Our favorite period piece is back! The second season of this Regency-era television show dropped last week on Netflix, and obviously, we’ve already finished the entire thing. Luckily for us, internet sleuths have already spotted a few Easter eggs in the new season that connect the second season of Bridgerton with the first season of the show. (Spoilers ahead! Reader beware.)
In the first season of Bridgerton, Violet (played by Ruth Gemmell) is having a quiet moment with her son, Anthony (played by Jonathan Bailey). As Violet sits with Anthony, she is embroidering tulips.
In this scene, Violet explains to Anthony: “This is for Daphne. Tulips. They symbolize passion. A most appropriate hem for your sister when she decides to marry the Duke. Perhaps your bride would like the same.”
Historically, the secret language of flowers and their meaning has been well documented. The practice of floriography really took off in the Victorian era, but has been around since the seventeenth century. In the world of floriography, a red tulip symbolizes passion.
Flash forward to the second season of Bridgerton. When Anthony goes to visit Kate Sharma (played by actress Simone Ashley) after she wakes up from her head injury, he brings her a bouquet of tulips. Maybe this is not a coincidence. By this point in the series, it is clear that Anthony loves Kate, and perhaps he brought her tulips because he remembered his mother’s advice.
The Netflix show took its inspiration from the book The Viscount Who Loved Me, by Julia Quinn. In this scene in the book, Anthony (who is courting Kate’s younger sister, Edwina), hands Kate a tulip, telling her “you should have a tulip… It isn’t right that Edwina receives all the flowers.”
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The second season of Bridgerton is already amassing positive reviews. The slow burn, enemies-to-lovers vibe has given us some iconic lines. Our personal favorite line in the show is when Anthony told Kate, “you are the bane of my existence, and the object of all my desire.” You can’t get much more poetic than that!