People associate Bridgerton with sex and hot, passionate love. Season two undoubtedly shocked people in that it isn’t about sex, but really – has it ever really been about it?

Season two turns that on its head and instead, we have something sexier. Some may dislike the slow burn and pacing between Kate and Anthony, and regard the fact that this main couple did not have enough screen time. Some may also dislike this love triangle between Kate, Anthony and Edwina, particularly book devotees. But from my perspective, I see a triangle, but it’s about Kate choosing between her duty/love for Edwina and her family, and Anthony. And vice versa for Anthony choosing between his duty and Kate. It is here that we really reach the crux of what I think this season is about.

It isn’t a romance. 

It’s a love story about family, friendship, self-love and duty. And every character arc, decision and plot point is firmly rooted in this. Loyalty is the key word.

The loyalty Kate has to her sister. The loyalty Anthony has to his family. 

At the core, these are fundamentally flawed humans and human relationships. The characters motives and emotions are neither black or white. They are all shades of grey and this season, I felt did a good job of portraying that inner turmoil, complication and imperfection. And this provides itself another overarching theme; humans are complex.

Or more clearly to say:

The loyalty Kate has to her sister comes from a place of love, guilt, responsibility and loneliness. The loyalty Anthony has to his family out of grief, fear and self perseverance.

Loyalties change throughout this season and is at times changed to a point where we don’t necessarily recognise it for the definition it has. How is it loyal to hurt someone? Is it only offered or rescinded depending on someone’s character?  How is it loyal to chase after what you want and not have to think of those around you? Is loyalty to one thing only possible in betrayal of someone or something else? How can the consequences of that loyalty feel so different from one person to the next? Loyalty is a fickle thing that changes in the face of all emotion. It changes, unpredictably, as we face unknown situations that might make us act in ways we cannot understand.

In season 2, it makes the audience roll their eyes at how Lady Featherington refuses to let Prudence’s marriage to be called off yet smile appreciatively as she protects her daughters at all costs. Take sides against Eloise or Penelope as we watch their friendship disintegrate in the name of right or wrong. As any other creative understands, the misplaced loyalty that plagues Benedict’s pursuit of his art. It makes the audience positively claw at the screen for how long it takes for Kate and Anthony to just kiss, yet equally rejoice at the two for learning to have that loyalty to themselves. We admonish and understand Kate’s hypocrisy over her sister, but we also admonish and root for Edwina’s happiness. We feel pain and love for Violet and Edmund, and Queen Charlotte and King George.

We try to grapple with the regrets and guilt that every character feels at some point, as much as we both love and hate the characters at the same time. 

From this, passioned debate flourishes in YouTube comments and underneath news articles. The book and the season is tussled backwards and forwards between people who insist that they are right. The haters leave their one sentenced replies while the dreamers leave their analyses. Defense, offense, to and fro, keyboards bloody from those who don’t play nice.

What is that emotion if not the same sense of loyalty that the very characters we watch feel?

There are loyal returners and fans of the show already speculating about how the story will unfold in the already confirmed seasons 3 and 4. There are disappointed viewers who no longer wish to watch the show after this season, or those who swear they have never and never will watch it. As an audience, we choose the characters and stories we stay loyal with and which to discard. We argue and defend in equal passion about whether the Featheringtons are interesting or not, whether Marina is a good person or not, whether Colin is an arsehole and who’s fault it was for the wedding debacle. 

What a lovely mess. As Lady Whistledown says, ‘leave it to people to complicate matters’.

But we like complicated deep down. In the absence of cookie cutter ‘perfect’ characters and relationships, it makes for an emotionally richer and complex season with plenty of misplaced (or rightly placed?) loyalties, watched by imperfect people with an equal surety of their own.

A show about love and romance and all these positive emotions is only possible with their antitheses. These hypocrisies and imperfections are the reason for humanity. A perfect human, or a perfect character is paradoxical when by nature a human is imperfect. It is a season that requires you to think more, to feel more, and a season that plays with the audiences emotions without mercy, making me cry a lot more than I bargained for. It has inspired conversation, art, media, content and people, its impact that only each individual can judge. Something which I just think is brilliant.

Which is why I have rewatched season 2 multiple times. 

It’s a season that requires a rewatch. And another. And another just to grab all the nuance that I must salute the talented creative team for. Actors, cinematographers, artworkers, set designers, costumers, choreographers, sound and lighting designers and more- all of whom have contributed to elevating the rollercoaster of complex emotion we take with the characters. All of it painstakingly (and lovingly) created  that only gets better when you watch it again and again. There is something new to soak in every time.

Some examples I have to mention include the way the Sharma ladies spoke and how that changes through the show. The way Kate’s and Anthony’s costumes tell a story as they go on their journey. The inspired music choices. 

One of my favourite parts of rewatching the show is to really take in the tension and sensuality between Kate and Anthony in each detail. They encapsulate human nature. It is fascinating to watch them grapple with the complexities of their emotions with their hands willingly tied behind their backs, and slowly realising that sometimes there is only one answer – sometimes they have to lose to win. To see them finally put themselves first to have their moment at the ball at the end of episode eight was a highlight of the show for me that encapsulated their emotion and story, all to a stunning classical arrangement of ‘Wrecking Ball’. Perfection.