Dear reader,
Did you miss us? Bridgerton season 2 is here and we’re back to analyzing our favorite characters. As we can never get enough of the Bridgerton family, you have already read our reviews from the point of view of a reader, now we ask you to join us in the review from the perspective of a non-reader. It’s time to break down Bridgerton 2×03 “A Bee in Your Bonnet.” Ready?
Bridgerton 2×03 “A Bee in Your Bonnet” is about the past and how it’s part of who we are, influencing our present, the decisions we make, what we are willing to do, and our future. The past is part of us and Anthony Bridgerton is living proof of that.
THE PAST IN THE PRESENT
Bridgerton 2×03 “A Bee in Your Bonnet” begins with the past. We discover the reason why Anthony acts the way he does. A bee was to blame for the death of Edmund Bridgerton. And that changed everything. Anthony was a jovial man, who was preparing to be the head of the family. He smiled, laughed, enjoyed life and his family while he aspired to a future as happy as that of his parents. But Edmund’s death changed everything.
Anthony had to grow up too quickly, had to learn too quickly about his responsibilities and duties as Viscount, about what was expected of him. This jovial man went from growing up to carrying his surname, his family, and his whole world.
And he had to suppress his feelings. He saw his mother torn apart, his family torn apart, and when he became Viscount, his duty was to be there for all of them. Anthony had to pick up the pieces of his entire family and put them back together, so he didn’t have time to put himself back together.
That made him become the man everyone needed him to be, even if they didn’t recognize him and he forgot to laugh, to enjoy, to love, to live. He forgot everything except duty. He saw his whole family broken because of love and he swore to himself that he would never allow himself to be so, without realizing that since the death of his father, he had also been broken.
Anthony had to learn to live like that, to the point that a half-life seemed acceptable, seemed normal. Because he didn’t have time to pull himself together and truly live, his family and his duty to them come first. That’s why he always carries his father’s watch with him, because that reminds him of the duty he has to fulfill.
KATE + ANTHONY = CHEMISTRY
Having a background of Anthony’s past that gives this author a new perspective on him, it’s time to focus on what the Sharma sisters are up to in Bridgerton 2×03 “A Bee in Your Bonnet.” Kate keeps trying to talk Edwina out of rushing, but she doesn’t back down. This author believes that Edwina is convinced that Anthony will fall in love with her eventually… because she is not paying enough attention to what is going on around her.
Like the wayAnthony’s eyes won’t leave Kate for a second after they arrive. Newton is a good judge of character because, this author, would also bark at Anthony all the time just to get him to react and put his life in order. However, Lord Bridgerton’s words seem prophetic as he declares that Kate’s opinion will have improved after those days are over. It does. And that is both a problem…and an exciting adventure.
Nothing goes quite as Anthony and Edwina expect in Bridgerton 2×03 “A Bee in Your Bonnet.” Edwina doesn’t enjoy the game, the competition, the challenge, or the friendly teasing between the Bridgerton siblings while Kate does. She even dares to take Anthony’s mallet. The whole game is a Kathony challenge, and Edwina, well…she remains in the background. And she doesn’t even realize what’s going on.
Anthony treats Edwina as if she is a damsel in distress and he has to come to her rescue. However, with Kate, Anthony’s attitude is very different. They’re the same: ruthless but honorable on the pitch. They challenge each other to give their best, they make each other better. And Edwina doesn’t realize it. This author wonders if she has any vision problems…
There is a moment that perfectly encapsulates what we’re discussing. The ball lands in a wooded and muddy area. Edwina, rather than stain her clothes, acts like she was taught a Lady would act and prefers to withdraw from the game, while Kate doesn’t hesitate to go for the ball and fall into the mud to pick it up while looking defiantly at Anthony.
Anthony isn’t used to anyone challenging him so openly and fearlessly, and he’s not used to feeling that way with anyone, either. Kate drives him crazy, irritates him, sometimes he feels like he hates her, and other times he feels like he loves that she’s not afraid of him and that she’s the perfect match for him.
Both end up in the mud and, for the first time, they let themselves go in the moment and laugh, enjoying each other’s company, the challenge, knowing how far they are willing to go to beat the other at their game. When was the last time Anthony laughed like that, so sincerely? Probably before his father died. How long since Kate did? Too long to remember. But here they are.
And it’s time to put the cards on the table. Kate doesn’t hold a grudge against Anthony for what she heard, not anymore. She got to know enough about him to know that he’s a good man, not a jerk. But that doesn’t change anything. He can’t make her sister happy and Edwina deserves to be happy.
For him, marrying Edwina is a duty…and Kate must protect her. Even though they agree to disagree, they’ve been through too much, feel too much in each other’s presence to continue pretending to despise each other.
The situation is getting pretty intimate right now, they’re too close…so they’re back on safe ground: the challenge. But everything goes wrong. For a moment, Anthony had forgotten his duty and had allowed himself to be carried away with Kate, by what he feels every time he’s near her.
For a moment, he was that happy boy again, he was Anthony, not Lord Bridgerton or Viscount Bridgerton, just Anthony. But when he sees his father’s grave…it’s a stark reminder that he doesn’t have that luxury. He’s Viscount Bridgerton and he has a duty.
A MOTHER KNOWS…
Lady Bridgerton is not at all happy with Anthony’s decision in Bridgerton 2×03 “A Bee in Your Bonnet.” She’s his mother and she realizes that he’s trying to marry a woman for whom he feels nothing. She wants her son to be happy and Edwina is perfect…but she is not perfect for Anthony. And the fact that he has no interest in pursuing his happiness hurts her.
After the death of his father, Anthony took on the weight of being the head of the family in an almost… obsessive way. And his father wouldn’t want that. He was very aware of his duties as head of the family but he didn’t let that consume him. Violet wants her son to experience the same thing because he deserves to be happy.
But Anthony’s problem is that he is so afraid… so afraid of loving and the pain of losing that love… that he’s decided never to feel it. He saw Violet shattered and paralyzed with pain, broken… he doesn’t want to have to feel that, so he’s making sure he doesn’t feel it. But, as we discussed in our previous review about Kate, life without love is not life.
Sometimes, love is a pain but that pain means you are living. Living without feeling anything is neither healthy nor possible. Anthony is using Edwina as a safety valve and he chose her precisely because he knows that he could never feel anything for her. But that’s not fair to Edwina or Anthony. They both deserve better than that.
AND A SISTER KNOWS TOO
We love Daphne. Like, she’s one of the best things about this season, and Bridgerton 2×03 “A Bee in Your Bonnet” is no exception. The family reunion is the perfect excuse for her to meet Edwina Sharma since Anthony seems so hell-bent on marrying her. Only… his determination has nothing to do with love. A sister knows. That’s why she mistakes Kate for Edwina, because she sees her brother completely focused on her.
And that’s why Daphne decides to talk to Anthony. She knows what it feels like to love someone until you can hardly breathe. And she doesn’t see that in Anthony when she talks about Edwina or is in her presence.
Daphne knows how it feels because it’s what she lived with Simon, the way you can’t help the flame inside you when you’re close, how your gazes merge into one and you have to fight not to kiss them. And that’s exactly how Anthony feels…for Kate. When Daphne is talking, Kate appears in his mind And he feels terror because he cannot let himself be carried away by that feeling, he must has a duty.
HEART OR DUTY?
The conversation with Daphne affects Anthony more than he is willing to admit in Bridgerton 2×03 “A Bee in Your Bonnet.” And it’s Daphne who highlights something that we have been talking about from the beginning: Kate and Anthony are more alike than they think. Anthony considers his duty to his family the most important thing, even above himself, and so does Kate. That only adds fuel to the fire because Kathony couldn’t look away from each other.
But the moment of truth arrives. This is the moment when Anthony must ask for Edwina’s hand, with the two families gathered at the table. Anthony knows it. Edwina knows it. And Kate knows it. Anthony gets up to do just that, to join his life with a woman he doesn’t love, but then he makes the mistake of looking at Kate.
He connects with her gaze as Daphne’s words reverberate through his body, through his skin, through his bones, through his blood. Kate makes his body and soul burst into flames from the first meeting, she irritates him, challenges him, drives him crazy, he can look away from her every time she walks into a room, there is something that just makes him feel that she is there and, for him, there is no longer anyone else in the room.
And when he’s in her presence, when their eyes connect, he can only think of closing the distance that separates them and kissing her. He will kiss her until they both pass out and forget that their mutual duties separate them.
So Anthony just can’t ask for Edwina’s hand. And that’s the best decision Anthony has made since the season began.
This unexpected result brings several problems in Bridgerton 2×03 “A Bee in Your Bonnet.” Edwina can’t help but believe that she did something wrong. Everything was clear, she only had one mission: for Anthony to ask for her hand and he didn’t. So all kinds of possibilities run through her head. She goes through all the words and gestures to look for what she could have done differently, what she did wrong.
And Kate hates seeing her like this. She also had a mission, a duty: for her sister to be happy and she also feels that she failed because now Edwina is sad and crying and a part of Kate…feels that Anthony didn’t ask for Edwina’s hand because of her.
That look they shared across the table…they were telling each other everything they didn’t dare put into words with that look. Kate can’t stand being the reason her sister is crying in her arms. Not when all she wants is to see her happy, not when she sacrificed everything for Edwina’s happiness.
Another part of Kate realizes that if this is the way things are, it’s in Edwina’s best interest that Anthony doesn’t try to woo her again. It’s no longer just about Anthony not wanting love in his marriage, it’s about what’s going on between them. Because something is happening between them.
And her sister can’t tie herself to a man who looks at another person like that. So he should be no longer a possibility. Edwina will be able to find another man who does love her and look at her that way, that way that makes Kate’s knees go weak and her breath catch in her throat.
A BEE IN YOUR BONNET
Of course, Anthony’s good decisions are short-lived and at the end of Bridgerton 2×03 “A Bee in Your Bonnet,” he remembers again what he considers his duty and decides to keep his feelings for Kate locked in a drawer in the depths of his heart.
Edwina was dazzled by all that Anthony is and has to offer but she doesn’t know the truth, and she doesn’t know him, not like Kate. She’s not going to let Anthony take advantage of her sister’s innocence. Then, in the middle of the fight, the unexpected happens …a bee.
A bee killed Anthony’s father in his presence. He couldn’t do anything to save him and he feels so guilty about it…and now, history seems doomed to repeat itself with Kate. It seems that everyone he cares about is destined to die in his presence…by a damn bee. And Anthony can’t, he can’t let anything happen to her, not to her…he has to do something, he has to save her, but he doesn’t know how.
Suddenly, there is no more ground under his feet and Anthony can’t breathe, he can’t stop seeing in his head Kate dead, in his arms, just like his father, and that image is giving him a panic attack because thinking about Kate dead is too painful to even breathe. Kate realizes that Anthony is terrified, so she does the only thing she can think of: she puts Anthony’s hand on her heart.
Physical contact, listening to how her heart continues to beat in her chest is the only thing that manages to calm him down. She’s fine, she feels… alive in his arms. And their hands… that touch feels so intimate, so intense when their gazes connected. Their feelings are on the surface and they’re about to let go, to forget everything, and kiss until they leave each other breathless in a battle of wills that neither of them is willing to lose nor can win.
It’s all as…intense as only Kathony can be. It’s all so intense that when the moment breaks, they need a minute alone to be able to breathe again and pretend that nothing is happening, pretend that they don’t feel anything when they look or touch each other.
UNEXPECTED ALLIES…
The new alliance between Genevieve and Penelope that is born in Bridgerton 2×03 “A Bee in Your Bonnet” is interesting. This author, like Penelope, was afraid that Genevieve was going to take advantage of what she knew but that wasn’t her intention. So we were both wrong. Genevieve is used to being discreet and keeping a few secrets…this one is no different.
But the truth is that her alliance with Penelope can be beneficial for both. Penelope has made her business profitable again and Genevieve has access to a lot of information about the high society that Penelope needs.
Also, Genevieve was discarded by Eloise when she tried to find out Lady Whistledown’s identity in season 1, so no one will suspect her again. The only bad thing about this is that Penelope’s secret is not so secret anymore.
Other Stuff In Bridgerton 2×03 “A Bee in Your Bonnet”
- It would have been great if Daphne had commented on her husband and son since she’s at a family reunion and they’re family too.
- Lady Featherington will never change…she is still cunning and sneaky as a snake. Although I admire the way she is willing to do anything for her family. Will her plan work? Because this author doesn’t trust the new Lord at all.
- This author is very happy that Benedict was accepted into art school and can begin to chart his path, outlining his story. Also, he’s so cute when he’s so nervous.
- I like the alliance of Lady Bridgerton and Lady Danbury, but they’re the ones who went astray because they chose the wrong couple to bet on.
- That this person who called himself a doctor wouldn’t let a woman decide about HER body and HER child makes me angry like you have no idea.
- Edwina and Anthony’s conversation is the most boring thing ever, I swear. I mean, ledgers are more interesting.
- Anthony isn’t having fun in that conversation, I’m telling you. That laugh is a polite, restrained, fake laugh whereas the laugh he shared with Kate moments before was genuine.
- This author loves the way sisters-in-law Eloise and Kate spend time together, exchange ideas…and talk about Anthony.
- High Benedict is the best! I love him.
- Colin asking about Marina makes this author roll her eyes. WHY?! Just Why? What does he want with her?
Time to say goodbye, for now, dear reader, stay tuned for tomorrow to enjoy a new edition of our Bridgerton season 2 reviews from the perspective of a non-reader.
Love,
Lady R.
Agree? Disagree? Don’t hesitate to share it with us in the comments below!
Bridgerton Season 2 is available to stream on Netflix.
