cherry.

I will miss you.

fantastic fantastic season, best after s2 and ill stand ten toes down on that

cinderella is a classic & i shouldn't have been so down on the season going in. yerin is a treasure for selling me on a story i was skeptical on and this season converted me into a benedict bridgerton lover (which i cannot tell you how insane this is. i have hated on his pointlessness for seasons). now i think he's fun and cool and i fuck with his characterization.

i think part 1 shines because of bendict & sophie but part 2 is carried by fran/michaela/john. i was emotionally gut punched over and over and over. hannah dodd made me cry more that once (best recasting decision that could have been made). it's a feat that in only 4 episodes, they take us from hostility with franchaela to respect and tenderness, and i absolutely believe it.

not sure how much things are straying from book canon, but if it isn't book canon, the choice to have michaela leave after saying she'd stay is *chef's kiss*. im already still emotionally vulnerable for francesca after All She's Been Through and then they give this extra angst bomb. my girl is going throughhh it and unfortunately for her, i am eating it up

prior to the episode 8 collapse, i did enjoy the violet/lord anderson relationship. interested to see if they'll drop it entirely or have violet chase her man- I'm hoping for the latter. i see the intention of violet finding herself again in adulthood but like... edmund's been dead forever. you had YEARS to find you girl. get that sexy man back (side note that i don't buy that violet was like bendict lmao)

eloise continues to confound me but i found her conclusion with hyacinth sweet, if a little unearned. thank god she's up next i need to know where they go with her. and yeah i know she has to marry philip crane and i know cressida is happily married and in love but um. creloise maybe? just a little? pleeeeease

only storyline that didn't really work for me was (sadly) the queen/danbury/penelope/lady mondrich. i saw the vision, really, and loved the scenes that were just danbury/charlotte (qcabs context really really supports this storyline), but overall it just felt weak. penelope had no reason to be in this storyline and the fact that she convinces the queen to let agatha go through the power of whistledown metaphor is just a little annoying to me. i love the idea of alice stepping up to be the kind of support charlotte needs, but it just felt underbaked in execution.