The period drama Bridgerton is back on Netflix for a second season from this Friday, March 25.
Season one was a massive hit, drawing in Netflix's biggest audience at the time with a record 82 million households around the world watching the period drama within its first 28 days of streaming.
It has since been overtaken by Squid Game.
The success of Bridgerton propelled the books the series is based on, by author Julia Quinn, into the New York Times bestseller list for the first time – 18 years after they were first published.
Here's a recap of season one as "this author" prepares you for season two.
Daphne and Simon – the couple we needed to have
Bridgerton season one was centred around the love story of the dashing Duke of Hastings Simon Basset (Rege-Jean Page) and Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor).
The two concocted a love story as a ruse to make Daphne appear more desirable to other men and as a way for Simon to remain a sworn bachelor.
But feelings got in the way and it became a real love story.
When Simon tells Daphne he has no plans to ever become a father, she jumps to the conclusion that he's infertile.
But when they marry, she discovers it's not that Simon can't have children, it's that he doesn't want to.
Simon doesn't want to produce an heir because of the toxic relationship he had with his own father.
He comes around and the season ends with Daphne giving birth to their first child.
All well and good but last year, Netflix announced that Simon would not appear in season two… and on hearing that news, this author sighed in disappointment.
Lady Whistledown's observations the talk of the town
Perhaps one of the most intriguing characters in this story is Lady Whistledown, who publishes a gossip rag in which she refers to herself as "this author."
See what I did there?
Throughout season one, the cast and viewers are kept in the dark over Lady Whistledown's true identity.
By the end of the season, though, viewers are let in on the fact that Lady Whistledown is in fact Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan).
Scandalous indeed.
But it's just the viewers who know. It's still a mystery to the cast.
Anthony Bridgerton – the meddling brother
Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) takes his position as head of the household seriously after his father's tragic death.
But as Daphne's protective brother, he scares off her potential suitors and almost forces her to marry someone she's not interested in.
He introduces Daphne to Simon but, because he knows his friend well, he certainly doesn't want him for his sister.
Anthony, meanwhile, is in a secret relationship with an opera singer.
When that doesn't last, he declares his intentions to find a wife next social season, setting us up for the action to come in season two of the Netflix series.
