Diksha Sundriyal
The fourth season of Netflix’s ‘Bridgerton’ follows the story of Benedict Bridgerton and Sophie Baek’s upstairs-downstairs romance. While Benedict navigates the complex waters of his love for Sophie and the Lady in Silver, who he doesn’t know are the same people, his siblings also go through challenges in their lives and relationships. One of the subplots of the season focuses on Francesca and John Stirling’s marriage. The newlyweds return from Scotland to Mayfair to spend a season with her family. It turns out that even after about a year of marriage, they have a lot of stuff to figure out, which also concerns having children. MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD.
Francesca and John’s Struggle to Have Children Serves as a Major Future Plot Point
After their wedding in the third season, Francesca and John Stirling move to Scotland, where they begin to build a new life together. However, as months pass and Francesca is still not with child, she starts to wonder if they are doing something wrong. She voices this concern when they return to Mayfair for the season, and John assures her that everything is alright. They have been married for just a year or so, and it is normal to take longer to have children. He also points out that the chances get better when a woman reaches her pinnacle during lovemaking, which gives Francesca pause. Not only does she not know what a pinnacle is, but she has also been lying about it all this time. She tries to understand it from her mother and Penelope, but that still doesn’t solve the problem that she’s never had it.
Francesca eventually comes clean to John about it, especially after he notes that she faked it. With the air cleared between them, they move forward with a more relaxed mindset. This is where the first half of the season leaves them, and the second half is going to focus on their renewed efforts to have a child. This, however, is going to end in tragedy. According to Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton books, which serve as the source material for the Netflix series, John passes away before seeing the face of his child. In fact, Francesca is pregnant at the time of his death, but she suffers a miscarriage, which adds to her grief and pushes her into an incredibly dark time in her life. Her desire to have a family is crushed as her husband and her unborn child pass away in a short span of time. With no heir, John’s title passes on to the next person in line. In the books, that person is his cousin, Michael, who is gender-swapped to become Michaela in the show.
In the books, Francesca turns to the marriage mart a few years after John’s passing. Being a young widow with no children creates societal pressure on her to try again. While she still mourns John, her desire to have children still exists and a second marriage promises her that, if not another chance at the love she found with John. Meanwhile, Michael, who has been in love with her since he first met her at her and John’s engagement party, falls further for her, while also gripped by the guilt of taking over the life that should have been his cousin’s. Had Francesca and John had an heir, Michael wouldn’t have come into the picture, and his and Francesca’s romance would have never found footing. This means that not having children with John plays an important role in deciding the course of Francesca’s future.
The Show Might Significantly Tweak Francesca’s Storyline From the Books
While ‘Bridgerton’ borrows material from Julia Quinn’s books, the show is known to have made changes in the story in the process of adaptation. In terms of Francesca’s storyline, a major change has already appeared in the form of Michael’s gender-swap. With the story set in the Regency era, there are certain limitations on the characters about who would be considered an ideal match by society. Benedict experiences this struggle when he falls in love with Sophie, who is a maid. In the books, Francesca wouldn’t have had a problem marrying Michael, because they are of the same social standing and in a heterosexual relationship. In the show, however, the same-sex relationship becomes the issue that society would frown upon. This significantly shifts the theme of her story, which means that the show might try to balance that out in different ways.
Still, Francesca not having children would be an important plot point, because if she did have children, then Michaela would never inherit John’s title, which would put a stop to their romance before it even begins. This, however, doesn’t mean that the duo couldn’t explore other ways in which Francesca could have children. The theme of a homosexual relationship in the Regency era offers a host of issues that could be addressed in the upcoming seasons, bringing more depth to Francesca’s storyline, and giving her and Michael the complex and layered story that challenges societal norms, which wouldn’t exactly be entirely unexpected from a Bridgerton.
Read More: Bridgerton: Is My Cottage a Real Place?
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