Thursday, August 11, 2022

Understanding an Obsession With Kate & Anthony: Part Two

 

The pull between Kate and Anthony proves much too strong. 

On my thirteenth day of Bridgerton season two obsession, this part two analysis on Kate and Anthony chronicles episodes five through eight— the crucial milestones (and roadblocks) made along their journey towards love. 


Kate (Simone Ashley) is beautiful in a low cut teal gown and soft curls framing her face as Anthony strides in the room in An Unthinkable Fate directed by Tom Verica aka Sam Keating from How To Get Away With Murder and written by Abby McDonald. DP: Jeffrey Jur.

As Kate daydreams of Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) passionately whispering her name, he passes by her, greeting only with a short “Miss Sharma” and a head nod. DP: Jeffrey Jur. 

Even Kate and Anthony’s hands ache to touch— this is one of the important symbols of this episode. They hold/touch hands on two separate occasions. DP: Jeffrey Jur. 

An Unthinkable Fate, the jealousy heavy episode five, begins with Kate’s uncontrollable desire for her future brother-in-law. At Queen Charlotte’s palace, Kate’s stimulating memories of Aubrey Hall are seen through the perspective of a woman quietly deciphering unrequited passions alone with no outlet to explore them. As usual, Kate pushes every emotion within, the newly awakening desire threatening to devour her. Only Lady Danbury sees her struggle. This would have been a wonderful opportunity to expand on Kate and Lady Mary’s relationship—  incompletely developed from the book. Yes, Kate is twenty-six. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t need motherly guidance to explain her conflict. As Kate fans herself, in comes Anthony striding through none the wiser at what ails her. Kate and Anthony’s nearly brushing fingers for five scorching seconds is degrees hotter than Anthony kissing Edwina’s hand— the very hand he has mistakenly chosen to marry. Kate has to force a decent composure (in the Queen Charlotte’s presence no less, poor woman) as her stormy thoughts and envy for Edwina overwhelm her. Later, we see Kate is not alone in her suffering—a strained Anthony’s in great agony in his bathtub.


Thankfully Mr. Brooks, the makeshift chaperone, is too occupied with lemon cake— otherwise Kate wouldn’t have the gall to speak freely about the startling events at Aubrey Hall to Anthony. DP: Jeffrey Jur. 

At least their hands, however short the time, sought the other as Anthony appreciates his father’s ring on Kate’s finger. Nothing else seems so right. DP: Jeffrey Jur. 

Ugh. The tender clasping… DP: Jeffrey Jur. 

The very next day Kate questions why Anthony is going through with marrying her sister after what passed between them at Aubrey Hall— the events still repeatedly playing in her mind, driving her to maddening distraction. Also, since it was so imperative for Anthony to receive Kate’s blessing in the first place, she does bring up a valid point. 

“Would the two of us being obliged to marry be the outcome that you desire?” Anthony asks.

“Of course not,” Kate answers quickly, clearly in denial. 

Woman, you’ve been thinking about that man since you came back to the Danbury house. 

Perhaps Anthony is bating Kate to admit her feelings despite his insistence nothing happened at Aubrey Hall, nothing happened in that library. He knows that she was raised to be a lady. She is still an innocent. She doesn’t understand what has been slowly building between them as her earlier resolve to hate him dissolves and softens. Instead of following Daphne’s advice to follow his heart, Anthony has ushered him and Kate into this detrimental predicament aka the real unthinkable fate — sentencing Edwina into a loveless union. Once the absentminded jeweler Mr. Brooks makes Kate try on Edmund’s ring, the consequences of Anthony’s actions become even more apparent. Immediately, Anthony’s voice drops to a low timbre as his fingers provocatively stroke the meaningful band on Kate’s finger; this tender caressing similar to him holding Edmund’s book in the two-minute library scene. It subtly suggests that Kate is the woman Anthony should have proposed to regardless if he thought she would reject him. 

As Lady Violet (Ruth Gemmell) and Edwina (Charithra Chandran) discuss Edwina’s favorite colors, a possessed Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) watches Kate as though no one else exists in the world. DP: Jeffrey Jur. 

Not another man being the cause of Kate’s luminous smile— Anthony was hating it. DP: Jeffrey Jur. 

Jealousy bites the hell out of Anthony when Thomas Dorset chances by the promenading Bridgerton and Sharma families. Lady Danbury forces Kate to accept Thomas’s request for a turn around the lake. Anthony watches them so hard that his ears have magically heightened Kate’s faraway laughter over Lady Violet and Edwina’s close range conversation. While Anthony’s envy threatens to get the best of him in front of a huge summertime crowd, it is pleasant to see the brooding Kate come out of heartache’s painful shell. Kate openly expresses her desires of returning to India with Thomas, giving just a slight insight into her life before coming to London. The writers certainly missed an opportunity to also have Kate share this world to Anthony as well— her swimming with the turtles sounded refreshingly sweet and lovely. The sore lack of longer intimate conversations and screen time between Kate and Anthony overall hurts the season anyway. They spend more time with other characters than each other. Yes, it is absolutely delicious that Kate talks a good game about a free, independent life, her gaze straying towards Anthony— who still stares at her from afar. The excruciating part is incessantly stalling Kate and Anthony’s journey.

Anthony was not about to let Thomas touch Kate’s bare hand— especially after the prior experience of his father’s ring on her finger. Once Anthony helps Kate out of the boat, their fingers linger longer than propriety allots. DP: Jeffrey Jur. 

How Edwina (Charithra Chandran) did not notice Kate (Simone Ashley) staring directly at Anthony and not Thomas is beyond strange. DP: Jeffrey Jur.

Triangles are silly, often lopsided plot devices. Kate was worthy of a kind, gentle someone paying favor to her. Anthony broke this woman’s heart after all. Heck, Thomas apologizes for his part in Anthony’s horse race scheme— something of which Anthony himself never expresses a sorry for. Yes, Kate wants to return to India quite badly. Wouldn’t it be delightful if another soul compelled Kate to stay in London? To feel all the joys that the city could also provide her and not just her noble born sister? It is still odd that no one ever compliments Kate’s beauty and manner either. Everyone tells Edwina that she is “beautiful and lovely” in almost every episode. Kate receives nothing of the sort. If Thomas obtained another scene with Kate, maybe he would have told her so. After Thomas and Anthony accidentally fall into the water together, Thomas is never seen or mentioned again. Perhaps Thomas saw the way Kate ogled Anthony’s sheer wet shirt and decided not to pursue her further. 

Lady Mary (Shelley Conn) tells Kate (Simone Ashley) that she does not regret choosing love over her family foreshadowing the inevitable. DP: Jeffrey Jur. 

The later Sheffield dinner becomes a vile, awkward mess. Lady Mary’s parents barely acknowledge Kate— adding more pain and humiliation for her throughout this whole dreadful engagement. Lady Mary defends herself against them. Unfortunately, Kate’s deal with the devilish Sheffields comes to light and she is painted a villain to all at the table including the Sheffields who have never welcomed Kate— as both child and adult. Lady Mary and Edwina are both horrified and blast Kate. Still, Lady Mary had to know that her family was in a dire situation. She could not be that ignorant about their finances. Edwina, yes. But Lady Mary? C’mon. After Anthony bravely stands up for the Sharma family and boots out the Sheffields, he and his mother also take their leave. Here he is coldly dismissive to a pleading Edwina. Yet when a breathless Kate begs to speak with him, Anthony gives in to her request. In the drawing room—shot metaphorically well— Anthony and Kate passionately declare their feelings for each other. The torment is risen alarmingly high— the pants, the whispers, the close faces, him touching her. Anthony, who may have drunk some of Colin and Benedict’s special tea, starkly makes it plain that he does not want to marry Edwina, not when such a marriage eternally binds him to Kate in a way that does not suit them. How could Kate not swoon by Anthony’s utterly poetic revelation? A man who once considered himself not to believe in poetry? These two stubborn individuals bent on not finding love have reached the climatic crossroads in which love has indeed found them and wants them to give in to the lasting, inexplicit temptation of it. Instead of confessing her feelings for Anthony to her sister, however, Kate lets herself be blindsided by Edwina admitting her own manufactured love for Anthony. Edwina does not love Anthony. She loves the role of the viscountess. Ever dutiful Kate who doesn’t take her mother’s sound advice decides to make a foolish sacrifice. 

However, did Kate have the willpower to sleep with Anthony’s ardent words embedded in her conscious:

“You are the bane of my existence... and the object of all my desires.”

A funny Anthony tweet about that dinner!

Anthony and Kate meet in the dawn at the park of their introductory meeting. Kate calls him by his given name for the first time, but not in another loving testament. She wants him to marry her sister and forget their alarmingly wonderful potential. She actually believes what they feel will become “tenable.” What were the writers thinking with this awful rubbish? It was so unnecessary, so wrong. If you love your sister so much, you would tell her the truth. Not sentence her to a loveless marriage, especially to a man who worships the ground you walk on. Anthony already has no self control over the lilies filling up his flailing nostrils whenever Kate walks by. Anthony also confessed he would be wanting Kate every single day and night of his existence. If she were to ever leave for India, he would likely follow her there. Edwina, though juvenile and unseeing, does not deserve that. If only, they allowed Edwina to have other suitors, have Lord Lumley supply her with more articulately recited Lord Byron. Bring in Mr. Bagwell early on. It was a colossal mistake having Edwina center Kate and Anthony’s story— an otherwise remarkable romance stained with their rare conversations cruelly framed around the annoyingly redundant “your sister.” 

In The Choice, episode six, directed by Tom Verica and written by Lou-Lou Igbokwe, Edwina complains about Anthony’s lack of looking at her. Kate tells her that love is the meeting of souls dancing; hiding the fact that she is forfeiting her own happiness for Edwina. DP: Jeffrey Jur. 

With the eventual strife rising between Kate and Edwina, it is pretty depressing that Kate would probably not receive this same ceremony for her own wedding to Anthony— an event that happened offscreen. DP: Jeffrey Jur. 

Colin (Luke Newton) and Benedict (Luke Thompson) make a toast to Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) “besting the sister.” Anthony drinks to it. He doesn’t appear pleased at all. DP: Jeffrey Jur.

When Edwina says she wishes Anthony could witness their pre-wedding ritual, it conjures an irresistible thought of Anthony seeing Kate in this golden dress, her skin smeared in turmeric. He would likely die on the spot. DP: Jeffrey Jur. 

Despite Anthony thinking about Kate, staring at Kate, and picking up Kate’s dropped bangle on Edwina’s wedding dress train, The Choice, episode six aka the doomed wedding, is a terrible waste of time— a corny, unsatisfactory plot. Honestly, it never should have gotten this far. The ceremony takes what should have been Anthony and Kate alone. Once Edwina realizes Anthony and Kate are in love (they do a poor job of hiding their emotions at the altar), she runs down the aisle before vows can be exchanged. Again, Edwina and Mary take another united front against Kate. While Anthony is surrounded by his disappointed family, these brutally ugly and uncomfortable Sharma family scenes upstart Kate’s painful loneliness in a closet, ultimately highlighting her shame induced ostracism. Yes, Kate begged Anthony to go on with this charade— a charade of his own making— but she certainly didn’t deserve to be called a “half-sister,” an abrasive remark that vengeful Edwina never apologizes for. The whole Edwina character seems hastily rewritten too— so offended by Anthony not loving her when it has been implied since episode two. Kate had been warning this chit from the beginning. Also, why did they have Anthony call Kate a thorn to Edwina? That was an interesting decision. 

By the end, Edwina rejects Anthony and claims “victory over Kate” in that she makes up her own mind. In reality, since Anthony’s honest speech at the Danbury soirée, Edwina saw no other suitors to pursue. She just wanted Anthony; easily swayed by mechanical gestures. She chose him herself against Kate’s wishes. Anthony had been speaking of duty the entire time never once declaring love and passion. Edwina chose not to see Anthony was trying to best Kate. Although Anthony and Kate’s game became one in which they were both winners (of each other), putting Edwina in the middle was a dangerous price to pay. Why did the writers choose to taint Anthony and Kate’s love in the most insufferable way by adding Edwina? 

Everyone leaves, having learned that the wedding is called off. Kate and Anthony are alone in the church. 

Anthony daydreams of Kate as his gorgeous bride. DP: Jeffrey Jur. 

Too bad the season did not grant audiences a perfect wedding for Kate and Anthony. Perhaps there will be special flashback inserted in season three? DP: Jeffrey Jur.

Anthony picks up the bangles Kate’s mother has given her in an astonishing scene that speaks volumes to everyone mostly Edwina. DP: Jeffrey Jur.

After previous episodes of Kate and Anthony standing close to one another, breathing hard, they finally kiss— and right at the altar! This kiss is well worth the wait for the build up was extremely intense. With Kate and Anthony’s feverishly yearning looks and desperate fingers seeking the other since returning from Aubrey Hall, the ravenous meeting of mouths simply rejoiced near heaven. The kiss speaks of riveting passion and smoldering flame. Kate greedily digs in Anthony’s hair while Anthony clutches at her back, their relief and bliss the most honest they’ve ever been to each other. The failed nuptials pushed them into the direction that these two pining souls had been wanting practically forever. Who cares if it inappropriate to be tearing each other up in the church at the very place Anthony set to wed? They desperately needed to take this step— a step that could no longer be self contained. How Kate and Anthony managed to eventually leave the church and return to their respective homes after giving into their emotions remains an unsolved mystery. 

Kate and Anthony’s long awaited kiss bursts with utmost urgency. DP: Jeffrey Jur. 

In Harmony, episode seven, directed by the brilliant Cheryl Dunn and written by Oliver Goldstick, Kate is reliving her first kiss with Anthony a million times. DP: Jeffrey Jur. 

Anthony is also thinking about it— a man so different, so changed from this season’s first episode highlighting his rakish behavior. Now he is pining away, yearning for the woman who has stolen his heart in the very bed she would soon join him in. DP: Jeffrey Jur. 

Kate tracing her lips from the memory of Anthony is a sweet demonstration of an innocent woman’s descent into yearning for further tutelage in the seductive arts. Ah, the ways Anthony could teach her… DP: Jeffrey Jur. 

Harmony, the seventh episode, moves Kate and Anthony’s snail paced story forward. Highlights include Newton accepting Anthony, the fun family dance, the gazebo, and the rain accident. As both families undergo a most humiliating promenade, Anthony and Kate share a tormented stare from across the cutting crowd. Much later, at the Danbury house, they sit next to each other, silently enduring Edwina’s constant barbs and frowns. Newton comes crashing in— greeting Anthony first. It is extremely adorable. They both tell the corgi “out” and immediately their magnetic bodies incline towards one another. Of course, Lady Danbury breaks them up with her cane. A complaining Edwina whines, “was I truly that blind?” No one cares. Lady Danbury and Lady Violet then plan a ball at the Bridgerton house because that’s what these people do— throw extravagant parties. 

Kate’s beloved Newton (Austin) now adores Anthony— wish we saw more between these three. DP: Jeffrey Jur.

Kate and Anthony act as though no one else exists in a room that also contains Lady Danbury, Lady Mary, Lady Violet, and Edwina “was I truly that blind” Sharma. DP: Jeffrey Jur.

At the art gallery, Lady Mary admits to Anthony that she ultimately became a Lady Violet— leaving Kate alone to support her family due to overwhelming grief. While Lady Mary and Lady Violet allowed the gnawing sadness to overtake their lives, they forgot that their children were grieving too. Anthony and Kate were forced to grow up faster and take on familial responsibility. Perhaps like Anthony, Kate’s thoughts on love changed the moment her father died too. Meanwhile, Edwina continues making Kate feel low and guilty. The character change is unbearably hard. Yes, Edwina is hurting, but so was Kate who shouldn’t have bottled her feelings as though they did not matter.  Sadly, Edwina is the only person Kate cannot snap back at. Kate looks utterly defeated, almost dead, taking her sister’s insults inside herself. Anthony is the concerned party, ironically finding her beside the embracing sculpture. Anthony longs to speak about their kisses. A melancholic Kate mirrors Anthony’s “nothing happened in that library” from An Unthinkable Fate stoically responding with “nothing happened between us.” Kate also says “we should be ashamed,” sucking the joy from Anthony’s face. Thus, Kate’s anguish over her actions— torn between sisterly obligation and Cupid’s heart piercing arrow— grows and grows as Edwina continues making callous remarks, inciting Kate’s guilt. Kate has never uttered a single mar against Edwina, but Edwina deliberately abuses Kate over and over. Talk about a brutal character switch. Yes, Edwina is hurt. She feels betrayed. Yet how does constantly belittling Kate make Edwina a bigger, rootable person? Kate needs a real consolatory friend, someone to tell her that everything will be alright and embrace her. 

Anthony has lost all his senses thanks to Kate’s lily smell just as he is in the book. DP: Jeffrey Jur. 

Anthony— who after coincidentally spying Lady Mary, Lady Violet, and Lady Danbury engaged in the same sculpture— hunts for Kate. He tries to talk to her through the embracing marble figures which powerfully represents torturous remembrances of their kisses. DP: Jeffrey Jur.

No one attends the Bridgerton ball. Joy ensues anyway! Before Benedict even tries escaping to his studio, a lighthearted Anthony forces him to stay and dance, even inviting Hyacinth and Gregory (sweetly watching at the top of the stairs) to join in for a rowdy country dance. It is such a terrific scene— everyone including Lady Violet, Lady Danbury, and Lady Mary dancing together and switching partners with the young people. Anthony and Kate light up and smile, temporarily restored from their private miseries, their failed duties. When they share their second ever dance, their wide, affectionate grins are quite contagious. This sweet, happy side of Anthony is a result of Kate— a woman who brings fun, laughter, and rebellion in his world. By fully relishing in the carefree nature of this event, Kate, who never felt worthy of such feelings, appears to have let down her guard for the man she couldn’t help falling for. It is not desire and passion uniting Anthony and Kate together— it is like she said prior to the wedding— “love is two souls dancing.” 

Kate and Anthony share the final round of the group square dance in each other’s arms. It is one of the first times Kate has actually smiled and laughed in this episode. DP: Jeffrey Jur. 

Unfortunately, a catty, vindictive Edwina spoils Kate’s uplifted mood— telling her that “I am not the coldhearted one, you are.” Wow. The sisters’ fallout remains fraught with difficulty. Yes, Kate sacrificed far too much for her family including putting up her whole heart in the bargain. Throughout this torturous saga, Kate continuously placed Edwina’s happiness above her own. Like Anthony, Kate situates herself at the bottom of her personal hierarchy. Ironically, Edwina’s brash attitude mirrors the old, rebellious Kate. Thus,  was the childish, entitled, doll-like Edwina of earlier ever a real person? Was that Edwina a manufactured invention of Kate’s misguided calculations? 

When Kate goes outside towards the lovely gazebo for fresh air and peace after enduring another of Edwina’s verbal jabs, Anthony is also outside— reflecting on his own family’s struggles. Sadly, both the Bridgerton and Sharma families are on the brink of societal ruin due to Anthony and Kate denying themselves what they truly wanted. If Anthony had stopped his hypocrisy, took Daphne’s advice correctly, followed his heart, and proposed to Kate, they maybe would have been together sooner. If Kate had told Edwina and Lady Mary about her growing feelings, Anthony and Kate would not be wallowing in self pity as the entire ton shunned and cut their families. 

Yet Kate and Anthony cannot seem to have an honest heart to heart without arguing.

Their spat soon becomes infused with invisible smoke. 


After a heated argument and refusing to “go back inside,” Kate and Anthony travel down the fiery hot road of no return. DP: Jeffrey Jur.

Kate simply does not care about the societal rules and takes all that Anthony gives her right on the family property. DP: Jeffrey Jur. 

The love scene contains very sensuous provocation, but it is a questionable choice to have flashing snippets instead of a long, drawn out exploration between two people finally using their bodies to convey pent up emotion. They’ve been wanting each other for months. After sharing fervent kisses on the altar, they were more than ready to enter the next phase. It took a few blush inducing rewatches (for research purposes) to fully understand and appreciate what Anthony, the notorious rake, was doing with Kate. Although people were upset by some parts of the Capital R Rake episode, it definitely showcased Anthony’s mediocre discarding of female bodies which contrasts against him losing all his control as he worships Kate romantically surrounded in flowers. 

Another issue with Harmony’s short love scene is that no one notices Kate and Anthony have disappeared. In fact, they have seemingly spent the whole night outdoors in the open air without error. Kate is even able to return home unscathed. Thus, this may be a glaring editing issue, seeing as the writers squeezed in a happy ending in these last two episodes. The book itself is majorly Kate and Anthony’s married life, but the series uses that particular fact as a footnote— a missed opportunity to see Kate in a real (not imaginary) wedding dress surrounded by the large Bridgerton family. 

The look of a fallen woman. Kate decides to ride out in the storm likely because she is both afraid and passionately frustrated. DP: Jeffrey Jur.

After finally getting a good night’s rest, our insomniac Anthony takes out his father’s ring again. Honestly, Anthony is better off selecting another ring fit for Kate— a ring that symbolizes his love for her. The audience will never forget the that Edwina wore it first after thrusting her glove at Kate. DP: Jeffrey Jur. 

In The Viscount Who Loved Me, episode eight directed by Cheryl Dunn and written by Jess Brownell, Anthony witnesses Kate fall off her horse and the consequences appear worse than Kate’s bee sting at Aubrey Hall. In front of Anthony’s eyes, destiny repeats trauma. DP: Jeffrey Jur.

The Viscount Who Loved Me, the eighth and final episode, tries to squeeze in as much as possible. Anthony carries Kate in the pouring rain like a true romance novel hero. This full circle moment of Anthony once again witnessing someone he loves in great peril leaves him paralyzed with fear and regret. So torn and afraid that Kate will face the same fate as his father, Anthony cannot bring himself to visit his comatose love. When Kate awakens, she is hurt that Anthony has not visited her. Anthony’s tearful joy at learning that Kate is alive (after a week in a coma) is beyond tender, heightened further by his mother’s apology for abandoning him due to her own private grief. When Lady Violet tells Anthony to go to the woman he loves, Anthony does just that. Anthony brings Kate tulips (the symbol of true love) and apologizes for taking liberties, proposing without including the correct three little words. A pained Kate is back on her “I’m returning to India” refrain, a humorous song as tired as Anthony’s “I am a gentleman.” Time is running out too fast for this ridiculous hold up.

Lady Violet, who has been disappointed with Anthony for most of the season, finally apologizes for her part in his refusal to find love. She encourages her son to follow his heart, to stop fighting what has been between him and Kate since their horse race in the park. DP: Jeffrey Jur.


Anthony brings Kate tulips, but his marriage proposal lacks finesse. DP: Jeffrey Jur.

Kate and Anthony’s third and final dance is incredible. In a crowded judgmental room, Anthony instructs Kate to keep her eyes on him. She matches him step by step, making no mistake. That moment their joined hands slowly falls down their faces, the pure angst in their eyes is beyond powerful, moving. By now, the whole ton knows that Kate and Anthony are in love. Kate and Anthony’s every gesture broadcasts it. Queen Charlotte saves the night by forcing everyone else to join them. At the end, their hands are still together— it is simply poignant and powerful. Afterwards, outside in the gardens, Anthony and Kate confess their love to each other— which means that the trunks that Kate has packed for India will instead be for staying in London. Yes!!!!

“Just know that there never be a day that you will not vex me,” Kate says. 

“Is that a promise, Kathani Sharma?” Anthony asks. 

“I believe it is.” 

At the Featherington Ball, Anthony asks Kate to dance— “one last time.” DP: Jeffrey Jur.

Their romance is suggested through every move they make shocking the ton. DP: Jeffrey Jur. 

Kate’s eyes looking into Anthony’s reveals everything. DP: Jeffrey Jur.

Does anyone else even exist in that ballroom? DP: Jeffrey Jur.

The series ends on a criminally short peak of Kate and Anthony’s newlywed bliss. They’re in bed, spent and happy as can be, the smiling becoming a permanent fixture on their once suppressed faces. The Bridgerton’s certainly seem pleased with the new viscountess, especially Daphne— who had been trying to get her brother to see reason this entire season. During the family pall mall game, which thankfully excludes Edwina, Kate effortlessly grabs the black mallet of death and Anthony settles for pink. They flirt without shame in front of Kate’s new, very welcoming family— the family that she always deserved. Anthony and Kate then reward us with one of the loveliest kisses ever filmed. How many times has these beautiful seconds been rewound? Infinitely. 

Season two’s cons: we desperately needed Kate’s memories of India, of her upbringing. The first season gave flashbacks of The Duke of Hastings’ whole life including his childhood stuttering, but the writers refused to capitalize on Kate’s story. Kate and Anthony’s scenes together are not as much as they should be. They are the leads yet barely spend time together onscreen, much less have lengthy conversations. It was also very disappointing to have a relationship between sisters— South Asian sisters at that— carelessly destroyed. 

Kate and Anthony kiss with her holding the black mallet of death and he holding the pink one. Absolute perfection. DP: Jeffrey Jur.

Without the exceptional talents of Jonathan Bailey and Simone Ashley bringing the undeniable chemistry between Anthony Bridgerton and Kate Sharma to life, we would have never believed in this harrowingly romantic portrayal. It is their fault we’re obsessed. It is their fault we’re stuck in a chokehold clutch. Bailey and Ashley encourage rewatching for the little nuances, the little things that may have been missed. They make you want to become a poet, a novelist on just the staring game alone. It takes commendable skill for actors to use their eyes to push a story along. In addition to the romantic element, the humor was top notch. They just make you burst out laughing— tears and all. Hopefully, Bridgerton wins that cast SAG Award next year and everything else that comes their way. While the romance genre rarely gets a look at during awards show season, especially when the material is lighter fare than something like Outlander, Bailey and Ashley are the main reason why viewers keep repeatedly tuning in. That must count for something. 

Kate and Anthony better have a lot of screen time next season. The Kate & Anthony stories on YouTube prove that this nearly 8 hour second season barely contained the true leads— a huge oversight. DP: Jeffrey Jur.

I never thought I would actually be among those anticipating season three. Yet here I am— anticipating season three with the rest of y’all. In the meantime, between rewatching the series again, Kate and Anthony fanfiction eases the wait— which is when? Next year? I highly recommend Jenna Green’s adaptation of the streaming series— the writer includes the show action and adds bonus content that explain missing plots.

While the Kate and Anthony fever still runs rapid within many of us, the Bridgerton showrunners ought to do us a courtesy by releasing their cut and extended scenes. We know they exist. 



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