you know, something i have been thinking about a lot recently is the bath scene in htn, specifically something of the intentional framing or paralleling of it to sexual assault. i don’t think we’re intended to read it as harrow literally being assaulted in a sexual way, but the staging around it feels very intentional. it happens to harrow while she’s bathing, that none of the barriers she’s put to defend herself in a moment of vulnerability, and that it ends with harrow naked and helpless, on the bathroom floor.
but more so than the attack itself, what has me thinking about it as a parallel to sexual assault is the reaction everyone else on the mithraeum has to it. everyone knows what happened. and if they weren’t physically there to see the aftermath like ianthe was, then they certainly see harrow spiraling after it, her completely decompensating and not sleeping for six days, and the reaction is… nothing, really. ianthe turns away from it for a complex set of ianthe reasons, augustine and mercymorn are augustine and mercymorn, and john, even during the soup scene, just shrugs at harrow. now, obviously, we know in the full context that jod told g1deon to attack harrow, but in the context of the scene alone, harrow is bringing the situation to the one person who can help, putting it in front of him in a way that he can’t ignore, says, “he attacked me in my rooms.” and what does john say?
he says, take it as a compliment.