The Artful Dodger isn’t a romance, but the romantic relationship between its titular character, Jack “Dodger” Dawkins, and Lady Belle Fox has made the genre a load-bearing pillar of the show. The series debuted in November 2023, with its second season not premiering until February 2026. Given the current TV cycle, The Artful Dodger could fall by the wayside as other shows rise to popularity. Conversations around the series have certainly ebbed and flowed during its extended hiatus, but interest in the couple, affectionately dubbed DodgerFox by fans, has never wavered.
The sheer number of edits on any social media site represents how people have latched onto Jack and Belle’s love story. With just eight episodes, The Artful Dodger’s creative team and Thomas Brodie-Sangster & Maia Mitchell have more than sold this romance. They’ve made it so compelling that it’s stuck with people. It’s understandable, too. It engages with so many themes and tropes, most notably those of class difference and forbidden love. So, DodgerFox is evidence that romances are vital to a show’s longevity.
The Artful Dodger Season 2 expresses an awareness that its viewers yearn for Jack and Belle’s next chapter. It’s not an easy one; the obstacles are countless, and the stakes are higher. That’s a sky-high bar given the life-or-death end to The Artful Dodger’s first season. Regardless, the show explores how deeply in love these two characters are, using that unwavering truth to navigate their character development. DodgerFox’s romance becomes a lens through which Jack and Belle see everything and everyone around them. Essentially, even though there’s an instance when literal fireworks are going off in a Victorian Port Victory, Jack and Belle set them off all season long.
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Jack and Belle Can Handle Obstacles
This season instantly levels up some familiar obstacles for Jack and Belle. There’s not even a second to take a breath because The Artful Dodger immediately puts Jack’s life in the balance. Therefore, the sophomore season starts in a complementary place to where the freshman season ends. Where Jack does whatever he can to save Belle and races to see if her heart still beats, The Artful Dodger starts there with Belle doing the same for Jack. Where “Hangman” diverges is that Jack gets to know that Belle is alive. For all Belle knows, there’s a moment in time when she thinks he’s dead.
Therefore, it works for this season to find DodgerFox in a desperate place, where they just want to ensure that the other one is breathing. “Platinum” illuminates at least Jack’s constant fear that he hasn’t done enough to save Belle’s life. Belle’s best efforts to spend two years away from him reflect her dedication to Jack’s life (and her future in medicine). There’s something so simple and heartbreaking about that, and those feelings are only amplified by Lady Jane’s complicated role in Belle and Jack’s distance.
Society’s expectations for Belle as a lady and Jack as a criminal are distilled through Belle’s mother’s lived experiences. Her enforcing that distance between Jack and Belle is what makes fleeting moments like a dance at a masquerade ball count. The intensity of what they’re up against makes the romantic nature of Jack saying, “I feel like we’re already married,” carry the weight of reality.
Still, Jack and Belle’s calling to heal brings them back together. Their mutual trust and respect are built on it; that’s why Belle confidently sends patients from Devil’s Elbow to him without ever contacting Jack. One of their first significant scenes together is after Belle loses her first patient, Orla. In that moment when Belle is so low, Jack is her refuge. He’s her safe place to fall later in the season when Lady Jane pushes Belle away. The Artful Dodger’s second season establishes that, as much as death and the threat of it surround them at every turn, so does life and hope.
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Jack and Belle Are Better Together
One of the biggest internal battles of The Artful Dodger Season 2 is that Jack needs to find fulfillment outside of deadly, risky situations. Belle gives up everything to ensure his safety, but Jack still can’t let go. He tells her, “This is the only way I know how to make a living.” That alone speaks volumes about Jack’s character, as does Jack stealing the platinum so Tim can make a medical device to help Belle (and other patients). So, Belle has to learn to understand that everything isn’t as black and white as she thinks. She has to gradually see how Jack is changing.
Refreshingly, Belle is someone who has enduring confidence and intelligence in a misogynistic society that continually doubts her. When the season rocks those parts of her, Jack is there, even when he has to decipher the context of her arguing with herself in Latin. “Change of Heart” exemplifies Belle’s trust in Jack’s instincts when she puts Jane’s health in his capable hands. That storyline also underscores Jack’s deep insecurity about not believing that he’s good enough for Belle, that he would never fit with her family.
Of course, Jack, who thinks that Belle and Inspector Boxer make a much more agreeable match, self-sabotages and decides to leave Port Victory. Little does he know, Boxer knows he doesn’t stand a chance from not just the fact that Belle calls Dodger “Jack” but how she says it. In turn, The Artful Dodger Season 2 creates these rather cinematic, romantic moments, like Belle running after Jack. There, the season finale finds incredible symmetry with the season premiere – down to Belle hitting Jack for leaving her. However, even that gesture is different now because they made it. There’s no threat to their lives; now they get to live – together.
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