Despite the transformation of Penelope, she still finds herself measuring less than who she thinks she should be.
Amid the thrumming of a ton dressed to the nines, a new player enters the room, cloaked in silk red. Except she is not new, but one who called the shadows home. The guard asks if he could take her coat. Nervous, she nods anyway, and the coat falls. Her plan is set in motion as she reveals an emerald frock. Hair swept to the side, she traverses the steps shakily. Jaws drop, whispers leave mouths, and a life is changed.
Welcome to Bridgerton Season 3 (Part 1!) or “The Emancipation of Penelope Featherington.” Cue Taylor Swift’s Look What You Made Me Do, snake hands and all.
The “Scorn” of a society
spinster —or is it?
The call to venture out of the shadows was not an innate want, but a desperate need to move forward. Each season finale left the same ending for Miss Featherington: unwed, unmatched, and unliked. Despite wielding the snark and wit in Lady Whistledown, she consistently loses the reins to her life as Penelope.
What makes matters worse is that after years of pining over Colin Bridgerton and swooning over him swooping to save her, she overhears her supposedly sensitive friend giving the ultimate declaration that he will “never dream of courting Penelope Featherington.” In tears, she leaves the vicinity as we leave the second season, reduced to not even friend, but someone who doesn’t count. She is merely Pen.
So her reputation-like resurrection is not one of scorn like most people thought. It was a move to have her finally seen after years of living as a lemon, much to her chagrin. Her shift from fruit to foliage colors is a way of her finally taking the reins and saying, “This is my life.”
In one of the season’s most iconic lines, Penelope’s mother Portia thwacks her back to reality and says, “You know what’s romantic? Security.”
Yet, she does not forget the words of her friend. After the ton’s Regina George Cressida Cowper rips her skirt at the Four Seasons Ball, she runs out and weeps before Colin comes running to her. Concerned, he asks her what happened and she rejects his kindness. His face looks like a band-aid was ripped off him, and he tries to win her over with his charm. “If you are going to make me say it out loud, I miss you.”
But the wound only bleeds as Penelope responds with a smile downturn. “You miss me but you would never court me, is that correct?”
She exits, victorious in her ability to no longer take his word.
Colin Bridgerton: The portrait of a sensitive man in society
Admittedly, Colin’s portrayal of a man fitting into society was a cringe fest at best. He returned home fresh from his travels, sturdier than ever, as commented by his more adept brothers Anthony and Benedict. A montage of him flitting through groups of single girls, winking, flirting, and sleeping with some of them was hard to watch.
But that was the point, was it not? Colin highlights this at the end of episode 4. “I have spent so long trying to feel less, trying to be the kind of man society expects me to be.” If women had to be diamonds, men had to be rakes. Simon Bassett has done it, Anthony has done it, and Benedict continues to pursue it. So Colin should, as society dictates.
Beyond the playboy antics, Bridgerton displays a social commentary on the pressure men face to uphold a life of dalliance. God forbid there may be a sensitive man, lest he be cast out as being too much of a woman. Colin adapts this, but he finds himself to be most true when he is with Penelope.
It’s even more beautiful (and torturous!) to see Colin become Henry Higgins to Penelope’s Eliza in a Regency take on My Fair Lady. He boosts her confidence just as she boosts his.
“Your writing is beautiful—I’d like to read some more sometime if you’d let me.”
“I seek you out at every social assembly because I know you will lift my spirits and make me see the world in ways I could not have imagined.”
The rare path from friends to lovers
Despite the transformation of Penelope, she still finds herself measuring less than who she thinks she should be. After all, a wardrobe change is only the beginning and not the solution of coming to terms with the self. Fresh from the presses, Lady Whistledown puts her in an uncomfortable place as Colin’s charity case. She flees home in tears and naturally, Colin follows suit.
In the moonlight, she begs for Colin to kiss her. After an internal battle, he does, and they are both changed– or at least, he dreams of her.
As Penelope finds her step in society (and catches the eye of the lonely Lord Debling), Colin finds himself constantly in misstep because of her. His stare lingers too long and smoke billows out of his ears in quiet, unexpressed jealousy as he wishes that he could be by her side in that regard.
His love hadn’t been a thunderbolt from the sky. It had started with a smile, a word, a teasing glance.
In quiet desperation, Colin asks his mother Violet about how love stems best from friendship. She acknowledges that and declares it rare, but possible. He asks how their late father took the road, and she says, “Well because he gathered the courage to ask.”
Though I wish there was more pining and yearning from Colin publicly, I think this was how their relationship truly is. They were like Francesca Bridgerton and John Stirling, whose quiet understanding was a concept in beauty. While the former thrived in silence, Colin and Penelope understood each other in the noise.
Hence, the satisfying lead to the carriage scene had me burst into tears because their slow-burn romance finally got its due. It was more than just love, it was a mutual understanding, and a desire from both parties to finally unite.
Lord Debling and the practical choice
The biggest point of debate among the ton (both in the show and viewers) is why Penelope did not choose the dashing Lord Debling over the fumblefoot Colin. In one of the season’s most iconic lines, Penelope’s mother Portia thwacks her back to reality and says, “You know what’s romantic? Security.” But despite that truth, Portia is far from knowing what her daughter truly prefers.
While Lord Debling is open to Penelope pursuing what she wants to do, he says that his commitment is not one of passion, but rather of practicality. This was the line that most people either did not hear enough or refused to acknowledge.
Don’t get me wrong —it is beautiful that he gives her the space to be. It is also how Debling chooses to live and offer, and there is nothing wrong with that.
But Penelope is familiar with that feeling all too well. She has been in pursuit of what she wants all her life, so why subject herself to that loneliness all over again? More than security, Penelope wishes for a spark – ultimately, a partner who allows her to be herself and to be by her side.
Bridgerton Season 3: Friends, Lovers, and Something
Ultimately, this season explores the push-pull between two people in an established platonic relationship. It is less angst and more agony over wanting something impossible, especially for someone like Penelope who has loved Colin from the sidelines all her life. For Colin, it is the realization that maybe he did love her in that way too.
As said in the third installment of the Bridgerton book series, their love was not instant. “His love hadn’t been a thunderbolt from the sky. It had started with a smile, a word, a teasing glance. Every second he had spent in her presence it had grown, until he’d reached this moment, and he suddenly knew. He loved her.”
May we all find our own season to know and be known through love.
Bridgerton Season 3 Part 1 is now streaming on Netflix with Part 2 slated for release on June 13.
