But will Eloise (Claudia Jessie) and Lord Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) succeed in their season goals — respectively, to keep away from all potential suitors and to ...
Back at the Featherington residence, Lady Portia and her girls arrive from the Queen’s ball to find a pile of stuff in the middle of their entrance hall. With the weight of poverty off her back, Penelope decides to use her powers to make some change, motivated by her earlier conversation with Eloise. "Capital R Rake" ends with the women of London reading a very peculiar issue of Lady Whistledown's Society Papers that questions the diamond tradition and posits that women should be valued for more than just their looks and frivolous skills. Meanwhile, in the ballroom, Anthony takes out Edwina to dance, and Lady Danbury uses her wiles to convince the Queen to give the Sharmas a chance. By the end of the ball, Her Majesty proclaims Edwina the new diamond, and Anthony is intent on marrying her. Upon receiving a letter from the Sheffields, Lady Mary’s parents, Lady Danbury confronts Kate about the Sharmas' real reason for coming to London. Since Mr. Sharma’s death, the family has been going through a tough time, but Lady Mary and Kate have always done everything in their power to keep Edwina ignorant of their difficulties. The true protagonists of the season aren’t Eloise and the Featheringtons, however, but Anthony and Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley). Following the end of his affair with Siena (Sabrina Bartlett) in Season 1, the Viscount Bridgerton has decided to take a wife — except his list of demands can be very… After the death of Lord Featherington (Ben Miller) at the end of Season 1, Lady Portia (Polly Walker) and her daughters face financial difficulties as they await the arrival of the new lord, who is said to be a cruel and cheap old man who exiled his own son to the Americas. With nothing but uncertainty ahead of them, Lady Portia goes through the silverware looking for things to sell, and Philipa (Harriet Cains) fears for the status of her upcoming marriage to Mr. Finch (Lorn Macdonald) without any kind of dowry for her own family to offer. As a matter of fact, Lady Sharma's scandalous elopement is still the talk of the party, with ladies gathering to share their impressions on the new family's arrival while Lady Whistledown has yet to present them with something juicier. A capital-R Rake, as Lady Whistledown so deftly puts it, Anthony isn’t interested in any of the young ladies of London. In a montage that shows him going from dates with aspiring brides to brothels to his office, we see him turn down woman after woman for a myriad of silly reasons. Besides engaging in her usual matchmaking, Lady Danbury is also hosting the first ball of the season, as she does every year. And, for Lady Whistledown, there’s only one thing that matters: finding out who Her Majesty will single out as the diamond of the season. As Eloise gleefully runs out of the Queen’s reception, there’s still one thing she doesn’t know: that her good friend Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) is the one hiding behind the Whistledown alias.
Netflix's sudsy romantic drama is back. But does it live up to the high bar set by Season 1? Staff writers Meredith Blake and Ashley Lee debate.
I also thought his initial exposure to painting in Season 1 was building to an exploration of his sexuality, but this last batch of episodes proved otherwise. Mostly I’m eager to skip ahead and see how things turn out for Eloise, the Bridgerton I’m most invested in. Lee: At some point, I had guessed that Lady Whistledown would be Penelope, the big family’s relatively forgotten sibling who turns to writing as a way to claim influence and garner praise. I know they were going for an Austen-esque slow burn — and they even paid homage to Colin Firth’s famous wet shirt scene — rather than the steaminess of Season 1, but I found it all quite tedious since it was clear from the first episode when they ran into each other on horseback where this was going to end up. I agree with you — it’s very clear from the get-go that Anthony and Kate will be the two who end up together. (Remember the Hot Duke and his daddy issues?) We didn’t even get a big wedding scene at the end, as if the writers of “Bridgerton” weren’t invested in this romance. I loved the idea that someone who was treated like a wallflower wielded such power behind the scenes. Lee: Ha! I didn’t mind the extra-long episodic length, since I also loved the arcs of the Sharma sisters, individually and together. He’s become the equivalent of Samantha Jones in “And Just Like That” — the character made conspicuous by his absence. Blake: When “Bridgerton” arrived way back in late 2020, it became a massive breakout success for Netflix thanks largely to the charisma of its lead, Regé-Jean Page, its many, many sex scenes, and its not-entirely-unrealistic depiction of a young woman gradually figuring out how babies are made. But none is likely to be debated as fiercely as the relative merits of Season 1 and Season 2, which take contrasting approaches to sex, marriage, ambition and duty, among other major themes of the series. It was always going to be hard for “Bridgerton” to top the bonkers lightning-in-a-bottle of Season 1, especially given Page’s departure from the series.
This article contains spoilers for Bridgerton season 2 but does not contain spoilers for future Bridgerton novel plots.
Fans of the novels may often dispute Bridgerton adaptation choices but it’s clear the epilogues will be shown in some form to end each season. Kate and Anthony almost missing the start of the game because they were still in bed replaces the nighttime scene. Parts of the actual competition were moved to episode 3. Bridgerton Season 2’s final scene shifts the timeline of the annual Pall Mall game to shortly after Kate and Anthony are officially married. The second epilogue takes place beginning two days before Anthony’s birthday and it’s all about the lead-up to the annual Bridgerton family Pall Mall match plus the game itself. The epilogues often include details to cement the Happy Ever After for the couple in question, such as the name of their firstborn child, a Bridgerton family reunion, or a flash forward scene that addresses a loose plot thread.
The penultimate episode of this season finds both the Bridgerton and Sharmas doing damage control in the wake of the failed wedding.
He sees her in the distance, amid the rain and mist. He mentions how his family’s on the brink of ruin and that they all hate him despite him living his life only for them, but all he thinks about is her. And then he pulls his head back, shakes it, and says to her, “You have to stop.” (ANTHONY FICTIONAL CHARACTER BRIDGERTON, I SWEAR TO GOD.) She responds, saying he’s the one who’s been spinning her world off-axis. Of course they argue, and as she’s about to walk away, he asks: “Can you ever just agree?” He says she’s been stubborn from the moment they met, and she comments how that must really bother a man who’s used to getting his way and ordering people around. Kate asks her sister if they should head home, and Edwina scoffs at the idea that Kate cares about what she’d like. She wishes she had shouldered the burden when her husband died, not Kate. Hearing how Kate sacrificed so much for her family stills Anthony, and he watches her from afar. He calls out to the youngest Bridgertons, Hyacinth and Gregory, to come downstairs and join the party. The next day, the two families venture to the museum together to help improve their public image and spin their story before the ball. The viscount scolds his brother about his familial duty, and Benedict immediately knows this is about Kate — he’s noticed how Anthony looks at her. Eloise explains her predicament with the queen, and Penelope’s horrified. Back at the Bridgerton home, Penelope finds Eloise in her room, surrounded by a pile of Lady Whistledown pamphlets she’s about to toss. Then Newton — sweet, precious Newton — scampers into the room and tries to jump up on Anthony (with nary a growl!). Kate ushers Newton away from Anthony, and they both get up, standing too close, essentially checking each other out.
Bridgerton's soundtrack has become its signature. From Bollywood hit "Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham" to Madonna's "Material Girl," here is a guide to the ten pop ...
When it plays: The sex scene between Anthony & Kate outdoors that begins at 49:41 in episode 7 of Bridgerton season two. He takes her hand, and they walk onto the dance floor, as the instrumental cover of "Wrecking Ball" begins. They have some very intense eye contact on the dance floor, which then leads to their declaration of love in the garden as fireworks explode around them. The song, the title track of the Bollywood blockbuster Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, was released in 2001, is a poignant soundtrack to the most visible Indian representation in the season. As all the members of the ton leave Queen Charlotte's home, Lady Whistledown narrates, "Indeed, some may call a wedding the ultimate act of faith. Kate and Anthony dance for the first time, to the instrumental cover of Robyn's electropop hit from 2010. But the effort paid off: the Harry Styles song makes perfect sense as Edwina and Anthony walk down the aisle on what is supposed to be their magical wedding day. And the object of all my desires. The Vitamin String Quartet's cover of Nirvana's "Stay Away" plays during a montage of Anthony going on dates with various women, managing Bridgerton household work, and sleeping with a woman who appears to be a sex worker. The song plays in the background as Lady Danbury narrates eligible bachelors for the Sharmas. If you listened to the Vitamin String Quartet's instrumental cover of "thank u, next" by Ariana Grande from season one of Bridgerton on repeat, you're not alone. The instrumental cover becomes almost haunting as Lady Danbury schemes to get Edwina named.
Does Anthony get married? Is Lady Whistledown exposed? Here's what happens at the end of season 2. Get ready for spoilers.
He spends much of the season with Lady Portia Featherington, plotting a scam to gain investments in a ruby mine in America from the locals and then take off with the money, knowing that the mine is a failure. Penelope says that she's ceased writing the gossip sheet and that at least she's actually done something with her time. The Queen, however, finds out that Eloise has been frequenting a print shop and thinks that Eloise is Lady Whistledown. Penelope, partly in effort to get the spotlight off her friend, writes a pamphlet exposing Eloise's un-chaperoned visits with print shop boy Theo. Eloise ends up breaking things off with Theo and gives up her search for the gossip writer. Her hunt for Lady Whistledown puts her in the path of a boy who works in Lady Whistledown's print shop. At the ball, she has a short exchange with the Queen, who mentions that her nephew (Prince Friedrich, who courted Daphne Bridgerton in season 1) happens to still be available. She learns that her sister and finance are in love, as well as a few other family secrets, and somehow makes peace with all the deception after her sister's accident.