Every swoonworthy moment in the first half of Bridgerton season 2

Warning! Spoilers ahead!

It’s been a long year since season 1 of Netflix’s Bridgerton found the perfect harmony between Austen-esque romance and tawdy bodice-ripping pulp fiction, and we are so glad that we can finally binge the entire second season. Of course, we learned long ago that this season focuses mostly on Daphne’s elder brother Anthony in his search for a wife  - a Viscountess to his Viscount – and there are definitely some other marked differences between s1 and s2.

Most notably, there is less bodice-ripping, and more sexual tension. This year, the spoon-worthy moments are a sexy battle of wits. There is an old saying that the way to a woman’s heart is through her mind, and reader, the chemistry here definitely messes with everyone’s senses.  

Gone is the Duke of Hastings, and in his place as our new eye candy is Kate Sharma, the newest addition to the Ton, and yet perfectly avoiding scandal so as to not end up in Lady Whistledown’s gossip rag. Her and her beautiful younger sister Edwina have arrived from India in order to fetch the younger a hubby, while 26-year-old Kate is *gasp* a spinster. This is your cue to eyeroll.

This season tackles issues of women marrying for their own survival in a time when women’s rights were in a societal cul-de-sac. Sons inherit wealth and women get nothing, so we see many instances in this series of women and families scrambling to make ends meet when men are absent. The Featherington’s scramble to plot an advantageous marriage, while Eloise Bridgerton rebuff’s the idea of entering society as an eligible wife and instead concerns herself with attending events where women can exchange ideas about their sovereignty. 

Kate is one of those women who is hell-bent on refusing a man in her life – her freedom means too much to her. But of course, sparks fly between Anthony and Kate, even while he courts Edwina as a possible wife. Anthony wants her blessing, and Kate finds him to be boarish and unsuitable for her sister, but every time they spar and one up each other with candor and snappy one liners, they seem to lose their breath.

Here are all the moments in the first five episodes of season 2 that made us spoon-swoon.

The bee sting in the garden

We learn that Anthony Bridgerton’s father, Edmund, died after going into anaphylactic shock from a bee sting. Of course in those days there were no Epi-pens, and Edmund died in Anthony’s arms. Naturally he’s wary of the yellowjackets, so when he’s breathlessly arguing with Kate in the garden, as they are wont to do, he grasps for her with an overabundance of concern when she is stung by a bumble bee.

This moment is crucial because it is truly the first time they properly touch one another. She sees he’s having a panic attack over her safety, so she grabs his hand and places his palm on her bosom where she’s been stung. Fam, all fairy tales have an origin story, and for Kate and Anthony, it’s a bee. The Duke of Hastings may have made “I burn for you” a pop culture touchstone in season 1, but in season 2, it’s gotta be, “I BEE for you!”

Buzzworthy, indeed.

How to handle a gun

While the love bug stings them both, the pair of them keep finding ways to be alone together and conveniently close to each other, even despite proclamations of hating one another. In episode 4, when hunting for sport, Anthony puts his arms around Kate in an attempt to show her how to shoot, and the proximity makes him almost, er, shall we say, shoot his shot. 

When he falls into the river

In episode 5, Anthony is helping Kate out of a river boat when he trips on the dock and plummets into the water. Is anyone else seeing how reminiscent this is of Colin Firth’s star-making turn as Mr Darcy in the BBC miniseries Pride and Prejudice back in the '90s? Firth coming out of the water with his wet clothes and encountering Lizzie Bennet in his state of undress made women the world over lose their cool. And just like Mr Darcy who came before him, Anthony’s clothes cling tightly to his body and the women (and every viewer) needs a minute. Edwina and Kate know it’s not polite to stare but we’re not salty that they did.

All the times they ALMOST kiss

Man, these two almost kiss in literally every episode. One night, they both find themselves alone in the library during the storm when they’re both in a state of undress, and they’re millimetres from kissing, but a thunderbolt of lightning shocks them out of it.  Sigh. 

Then when he finds out she intends to leave the Ton and return to India the minute Edwina is married, they breathlessly argue in the study.

“Tell me you feel nothing and I will walk away,” he says almost pressing his face up to hers, and YET AGAIN ARE *THIS CLOSE* TO KISSING. 

When Edwina insists the two of them dance together at the ball so as to increase warm affections between her sister and her intended (oh Edwina, if only you knew…), they give each other smoldering looks that could melt butter as they move around each other in too-close-for-comfort moves. 

Of course, this being Shonda Rhimes, the season is full of orchestral arrangements of famous pop songs about love and high society, so as the Ton seethes with sex and courtship, we are treated to instrumentals of Madonna’s “Material Girl,” “Diamonds” by Rihanna, “Dancing on my own” by Robyn, and even Alanis Morrisette’s “You Oughta Know.”

Bridgerton even teases us with an almost-betrothal between Kate and Anthony when she tries on the engagement ring intended for her sister. He caresses her hand as she sports the ring, and once again they are too close for comfort.

But perhaps the closest they come to kissing but don’t is in episode 5 after Kate and Edwina’s grandparents make a spectacle of themselves at the dinner table and expose their scheme to only provide a dowry for Edwina should she marry into wealth. Anthony and the Bridgerton family are naturally appalled, but when Kate tries to explain the situation to him, he breathlessly expresses his love for her. Very breathlessly.

“You are the bane of my existence and the object of my desires,” he breathes into her open mouth, ready to kiss. “If I wed your sister, it will bind me and you together for eternity, and I will spend every day of my marriage wanting you, dreaming of you, dreading the day when my last thread of honour finally snaps.”

Dang. Someone hand us a spoon.

Notable mentions

Let’s not pretend that this isn’t Bridgerton, because there are still moments of pure lust. We see a flash of Anthony’s booty in the first 10 minutes of episode 1 when he gets out of bed after sleeping with a prostitute. Then we are starved for skin all the way until episode 5 when we see a nude life model disrobe at Benedict’s Art Academy class, and sparks fly between the two of them. Later in that episode, they are both stark naked as they fall in love (and in bed) together. Booty and bosom galore in just those few moments.  

We won’t give away what happens in the rest of the season but just know that there are many more breathless looks – and touches – to come.