It’s been less than a month since Bridgerton Season 4, Part 2 aired, and production is already underway for Season 5. Thanks to an announcement video released by Netflix and Shondaland, we now know that the regency romance series’ fifth season will focus on the queer love story between Lady Francesca Stirling (née Bridgerton) and Michaela Stirling, the cousin of Francesca’s late husband, John.
Back in the Season 3 finale, “Into The Light,” viewers were first introduced to Michaela, a gender-swapped version of Francesca’s love interest, Michael, from the Bridgerton book series by Julia Quinn. This change was deliberate on the part of showrunner Jess Brownell to expand the show’s inclusivity by bringing a queer romance to the forefront.
Now, despite Michaela’s involvement in Francesca’s subplot in Season 4, many viewers actually expected Eloise Bridgerton to take centre stage in Season 5, given that her book, To Sir Phillip, With Love, is the fifth in Quinn’s series (Francesca’s book, When He Was Wicked, comes sixth).
But this is not the first time the adaptation has changed the order of a Bridgerton sibling’s love story — Season 3 focused on the romance between Colin and Penelope, despite their story occurring in Quinn’s fourth novel, Romancing Mr. Bridgerton. This news about Francesca and Michaela (dubbed “Franchaela”) leading Season 5 may come as a shock to some viewers — but not to me.
Ever since I watched Bridgerton Season 4 Part 2, I knew with a considerable degree of confidence that Francesca and Michaela would be the next leads, because, narratively speaking, that’s what made sense.
Let me walk you through it.
There were many reasons why respective fans of Francesca’s and Eloise’s stories each felt their preferred sibling’s romance was up next, but by far the most frequent “proof” I encountered that Francesca simply couldn’t be the Season 5 lead was that she needed more time to grieve after John’s death in “The Passing Winter.”
While I understood this argument to some extent, there’s only so much grieving that could be shown onscreen across an eight-episode season before Francesca’s journey would start to feel stagnant. Like it or not, this wouldn’t make for the most compelling television.
As a result, I suspected the show would utilize a time jump between seasons to expedite the grieving process, and sure enough, the Tudum article that accompanied the Season 5 leads announcement confirmed this. Unlike previous seasons of Bridgerton, Season 5 will take place two whole years after John’s death, when Francesca “decides to reenter the marriage mart for practical reasons.”
Similar to Francesca undergoing a long grieving subplot, I also saw people justifying a Franchaela Season 6 with the argument that Bridgerton could give Michaela a Season 5 subplot away from the ton (presumably in India, which is where Michael escapes to in the book for four years after John’s death).
And sure, Michaela did abruptly leave London at the end of Season 4 without so much as a goodbye to Francesca (while we don’t know for sure why she did this, book readers should have a pretty good idea), but I was just never swayed by this particular rationale, either.
The fact of the matter is, while there is a new pair of romantic leads each season, this is still technically an ensemble show, and I just couldn’t see Bridgerton willingly devoting precious screentime to an individual character in scenes away from the rest of the main cast all season. And, sure enough, the aforementioned Tudum article settled the matter of Michaela’s whereabouts — when Season 5 begins, she’ll be returning to London to tend to the Kilmartin estate.
As well, Brownell herself has stated in interviews that they very intentionally did not spend time in Season 4 with Michaela as a “pov character” — meaning, we never had the chance to know what Michaela was thinking in a particular moment or learn how she experienced the world from her perspective — so it would be odd to suddenly change that for Michaela for a season she’s not leading.
In addition to remaining unconvinced by the proposed separate subplots for Francesca and Michaela in Season 5, I also felt that the story being told for Francesca over the last two seasons had far more intentionally (and successfully) laid the groundwork for her imminent starring moment than anything that had been done thus far for Eloise.
For starters, if we’re just looking at the source material, by this point in the show, Francesca’s onscreen story had already covered four chapters of her book. In Season 3, Francesca and John met and got married, Michaela was introduced to Francesca for the first time, and the trio (along with Eloise) headed to Scotland for the off-season.
Then, in Season 4, the group (minus Michaela) returned from Scotland, and Francesca and John attempted to conceive (without success). Michaela later appeared back in London unannounced, much to Francesca’s chagrin, until the two were able to work out their differences and finally forge a friendship, much to John’s delight. Then, John died suddenly, and Francesca and Michaela grieved together and coordinated his funeral, relying on each other as the only two who could truly understand what they were going through.
All seemed to be well (or, as well as possible for two people in mourning), until Michaela fled London in the finale after previously agreeing to Francesca’s request that she remain in town until a new heir to the estate was found. (“If you would like it, I shall stay,” Michaela had promised, to which Francesca had responded, “It would mean a great deal to me. I feel…very close to you, Michaela.”)
This is where we left Franchaela heading into Season 5, which I believed to be an exceptionally interesting place from a narrative standpoint. It made perfect sense to me that their story could then pick up next season with them at the forefront. I never once got the sense that they needed to remain separated for the majority of the next eight episodes in order to most effectively tell their love story in Season 6.
Comparatively, for Eloise, I just did not feel like the show had done nearly enough to signal her readiness for marriage by the end of Season 4. Yes, she’d certainly softened to the idea over the course of the season — an impressive feat, considering where the character used to sit on the issue back in earlier seasons — but it still did not give me the impression that she absolutely needed to come next or that there was simply no other story left to tell for her ahead of her own season.
If anything, this slightly more open-minded view of marriage from Eloise felt to me like it was setting her up for a Season 5 subplot in which she entertained suitors and fielded but ultimately rejected several marriage proposals because none of them matched the “love and passion and drama” of her siblings’ — but particularly Benedict’s — relationships (as stated in her book).
Plus, Eloise officially becoming the last remaining unmarried adult sibling by next season’s end seemed like it could be just the push she needed to decide to run off to Sir Phillip’s home in the countryside and accept his written offer of marriage despite never having met the man. I’d always envisioned this moment as a real breaking point for Eloise, and she was nowhere near being in the necessary headspace by the end of Season 4 to make such a radical decision.
As well, unlike for Francesca’s story, Season 4 failed to reestablish key players from Eloise’s book, namely Sir Phillip Crane, whom we (but not Eloise) met briefly in two episodes across the first two seasons but haven’t seen or heard of since. We also did not receive any mention of Phillip’s current wife, Marina, or Marina’s young twins, Oliver and Amanda, whom Phillip is helping raise in a passionless marriage with his late brother’s lover.
Finally, the biggest indicator to me that Eloise would not be the Season 5 lead was that she had not started writing letters to Phillip. This epistolary element is essential to Eloise and Phillip’s romance, and it only begins in their book after Marina dies and Eloise elects to write to Phillip to express her condolences. As of right now on Bridgerton, Marina, as far as we know, is still very much alive, and Eloise has yet to pen a single letter to a particular plant-obsessed widower.
On a more technical level, there was an additional clue, this time from composer Kris Bowers’ score, that supported my suspicion of a Francesca-focused Season 5. When Francesca discovered that Michaela unexpectedly departed without a word, the same musical cue was used as what had originally played during a similarly pivotal moment in the Season 3 finale, when Benedict spoke to Eloise about their mother’s upcoming masquerade ball.
This quick exchange between Benedict and Eloise in Season 3 was the main indicator that Benedict would go on to be the Season 4 lead, as a masquerade ball was where he met his love interest, Sophie, in Julia Quinn’s third novel, An Offer From a Gentleman. The very first mention of the masquerade was a significant clue that yes, Benedict and Sophie’s love story was on the horizon, and now the repurposed musical cue seemed to suggest that the same could be said about Francesca’s discovery of Michaela’s betrayal.
With all this in mind, what ultimately sealed the deal for me in terms of expecting a Franchaela-led Season 5 (ahead of receiving the official confirmation this week) was the moment Francesca became the latest victim of what I’ve seen humorously dubbed “Bridgerton foot-in-mouth syndrome.”
For every season of Bridgerton thus far, each Bridgerton-born lead has displayed extreme romantic short-sightedness in the finale immediately preceding their own leading season, and such a blunder has been used time and time again to communicate to the audience that this sibling was about to embark on their love story and have their recent words thrown right back at them in the process.
This tradition started in Season 1, when eldest brother Anthony vowed to remove love itself from all romantic relations in his search for a viscountess, shortly before meeting, falling in love with, and then proposing to Kate over the course of his season.
Then, in Season 2, third brother Colin loudly declared to a drunken group of noblemen that he “would never dream of courting Penelope Featherington. Not in your wildest fantasies,” a declaration Penelope unfortunately overheard. Predictably, Colin went on to do exactly the opposite in his season, courting Penelope with an unrivaled enthusiasm after realizing he was in love with her.
Finally, in Season 3, second son Benedict gently rejected his sexually adventurous fling’s offer of a more committed partnership with the reasoning that their interactions had made him realize “how good it feels to be free.” “You’ve opened my world,” he went on to tell her, “And I’m not ready to close it again just now.” Of course, in his season, after spending just one single evening with Sophie at the masquerade ball, Benedict was immediately interested in committing to her.
It gave me great pleasure to see this particular pattern continue with Francesca in Season 4, for two reasons. One, I’ve written before about my affection for Bridgerton traditions like this and why they’re fundamental to the show, and two, it was nice to have all my earlier suspicions about the next lead basically confirmed in this scene.
I knew from the moment Francesca told her sisters that she’d already had her “great love,” and that “one time is enough” when asked at Benedict and Sophie’s wedding if she’d ever marry again that she was headed for the surprise of her life.
As an avid fan of Bridgerton, I can’t wait to see how Francesca and Michaela’s love story unfolds next season — which, in my opinion, is coming right on schedule.
First Featured Image Credit: ©Netflix