'My Brilliant Friend' Season 2 Episode 4: Lila kissing Nino, an act of revolt or genuine attraction?
Spoilers for 'My Brilliant Friend' Season 2 Episode 4 Chapter 12 'The Kiss'
Was it surprising that Lila Cerullo (Gaia Girace) decided to kiss Nino Sarratore (Francesco Serpico) despite being aware of Elena Greco's (Margherita Mazzucco) feelings for him? Perhaps. For book readers, however, this did not come as shocking.
Early on in the episode, when Lila and Pinuccia Carracci are discussing how Donato Sarratore (Emanuele Valenti) is a complete gentleman - how he helped Lila learn swimming and how his whole demeanor is pacifying. Lenu reminds her how he is the same man who ruined Melina's (Pina Di Gennaro) life and crushed her completely. Lila is defensive of Donato and she says either that could be true or he made Melina feel good if only for a little while.
Was this why she kissed Nino out in the sea, far away for Lenu and Pinuccia (Federica Sollazzo), her sister-in-law, to find out, or was it the fact that Lila had been denied agency on her decisions and her body? Over the last episode, Lila and her husband Stefano (Giovanni Amura) are trying hard to get pregnant. Well, Stefano is trying harder than Lila who doesn't want to bear a child.
After she miscarries, Stefano gives her a hard time pressurizing her for a child. Her in-laws had already deemed her a 'witch', adding that she can choose to not get pregnant, choosing to kill the baby in her womb.
Things become all the more complicated for her when Rino Cerullo (Gennaro De Stefano) gets Pinu pregnant - putting the couple on a deadline to get married. The pressure on Lila to give the Carraccis a child is now more than ever.
When the family finds out that Lila cannot bear children because she is weak, even here there is disdain as Lila is constantly reminded of her place in the family. It is decided that she is to spend the summer by the sea getting stronger to bear children.
Lila kissing Nino could be deemed as an act of revolt; her silent mutiny against those who have claimed her mind and her body and are making decisions for her.
At the same time, Lila is trying to show Lenu that she is better than her and that if she chooses to, she can take anything from Lenu. When she confesses to Lenu in the dead of the night, she warns her about Nino, about him being a bad boy with no regards for her feelings. She twists reality to make it seem like Nino kissed her, that he initiated the intimacy - hinting to the fact that he chose Lila over her.
Competing as they have over everything in their lives, this time, Nino is the object of desire and Lila believes she has won. Whether she really likes Nino, cannot be told.
Nino, on the other hand, has already earned himself the tag of a 'f***boy'. Fans of the show - and especially those who favor Lenu - strongly believe that she can, and deserves, better than a boy who simply tugs her along. Even when Nino is spending time with the girls at the beach, he is probably aware that he is the object of desire for both Lenu and Lila.
'My Brilliant Friend' airs on Mondays at 10 pm on HBO.
