Breaking down Bridgerton
Dearest Reader,
As Netflix wraps up its second and final season of Bridgerton, I find that now is as good a time as ever to speak about my personal qualms with the newest episodes. I realize that most everybody sees Bridgerton as a quaint and rather unattractive account of the 1800s, but I found that many of the final episodes and their ‘creative’ decisions are actually worth talking more about.
Season 2 centers around Anthony Bridgerton and his back-and-forth relationship with Kate Sharma, her younger sister Edwina acting as an outside force tugging at their delicate relationship. We learn quickly about Anthony’s dark past involving a well and a cave of bats, which I personally found to be a bit too derivative of Spider-Man’s origin story. It was an odd choice, but one that we can all agree had us holding our breaths, wondering if the young scallion would be able to once again see his loving bride-to-be.
It was exciting to once again see Daphne and her child which marked the ending of Season 1, though I find the choice to kill her off via murder in the fourth episode heartbreaking and questionable. Why did her sister Poppy choose such an elegant weapon like the sword the Andúril, reforged from its break in the battle against Sauron in the Second Age of Middle Earth, to be the instrument of Daphne’s demise? I believe it ties back to the socio-political commentary that Bridgerton focuses on in Season 1 of the Persian-Anglo conflicts of the early 20th century.
When the aliens touch down at the end of the final episode, revealing that this was all a dream inside of Edward Cullen’s dark imagination, I found myself wanting to once again read the masterful works of Stephanie Meyer. My favorite moment was when we saw Edward drawing Edwina on a scrap piece of paper, throwing it out before Bella walked in on him. Are you an Edwina shipper?
Despite Bridgerton’s unyielding focus on the horrors of World War I, I think that this reminds us of the perfect conclusion. In the final words spoken in the final episode, Mrs. Whistleblower leaves the viewer with one final beautiful note:
“I get my peaches down in Georgia.”
Good night folks.