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Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story is a Bridgerton story… without the fluff. At the core of it, the spinoff, prequel—and at parts, sequel—revolves around a love story so potent that it’ll make you swoon. But this time around, it’s interspersed by a larger narrative on female power play. You can even say Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story is about three headstrong women charting out their own destinies.
You know (and love) them already. The young Queen Charlotte, played by India Ria Amarteifio is as formidable as the older Queen essayed by Golda Rosheuvel. The intimidating Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh) gets a backstory that’s both heartbreaking, and empowering. A teenage Violet Bridgerton is as lovely as her current form.
Spanning decades, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story flits between two timelines—one headlighting their younger avatars as they navigate the politics of court and society, and the other in the present-day Bridgerton timeline, with them as its ruling matriarchs. It all starts with a young Charlotte from Germany, contemplating jumping over a garden wall to escape her impending nuptials to England’s ruling monarch, King George. Cut to the final scene of the heartbreaking finale, where the aged King and Queen lie side-by-side underneath their bed, him thanking her for choosing otherwise.
The final episode of the eight-part Netflix series opens big: Violet learning of Agatha’s affair with her father, the L-word exchange between a troubled George and a determined Charlotte (finally!) and a royal baby (two, if you count both timelines) on the way.
When George and Charlotte return to Buckingham House, ready to reinstate their titles and take on the court, you can’t help feeling as dubious as Reynolds, George’s loyal right-hand man. He can’t be “fixed” in a span of days and a promise of eternal love. When a visibly-shaken George sets out to address Parliament, with an obstinate Charlotte cheerily waving him off, Reynolds heeds caution to the Queen. It goes unheard. As Reynolds feared, George has an attack en route and can’t even make it out of the carriage. In many ways, Reynolds’ understanding of George supersedes Charlotte. Loyal to the bitter end, it’s Reynolds who’s recovered a half-lucid, naked “farmer George” from among the garden weeds, ensuring that the news of his affliction doesn’t reach the royal court. But the carriage incident may cost George; nobody wants a mad King on the throne.
Humbled, Charlotte has a solution: bring Parliament to the King instead. So despite monster-in-law Princess Augusta’s (Michelle Fairley) misgivings, they throw the grandest of balls. Somewhere in between the host of waltzing dancers donning expensive silk and drinking flutes of pink champagne, Lady Danbury’s busy deciding her fate. She’s got the offer of the season: a proposal from the Queen’s brother Adolphus, who promises her a beautiful life. Agatha’s on the brink of ruin, the ‘Great Experiment’ may not allow her late husband’s title and lands to pass to her minor son, and Adolphus seems to be the answer to everything. She turns him down.
For too long now, a spirited Agatha has been made to live a subservient life; one belonging to her husband. It’s time she lives for herself. A woman like Lady Danbury was always going to have an empowering backstory. But her journey is laced with pain. After all, an ambitious woman is always a threat.
Meanwhile Charlotte tells George that she’s pregnant with baby number two—another feather in their legacy cap. It’s a sweet moment; and after a long while, everything seems to be falling into place. But loyal fans of Bridgerton already know that there’s no happy ending to this particular story. King George will gradually lose his sanity over the years and Queen Charlotte, as Lady Danburry puts it, becomes, possibly “the loneliest woman in all of England”.
But that’s what makes Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story the greatest of the Bridgerton stories, yet. It doesn’t shy away from the dark side of love; the endless sacrifices, the countless misunderstandings, and the fact that a pledge to spend a lifetime together won’t always get you a happy ending. But it will always ground you. King George and Queen Charlotte are moths to a flame from the get-go, but it’s not all butterflies and rainbows. Or in this case, fluffy pomeranians and juicy oranges. After relentless attempts, they accept the fact George will never completely be “all there”. But as Charlotte tells George: “If what we have is half, then we shall make it the very best half. Together, we are whole.”
The show explores this theme further through Reynolds and Brimsley, who (arguably) have the better love story. The montage of Brimsley slow-dancing with Reynolds in the garden to an older Brimsley dancing alone in the present-day, will make anyone cry.
Speaking of howling buckets, remember that scene of present-day Charlotte and George below the bed? After yet another excruciatingly frustrating season with none of her 15 children producing an heir, providence comes in the form of Prince Edward and his new wife Princess Victoria. The line is secure. An ecstatic Charlotte rushes to George to break the news, only to find him in the midst of an attack, scribbling gibberish on the walls. But Charlotte knows how to bring him back. Wriggling through a mountain of silk layers, she slides down to their safe space and calls him by the only name he’s always wanted: just George.
