“Bridgerton” Season 2 brought Anthony Bridgerton and Kate Sharma’s love story to life, and while it didn’t exactly follow Julia Quinn’s book “The Viscount Who Loved Me” (on which the show is based), the characters did get their happy ending.
Creator, executive producer and showrunner of Season 1 and 2, Chris Van Dusen, broke down all of those huge moments for TheWrap, with a deep dive into the finale (and end of season) twists.
(Spoiler alert: This article, after the recap, goes deep into the major moments from Season 2’s finale, and other poignant episodes from the Netflix series, featuring commentary from the show’s executive producer Chris Van Dusen. You have been warned.)
A Brief “Bridgerton” Season 2 Recap
Kate (Simone Ashley) and Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) married and found their second uber-competitive pall mall moment as Season 2 wrapped up (the pair were passionately kissing as the show faded to credits), but the journey to true love was a very bumpy ride. In fact, although Anthony had chemistry with his eventual wife and Viscountess from the first episode when he saw the gorgeous Kate, her hair loose as she sped on her horse through a park, it took a while before they were able to exchange “I love you.”
The elder Miss Sharma, though, wasn’t looking for love. She’d come to ton from India with her younger sister Edwina Sharma (Charithra Chandran) and their mother (Kate’s step-mother) Mary for a season. Kate was determined to see the beautiful Edwina find the perfect match, and for her baby sister only the best would do (Kate was also keeping from Edwina the secret that the younger sibling’s maternal grandparents funded the trip with the expectation Edwina would find an English gentleman to marry).
Kate was immediately turned off by Lord Anthony Bridgerton after she overheard him at the first ball discussing with the boys (other lords) his rather detailed list of what he wanted in a wife (with love not part of his requirements). When Edwina was named the season’s diamond by Queen Charlotte, though, Anthony set his sights on the younger Sharma and Kate set her sights on making sure that didn’t happen.
Anthony did get his way, though, and he and Edwina made it all the way to the altar, but by then, his chemistry with Kate overflowed and brought a stop to the wedding – the one which Queen Charlotte and all the ton attended – when Kate dropped a bracelet as she stood there as Edwina’s maid of honor, and Anthony bent down to pick it up. Edwina, in that moment, realized her own relationship with the Viscount wasn’t hearts and roses and her sister and her groom were attracted to each other.
Edwina opted not to go through with the marriage after some really raw conversations with both her sister and the Viscount, and the whole failed wedding caused a great scandal in the town, and major problems between the sisters. The two families united in trying to smooth things over on the social scene, and even held a ball that no one attended, which led to Kate and Anthony getting together in an intimate way (they had sex in the back garden as their passions overflowed) for the first time.
Distraught by her breach in propriety, Kate jumped on her horse and rode hard, falling off when the horse got spooked in the rain. Anthony, who had come to propose the morning after (out of duty for compromising her) found Kate unconscious, with her head bleeding, and brought her home. For a week, she was in bed recovering from the injury and in that time, Anthony realized how deep his feelings were for Kate.
The ton’s final event of the season was a ball held by Lady and Lord Featherington, and both the Sharmas and the Bridgertons attended. By the end of the ball, Kate and Anthony expressed their love for each other and he asked her to marry him (Edwina had also forgiven her sister). While there was no wedding for Kate and Anthony, the show’s final moments had them in a steamy bedroom encounter, where it was revealed they had indeed tied-the-knot. After which, they joined the other Bridgerton siblings for a competitive game of pall mall.
There was another huge twist at the end of the season when Eloise Bridgerton (Claudia Jessie) figured out that her best friend Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) is the real Lady Whistledown, which led to a huge blow up and the end of their friendship.
Here’s what Van Dusen had to say about that “Bridgerton” Season 2 ending.
Why the Kate and Edwina Storyline Was Different From “The Viscount Who Loved Me”
“Kate and Edwina have a very interesting dynamic,” Van Dusen told TheWrap. “Edwina’s the sister Kate has been looking after her entire life and she loves her that much but at the same time Kate’s been so busy looking after someone else that she hasn’t quite gotten that chance to look after herself, which to me, made for a really interesting, yet pretty unbalanced sisterhood.
“And seeing those sisters work through their issues and come out the other side, and all the better for it was fascinating to me,” he continued. “That sisterly dynamic and what we do with the Sharma sisters is just as important as the main love story of the Kate-Anthony relationship.”
Crafting a New Version of Edwina
“I’m always interested in putting characters in the worst imaginable situation ever and seeing how they get out of it, and that’s part of the ride of the show,” Van Dusen said when TheWrap asked about “Bridgerton’s” version of Edwina, who is not the same in the books, and who makes it all the way to the altar with Anthony (another non-book plot twist)
“And part of the experience of watching this show, it’s thrilling, it’s compelling and there are ups and downs and twists and turns and surprises that you never saw coming,” he continued. “I think that’s what makes good television and that’s what I was interested in doing there. And I think … Edwina, on the show, I do think Edwina’s a different character on the show than she was in the book. She’s fully realized in the series … she has her wants and needs and desires and I didn’t want to relegate her to being a mere prop in the Kate-Anthony relationship. I wanted her to have her own interests and thoughts and feelings.”
Why Anthony and Kate Are MFEO
“Anthony and Kate are mirrors for each other,” Van Dusen said. “And I think seeing someone else going through the very thing that you’re going through is affirming in a lot of ways and they have that commonality and that bond between them that grows throughout the season.
“They’re both struggling with this idea of duty to one’s family and whether it outweighs what their heart is telling them, the underlying narrative arc of the whole show is really whether love can conquer all,” Van Dusen continued. “And Season 2, looks at that question through the lens of familial duty. And that’s what’s happening with Kate and Anthony very much.”
Why It Takes So Long For Kate Sharma to Admit Her Feelings For Anthony Bridgerton
“She spent her life looking after her sister you know, and [acknowledging her feelings is] a very foreign thing to her as far as feeling that she’s worthy enough to be loved. And we’re looking at that through the series too,” Van Dusen told TheWrap.
On That “Wrecking Ball” Scene
“The song definitely inspired that scene. I write sometimes to music, and with ‘Bridgerton,’ sometimes I write to the soundtrack that our amazing composer Chris Bowers did for the first season. Other times I have my own playlist as well of orchestral covers, existing orchestral covers that are out in the world now. And that one came on very early on, and it stayed with me and I think it’s just so beautiful and so moving and I’m familiar with the song,” Van Dusen revealed. “I’m a fan of Miley [Cyrus] and I’m a fan of the original song, and the lyrics just, I think they just, you know, permeated my brain and just stayed with me and it really was so fitting for what was happening with Kate and Anthony all season as far as taking the wrecking ball down to each other’s issues. And culminating in that final dance between them I think is really magical.”
How Kate and Anthony Changed by the End of the Season
“I think they’ve grown immensely over the course of the season,” Van Dusen said. “They do have a full circle arc. … Both of these characters put their family first, above their own needs, and that can only last for so long. And by the end of the season, this journey that we’re on with the two characters, they realize that they’re capable of loving and being loved, and I think that’s a really special thing.”
It’s worth noting that after they declare their love, Anthony uses Kate’s full name — Kathani Sharma.
(Note: The photo above is from the dream moment Anthony had at his wedding to Edwina, where he drifted off and pictured Kate with him at the altar.)
Eloise Discovers Penelope Is Lady Whistledown
“In the books, Eloise finding out it was Penelope wasn’t really dealt with,” Van Dusen said (in fact, the reveal spans two of Quinn’s novels and is addressed at a pretty pivotal event in Eloise’s life.)
“I knew I wanted to deal with it on the show and that fight that #Peneloise has – it’s brutal and it’s devastating, as it should be. And I think that confrontation was a long time coming [since] spending the first two seasons with Eloise hot on the trail of Whistledown. She got it wrong the first season, the second season she was more determined than ever. She gave up but then you see it click. You see the moment it clicks.”
The moment happens at the Featherington Ball in the Season 2 finale after Penelope shares gossip she overheard from a servant with her bestie, the delivery being the clue that tips Eloise off.
“I love how Claudia [Jessie] played that,” Van Dusen said. “And the Penelope-Eloise confrontation, that fight, it’s one of my favorite scenes because that scene is really a ride in and of itself. It twists and turns and ebbs and flows. And those two – Nicola [Coughlan] and Claudia – I mean, they they are they are really something.”
Why Penelope Decides to Become Lady Whistledown Again
“Penelope, at the end of the season, she’s been stripped of everything that she holds near and dear. She lost her best friend, she’s lost her crush (Colin Bridgerton, whom she overheard telling fellow gentlemen he’d never court her), and she’s lost her alter ego Lady Whistledown that she says she’s given up,” Van Dusen said. “And so, for me it was fascinating to see what she was going to do next. And that’s answered in the last few minutes of the finale.”
Nicola Coughlan Actually Does the Lady Whistledown Voiceover in the Finale
“The Whistledown voiceover very much is the inner voice of Penelope Featherington. And at that moment when we hear Penelope speaking in voiceover, it’s what she’s going to write as Whistledown, but we use that device because she hadn’t made the decision yet to return to picking up that quill,” Van Dusen explained. “And it’s only [when] Penelope decides I’ve lost everything, this is the only thing I have, I want to go back to [being] Lady Whistledown when we hear Julie Andrews’ voice kick in again.”
The Bridgerton and Sharma Dance at the Ball No One Attends
“It’s one of my favorite moments in the season. And Anthony is so – what we saw [of] him in Season 1 and through a lot of this season, [was] this uptight gentlemen who only cares about his duty to family and isn’t letting any emotion or feeling get in. To finally see his walls start to come down in that scene and see Anthony in a different light and what Johnny did with him in that scene? He dances with Hyacinth, he dances with his mother … Lady Danbury, it’s magical,” Van Dusen said. “Shooting that scene was so much fun. Chris Bowers did an amazing score for that scene. That was not the music they were dancing to on the day. It was something completely different. But it was just so lively. We have a choreographer, Jack Murphy, who’s incredible, and he choreographed that dance, but it was also about letting loose and seeing literally everyone’s hair come down and having fun and seeing Anthony and Kate smile, especially in such a heavy episode – Episode Seven.”
Visit TheWrap over the weekend for more of our Season 2 finale interviews and Season 3 scoop. “Bridgerton” Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.