Type: Romantic
Show: Normal People
Featured Characters: Marianne Sheridan and Connell Waldron
In more ways than one, Normal People deconstructs how relationships stay the same even while they evolve throughout time. It emphasizes the comfort in familiarity and the importance of finding someone with whom there’s immovable trust, safety, and deep, lasting adoration. With this, even as the series ends with the two of them saying goodbye, we can be sure that Marianne Sheridan and Connell Waldron are soulmates. No matter how far they go, it’s not going to be easy to stay apart because they’re better together. They’re good for each other, and relationships like theirs don’t come around too often on TV.
Connell and Marianne are two peas in a pod, opposites brought together by their inability to be their true selves around others. It’s an intricate friends (acquaintances, rather) with benefits situation that leads to a connection that’s challenging to find elsewhere. So, with tender and honest conversations, we get authentic glimpses into who they are individually and as a couple, making rooting for them effortless from day one.
Marianne Sheridan and Connell Waldron Emphasize the Importance of Transparency in Romantic Relationships
If there’s one thing Normal People does tremendously well, it’s in the way conversations weave into the lovemaking. Both in Sally Rooney’s novel and in the TV adaptation, moments of vulnerability are at the forefront of the relationship, making the development feel more natural and enduring. There are one too many instances where it feels like we’re invading their privacy, looking in during moments where we shouldn’t be, and surprisingly, it isn’t during the sex scenes. It’s when the secrets come to the surface and the tears fall easily that results in some of the most intimate moments.
There’s a reason the two of them keep coming back to each other, and Connell says as much early on when he vocalizes it isn’t like this with other people. Again, it’s not the physical intimacy, but it’s the detail that Marianne is the first person he can confide in as an anxious person. She’s the first to see the real Connell Waldron, away from the façade he puts on and the armor he wears. With this, Connell and Marianne consistently grow together because of how much they share when they’re alone. She’s the one who gives him the safe space to understand that his feelings are important, and she’s the person who essentially helps him go to therapy.
None of this would’ve happened if Marianne chose to keep her honest opinions concealed. As awkward as she can be, there’s a riveting naiveté to her character that comes alive in the moments where she openly says what she is thinking. She’s brilliant in a myriad of ways, yet unlike most people with her upbringing, she doesn’t put up walls when it comes to Connell. She says what she feels, which, in turn, gives him the safe space to be honest as well. She opens doors not only for herself but for other people because she’s been so broken and rundown by her family that she doesn’t want anyone else to know what that type of pain looks like.
Countless TV shows today—some based in the romance genre, too—forgo the critical conversations that bind couples together. Yet, these are the scenes that make rooting for Connell and Marianne easier. The vulnerability we get in their shared intimacy fortifies trust, allowing them to consistently come back to each other because each time it happens, they grow fundamentally in a way that helps them evolve as individuals.
In a sense, some could argue that Marianne Sheridan and Connell Waldron’s relationship is also unhealthy because of how often they see-saw around one another. However, this back and forth is what makes their dynamic feel more realistic because it allows them to find parts of themselves individually to come together and see if these versions could work. These changes are what ultimately show viewers that they can commit to each other if he comes back from the States because they’ll also know what great distance is like on top of the maturity they have in the final beats where they got together.
When the two realize that they are each other’s best friend, it becomes more effortless to come back to each other because there’s an unspoken promise that they’re always going to be there. Connell does speak it aloud when he helps her during her brother’s abusive outburst, but before that, it’s always been quieter. A hug after a tough day, sticking around when they realize that the situation can get worse—it’s in those moments, like in Italy, where it becomes more apparent that protecting one another is the other’s priority.
There’s a fan video to Taylor Swift’s “Champagne Problems,” and good God, if this isn’t their song, then I don’t know what is. When everything begins with the two of them, they’re just kids. They’re brilliant but dumb in a lot of ways because they don’t quite realize what they have together. They don’t understand that the person in front of them is showing them the very kindness they’ve always hoped for. There’s a reason Connell’s mom underscores how important it is for him to be good to Marianne because she knows what it’s like to be on the outskirts. She knows what it’s like to want and need a place to belong. And he is good to her, especially when he listens and tries to get her to do things she wants for herself and no one else.
Thus, in all their ricocheting ways, they give one another a safe space to come home to—the realization that they’ve always been it for each other even while they’ve spent years and years apart. I do believe it’ll be hard for the two of them to trust someone else the way they trust each other fully. It’ll be challenging to find a place as safe and warm as what they have with each other. So does Paul Mescal, and he says as much during a recent panel for Normal People. “I keep landing on the fact that the connection they have on that show when you watch that show for twelve episodes is that it kind of feels spiritual. No matter what’s going to happen with them, they will probably fall in and out of it again. […] When they come back, they will land into each other, I hope.”
In a nutshell, this relationship is honest, it’s vulnerable, and it’s full of immense adoration. It’s a limited series, yet it packs one immensely moving punch after another to make it feel like we know these characters on an intimate level.
First Featured Image Credit: (Photo by: Enda Bowe/Hulu)