Warning: Spoilers for Bridgerton season 3, part 2 to follow.
While some of you will only just experiencing the second half of the Polin saga with the arrival of Bridgerton’s season 3, part 2, others of us have already entered the hangover stage of that particular binge ⏤ and we’d do it a hundred times over if it meant we got the same endorphin hit as the first watch.
Indeed, an overstuffed start to season 3 eventually grew into the best Bridgerton season yet, complete with pristinely empathetic attitudes about love, a top-of-her-game Nicola Coughlan leading the charge as the sensational Penelope, and more than a few exciting setups for the confirmed fourth season, which we know absolutely nothing about outside of its imminent existence.
The only problem? The existence of a fantastic television plot usually means that your most beloved fan theories remain completely and utterly unrealized; such was our plight as we drank in the drama that we actually got. Again, heavy spoilers to follow.
The Whistledown plot line that will never be
As we speculated not terribly long ago, it was no accident that Bridgerton played Colin up as a writer. The third-born Bridgerton brother emerged from season 3’s woodwork as a published author and a happy family man. This was our hope for him too, of course, with the caveat that it would’ve been fascinating to see him begin publishing under the Whistledown pamphlet, which Penelope is now using as an irrepressible force for good.
Part of Colin’s journey was learning that, despite society’s teachings, his worth doesn’t boil down to what he can tangibly provide. So long as he loves Penelope as she is, he’s more or less fulfilled the husband checklist in her book. It’s true that he’s still not quite the non-conformist that Benedict and Eloise both are, but he’s very clearly a proponent of emotional and societal freedom for both men and women now ⏤ so why not participate in such support while simultaneously bolstering his wife’s enterprise by becoming a part of Whistledown?
Speaking of Eloise, she would have been a prime candidate for joining the Whistledown campaign as well. Beyond the fact that she’s the OG feminist of the Bridgerton mythos, her big ideas, desire to pursue them, and close rapport with both Colin and Penelope would have all been major assets for the growth of Whistledown. Plus, it’s not like she would allow herself to become distracted from the cause by any marriage prospects. It would have been a clever mix of fun and enchanting watching the three of them tag-team the Whistledown effort before ultimately revealing what they were up to to the rest of society, with Pen at the center as the pamphlet’s originator.
Alas, we’ll never see this secret society of Whistledowns take flight, but that said, the Bridgerton season 3 ending we got was undeniably the stuff of dreams. We’d be lying if we said seeing the tenacious trio cook up “The Whistledown Movement” wouldn’t be the stuff of other dreams, but the finale we collectively cried through was perfection; the perfect end to a trio of seasons that has carved Bridgerton out as one of Netflix’s top productions of all time. And anyway, there’s always time to dust off the AO3 account.
All three seasons of Bridgerton are streaming exclusively on Netflix, and a fourth has been confirmed.
