The Vale of Tears
Episode 3 of Scenes from a Marriage begins with Jonathan back home, inviting Mira back after her trip away. In her absence, Jonathan has rearranged the living room while Mira comments on how Poli is away for the time being. A year has passed in total since the previous episode, and Ava is even being taken to school by Poli sometimes too. ..
Mira is flying high with her career, and in fact she’s on the verge of another promotion. With an increase in money, it also means she’ll have to relocate to London. Jonathan immediately lays down the law, telling her that there’s no way Ava will be going with her.
Mira tries to get around this though by suggesting Jonathan and Ava move to London instead. That way they could continue to share custody of their child. “It’ll be a great opportunity for Ava,” Mira says, missing the irony of uprooting her child from a whole life she’s built for herself. Mira clearly doesn’t understand, and in fact she scoffs at Jonathan when he brings up this very fact.
It turns out that Ava and Jonathan are sharing the office space together downstairs, with their beds separated by a single bookshelf. Jonathan shrugs and says that the house is too big now.
After Mira destroyed her marriage by cheating on her husband, this natural progression has only seen Jonathan and Ava grow closer together. When Mira notices all this – and the state of the barren bedrooms upstairs – she realizes that traces of her are disappearing around the house. ..
She’s upset by this though, playing the pity party card and claiming there’s nowhere out there for her to feel secure. She’s made peace with this, claiming it’s a sign of strength. After listening intently to what she has to say, Jonathan opens up about his morning pages at work, reading them to her.
Mira kisses Jonathan and they get hot and heavy. So now Mira has cheated on Poli too it seems.
Jonathan tells Ava that a year ago, he was in torment because of what happened between him and Mira. It was a small blessing in disguise because he had to look after her for days without thinking about her.
Mira claims that it was a nightmare for her too, trying to find common ground with her husband. She missed him and never stopped loving him, apparently. It’s difficult to know with her to be honest, given what we’ve seen across these 3 episodes. Anyway, she eventually hugs Jonathan and convinces him to let her sleep for the night.
Jonathan and Mira were in bed together when their phone started buzzing. It was clear that this woman wasn’t happy that Mira was still there. Jonathan answered the phone and it was clear that this woman wasn’t happy with what he had to say.
Jonathan breaks up with Poli and tells her that he’s sorry, but he can’t be with her anymore. He smokes a cigarette at the back door and discusses their past regrets. Poli is aware of the two being together and mentions Mira’s suffocating suspicions and paranoia. According to Jonathan, he’s absolutely fine with the idea of the two getting back together.
Jonathan puts Ava back to bed, following her little interjection in the middle of all this, and the episode comes to an end with this marriage in limbo.
The Episode Review
This week’s episode of Scenes from a Marriage is all about Jonathan and his break-up with Anna. We learn about how it happened, what it was like, and how he coped. However, we don’t see any of that. Instead, we’re just told about it instead.
Jessica Chastain is an excellent actress, but her character Mira is a terrible one. She’s acted beautifully by Chastain though, but this woman is a toxic, manipulative mess. She’s clearly uncaring and selfish, but she also plays the pity party card and constantly turns conversations about herself and how badly she’s been doing into self-promotion. And yet, through it all, she’s the one who walked out and has cheated on her husband. So how can we get behind her?
Scenes from a Marriage is a poorly written and unenlightening love story. The characters are unlikable and the writing is poor. There is potential for great storytelling in this show, but the script and characters are not up to par.
