[THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM BRIDGERTON, SEASON 4, PART 1]
Let’s move beyond Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) and that declaration that continues to fuel our desires. Let’s forget Colin Bridgerton’s (Luke Newton) passionate carriage ride. Let’s ignore, even if just for five minutes, that silly smile that creeps onto our faces when we imagine Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson) planted mid-staircase.
Starting with the fifth and sixth seasons, the women of the most coveted family in the Regency era will once again take the narrative reins in Bridgerton. The series, adapted from the novels by Julia Quinn, began with Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor), and soon it will be Eloise (Claudia Jessie) and Francesca (Hannah Dodd) who will captivate us with their love stories.
It’s currently unknown which of the two will arrive on Netflix first (following the order of the novels, it should be Eloise), but both are gaining prominence in recent installments, advancing their respective plots, particularly in the fourth season – a clear indication that they will take over from the Bridgerton brothers.
While Daphne’s precedent, constrained by the corset of the perfect and compliant Regency woman, might discourage many fans, Eloise has demonstrated she’s nothing like her older sister, dismantling molds and conventions with sarcasm in Shonda Rhimes’ reimagined Regency era.
And what about Francesca? It may be hard to believe, but she was destined to give us the best season of the fiction. We say “was” because, while Netflix’s series has substantially improved Quinn’s novels and their protagonists (even Hyacinth – Florence Hunt – has hinted at her sharp personality), the sixth daughter of the family isn’t being portrayed as her literary counterpart deserves.
We aren’t exaggerating when we say that the book of Francesca, The Heart of a Bridgerton, is the most revolutionary and profound, the second favorite of this writer. However, the fourth season of Bridgerton seems determined to ignore the character’s potential and reduce her to a more withdrawn and practical version of Daphne, equally innocent, but without the same circumspection. We analyze how Netflix is squandering the best female character in Quinn’s saga.
Francesca Bridgerton in Julia Quinn’s Book
Julia Quinn dedicates the sixth book of her saga, The Heart of a Bridgerton, to Francesca Bridgerton. In the pages, she is the most mysterious member of the family, barely mentioned until her turn arrives. Before reaching her novel, we only know that she lives in Scotland after marrying John Stirling, Earl of Kilmartin, and that she is widowed two years after the wedding, when John suffers an aneurysm.
the relationship between Francesca and John that begins in the third season of Bridgerton is doomed, and the great love story she will experience will be with another character that the series has already introduced: Michaela, Michael Stirling in the pages. Michael is John’s cousin and has always been secretly in love with Francesca. When John dies, Michael inherits the title and lands of Kilmartin, but, suffocated by guilt due to his feelings for Francesca and overwhelmed by the feeling of living his cousin’s life, who was like a brother to him, he flees to India.
The Heart of a Bridgerton begins with the couple’s reunion four years after Michael’s departure. Francesca intends to give the wedding season another chance because she wants to have a child, and Michael has just returned to England. The latter’s love soon intensifies as she begins to see him in a different light, feeling an attraction that goes beyond friendship. Mutual interest is soon shattered by shame and guilt over the ghost of John.
The Heart of a Bridgerton is the most different novel in the saga, a more adult, melancholic, and complex story, covered with layers and nuances. It tackles grief without filters, passion tinged with guilt, and the internal conflict that can arise from allowing oneself to love again after a painful loss. Add to that the most sensual couple of all, and you have Quinn’s most accurate and rounded romance.
Francesca Bridgerton in the Netflix Series
The third season of Bridgerton laid a solid and faithful foundation to the literary saga: Francesca was a shy but practical young woman, much less inclined to socialize than her sister Daphne, but aware of the importance of finding a husband in the wedding season, unlike Eloise. With her and John Stirling (Victor Alli), viewers experienced what seemed like a slow-burning love, without overwhelming passion or grand gestures.
We said goodbye to them newly married, preparing to leave London to move to Scotland with her husband, Eloise, and Michaela Stirling (Masali Baduza), John’s cousin, with whom she exchanged nervous glances. The third installment painted a vague but recognizably Francesca as seen in the books: a little out of place, more taciturn than her siblings, but tremendously mature, determined, and resolute. It hardly mattered that Michael had changed gender; Francesca still seemed to be the same.
However, in the fourth installment, the Francesca who returns to London distances herself from the Francesca of the novel. Her reserved character translates into an excessive innocence, almost ridiculous, which brings her dangerously close to Daphne and limits her arc to a unique conflict that is also developed quite superficially. What conflict? Her entire world revolves around the lack of attraction to John and, her inability to reach climax.
In the third season, Francesca was a young woman with clear ideas, mature, enigmatic, a particularly intriguing Bridgerton sister, glued to a piano. In Part 1 of the fourth, she only accumulates awkward conversations about the meaning of orgasms with Penelope (Nicola Coughlan), Violet (Ruth Gemmell), and John. It’s hard to recognize her as the Francesca from the novel.
Francesca Deserves More in ‘Bridgerton’
As we explained earlier, the book of Francesca speaks frankly and deeply about second chances. The protagonist was happily married to John, whom she deeply loved, and although her motivation to remarry is not love, but motherhood, Michael rekindles those feelings in her. It’s a different love than she felt for John, a love that in no way diminishes or forgets the previous one, a love that reflects who Francesca is now, what Michael provokes in her most mature version. That’s why her story is so real, because it dispels absurd fantasies about soulmates and unique loves to validate second sparks and the possibility of starting to see a person with different eyes.
Michael, for his part, is very dear to readers because, in addition to being the most suffering character in Quinn’s universe, he is also the most devoted, the epitome of a tormented period hero. He has been in love with Francesca since he met her, but he loves John like a brother and suffers in silence.
The Heart of a Bridgerton is an atypical and surprisingly raw story that addresses guilt, self-doubt, or doubt in a romantic genre more accustomed to sweetening drama, all to reach the conclusion that you can love more than once in a lifetime. The change of Michael’s gender didn’t have to alter this powerful message or the lessons learned from Francesca’s life story. Francesca could even have been bisexual, falling in love first with John and then with Michaela.
However, the relationship between Francesca and John is totally apathetic on screen, they profess a fondness that feels somewhat superficial. As for Michaela, there is discomfort when she returns to London in episode 4, but not a hint of Michael’s longing. The series simplifies the triangle: it prefers to emphasize the pianist’s lesbianism, insisting on the physical distance that separates her from John and how she denies herself what Michaela generates.
Bridgerton always manages to channel/improve its romances and its lovers, and we trust that it will know how to redirect the relationship with the most potential in the literary saga. At this point, with the Francesca of the series feeling an almost brotherly affection for John, perhaps there is no room to explore the whirlwind of emotions that shakes a person divided between the love that is gone and the love that arrives, to claim that you don’t only love once, to show how feelings for a person can change. However, justice can still be done to the torment of passion and guilt that forms with Michael/Michaela.
