Normal People Scene Analysis: Talking over Coffee

Here’s one of the best scenes from one of the best-written shows I’ve seen this year.

Scene Comes From: Normal People, Episode 107

Where to Watch: Hulu

Scene Context

Connell and Marianne are meeting for the first time in months after breaking up.

Scene Conflicts

• Connell wants to be part of Marianne’s life again
• Marianne wants to prove that she’s better off without him

Scene Outline

1. Connell arrives. Marianne notes that he didn’t need to rush over.
2. Connell asks Marianne how she’s feeling about the soon-to-be-announced scholarships. Rather than answer, Marianne repeats the question to him. He reveals, through sarcasm, his anxiety regarding the results.
3. Connell asks how her new boyfriend, Jamie, is. She says that she wishes Connell would stop trying to intimidate him.
4. Connell asks if she’s tried to get Jamie to stop intimidating him. Marianne notes that Jamie’s the intimidated one, since, as she puts it, Connell is the “tall guy who used to fuck his girlfriend”.
5. Connell pours himself creamer. Asks Marianne if that’s how he’s often described by her. Marianne asserts that her and Connell had “mutually-involved sex.” Says it’s different with Jamie.
6. Connell asks how the sex is different. Marianne asks if he really wants to hear about her sex life. He nods.
7. Marianne describes how Jamie is a sexual sadist. She clarifies she enjoys it. Notes Connell’s shock.
8. Connell grabs a cigarette. Marianne offers that they don’t need to talk about it. Connell asks for specifics about her sex with Jamie.
9. She describes what Jamie does to her. Connell asserts that it sounds awful. She disagrees.
10. Connell, hurt, argues that she never mentioned this side of herself during their relationship. She reveals it was different with him.
11. Marianne elaborates, says her sex with Connell felt more real, whereas with Jamie she feels like she’s acting a part. Reveals she would have done anything Connell wanted her to do.
12. Marianne asks how Connell is.

Why It Works

Starting on Uneven Ground: In beat 1, Marianne is already softly critical of Connell. Though nothing serious, it sets an immediate tone for the conversation to come, in which Connell wants to be polite and friendly, while Marianne (at first) appears to resent the meeting.

Three-Act Structure: I hate to be “that guy”, but the structure in this scene can be roughly broken into three acts. Look at beats 1–4 as Act One. These beats tell us what each character’s goal is, as well as how they plan to achieve that goal. It ends with a “point of no return”, which occurs right when Marianne mentions how her and Connell aren’t friends, but exes. Then Act 2, occurring in beats 5–10, is where that conflict builds and escalates, ending with Marianne’s revelation to Connell that their sex was different. Then Act 3 occurs, in which Marianne realizes how she deeply in love with Connell she was, and ends with her seemingly realizing that she still wants him to be part of her life. By having a definite beginning, middle, and end, the scene is able to effectively build without seeming disjointed.

Visualized Discomfort: As the scene develops and Connell is made more and more uncomfortable, he searches for distractions. First, he pours creamer into his coffee after Marianne brings up their past. And then, after she describes her BDSM relationship, Connell takes up a cigarette. These small moments not only showcase Connell’s discomfort with the subject matter, but allow for movement that helps break up the scene and prevent it from being solely based in dialogue.

Concern, not Fascination: Connell refuses to end the conversation, despite his evident discomfort. Even when Marianne offers to change the topic, Connell dives deeper. As he reacts, we realize he’s not asking out of some morbid curiosity- he’s genuinely concerned for Marianne. Concern is always more engaging than simple fascination, as personal stakes are automatically attached. Here, Connell isn’t asking just because this is something new and surprising; he’s asking because he’s worried for Marianne, whom he still feels strongly for.

“Real” Wants Realized: By the end of the scene, as Marianne is prompted to reflect on the differences between her relationships with Jamie and Connell, she reveals that she misses the connection and vulnerability she shared with Connell. Suddenly, her initial want (to hurt Connell) has been replaced by the apparent desire to reconnect with him. This drastic change is one that would be hard to pull off with weaker characters, but with the extraordinarily textured Marianne, it’s something that feels entirely genuine and engaging.

Full Circle: The scene ends with Marianne asking Connell how he’s doing. This is a small beat to end on, but hugely important when you remember the scene started with Connell asking about Marianne. The script’s been flipped, and our characters have, in these three minutes, changed drastically.

Summary

Through primarily using subtext-based cues, this scene succeeds in painting a stellar portrait of two people who want their relationship to continue but aren’t able to say so. As a result, we see them go back and forth, trying in the most confusing and engaging of ways to admit that they still care about each other.