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 2×05 “An Unthinkable Fate.” Ready?
Bridgerton 2×05 “An Unthinkable Fate” is about love, passion, and the sacrifices we are willing to make for those we love, even if we make mistakes.
HOT AND BOTHERED…
Bridgerton 2×05 “An Unthinkable Fate” picks up shortly after the previous episode. Kate can’t breathe thinking about Anthony. It’s a mixture of excitement, guilt, and passion. She feels guilty for feeling this way but she can’t help it. Her feelings are too intense to ignore. So intense that it takes her breath away.
Anthony feels the same way but he has more practice hiding it…until he doesn’t. Fingers come close, wanting, dying to touch but not being able to. So close…but so far at the same time. So close…and so unattainable. Kate doesn’t feel like she can sit in front of everyone, including the Queen, and pretend everything is okay, pretending she’s not burning up inside. But a look from Lady Danbury (which we will talk about in a bit) makes her compose herself. She can do this. She must do it.
Kate manages to control her body… but not her gaze. Her eyes follow Anthony, his every move, while he refuses to look at her. He knows that if he does, his resolve will waver. The word “love” is present in this conversation and it feels so wrong when we talk about Edwina and Anthony…so wrong.
It’s a sign to this author that Anthony is not comfortable in his wedding suit in Bridgerton 2×05 “An Unthinkable Fate.” He wants everything to be so perfect because he doesn’t want to marry Edwina. We all know that if he were to marry Kate, the suit would be the last of his worries, he would only care about her and being by her side at the altar.
FARCE
Kate, for her part, is also not having an easy time pretending that she is happy about this wedding. She tries to hide it but she can’t stand that Edwina keeps talking about Anthony because every time she does it’s like a knife in Kate’s heart.
When this charade is over, she will be gone and then she can try to forget Anthony and heal her wounds. So she can’t think about visiting the children her sister is going to have with him. She doesn’t think she’ll ever be ready for that. And that mention of children…it’s another stake through Kate’s heart. One more.
Kate can’t take it anymore so, when she finds Anthony in her house, she confronts him. It’s time for him to end this charade. After what happened between them, he can’t join his life with her sister. They both feel too much. But Anthony does the only thing he thinks he can do: he denies it. It’s nonsense denial because his body seeks her, his heart beats for her. Anthony attempts to block out the sun with a finger, a desperate attempt to keep from drowning in what he truly feels.
Kate is sick of “denying the obvious.” They already pretend too much when they are in public, at least when they are alone they must be honest about what is happening. But what can they do? Kate, although she doesn’t want to admit it, what she wants most is to marry him but she would never do that to her sister. And Anthony knows it.
Not that she could do anything about what they feel anyway. So he prefers to deny it. Denial is the most cowardly option but it’s the only way that allows him to deceive himself. But fate always finds its way. And Bridgerton 2×05 “An Unthinkable Fate” is no exception.
RINGS
In the end, Kate must try on the engagement ring that is meant for her sister. It fits perfectly in her hand…as if it was made for her. Because it’s made for her. Their eyes connect and, as always, the rest of the world ceases to exist and they can only focus on each other. He dares to take her hand, he knows he’s playing with fire but when she’s so close to him…he can’t think rationally.
The ring is beautiful…and Anthony spontaneously tells her the story behind it. This author is sure he never told anyone, but with Kate, it’s easy to open up, emotionally strip himself, be vulnerable, and trust her to know she’ll hold him.
And it feels wrong that a ring that symbolizes the purest love is planned for someone Anthony has no feelings for. It’s like sullying the memory and the symbolism. On the contrary, in Kate’s hand…it feels infinitely right. Anthony dares more, he caresses her hand in a delicate, intimate, and intense way. Because he also noticed how right that ring felt on Kate’s hand, he wishes that ring was meant for her and not for Edwina.
Speaking of Edwina, she arrives to interrupt the moment while Anthony and Kate can’t help but stare at each other. Like always.
LADY DANBURY, YOU WERE COOL! WHAT HAPPENED?
This author is tremendously disappointed with Lady Danbury this season. In Bridgerton 2×05 “An Unthinkable Fate” she goes back down a notch in the consideration of this author because she knows how Kate feels about Anthony – and what he feels about her – and instead of advocating for that, she makes Kate feel guilty.
I mean, she was so good with Simon and Daphne. She supported them from the beginning, although Simon refused to see what was happening. She didn’t care about society, she only cared about Simon’s happiness. And now she’s here, with words like knives, making Kate feel worse than she already does when she did nothing wrong.
Kate hadn’t planned to fall in love with, but it happened. Why should she apologize for it? Why doesn’t Lady Danbury support her? This…this lie is not fair to anyone. It is not fair to Edwina who deserves a life with a man who is not madly in love with her sister, nor is it fair to Kate who deserves to be happy with the man she loves and it is not fair for Anthony who deserves happiness too.
Season 1 Lady Danbury would realize all this and advise Kate to confess the truth to her sister and try to be happy with Anthony. But in season 2 Lady Danbury does the opposite and asks Kate to sacrifice herself, once again, for Edwina. As if Kate’s feelings were something she could forget or throw away. As if Kate was good for nothing but sacrificing herself for the well-being and happiness of others. As if that were Kate’s duty and purpose. AND DAMMIT, IT’S NOT! Has anyone ever even cared what Kate desires? Because, in the eyes of this author, only Anthony does.
It’s not Kate’s job to protect her sister or sacrifice herself for her to the point of nullifying herself and it unnerves me when everyone acts like it is. And this author never thought she was going to say this but I can’t stand Lady Danbury. This marriage helps no one so if Lady Danbury thinks that she is helping the Sharmas, she is dead wrong.
The scene repeats itself a little later. Kate is going to tell Edwina the truth about her grandparents but Lady Danbury stops her. And we have no idea why. She was the one who told Kate that Edwina must know the truth, and we agree with that. Edwina had to know…and Kate had to be the one to tell her. Finding out in the middle of dinner from those creeps was humiliating. For both.
But what annoys this author the most is that Lady Danbury doesn’t stop to remind Kate of her duty again because “passion will eventually grow cold.” Who the hell is she to talk about how Kate feels? Who the hell is she to remind Kate of a supposed duty she doesn’t have? This author doesn’t understand Lady Danbury.
I imagine season 1 Lady Danbury shaking her head at her Season 2 counterpart. Because everything would be really easy if she helped Kate and Edwina and offered the Sharmas protection for another season, so Kate and Mary wouldn’t need to humiliate themselves with those people.
But she doesn’t, on the contrary, she manipulates – yeah, I said manipulate – Kate’s emotions by asking her for one more sacrifice. Everyone asks Kate for more and more sacrifices. This author throws in the towel with Lady Danbury, let me know when she’s back to who she was before.
JEALOUSY
Thomas reappears in Bridgerton 2×05 “An Unthinkable Fate” and Anthony is dying from jealousy. Thomas was serious when he told Kate that he was interested in her. She is different from all the women he knows. She is worth getting to know.
And Kate enjoys his company. What she feels when she’s around him doesn’t compare for a second to what she feels when Anthony is around her but Thomas’s company is nice and, for once, she enjoys being the one he’s interested in. She enjoys someone seeing her. And she has a right to it.
But Anthony can’t take his eyes off her. He watches over her like a gazelle and embarks on a testosterone contest with Thomas. He wants to be above him and he is not going to allow Thomas to touch Kate’s hand and be able to caress her skin, feel her… he wants to be the one to do it.
And he does. For a moment, when he takes her hand he can’t let her go. He knows he must, he knows they’re surrounded by people who will spread rumors about them if he holds Kate’s hands for too long…but he doesn’t care. At that moment, at that moment when her eyes are locked on his, when her skin feels so soft, when she feels so close to him… he just can see her and feel her.
So he does. He caresses her hand with the tips of his fingers. A caress so soft, so delicate and so intimate as it sends fire through Kate’s skin and makes her burn…but they must come back to their senses.
It’s Kate who first recovers enough to be able to pretend. Anthony ends up soaking wet but this author thinks that he is not bad at all, not only because of the view of his chest but also because Anthony could use a cold shower.
Why is Anthony jealous? Technically, he has no reason to be, but he is. And he’s not only jealous that Thomas is with Kate but that he can show his interest in her, that he can touch her and make her laugh, when he has to keep the fire he feels for Kate quiet.
“WAS IT WORTH IT?”
This author loves the scene between Mary and Kate before the disastrous family dinner we witnessed in Bridgerton 2×05 “An Unthinkable Fate.” If we think about it, Mary’s story is not that different from what Kate is going through right now. Risking being with Anthony would mean breaking up with her family and with life as she knows it, just as her mother did for her father. And she did it because she loved him. But how did Mary know? How did she know it was love and not passion?
She knew because of the way she felt when she looked at him, how there was no one else for her in a room if he was in it, how she couldn’t take her eyes off him, always searching for him, always…connected, no matter how they tried to prevent it. They were unavoidable. And that’s just what happens between Kate and Anthony. Kate was hesitant to use the L-word but after listening to her mother she is sure she should use it…even though it’s still impossible.
Her mother sacrificed everything for love. How would that feel for her? Would it be worth it? The answer for Mary is a big yes. For her, it was worth it because happiness is priceless. In the end, time puts everything in her place and Mary lost everything she had then but she found a new life, a full and happy life that was waiting for her.
Could Kate do it? Could she tell her mother, her sister, the world, what she and Anthony feel? Could she risk everything for love? Maybe….It’s crazy, but maybe they can live it together, maybe she could….
But then Kate listens to her mother’s words. Mary just wants her daughters to be happy. Kate listens to the way she talks about how she will get the freedom she always wanted and Edwina the love match they always wanted for her and she has no heart to let her down by telling the truth.
Kate can’t bring herself to break her heart by telling Mary that she once wanted her freedom more than anything but now that freedom feels lonely and bitter without the man she loves by her side, without her sister‘s fiancé.
So, suddenly, the fantasies of happiness, the dreams of risking everything that Kate had been carried away by, disappear, broken, in the back of her mind. She can’t do it. She couldn’t do this to them. So she pretends, she pretends one more time that she will be happy. She’s getting too good at it. Maybe one of these days she’ll be able to believe it.
Violet doesn’t give up and tries one more time to talk some sense into Anthony in Bridgerton 2×05 “An Unthinkable Fate.” She sees that Anthony is neither excited nor happy about his upcoming wedding and is saddened that her son is choosing to live a life without love, choosing to be unhappy only out of an exacerbated sense of duty. That breaks her heart…and it would break Edmund’s too.
All they, as parents, ever wanted is for their children to be happy and to know true love, the love that they shared. It would break Edmund’s heart to know that Anthony had changed so much since his death. It breaks Violet’s heart to see Anthony willing to remain half of a man for his entire life. She can’t stand it.
But Anthony is nothing if he isn’t stubborn. He doesn’t see love as an option and he’s right that in those days, a love match is an exception, not the norm. But it is… it’s very sad that having happiness at hand, Anthony refuses to fight for it, for her.
This author understands why he does it, why he thinks he has to do it but I just… I just want to hug him and tell him that he shouldn’t sacrifice everything because he deserves to be happy. I want to tell him that the pain is worth it for the full happiness that he will have with Kate. It makes me very sad that Anthony has such a dark view of life, although I can understand where he is coming from.
Kate, for her part, feels increasingly worse about this charade that she and Anthony are playing in Bridgerton 2×05 “An Unthinkable Fate.” She can no longer pretend that she doesn’t care that the man she feels so strongly about is preparing to marry her sister.
Because it hurts her, it hurts her every time she sees her sister so excited that she glows, it hurts her to see that shine of happiness in her eyes. And it hurts because Kate knows that Anthony will not make Edwina happy.
FAMILY DINNERS AND HORRIBLE GRANDPARENTS
Edwina remains oblivious to all of this as she continues in her fantasy world where her marriage will be perfect. This author has a hard time understanding why she is so excited to meet two people who abandoned her mother to her fate and have despised her, her mother, and her sister for their entire lives.
That is, Edwina’s attitude is as if the family dinner that she is approaching is a happy reunion with relatives that she hasn’t seen for a long time, instead of a reunion with people who rejected her family. This author is aware that Edwina is innocent, delicate, and wants to be happy so much that she wants everything to be perfect, but there are situations in which negativity is necessary.
Her grandparents – who don’t deserve to be called that, but ok – rejected her family. They never wanted to know anything about her mother or Kate. And Edwina is here, ready to greet them with a perfect hostess smile and open arms instead of confronting them. This author will never understand it.
Unsurprisingly, the family dinner goes wrong in Bridgerton 2×05 “An Unthinkable Fate.” During this scene, this author was perched on the edge of her couch, clutching a cushion. The entire dinner was continuous insults for Mary and Kate. Kate put up with everything stoically for the sake of her mother and her sister, but Mary did very well to dot the i’s to those people who were never her parents in any way that mattered.
They abandoned her to her fate when her only sin was falling in love. There is no excuse or justification for such pettiness. And to top it off, they treat Kate like she’s trash.
I applaud Mary for setting the record straight for them. I also applaud Kate because she wanted more than anything to speak clearly to those bastards and get out of there with all her dignity but she didn’t. But I don’t applaud Edwina. That is to say, she just stands there silent while these people insult her mother and her sister.
This author can’t help but wonder why the hell she doesn’t stand up for them. Why is Edwina so interested in getting along with some people who abandoned them? Her mother and her sister sacrifice everything for her and now Edwina doesn’t stand up for them.
In the end, between insult and insult, the truth comes to light. At least one truth. Kate doesn’t know where to go, she’s embarrassed, she feels humiliated… and she’s afraid that everything will fall apart because of this.
She just wanted to do what was best for her family, she just wanted them not to have to worry about anything. She wanted to protect them. It was not the best way to do it but when we love someone so much, we try to protect that person with everything we have, even if we make mistakes along the way.
Anthony is disappointed in Kate. He’s not even mad because, after all, isn’t he using Edwina for his duty? But he is disappointed that Kate planned all of this because he can’t help but think, was it true? Is Kate who he thought she was?
But Anthony is a good person, no matter what, and he won’t let anyone insult Mary and her daughters. He may be disappointed in Kate but he knows that she loves her mother and her sister above all else and everything she does is for them. So Anthony does what this author has been wanting to do the whole scene and throws out those horrible people in the most humiliating way possible. Anthony rules!
“YOU ARE THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE AND THE OBJECT OF ALL MY DESIRES”
Kate saves the confrontation with Edwina for later because, for once, she puts herself first and wants to make it clear to Anthony that it wasn’t all a ploy. She is not like that. Anthony’s disappointment with her is palpable but, as always happens when the two of them are emotionally raw, they face each other.
The Edwina part may be her fault, but he blew up the chances that those people would protect her family. She was putting up with humiliations but he had to be the bloody honorable gentleman that he is and he screwed everything up. In truth, Kate is grateful that Anthony defended them so fiercely, but she will never admit it.
Similarly, Anthony finally does something sensible Bridgerton 2×05 “An Unthinkable Fate” and decides to break off the engagement. Edwina didn’t know anything but he realizes that he can’t marry her because he can’t stop thinking about Kate. India won’t be far enough. He will continue to want her, he will continue to yearn for her. Seeing her and not having her is torture.
But he knows he can’t have her. He is an honorable man and he cannot do something like that. But if Kate stays by his side, if they keep seeing each other…he will succumb. She is the bane of his existence and the object of all his desires. And that is the purest and most beautiful declaration of love that this author heard in a long time.
Anthony had a plan. But then, he met Kate, and all of his schemes collapsed and nothing else existed but her. And what she makes him feel. Her and her eyes. Her and her body. Her and her hands. Her and her heart. He wants her, he’s burning for her from the inside out and he too is tired of pretending, he doesn’t know how much longer he can do it.
These words are so crude, so real…the two get closer, there is a palpable sexual tension, the two are dying to touch each other, to finish what they have been keeping for so long. Because she feels the same.
She can’t stop thinking about him, dreaming about him, and knowing that she will never be hers is making her heart bleed. She’s confused because she had a plan too but he came into her life and ruined everything only to rebuild it back into a more complete version of herself, happier.
Passion, love…it’s inevitable. They’re unavoidable…but Anthony breaks the moment. He mustered all the courage he had to walk away from her because he knew if he didn’t then he never would. And that cannot be. But he can’t live like that either, it hurts like hell, and one day he’ll throw his honor away, take her in his arms, and won’t let her go. Edwina doesn’t deserve that. And Anthony is sure she wouldn’t want that future for her sister.
Anthony knows Kate didn’t orchestrate a plan, he saw the sincerity in her eyes, he heard the truth her body was screaming at him. But precisely for this reason, he is sure that Kate would never want a miserable life for Edwina. And a miserable life is all that Anthony can offer her.
It’s time to part. But first, Anthony needs to feel her one more time, smell her one more time, the last one…he wants to kiss her like he’s never wanted anything in his life but he can’t because if he does, he won’t stop. Leaving costs him everything he has, he’s about to turn around and send everything to hell, but he gathers all the courage and willpower he has not to do it. It can not happen. They can’t be.
“I LOVE HIM”
After the confrontation with Anthony, it’s time for Kate to confront Edwina, her questions, and her accusations in Bridgerton 2×05 “An Unthinkable Fate.” Edwina has a point in that Kate didn’t trust her enough to tell her the truth because she sees her as a little girl and she’s already an adult.
She and Mary always treated her like this, like a delicate flower that they had to protect from everything bad in the world. They created a perfect little doll, with the best of intentions, but without realizing that they didn’t have to, Edwina stopped being a child long ago and deserves the truth. Kate did it for her, but as we discussed earlier, many times we want to protect the ones we love from everything and that doesn’t do them any good.
Edwina is quite…practical. It doesn’t matter if her grandparents don’t come back, her marriage to Anthony guarantees the well-being of the family. And she is right. Anthony will take care of them but he… is determined not to marry her. This author wonders why Kate points out to Edwina that providing for the family is not her burden but then puts that burden on herself. It is not a burden for either.
However, Edwina lives in her world and she remains determined to marry Anthony. She believes that she loves him but this author is sure that it’s nothing more than gratitude and fascination. Edwina is infatuated and thinks she loves who Anthony appears to be…while it’s Kate who knows and loves who he really is.
SACRIFICES
Kate was already breathing a sigh of relief thinking that she wouldn’t have to see Anthony marry Edwina but now that her sister expressed her desire and her love for Anthony, Kate can’t do anything knowing that she is the only one who can convince Anthony. Once again, Kate sacrifices herself for her sister to have everything she wants, even if it tears Kate apart, as usual.
Kate is determined to beg Anthony to marry Edwina, even if it breaks her heart to do so. But first, she needs a moment for herself, a ride on the horse to try to escape her thoughts, her feelings, so that her tears dry in the wind as she gathers the strength to ask the man she loves to marry her sister.
Anthony always manages to find her, no matter where she tries to hide from him. He makes it clear to Kate that he will break the engagement because it’s the only way for everything to go back to the way it was before, although deep down they both know that nothing can ever be the way it was.
But Kate feels too guilty to leave it at that. She knows that if it weren’t for her Anthony would have gone ahead with his wedding plans and her sister would have what she wanted. Of course, she is not guilty of anything because her heart knows no reason but Kate could not forgive herself if she stole her sister’s happiness. She couldn’t forgive herself if she broke her heart. She sacrificed herself for Edwina to be happy, she can’t be the reason for her tears. She couldn’t build a life with Anthony from the ashes of her sister’s life.
Kate doesn’t know how to convince him, how to make Anthony understand that he should marry Edwina. She was wrong, Kate feels that she was wrong about everything with Anthony. She tries to convince him and herself that Anthony will see Edwina again as the perfect wife and Kate begs him to marry his sister because everything between them will pass, it’s just passion, not love, and it will become bearable and then there will be nothing. This is how it should be.
The problem is that all of this is bullshit. It’s a lie. What they feel is called love, not passion. Kate is just trying to convince Anthony and herself of what she’s saying, but they both know it’s a lie. And yet Anthony ends up accepting. Maybe… maybe he’ll get it. They’re deceiving themselves but the lie is more beautiful than reality at this point. The lie allows them to be close a little more, even if they have to keep their distance.
It’s time to say goodbye. It’s the last time they will be able to be alone and so close. It’s the last time they can be so honest about how they feel. The time is up for them. And Kate cries bitterly, letting out all the pain she feels because she just sacrificed all she has for her sister again. For Edwina’s happiness.
And this author doesn’t get it because everyone deserves better than this. Edwina will not be happy with a man who doesn’t love her and loves her sister. She deserves better than that. And Kanthony deserves to live what they feel without hiding or being unhappy, without hurting anyone just to fall in love.
PURPOSES…
Polin is a thing again in Bridgerton 2×05 “An Unthinkable Fate!” Penelope decides to pretend that nothing bad happened and that none of Colin’s words hurt or bothered her. Deep down, she thinks she has no right to be upset with him because…well, he didn’t mean to offend her and they’re nothing more than casual friends. And while the latter is true, this author believes that Penelope has every right to be angry and call Colin out for his stupidity.
That said, Penelope manages to keep her feelings to herself better than this author and decides to treat Colin as if nothing happened. That brings a tense calm between them.
While Colin doesn’t notice anything, Penelope’s attitude towards him changed. The change is subtle but it is there. She keeps smiling and talking nicely to him, but her gaze doesn’t linger on him as much as before, nor does she expect him to say or do anything that might lead to more than friendship. Penelope no longer expects anything from Colin, even though her heart is broken in two because of it.
She puts on a smile and tries to be the friend to him that Colin sees in her as she struggles to accept that this is all she will ever have with him. Colin doesn’t realize it but he always goes to Penelope when he’s lost and doesn’t know what to do.
And he needs a purpose. All of his older brothers have it and he… doesn’t know what to do to be a worthwhile man, he doesn’t know what to do so as not to feel that he has an empty life. Penelope tells him to trust time. He should not be in a hurry, the purpose will come to him sooner or later.
And this author secretly hopes that his purpose is to beg Penelope to accept him as a husband and forgive him for being an idiot.
Other Stuff In Bridgerton 2×05 “An Unthinkable Fate”
- We can’t say we’re surprised by Lord and Lady Featherington’s plan, although we’re just as disgusted as Penelope by it.
- Benedict begins to take his first steps in his passion… and not only for painting. This author wonders if this is the beginning of his path.
- Eloise and Theo seem like an interesting couple. He has realized that she is more than just the rich girl looking for adventures and, with him, Eloise found a man who is not afraid of her revolutionary ideas and her activism for women’s rights, on the contrary, he stimulates her. And he wants to keep it just for her, for now.
- The only one who is not happy about this is Penelope… her secret is in danger. Will Eloise end up discovering the truth?
- Kate stares too hard to be “appropriate,” just saying…(wink, wink)
- Anthony jealous is the best part of the episode!
- That your engagement ring gets stuck in your sister’s hand is not a good sign. Take a hint, Edwina.
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.
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Bridgerton Season 2 is available to stream on Netflix.