

During the season finale episode, Ethan tells Daphne that he thinks his wife, Harper, and her husband, Cameron, had sex behind their backs while on the trip. In the approximately 20 to 25 seconds it takes for Daphne to begin a response, there is a world's worth of evolving emotion displayed on her face, an ingenious example of showing not telling. Let's break down this career-best moment from Fahy and its implications on the plot.

In the moments after Ethan's admission, Daphne cycles through the five stages of grief very quickly, and the fact that we're able to clearly see this emotional mini-arc is a testament to Fahy's acting abilities.

The five stages of grief, in case you've never had to use them, consist of ​​denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. In just a few seconds, we see her grapple with denial within herself that her newfound friendship could be so tarnished. From there, the thought angers her and her willingness to open up, which propels her into the bargaining stage, where she probably has thoughts about how she could've connected to Harper more where it was meaningful and maybe shown more of her emotions. After all, she knows she acts unaffected as a defense mechanism. A sad glimmer forms in her eye, a signifier of the depression stage, where, for a few moments, she allows her sadness to make a home within her. But only for the few seconds it takes to really feel those emotions, and she's barreling toward the acceptance stage, where her defenses come back up and she plans her next move. If you've seen the episode, you know what that move appears to be, though we never get the full confirmation about it.

It's a quick moment of processing, but it says so much about who Daphne is underneath all the layers of class, cultural ignorance, and calculated connection. This scene is crucial to understanding the hidden humanity of the character, a person who just wants to live through the pain inflicted upon her. In that way, she's just like any of us, and it's great to see that side of her in the season 2 finale of "The White Lotus."  

You'll notice that when I laid out Daphne's grief cycle, I didn't mention her husband as the source of that grief. Instead, I named Harper, Ethan's wife, as that source. That distinction is key to deciphering her emotional arc and, further still, recognizing her motives for taking Ethan out to the neighboring island. Daphne put her trust in Harper throughout the season: It's very clear she's a girl's girl and thought that she could win over Harper throughout the course of the trip. She definitely made efforts, and the night in Noto when she shared her secret about Cameron's transgressions definitely felt like a sealed deal for Daphne.

Fahy's character expects Cameron to cheat. She's not surprised by that behavior. But it does surprise her that Harper would so blatantly betray her, and she's also probably aware of the naivety of that surprise. Knowing how she hides behind nonchalance, there's no doubt that she is judging the innocence that made her believe in Harper. No matter what, she resorts back to the place of power that she gives herself, telling Ethan that one must find ways not to become a "victim of life." That's what Daphne does, and that's where her decision was made to ask Ethan to go to the island with her — because she, to borrow a phrase from another powerful woman on screen this year, will not accept a life she doesn't deserve.