So, about Marina.
We need to talk this out. Let's go through her journey step by step.
Upon arrival, Marina thinks she may just be waiting on letters from George so they can run away together but she is losing hope. Then she realizes she is definitely pregnant. Then come the fake letters.
Desperation and survival instinct start to gnaw at her. She is looking out for not only herself. She does try to change that but fails, and accepts that the pregnancy is going forward.
So she decides to make the best of it and find a husband as soon as possible. Preferably a nice, naive, young man with decent enough money.
She has several, and I do mean several suitors, she could choose from. But she settles on Colin Bridgerton and his sweet puppy dog innocence.
She knows Pen is fond of him, but she blocks it out. She doesn't care. She focuses on Colin. The easy low, ripe hanging fruit. Who wouldn't?
Then she realizes Pen actually loves him. This will not stop her. She will stamp out this crush to ash if she has to. She's betting her life on this. Pen means nothing to her here.
She is not in this for love. Love betrayed her and put her in this mess. She wants an easy marriage with no uncomfortable questions. Right and wrong don't matter because she has already had wrong done to her.
Now Colin.
He's a young man. Hopeful, bright eyed, romantic, inexperienced.
He participates in the marriage mart because some of it is fun. There is not too much pressure on him as a 3rd son. He gets to dance and flirt, and chat with Pen. How is that not delightful?
Then along comes Marina. She is a glittery new addition to the ladies he has mostly seen here or there all his life. And everyone is interested in the shiny new toy.
Then she shows interest in him. She flirts with him. When she could seemingly have almost anyone, she lets her eyes brighten for him.
He is easily charmed. Marina, for all he and the other boys of the ton can tell, is an attractive young woman. When she decides to show him singular attention he believes it is love and his easygoing heart wants to return that, being a genuine and open person.
He is easily manipulated into an engagement, thinking that this is natural and right. But his passion never really shows, does it? He pulls back from kissing her when she is scandalously forward with him. He does not seek extra excuses to meet her in the market or at tea or at the garden entrance to the Featherington estate for example.
No. He just insists he is a gentleman.
Then he drops her as soon as her manipulations are revealed. He is angry. He is hurt. But it's like a betrayal of a new friend, not a truly wounded heart. A passionately in love man would try to justify her actions or find a way to get past this. But he just lets it drop and goes traveling to soothe his bruised ego.
Then, there is Penelope.
Sweet, shy Pen.
She is so happy to have a friend in her very own home who is kind to her. It seems like a dream come true at first. She says lovely things about Marina in LW.
Then she realizes Colin is truly interested in Marina. She hates it, but doesn't fight it at first. Penelope has already in many ways given up on Colin ever looking at her the way he looks at Marina. So she bites her tongue. She doesn't discourage the two from becoming closer, but she is not doing much to stop it either.
Then she finds out Marina's secret. She learns about George and cake and that Marina must marry in one way or another. Pen wants to help. She really does.
But she just can't stand that Marina would trick Colin. Her love for Marina is enough to ignore her tricking anyone else. Her love for Colin is so much that she wants him to be happy any way possible.
And she knows figuring out the first child is not his and then duplicity of Marina's affections would not make Colin Bridgerton happy. Unlike most men in the Ton, he knows what love is. His parents were a love match. He would understand eventually that Marina was just placating him whenever he engaged with her emotionally.
So. Having appealed to both Marina, who crushed her heart into bits efficiently, and Colin, who metaphorically ruffled her hair and told her to run along... what options were left to Pen?
Directly tell someone like her mother? She already knew and approved. Violet? Well isn't that terrifying to a shy young woman who still wants Colin's friendship? Eloise? Too mercurial, she might support the match or at least loudmouth that it was Pen who told her. Again potentially ending her friendship with Colin.
Remember, her friendship with Marina was already over, Marina just did not know it yet. You can't brutally crush someone's most treasured, secret desire (realistic or not) and have them continue to love you like nothing happened.
So, Pen uses her last resort when she learns of the pending elopement. The one thing she can do to save Colin from unhappiness and to keep her one small shred of her own happiness: being Colin's friend. She revealed Marina's secrets to the Ton.
Did this maximize damage to Marina? Yes. Did it also damage Colin? Fractionally, both compared to what was dealt to Marina and compared to the damage he would have suffered in a marriage where Marina came to merely tolerate him. (As evidenced by her entire unamusement at his olive oil joke in Season 2.)
Don't forget that Penelope also hurt herself in this. You don't sob in your best friend's arms in celebration. She broke a part of herself to do this to Marina and to Colin. She probably doubted every second of everything and a part of her always will. Her price was not public, it was not outwardly devastating, but she took damage too.
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In conclusion, Marina and Penelope were both some level of wrong and Colin was the blind fool in the middle. The flavors of wrong were very different, and so were the levels of damningness.
In their own ways, I can forgive each of them. Admittedly, I forgive Pen more. But that has to do with my life experiences. Former wallflower here, married to a man who is now her best friend. I have never gotten pregnant and been abandoned (though being dead is hardly George's fault here). But I can understand how desperate, how calculating that could have made me, at least in that era. Especially with people like Portia Featherington as your primary caretaker and maternal figure.
I really hope that Pen and Marina both get a chance a chance to gain closure over this peacably before Marina dies. I don't think Pen deserves to feel guilt over Marina's death. Especially as book Marina seemed to have severe depression and well, Marina is likely to have depression too considering her loss of George.
Now, if part 2 of Season 3 could just be here already, that would be absolutely lovely!
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Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse
Shameik Moore
Hailee Steinfeld
Brian Tyree Henry
Luna Lauren Vélez
Jharrel Jerome
Jason Schwartzman
Jake Johnson
John Mulaney
Kimiko Glenn
Issa Rae
Karan Soni
Amandla Stenberg
Masi Oka
Shea Whigham
Greta Lee
Lily Tomlin
Andy Samberg
Pedro Pascal
Marc Maron
Liam Neeson
Bobby Cannavale
Mark Hamill
Keanu Reeves
…with Mahershala Ali
…Nicolas Cage
…Daniel Kaluuya
…Kathryn Hahn
…Liev Schreibner
…and Oscar Isaac
Cast
Shameik Moore as Miles Morales
Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacy
Oscar Isaac as Miguel O’Hara
Mahershala Ali as Uncle Aaron
Bryan Tyree Henry as Jefferson Davis
Luna Lauren Vélez as Rio Morales
Jharrel Jerome as Miles G. Morales
Jason Schwartzman as Spot
Jake Johnson as Peter B. Parker
John Mulaney as Spider-Ham
Kimiko Glenn as Peni Parker
Nicolas Cage as Spider-Man Noir
Issa Rae as Jessica Drew
Daniel Kaluuya as Hobie Brown
Karan Soni as Pavitr Prabhakar
Amandla Stenberg as Margo Kess
Masi Oka as Takuya Yamashiro
Shea Whigham as George Stacy
Greta Lee as LYLA
Lily Tomlin as Aunt May
Andy Samberg as Ben Reilly
Kathryn Hahn as Doc Ock
Liev Schreiber as Wilson Fisk
Pedro Pascal as Otto Octavius
Marc Maron as Adrian Toomes
Liam Neeson as MacDonald Gargan
Bobby Cannavale as Aleksei Sytsevich
Mark Hamill as Maxwell Dillon
Keanu Reeves as Flint Marko
Melissa Sturm as Mary Jane
Michelle Ruff as Mayday
Peter Sohn as Ganke
Rachel Dratch as Ms. Weber
Ziggy Marley as Lenny
Nathalie Morales as Miss Calleros
Erick Avari as Inspector Singh
Priyanka Chopra as Gayatri
Elizabeth Perkins as May
Atsuko Okatsuka as Yuri
Jack Quaid as Peter Parker
Freida Pinto as Maya Auntie
J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson
Zoë Kravitz as Mary Jane Watson-Parker
Edwin H. Bravo as Brooklyn Visions Security Guard
Lorraine Vélez as Maria
Ayo Edebiri as Glory
Nicole Delaney as MJ
Antonina Lentini as Betty
Anthony Ramos as Benny
Chris Pine as Spider-Man
Marvin Jones III as Tombstone
Joaquín Cosio as Scorpion
Jorma Taccone as Adriano Tumino / Green Goblin / ‘67
Jorge Gutierrez as Officer Gutierrez
Donald Glover as Aaron Davis
Stan Lee as Stan
Lake Bell as Vanessa Fisk
Kim Yarbough as Alchemax Scientist
Nic Novicki as LEGO Spider-Man
Sofia Barclay as Malala Windsor
Taran Killam as Web-Slinger
Danielle Perez as Charlotte Webber
Michael Rianda as Max Borne / Ezekiel Sims / Spider-Man Patient
Leland “Metro Boomin” Wayne as Metro Spider-Man
Yuri Lowenthal as Insomniac Spider-Man
Josh Keaton as Spectacular Spider-Man
Rino Romano as Spider-Man Unlimited
Grey DeLisle as Spinneret
Meg Turney as Annie-May Parker
Paola Andino as Anya Corazón
Ryan O’Flanagan as Tarantula
Lauren Ash as Cyborg Spider-Woman
Daran Norris as Spidercide
Tara Strong as Spider-Canada
Jess Harnell as Officer Parker
Robbie Daymond as Ultimate Spider-Man
Post Malone as Brooklyn Bystander
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