The United States is invoked as both a hoped-for travel destination and an uncertain future for Tessa and Hardin. In these scenes, it remains offstage: characters speak of visiting America and returning to the States while the action unfolds in England, making the country a reference point for travel, home, and unresolved plans.

A destination discussed over lunch

At lunch with Susan, Tessa explains that she has just moved to Seattle. Susan says she has never been to America, though her husband has promised to take her there that summer. Tessa encourages her to visit, then privately recognizes the awkwardness of praising America while sitting in a storybook-like English village. Her nervousness becomes physical as she reaches for her phone and texts Hardin that she misses him; he does not respond during the lunch.

Return and uncertainty

The United States also figures as the place to which Tessa and Hardin will return after their time in England. Following a violent scene in the kitchen, Hardin pulls into a small motel and says they will stay overnight and leave in the morning. He admits that he does not know what Tessa’s job or living arrangements will be once they are back in the States. The return is therefore presented not as a settled homecoming but as a practical question still clouded by conflict.

Narrative significance

Across these brief references, America links Tessa’s recent move to Seattle with the couple’s unsettled future. Susan’s anticipated visit makes the country a subject of casual conversation, while Hardin’s remarks turn the return into a reminder that important arrangements remain unresolved. The United States is less a depicted landscape than a destination whose meaning shifts with the characters’ circumstances: desirable to a prospective visitor, but uncertain as the setting for what comes next.