Given that the first season of the Netflix series Bridgerton was based on the first volume of Julia Quinn’s romantic saga, it’s no surprise that the recently released second season draws inspiration from the second book, Anthony . While season 1 followed the fourth Bridgerton child, Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), season 2 focuses on the eldest, Anthony ( Jonathan Bailey ), determined to find a wife to fulfill his duties as a viscount.
While the book, The Viscount Who Loved Me , serves as the basis for the new season, the Netflix series is also brimming with events from other Bridgerton books and features numerous original subplots. In addition to significant changes to Anthony’s character, as well as to Kate, the object of his affection, and to the book’s iconic bee scene, this season is notable for the absence of one of the original saga’s most beloved characters. Here’s a rundown of the most striking differences.
Anthony
Thank goodness Anthony’s crushes have calmed down since the first season, and that’s not the only change to the character. The first season already strayed quite a bit from the Anthony of the book by having him fall in love with an opera singer, Siena Rosso ( Sabrina Bartlett ), who ultimately rejects him. Season 2 sees him abandon all hope of love and decide to marry a woman who will properly fulfill the duties of a viscountess and be a good mother to her children.
This voluntary hardening, as we learn through flashbacks and various conversations, is due to having witnessed the sudden death of his father – we will talk about this a little later – and the grief of his mother, to whom he confides that he does not want to cause such pain to anyone.
In the books, Anthony, while happily sleeping with women, refuses to fall in love; his relationship with the opera singer, Maria Rosso, is merely a passing fling. While his father’s death is central to Anthony’s motivation both on screen and in the literary saga, the Netflix series fails to capture the extent to which the character is obsessed with his own mortality: he is convinced, without any justification, that he will die young because he cannot imagine living longer than his father, who perished at 38.
Kate and Edwina
The Netflix series deliberately diversifies the Bridgerton universe by creating an alternate version of the English Regency era in which, as explained in season 1 , Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) introduces racial diversity into the aristocracy. In season 2, the Sheffield family from the book becomes the Sharma-Sheffields, who have come to London from India to enter the marriage market. As in the book, there is Kate, the heroine of Anthony , and her younger half-sister, the beautiful Edwina (though in the book it is specified several times that Edwina is blonde with blue eyes). They are joined by their mother, Mary (Shelley Conn), who married Kate’s father when Kate was very young.
From this point on, the adaptation deviates considerably from the original: while in the book, Kate is already considered an old maid at 21, in the series she is a full 26 and determined never to marry, opting instead to become a governess (in the book, she is not as vehemently opposed to marriage, but she doubts she can find a husband in London and prefers the countryside). The Netflix series forges stronger ties between the Sharma-Sheffields and the Bridgertons, makes the family guests of Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh), and invents animosity between the Queen and Mary because the latter fled the country to marry a man of lower rank.
As in the book, Kate is more interested in finding a husband for Edwina ( Charithra Chandran ) than for herself, but the series introduces a new element: Edwina’s grandparents have promised her a dowry, but only on the condition that she marries an English nobleman.
Despite his unintentional attraction to Kate, who doesn’t take kindly to it, Anthony sets his sights on Edwina, but in the series, he courts her much more than in the book, even walking down the aisle with her. Edwina is a much more active character on screen; while in the book she is more reserved and encourages Kate to be with Anthony, the adaptation creates a love triangle between the three of them, where Edwina, who dreams of marrying Anthony, is furious at not having been informed of their mutual attraction.
The series also omits one of Kate’s most important personality traits: her paralyzing terror of thunderstorms and the tragic reason for this phobia.
Bees
The first season ends with the image of a bee on a windowsill, foreshadowing one of the most memorable scenes in the book Anthony —a scene that will be presented quite differently in the series. In the book, Anthony’s father dies after being stung by a bee, a fact Anthony learns later. On screen, he sees his father get stung and die (it’s very sad and makes Netflix’s buzzing, cheeky ad campaign seem a little odd. A man died, Netflix!).
But that’s not the bee scene I’m talking about. In the book, one of the most tense moments involves Kate being stung on the chest by a bee, and Anthony, traumatized by his father’s death, trying to extract the venom by doing—you guessed it—I’ll let you see for yourself.
They are caught—by their mothers!—in this compromising position and are therefore forced to marry to preserve Kate’s honor. If this sounds familiar, it’s because it’s more or less what happens to Simon and Daphne in season 1 (minus the bee), which probably explains why the writers of Bridgerton decided to make a radical change to avoid repetition: in the series, Kate is indeed stung by a bee, Anthony panics and touches her chest, but there’s no venom sucking and no one catches them, so they aren’t forced to marry. A major difference that occurs relatively early and has a decisive influence on the plot of the entire season.
This change to the book’s most memorable (and ridiculous) scene might disappoint Julia Quinn fans , but the series doesn’t shy away from maximizing the dramatic tension at other times. For example, Kate has a horseback riding accident, loses consciousness, and it’s at this moment that Anthony realizes how much she means to him. In the book, she’s involved in a car accident while with Edwina and her suitor—but by this point, she and Anthony are already married, and she escapes with a leg injury.
The other Bridgerton
The other Bridgerton offspring, named in alphabetical order, need to be kept busy while they wait their turn to fall in love and get married in future seasons; so the series invents new subplots just for them.
Benedict goes to art school to draw nude women and gets high with his brother. Colin, struggling to find meaning in his life after his travels around the world, returns to court Marina Thompson, who appeared in the first season, and whose marriage to her lover’s brother isn’t exactly ideal. As for Eloise, she dabbles in political radicalism by attending a meeting and flirting with a low-level clerk at a print shop—and ends up being suspected of being the gossip columnist Lady Whistledown.
The Featherington
Season 2 picks up where the Featherington subplot left off in the first season, with Mr. Featherington’s death, leaving the women of the family burdened with debt and awaiting the arrival of a new male heir. This subplot was created specifically for the adaptation, and its continuation—involving the new heir and his schemes with Mrs. Featherington—is equally original.
Another narrative thread in season 1 reveals in the very last episode that Lady Whistledown is actually Penelope Featherington – a revelation that appears premature since in the book, readers and other characters do not discover her identity until the fourth book, Colin .
In season 2, because the queen suspects Eloise of being Lady Whistledown, Penelope writes a column that damages Eloise’s reputation to prove that it is not her, which leads to a rift between the two characters when Eloise discovers her identity.
Simon
Fans of the first season may be disappointed that Simon, played by Regé-Jean Page, doesn’t make a single appearance in the second. Although he doesn’t have a major role in the book, he attends the croquet game with his wife, Daphne. In the series, Daphne mentions Simon from time to time, but the Duke doesn’t appear, and she watches the croquet game alone. Regé-Jean Page was only contracted for one season, and apparently, he has no regrets .