‘Bridgerton’ Season 3 Continues to Sideline Kate and Anthony

A large part of Bridgerton’s appeal outside of romance, lavish costumes, stunning dances, and wildly hot people is the anthology structure. It’s what makes romance novels so appealing because they provide a proper form of escapism without ever making us question whether the couple that just got their happy ending will go through some horrific thing that’ll test them. That’s the case here—a happily ever after is guaranteed. However, when it comes to the show, there’s a glaring difference between the way Kate Sharma and Anthony Bridgerton’s show arc is handled compared to other couples. 

It’s impossible not to compare when one couple is quite literally shipped off to another country while others get epilogues celebrating babies and all sorts of milestones. Bridgerton glosses over so much that we just accept it all, but there’s a point where it’s too far and too frustrating. You’re telling me that a pregnant woman will be embarking on a four-month voyage to India? (It takes four months just to get there, folks!) Pregnancies are a risk in 2024, for crying out loud, and you’re telling me Anthony Bridgerton, who fusses over his wife every second, would be super duper chill about traveling!? The same Anthony Bridgerton who watched his mother almost die giving birth to his baby sister? The same Anthony Bridgerton who nearly lost Kate when she fell off a horse while riding, and his entire life flashed before his eyes while he tasted death for the second time in his life?! It’s not only laughable that he’s the one to suggest this, but it’s outright disgusting that this is how the woman of color is treated on the show.

If it was Aubrey Hall, sure—it makes sense. Edwina got married. And what? Let Edwina and her new husband visit her pregnant sister. Why is Kate the one who’s once again putting her life at risk and making herself uncomfortable for other people? As sweet and wholesome as Anthony’s gesture is that he wants their child to know her side of the family and heritage, it doesn’t make sense for her safety and well-being. It’s a mere thoughtless plot device to get rid of the characters once again because the show refuses to give them actual growth that allows us to get to know them better. It’s made worse when showrunners themselves think it’s okay for “the timeline to be unclear” (via Vanity Fair). We’ve apparently solved all sorts of issues like morning sickness, infectious diseases, dangerous weather conditions, and time is now a social construct, too.

We can argue all we want about how Bridgerton Season 2 gave Kate and Anthony a choice, whereas they’re forced into marriage in The Viscount Who Loved Me, but the series doesn’t give us proper chances to really see them as a couple. In the hands of lesser-skilled actors, their arc would be severely lacking. The sole reason the show version is as amazing as it is boils down to how breathtaking Simone Ashley and Jonathan Bailey are as actors. The show doesn’t allow us to get to know the characters properly, but the actors understand them so intimately that they go out of their way to show us details far beyond the words on the page.

I know I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating. What is Kate’s mom’s name? Why couldn’t she say, “My mother’s name is so and so” instead of “My mother has a name” in “An Unthinkable Fate.” Could it be because the show didn’t even bother to give her one? I know everything that there is to know about Penelope Featherington and Simon Basset. I know way too much about Prudence and Philippa. Heck, we know more about Lady Danbury’s side of the family. Why don’t we know what Kate’s father died from? Why don’t we know how old she was?

I had very little expectations for what we’d get between Kate and Anthony in Bridgerton Season 3 and one sex scene plus a pregnancy announcement aren’t nearly enough to give us anything substantial. Scheduling conflicts have nothing to do with this because the logistics of where they go don’t add up. The planning for what we get could’ve been more thoughtful. And it’s outright disrespectful at this point that in the epilogue where we see babies, theirs isn’t there. (Someone, please tell me my eyes deceived me, and it was there.)

We could also talk about how we got scraps for Season 2 press. There are no photoshoots with Bailey and Ashley alone, most interviews included the love triangle, and even the posters were lackluster. There’s no way the pandemic was an excuse in 2022 because other exclusives existed. Choices were made, and I’ll never understand them.

So much of the beauty and warmth we see between Kate and Anthony is entirely because Ashley and Bailey give their all to every performance. They’re showing us the changes in their physicality from the previous season, they’re wearing their hearts on their sleeves, and they’re giving us quiet moments that reveal why they’re so in love with each other. They show us how much they revere each other and how they’re finally at peace because they found their person in life. They bring to life the comfort that’s present in The Viscount Who Loved Me, even when we don’t walk with them every step of the way.

Related Content: Scene Breakdown: Kate and Anthony Discuss Going to India in Bridgerton Season 3

The argument last season was that the show chose to give viewers emotional intimacy instead of a physical one, but it’s not the intimacy that matters here per se; it’s the pacing. It’s the lack of additional information. It’s the fact that we don’t see their milestones, and we barely even hear about them. We don’t see their wedding, we don’t see their bachelor and bachelorette parties, we don’t see the first time they ever moved in together, and we don’t even see the moment they learn they’re pregnant. The quiet moments of intimacy that do matter are shoved aside for drama. Their conversations are always cut way too short, and conversations alone could’ve solved so much.

Again, I really didn’t expect much from Season 3. We got far more than I thought we’d get anyway, but the absolute insolence in this final decision is a heartbreaking slap on the face that stings. It’s a lazy way to part ways with characters, and if we even see them again in Season 4, only time will tell.

Kate Sharma and Anthony Bridgerton deserved better. They deserved a satisfying arc with their milestones celebrated as all other characters get, and it’s just unclear how no one thought this would matter to viewers. If their entire arc this year is about their heir, how do we not get a single shot of baby Edmund? Is Anthony just forgoing all his viscount duties, or have we figured out how to work from home with carrier pigeons, too? It’s all too heartbreaking to sit with when you’re asking for the bare minimum, and even that’s too much.

First Featured Image Credit: Cr. Liam Daniel/Netflix © 2024