Bridgerton will continue to break new ground in the romance genre by showing Simon and Daphne’s married life in season 2. Bridgerton season 1 told the story of The Duke and I, the first novel in Julia Quinn’s romance series about the Bridgerton siblings. Like The Duke and I, Bridgerton’s first season focuses on Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) and Simon Basset, the Duke of Hastings (Regé-Jean Page). Bridgerton has already revolutionized screen adaptations of Regency-era romance in many ways, but one major difference is that Simon and Daphne were wed at the midpoint of the season rather than the end. While season 2 will most likely move on to focus primarily on Anthony, the Netflix show will almost certainly include Daphne and Simon as major characters in future seasons.
Bridgerton has become one of the most successful Netflix originals to date, rivaling shows like The Witcher and Stranger Things in viewership. Produced by Shondaland for Netflix, the series is obviously reminiscent of other Shonda Rhimes shows like Scandal and Gray’s Anatomy in the level of drama that’s hyped up between a talented cast of diverse characters. The lavish costumes, sets, Bridgerton's modern pop covers soundtrack, and eye-popping color palette accentuate the drama and make every scene a visual feast. Bridgerton has found a winning formula and its success can’t be narrowed down to a single ingredient, so the show would be wise to not alter that formula too much going forward. This means that Bridgerton season 2 will likely feature Simon and Daphne in some capacity.
Though Bridgerton has already shown Simon and Daphne’s wedding and given us a glimpse into their marriage, season 2 can tell the story that most Regency romances avoid. Jane Austen, the most famous of Bridgerton's early 1800s Regency-era authors, wrote six novels that all ended with a wedding (or shortly thereafter) and some variation of “they lived happily ever after.” But Jane Austen isn’t the only author who utilized this trope. Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre is bleak and intense compared to Jane Austen’s novels, but it nonetheless ends in a similar way: “Reader, I married him.”
Even though Simon and Daphne’s wedding occurs early in the series, their “happily ever after” is still placed exactly where one might expect – at the very end. However, there are so many facets of Simon and Daphne’s relationship left to explore. For one, season 1 did not satisfactorily address the role that Daphne played in her strained relationship with Simon after essentially sexually assaulting him in Bridgerton. It unfairly placed the burden of reconciliation on Simon, who appeared to forgive Daphne at the end of the series without Daphne ever doing her part to apologize and repair the harm she’d done.
Simon and Daphne come back together in the final episode and are shown welcoming a son into their family, but, realistically, there would be continued fallout from Daphne’s selfishness and Simon’s secrecy in their relationship. If there was any sincere resolution of their conflict in season 1, it happened offscreen. More likely, they’ve only managed to temporarily bottle their pain and conflict. Eventually, that hurt and anger will rear its ugly head at some point in their marriage since they haven’t truly dealt with it.
This isn’t to say that Simon and Daphne’s relationship is doomed, but that Bridgerton season 2 has the chance to show a realistic and relatable marriage in season 2 that requires continued effort, forgiveness, mutual vulnerability, and trust. In real life, love stories don’t end at the wedding. However, Regency romances (and all romances, for that matter) typically circumvent having to tell what happens after ‘happily ever after’ or show the lead couple navigating the struggles of married life that range from mundane to traumatic. Simon and Daphne have come together, but in Bridgerton season 2 Simon and Daphne will have to figure out how to stay together, or the difficulties they’re sure to face in parenthood, marriage, and life will surely tear them apart.
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