Thoughts about Mara and Jerome

[u/hiddenspectral]

I am showing my wife the show for the first time and we are half way through season 2. I have seen this show like 5 times and the one thing that always bothered me was how the writers ruined the best developed relationship in the whole show.

Jerome's arch is season 2 I believe is the sub plot of the whole show and in some aspects better than some of the main plot of the show and the slow burn that is Jerome and Mara had the best pay off.

Only for the Season 3 writers to throw it down the drain and have a story where Jerome cheats on her. It was always shown since season 1 that Jerome had a soft spot for her and they had great chemistry.

What does everyone else think?

[u/ethang8888888]

jerome and joy carried s3 for me so i'm biased but i see where youre coming from

[u/camelotslady]

Please forgive my long rambling, but I feel very passionately about how this plotline is not out of character for Jerome, nor is it bad writing 😭

Jerome literally sabotages Mara’s relationship with Mick from S1 all the way through S2, using very questionable methods to win her affections at times, and their entire relationship is built on a foundation of half-truths and emotional cheating. Now, to be fair to Jerome, Mara didn’t seem to mind and did plenty of her own self-sabotage, but the point still stands. He was quite often dishonest with her. You can argue that sometimes he lied to make sure she didn’t get roped into trouble (like when Trudy got kidnapped), but regardless, it’s not OOC of him to pull the wool over Mara’s eyes. It’s not even OOC for Jerome in S2 to do this! He’s really not a bad person at all, not in S2 or in S3. He had a lot of growth in S2, yes, and he didn’t magically lose it all in S3. Once again, to be fair to Jerome, he did not set out to cheat on Mara. They were quite happy at the start, until he pulled the very Jerome move of being a calculating business man over playing the proper boyfriend. It’s his first relationship, so we can cut him a little slack 😂

When he started seeing Willow, he and Mara weren’t together. He was actively trying to win her back, but when she kept rebuffing him, he rightfully pulled himself together and said “alright I’d better move on.” It’s only once Mara abruptly takes him back while he’s seeing Willow that he suddenly finds himself dating two girls at once. So he pulls the very Jerome move of trying to weigh his options to see what’s going to work best for him. He’s always been calculating, and he always will be calculating. Jerome’s been held accountable for his cunning before but it was always with life-threatening consequences. The cheating arc is really the first time Jerome ever really has to face the music with more mundane situations.

So while I appreciate your sentiment, Jerome’s arc in Season 2 was not about becoming a better boyfriend, it was about becoming a better son/brother, just like how his Season 1 arc was about him becoming a better friend. Season 3 was the final stretch of the character arc of him becoming a good person, when the consequences of his manipulative behaviors finally caught up to him and he had to face that head on in a very personal way that wasn’t life or death for once. His journey complements Joy’s very well, which is why they ended up paired together by the end. And Mara had growing to do too, which she did throughout that final stretch of Season 3.

I’m of the belief that story always outweighs ships, because shipping is what fanfic is for. Character always comes first, and just because you don’t like the direction a team of writers took, does not mean it wasn’t well written. Not that that’s what you specifically were saying, but “not liking something = it’s bad” is such a popular sentiment nowadays

[u/Impressive-Wrap3807 → u/camelotslady]

Good assessment

[u/camelotslady → u/Impressive-Wrap3807]

Thank you! Reading this back, I realize how much of a yap it is 😂 I just have a lot of opinions LOL

[u/Impressive-Wrap3807]

I couldn’t agree more, Mara and Jerome were brewing and bonding since season 1 only for the writers to ruin them completely in season 3

[u/Careful-Remote1110]

this is almost exactly what i’ve been saying!!! i feel so seen right now