Oh, that was SUCH an excellent scene for her! Tessa’s great throughout the show, but Vera absolutely does start off as insufferable, and then as you said, the show starts to break her down, you see behind that facade, how people actually view her, how secretly nice she can be with Rocio and Carly, how much she’s just searching for something, a connection, validation, at her job, with Chris, on SM, that ring.
And then the scene with Marcela you mentioned, when she’d realized Marcela wasn’t going to judge her or tell the others, and like, that was such a different Vera than we often see, not trying to show off or impress her superiority over anyone, which she did with coworkers and followers and strangers and at times even friends, but just earnestly engaging in whispered slumber party girl talk, tell me a secret, how many boys have you slept with? And then as exactly as you said, once Marcela just casually turned it back on her, the way Vera folded into herself and even her voice changed. The mood changed so quickly and completely.
And kudos to Marcela as a person for understanding that and not pushing but just quietly offering Vera that bit of comfort, of knowing what she needed, because rather heartbreakingly, of course she understood perfectly. She didn’t know the depths of Vera’s suffering but what she’d interrupted the other night, she knew enough. And she’s the one other girl of the three who did share that experience (that we know of). It was just a really lovely moment between two women, almost strangers, understanding each other and their pain easing momentarily because of it. Not to be a huge shipper but it was SUCH a good scene, one of the best of the season, and it was with these two, as they slowly started to become friends. It was such a significant scene between two survivors, it would have been so in any case, but it was part of this dynamic, elevating it. This is how I want f/f all the time, obviously not always so heavy but so important and significant to the show.
