Joe Harper

**Joe Harper** is a graphic artist and LGBTQ+ community organizer/social activist in Oakland. He also serves as Ryan's love interest for Season 1.

## Biography

### Patience

After she accidentally barges into Ryan on a date, Nicky and Joe meet, and she learns from Joe more about King Kwong and how he has been exploiting its workers for some time now.

### Hand

Ryan for his part has his own romantic hang-ups on a date with Joe, where admitting to him that he isn't used to being in a serious relationship due to the commitments that come with his busy job.

### Sanctuary

Ryan's boyfriend Joe is then identified as a person of interest by the police for allegedly inciting the crowd, but Nicky's ex-boyfriend and assistant district attorney Evan gives her the heads up that the police intend to search the restaurant for him.

While Joe prepares to willingly surrender to the police, Nicky leads her family, which surprisingly includes Mei-Li Shen in standing up and being volunteered to be arrested instead. However, as the police prepare to call for reinforcements to bring everyone in, Althea Shen shows video evidence disproving police reports that Joe incited the crowd. Realizing their case won't hold up in court, the police depart empty-handed.

In the aftermath, Ryan and Joe privately decide to take their romantic relationship to the next level, with Joe especially impressed by how much Ryan and his family stood up for him.

### Destiny

When Ryan sobs after Jin Shen asks him if he is happy, Ryan says he is, and Jin sighs in relief. He then asks if Ryan is dating anyone, and Ryan reveals he’s with Joe. Jin tells him Joe seems like a good man, and that Ryan deserves it.

### Isolation

Ryan accompanies Althea to her women-in-tech seminar, where she tells him she wants to give back in a way she couldn’t when she worked full-time. He wants to stay due to his boredom with Joe away at a conference, but Althea encourages him to just enjoy his time alone as she shoos him out.

### Choice

A small problem arise when Ryan claims Joe hasn’t even met their parents.

Later, Joe is catching Ryan up on his trip away. Ryan invites him back to Harmony Dumplings to eat and meet his parents formally. Joe gets a text message and his face falls.

Joe and Ryan arrive at Harmony Dumplings. Jin greets them and brings them back to meet Mei-Li in the kitchen. Jin tells them about their new plans to change things up and Joe offers to help Jin with the restaurant’s new logo in exchange for dumplings. Mei-Li teasingly berates Ryan for dressing so casually on a date with Joe. It seems Joe has won their approval.

Mei-Li expresses her approval of Joe and invites him to the wedding; much to Ryan’s chagrin, as he hasn’t asked him yet. After they leave the restaurant, Ryan asks him if he wants to go, but Joe looks skittish.

Joe tells Ryan that he’s been offered a job in Chicago; that was the text he got earlier in the night. The job starts next week. Joe doesn’t want to lose Ryan, but Ryan pushes him to pursue his passion and take the job.

## Personality

He is “funny, sexy, hip and deeply serious about his work and his activism, but equally committed to the joys of life: friendship, art, love.”

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 ‘Power Book II: Ghost’s Bradley Gibson To Recur On ‘Kung Fu’ Reboot