Despite members of the Ton, and Eloise’s family, not being all too pleased with the revelation of her short-lived romance with Theo, a print shop assistant well below Eloise’s standing, viewers at home were smitten with the relationship which caused plenty of scandal for her last season. The relationship led to Eloise attending feminist talks with Theo, and expanding her intellectual worldview. It seemed like a perfect match for Eloise, who had always been vocally very against the stifling traditions of the Ton.

While it’s looking likely that season four will centre on Benedict’s story, not Eloise’s, many have questioned whether Theo will ever make a return in the show and if he and Eloise could possibly be endgame. Unfortunately, there are many reasons that point to the couple not making a return on our screens in the future. Here’s a rundown:

Theo was there ‘for the plot’

A lot of people think that the showrunners introducing Theo gave Eloise a taste of her own agency in a way that she’s never really had the chance to before. She’s expressed frustration at nobody taking her political beliefs seriously enough until Theo. People think it would be a shame to give her this taste of having her voice heard just to have it taken away by marrying into the Ton just like everyone else, but the books’ author, Julia Quinn, said Theo has a purpose even if it’s not to marry Eloise in the end.

She said the relationship was mainly to allow Eloise to recognise her own privilege for the first time. These things don’t necessarily always have to have another purpose than assisting in character development.

via Netflix

Quinn says the endgame couples have to stay the same

There’s also been a lot of debate surrounding how faithful the show has to be to the original books. While they are hugely successful in their own right, many fans either haven’t read them or have and say they don’t really mind if the show’s writers stick to the plot: They’d rather have an entertaining show.

We’ve also already had a confirmed change to coupling within the show with the recent revelation of Francesca’s future love interest being gender-swapped in the last episode of season three. Some have pointed out that if they can change this, why can’t Theolise be endgame?

The thing is though, despite her gender now being changed, Michaela will very likely play the same role as her male book counterpart, whereas Theo is a completely different character to Sir Phillip, Eloise’s love interest in the book. It’s not just really comparable.

Eloise’s plot is the whole reason Marina exists

Marina of season one fame was introduced as the Featheringtons’ distant cousin. She gets married off to the brother of her scandalous, dead love interest at the end of the first season, the brother who is none other than Sir Philip.

It’s the whole reason Marina is in the show in season one in the first place, and also why we see her again in season two. It wouldn’t really make much sense to have such a significant subplot in season one just to never have an explanation as to why they were there.

We’re unlikely to see Theo again at all, in fact

One last piece of bad news for the Theo fans is that I really doubt we’ll ever catch a glimpse of the print shop worker again on the show. It was a mistake the writers made with Anthony and Sienna in season one that I doubt they’ll repeat: Dragging on a subplot romance that everyone knew from the off wouldn’t last is confusing for viewers.

As for Eloise and Theo, it really wouldn’t make sense to rekindle a romance we know is probably doomed, and I don’t know how they’d add him to the plot anyway. I think, unfortunately, we need to put our Theo Sharpe-shaped dreams to rest.