When it comes to Guildford Dudley and Jane Grey’s relationship in My Lady Jane, much of it centers around the two of them continually giving one another hope in varying ways. Jane does this initially when she agrees to help him find the Ethian cure and once more when she voices that she doesn’t want a divorce despite the circumstances. Guildford returns this admiration by giving her every part of him while vowing to protect her ceaselessly.
In My Lady Jane Season 1, Episode 5, “I’m Gonna Change the World,” they give and take in equal measure by finally consummating their marriage on their own terms and choosing to stay beside each other through everything. And while their first time is one of the most poignantly endearing parts of the series, it’s Guildford’s gift before her coronation banquet that speaks volumes. Here, she doesn’t yet know that he’s the one who accidentally killed his mother—that confession comes later. But she knows exactly how difficult this is because Guildford begged her not to make him talk about the day she died. And looking back, it makes sense that he’d feel compelled to do this even before she accepts him as he is because he loves her enough to know that she is the last bit of hope left in his life.
Guildford tells her as much right after when he remarks that he lived his life carelessly before her. He made far from honorable choices, and he never once gave every part of himself to someone else. It speaks volumes that he does this before fully opening up later because it shows viewers so much of his heart already. He feels comfortable enough with Jane to give her a part of himself that means the world, even when she doesn’t quite realize it.
Related Content: Relationship Deep Dive: Jane Grey and Guildford Dudley
A family heirloom is always precious, but My Lady Jane takes it one step further by allowing this moment to be about something bigger. It’s about showcasing yet another moment of vulnerability that both Emily Bader and Edward Bluemel are exceptional at because it allows Jane and Guildford’s fire to mingle beautifully with the softness. They’ve already given each other so much of who they are, but the quiet shyness at this moment tells us just how desperately they both want to make this work. They want to do right by each other, even while there’s still so much to learn.
It’s a short scene and maybe one we don’t talk about often either, but what it promises is profoundly moving. It’s not merely about him gifting her his mother’s earrings, but it’s how he puts them on her, one by one. It’s the way he kisses her when she says that it’s too much because he promises that she’s worth everything by essentially shutting her up. Of course, she deserves his mother’s earrings. In his eyes, she deserves everything.
It’s how he confesses his feelings to her, once, twice—it’s in the act that shows to us that at a time when men did very little for their wives, he’s ready to give her everything he’s got. It’s in the conversations they have in silence and amid the teasing, too. It’s moments like this that make it easy for Guildford to come back in Season 1, Episode 7, “Another Girl, Another Planet,” because even while he’s upset, he knows he doesn’t want a life without Jane. Her safety is more important than his cure. His love for her matters more than any kind of freedom because true liberty doesn’t exist without her.
My Lady Jane is now streaming on Prime Video.
First Featured Image Credit: Prime Video