In an exclusive interview with HBO that can be found after the credits of the Season 2 finale on HBO Max, series creator Mike White weighed in on whether or not Harper and Cameron did more than Harper claimed. Though he maintains the ambiguity of Ethan's "dalliance" with the ever-coping Daphne, he asserts that whatever happened between them allowed Ethan to forgive an offense he had mostly built up in his own head. Of Harper and Cameron's kiss, White told HBO, "I think probably, that's just all that happened."
Because there's a 10-minute gap between Harper texting Ethan and when he found her in their room with the door dead-bolted, he's left only to imagine the worst. "There's some time that isn't completely accounted for. And I think that that's why it's, like, eating at Ethan," said White. Ethan's fears are fueled by his prolonged jealousy of Cameron, which manifests itself in a variety of ways throughout the season. In one episode, he's eager to dismiss Cameron and Daphne's relationship as perfectly happy to fit his own perception of their lives — in another, he bitterly accuses Cameron of trying to sleep with every girl he's had a crush on. Like Harper, White seems to believe their conflict is about more than two isolated incidents.
The season attempts to blur the ethical lines of the subject several times across its major storylines, with both Cameron and Bert Di Grasso (F. Murray Abraham) independently dismissing infidelity as a commonplace necessity. In other words, "The White Lotus" is less concerned with the morality of the act itself and instead the reaction to and context surrounding it.
