The ton might be abuzz about Daphne and The Duke's enviable courtship and rushed marriage, but here in the real world, we're more focused on discussing one particularly puzzling loose end of Netflix's newest hit show: what's up with the bee in Bridgerton? Fans of Julia Quinn's novels have some idea, but for the rest of us, beginning and ending with a closeup of a bumblebee around the Bridgerton house was... curious, to say the least. Warning: Spoilers for Bridgerton Season 1 ahead.
The bumblebee first appears in the opening sequence of Episode 1, buzzing around the door knocker on the Bridgerton house (see below). It appears again in the final episode, hovering by the window of the room where Daphne has just given birth. And while the bee provides a nice bookend for the series, it's also much more than that. The bee is specifically connected to the Bridgerton family. (The season technically begins in the Featherington household — no bee in sight.)
The day after the show's Christmas premiere, Bridgerton showrunner Chris Van Dusen explained the bumblebee during a live tweet event, calling it a "very important symbol & thematic element for us." He continued, "Yes it's cute but it's also backstory, history, HIERARCHY. Queen & drones." Still not quite sure what that means? Let's break these elements down one by one.
The Backstory & History
Readers of the Bridgerton novels know that bees actually play a big role in Book 2, The Viscount Who Loved Me, which follows Anthony Bridgerton's journey to find love. The prologue reveals that his father Edmund Bridgerton died from a bee sting, which inspires an intense fear of bees in Anthony. This fear ends up playing a role in his own love story (I won't spoil that here), per The Oprah Magazine.
The Hierarchy
The characters in Bridgerton are all bound by hierarchy of class and gender, which makes the bee a perfect symbol for their society. There's the literal Queen Bee — the Queen — and her worker bees — aka everyone else— but there's also the Queen of gossip — Lady Whistledown — and her ability to set the ton abuzz with gossip. For women in Bridgerton, there is power in manipulating others to do your bidding, whether that means getting others to spread gossip or literally ruling over a kingdom. Long story short: the bee fits.
What The Bee Means For Season 2
Knowing this backstory, the bumblebee could have been a way for the series to include the late Viscount without actually having to show him or go into the dead patriarch's story. (He died when Daphne was 10, and his death didn't really seem to have any impact on her love story with Simon, so giving the whole Bridgerton bee backstory would have been weird anyways.) However, fans believe that the bee is a signal that Bridgerton Season 2 will also focus on Anthony's romance with Kate Sheffield.
Anthony ended Season 1 declaring that he was determined never to fall in love, which really feels like he's just daring Season 2 to prove him wrong. And if the bee is a sign of what's to come, then he's going to be eating his words sooner rather than later.
Image: LIAM DANIEL/NETFLIX