#mary-jayne gold

[paarassha]

my tribute to this wonderful series🌼

closeups under the cut

[emmanelson]

GILLIAN JACOBS and AMIT RAHAV as MARY JAYNE GOLD and THOMAS LOVEGROVE in TRANSATLANTIC (2023)

[inej-qhafa]

TRANSATLANTIC (2023)

first and last appearances

[purplewilmon]

"It's not going to work in real life. But this is real life. It's not."

Transatlantic 1.07 - Fire In The Snow

[lasaraconor]

[giitana]

Smoke everyday

[thelextheluthor]

Ok, so I want to really go in depth with Mary Jayne's character because while I'm really obsessed with Thomas and Varian's relationship, she's an amazing character and I love her.

So, when Mary Jayne first appears, it's a direct contrast of the previous scene. We got a glimpse of one side of the story- refugees fleeing, but also finding a safe (enough) place- one of the many realities of what it's like to be living through the Holocaust and WWII. Then it cuts to her- well-dressed white woman walking her dog, arriving at a nice restaurant.

Mary Jayne is playing a part: naive, care-free American girl who's here with Daddy's money- the most interesting thing about her. And she plays it well, not just in the scene, but throughout the story. It's not just a facade for strangers to look at, though. She says it herself- she's the bank of the operation. And others throughout the story reinforce that belief.

But she's so much more then that. Even in the first scene with her, the one at the restaurant, we see how much she cares about not just saving the intellectuals, which is what the ERC is about, but helping everyone. Far before Varian even considers illegitimate exit visas, Mary Jayne is already paying for stowaways.

Within the first five minutes, we see how much she's doing. She's stealing bread, she's giving away the clothes off her back, writing contact information, paying off Lionel, distributing food at the hotel. Mary Jayne Gold is a mask- but as the viewers, we get to see how that mask comes off and she's just herself.

And as the story progresses, she only does more for others. Even after her father cuts her off, she's selling everything she owns to keep the committee afloat- which, is pretty sad, not just because if the materialistic value of her items, but because as we see far too often, being "the bank" of the ERC is the only thing she thinks she's good at, the only worth that she brings to everyone.

But we know that's not true, and she proves that so many times without realizing it. When she joins Thomas as a spy for the British, especially, is a real turning point for her character development, I believe. Nothing of what she's doing for the British is involving money, but she's helping. Even later when she screws up with the British POWs shes finding a way to fix it, and while she has help with it, she's a leader.

And I do believe that she gets more comfortable with the fact that she does have value to the operation-which personally, makes it heartbreaking for me to see how everyone reacts to the failed plan to get the POWs to Spain. Because they've all messed up. As Varian said, there's no blueprint for what they're doing. This is especially true for her, when the whole time the expectancy for her is either to go back home to Chicago or be a bystander to whatever's going on. But she's not willing to let herself be the bystander, she has to be in the front lines with the rest of them.

I also love how Albert and Thomas aren't afraid to show her that she has worth. Thomas especially, because while her relationship with Albert is deeper, Thomas isn't her love interest, there's nothing going on, and I personally love seeing healthy platonic relationships between men and women. And yes, Varian and Mary Jayne have a sort of sibling relationship, and they probably have more in common as theyre both American with families (technically speaking) waiting for them to return home, and they've known each other for longer, but her friendship with Thomas is just. It's everything to me. He's the one who recommends her to Margaux- who helps her use her facade, who also shows her that she is doing a good thing for a good cause and her actions are directly helping others- and he sees her for who she is since the beginning. They click immediately, when she speaks of the Villa Air-Bell as an option for the refugees, and he, to Varian's dismay, not only agrees, but says he's comfortable with danger. They have strong best friend vibes I just- !!!!!!!!!! I love them ok.

Anyway yeah MJ is a badass and underappreciated thanx for coming to my TedTalk. I'd probably say more but believe it or not I do go to sleep sometimes.

[whoviandoodler]

this is how this scene went right

[id in alt]

[imgonnagetkilledbynutstink]

I'm going to lose my marbles

[amyriadfthings]

Yeah, so Mary Jayne looking like this

by the end of Varian´s speech definitely has nothing to do whatsoever with her understanding what confusion and pain he was talking about after walking in on him and Thomas earlier

and after this clarification early on, thank you Thomas

[dailygillianjacobs]

Gillian Jacobs in the Making Transatlantic featurette on Netflix

[ahhhhhhh-e-i-e-i-o]

Heyy just saw your old post about a theory that you have about how the season two of transatlantic would go. Can you please please pleaseeee post it ???????

Ok if it'll all post here's what I have:

This is not the most in-depth and doesn��t really go into new characters, sub-plots, or antagonists cause I just wrote down some thought in my notes app. It’s not very fleshed out and I might go back in and actually make it interesting but this is only about the main characters (or other little things I thought of) and how they get back together (if this was everything the show would be very boring). If I were to keep writing I would (obviously) add more characters and plots and such and maybe change some of my choices but this is what I thought of for now (also I would love to go back in tbh cause I haven’t really outlined a tv show before only movies and I think it would be fun, and it calls for more short plots rather than longer ones so i think it’d be a fun challenge). 

Recap (and headcannons): The war just ended. MJ is married (or soon to be) to a rich guy in Chicago. Varian lives with but is divorced from Eileen in NY and owns a house they keep refugees in until they can figure something out. Thomas has a house in France he is keeping refugees in it as well. Albert just got out of Auschwitz and went back to Thomas’ villa. Paul is in his home country with his mother. Paul’s revolutionary friends are in France too and have been working against the war, somewhat with Thomas/Varian and somewhat on their own. Lisa and Hans live in Varian’s refugee house and are figuring out their relationship and lives. MJ thinks Albert is dead. Varian and Thomas have kinda sorta plans to be together somewhere after the war but NY is too dangerous and they have to put the refugees before themselves. They talk occasionally. 

Season 2 basis: Ok so it starts right after the liberation of the camps and starts off following Albert trying to figure out where to go and where his sister is. He starts off for Lisbon to figure out what became of Ursula. He sends a message to Varian in NY (he knows his address cause he was using it to house refugees and he doesn’t know where anyone else ended up) and Varian calls/sends a letter to MJ to tell her about Albert’s letter. She almost immediately gets on her plane to NY (without her husband) to help out and get Albert into the US. (The home base for this season is Eileen and Varian’s waterside house in NY and Eileen is in this season cause I think there’s stuff to explore with her character). MJ is the only one Thomas is in regular communication with because of her funding, and (without telling Varian heheh) she lets him know she’s going to NY and basically tells him to come too because he’s being a little bitch about letting Varian get away (/lovingly).

Like half the season (a little less, I’m thinking two and a half episodes) is spent getting Albert into the US because they aren’t really letting anyone in (his visa would have expired at the end of the year since he didn’t collect it i’m pretty sure). Thomas also has trouble getting into the US since he is German (i think???). I want Paul back in the season but I can’t really figure out why he would come for rehousing American refugees so I’ll have to think more about why he would be relevant. I do think a plot for him just at home (in Africa) would be a nice change of scenery but I don’t know yet how it’ll tie in so I’ll get back to that one. For some reason (idk yet) MJ’s husband comes to NY. He is kinda sorta gay and kinda sorta totally into Varian and kisses him at the end of one of the episodes (it’s at the end cause cliffhangers and such). Pretty early in the next episode (probably ep 3, maybe ep 4 if I can figure out something interesting for Albert to be doing in Europe before he comes to America cause otherwise 4 episodes would be a long time for him to be “trying to get in” (and I want Albert to come after Thomas cause I want getting Albert into the US to be a pretty big plot point since it’s a catalyst for the season)) Thomas arrives (as a surprise to Varian) on a work visa from… somewhere (not sure where but he got it from his “connections” and I want it to be important for later). Anyway there’s a tad of drama there but ofc Varian and Thomas are together because duh.

Anyway Varian tells MJ about the kiss (if he builds up the courage, otherwise she’ll find out some other way cause idk if Varian would be brave enough to actually say that a man kissed him, and that it was her husband) and MJ is like wtf but also kinda loves Albert way more than this guy so eh. FYI the dynamic around what people know about Varian and Thomas is that they basically act like a couple but don’t really kiss in front of people and no one really talks about it (but maybe Varian and MJ talking about it will be a thing a little later on). She doesn’t confront her husband or anything yet because her marriage to him is important for funding their whole thing but she keeps it in her back pocket. They’ve been trying to get Albert a visa but it hasn’t been going very well. MJ and Albert eventually decide/realize that if they go through with getting married Albert could get another visa and come to America. They get him a nonimmigrant fiancé visa and he comes to NY (end of episode 4 at the latest I think). So, everyone is in NY (except Paul but I need more time to figure him out). I think episode 4 is kind of late for everyone to be all together, but I think if it’s done right the home base in NY can be set up as home base without everyone being there as long as enough time is spent there and such.

I solidly want all of the next episode to have a little bit of a running gag of Albert just learning a whole bunch of stuff. Like, I want the whole season to be funnier than season 1 (cause i’m a comedy girlie) but very specifically I want Albert to be in a constant state of what the fuck. With stuff like, for example, (obviously) MJ’s husband, Varian and Thomas’ relationship (which literally everyone knows about but I choose to believe that Albert is just so unobservant that he just didn’t notice), there’ll be at least one new character with something a little crazy going on, if I can figure out Paul and Lisa somehow then their relationship, lots of little American things (like sales tax and stuff), etc etc (this is not to downplay how smart and important Albert is, he’s very very intelligent I just also think it’s funny that he also can be very socially unobservant). Anyway so MJ and Albert have a time crunch to get married but she’s already married so technically she’s not allowed to be engaged to Albert so his visa is technically invalid and obviously there’s some antagonist who gets very close to figuring all this out and getting rid of Albert (or something like that) but of course that doesn’t happen somehow. Ok I got a little lazy at the end there but you get the idea.

At the end: Albert and Mary Jayne stay in New York without her trust fund and start a new life. Varian and Thomas do the same in a little house in France where they won’t be bothered or arrested (because this is an idealized world and stfu). I have no idea how Lisa and Hans and Paul’s stories will end yet, but Lisa and Hans will most likely stay in New York whether they’re together or not because why would they go back to Europe, or if Lisa and Paul end up together, maybe they’ll be in Africa. Idk there’s gonna be a pretty long subplot about the three of them and who knows, maybe I’ll kill of Hans just cause I love romance.

That’s all I’ve figured out for now. I have some ideas for Mary Jayne’s husband, Eileen, Lisa/Hans/Paul dynamic, and Thomas/his job, but i’m horribly indecisive and the point of this was really to flesh out the main characters and their relationships and such and to get a general idea of a plot to give myself peace of mind (accomplished). Note that last time I did this for something I made a scene by scene description of everything that happens (sometimes even writing down the individual camera shots for certain things) so if my ADHD wants me to/lets me, I will do something similar for this (probably not as detailed because that was a movie and a TV show is much longer but I would at least decide on side characters and sub plots and the events of the rest of the series). 

Yes, this is more romance focused because I made it with my ideas for how I want it to go and I’m a romance girlie, what can I say? No but for real, I love romance and just wanted to flesh out these romances a tad and give them happy endings cause it makes me happy. Think whatever you want about my decisions, they’re just what I think for today (hell I might change my mind tomorrow) and I am open to hearing other opinions, as long as they are given with the understanding that mine are also valid (be kind <3). I wanted more of a romance story so I wrote one, simple as that. Okie anywho these are my ideas <33333

Also sorry for any typos I really don't want to re-read this rn

[emmanelson]

GILLIAN JACOBS as MARY JAYNE GOLD in TRANSATLANTIC (2023-) | period set in 1940 | costume design by JUSTINE SEYMOUR

“While I was doing my research, I was looking for fashion designers of the time, but really where people were getting their inspiration was from the golden age of cinema in Hollywood. Also, Gillian Jacobs had really enjoyed the work of an actress called Irene Dunn, so she was one of my inspirational people to watch and just see how she wore her clothes, then try to emulate it for Mary Jayne. I wanted to introduce her personality as not only cheeky but happy to go to any means to get what she felt was right. She was a moral woman for the greater good, and I really wanted her to shine.”

[inej-qhafa]

GILLIAN JACOBS as MARY JAYNE GOLD TRANSATLANTIC 1.02 | “The Angel of History”

[delioncourtss]

Transatlantic watch party !!!!

[lasaraconor]