'We Are Who We Are' Episode 2 flips the POV to Caitlin as she goes about her day with Fraser on the periphery
Episode 2 rewinds to the start of the same day depicted in Episode 1. Only this time, we spend it with the Harpers family and Caitlin (Jordan Kristine Seamón) in particular. There is a gangly charm to her, like a baby giraffe that is quickly reaching its adult height. While her body is changing into a woman's figure, her smile is that of a child.
This is why it sometimes uncomfortable to see the camera linger on Caitlin's body as she parades around in an endless succession of loose crop tops and hip-hugging panties, her long limbs on display as the camera often hovers around her waist. But she flaunts a sort of androgyny right from the start that later plays into how she is growing into her body, marked visibly by the unexpected start of her period on the beach. In the episode commentary, the writer talks about how Caitlin represents the body -- the teen physicality figuring itself out.
This becomes apparent as we follow her through the day. She is ultra-feminine around her friends, especially Britney (Francesca Scorsese), and her boyfriend Sam (Benjamin L. Taylor II), or as she dances to music in an impromptu dance party at one of the town's many open-air cafes -- so much so that Danny (Spence Moore II), her brother, accuses her of always wanting to be the "center of attention".
But when she is alone and not posturing, or with her father, Richard, the only member of her family who she is close enough to act herself, she adopts a more masculine style with loose tees and baggy shorts. She is so close to her father that she is more concerned that the MAGA hat her dad ordered for her doesn't fit on her head because of her thick hair than have any response, political or otherwise, to Trump.
This gender-bending that gets her mother, Jenny all riled up and the locals confused, also leads her to a downtown cafe that does 'business' with her father in what seems to be illegally procured fuel from the base. There, when a local girl mistakes her for a boy, she doesn't correct her and instead says her name is "Harper", her more masculine-sounding surname. She flirts with a girl and even gets her number, until she realizes that Fraser (Jack Dylan Grazer) is sitting right behind her. She accuses him of following him and when Fraser says she is not going to be able to do what she wants in the clothes she has, she shuts him down, uncomfortable that her experiments with her gender identity have been found out.
But this exchange also leads to Fraser gifting her a collared tee and loose baggy jeans that she puts on after which she stares at him through his window as he stares back at her, seeing her accept his intervention disguised as a gift. Fraser is mostly in the periphery in this episode but we do see how these two characters, "aching, attract all matter", including each other. Caitlin frequently recites the lines of poetry Fraser heard her say in the classroom that day, especially the lines, "so the body of me to all I meet or know", reflecting the forward and outward propelling curiosity of both Caitlin and Fraser about the world around them and each other.
Caitlin is also our entry point into the lives of the teens on the base, like their midnight adventure to go zip line across the obstacle course. There is Danny, her brother, who she constantly squabbles with. Her brother, who is distant from Richard, barely tolerates Caitlin as well. He also 'thinks about God', learns Arabic, and seems interested in Islam, much to his mother's dismay. His father mostly ignores him, preferring to spend time with his daughter who he has a real connection with. There is Craig (Corey Knight), a soldier but still young enough to be friends with both Danny and Caitlin, treating them affection and support. There is Sam, Caitlin's official boyfriend, and a couple of local boys, like Enrico, who hang around Britney, the group's coquette. Episode 2 tells us we are entering a whole new universe -- a universe of these teens flirting with temptations, disruptions and explorations of identity as they play all summer long.
'We are Who We Are' Episode 3 will air on September 28 on HBO at 10 pm ET.