Dear reader,
Did you miss us? Bridgerton season 2 is here and we’re back to discuss 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 down Bridgerton 2×01 “Capital R Rake.” Ready?
Here we go!
Bridgerton 2×01 “Capital R Rake” is about duty. Duty to our family and duty to ourselves. But what happens when both duties converge? Join usas we break down our thoughts on Bridgerton 2×01 “Capital R Rake.”
BALLS, DRESSES…AND ELOISE BRIDGERTON
Eloise Bridgerton is up first as we discuss Bridgerton 2×01 “Capital R Rake.” Her duty to her family makes her dress in her best clothes and step into society… although she is interrupted midway. The thing about Eloise Bridgerton is that this world of dresses, balls, marriage and fine fabrics just isn’t her.
She is not like that. She doesn’t care about those things and she’d rather focus on how women are only allowed to care about those kinds of things and are not allowed to be themselves. Women are only allowed to be a copy of each other, an empty shell wrapped in the finest fabrics, but a shell nonetheless.
Eloise is only doing this for her family, so as not to disappoint her mother and her siblings. Eloise is doing it because it’s her duty…even though she hates every second of it. And this author couldn’t be more proud that Eloise Bridgerton hasn’t lost her essence and she can, for the moment, balance her duty to her family and her duty to herself.
THE WIFE AND THE DUTY
The other member of the Bridgerton family who flirts with his duty in Bridgerton 2×01 “Capital R Rake” is Viscount Anthony Bridgerton. He, as Lady Bridgerton so eloquently made known, is in search of a wife. But only because he has to. He’s looking for a wife who is mild, kind, and smart enough to be a viscountess. That translates into someone who doesn’t give him problems and doesn’t make him feel…anything.
Anthony Bridgerton needs something different. He needs someone who isn’t afraid to contradict him, challenge him, beat him at his own game, and kick his ass when he deserves it. That would make him feel things, but Anthony is running from that, running from feeling anything. And this author wonders why. His parents were immensely happy and married for love, just like his sister. Why does Anthony think he doesn’t deserve to find the same for himself?
Anthony is an ass most of the time but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve the happiness that his parents and his sister have. That is why Lady Bridgerton is so unhappy with her son’s decision. She wants something better for him than a life without love. And so do we.
We felt something when Anthony and Kate met. Well, we felt A LOT. Kate Sharma fits perfectly with Anthony. She’s a brave woman, who is not afraid to face life or be frank, she isn’t afraid to challenge him or go out of her way to please him. Playtime Kathony is memorable! And in this first meeting, the spark is noticeable. It’s the first time we see Anthony smile in Bridgerton 2×01 “Capital R Rake” and he does it thanks to Kate.
The weight of his last name and what he must do are drowning him, although nobody realizes it, this woman whose name he doesn’t know is like a breath of fresh air for him. Anthony feels light in her company. And Kate… she, against her better judgment, lowered her barriers and allowed herself to enjoy the challenge.
He seems different…not all men would react with arrogance to what everyone would consider impropriety. Not all men would accept being defeated by a woman and still, would challenge her again. Yes, he seems different…
MISS KATE AND EDWINA SHARMA
But… who is Miss Kate Sharma? Lady Danbury could answer that question, dear reader, but the only one who really can do it is Kate Sharma. As we found out in Bridgerton 2×01 “Capital R Rake,” Kate sacrificed her entire life for Edwina, so that she would have the future that she deserves. Kate, along with her mother, did everything possible so that Edwina didn’t suffer from deprivation and had the necessary education to be part of high society.
In fact, between the two of them they created a perfect high society lady, who knows how to act, how to move, how to dance… they created perfection wrapped in a golden bubble of silks and dances. Kate and Mary saw to it that Edwina could continue to live in the bubble they created for her, all so that Edwina could be happy and marry for love with a gentleman of her stature, while her grandparents provide for her and her mother thanks to that marriage.
But where does that leave Kate Sharma? For her, the sacrifice she’s making for Edwina is worth it, but that doesn’t mean a part of her doesn’t yearn for love, dances, and silks. In Bridgerton 2×01 “Capital R Rake” we see how Kate looks at herself in the mirror with the dress that she carefully chose for Edwina.
At that moment, she is imagining what it would be like for once to be the person to who has the possibility of finding love. That’s why she talks with Edwina about true love. A part of her longs to feel it, she longs to live it…even though she knows she never will.
Also, Sharmas’ past leads us to wonder, who is Edwina Sharma? Kate and her mother were so overprotective of her that they created a golden cage around her. So who is Edwina? Is she just Kate and Mary’s creation? We have the whole season to find out!
KATHONY IS FIRE
Kathony meets again at the Sharma’s ball in Bridgerton 2×01 “Capital R Rake.” And Kate can’t stop looking at him, there’s…something that inevitably draws her to him against her better judgment. She can’t help it. She hasn’t allowed herself to do anything for herself in her entire life and now she is allowing herself to cast these glances… though she doesn’t intend to do anything about them. Especially, when Kate overhears Anthony being a jerk, as usual, with his friends.
She thought he was different. She thought that he was capable of respecting women for who they are and not for the children they can have and the balls they can organize. Someone who would see her. But he’s not like that.
Kate has just found out that Lord Bridgerton is like everyone else…and that makes her feel a prick of disappointment inside her. And she gets mad at herself for feeling it because she’d only met the guy once and her stupid mind had thought she’d met him and found something worthwhile about him.
This is why this author couldn’t be more proud to see Miss Sharma dot the i’s to Lord Bridgerton. And we all noticed how the sparks flew between them. They’re pure fire…and they have only just begun.
Of course, not everything is hunky-dory for the Sharmas in Bridgerton 2×01 “Capital R Rake.” Kate has been protecting her sister and providing for her all of her life. But now, Lady Danbury is there and she intends to take that place and Kate is not going to let her. Two leaders in the same space… can’t end well. But when they work together everything works and they achieve their first goal: the Queen names Edwina her diamond.
That has another consequence, though: Anthony sees Edwina as wife material. And Kate can’t help but feel a pang of annoyance, and not just because of what she heard Anthony say…despite what she tries to say to herself.
LADY WHISTLEDOWN VS PENELOPE FEATHERINGTON
Another favorite of our avid readers returning in Bridgerton 2×01 “Capital R Rake” is Lady Whistledown AKA Penelope Featherington. Eloise is still hell-bent on finding out her identity, and she’s right about one thing: Lady Whistledown isn’t an active part of high society. Penelope is invisible to everyone, both to high society and to her family. For all of them, she is an insignificant vase, the ugly one at the ball.
She’s so used to everyone thinking of her that way that she feels that way too. Penelope accepts it resignedly. It is who she is and nothing more. Although Eloise denies it, she does it because she is Penelope’s friend.
And Penelope is convinced of it and also tries to convince herself that it’s okay, it doesn’t bother her, it’s just… the sooner she gets rid of that prick in her heart that she feels every time someone throws it in her face, the better. Because in the end, she will be left alone.
Part of her likes to be invisible because it’s liberating and allows her to go from one place to another and find out everything without questions, without anyone noticing her. It’s sad…but Penelope is taking the positive side out of being invisible. Lady Whistledown is born from and thanks to invisibility. Penelope managed to turn that sad situation, that invisibility, into a weapon like Lady Whistledown.
And it’s ironic, poetic even, that no one can notice Penelope Featherington while everyone is hanging on Lady Whistledown’s words. If they saw Penelope, it would be easy for them to connect the dots and figure out her identity.
But another part of Penelope longs to not to be the ugly one at the ball, she longs for someone to notice her, for someone to be interested in her, for someone to see her. She longs to feel desired and loved. Because she has never felt like this. Not for her family and not for any suitor. Love is a fruit that the world forbade her to have, although she would do anything to feel that way, to feel special, even if it was just for a second.
That’s why Colin’s letters are so important to her. He makes her feel special and she feels a lot of things every time she reads his words. That he keeps sending her letters means that he hasn’t forgotten her and that she is important to him, that he thinks of her. And he makes her feel…almost…loved.
And that’s real, even though her mother and her sisters despise that close friendship between her and Colin. They don’t understand that there is something special between them. They can humiliate her and think all they want, but Penelope knows the truth. She knows it’s real and that Colin’s letters mean something. They must mean something. The Polin heart of this author is beating very fast… while she wants to drown Penelope’s mother and sisters.
This is not the only headache that her family gives Penelope in Bridgerton 2×01 “Capital R Rake.” They are broke. It’s a fact. And she has money for being Lady Whistledown. Penelope doesn’t want to use her funds to pay for her family’s bankruptcy, not only because they don’t deserve it, but also because that money is the first thing that she earned for herself thanks to her efforts and her work.
Penelope has always lived at the expense of her family and of what they would like to do with her life, like all women in high society, but that money is the first thing she has that is hers and it means freedom, it means independence, it means not having to be tied to her family if she chooses not to be.
That’s why it’s difficult for Penelope to make the decision. Of course, if the new Lord Featherington hadn’t arrived she would have shared her money. But the new Lord arrives and Penelope can breathe because she still has her funds for whatever she wants to do with them.
The new Lord is not the only change that comes to Penelope’s life in Bridgerton 2×01 “Capital R Rake.” She takes Eloise’s words about Lady Whistledown very seriously. Her columns don’t have to be limited to portraying high society and confronting it with its contradictions. She can be a support and a springboard for the fight for women’s rights.
She, as Penelope Featherington, has no power to influence anyone because everyone considers her an object of decoration and no one sees her, much less listen to her, but as Lady Whistledown, she has the power to influence even the Queen. She can use that power to raise awareness and fight for the rights of all women so that women have the same rights as men in a patriarchal society. Lady Whistledown doesn’t have to be just gossip, but an activist.
Other Stuff In Bridgerton 2×01 “Capital R Rake”
- The intro is beautiful!
- Newton is so cute! (insert heart eyes emoji here)
- Daphne! Nice to see you! And love to know that Simon and your son are doing wonderfully well.
- Anthony can accept defeat and admit a mistake, my ass!
- Kate Sharma is the fucking best in the world!
- It really pisses me off that everyone calls Edwina “Miss Edwina Sharma” and Kate is just “Miss Sharma,” she has a name too!
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.
Bridgerton Season 2 is available to stream on Netflix.
