'My Brilliant Friend' Season 2 finale delivers a heavy episode displaying Elena's and Lila's contrasting lives
Spoilers for 'My Brilliant Friend' Season 2 Episode 8 'The Blue Fairy'
A childhood dream nursed to adulthood and brought to life by the most circumstances. After graduation, the book that Elena Greco aka Lenu (Margherita Mazzucco) wrote in 20 days is ready to be published.
The news is brought to her by her fiance Pietro Airota (Matteo Cecchi) who she had simply given it to read. Fictionalizing the story of her real life and the events that happened to her over her time in Ischia, the book even contained the "raunchy" parts of the night at the beach.
But before graduating, Elena is heartbroken over her breakup with Franco (Bruno Orlando). She thinks of him constantly and misses him sorely. But this is also the time when Pietro enters into her life and she goes with it.
When she meets his family over dinner, Elena is overcome by the feeling that he has had a better life and upbringing than her and how that dictates her approach to his family.
She finds herself grappling for thoughts — to say something that would prove that she is one of them. But she needn't because Pietro's family, like him, seems to already have graced her with a warm welcome.
Soon afterward, Elena, after not visiting home for over a year, returns to Naples to find it completely changed and evolving. There is development in the neighborhood but a lot of the conflicts remain persistent.
When her father parades her around the neighborhood boasting about her graduate status, she feels all the eyes on her — commenting, criticizing her quietly, noting the difference between her and the other women.
At home, she talks to her mother and helps her siblings with their studies all while waiting for something to work out — she needs to work, do something and earn money.
At this time, she receives some rather unpleasant news. Maestro Oliviero (Dora Romano) had tragically died weeks after suffering through a long illness. She sends her package containing her old reports cards and notebooks.
Overwhelmed, Elena rushes into the bathroom (her quiet place) to go through them. In between these notebooks is Lila Cerullo's (Gaia Girace) book 'The Blue Fairy', the one she wrote when she was 10.
A sudden jolt runs through her as she realizes that her published book has its heart and foundation somewhere in Lila's childhood musings.
This prompts her to meet Lila. But she is nowhere to be found and Elena is directed to Ada Cappuccio (Ulrike Migliaresi), who fills her in on the tempestuous events in her and Lila's life that she has missed. Upon finding out Lila's whereabouts, Elena sets out to meet and finds out that her life has been turned upside down.
The contrast between their respective positions in life right now was one that had been coming sooner or later. As it hits Elena gravely when Lila, without flinching or a second thought, simply shoves that childhood project into the fire.
There is no doubt that 'My Brilliant Friend' delivers a stunning episode every week. We are rather sad to have it end. Written by Elena Ferrante, Francesco Piccolo, Laura Paolucci and Saverio Costanzo and directed by Costanzo, 'The Blue Fairy' is an episode that portrayed the struggles of Lila's eyes only as Elena discovered it.
At the same time, instead of giving us a longer installment with the season finale, we'd have preferred had it been broken into two episodes. It covered several important events whose impact on the audience would perhaps have been stronger had it been spaced out.
At the same time, it looks like Elena's Naples chapter might have come to an end. In the books by Elena Ferrante, all the events of the episode amass quite a many chapters.
For instance, the viewers do not know that Elena had nursed conflicting feelings about Pietro. Neither do they know that Pietro's mother Adele (Daria Deflorian) indeed loved the book in the very first reading.
The publishing house doesn't even make any edits to her first draft and it goes into publishing as is. The viewers also don't know the power that Elena drew from the news of her finally being published. Neither do they know that she gave her mother some of the money she earned from the book.
There are several reasons as to why the finale should have been spaced out into two parts so as to delve deeper into Elena and Lila and everything that happened to the both of them in the time since Elena's departure from Naples.
It is a strong albeit heavy episode that requires some mulling. Watch it again to really look into the gaps and try and mull over where the two protagonists stand at the moment.
At the end, when Nino Sarratore (Francesco Serpico) shows up at her book launch, Elena is overcome with joy. And that is where we bid farewell. 'My Brilliant Friend' is renewed for a Season 3. With this being the season finale, there is a long time before we meet Elena and Lila again.