Bridgerton Season 2

Sigh, and a rather long one at that. Oh, there is much to unpack about Bridgerton Season 2 and one thing’s for certain, I cannot wait to see Season 3! I’m known for doing an English accent or two but besides the Monarchy and the society therein, comes a truly universal story of tragic love and other things… Without giving too much away because I really want you to see it, let’s get into the undercurrent themes of this brilliant show.

Womanhood, Sisterhood, and the many complexities within-

The Featherton’s

I’ll begin with the Featherton family beginning with the Mother, Lady Portia Featherton. She’s portrayed as the rather pushy and manipulative Mother hen, totally obsessed with her daughters marrying well. However, in this season we see a widow, a lonely woman being enticed and seduced by her late husband’s cousin, whom, she tricked into getting engaged to one of her daughters. Only to fall for his seduction herself! Sort of a taste of her own medicine I guess. Scheming on a whole other level… I’ll leave it there for now…

Penelope Featherton

Also known as Lady Whistledown, the elusive, town gossip-column, writer. She owns her power under this mask where she otherwise presents as a doormat. In my opinion, I feel as though Shonda Rhymes sees much of herself in this character and I make that assumption from reading her book, The Year of Yes.

The Bridgerton’s

Don’t we all wish we had such a considerate, understanding Mother who only wants the best for her children? I absolutely loved the bond between Lady Violet Bridgerton and her eldest son, Anthony Bridgerton. The backstory was essential for this season, we had to understand Anthony Bridgerton by first telling the story of the life-impacting lost he suffered when his Father died in his arms. He held his Father in the highest regard and his siblings attested to the fact that he changed so much since his death. Instead of grieving properly he became the dutiful man that we know him to be. So much pressure on the eldest child and a son at that…

Which character do you most relate to so far?

The Shama’s

Now, this was quite the story to carry this season. Mary Shama, also a widow (three widows story this season) had to pay for her mistakes by marrying against her parents wishes. One of the ways she had to pay was by having her youngest daughter, Edwina, marry under the terms set by her parents.

Kate Sharma

The dutiful, older sister and half sister (different Mother) to Edwina. Kate had practically trained Edwina to become the perfect wife. She did so in an almost sacrificial way, where she didn’t expect to have the same fate.

Edwina Shama

The old soul although being the younger of the two sisters. She’s nobody’s fool. My heart broke for her but also healed through her. In her wisdom, she was able to console not only a King but also her older sister to be true to herself. She told her that she didn’t know herself and she was not ok with the women they were… She encouraged her to bring her ‘new self’ to the situation and she would do the same.

Of all the brilliant moments this season, the conversation between Mary Shama and her daughter Kate was by far my favorite. I long to hear words like these come from a Mother figure in my life. Today is my biological Mom’s birthday, March 28th and let’s just say our relationship is far from the likes of this one. I’ve come to terms with it and I hope to one day be the Mother that Mary is here for my children whether they are step children, biological or adopted. Her words verbatim are as follows:

“You owed me nothing. You never had to earn your place in this family. I loved you from the day I met you. Love is not something that is ever owed. You came into my life as a daughter and I never saw you as anything else.” She continued to tell her that it ‘grieves her to think that she does not believe she deserves all of the love in the world.’

After that conversation, we learn that Kate lost both her parents- first her Mother then her Father. She wanted to be there for her step Mother and half sister while they mourned. She made it her duty to see that all their needs would be met. What she sacrificed was her own future and grieving process by not wanting for herself what she wanted for her sister, true love.

Daphne Bridgerton brought home the point that she always believed her eldest brother Anthony would marry someone quite like him and here is where we see their compatibility. Both grieving souls, eldest children and naturally dutiful, how would they come to realize that what they needed most was to put themselves first in this one most important aspect of their lives? When it came to who they undoubtedly loved and wanted to share their hearts with, namely, each other…

Lady Branbury and The Queen were the towers and pillars of support and womanhood… They never shamed Edwina, Mary, Violet or Kate although their own reputations were at stake. They were available for the mishaps of love and the reunification of it was what they encouraged. The wedding of a lifetime was interrupted, yet, in the end, love persevered.

Major Spoiler Alert: Although we didn’t get to see the wedding of Kate and Anthony, the season closed with what we all wanted and had no idea how it would happen, true love won!

I saw myself in Penelope where my freedom to write (but in my diary) where all of my secrets and my true self has been hidden in those pages all these years, is mine and mine alone. I also saw myself in Kate Shama who preferred to build others up, wanting what’s best for them while not believing it can be mine as well. Not expecting that it would happen for me. There is no greatness in letting others light shine while dimming your own, right? I lost a father too, not in death but in divorce and chose to be there for my Mother at first since I lived with her but also for my Father later on in my early twenties and ever since… What I learned most through Penelope and Kate’s characters is that you must believe in yourself and your worth enough to want the best for yourself and throughout it all, choose you. Like Mary Shama said, “You deserve all the love in the world.” You don’t owe anyone anything, what you give is a gift and that goes both ways. Season 3 please!