‘Bridgerton’ Season 3 Has a Bizarre Connection to ‘The Terror’

The big picture

• Bridgerton
  Season 3 creates a connection with
  The Terror
  Season 1 through Lord Debling's interest in the Northwest Passage.
• Lord Debling's expedition plans mirror the doomed voyage of the Franklin Expedition, adding a dark twist to
  Bridgerton
  .
• The horrors of the Arctic explored in
  The Terror
  Season 1 aligns with Debling's potential fate, foreshadowing a grim future for the character.

When we think about possible recommendations for Bridgerton As fans who want to keep the buzz going after a particularly intense season finale, we usually look for romantic shows or period dramas, maybe both at the same time. Options can vary from Pride and Prejudice a center of the Abbey to Shondaland's own Still Star-Crossed. What most people won't do is look at teary eyes Bridgerton fans cry because their favorite show just finished its final season and say, “Hey, you know what TV series would be perfect for you? American Horror Story. Of course, interests can overlap, and indeed there are many Lady Whistledown (voiced by Julie Andrews) lovers out there who enjoy a good scare every now and then. Still, the connection between a Regency love story and a chilling horror story is not obvious. That is, of course, until now. In its third season, Bridgerton has created a direct link between himself and one of the biggest and most successful horror shows of recent years: AMC's The Terror.

A Reddit user was the first to point this out. The connection is built through a newly introduced character, Lord Alfred Debling (Sam Phillips), and one of his many interests: the Northwest Passage, which connects the North Atlantic and North Pacific across the Arctic Circle. A doomed adventure in the 19th century, in which the story of Bridgerton takes place, the search for this trade route inspired the author Dan Simmons write The Terror in 2007, which in turn inspired David Kajganich to create the show of the same name in 2018. A second season, subtitled infamyfollowed in 2019, and there is talk of a third, dubbed season The terror: the silver devilwhich will be released in 2025. However, the only follow-up to Simmons' novel, a fictionalized account of what might have happened to one of the most infamous Northwest Passage expeditions, is Season 1.

Who Is Lord Debling In 'Bridgerton' Season 3?

Now to fully understand how Bridgerton connect to The Terrorfirst you need to understand Lord Debling. A wealthy and titled gentleman who takes an interest in Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan), Debling is indeed a dreamer. Handsome, open-minded, understanding and generally pleasant to talk to, he is considered a bit of an oddball due to his fascination with the environment and his insistence on a vegetarian diet. Even so, these peculiarities are not enough to make it less attractive. Her heart was still set on Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton), Penelope falters a bit and almost agrees to marry Debling when he asks her mother for her hand in marriage. In the end, however, Debling realizes that Penelope has feelings for another man and decides to break it all off.

This is probably for the best, and not just for Penelope. you see, the problem with Debling is that he doesn't really care much about love. He doesn't bring it to the table, and he doesn't look for a woman who is madly in love with him either. What he wants is a sensible union with a partner who has his own interests to fill his life and who can keep his affairs in order while he travels the world. In fact, he has an entire expedition planned that will keep him away from his new family for a total of three years.

Said expeditionas Lord Debling tells Penelope in episode 4, it is not only in the North, but in the “fabulous Northwest Passage.” Now, this is not a good omen. Let's say that if Lord Debling plans to make a trip to the Northwest Passage in 1824, the year in which Julia Quinn's Romancing Mr. Bridgerton sets the story of Colin and Penelope, it is most likely not coming back. Reddit users also point out that the other lady Debling is seen courting Bridgerton Season 3 is Cressida Cowper (Jessica Madsen), who is a widow in Quinn's series of novels, which could be pointing to a tragic future for our dashing gentleman. Apparently, poor Penelope narrowly escaped becoming a widow at a very young age.

What is the Northwest Passage that Debling is so obsessed with?

But wait, why are we so pessimistic about Lord Debling's journey? Why is everyone so sure our boy won't come back alive? Well, as you may have already guessed, the “fabulous northwest passage” is a very real route that explorers have spent centuries trying to cross. Consisting of a series of deep channels around what is now known as the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, the passage is surrounded on both sides by icebergs and other icy masses. Although the site has been home to many indigenous peoples, modern European ships have always had difficulty passing through the region, and most sailors who traveled there were ill-prepared for the cold and long periods of time that passed through trapped

The difficulties involved in finding this northwest route were very important in making it famous among would-be explorers. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, one of the men who helped popularize the passage in Europe's imagination, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, actually drowned trying to cross it in 1583. In the following centuries, many others would meet their fate in a similar way, drowning, starving or freezing to death as they tried to cope with the cold temperatures and hard frozen masses without regard for the survival experience of the inhabitants. It was only in 1905 that the pass was safely crossed for the first time by an expedition led by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. All of this lasted a total of three years, from 1903 to 1906. Only in 1944 did someone manage to reach the other side of the Northwest Passage in a single season.

The horrors of the Northwest Passage were covered in Season 1 of “The Terror.”

Before Amundsen, however, the most famous expedition to try to make its way to the Pacific via the Northwest Passage was the Franklin Expedition. Now, how you set sail on a ship called HMS Terror and expect your journey to be less than terrifying is a mystery, but that's what John Franklin (Ciaran Hinds) and his men in 1845. In short, the Terror and the Erebus left England to be last seen by a whaler just two months after the voyage began. After this event, no one knows exactly what happened, but starvation, scurvy, lead poisoning, botulism, and, well, cannibalism are suspected to have claimed the lives of all of Franklin's explorers.

In Dan Simmons' novel and the show it inspired, there is also the presence of a mystical, bloodthirsty beast. The result is a series that is a delight for both those looking for supernatural horror and those who prefer a more historical approach. Although, to be fair, the supernatural doesn't always feel necessary. Well written, well directed and incredibly acted, The Terror shines above all in how it depicts the relationships between the members of Franklin's crew. Jared Harris he's particularly fantastic as the de facto protagonist Francis Crozier, but the entire cast is able to sell the madness, panic and desperation that grips them as time passes with no sign of anything but the ice with extreme ease

Desperate, panicked and crazy is exactly how the members of Franklin's expedition must have felt during their stay in the Arctic, doing God knows what to survive. It was only in the 1850s that the first traces of the expedition were found, and the first remains of the ships were not located until 2014.. So, yes, if Debling really is going on that Arctic expedition he keeps talking about, his chances don't look good. If we do the math, he only missed being aboard the Terror or the Erebus by about 20 years! Hey, if he's back from his first trip, there's still time to catch them in the near future, right?

Bridgerton Season 3 Part 1 is available to stream on Netflix in the US

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