Here's What Sanditon's Rose Williams Has to Say About That Steamy Cliffside Kiss

Just when you thought no kiss in the history of kisses could top that fireside smooch in Sanditon's Season 2, Alexander Colbourne came striding along the cliffside all agitated and Mr-Darcy-esque, crowned with windswept hair and voluntarily wearing a coat, possibly for the first time in his life.

(Do you think his sleeves were all rolled-uppy under that coat? Probably. The man just can't help himself – he's gotta be ready for the rugged work of being a chivalrous gentleman).

In a scene that borrowed from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen's Persuasion, and the unpublished 300-page fanfic I keep under my pillow (how did they find that?!), Colbourne proceeds to give the most romantic proposal of all time.

'I cannot let you leave Sanditon again without telling you in plainest terms how devoutly I admire you. Every day of my life that is not spent in your company is a day wasted. And I have fought in vain to deny it but I am in love with you.'

Naturally, there's nothing Charlotte can say in response, so she does what we would all do and launches her mouth at Colbourne's mouth.

Of course this is the Regency, where smooching of any kind is scandalous – and this particular smooch is double-forbidden. Charlotte is engaged to Ralph Starling, known across the internet as Boring Ralph (or, more kindly, 'kale'. You know it's healthy, you just don't want to eat it). After a long beat of Forbidden Smooching, Charlotte pulls away and rejects Colbourne. For she is engaged! And he broke her heart! And there are still three episodes left!!

Later Charlotte confesses to Georgiana that she feels terribly guilty over the encounter. Actress Rose Williams explained why in an interview with Decider, saying:

'I think she's very angry with herself… that confusion and frustration kind of comes out in this disjointed way… It's just the sword pointed inwards. She's frustrated with herself. Like she's frustrated that she has these feelings. If she could bury them and put them somewhere, she would.'

Charlotte's emotional turmoil is certainly appropriate for a staunchly honorable woman who has made a promise to her family as well as to Ralph Starling, Human Kale.

Williams goes on to say that the cliffside scene leaves her character in 'emotional crisis mode'... and it certainly left viewers feeling the same way.

Some were shocked that a Jane Austen piece would feature an engaged woman kissing another man (apparently they've forgotten that this is Sanditon, where gentlemen arise naked from the sea and disgraced heirs have sex on the floor).

Others were simply distraught that we have to keep waiting for #Heybourne to get it together. Fingers crossed it won't take until the last five minutes of the series before the two of them finally work out their differences, get properly engaged, and get to more smoochin'.

The next episode of Sanditon will premiere on Masterpiece on PBS on 4/16/2023.