What Lord Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) wants, Lord Anthony Bridgerton gets. Or so he believes. Lately, victory isn’t coming as easy to him as it used to. His siblings are giving him a harder time at fencing and his favorite horse had to be sacrificed after the last race. To make matters worse, he has set his eyes on a bride-to-be, but the young lady’s older sister simply isn’t having it. And if Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley) doesn’t want you near young Edwina (Charithra Chandran), then you better find somewhere else to be. Or just get a friend or your poetry-loving brother to lend you a hand. Whatever suits you best.
After being declared the season’s diamond by Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel), Miss Edwina Sharma has a long line of gentleman callers waiting at her door. But, as Lady Whistledown (voiced by Julie Andrews) reminds us at the beginning of the second episode of Bridgerton Season 2, "Off to the Races," to get to Miss Edwina, the bachelors of London must first go through her much less amenable sister. Kate is the one handling Edwina’s appointments, and she’s made sure to keep Anthony away from her. Not only did she catch him making some pretty misogynistic comments to his friends outside of Lady Danbury’s (Adjoa Andoh) ball, she also wants to give her sister a shot at finding true love, while Anthony is only looking for a bride to fulfill his viscountly duties. Still, Lord Bridgerton shows up at Mayfair to offer himself to accompany Edwina to the races. Kate all but kicks him out, reminding Anthony that even if she hadn’t heard any of the things he said, his reputation as a libertine precedes him. Anthony leaves, but he’s not done with the Sharmas yet. If he’s not taking Edwina to the races, then he’s at least meeting her there, along with his entire family — Colin (Luke Newton) included.
Recently returned from his trip across Europe, the third Bridgerton son has a lot of catching up to do with his dear friend Penelope (Nicola Coughlan), who has kept him company via letters throughout his journey. Sadly for Penelope, none of this catching up involves a love confession: oblivious to her true feelings, Colin makes it clear that he sees her as nothing more than a friend. It’s one more thing for our secret Regency gossip columnist to add to her list of woes, alongside Eloise’s (Claudia Jessie) ongoing attempts to uncover Lady Whistledown’s identity and Lady Portia’s (Polly Walker) unrest with the changes the new Lord Featherington (Rupert Young) is making to their home.
Now, if Penelope were to organize her problems by order of importance, Eloise would certainly be at the very top of her list. At the races, she bought a pamphlet about dog tidying that, judging from the paper’s quality and a flaw on the letter K, was made at the same printer responsible for Lady Whistledown’s Society Papers. Yet another lead for Eloise to follow, and yet another track for Penelope to cover.
As Eloise busies herself with her investigation, Anthony approaches the Sharmas and makes sure to show off his family to Edwina. After all, one can tell a lot about a gentleman just by looking at his family. He uses his deceitful ways to convince the young lady’s male companion to go buy her some lemonade and takes his seat between her and Kate — who, in turn, is being accompanied by a Mr. Dorset (Sam Frenchum), a recent acquaintance that makes a point of introducing himself to the viscount.
But even if Anthony did decide to take his family to the races to get closer to Edwina, she’s not the one he ends up interacting with the most. Upon telling his intended which horse he believes will win, he turns to Kate, who has very strong opinions on the matter. Even though Nectar is a well-bred and well-trained animal, its temperament isn’t right and the track it’s running on is too soft for its hooves. Anthony and Kate argue and bicker a lot about their horse choices, to the point where Edwina and Dorset wonder if it wouldn’t be best to separate them. In the end, Kate proves herself right, and High Flyer is the one to cross the finish line first. A small victory in a much larger war, soon followed by the discovery that Mr. Dorset was no stranger to Lord Bridgerton, but a friend from Oxford tasked with keeping Kate distracted as the viscount woos Edwina. Once more, Kate grabs her sister and takes her away, much to Edwina’s and the viscount’s chagrin.
Back to the mystery of Lady Whistledown, Eloise pays her coachman some extra cash to take her to the Chancery Lane printer where she believes the Society Papers are published. She finds no trace of the elusive author but has an interesting encounter with a young man who seems to have little patience for high society chit-chat. He accuses Eloise of being after intel on who are the most eligible bachelors in town, and she responds by pointing out his narrow view of women. Couldn’t she be interested in a more intellectual conversation with Lady Whistledown? Maybe a conversation about the rights of women? The young man doesn't look convinced, but he hands Eloise a pamphlet on the subject either way.
Meanwhile, preparations for Philipa's (Harriet Cains) marriage to Mr. Finch (Lorn Macdonald) are in full force at the Featherington residence. The ceremony takes place the following day, and the absence of the new Lord Featherington doesn’t go unnoticed. Lady Portia goes looking for him and tries to convince him to involve her in his business. Cousin Jack, as he wants to be called, however, isn’t interested. Alone with Mrs. Varley (Lorraine Ashbourne), Portia shares her fear that the new master of the household is just waiting to kick her out and bring some young, brainless girl into her home. Her fear only worsens when she learns that Jack has been paying visits to the Cowpers and has recently gifted Cressida (Jessica Madsen) with an expensive necklace.
As Lady Portia’s relationship with Lord Featherington deteriorates, the Sharma girls enjoy being on the Queen’s good side. During a visit to Her Majesty’s own personal zoo, Edwina is warned by Queen Charlotte herself about the many malicious rumors that might be spread about her. If something like this ever happens, the Queen assures her, all she has to do is tell Her Majesty who she thinks is responsible. Edwina is happy to have such a powerful ally, but Lady Danbury sees right through Queen Charlotte’s ruse: much like Eloise, all she cares about is finding out who could possibly be behind Lady Whistledown.
Back at Mayfair, Lady Danbury, Lady Mary (Shelley Conn), Kate, and Edwina are planning a soirée when they are surprised by the arrival of a strange gentleman caller bearing an even stranger gift. Believing Edwina to be an animal lover, Anthony brings her a horse with a red bow around its neck and is disappointed to learn that the young lady prefers small pets that she can carry in her arms. Once more, Kate tries to convince him of his incompatibility with her sister, but the viscount isn’t easy to dissuade. He doesn’t give up, not even after finding out that Lady Danbury is throwing a soirée to which he hasn’t been invited.
Upon being scolded by his mother for his disdain for love and learning that there will be a poetry reading for Edwina at Lady Danbury’s soirée, Anthony goes after Benedict (Luke Thompson) at Mondrich’s (Martins Imhangbe) new gentlemen’s club and asks him to teach him how to read Byron out loud. Benedict refuses because Byron is rubbish. However, he does agree to write down an impromptu speech about what it means to truly love a woman that Anthony then takes to the soirée hoping to impress his intended.
Not that impressing anyone at Lady Danbury’s soirée is tough, mind you. Most of the men present aren’t so much reading poetry as they are embarrassing themselves with attempts at music and magic tricks. Still, Anthony pretends Benedict’s poem is his own, charming Edwina just as he had planned. However, upon glancing at Kate, he realizes that he can’t lie. And so he tells everyone that he is a practical man that doesn’t care about pretty words, but that he’ll never leave his wife wanting for anything. Kate hopes this will suffice to get the viscount out of Edwina’s head, but the young lady sees it only as a display of honesty from a worthy man.
Distraught, Kate leaves the soirée, almost making a scene when she bumps into one of the servants. Lady Danbury follows her and tells Kate that she doesn’t buy her joyful spinster act. Kate tries to counter by saying Lady Danbury is perfectly happy being alone, but Lady Danbury states that she is a widow that has had a happy life and that Kate will be sorry if she grows old without experiencing love. Shook by the conversation, Kate returns to the party.
The episode ends with some bad news for Penelope. With Eloise closing in on Lady Whistledown, she takes a trip to the street market by herself to get a new K for the Society Paper’s printer. As usual, she’s wearing commoner’s clothes and faking an Irish accent (probably Nicola Coughlan’s real accent), but her disguise is threatened when Genevieve (Kathryn Drysdale), the modiste, recognizes her. And as if that wasn’t enough, the Queen now has the names and pictures of every young lady that has exchanged words with Miss Edwina. All of them are suspected of being Lady Whistledown — and who else is on that list but Penelope Featherington and her dear friend Eloise?