*This post contains minor spoilers*
While you’re reading this, I’m probably at Heathrow airport scrambling to get on my flight to Warsaw, Poland. I basically sprinted home from a meeting with a supplier last night so that I would have enough time to pack my suitcase and watch Bridgerton (2020) season 3.
I binged all of part 1 and will probably not sleep at all tonight. Will I regret this decision tomorrow morning? Very likely.
I am deciding now, at precisely 3:14am, that I’m going to make this entire post about Kate Bridgerton née Sharma, because she can do no wrong in my eyes. More importantly, the way she was depicted, or more accurately, how she wasn’t depicted in the first part of Bridgerton season 3 is worth unpacking.
I loved season 2. To think I wasn’t even going to watch it!
Considering the UK’s colonial history, the reinvention of the regency narrative to include a dark-skinned Indian woman as a leading lady was a monumental step — one that meant the world to people of colour all over the world.
Season 2 was ultimately a letter of solidarity to the eldest sibling, exploring the childhood trauma carried by Anthony Bridgerton and Kate ‘Kathani’ Sharma. The main plot was reserved for revealing the various layers that made these headstrong characters who they were.
Kate Sharma specifically, lost both her parents in her youth and has strived to keep her family out of poverty ever since, taking it upon herself as the eldest daughter to educate her stepsister Edwina and emotionally parent her stepmother Mary.
Also, she’s a horse girl.1
She’s not as strong as she seems though, as the writers sprinkle in hints that she wishes she experienced a great big love story in her youth, similar to the one her sister is about to embark on in England. As a spinster, Kate also spends the majority of her time at the margins of society, victim of judgement even by Lady Whistledown herself, who likened Kate in episode 2 to a “beast.”
Her struggles with self-worth were apparent in episode 4, when Anthony asks her on the dance floor if she would like him not to marry her sister. She answers back with “it doesn’t matter what I want.” In episode 8, her tearful conversation with Mary addressed the reason she’s unable to accept love from Anthony: she doesn’t feel like she deserves it after having spent the majority of her life feeling like she has to earn love from a family that she’s not directly related to.
Kate’s story resonated with Brown eldest daughters all over the world. How many of us have had to project manage our entire family’s livelihood, while constantly feeling like our needs don’t matter? I’m certainly not the only eldest daughter in the world who has given up on plans and put myself in less than convenient positions to make sure my family is happy.
Her life as a spinster also hit close to home. Again, I’m not the only Brown girl who’s been told that if you’ve over twenty-five and unmarried you might as well be dead.
Showrunner Chris van Dusen did an amazing job, however, at reinforcing the fact that it’s ultimately our responsibility as adults to undo the harmful dynamics and beliefs we absorb in childhood. As such, Kate’s arc in season 2 concluded with both her and Anthony coming to the realisation that their self-sacrificing tendencies was not only preventing them from experiencing true romantic love, but actively hurting the people they love the most.
I genuinely appreciated the inclusion of Indian traditions and music in the second season. The Haldi scene in particular (with the orchestral Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham soundtrack in the background) made me extremely teary, because this tradition is ultimately about the intimacy of familial love.
Meha Razdan articulated it best when she wrote “watching the Sharma women perform the Haldi ceremony, relying on each other for support even more heavily for being so isolated in the heart of London, was potent representation. It was more than simply seeing a ceremony I’m familiar with carried out on screen; it was watching a lived experience that lingers widespread but often unspoken under the skin of the Indian diaspora. It was as bittersweetly recognisable as it was exciting.”
Watching this scene made me feel like so seen, like they dedicated this entire season to me. Seven month later, I was in a similarly intimate, emotional ceremony before I witnessed my cousin get married.2
What is more, the utterance of her given Indian name “Kathani” in the final episode made me want to throw my laptop across my room and weep. It was nauseatingly wonderful how much her culture and background mattered to Anthony — using her birth name while telling her he wanted a life that suited them both proved that he saw Kate in all her entirety. What is love if not being known fully?
However, I worry that a lot of these efforts are being undone. I came across this article last week, where the Bridgerton costume designer stated that Kate’s costumes for season 3 were based on the colours of “spice.”
It’s 2024. I’m so upset that garam masala is the only thing White people know about Brown people.3 Let’s just ignore the diverse languages spoken, or the variance in natural landscapes, or the importance of music in reinforcing culture and community in everyday life.
Readers, I am very sad to announce that I feel like Kate Bridgerton deserved a story arc more truthful and reflective of her past life in India. Allow me to explain!
A core part of her journey in Bridgerton season 2, that frankly didn’t get fully resolved, is that she has lived with deep lonelinesss for the majority of her life. We see evidence of this in episode 5, when she reveals to Thomas Dorset that she used to talk to turtles.
Sure, I’m using my imagination to fill some gaps here, but I think it’s safe to assume she talks to turtles because she doesn’t have any friends. It’s probably also safe to assume she doesn’t have any friends because all of them got married when they became of age and had children very quickly after, whereas Kate was busy shouldering familial responsibilities and couldn’t relate to their experiences.
The various subplots of Benedict running away from young ladies and Eloise comforting Cressida could have been replaced with Kate mingling with a new friend, perhaps? Building her own friendship circle outside of her marriage? Finally working towards finding community after being ostracised as a spinster for so long?
How does Kate feel about society’s arbitrary benchmarks of womanhood, now that she’s considered a ‘valuable’ member of the ton as she’s married to a handsome, rich Viscount? Are people still mean to her because she doesn’t carry genes of the English nobility? Is she still homesick?
Simone Ashley’s supposed lack of availability cannot be blamed either, as her and Jonathan Bailey’s first point of call is to their Bridgerton contract. Therefore, they could have been written in as extensive parts of the subplot if the writers so wished.
In part 2, I hope that we get explorations into how Kate feels having her first child after having lost her own mother at such a young age. Surely there has to be some fear there, or some longing for her mother to still be alive to witness her become a mother herself?
Surprisingly, we don’t actually see Kate in any solo scenes. This was a bit shocking to me, especially considering how much the writers stressed that she was a cool, independent woman in the previous season.4 As an independent woman myself, no matter what life situation I’m in, or how old I am, I can confirm that the desire to carve out space for myself and reaffirm my individuality never goes away. Even in the Bridgerton universe, I imagine that sentiment still rings true for Kate.
I’m open to having my mind changed next month, but I’m ultimately disappointed in her season 3 arc so far. Kate Bridgerton is so wonderfully complex, and her backstory as an Indian woman turned high-society Viscountess should have been worthy of nuanced exploration — there’s just so much material from the previous season that could have been expanded upon.5
Shonda Rhimes, if you’re hiring writers for Bridgerton season 4 I’d like to submit an application, please and thank you.
I’m obsessed with her.
She’s basically my sister. Of course I cried the whole time.
All of you White people — whose ancestors undoubtedly played a part in perpetrating colonialist policies around the globe — seriously need to be making more of an effort.
She knows how to shoot a GUN.
If it wasn’t 3am I would find a way to work a section of this post to analyse the portrayal of sexuality in season 2, especially considering Kate is dark-skinned, a woman of colour and a lot of Desi communities are very conservative. But that might be a post for Future Angana.