🤐 SPOILER ALERT 🤐
Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story will make you swoon more often than not, as young Queen Charlotte (India Amarteifio) and young King George (Corey Mylchreest) take the first steps in their love story. But the ending scene of the finale is more likely to bring a tear to your eyes than a flush to your cheeks.
After finally learning that one of her children is expecting an heir, Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) visits King George (James Fleet) at Kew. The couple, now decades into their relationship, slide under their marriage bed to “hide from the heavens.” Time loses meaning as we see versions of both young and older Charlotte and George smile lovingly at each other under the bed. Rosheuvel tells Tudum that Queen Charlotte director Tom Verica came up with the idea; production of the scene was the only time Rosheuvel, Fleet, Amarteifio and Mylchreest all filmed together.
“I always find it really difficult to explain what love is. Because, for me, love is not about words. It really is a deeper connection with that person, an understanding that when you look at them, it’s there,” Rosheuvel says. The glances between Queen Charlotte and King George — represented in both eras of their marriage — captures that emotion.
“I love the fact that Queen Charlotte knows what to do to help King George, whereas young Queen Charlotte is at the beginning of that journey,” Rosheuvel continues. “Queen Charlotte now knows how to communicate with the man she loves. She knows what he needs. She understands him. It’s a lifelong journey for them and you see that in that last scene.”
Earlier in the finale, we see the first time young Queen Charlotte ever slipped under that bed with her husband. “It's a pretty tough time for George,” Mylchreest said at An Evening with Queen Charlotte, an event held on May 16 at Netflix’s FYSEE Emmy campaign events space. It was in that moment the actor felt most connected to his character. “For some reason I opened myself to George and it felt like we were there [togther],” he explained. “I didn't really leave until the end of the day. Even in breaks, I stayed under the bed.”
Once you wipe your tears, keep reading for the answers to the rest of your burning Queen Charlotte questions.
The Queen Charlotte finale emphasizes the immense devotion between Queen Charlotte and King George. However, the last scene of Episode 6 confirms the pair live apart in the Regency Era, as they did in the complicated first days of their marriage. The king is living at Kew and the queen resides at Buckingham House.
Despite the distance, there is no love lost. Instead, this arrangement allows the royal couple to enjoy their marriage despite King George’s medical struggles, giving the pair the “very best half” of a life together. Or, as Rosheuvel puts it, the physical separation allows King George to deal with his struggles.
But no matter their situation, they are “whole,” as young Queen Charlotte tells her husband. So whole, in fact, Rosheuvel doesn’t even think of Charlotte and George as living separately.
“Emotionally, my immediate reaction was like, ‘No, they’re still together.’ That’s the one that I want to hold onto,” Rosheuvel says. “Even though the physical is saying something different, the emotional is totally, 100% connected. She is there for him, and he is there for her.”
Mylchreest, who portrays young King George, agrees. “In that scene at the end, we see that George is still very capable of becoming lucid and seeing Charlotte for who she is,” he says. “They don’t live apart emotionally.”
However, Mylchreest continues, it makes sense for them to have their separate homes — if only for Charlotte’s well-being. “To see him like that every day and to love him with just as much passion is incredibly painful because, in a way, you’ve lost him,” Mylchreest says. “It’s like asking someone, ‘Well, your partner died. Why don’t you spend every day in the cemetery?’ You have to allow yourself time to breathe and to, in a sad way, move on.”
Yet, Queen Charlotte can’t move on. As Brimsley tells her in Episode 6, her life is dedicated to serving King George. “She is frozen in time because it’s almost like he’s died, but he hasn’t. He’s still there,” Mylchreest says. And, yet, she is still so thankful she never went over that wall.
Early in the Queen Charlotte finale, the royal couple’s respective footmen — Brimsley (Sam Clemmett) and Reynolds (Freddie Dennis) — share a very loved-up bath. Brimsley predicts that Queen Charlotte and King George shall grow old together as one. Therefore, Brimsley and Reynolds, too, could share a “lifetime” together behind the scenes. They even have a taste of that private joy at a ball in the finale episode, dancing together on the outskirts of the party.
Yet, when the 1700s-era scene dissolves into the Regency era, Brimsley is dancing alone in the dark. An older version of Reynolds has also never appeared in the Bridgerton universe. So what happened to him?
“I’m on holiday in the Maldives,” Dennis, who portrays Reynolds, jokes. Dennis’ on-screen love interest, Clemmett, playfully disagrees, saying, “Reynolds is obviously in Barbados. Did Freddie say the Maldives? He has no idea.”
No matter where Reynolds may actually be, Sachs, who plays older Brimsley, says his solo dance was inspired by nothing but joy. “What was informing me when I was dancing is that [Brimsley’s dance with Reynolds] is a happy memory. That’s when Brimsley was in love and Reynolds was the love of his life,” Sachs says. “[Production] gave me a signet ring for Bridgerton Season 3, which I decided Reynolds had given Brimsley.”
Creator Shonda Rhimes is a fan of the couple’s love, and can confirm at least one theory about Reynolds’ whereabouts: “Reynolds is not dead. There’s a lot more I could write about that,” she told Shondaland.com. What Brimsely’s solo dance meant for Rhimes was “the idea that service takes over. … When you see Brimsley alone, that’s what that’s supposed to convey.”
In the Queen Charlotte premiere, the titular royal’s only grandchild, Princess Charlotte, dies in the Regency era. Suddenly, there is no heir to the throne to follow Queen Charlotte’s children’s generation, which also means that the monarch’s years of work strengthening the family dynasty is in peril. In response to the loss, Queen Charlotte spends the rest of the series begging her many children to produce a legitimate successor.
In the finale, Prince Edward and his new wife Princess Victoria tell Queen Charlotte a royal baby is officially on the way — and they think it’s a girl. In real-life history, Prince Edward and Princess Victoria’s baby will be crowned Queen Victoria, growing up to become the woman for whom the Victorian era is named.
While multiple people suggest to Queen Charlotte that her “baby race” is cruel, Rosheuvel views it differently. “Yes, there is the drive to secure the monarchy. Some people might see that as harsh, as unkind, as unmotherly, but at the core of it, it’s all to do with love,” she says. “It is all driven by love, and the understanding of duty and their position in the world.”
Young Lady Danbury’s life is upended in Episode 3, when her husband Lord Danbury (Cyril Nri) dies after their successful ball. While there are advantages to her new status as a widow — chief among them, the end of Agatha’s unfulfilling bedroom duties — she is also thrown into a new precarious situation.
Lord Danbury is the first member of Black aristocracy to die. As young Lady Danbury’s peers ask, does Lord Danbury’s title turn over to his son and heir Dominic (Isaiah Ajiboye) — or will the Great Experiment vanish within a generation? To make matters worse, Lord Danbury spent a fortune to maintain his family’s new lifestyle in the ton, thereby leaving widowed young Lady Danbury little funds to live on.
Young Lady Danbury finds a solution when Queen Charlotte’s brother, Adolphus (Tunji Kasim), proposes and offers to whisk her away to live as a royal in Mecklenburg-Strelitz. But Lady Danbury rejects the engagement. After a lifetime of breathing someone else’s air, she insists on her own independence. Many question young Lady Danbury’s choice, but flash-forwards to the Regency era prove she made the correct decision. Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh) is a rich and popular widow who throws the best parties of the ton.
Naturally Peyvand Sadeghian, who portrays young Lady Danbury’s confidante and maid Coral, has her fingers crossed that her character gets to go along for the ride. “I would hope that Coral moves with Lady Danbury and is part of that growth,” Sadeghian says.
Rhimes told Shondaland.com that her initial reaction to doing any more Bridgerton spinoffs was “absolutely not,” but she’s rethinking her stance on potentially following another character. “When I started doing press for this, my answer was ‘Absolutely not.’ But every reporter I talked to was like, ‘Come on!’ I don’t know,” she told the site. “I mean, you guys are changing my mind a little bit. I’m thinking about it. I hadn’t entertained it before, but now I am.”
In Bridgerton, Lady Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell) is happy to busy herself attempting to play matchmaker with her children. Queen Charlotte, however, reveals that the Bridgerton matriarch may just have some yearnings of her own — and they’re so strong she’s this close to asking a footman to lay on top of her just to feel something.
While Gemmell can’t reveal what this awakening means for Violet ahead of Bridgerton Season 3, she’s delighted by the development. “What’s really lovely for me is that you get to see that life is not over for Violet, and that there is more to this woman than being solely a mother,” she told Netflix.
Clearly, gardens are in bloom all over Mayfair. Tend to your own by coming back to Tudum for all your Queen Charlotte news.
Additional reporting by Chris McPherson.
