Love and Loss: Potential “Queen Charlotte” Theme Revealed

Recently, we’ve gotten several new stills from the “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story” show, as well as some details from the cast and crew in interviews at and around the premiere. And a few things have got me thinking about the theme of this limited series.

Bridgerton does an incredible job with theme; it’s one of the reasons I’m addicted to it and so easily forgive some of it’s more ridiculous aspects. It’s all worth it for the superb devotion to theme Bridgerton gives. Theme permeates every beat of the story, and it’s why I’m convinced theme will play such a large role in Queen Charlotte as well. For Bridgerton Season 1, the theme was stated by Daphne when she told Simon that just because something isn’t perfect doesn’t mean it’s not worthy of love. In Season 2, Violet gives the theme when she tells Anthony that real, true love is worth it, meaning it’s worth giving up duty and risking one’s heart, which Anthony has been so averse to.

For Queen Charlotte, I think the theme, to borrow an overused cliche, is that it’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

There are lots of things that make me think this will be the theme. The first and likely biggest is that we know what happens to King George as he ages, that he suffers from what sounds like will stay an undiagnosed mental ailment in the series. He forgets at times even who his beloved wife is, let alone what they’ve been through. It seems that Charlotte’s obsession with gossip and triviality connects to the pain of losing her husband while still having him around. That’s an extremely difficult fate that I know many people who have had loved ones go through such experiences can relate to. What I think most, if not all, people in Charlotte’s shoes would say is that it was better to have had the love, made the memories, gotten them for as long as she was able, than to have given it up without ever having touched such beautiful connection.

Better to have loved and lost.

Now, there’s even more evidence of this with other characters, namely Violet. We know her fate — falling in love with Edmund, having eight babies in eighteen years, only to lose the love of her life to a bee sting when she’s just about to give birth to Hyacinth. It’s frankly devastating just to watch, let alone to experience. So as we meet her as a young girl, it’s hard not to feel a sense of tragedy around her. But as we watched her in Season 2, as we watched her give that amazing advice to Anthony where she tells him love is worth the pain, it connects so powerfully to the idea that it’s better to have loved and lost. It’s a slightly different meaning for Anthony in his context because he’s staring down the possibility of pain while Violet is referencing the memory, but it’s still a powerful connection. Violet’s perspective where she says she would do it again shows exactly the arc of her story in Queen Charlotte as well, as we see her living out those steps she swears she would again to have that joy and love with Edmund. Tragic at the end, but beautiful every step of the way.

Here’s where we get into some spoilers, and eventually some theories…

Hugh Sachs, who plays older Brimsley, spilled the beans big time at the Queen Charlotte premiere. He was asked if anything changed for him in his portrayal in Bridgerton S3 after getting the backstory in QC. He said not really, but the costume department did give him a ring that he, in his own mind, decided had been given to him by Reynolds, the King’s assistant who we will meet in QC. Hugh then revealed that Brimsley and Reynolds aren’t together at the end of the series, and that we don’t know why…that’s a massive bombshell. We’re getting our first real LGBTQ+ love story, and it’s ending with the couple apart? But that’s something to unpack another day. But Hugh also mentions how the ring shows that Brimsley looks back on that as a significant time in his life, obviously if he’s still wearing the ring. So this fits, yet again, with the better to have loved and lost. It doesn’t sound like Brimsley is staring at that ring pining for the man, just acknowledging this beautiful experience that is a part of who he is. Again, extremely fitting with the theme, if a bit frustrating for us as an audience. Honestly, I was confused as to why they would do this; Brimsley could easily have a hubby at home we’ve never met in Bridgerton proper. However, if it’s all related to this main theme of love and loss, I could see it a lot more. It’s one of the only things that, as far as I can see right now, might justify that breakup when Bridgerton otherwise gives happy endings to it’s straight couples.

Finally, there’s wild speculation on my part about what is going on with Agatha Danbury. Our girl Lady D is young and fierce and becoming the woman we know and love, and she’s doing it while married to an older guy. And I don’t mean older like a bit of gray in his beard and you maybe call him “daddy” in bed. I mean old. More than double the age of the actress and probably closer to three times the age of the character. Now, I’m all for love that breaks down barriers and conquers all here, but knowing the times and women often marrying for security or position rather than love, or because someone in their family made them, just like we see for Charlotte, I think it’s distinctly possible this is not a love match for Agatha. In the pictures, he looks like a nice enough bloke, though appearances could be deceiving (I’m still wondering if we’ll get a she murdered her husband plot). But I don’t think her love and loss will be about Lord Danbury.

If Agatha loves and loses, I think it will be Adolphus, Charlotte’s brother. We see him crop up in the teaser scenes and the trailer, and in some of the pictures, so we know he’ll be an at least somewhat significant character. In one photo, we see him talking to a vibrantly dressed Lady Danbury that has sparked all sorts of speculation. I am right there with that, believing that there could be a romance between these two. I’ll admit, I was somewhat on the fence about it (standing together in a picture doesn’t necessarily mean much) until this theme idea came together. If all our characters are going to experience love and loss, Adolphus seems like a great person for Lady D to experience that with. And it would make that all the better and more acute for the advice she gives Kate in S2, and put her in a great position to give Penelope advice about loving her best friend’s brother in S3.

In some ways, this theme is almost the antithesis of romance novels but the heart of romance. We almost never see the endings of love in these books or shows because they’re so focused on the starts. But Queen Charlotte is offering us a lot more perspective, looking at these people who have loved and lost and saying that these stories are still valuable. They are cementing the idea that every story has an ending; we all lose our person or are the person who is lost, in the end. Still, that doesn’t make the journey any less beautiful, the love any less true, or the story any less worthy of telling.