Give Marina Her Bridgerton Happy Ending
The first time I watched Season 2, I couldn't figure out why the scene with Marina was in there at all. To give Colin closure? To hint toward Polin? All right. Both of those are valid. But when I watched again, I heard the word that made it all make sense: Content. Not happy, but content. It shattered me that Marina saw herself as lacking in some way, as undeserving, or even just as without hope, to get that happy ending she sees others gain.
This season was all about duty, and even Anthony, when he is pressed, says he is content with his choices, with the way his life is going to play out. Again, not happy. Of course, this is romance: Happily Ever After is a guarantee of the genre. If it's not HEA, it's really not romance. So Anthony and Kate ride off into the sunset, happy as can be. But where does that leave Marina?
We have to dig into the reality of how Marina is perceived, which certainly has something to do with race. If a white girl did the same thing, she would be perceived differently both by audiences and by the show itself. Daphne raped her husband but she gets happy ending, and we are told by the show that she deserves one. But the story of the uppity and sexually forward “negress" getting her comeuppance for stepping out of line and trying to be something she's not is about as old as Western racism itself. The idea of a brown woman lying to a white man for her own gain, and especially luring him away from the proper, good, white girl, is another set of damaging ideas that we watch play out already in Marina’s story.
The show has started to make a habit of implicitly endorsing the bad actions of all the white girls who get away with terrible things and then punishing the black girls. I hear the argument a lot that Penelope did the terrible things she did, including exposing Marina and ELoise, to do to save the ones she loves. I find that argument flawed, but even if it wasn’t, it would be the exact same for Marina. She is just protecting her child and trying to give them all the best life she can. She goes overboard and moves into the category of doing things that are wrong, but so does Pen. And Pen is a lot more selfish than that in her motives.
It doesn't make what Marina did all right, but in her desperation, we should be able to empathize. People are so quick to make excuses for Penelope but ready to demonize Marina. Penelope has hurt far more people and much more calculatedly. Daphne has also done worse, yet it's Marina who is painted as the villain. And calling anyone a "cautionary tale," which Marina is sometimes held up as, is already a huge yikes. Daphne was also aiming to nab a rich husband, willing to marry the Prince without love. Why isn't she the cautionary tale? Well, no one should be, and I have in the past praised Bridgerton for taking the cautionary tales of old and making them the central stories and giving those wild or “fallen” women their happy ending. They should keep going through that.
Moreover, many people choose to empathize strongly with others while refusing to offer that same understanding to Marina. Again, we have to ask why Marina is the one viewed through a very specific and unsympathetic lens. Even Daphne, who is Colin's sister, can find empathy for her. We have to look at the person who did what she did, and why, otherwise we’re missing most of the picture.
As for Season 2, I really liked the comment the show made with Marina's story, the reminder that not everyone is a "pretty Bridgerton," that in real life, Happy Ever After is not only not a guarantee, but it doesn't really even exist. We continue to live, to love, to fight, to struggle, we continue after the big declaration, after the wedding, after "the end." But while Bridgerton is showing itself to be a bit more self aware in Season 2, a good change overall that made it better, I don't want it ever to lose sight of what it is. And one of the best things about romance is the idea that love redeems us, that the connection of another person is so impossibly powerful that it changes everything. It's the idea that everyone deserves and can be changed by love.
Cue Marina and Phillip. One of the biggest (and in my opinion, best) tropes that the Bridgerton books don't hit is the marriage of convenience turned to love. It allows people to explore a different side of themselves, dig into the emotion and the unique intimacy of marriage, and puts forth an impressive vulnerability. Phillip and Marina are perfectly primed for that.
Spoiler for To Sir Phillip With Love, because I can't get too much farther without mentioning Eloise. Obviously in the books, she ends up with Phillip after Marina's death. It’s taken a lot of thinking, but I’ve realized I'm against this. Eloise deserves to live a life she wants, and she deserves to not be pinned down into marriage and kids if she doesn't want. Yeah, absolutely, some people age and decide they want those things later in life, but some people don't. And I want them to respect that. The truth is, we know next to nothing about Phillip, and I pray to the heavens he's different than the book, so I'm not saying Phillip can't be good with her, but so could lots of people. There are many reasons to change both Marina and Eloise’s narratives. This show is all about love, so if she must be coupled up, give her something unique and special to her, a story that would fit no other characters. So it makes sense for Eloise, but it makes even more sense for Marina’s path as well.
It’s also very important to acknowledge the reality that killing off the black girl so that the white couple can get their happy ending is highly problematic as well. Moreover, she has already been put in the position of “standing in the way” of the Penelope and Colin relationship; putting her at the center of yet another one of those similar issues is highly problematic. And both Polin and Philoise are both completely white. It’s far too easy for narratives to demonize the Woman of Color rather than confront the actual issues posed by having a complex POC character. Bridgerton bit off a big chunk when they made a commitment to be more inclusive, and I am so glad they did. But to make that work, some things are going to have to change.
Marina's end is really not worthy of the character we know and love. A long, in depth story of her fighting with depression and eventually losing her battle to suicide, that could be incredibly powerful. Looking at depression in an honest way and being concerned about how it's portrayed is making the world and media better. Moreover, depression and mental health is hugely misunderstood and using it to further demonize Marina is disgusting. But also, very, extremely dark. I'm not saying don't address mental health, they do a great job of it with Anthony in S2 and his panic attacks. But again, this is a romance. Hopeful is not a bad thing.
I think many people are blinded by what's in the books. Just because that's the way it was written doesn't mean it's good or right. Marina can still struggle with mental health, maybe even have an attempt. Maybe that could be what jars Phillip from a strange, distant place where they struggled to connect. Per the book, he seems to care more for his plants than his family, obviously masking his fears of inadequacy. But let's tease that out with Marina. Let's show the struggles of motherhood and the vulnerabilities of love and fear. And let's give Marina more than the off page death she got in the books. Let's celebrate another amazing trope and watch husband and wife fall madly in love, and let’s give Marina her Bridgerton Happy Ending.
