Netflix's Bridgerton season 1 offers a look beneath the surface of a scandalous ton to find the value of truth, real love, and ultimately order.
Netflix's Bridgerton is now out and is surely set to become one of the most talked-about Netflix releases of 2020, even this close to the end, partly because of the revelations of its ending. Thanks to the series being based on the 8-book series by Julia Quinn, there is a lot more scandal to be told in this world and with the second Bridgerton series already rumored to be in production (albeit delayed thanks to the pandemic), fans will be getting answers in the coming years.
The show might have one major controversy, thanks to a sexual assault scene that caused controversy in the books and should have been left on the cutting room floor, but overall, it is a glorious triumph. Shonda Rhimes' production company and the director - Rhimes collaborator Chris Van Dusen - have crafted a beautifully observed, surprisingly progressive answer to Pride & Prejudice that deserves to sit alongside The Crown and Downton Abbey as one of the finest historical drama series of recent years. It's less conventional than both, but does end up doubling down on some of the very familiar tropes that make the most successful historical romantic dramas so popular.
The ending sets up further adventures - romantic and otherwise - in the ton, with each of the main Bridgerton family members facing new dawns, even, as the finale says, when some endings feel more final than others. Netflix can explore more on the subject of scandal, the accountability of rakes, the mystery of the Featherington estate and the question of whether Eloise and Penelope will find their matches - no matter how reluctantly. For now though, here's what the ending of season one of Netflix's Bridgerton means.
This section will be updated with greater detail further beyond release.
The big moment at the end of season one - and the thing that offers the most promise for the coming seasons - is the revelation of just who Lady Whistledown is. The information, for now, is protected by an honorable spoiler agreement to allow fans to watch the whole season (it's the holidays, but this is a show that deserves to be poured over, not hyper-binged), but the question of why Whistledown does what she does is still a pertinent one. Whistledown doesn't merely revel in the idea of scandal and salacious rumor (because she rarely writes anything inaccurate), but she is a protector of virtues and a sort of guardian angel of the ton, seeking to make sure anything untoward or immoral doesn't go unpunished in the court of popular opinion. In effect, Whistledown is running her own answer to cancel culture, which, of course, is merely a sensationalist way of discussing accountability. Whistledown, as an outsider able to take aim at "acceptable society" with greater impunity seeks not to target victims or the weak, but to turn society's gaze to injustices, though her own personal experiences of debutant culture have jaded her somewhat. In that regard she is also fighting back.
The biggest single story of season 1 is the courtship and marriage of Simon Bassett and Daphne Bridgerton, who are thrust together through a delightful, trope-embracing meet cute revealed in the marketing. Daphne wishes to be desirable in Whistledown's eyes (and the Queen's) and Simon wishes to hide from the pressure of debutantes and their meddlesome mothers. Naturally, they fall for one another, but Simon's dark past stops him from committing to a family as he wishes to end his bloodline as revenge for his father's neglect. It's an understandable pain point, but Simon is eventually convinced to turn his back on it, largely through Daphne's gentle pressure that his vow is punishing a dead man and himself. It is also thanks to Lady Danbury that Simon is convinced, as at the Hastings ball, she warns Simon not to become a victim of pride, alluding to the fact that his father's rejection of him was for the same reason. In seeking to avoid becoming his father, he almost repeats his greatest sin.
He is killed, for the avoidance of any doubt. Featherington was noted for his poor decisions - not least in the wagers he placed - and his final error of judgement was in engaging the sinister bookmakers in a bet on the fight that Will threw. Unfortunately for him, Will was as good an actor as Featherington was a gambler and the dive he took gave the game away to Simon Bassett and the bookies. As he spent his winnings, the bookies used connections to infiltrate the brothel and laid in wait for him, taking back what was owed to them. Whether Featherington took his winnings out with him or they brook into the Featherington home is unclear at this stage, but he was an unscrupulous man who threw good money after bad, so it wouldn't be surprising if he had. The final insult Featherington left his put-upon family was the loss of the deeds of the house, which the bookies presumably took back from him as revenge for his attempt to deceive them. Lady Featherington is shown asking who will inherit their home and her housekeeper Violet passes a mysterious note in a loaded moment that confirms that whoever it is is known to the Featheringtons. That mystery will role over into season 2, but it would have to be someone wealthy enough to have either bought the deeds or to be bankrolling the bookies.
After the storylines are wrapped up, the very last shot of Bridgerton season 1, sees a single bee fly in through the open window of the bedroom in which Daphne gives birth with the camera resting on it. It's no accident, as fans of the Bridgerton books will know, but there are two meanings behind it. Firstly, in the wider narrative of this universe, bees represent the weight of the past, particularly for Anthony Bridgerton, who wrestles with the same ideas of legacy throughout the show. That's because, in the books, Lord Bridgerton - his father - was killed by a bee sting, inspiring in Anthony a morbid fear of bees. They fundamentally represent both mortality and the fear of his own duties as the head of the household, which he runs away from symbolically by becoming a rake. But the second meaning of the shot is more conventional: bees are a sign of community spirit and personal power, but even more crucially, the concept of order, which is precisely what Bridgerton is all about - the upkeep of good order.
The whole salacious undercurrent of Bridgerton's ton paints a picture that absolutely everyone has either a scandal behind them or some sort of secret they do not wish for others to pry into. For some, it is a personal trauma - as with Simon's history or the Queen's tragic marriage - but for others, it's outright criminal or immoral in the eyes of society. Everywhere you look in the series, characters have a duplicitousness about them, whether out of necessity or design: Simon hides his fragility behind stoicness and strength; the Queen hides her pain behind a front; Lady Whistledown's real identity is massively at odds with her assumed one; Anthony is a Lord seeking order for his family but wrestling with his own desire to escape his duty. And then there is the concept of the second community beneath the surface, where Benedict and Henry Granville can be themselves and embrace counter-culture, where Madame Lacroix doesn't hide behind a false accent and unfortunately where Lord Featherington destroys his life and family.
Lady Whistledown's true mission is cutting through the facades by revealing all of the scandals and the hypocrisy of those who appear one way but contradict their image with their behavior. In this world, the idea of a love match - where two people can be together without pretence or force - is, of course, the purest of things. And even as the show offers a more progressive view of life - where there is more racial equality (than the real historical period) and woman have far more agency (and are in fact the major power players), it's something as simple as the message that love conquers all that shines through loudest. There is, however, a sting in the tale of Bridgerton season one - so the bee is even more pertinent - because it ends up reinforcing some of the most typical tropes of acceptable society. That certainly won't stop it from becoming one of the biggest TV shows of 2020, however.
