Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Hulu’s Harlots is one of the most underrated gems on TV, and its spectacular second season just ended on a crazy dramatic note. We won’t give you spoilers — YOU NEED TO WATCH THIS SHOW FOR YOURSELF — but we will tell you that it’s a dynamite season that tackles the themes of sexual violence, generational abuse, and gender politics with wit, pathos, and utter empathy. In fact, Harlots is a show that approaches everything with empathy – including a makeup scene between two gorgeous actresses like Liv Tyler and Jessica Brown Findlay.
Yes, you read that correctly. In Season 2, Episode 6 of Harlots, Liv Tyler and Jessica Brown Findlay kiss. But get your head out of the gutter! Since this is Harlots, the moment is actually a really beautiful scene about two women leaning on each other to overcome the cycle of abuse.
For background, in Season 2 of Harlots, beautiful courtesan Charlotte Wells (Jessica Brown Findlay) finds herself playing double agent. She’s embedded herself next to her mother’s sworn enemy, Lydia Quigley (a tremendous Lesley Manville), all to win Mrs. Quigley’s trust so she can ruin her at the right time. Part of gaining that trust means cozying up to Lady Fitz (Liv Tyler), a wealthy woman whom Mrs. Quigley can control since she knows the noblewoman’s dark secret. Lady Fitz and Charlotte soon realize that they are on the same side — in that they want to bring Quigley down — but they also have something else in common. Sadly, they are both survivors of sexual abuse.
In Season 1, we watch as Charlotte is raped. After that, she faces the noose and loses her one true lover to the gallows. It’s a traumatic series of events that she is still silently reeling from in Season 2. Lady Fitz’s secret is an illegitimate daughter, but it’s worse than that. Lady Fitz’s controlling brother actually raped her when she was a teen, and her daughter is a product of that incest. Lady Fitz finally reveals all this to Charlotte in confidence at the end of Season 2, Episode 6, as well as the information that Lady Fitz hasn’t let a single person touch her since then. The pain and trauma is too great.
It’s in this moment that Charlotte reaches out and says, “Why should you forever be alone? Let me break his spell.” And then they kiss. It’s sweet, sensation, and full of relief for the two lonely women who only have each other to lean on. It’s also yet another wonderful example of how Harlots subverts expectations. Rather than treat sexuality in a lascivious way, Harlots uses it as an extension of the plot — a natural release that expresses emotion or illustrates the stark reality of the harlots’ day-to-day life.
Seasons 1 and 2 of Harlots are available to stream on Hulu.
