Stuti Gokhale
‘Gentleman Jack‘ season 2 focuses on Anne Lister adjusting to married life with Ann Walker and taking charge of business affairs in Halifax. While she is happy with her new beginnings, she is still unable to let go of her memories with her former flame Mariana Lawton. As Anne keeps revisiting the past, her relationship with Ann starts getting jeopardized.
On the other hand, Mariana too finds it hard to accept Anne’s marriage and constantly begs her to come back. This makes the audience wonder if Anne and Mariana are considering leaving their spouses and reuniting. Let’s discuss more to find answers, shall we? SPOILERS AHEAD.
Will Mariana and Anne End Up Together?
Anne considers Mariana to be the only person she has ever loved, and the two share an eventful history. Despite staying together for a long while during their youth, Mariana married the wealthy yet much older Charles Lawton, due to fear of society. This shattered Anne, and as a sign of mourning for her lover’s betrayal, she donned an all-black attire for life. However, even after Mariana’s marriage, they continue meeting in secret to carry on their affair.
When Anne’s affections begin gravitating toward Ann in season 1, Mariana starts getting insecure about losing her paramour. Regardless, she refuses to leave her husband and this leads to a major rift between her and Anne. As season 2 commences, they continue a written correspondence after the latter’s marriage to Ann. Initially, Mariana is unaware of the union and advises Anne to proceed slowly with her relationship. Later when she gets to know about it, she pleads with Anne to consider her agony and return to her, but to no avail.
Anne decides to proceed on her honeymoon, where she and Ann bump into Isabella Norcliffe, another of her former girlfriends. Isabella ends up blurting Mariana’s name and Anne requests her to keep her past a secret from Ann. But realizing her ex-lover’s pitiful state and jealousy toward her wife, Anne starts worrying about her marriage. She briefly tells Ann about Mariana and assures her that she is over the relationship. Moreover, she proposes inviting her to visit them as a way of getting to know each other, and Ann agrees.
But when Mariana writes back saying that she is discontinuing their equation, Anne gets disturbed and refuses to accept the former’s decision of moving on. Their intense relationship may likely cause Anne to briefly reconsider her decision of staying in her marriage. In addition, Ann openly professes love for her, but she refuses to verbally reciprocate those feelings on repeated occasions. Moreover, whenever anyone points out their low compatibility, Anne justifies that Ann loves her as she is, and hence, is the right partner for her.
Mariana grapples with the reality of Anne moving on, and she may probably try causing rifts with Ann to persuade her former girlfriend to resume their relationship. But it is also undeniable that she is against leaving Charles for a future with Anne, as she is too comfortable in her lonely yet socially stable lifestyle. Not just that, Anne has a major grievance against Mariana for having broken her heart earlier and hesitates to trust her again.
Although Anne does not admit her love for Ann just yet, she does deeply care for her and feels the happiest in her company. The marriage provides her with the commitment and effort that she always hoped for and helps her get over the trauma of losing Mariana and many such lovers to social constraints. Therefore, she may choose to let Mariana be a thing of the past and grow to have the same kind of love for her wife.
The chances of Mariana and Anne’s reunion are low, mainly due to the former’s fear of society and family and also the latter’s sincerity in her marriage. Apart from this, the show is mainly based on the real Anne Lister’s journal, who had a healthy and joyful marriage with Ann Walker all her life. Hence, as the narrative follows the journal’s turn of events to a big extent, Anne shall not be going back to Mariana on the show in all probability.
Read More: How Did Samuel Sowden Die in Gentleman Jack? Is Anthony Flanagan Leaving the Show?
