Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘Freeridge’ takes place in the same universe as ‘On My Block’. The spin-off follows the story of a tight-knit group of friends whose lives go haywire after a cursed box finds its way to them. What makes things interesting is the presence of a mysterious woman who is ready to pay any amount of money for the box. For a while, the teenagers believe that the woman is a ghost or a witch who has put a curse on them. In the end, when the truth comes out, it is shocking as well as relieving for them. This woman, named Mariluna, becomes an important part of their stories.
Estranged Twin’s Reunion: Mariluna’s Tale of Lost Bonds
Mariluna is Marisol’s twin who had been out of touch with the family for a very long time. In telling her story to Gloria, Mariluna reveals that she and Marisol had been inseparable when they were kids. However, when they grew up, Mariluna fell in love with Henry Fordman, a very wealthy man. He didn’t want Mariluna to have any connection with her family who were not of the same social standing as him. Forced to choose between them, Mariluna decided to give up her family to start a new life with Henry.
Despite getting everything she wanted after getting married to Henry, Mariluna couldn’t help but miss her family, especially her sister. Before she’d left with Henry, Mariluna gave the box to her sister. The fact that Marisol kept the box was a sign that even after all these years, she still loved Mariluna, who lived with the regret of not having reconnected with her family.
Now, after Marisol’s death, Mariluna feels like the box is the only remaining connection between her and her sister. She wants to get it back because she considers it a symbol of the love they had for each other despite everything that happened between them. She also reveals that the curse that she’d talked about isn’t actually real. It was just a prank they used to play on people. In the end, Mariluna gets the box back, but she also gets much more than that. She gets to connect with Marisol’s family, which is what she really wanted in the first place.
Mariluna’s On My Block Debut
While Mariluna’s first appearance might have been in ‘Freeridge’, she was first mentioned in the finale of ‘On My Block’. In the final season, Marisol aka Abuelita had been sick, which factors into the continuity of ‘Freeridge’ where she is dead. She expressed her desire to outlive her sister, whom she called an “evil twin”. Though no more details about this sister were given, it does give context to the presence of Mariluna in ‘Freeridge’. In the same vein, the box had also been present in the final season of ‘On My Block’. It appeared in Marisol’s room when Jamal had been looking for the drugs she’d requested. She told him not to open the box because it was cursed, which is what becomes the root of all problems in ‘Freeridge’.
Considering all this, it is clear that Mariluna’s existence isn’t something that the makers of ‘Freeridge’ created out of thin air. It is a very minor thread that they pulled from ‘On My Block’ to connect it to the new series. In fact, the idea for Mariluna’s character was proposed by Peggy Blow, who plays Marisol and Mariluna. In an interview with Tudum, ‘Freeridge’ co-creator Lauren Iungerich revealed, “The character that Peggy portrays in Freeridge was her own original idea that she threw out on a whim and we wholeheartedly embraced.”
