ust over two years after its second season, the first part of Bridgerton Season 3 has finally dropped on Netflix, with the second batch of episodes arriving June 13. Starring Nicola Coughlan as Penelope Featherington, the youngest of the Featherington daughters, and Luke Newton as Colin Bridgerton, the third oldest Bridgerton son, the new season has been positioned as a friends-to-lovers plot.
The upcoming episodes untangle some thorny plotlines woven through the first two seasons, notably Penelope’s girl-next-door crush on Colin, and the ongoing fallout between Penelope and her best friend Eloise Bridgerton (Claudia Jessie), the second oldest Bridgerton daughter, Colin’s younger sister, and most contrary of the Bridgerton bunch.
Here’s what you need to know before watching Season 3.
Lady Whistledown’s identity
At the very end of the first season, we learn that notorious gossip columnist Lady Whistledown, builder and destroyer of reputations and perpetual thorn in Queen Charlotte’s (Goldie Rosheuvel) side, is none other than Penelope Featherington herself. And in Season 2, Eloise finds out—in the worst way possible.
Suddenly into Season 2 Eloise reinvigorates her quest, beginning the previous season, to unmask Lady Whistledown, but this time to convince the writer to comment on more important matters than gossip. She ends up tracking down her printer and associating with the printshop’s assistant, Theo Sharpe (Calam Lynch), who invites her to a meeting on equal rights. Penelope warns her that visiting Theo is dangerous to her reputation, which does not dissuade Eloise from continuing to meet him.
Worse still, Queen Charlotte is also on the hunt for Lady Whistledown, and ends up thinking she’s Eloise after catching her sneaking to the printshop. The queen has a private meeting with Eloise and insinuates that her life may be on the line if she does not start writing in a more complimentary way toward the Crown. Penelope thinks that the queen will never believe that she is actually Lady Whistledown, and so writes about Eloise’s scandalous behavior to throw Queen Charlotte off course—why would Lady Whistledown write something so ruinous about herself?—and save Eloise’s life.
It works, but Eloise faces considerable damage to her reputation, which puts the family in a worse position given the other events of Season 2. A comment from Penelope at the Featherington Ball in the last episode of the season accidentally revealed to Eloise that Lady Whistledown has been her best friend all along. The two have a massive fight.
Eloise is understandably furious that Penelope has written about both of their families in ways that have damaged both of their reputations. She also insults her by calling her “an insipid wallflower,” which Penelope’s longtime bully Cressida Cowper (Jessica Madsen) had said earlier in the season. Penelope, hurt by the insult and tired of being taken for granted, reminds Eloise that while she may talk about doing something different with her life, she, Penelope, actually has.
The trailer for Season 3 shows that Eloise has found an unlikely friendship with Cressida. It remains to be seen how Eloise and Penelope’s relationship will be repaired—if it can be repaired at all. Also on the line is the secret itself. Will Eloise tell anyone?
Penelope isn’t the only “spinster”
Penelope considers herself a spinster because she’s in her third year on the marriage mart “with no prospects to show for it.” But she’s not the only one without any suitors—mean girl Cressida is also without prospects, despite her wealth, flirtatious wiles, and beauty.
Now that Penelope’s (former?) friend Eloise is friendly with Cressida, the love triangle of this season might just be a platonic one over Eloise’s affection. What will Cressida have in store for Penelope this season? And what will Penelope and Eloise do about it?
Francesca Bridgerton…exists
Francesca who? Francesca is the third Bridgerton sister, and the most absent. While she appears occasionally in Season 1, played by Ruby Stokes, she is in the background for most of that season, and mostly away learning the pianoforte at an aunt’s home in Bath in Season 2. Now she’s back, played by Hannah Dodd, and next up for a societal debut.
Audiences will finally get to know the mysterious Francesca. Who is this Bridgerton in a sea of other Bridgertons? And what is she looking for this season?
What Colin said last season
Every Bridgerton has their own “thing” and Colin’s is traveling. While he is away, he often sends missives to his family and friends, and we learn in Season 2 that Penelope is really the only person who regularly responds and actually wants to hear about his adventures.
At the end of that season, Penelope overhears him in conversation with some gentlemen at her mother’s ball scoffing at the idea of ever courting her. She is, naturally, devastated.
