'Bridgerton' Season 3 Answers a Major Question From 'Queen Charlotte' (2024)

Editor's note: The below contains spoilers for Bridgerton Season 3 Part 2.

The Bridgerton cinematic universe feels like it's constantly expanding. With the recent release of the back half of Season 3, the show has at last revealed how the latest batch of Bridgertons fared in their introduction to society, solidifying Colin (Luke Newton) and Penelope's (Nicola Coughlan) love story while also teasing a queer future for Francesca (Hannah Dodd). Last year's Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story likewise explored the life and love of the show's incomparable monarch, connecting the events of Bridgerton's spin-off to its main characters by showcasing the backstories of supporting roles like Brimsley (Hugh Sachs), but one of the show's most surprising plotlines was that of the affair between Violet Bridgerton's (Ruth Gemmell) father and Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh). And while Queen Charlotte hints at the Bridgerton matriarch's suspicions, the Bridgerton Season 3 finale has finally confirmed that Violet knows about her father's infidelity.

Beginning just after Agatha's first husband, Lord Herman Danbury (Cyril Nri), dies on the night of their first successful ball, Queen Charlotte plants the first seeds of Lady Danbury's (Arsema Thomas) affair when she meets Lord Ledger (Keir Charles) on walks around her property during her mourning period. The two begin by making mundane observations about the songs of starlings, but their conversations quickly grow to encapsulate Lady Danbury's dissatisfaction with her life and culminate with Lord Ledger gifting Agatha one of his famous paper hats for her birthday. A series of intimate encounters follow and abruptly end, causing Agatha to hide her lover's hat as a closely guarded secret, but Bridgerton Season 3 finally acknowledges Lady Danbury's empowering relationship in a way that reaffirms the show's focus on positive female friendships.

Bridgerton

TV-MA

Drama

Romance

Set in the glamorous world of Regency London, the Bridgerton family maneuvers through the opulent and treacherous landscape of high society. Daphne Bridgerton, the family's eldest daughter, enters the marriage market, sparking a whirlwind romance with the enigmatic Duke of Hastings.

Release Date

December 25, 2020

Creator

Chris Van Dusen

Cast

Rege-Jean Page , Julie Andrews , Jonathan Bailey , Ruth Gemmell , Polly Walker , Golda Rosheuvel , Phoebe Dynevor , Simone Ashley , Luke Newton , Nicola Coughlan

Main Genre

Drama

Seasons

3

Studio

Netflix

Creator(s)

Chris Van Dusen

Lady Danbury’s Affair Teaches Her To Fight for Herself in ‘Queen Charlotte’

The importance of Lady Danbury's affair cannot be understated. At the time it begins, Agatha is reeling from having lived her entire life at the direction of her first husband, a self-centered man whose own complicated history with Britain's royals never justifies his improper treatment of his wife. Queen Charlotte's worst Danbury delights in sleeping with Agatha violently while she's facing away from him. He also takes credit for many of his wife's great accomplishments in the series, such as when Agatha procures their estate in London, which Lord Danbury assumes was only given because the Crown finally recognized his worth. Agatha's affair with Lord Ledger, on the other hand, allows her to reclaim control of her sexuality and explore her honest emotions for the first time in the second half of Queen Charlotte's first season.

When Agatha and Violet's father are intimate, Agatha seizes the chance to finally carve some empowering intimacy out of their relationship. Although it seems like a minor change for her, one of the most important moments in this affair is when Agatha claims the top position while having sex with Lord Ledger, refusing to stare mindlessly at her ceiling anymore. Instead, Agatha finds the strength to assert herself in the company of Violet's father, seizing the guiding role in their physical dynamic while also reversing the submissive gender norms expected of Bridgerton's female characters. As a result, Agatha's relationship with Lord Ledger teaches Lady Danbury how to act on her authentic desires, feelings she was never granted by the domineering lust of her first husband.

The affair also enables the young Lady Danbury to pursue her honest feelings about the world with someone who actually cares to hear what she has to say. In contrast to Queen Charlotte's scenes depicting Agatha being uncomfortably penetrated by her husband, the scenes involving Agatha and Violet's father are sweet because they rely upon insightful dialogue about both characters' lives. Rather than appearing together only for social functions or because of Lord Danbury's insistence that his physical cravings are met, Agatha and Lord Ledger only ever see one another when they are not expected to appear together at all.

The pair's walks allow Agatha to experience true companionship for the first time in her life, and the awakening that she experiences with Lord Ledger later allows her to realize it is independence she craves above all else. This lesson enables Lady Danbury to turn down Adolphus's proposal in Queen Charlotte's finale, choosing herself over another man who will turn her into a fixture of his own court, but she doesn't shut herself off completely. Notably, Lady Danbury keeps the hat that Lord Ledger gave her through the present Bridgerton timeline, demonstrating how she cherished her memories of Violet's father, even if she never gets the chance to tell Violet that in Queen Charlotte.

'Bridgerton's Reveal Illustrates the Show’s Strong Female Friendships

Queen Charlotte uses one of its final scenes to broach the subject of Lord Ledger's infidelity very subtly, with Violet never revealing the extent to which she knows about her father's affair with Lady Danbury. Instead, the pair's interaction focuses on the hat that Lord Ledger gave Agatha, using Lady Danbury's decision over whether she should get rid of it as a symbolic rendering of Agatha's ability to continue honoring her past relationship with him. Violet's approval for Agatha to keep the hat signifies her own ability to come to peace with her understanding of events, providing a very understated conclusion to the storyline in Queen Charlotte. Thankfully, Violet and Agatha's second conversation about Lord Ledger is much more direct in Bridgerton Season 3, one which features such a mutual understanding between the two women that underscores the strength of their relationship.

While Lady Danbury doesn't mention anything about the affair directly, she finally does ask Violet a direct question about whether Bridgerton's matriarch truly knows what happened. Moreover, while Violet's initial reaction to discovering the affair was reserved and somewhat cool during the ending of Queen Charlotte, here Violet is nothing but understanding. Rather than ask Agatha spiteful questions about why she and Lord Ledger did what they did, Violet reaffirms her own connection to her family by insisting her father was a good man and Lady Danbury has been a good friend. Lady Danbury does the same in reaffirming her connection to Violet and her approval of the woman's relationship with Lady Danbury's brother, confirming to fans that both women knew each other's minds all along while offering a rare glimpse at how compassionate friends can eclipse the scandal of Bridgerton's most improper relationships.

In a world where women like Cressida constantly try to put other women down in order to elevate their own prospects, the lack of judgment shown by either Lady Danbury or Violet constitutes a heartwarming instance of loyalty in the face of impropriety. Opting to depict how friends can overcome the losses of their past together, Bridgerton's decision to make amends instead of scandal marks just one more instance where the show celebrates female friendship in Season 3. The reunion of Eloise and Penelope during Bridgerton Season 3 also furthers this theme, with the pair's reconciliation after the fallout from Lady Whistledown's true identity demonstrating that Bridgerton's friendships can bear the brunt of any secret, so long as both parties are open to hearing it.

The latest batch of episodes proves the importance of transparency in relationships by having Lady Danbury and Violet finally open up to one another about the secrets of their past, confronting Lord Ledger's role in both women's lives. By continuing to address the legacy of Agatha's insightful relationship from Queen Charlotte, Bridgerton's Season 3 finale reveals both ladies' acceptance of one another with a startling lack of serious judgment, giving both the opportunity to continue their matchmaking mischief in future seasons. In a fictional world filled with constant love triangles and marriage pacts, the emphasis placed on women's friendship confirms that not all couples need to be a love match, and sometimes there's nothing better than finding someone willing to wear a silly paper hat.

Bridgerton Season 3 is currently streaming on Netflix in the U.S.

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