Family Trauma Affected One Bridgerton Sibling More Than You Thought (No, It's Not Anthony)
Discovering this detail had us choking back tears.
Summary
- Bridgerton is known for its swoon-worthy stories that always end on a happy note.
- However, there are some darker subplots that add to the show's dramatic impact.
- One such storyline directly affects the titular family, leaving an unexpected mark on one of the Bridgerton siblings.
Bridgerton fans adore Netflix for its immersive, Regency-era-inspired atmosphere, swoon-worthy romances, and characters you can easily relate to. The sizable Bridgerton household is the perfect stage for love stories that can be spicy or sweet, quick-to-develop or slow-burning, full of angst or wholesome, but always end happily. With one devastating exception.
Family Tragedy
The event that changed the lives of Violet Bridgerton and her eight children 180 degrees and left a deep mark on them is the death of Lord Edmund Bridgerton, head of the household, loving husband and model father.
S2E3 detailed his tragic death in a hard-to-swallow flashback scene that is etched in the minds of all fans. Edmund died from a severe allergic reaction to a single bee sting.
The way he suffocated at the hands of his then-heavily pregnant wife, the way Violet mourned the love of her life by pushing everyone and everything away for months, couldn't help but affect their children.
Season 2 makes a special point of showing how deep Anthony's scar is from the death of his father and the subsequent abandonment by his mother. But the other siblings were also touched by the tragedy, even if they weren't around to witness it.
Fans who re-watched Season 2 and re-read Julia Quinn's Bridgerton series a few times found a detail that will strike a devastating blow to the heart of any Bridgerton fan.
Hidden in Plain Sight
You know that the Bridgerton siblings are named alphabetically from A to H, but have you ever wondered why the youngest is the only one named after a flower - Hyacinth? Not only that, but it was a traditionally male name in the Regency era. So why did Violet choose it for her daughter, who was born to never meet her dad?
The answer is that she wanted to hold on to every bit of Edmund, even the painful parts.
Edmund met his unwilling murderer while picking flowers for Violet. In fact, they were his favorite flowers, hyacinths. They bloom once a year in the spring, are very beautiful, and tend to attract a lot of insects. So you could say that it was a hyacinth that caused Edmund's death.
Still, Violet didn't hesitate to name her daughter after the flower, even though it meant the girl would have to carry that weight for the rest of her life. In the books, however, it is explained that Violet never had dark thoughts in mind when naming her youngest.
Instead of the plants that killed her husband, she thought of the hyacinth as his favorite flower, and probably thought that the newborn would be Edmund's favorite, too, if he had a chance to meet her.
In any case, seeing the energetic and bright Hyacinth running around must have softened the memory of Edmund's passing. At least to a small extent.