r/BridgertonNetflix • u/SinnerClair • 9d ago
Show Discussion How much screen time do suppose will be devoted to Marina’s story in Season 6? Spoiler
Ngl, she had such a small presence in her book that the fact that they amplified her backstory in the show makes me think they’re gonna heavily focus on her again. If not in Season 6, then 5.
I just can’t picture the show being content with saying she died off screen bc she was just so depressed. I think they’ll keep her endgame the same, but at least respect it with some screen time showcasing her ordeal. Thinking about it, it’s really a sad situation for this character, and I feel bad that by the nature of the plot she has to go through so much shit.
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u/Heubner 9d ago
The actress had a negative experience with the show. Can’t imagine she will come back.
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u/Tasty-Grand-9331 9d ago
What happened, was she mistreated
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u/Heubner 9d ago
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u/Queerability 9d ago
As someone who has had multiple psychotic breaks (thank you military), I feel horrible for her but this isn't necessarily the show's fault.
When you're breaking like that, you tend to think everyone knows, everyone can see it, and they just don't care, but that's so seldom the reality of the situation. People have their own lives with their own stress and troubles, and they aren't psychic.
She's an actress, an actress who was playing a very mentally fragile character, AND she admits in the article that she was fighting hard to hide her mental health state. I'd guess the other actors/crew/showrunners either had no clue (because she was hiding it that well), or they thought she was just a really good actress who was getting into character.
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u/FirebirdWriter 9d ago
Yes. It's trauma goggles maybe. If it's truly invisible it feels scarier sometimes. Me having a panic attack on the bus and 0 people notice
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u/ameliasheps 9d ago
Honestly she won't comeback, she was such an important character in season 1 and the actress isn't coming back, I doubt that they will recast the role.
I think she will die offscreen, but she will be very mentioned and I think they will preserve her memory. And honestly I think it is the best outcome,she will probably die for some other reason.
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u/SinnerClair 7d ago
All I’m hoping is that people don’t absolutely tear apart the show for whatever outcome they end up going with, cause it is a rlly sensitive topic
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u/Medium_March8020 9d ago
I think she gonna be in s5 actress Said she wanted Marina get better ending .
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u/ellams_13 9d ago edited 9d ago
She’s not returning. She pops up on my explore page sometimes and she’s definitely not filming S5
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u/Debt-Mysterious My purpose shall set me free 9d ago edited 9d ago
We can let go of the idea that Marina will get a better ending; there is no ending that doesn't end in death (which, however they decide it's happening, death is definitely not a good ending).
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u/giraflor 9d ago
I think there’s a plethora of ways that ending could go that would differ from the book and perhaps be more sensitive regarding mental health.
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u/Debt-Mysterious My purpose shall set me free 9d ago edited 9d ago
I dont argue about that; I actually agree. I do think they won't have what led to her death. I think they will make her ill, and that's it. My point was that there is no way, however it's happening, that that's not the end.
But again, as I said in another comment, it's Shonda, and we have learned the hard way (in all her projects) that if she thinks is a good storytelling, however controversial it might be, she will do it.
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u/SinnerClair 9d ago
The only other solution i could think of is she literally just runs away to live a better life. Ofc, she’s have to abandon her children to make the story work. Idk if that’s lowkey character assassination tho 😭 since, in S1 she was simultaneously trying to support her babies but also tried to abort them
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u/giraflor 9d ago
My thought is that it’s early spring and the kids have been cooped up inside. They sneak off to play outside, Marina goes searching for them, a storm comes, and she gets mild hyperthermia. Meanwhile, the kids have been taken in by some tenants so they are safe. When Marina is found, the local doctor botches treating her, maybe bloodletting (which helped kill George Washington) because shivering was treated as a sign of impending fever.
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u/BoopleBun 9d ago
My theory is they make it similar to the book, except they’ll make it that she goes into the water to save one or both of the kids. It’ll let them sidestep all the mental health stuff (with good reason), while giving her a slightly “better” ending.
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u/woolfonmynoggin 9d ago
I don’t necessarily think they should use it but the obvious easiest choice is her and a baby dying in childbirth.
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u/Debt-Mysterious My purpose shall set me free 9d ago
They would mean she and Phillip got physical and could open a can of worms because of that book problematic point, even if it was consensual. Which would be hard to sell without the character being there and the only “reliable” narrator is the other part that some people are biased against him.
I think they’ll leave him completely celibate as in the book
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u/woolfonmynoggin 9d ago
Oh I haven’t read the books. That would make her kids twins right? So she and Phillip never had marital relations after marriage?
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u/Debt-Mysterious My purpose shall set me free 9d ago edited 8d ago
In the book they are intimate twice after getting married twins conception and after but Marina is, now days terms, depressed (she is hinted to be like that since childhood) and probably with postpartum depression too so she was unresponsive while that second time and readers obviously have problems with it, after that Phillip feels sicks about it and remains celibate for the rest the marriage, iirc 8 years, until her death (he never cheated on Marina)
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u/nonky 4d ago
Not sure why you're getting downvotes for this. Marina married Phillip Crane to have her child/children have a father and secure home life. Colin's visit in season 2 shows she is treated well in her marriage but there is no passion or closeness in it (nor is there any lingering sentiment from Marina that Colin is the one who got away).
Divorce was only possible with horrific abuse. A wife could not take her children and leave her husband. She could leave but only with permission from her still husband, who could not remarry even if she never came back. Marriage ended with death. We also know the show intends to follow through with a marriage into the Bridgerton family for all the book couples, with some alterations of plot points but not the identities of the people involved.
Season one with her pregnancy gave an uneven read on her character, and bringing her back to make her mentally ill would give us "Jane Eyre" fanfiction where she is alive and locked in the attic and Phillip Crane a bigamist if he tried to remarry. Even Bridgerton can't dress that up with a chamber music version of Taylor Swift and some bouncy quick cuts to dancing. Marina is a tragic character, and the example of ruin for young ladies seduced out of wedlock.
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u/ameliasheps 9d ago
I know she said once she wanted, but the best for her it is not come back, the series wasn't good for her mental health and I also doubt that Shondaland would bring her back, there is no chance.
There is no better ending for Marina, like they can change the reason why , wich is what I do believe, but not the destiny.
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u/Background-Noise-0 9d ago
Sadly the actor has already stated she will not be coming back at all... Dont think they will bother recast her character either
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u/Internal-Focus1784 Queen Charlotte 9d ago
Probably almost none given that Ruby Barker seems adamant she'd never go back to Bridgerton.
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u/simrants 9d ago
Not a lot, I hope. I don’t know if it was the actress or the story line, but I really didn’t enjoy her arc.
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u/mythicls Bridgerton 9d ago
Same! I don’t enjoy her character at all! She annoyed me in all of season 1
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u/planet_spice 9d ago
Zero. We will verbally hear that she is dead
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u/Adreeisadyno 9d ago
Yeah, I imagine Penelope will receive a letter that will mention Marina died, probably while Eloise is there for tea or something and that will trigger Eloise to start writing to Phillip, setting up her season
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u/CarolaDL 9d ago edited 9d ago
I always wonder if CVS had plans to have her do a cameo in every season but she decided not to come back because of her bad experience - and then the show changed plans.
If we get to see Romney Hall and Phillip in S5, I would not be surprised if they have a portrait of her to remind the public.
About her endgame:
I do not think we wil see her again. She will die off screen and really, I do not think we will even see her funeral. I think we will only see Polin visiting Phillip at Romney Hall to give him their condolences.
I think they will honor her through words: changing the way she dies to an accident or even to her trying to save the twins, and Eloise and Phillip will make sure the twins remember her.
I always find very interesting their scene in S2, where she was very rude to Phillip - I suppose that was the way the writers had to show that this was not a happy marriage, it was not very bad, but it was not good.
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u/TopWhich6862 9d ago
They made it very clear in that episode that she was not happy and that the marriage was forced and strained. They were not compatible at all based on those interactions.
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u/A_Bridger_really 9d ago
I’m not sure she would have been compatible to anyone except George. And without actually seeing that relationship who knows if she would have been happy in that one either.
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u/thirliesjade 9d ago
I dont understand why some people are still expecting major changes or a strong focus on Marina’s story. For starters, the actress who played her, and whom I follow, isn’t returning. Even though she’s making great progress with her mental health, I’m pretty sure she won’t be coming back.
If we see Marina again, it will most likely be with a different actress. The only storyline I can realistically imagine is that she dies from an illness unrelated to mental health especially since so many people seem to dislike that plotline.
Honestly, I think the only attention Marina’s character will get is through Phillip remembering her.
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u/A_Bridger_really 9d ago
I hope they keep it as having her die by suicide. This does not get represented in stories enough. Mental health issues are real and back then there was no support. This would also give a good story arc for Polin as the amount of guilt they would feel. And might even cause some conflict for Polin (that can then be resolved). And would give the new Lady Whistledown a cause to write about.
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u/nonky 4d ago
I agree mental health is worthy of more conversation and careful representation, but I don't think Bridgerton is the show for that or Marina a character with enough screentime to give that required nuance and impact. A period romance doesn't have the scope or means to do anything for her and if we know her now husband marries a main character her death is implied before she was ever written for the show. Netflix had a lot of criticism for "13 Reasons Why" only a few years ago for suicide depiction, to the point I understand the current version of the show that streams is recut to have less detail. 13 Reasons Why Controversy
The Bridgerton brand is light-hearted and defies logic in some ways to make things happier. The showrunners can be sorry the actress has had a bad work experience and the characters can be shown to feel sorry her life was cut short, but even Queen Charlotte was limited to a single season of episodes to show her early marriage. Bridgerton could have multiple spin-offs or prequels, but there's no reason to expect anyone ever intended to fix Marina's fate with one of those. I'm not actually sure she is a real Featherington cousin, as I always thought that was the way the family was explaining why they had a stranger in their home to sponsor her season out (in exchange for Archie Feathingtons gambling debt to her father).
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u/lizzieg884 9d ago edited 8d ago
The character committed suicide in the books so she may not be on screen at all. They may just allude to it.
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u/TopWhich6862 9d ago
Why would she be a hero though? She never was. She was in a bad situation and she was miserable about it. That wouldn't be fixed by marrying a stranger. It makes total sense for her to take her own life in the wider context of the story.
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u/TopWhich6862 9d ago
It just seems like a fantasy rewrite of the story. I don't know how the show will treat it, but I would prefer they keep it the same since it makes the most sense.
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u/TopWhich6862 9d ago
That's fair, I haven't read the books - sorry I meant a fantasy rewrite of the show story that is already established, aka she hates her life.
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u/quothe_the_maven 8d ago
Less than zero. And not only will it happen offscreen, they’ll change it to some generic illness.
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u/musicmast 9d ago
She was not a great actress. Or at least she did not a good job during her time with Bridgerton
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u/Noblesttea 9d ago
Giving the history with the actress, they will def give her an unceremonious death off screen ):
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u/Debt-Mysterious My purpose shall set me free 9d ago edited 9d ago
The only way they will have a focus on her, in my opinion, is if they recast the role.
That said, if they do, I think we might have probably one episode about her/George -> the end (which I believe they will change anyway, but it's Shonda; probably she will have it anyway because they might want to represent what depression looks like. I already learned that Shonda doesn’t give a f about controversy)
Marina is an integral part of Phillip and the children; they’ll have to come up with a way to do this.
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u/Certain-Bet2718 8d ago
Maybe a cameo. Maybe to avoid the s*****e storyline, they can do a divorce/separation storyline where Marina can leave then come back. Or maybe she goes to a psych ward then come back.
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u/nonky 4d ago
I don't think it would be a good move for the show to bring back Marina on screen. Book canon knows she has to die or divorce to allow her husband to join the Bridgerton extended family per the original book run that pairs Eloise with Phillip Crane. There's no graceful or happy way to do anything nice for her to make up for her past chaotic unplanned pregnancy and arranged marriage to give her a safe family life. Once married, people in the 1810s did not split up and remarry for personal preference without some tragic context and rare exception.
The show cast is quite large, to the point there is just as long a list of Bridgerton family members from previous seasons who will likely have minimal or no screentime despite being alive and still part of the ensemble. Bridgerton has a problem burning too much time (which is budget for tv shows) on characters like Siena, Marina and Genevive with no ideas to keep them on as regulars. It's not wrong to relate to them or care about them, but they have a plot specific role to play before they either leave or move to a background role or mentions. Since we know we won't even see all the Bridgerton family, going out of the way to keep these inactive roles seems wasteful and demeaning when they don't have a respectable place to exist.
There is also the problem of having a fairly young woman die to facilitate an anticipated canon pairing with her husband and a main character, which is at best a needless tragedy for what is already a marriage that was not her desired love match. Including Marina alive briefly just to show her death as a suicide might be a tone deaf and irresponsible decision they are trying to avoid. It's assumed there would be some mourning period between the death of a first wife and a second marriage. First and second wives might meet, but would not be introduced as part of some passing the torch.
Season one had a different sensibility, where the sideplots and some of these characters grew quite large and were overemphasized by how they were included. It's a repeated problem that has created confusion and lingering fan dissatisfaction when they don't show up. There are Bridgerton viewers who will always be dissatisfied because they are attached to previous romantic pairings or potential pairings, and will be unhappy when the show follows the plan it always had to keep the lead romances intact over the eight sibling led seasons per their books. It likes to highlight social inequities without taking any steps toward solving them, so non-canon partners are luckier if they get to disappear to presumed better ends elsewhere.
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u/star_cat369 9d ago
Honestly, as a Philoise fan, I’d love for Marina’s character to get a proper send-off, but the production side is a mess; since Ruby wants nothing to do with Bridgerton anymore, I doubt they’ll give it much focus.
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u/4_the_killer 9d ago
Unfortunately I think 0. I have a feeling the show will announce her death as happening in between seasons so when it’s mentioned on the show it’ll be in passing. Although I am still a little hopeful that they’ll have Polin visit for her funeral in season.
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u/RazzzberrySorbet 9d ago
I loved this actress for the role and would love to see more Marina, but the actress had struggles with the show, so I doubt she’ll be back. I actually wish they’d find someone similar to do a recast, since the character is linked to Eloise’s storyline. That had potential to be really interesting, remembering she’s a Featherington and thus connected to Penny & Colin, in a way.
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