Summary
O and Desi go away for an evening. They plan to have sex for the first time. While having sex, O imagines that it is Mike having sex with Desi instead of him. He becomes increasingly aggressive and does not stop when Desi asks him to.
Meanwhile, Hugo intercepts Mike while he is with another girl. He makes sure that Mike is spending time with Desi, then gives Mike the scarf and tells him the girl he is with will like it. Emily and Desi discuss what happened when O and Desi went away, and Desi defends O, saying he has never done anything like that before. O comes to their dorm and asks to see the scarf. Desi tries to find it but cannot, and she tells O she will look for it later.
Desi starts to talk to O about how Mike should be allowed back on the team. O gets angry and accuses Desi of cheating on him with Mike.
Analysis
This section of the film features a disturbing but important scene, in which O rapes Desi while they are having sex for the first time. This scene is significant because it represents the first time that O acts violently toward Desi, whom he had previously treated with respect and care. It is also important, again, for the role that gender and sexism play in the film. While they are having sex, O notices that Desi enjoys being "in control," a realization that angers him and leads him to see Mike in the mirror instead of himself. This moment suggests, for O, that Hugo's assertions about Desi – that she is deceptive and is keeping things from O – are actually true, as evidenced by the fact that she (a supposed virgin) could enjoy sex. In a moment of dramatic irony, the viewer is certainly aware that Desi is simply enjoying being with O, whom she loves. However, O's reaction showcases his own latent misogynistic doubts about his girlfriend, as well as his malleability at the hands of the master manipulator, Hugo.
Desi's innocence is reaffirmed in her conversation with Emily when she defends O and says that he did not rape her and that he had never done anything like that before. When Emily expresses doubt over Desi's assessment, Desi asks Emily if she would be this concerned if O were white. This is one of only a few instances in the movie where a character acknowledges racial bias, even though race plays a major role in the development of the plot. Here, Desi explains the harsh reality of O's life: that he is under more scrutiny because he is Black, and that he will always be held to a higher standard than his white classmates. As such, Desi's comments are applicable both to the present situation (her argument with Emily over whether O raped her) and to the rest of the film: her words raise questions about O's eventual demise, positing whether O's "fall" is his own fault or the fault of a society that does not want to see a Black man succeed.
