Submitted by twovests in television
CW - Eating disorders
Like the "Eat Shit" scene, people are misreading the "Helena eats an egg" scene.
Let's start with this: There is no way that Helena can swim laps and then subsist on a fraction of the egg white of one egg. Even within the suspended realism of the universe, Helena is a human who needs calories to live. People reading this scene as Helena and her father's daily ritual are reading it wrong.
Helena can't have that breakfast every day and survive... But she can do it on one morning.
The egg was a performance.
Listen: From the body language, dialogue, etc. between Helena and her father, the most consistent reading is that they' don't usually eat breakfast together. It's likely they were meeting in anticipation of Cold Harbour being finished that day.
When Helena eats the raw egg, it's a performance, and it characterizes James and their relationship. It's subtle, and it's a familiar abusive dynamic: Helena wanted to subtly show off how little she eats. She was evidently raised with the expectations of eating little and being thin.
When James says, "I wish you'd take them raw," that characterizes him further: He's impossible to please. He has to find an imperfection and raise it.
TLDR: Helena had a tiny breakfast to show off to her father, who has to find some fault anyways.
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