What is an unthinkable fate? Is it marrying someone you don’t love out of duty only to spend a lifetime pining over the one that got away? Or is it breaking up your sister’s engagement and condemning your family to a lifetime of poverty? Is it owning up to your mistakes even if it costs you your social status? Or is it bringing even more people into your web of deceit in order to protect yourself from the judgment of others? In the fifth episode of Bridgerton Season 2, Bridgertons, Sharmas, and Featheringtons alike have to find ways to right the many wrongs committed during the trip to Aubrey Hall. Failing to do so might result in financial and emotional catastrophe.
If “Victory” was an episode devoted to our favorite characters taking their future into their own hands, “An Unthinkable Fate” sees them dealing with the consequences of their poorly-thought-out actions. Jack (Rupert Young) and Portia (Polly Walker) try to find a way out of the financial predicament the Featheringtons have been tossed back into after the new lord’s forced engagement to Prudence (Bessie Carter). While Jack wants to put an end to the betrothal so that he can resume his courtship of Cressida Cowper (Jessica Madsen), Portia is back looking for things to sell and trying to save money on her daughter’s trousseau. The solution to their problems comes to Lady Featherington in the form of a fake ruby necklace, appraised as a valuable piece by the ton’s trusted jeweler. She proposes that Jack resume his business with Lord Cowper (Dominic Coleman) and convince him to invest in his failed ruby mines. Oblivious to all of this, Prudence strolls around London, showing off her engagement ring to anyone that wishes to see it.
Equally oblivious to the backstage drama taking place right in the middle of her wedding plans, Edwina (Charithra Chandran) is thrilled that Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) herself is overseeing her wedding to Lord Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey). What the young lady takes as an act of kindness is just yet another trick up Her Majesty’s sleeve to bring Lady Whistledown (voiced by Julie Andrews) out of the shadows. Furthermore, while Edwina is all laughs and giggles, her adoring sister Kate (Simone Ashley) is suffering in silence out of love for none other than Lord Bridgerton himself. After they nearly kissed at Aubrey Hall and were surprised by Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), Kate can’t pretend to feel nothing but hatred for the viscount anymore. Still, she puts on a brave facade for her sister’s sake.
But Kate can’t keep her disguise on all the time. Occasionally, her true feelings must come up for air. When she arrives home alone to find Anthony waiting for Edwina with the jeweler for the ring fitting, she tells the viscount it is not appropriate to go on with the engagement after what transpired between them. When the jeweler suggests that Kate try the ring on instead of her sister, since they both wear the same size of gloves, there is nothing but longing written on her face. And Anthony himself is also smitten by the sight of Miss Sharma wearing his mother’s engagement ring. Luckily (or sadly, depending on your point of view), Edwina and Lady Mary (Shelley Conn) soon arrive to stop the would-be couple from sharing more than a brief caress.
Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh) comes in soon after, bearing some distressing news: Mary’s parents, the Sheffields, are in London to meet Edwina, and she has invited them over for dinner. Anthony and Lady Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell) are also making an appearance, of course. It’s the perfect opportunity to smooth things out between both families before the wedding, Lady Danbury assures them. But Mary isn’t as confident: as soon as she hears the news, she feels ill, leaving Kate to accompany Lady Danbury, Anthony, and Edwina in their promenade.
During their walk, Kate shares with Lady Danbury her concerns regarding dinner with the Sheffields. She’s afraid that the Bridgertons will find out about their terms for granting Edwina’s dowry and call off the wedding. Already suspicious that there is something going on between Anthony and Kate, Lady Danbury asks her if she wouldn’t be happy with the end of her sister's betrothal. She tells Kate that Anthony and Edwina are as good as married and that only a fool would do anything to jeopardize the engagement, throwing the Sharmas back into poverty. “Are you that fool?” Lady Danbury asks, and Kate assures her that no, she isn’t.
While Kate is talking to Lady Danbury, an acquaintance from the horse tracks comes by to say hello. Wanting to apologize for his previous actions, Mr. Dorset (Sam Frenchum), Anthony’s friend from Oxford, invites Kate for a boat ride. She accepts, and the two actually have fun together and bond over Kate’s memories of India. But while Edwina thinks Dorset and her sister make a nice couple and hopes that he can convince her to stay in England, Anthony looks positively disgusted by what he sees. When the boat docks, he places himself between Kate and her companion, causing a scene when he trips on an unsuspecting Newton and falls into the lake, taking Dorset along with him.
Now, maybe it was the ring, maybe it was the sight of Anthony coming out of the water with his white shirt clinging to his chest, but the fact is that, after the promenade, Kate has a serious chat with her mother about choosing love over family. Mary tells her adoptive daughter that she’s happy having chosen to be with Mr. Sharma instead of following the Sheffields’ plans for her life. For a moment, it looks like Kate will finally get the excuse she needed to break off Anthony and Edwina’s engagement. But her hopes are washed away by her mother’s following speech about how glad she is that her daughters will never have to choose between wealth and happiness: Edwina will marry out of love, and Kate will have her independence, just as they always dreamed.
Back at the Bridgertons, Lady Violet isn’t as thrilled as Lady Mary about her son’s fate. Much like Daphne before her, she tries to convince him to be truthful to his own feelings, and even brings out the “you’re breaking your dead father’s heart” card in order to convince him to come clean to Edwina. After all, though it would be a dishonor to the young lady if he were to call off the wedding, no one would mind if she was the one to back down. Still, Anthony refuses and takes off to get ready for the dreaded dinner with the Sheffields.
Before the meeting, Lady Danbury takes Kate aside to tell her that she’s doing this not just for Edwina, but also to ensure Kate’s access to the family’s fortune — a fine consolation prize for losing the man she loves. Kate nods in agreement, resolute to keep things as civil as possible during the meal. But keeping things civil with the Sheffields proves to be a lot harder than anyone had anticipated. Lady Sheffield (Shobu Kapoor) has no intention of keeping the past where it belongs and soon brings up the history of Mary’s so-called betrayal: instead of marrying the count she and her husband had chosen for her, their daughter eloped with a common clerk and cut them off from their granddaughter's life. Lady Bridgerton tries to defuse the tension by talking about the food, but to no avail. Very soon, Mary is telling her parents that they were the ones that shunned her and that she never wanted a single penny from them. That’s the cue the Sheffields needed to take the cat of Edwina’s dowry out of the proverbial bag, shocking everyone in the room except for Kate and Lady Danbury. Enraged by the Sheffields’ behavior, Anthony stands up in defense of the Sharmas, stating that Lady Mary has raised two marvelous daughters and kicking his fiancée's grandparents out of Lady Danbury’s house. They shall receive no invitation to their wedding, and Edwina shall receive no inheritance.
Despite his defense of Kate and Edwina, Anthony is still far too vexed with the situation to remain at Mayfair any longer. He takes his leave, accompanied by his mother, but Kate asks him for a word. She tries to explain that Edwina didn’t know anything about the Sheffields’ terms and blames him for the dowry withdrawal. Anthony counters by saying that Kate misled both him and her sister, and that he shall call off the engagement as soon as possible. Kate asks why he would do such a thing since he’s a viscount and Edwina’s dowry would make no difference for him, and now it’s Anthony’s turn to let out the feelings he had been holding back for so long: he tells Kate he is tormented by her presence and that she is the object of all his desires. Once more, they almost kiss, but Anthony takes off in a hurry, saying that he has to end things with Edwina, otherwise he will suffer forever dreaming about his sister-in-law.
Kate doesn't shy away from telling Anthony that she's also plagued by feelings for him. However, there is a third party whose feelings she has to take into consideration. Declaring herself in love with Anthony, Edwina wants nothing more than to go on with their betrothal. And so, in the following day, it is not to confess her love that Kate goes looking for Anthony on her morning ride, but to ask him to take Edwina back.
“An Unthinkable Fate” is an episode full of heartbreak for Lord Bridgerton. For some of his siblings, however, things aren’t quite as dire. Benedict (Luke Thompson) is finally starting his education at the Royal Academy and has caught the eye of an aspiring artist/model for whom he has no problem posing au natural. Meanwhile, Eloise (Claudia Jessie) is having the time of her life going to Regency feminist meetings and exchanging opinions with Mr. Theo Sharpe (Calam Lynch), the printer worker that also happens to be the author of the Women Rights pamphlets. The only person unhappy with all of this is Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan), who is not only being sidelined by her childhood friend but is also terrified of being outed as Lady Whistledown.
In the narration that closes the episode, Lady Whistledown goes on a tirade about the importance of duty — duty to one’s family name, rank, and title. When one’s duty clashes with one’s heart’s desire, that’s the perfect recipe for a scandal. It is hard to say whether she is talking about Anthony agreeing once again to marry Edwina or about Eloise deceiving her family to meet with commoners in a shady part of town. Is it possible that Penelope is on the verge of revealing her friend's secret — a secret she wasn’t even supposed to know of in the first place? We’ll have to wait for the next issue of Lady Whistledown’s Society Papers to find out.