In the third season of Bridgerton, Netflix’s enormously popular historical romance drama, Penelope Featherington finally gets the glow-up she deserves.
A lifelong wallflower who’s long been secretly in love with Colin Bridgerton—whom she overheard telling a group of guys he would never court her at the end of season two—Penelope has always been privy to the secret goings-on of society. The only reason she’s able to keep up her secret work as Lady Whistledown, the publisher of an entertaining gossip newspaper, is by writing from her perspective and position as an outsider. But by the show’s third season, with the threat of being unmasked as Lady Whistledown stronger than ever—her former best friend, Colin’s sister Eloise, found out about her secret identity at the end of season two, destroying their friendship in the process—Penelope has decided to take the prospect of marriage seriously. It’s the only thing that would allow her to escape her family home, where she’s ignored, disrespected, and made to feel less than.
As a frothy, feel-good drama—pure fantasy—Bridgerton has to walk a fine line. The show needs to be steamy, exciting, and suspenseful without going so far as to spoil romantic illusions about nobility and marriage at a time when even wealthy, well-bred women had few rights. For Penelope, the prospect of securing a husband isn’t a fairytale; it’s all about survival. A bad match, or no match at all, could mean misery, abuse, poverty. A true “love match,” the kind of marriage Lady Bridgerton wants for all her children, is a very rare thing indeed.
For noblewomen in Regency-era London, as it has been for so many other women across cultures and time periods, sex is dangerous. Profoundly so. But a certain level of risk can also make sex in real life and on the screen all the more dangerously thrilling. Bridgerton’s third season flirts heavily with sexual danger, and it’s by far the show’s steamiest season yet.
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Bridgerton relies on classic will-they, won’t-they tension to build drama between its romantic leads every season; implicit to that tension is the fact that, should any woman be caught so much as being kissed by another man, she could be socially ruined—tarnished, tainted—unless that man was going to marry her. Season two’s tension builds up so slowly that the first sex scene between hero and heroine, eldest Bridgerton son and Viscount, Anthony, and the gorgeous newcomer Kate Sharma doesn’t happen until the penultimate episode. That sex scene, in a gazebo on the grounds, is an all-time fan favorite—but I doubt we would remember it so fondly if Kate was indeed socially ruined and cast out of London society instead of happily and safely married to Anthony in the end.
The women of Bridgerton have so much more to lose. For all Anthony Bridgerton might complain about his familial duties regarding marrying off all his younger siblings, he and all the other men of the Tonare still firmly in charge of their own destinies. Not so for his sisters, or Penelope, or any of the women in noble society—let alone poor women (and men). No, the Bridgerton men are expected to be the protagonists of their own lives.
It’s interesting, then, to watch the show navigate its depiction this season of a different kind of heroine: one who’s turned to marriage as an absolute last resort, who (for good reason) holds no loyalty to her family, and therefore isn’t putting their needs above or in line with her own; and who has ambitions beyond the establishment of her own family home. Will Penelope ultimately be punished for daring to give the townspeople what they truly want—the dirt on all their friends and enemies—and working to secure her own financial future? Or will it allow her to find long-term happiness in Colin Bridgerton, her longtime crush? The stakes for romantic and sexual dalliances this season are higher than ever, which makes for very exciting television.
Before things can really get steamy, however, Penelope needs a classic movie-style makeover. Her mother has always insisted on putting Penelope in “happy” colors, citrus tones like yellow and orange, which don’t flatter actress Nicola Coughlan’s pale complexion. When she has another shot at husband-hunting, Penelope takes matters into her own hands, circumvents her mother, and asks her friend and collaborator, the Ton’s most sought-after dressmaker Genevieve Delacroi (who has more than a few secrets of her own), to make Penelope something that feels like her: a gorgeous emerald-green gown with floral appliqués, worn with long, sheer black gloves. She looks grown, and she looks hot.
The stakes for romantic and sexual dalliances this season are higher than ever, which makes for very exciting television.
Penelope is very different from the heroines we’ve seen in the past two seasons. When we’re introduced to Daphne in season one, she’s perfectly naive and innocent; her lover, Simon, teaches her how to touch herself, and she's already sexually active before she learns how babies are made. The second season's protagonist, Kate, is more of a Lizzie Bennet type, proudly independent, in charge of her family's finances, and plotting her sister’s marriage for her family’s financial well-being before she accidentally falls in love with her sister's fiancé. Penelope, meanwhile, is not small or demure, nor is she trying to look out for her family more than she is for herself. Penelope is boldly ambitious, making her own money in secret as Lady Whistledown, which sometimes involves making ruthless choices. She puts herself first.
We’ll find out about Lady Whistledown’s fate in the second half of the third season, which will drop on Netflix in mid-June. For now, Penelope’s secret work continues. And she’s even managed to draw the interest of a quirky, nature-loving, incredibly wealthy suitor. The competition causes Colin to feel jealous and protective, which helps him figure out what his true feelings have been for Penelope all along. #Polin, as their ardent shippers call the pairing, finally kiss in season three’s fourth episode. It goes down in a horse-drawn carriage—the Regency-era version of a modern-day makeout in the back of a cab. Penelope’s feelings for Colin have just ruined her prospects with the wealthy suitor. Her future is a terrifyingly open question. But passion takes over.
The two actors have absolutely phenomenal chemistry together—just check out some of the footage from their press tour—and Colin’s hands drifting under Penelope’s dress is genuinely thrilling television. There’s someone driving the carriage, mere feet from them, who might be able to see or hear; they pull up to the Bridgerton estate, where any number of family members could blow their cover. It’s risky. It’s dangerous. It’s sexy as hell. And having previewed the first couple of episodes of Part Two, dropping in mid-June, I can assure eager viewers that there’s more where that came from. And during a relatively sexless period in popular culture, we can thank Bridgerton for that.
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