I think the thing that gets me about Pearl this week is just how much her story reads like a neglected guard dog.
Gem is the boogieman, and she sets up a clear trap and alerts her allies. Grian, being Grian, sets it off and kills Pearl in the process. Her allies care about that process and Grian's mistake more than her death, because Pearl can afford to take the hit compared to them.
Jimmy kills all of their cows, and she shoots at him and warns her team that she is still staunchly loyal to. They don't even acknowledge this, even as Pearl shouts it out several times and goes up to make sure they can hear her. The cows die, and nothing else changes.
Obviously Pearl is fiercely loyal in the life series, so you could say this shouldn't matter to her. But that's addressed in the episode! She says she only ever trusts day one alliances, meaning she has dedicated herself to the Villies no matter what happens. Escape is never in her mind, no matter how her team treats her in the meantime.
And when she asserts some individuality? When she goes off on her own and tries to be helpful outside of her motif? She dies. Twice. Unceremoniously. To the laughter of the entire server. Like a dog made to do tricks.
She's obviously embarrassed by this, and clearly doesn't want to talk about it, preferring to run away from everyone (yet again, like a dog, and very reminiscent of double life as well). Her team goes to quite literally fetch her and bring her back, and this is I think the most tragic moment. Because they do, genuinely, cheer her up and take care of her. Grian acknowledges her embarrassment and doesn't push to learn the truth like Gem does, there's friendly banter, they're all a happy family again, and she's with a team that has her back.
They even watch, celebratory, as Ren loses his last life.
They even go to his funeral.
Pearl, on par with the rest of the server this point at yellow, dies because her "strong" team was being targeted. For a villainous cause she's never seemed to fully support.
It's funny how this all falls apart as soon as Pearl makes a more active contribution to the lighthouse and makes it prettier in her image. (Don't get me started on how that contribution was the subject of the banter, and how she was cheered up from her team laughing at her mistake right next to her.)
But it's all fine. Pearl is red now, and filled with the same bloodlust that her team has always had. Enraged, the Scarlet Pearl even comes out.
And oh, what an image the Scarlet Pearl has! One of murder and villainy, one who thrives off of chaos and isolation, one who has always been unhinged. This is who her team really wanted, this is who Gem is always trying to bring out, this is why Grian wanted her on his team.
It doesn't get to go on for long, but the dynamic shift from Pearl going red is FASCINATING. From this point on, all pretenses are dropped.
Pearl is their guard dog.
Her team helps her, of course. But they also try to send her off at every opportunity. They see someone encroaching and they shout for Pearl to kill them without a second thought. Without even caring what she's doing (like when she's actively talking with Martyn, on her own.) Pearl may have the bloodlust now, but it's her team that channels theirs through her principally.
Etho's the only one who sees the situation like this, to the point that he offered help to Pearl after a clear plot to kill him (by the Villies, who say outright that they used Pearl), but his cries fall on deaf ears even after Pearl is gone.
Because she goes. She goes to Jimmy, invisible like her team told her to be. Armorless, like her team told her to be. She fights him from below, at a disadvantage, because was simply told to kill.
And she doesn't come back.
And the only reason a dog that loyal wouldn't come back is if it is dead.
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