Lady Danbury is a widow who spends her time taking in the English society misfits, like Simon and the Sharmas. Her home is welcome, and she will use her cane on anyone being an idiot. She's not afraid to sass the queen, who respects that Lady Danbury always speaks her mind and treats her as a confidante. What's there not to admire?
Season One
The first episode has a mutual one for Daphne and Simon. Simon is brooding alone in the gardens at a party to get away from the nagging mothers who want him to marry their daughters. He then hears Daphne trying to fend off Nigel Berbrooke, stating her refusal to marry him regardless of her brother's arrangement. Nigel, however, dismisses her and attempts to force himself onto her as Daphne yells at him to get away from her. Simon, realizing what's happening, runs off and is fully prepared to defend her despite disliking her... and arrives just in time to see Daphne punch Nigel in the face and knock him out cold. She sees Simon and apologizes for her unladylike actions before panicking at how she's going to avoid being seen alone with two men. From the look on Simon's face, especially as he stares in amazement at her having knocked Nigel out cold in one punch, this is the moment he fell in love with her.
Episode 2 has Nigel Berbrooke attempt to "persuade" Simon to stop courting Daphne when the latter is walking home through the city streets. He says that Simon has everything, but Nigel needs a wealthy wife with status. Simon says that's not his decision, it's Daphne's on who she marries, and he advises Nigel to maybe listen to a woman for once if wanting to marry them. He gives a few more warnings. Then Nigel mentions Simon's father. Cue a few punches to the face, and Simon makes it clear he could kill Nigel with his wrestling skills if the man pushes him too far.
Lady Bridgerton - with a subtle hint from Queen Charlotte - engineering a plan to keep Daphne from being forced to marry Berbrooke. She invites his mother for tea and has her housekeeper and maid unearth as much gossip as they can from Lord Berbrooke's servants. She knows that no one will believe a woman's word over his, so rather than confront him with the information, she instead spreads the rumour to every woman she knows until it reaches Lady Whistledown, ruining Berbrooke's reputation until he's forced to leave the country. Violet proves that women are never entirely powerless and demonstrates how ruthless she can be in defence of her beloved children.
Cressida makes some snide comments to Daphne suspecting her of tricking Simon into marriage. Daphne fires back that she's going to be a duchess while Cressida will still be unmarried without a title, and that it's up to Cressida if she wants to make an enemy of a duchess.
Anthony verbally tearing a strip out of the Sheffields and disinviting them from the wedding. Crosses over into heartwarming as he not only speaks in defense of his fiancee and the woman he's secretly in love with but their mother as well.
Charlotte dispels the scandal of the wedding that wasn't by saying she canceled it, and even if the ton suspects this is bullshit, who would dare snub a family that clearly still has the queen's support?
Charlotte manages to kill multiple birds with one stone in doing so; she rescues the Bridgertons and Lady Danbury from social ruin, ensures a true love match that appeals to her own personal sensibilities, and potentially secures the season's diamond for her own family by pairing up Edwina with her nephew, Prince Friedrich. Quite a win.
Portia Featherington does a thorough job on Jack. When he tries to get her to abandon her daughters, she sets him up to take the fall for the bogus investment, sending him packing to America with little more than the clothes on his back. Even the title of Baron Featherington remains his only until one of Portia's daughters produces a son, not that it would do him much good in America.
It is kind of sad because Edwina is naturally upset at her immediate family and Anthony, lashing out at them when realizing Anthony was in love with Kate on her wedding day. Later, however, as she tells her mother and sister, it's not that Kate was in love with her fiance that hurt. No, it was that both Mary and Kate hid the truth of the whole situation from her, that the Sheffields were using Edwina as blackmail material to make her marry into nobility, and that Kate was too afraid to reveal her feelings for Anthony. Edwina reminds them that she's not a child, and she asks Kate why not tell her the truth. They are forced to admit she's right, as Edwina forgives Kate and encourages her to for the man she loves.
More sadly, Eloise is severing ties with Penelope after figuring out that she is Lady Whistledown. Sure, as Penelope scathingly says, Eloise is all talk while not wanting to act to make a change. Eloise retorts, however, that it was trying to figure out what she wanted to do that motivated her to seek out Theo and his friendship. Penelope may have "proved" that Lady Whistledown isn't Eloise, but she still violated Eloise's trust by publishing a paper with their meetings, turned the Bridgertons into pariahs (again), and made sure she could never see Theo again.
