- Scandal.
(both gasping)
- We are geniuses.
(gasping) - I got it wrong!
(upbeat orchestral music)
- You are an unmarried young lady
of decent standing and a moderate family fortune.
- You've been invited to a ball hosted by the viscount,
who is in need of a wife.
He may very well be our most eligible bachelor indeed.
- Make choices and see if you can survive
until the end of the night without embarrassment or scandal.
- If you get more than two answers wrong,
you'll be thrown from the ball in disgrace
and the talk of the ton.
- Good luck.
- Wow.
- No pressure.
- Time to get dressed.
Now, which type of dress would be considered most proper?
- Oh, that's hard.
- Yeah.
- I feel like dress B is more flattering.
- Yeah.
- Oh, B.
- So B, I think is a little bit try hard
and you'd have to do a really simple kind
of hair and makeup to go with it.
So I'm gonna go for A.
- That looks like what someone would wear
to one of the balls that we go to, right?
- Totally.
- I mean, it has to be A, right?
- I think A.
- A, but I prefer B.
- B, yeah, indeed.
- Agreement, agreement.
- A, because it is an empire line dress
and it is very much of the season.
- Bustles are later.
Bustles are to come.
(bell ringing)
- I love this game.
- Yes!
- Yeah, of course the most stylish dress is dress A,
how lovely.
- You will become the talk of the ton
the very moment you set foot inside the ballroom.
- For all of you who chose dress B,
your bodice is quite tight and your skirt is distracting.
Heavens.
- All done.
You arrive at the estate and the lady
of the house greets you and your chaperone.
- You are led to the dining room,
where you see two seats open.
Which seat do you choose?
- A, the seat at the right of the viscount.
Now you mustn't miss your chance to charm him.
Or B, the seat in the middle of the table,
next to another young lady.
- Personally, I'd obviously sit next to the viscount.
- I would sit by the viscount
because the competition might be too great.
- You have to have confidence
that if you do sit next to the viscount,
you will charm him.
- I think it's more proper to sit next
to another young lady.
I feel like it would be - it seems quite forward.
- Yes.
- Should we sit next to him.
- Scandalous.
- You are out there to enjoy yourself
and I think the more you focus on you,
it's an energy thing.
That's when you get the attention of others.
The viscount, for example.
- Do you believe in like playing it cool?
Keep your distance, make him come to you?
- No.
(laughing)
(bell ringing)
- If you choose a seat next to a young lady around your age
and social standing, then you are correct.
We are geniuses.
- A lady must be mindful
of her ranking in a setting like this.
- If you were sitting next to the viscount,
well then what a blunder.
You're in a seat reserved for the highest ranking lady
who has scornfully asked you if you've lost your way
and that your other guests gasp
as you make your way to the middle of the table.
- Wow. Okay.
- To be fair, though.
You will always be the highest ranking lady at any table.
- That's very true.
- The first course is a lovely soup.
Which spoon do you pick up to take a polite taste?
- Is it A, the spoon above your plate and bowl?
Or is it B, the spoon to the right of the knife?
- The one on top.
You mustn't take the bigger one, right?
The bigger one.
- The little knowledge that I had
of it was work from the outside in.
- "Titanic."
- But then I didn't know if that yeah, exactly.
- I think I learned this from "Shrek."
- "Shrek 2," to be specific.
- This was drilled into me as a youngster.
- I mean, I really didn't.
- Yes, I learned to lay a table.
- And then onto the top for your pud.
(bell ringing)
- If you choose B,
you've successfully chosen your soup spoon.
Is that what I chose?
Did I choose B?
- You've successfully chosen your correct soup spoon.
- You take a polite sip
and pass the first course with a breeze.
The soup is delish.
- If you went with A,
you reached for your dessert spoon.
- Yes, pudding.
- Oh no.
It's too small and you spilled
that lovely soup on your gown.
- Oh, this is quite detailed, isn't it?
- I know.
- The rest of the dinner party notices your blunder
and you spend the rest of the party trying to hide it.
You could hide it with the layers there.
- I could hide you in this dress if I needed to.
After dinner, it's time for the ball to truly begin.
- A gentleman you do not fancy
requests a formal introduction
and ask you for your first dance.
- You could see that the viscount himself
is also free for a dance.
What do you do?
Excuse yourself from a gentleman's company politely,
you must get the viscount's attention.
Or dance with the unnamed gentlemen and hope
to catch the viscount's eye.
- Oh, this one's a tough one, actually.
- Is a woman allowed to ask the man to dance?
- Possibly not in this era.
- Golda and I would both be shunned immediately
within the first two minutes of getting into the ballroom.
- Exactly
- With the viscount especially,
hard to get, hard to get.
- You know, I went to drama school
with a girl who said the best way to get a guy
to like you is to be sexy near them.
- Okay.
- Lady Danbury has had the experience of this in a ball
and I had to read the riot act,
I'm afraid, and say,
it is acceptable here for a lady
to decline a dance with a gentleman
unless she's already reserved by another.
And maybe as you waft past the viscount
doing your most fabulous dancing,
you will catch his eye.
- Yeah, that's good, isn't it?
- Mm hmm.
(bell ringing)
- If you chose A and refuse,
you offend the gentleman.
(both gasping)
- The ton whispers and your dance card
remains relatively empty all evening.
You are in danger of becoming a wallflower.
The viscount finally notices you.
- He asks you for a dance and even allows you
to choose which type of dance the two
of you will engage in.
- Ah.
- Which do you choose?
- Ooh.
- A, a lively quadrille, or B, a romantic waltz.
- I'd obviously choose a romantic waltz
'cause I'm a romantic person at heart.
- I think I'm gonna choose romantic waltz.
I think there's something quite sexy about that.
- I'd go for the waltz, I think.
- Really?
- Yeah, I'm a hopeless romantic at the heart.
I would like to gaze into his eyes, I think.
- I would say a lively quadrille.
- Yeah, me too.
- 'Cause also then it's like, you're really fun.
He wants to meet up again.
- Yeah, you're like, ha ha, I'm such a fun gal.
- Yeah, exactly, yeah.
(bell ringing)
- If you choose a lively quadrille,
you know your way around the dance styles of the day.
(gasping) I got it wrong!
- The viscount is impressed with your skills
and wishes to dance one more.
You are the only young lady who dances with him twice.
- If you went for the romantic waltz,
scandal.
The gentleman is shocked at your suggestion of a waltz.
A dance much too intimate for polite company.
- The viscount is put off by your boldness.
- Ooh, she's a nasty girl.
She wants to waltz, she doesn't care who knows it.
- Finally, the ball has ended.
And how did we all do?
Diamonds of the season or scandalous rule breakers,
destined to spinsterhood.
God that's mean.
- It's dark.
- My God.
- It's so dark.
- If you ask me,
maybe these rule breakers were onto something true.
- Ah, now we have it.
Now I come into my play.
- Exactly.
- There's a place for rules
and there's a place for rule breakers.
So if you want to see us break more rules,
then come on now, come watch "Bridgerton" season two.
Now streaming only on Netflix.