Let's Recap All Those Twists and Turns in "Bridgerton" Season 2

Our main man Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) is ready to find his viscountess this season — in a very methodical manner, of course, since he has no interest in truly falling in love and is only concerned with the preservation of his family. He gives every eligible woman a chance, taking them for tea, walks, and dances, and lands on the Queen's diamond of the season, Edwina Sharma (Charithra Chandran), as the object of his courtship.

Unfortunately, Edwina's elder sister, Kate — who's fiercely protective of Edwina — isn't a fan of Anthony, and as the pair butt heads, they begin to realise they have more in common than they first realised. As Anthony finds himself more and more drawn to Kate, his courtship with Edwina is derailed and Edwina, sensing their chemistry, calls off their wedding. In the end, he and Kate decide to put themselves first instead of their families for once, give in to their feelings, and marry.

Kate storms into town on horseback when she first meets Anthony. She's not here to find a husband, though — she's here to find a husband for her little sister, Edwina. She immediately has mixed feelings about Anthony — she's drawn to him and yet she doesn't trust him, especially not with her little sister.

When Anthony begins courting Edwina, though, it gets harder for her to resist him and vice versa. She vows to allow Edwina to marry him, though, so her grandparents will help their family financially. Edwina, though, catches on to her sister's feelings for Anthony and refuses to go through with the wedding.

With the wedding called off, Kate and Anthony give in to their desires and spend one night of passion together, after which Kate tries to run away — well, ride away on her horse. But when she falls and is knocked unconscious, it's Anthony who finds and saves her. Realising he absolutely can't be without her, he proposes. Naturally, she says no at first, but eventually gives in and the two wed.

Penelope is afraid Eloise is going to figure out she's Lady Whistledown, so she comes up with a new plan to make sure her pages are printed with no one finding out. She conspires with Madame Delacroix (Kathryn Drysdale) to use her dress deliveries to get her pages to the print shop. But when the queen tries to pin the whole operation on Eloise, Penelope has to act fast to prove her friend's innocence.

Penelope writes a damning article about Eloise's unchaperoned friendship with Theo, knowing there's no way Eloise would write such ruinous things about herself, which gives the Queen pause. But when Penelope slips up at the ball and shares some of her recent gossip with Eloise, her best friend puts all the pieces together and realises she's the one behind Lady Whistledown — and the one who put Eloise's reputation, and her friend Theo, in danger. Eloise tells Penelope she never wants to speak to her again.

Though Penelope vowed to stop writing as Lady Whistledown, the blowup with Eloise and drama with Colin fuel her need to keep writing.

Eloise doesn't want to be courted — she wants to unmask Lady Whistledown. While on her mission to find answers, she strikes up a friendship with a worker at the print shop that prints Whistledown's pamphlets, Theo (Calam Lynch). She continues to visit him at the shop and the two bond over reading and their shared politics.

It's these jaunts to visit Theo, though, that lead the Queen to think Eloise is Lady Whistledown. The real Lady Whistledown, aka Penelope, publishes another page exposing Eloise's "indecent" relationship with Theo in order to convince the Queen that Eloise is innocent, but the move ultimately leads Eloise to discover her best friend has been Lady Whistledown all along and they have a blowout fight in the finale that ends with Eloise telling Penelope she never wants to see her again.

Edwina Sharma is looking for her husband, and she finds who she thinks is a perfect match in Anthony Bridgerton. She swiftly falls in love with him despite her older sister, Kate, trying to keep them apart. But Edwina wants what she wants. She makes every effort to impress Anthony and the Bridgertons, finally earning a marriage proposal.

But it's at her wedding where she realises her husband-to-be has much stronger feelings for Kate than he ever had for her. Realising Anthony's true feelings, Edwina calls off the wedding and breaks off her relationship with Anthony.

Though things with her sister become strained, Kate's accident makes Edwina realise that she and Anthony were never meant to be and encourages Kate to stop living her life for Edwina's sake and follow her own heart, which leads Kate and Anthony back to one another.

In the end, we don't know who Edwina ends up with, but the Queen does float the idea of introducing her to her nephew who's a prince and available. Perhaps we'll see more of that in season three?

The season starts off as usual for Queen Charlotte (Gold Rosheuvel) — she's out to pick her diamond for the season. But her ceremony is interrupted with new pages from Lady Whistledown.

The Queen comes to the conclusion that because gossip wasn't publishing at all while the Ton's residents were at their holiday homes, it can only mean one thing — she's one of them. The Queen can't stand not knowing who's behind Whistledown's gossip, so she has her staff keep tabs on all the women she suspects in town. She comes to pin the project on Eloise Bridgerton, but it's all shot to hell when the latest page is published containing ruinous gossip about her prime suspect.

The Queen uses her influence to save the Bridgerton and Sharma families' reputations by claiming she was the one who called off Anthony and Edwina's wedding, giving her a leg up over her nemesis since it gives the impression Whistledown wasn't privy to major gossip. The Queen is seemingly resting on her hunt for answers now but will no doubt continue her search.

Colin (Luke Newton) makes his triumphant return from his travels overseas, and Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) couldn't be happier. Her best friend, though, still just sees her as a pal. But when he visits former flame Marina (Ruby Barker), she tells him that he has someone there waiting to love him if he could only see it. While he and Penelope are still trying to figure things out, he also takes on the task of helping to expose the new Lord Featherington (Rupert Young) for his jewel scams, which he does successfully. He also tells his friends in the final ball scene that he'd never court Penelope, which she, unfortunately, overhears.

Lady Featherington (Polly Walker) just really wants to marry off her daughters. She's already got Philipa (Harriet Cains) betrothed and is trying to get Prudence (Bessie Carter) married off to the new Lord Featherington. However, Lord Featherington seems to be developing feelings for the lady of the house. The two make a plan to scam people out of money thanks to his ruby mine sham and run off to the US before anyone's the wiser. But when the new Lord Featherington's scheme is uncovered by Colin, Portia puts her daughters first and helps run Lord Featherington out of town.

Benedict (Luke Thompson) is overjoyed to be accepted into art school, spending much of the season whiling away his time in classes and fine-tuning his skills. But when he finds out that the only reason he got in was that Anthony made a lofty donation to the school, he questions his talent. Though he's grateful for his older brother looking out for him, he's angry that he wasn't left to get in on his own merit. In the end, he tells Anthony he's dropping out of the academy because he doesn't feel like he belongs there.

Lady Mary Sharma (Shelley Conn) is hoping to find a husband for Edwina (and Kate if she can manage), but she doesn't know that Kate has struck up a deal with her parents. It turns out that when Mary Sheffield ran off and got married to a lowly man, her parents disowned her for disgracing the family name. Her husband already had a daughter at the time — Kate — and when he died, Mary kept her as her own to raise alongside Edwina.

In an effort to help her family financially, Kate reaches out to the Sheffields, but they'll only help if Edwina marries someone with status, repairing the family name. When Mary finds out, she's cross with Kate, but grateful that she tried to help. She supports both her daughters — Edwina with choosing not to marry Anthony and Kate taking her place — and is content in the end with how it all played out.

Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) doesn't appear in many episodes of season two, but she's still part of the story. She comes for Eloise's (Claudia Jessie) initial presentation to the Queen, offering advice (which Eloise does not want), and returns for family events. Daphne is also Anthony's only sibling in on the secret of his love for Kate. She tries to convince Anthony to do the right thing and follow his heart, but when he refuses to at first, she's there as it all crashes and burns. She also brings her and Simon's adorable baby along to show him off a few times!