‘Bridgerton’ Walked So ‘My Lady Jane’ Could Trot

To be clear: This is not a Dr. Dillamond in Wicked or Mr. Tumnus in Narnia situation. Guildford is not half man, half beast: He can turn into a fully neighing, trotting, stable-sleeping steed. It’s blatantly absurd, but he’s not this universe’s only shape-shifter. Just 10 minutes into the show’s first episode, Jane’s lady’s maid and innermost confidant Susanna (Máiréad Tyers)—yep, the same one recovering from the clap—morphs from woman to hawk. (No, not that one.)

“Did I mention that, in this world, some people can transform themselves into an animal?” the show’s narrator offers. We learn that both Susanna and Guildford are Ethians: humans who can take animal form and are often hunted by pure-blooded people known as Verities. If you hadn’t figured it out yet, this is meant to be a metaphor for the Protestant-Catholic conflict in Tudor England. And in case you were wondering, according to the series, Anne Boleyn was Ethian—“An animal both in and out of the sack,” Guildford’s father (Rob Brydon) quips.

Henry VIII has largely exiled the Ethians from polite society and made it illegal for regular folks to fraternize with the group, meaning they often have to scrounge and steal in order to survive. It’s unclear how, exactly, an Ethian is detected because they can shape-shift at their own whim—a man takes to his grizzly bear form during a barside brawl; a woman shifts out of her existence as a lap dog named Petunia to alert King Edward (Jordan Peters) that he’s being poisoned. But that same courtesy doesn’t extend to Guildford, who has never had control over when he begins to—sorry—horse around.

The series, which is primarily directed by Jamie Babbit, does quick, if a bit confusing, work explaining what Guildford’s condition means. Ethianism skips generations but is typically triggered in puberty during a moment of high emotion. For Guildford, that was on the day of his mother’s murder. Ethians can’t choose which animals they morph into, which is nasty luck for the man turned bug who gets squashed under the boot of the sinister Lord Seymour (Dominic Cooper). With no authority on his own shape-shifting abilities, Guildford is cursed to be horse by day, man by night. While the sun is out, Jane can use her husband as a means of transportation and after it sets, he gets taken for a different kind of ride. Which they do in a literal stable, by the way.