Here’s When Bridgerton Actually Gets Sexy In Season 2

By now, you’ve probably heard that the new season of Bridgerton doesn’t have nearly as much sexual content as Season 1 did. If you want to skip ahead to the smutty parts — because of course you do — we’ve put together a short, sweet, and spicy guide to the sex scenes in Bridgerton Season 2. Major spoilers for Bridgerton follow.

This time, the show is all about the eldest Bridgerton brother, Anthony. The young Viscount Bridgerton is looking to wed this season, but he’s not playing the marriage mart game for love. Anthony makes it clear to anyone who will listen that he’s acting only out of duty to his father’s title. He’s there to get a young lady “wed, bed, and bred” — as another young bachelor so eloquently puts it — and nothing more.

He’s has made it his personal mission to marry whomever Queen Charlotte declares to be the season’s Diamond of the First Water. So when Edwina Sharma is named the diamond, Anthony ignores all other ladies in her favor — or tries to, at least. There’s one woman Anthony cannot ignore: Edwina’s older sister, Kate, whom Edwina trusts to approve of all her suitors. Kate can’t stand the viscount, whose reputation as a “capital-R Rake” — thanks, Lady Whistledown — precedes him. Anthony has to woo both Sharma sisters if he wants to marry Edwina, but he quickly finds himself falling in love with her sister. Cue the drama!

Here’s your quick-and-dirty guide to all the sex in Bridgerton Season 2.

Which Episodes Have Sex Scenes In Bridgerton Season 2?

If Bridgerton Season 1 was a raunchy comedy of manners, Bridgerton Season 2 is... well, not that. Instead, it’s all about the allusion to sex. Anthony gets a montage that juxtaposes the ends of his brothel visits — complete with naked young women pretending to sleep and coins hitting the bedside table — and his dates with various young ladies in the ton. Benedict goes to that noted den of iniquity, art school, and takes up with a young artist who models so she can listen in on the lectures. Kate and Anthony share a lot of almost-kisses and sexy whispers, but no one, and I mean no one, has sex on screen in Bridgerton Season 2 until the end of Episode 7. As Glamour put it, “Bridgerton is edging America.”

A lot happens in that episode. Following a disastrous first attempt at a Sharma-Bridgerton wedding, during which Edwina finally noticed Anthony’s connection with her sister while they were standing at the altar, the Bridgertons, the Sharmas, and Lady Danbury are on the proverbial ropes in good society. Lady Violet hosts a ball to convince everyone that things are OK between their families, but no one shows up — which means no one’s around to witness Kate and Anthony’s impromptu rendezvous in the gardens of Aubrey Hall.

You can skip ahead to the 50-minute mark to watch this scene, but it’s highly recommended to tune into the 46-minute mark instead, just for the wonderful banter between this enemies-to-lovers couple. Also, be sure to stick around for Kate’s bosom-heaving recollections of the night before, which include the best shot of the season: Anthony’s face between Kate’s thighs.

In the eighth episode, Bridgerton returns to more smoldering angst, right up until the very end. Sixty-five minutes in, we get to see a brief, sexy scene between the viscount and his new viscountess, before they hit the gardens for another round of Bridgerton pell mell. It’s not much, but it is a satisfying conclusion to Netflix’s best period drama.

Why Isn’t There As Much Sex In Bridgerton Season 2?

To answer this question, we need to look at the biggest change between The Viscount Who Loved Me — the book on which this season is based — and Bridgerton Season 2: the infamous bee-sting scene. Both readers and watchers know that Edmund, the late Viscount Bridgerton and Anthony’s father, died from an allergic reaction to a bee sting when he was in his 30s. Anthony has harbored a deep-seated fear of bees ever since.

In The Viscount Who Loved Me, a bee stings Kate’s chest just after she gives Anthony her blessing to propose to Edwina. Panicked, he tries to save her life by sucking out the poison... just as Lady Violet, Lady Mary, and Lady Danbury happen upon them. It’s not what it looks like, but that hardly matters to the ton. Kate’s compromised, no matter how well-meaning Anthony’s actions were, and the two of them have to get married to avoid a scandal.

Bridgerton Season 2 opted not to push Anthony and Kate to the altar. Instead, Netflix viewers get seven episodes full of longing looks, panting breaths, and bridled desires, as the couple try to do what’s right by Edwina, but muck everything up anyway.

So why change the book’s most famous scene? As Slate already pointed out, the show’s writers may have wanted to avoid the similarity to Daphne and Simon’s path to the altar, which also involved a scandalous embrace in the gardens of a great house.

Will Bridgerton Season 3 Have More Sex Scenes?

Assuming that Bridgerton Season 3 follows the events of the third book in Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series, An Offer from a Gentleman, then... no, probably not. Even though — spoiler alert — Benedict and his intended consummate their relationship before they’re officially married, their Cinderella-esque romance is drawn out over years of pining. So while we might see more of Benedict — and maybe even Colin? — sliding into bed with sex workers and bohemians, it’s unlikely that Bridgerton will return to the sexy vibe of its first season... unless the writers decide to shake things up again.