Bridgerton season 3 part 2 spoilers follow – and they’re pretty major ones, too.
The Penelope Featherington we leave at the end of Bridgerton‘s third season could not be any further from the lowest of lows Penelope we had to endure at its start. This was the Penelope whose new frock was torn to shreds by Cressida, faced down a society who had put her on the shelf and had to tearfully beg Colin for a kiss.
The finale sees Pen dramatically reveal her Lady Whistledown identity to the Ton, before Nicola Coughlan‘s voiceover seamlessly blends into that of Julie Andrews as the sensationalist gossip columnist.
Despite some wobbles along the way, Bridgerton managed to pull off what in the run-up looked like its most tenuous narrative magic trick yet. How was Penelope going to live happily ever after with Colin while keeping the big gossip business she had built, one cloaked jaunt to the printers at a time?
This third season was ostensibly about coming out of your cocoon and into yourself – if the ubiquitous butterfly symbolism wasn’t enough of a lumbering reminder – but in practice, what the season really began to bend around was the question of finding a sense of purpose in this tiny bubble.
With Penelope and her high society side hustle secret, we had a character who had such meaning in her life. Yes, she might be the period drama equivalent of XOXO Gossip Girl. But suddenly the prospect of her being married into a domestic life of child-rearing raised the question of whether a woman could have it all in this Regency context.
That small slice of history the romance genre is so fixated on – from 1811 to 1820 – has the fizz, frippery and never-ending fits that make it perfect for a television show with Netflix‘s budget. But it’s also an incredibly backwards going forwards era when it comes to what women can do. The rebellions, when they come, are in small doses and over objectively quite silly matters like the writer of an aristocracy scandal sheet.
In very stark contrast, the woman watching have all the freedom to take part in the big rebellions the men of Bridgerton are afforded: endless travel, dinnertime drugs, even more endless threesomes, etc.
Penelope is clearly one of the best and brightest characters Bridgerton has to offer, with the glassy beauty of a china doll and the quick smarts of any TED-talking girlboss at a hyper cool start-up. Yet in the Ton, she was an outcast because she liked to read and had been single for three summers.
The first part of this season was a hard watch on a few counts, chiefly because Penelope was positioned as so lucky to have Colin – in his pirate outfit with a pomade, wittering on about his prolonged backpacking – give her the time of day.
But the second part of the show makes up for all that, because it embraces what we have known all along: that Penelope is far too good for Colin and he should, frankly, be humbled before her. Colin comes to appreciate the cerebral, powerful part of Penelope that built her gossip-loving empire, and it’s through a shared love of writing that they mend the Whistledown wound.
The Whistledown of it all sets up a brilliant counterpoint for a show whose entire premise positions marriage as the highest purpose – and a route in life which has so far left characters like Eloise and Benedict cold.
In the first part of the season, the rinse-and-repeat formula of young marriageable gentry flitting around balls and trying to flirt felt tired.
While Bridgerton‘s first season felt revolutionary – through everything from its diverse casting to the string quartet renditions of pop classics – season three kicked off with even the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) looking weary at the thought of another summer spent playing matchmaker to all this. What’s the point? We all know where it’s going.
In a genre that is fundamentally quite repetitive, Bridgerton needed to plough a new path. While the bold changes are clearest in other storylines – like the jaw-dropping finale reveal of Michaela Stirling – there is still quiet revolution here.
It might be mythic in comparison to real life, but Penelope gets to have it all. For the show, we will now have to find a new footing with our narrative anchor in Whistledown, since Penelope will operate out in the open.
It’s the shake-up Bridgerton badly needed – because for once, we don’t entirely know what the next season on the marriage mart might hold.
Bridgerton is available to stream on Netflix.
Deputy TV Editor
Previously a TV Reporter at The Mirror, Rebecca can now be found crafting expert analysis of the TV landscape for Digital Spy, when she’s not talking on the BBC or Times Radio about everything from the latest season of Bridgerton or The White Lotus to whatever chaos is unfolding in the various Love Island villas.
When she’s not bingeing a box set, in-the-wild sightings of Rebecca have included stints on the National TV Awards and BAFTAs red carpets, and post-match video explainers of the reality TV we’re all watching.