Bridgerton Season 3 Part 1 Ending Explained: Will Penelope and Colin Really Get Married?
Bridgerton Season 3 Part 1 premiered on May 16, 2024, after a long wait after Anthony and Kate’s wedding, as well as the trip to the past in “Queen Charlotte”. If you have already seen the first four episodes that make up part 1 and you have some doubts, I will explain it to you here. The series, which is based on the books by Julia Quinn, follows the romances of each member of the Bridgerton family. This time, it was Colin and Penelope’s turn to finally leave their long friendship behind and face their feelings. For its third installment, the period phenomenon has changed the order of Julia Quinn’s literary saga, advancing the book Seducing Mr. Bridgerton, which focuses on the love story between Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) and Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan). This time, the audience gets to know these childhood friends who have grown up together well. We know that Penelope has always been in love with Colin, but he has not reciprocated her.
Both have transformed at the beginning of this new season: he has just returned from a long trip through Europe and it doesn’t take him long to attract all the female gazes; She, who becomes more and more influential as her alter ego Lady Whistledown, has set out to find a husband who will allow her to maintain her independence and leave the family home. Netflix has chosen to launch this installment in two parts, each consisting of four episodes. The first four chapters are already available on the platform, but we will have to wait until June 13 to find out how the romance between Colin and Pen ends after the cliffhanger with which the first batch ends. We analyze the end of the first part of the third season and everything that this can mean for the future of ‘Polin’, the nickname with which fans affectionately refer to this couple of friends and lovers.
Bridgerton Season 3 Part 1: The Story Plot
Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) has finally given up on her longtime crush on Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) after hearing his disparaging comments about her last season. However, she has decided that it is time to find a husband, preferably someone who will give her enough independence to continue her double life as Lady Whistledown, away from her mother and sisters. But, due to her lack of self-confidence, Penelope’s attempts to find a husband fail spectacularly. Meanwhile, Colin has returned from his summer travels with a new look and a cheeky swagger. But he is disheartened to realize that Penelope, the only person who has always appreciated him as he was, treats him coldly. Eager to regain his friendship, this season Colin offers to mentor Penelope to help her find a husband.
But when his lessons start to work a little too well, Colin must figure out if his feelings for Penelope are just friendship. Complicating things for Penelope is her estrangement from Eloise (Claudia Jessie), who has found a new friendship in an improbable place, while Penelope’s increasingly assiduous presence in London high society makes it even more difficult to keep her relationship a secret. her alter ego Lady Whistledown. The new season has begun, and all the prominent families of London are ready to present their daughters of marriageable age in front of the Queen, who will once again have to choose her “diamond”.
Among them, there is, as always, the Bridgerton family, with the young Francesca ready to throw herself into the fray (even though she is not particularly accustomed to chaos, and she prefers solitude and her piano) of the marriage market. Also watching his debut is his brother Colin, who has returned from his grand European tour: Mr. Bridgerton couldn’t be more different from how we left him, much surer of himself and determined to enjoy life between parties and sentimental adventures, immediately becomes the most sought-after bachelor of the season. Penelope Featherington is also ready for change: determined to leave her mother’s nest (and the yoke of her sisters who are now both married) she finally wants to find a husband. To do this she will first decide to change her look, new clothes, and new hairstyles will help her blossom and attract the attention of bachelors who are looking for her wife. If initially Colin, seeking her forgiveness for what happened months earlier, offers to help her in conquering a suitor, over time he will realize that he cannot bear to see her courted by others… That he has finally clarified his ideas on what to try for her?
Bridgerton Season 3 Part 1 Ending Explained: Will Penelope and Colin Really Get Married?
The last episode of Bridgerton 3 is the spiciest of the first four and sees a turning point in the story between Colin and Penelope. After exchanging a kiss, at the request of Penelope herself who wanted to know what it felt like to kiss a boy, Colin began to develop feelings for Penelope who became her obsession. A kiss, theirs, which made the popular Colin Bridgerton begin to see his childhood friend with a different look and so, Colin began to think day and night about that kiss and Penelope but she, in the meantime, she was asked in marriage by another man, the adventurer Lord Debling looking for a wife. A certain interest arises between the two until, in the dance given by the Queen, Debling realizes that Penelope is in love with Colin, so she ruins the marriage proposal he had just made to her.
Penelope, who in the meantime had convinced herself to marry Lord Debling, even though he would be away for three years, suddenly finds herself without a suitor and marriage and has an argument with her mother who is waiting for at least one of her daughters has an heir but this doesn’t happen and when he hears that the marriage with Penelope is off, he feels terrible. Penelope, devastated by what happened and by the fact that her mother cares more about money and image than her daughters’ happiness, runs away.
But Colin follows her and once he gets into her carriage he declares himself to her, telling her that since they kissed, he hasn’t thought about anything else. Penelope also tells him that she would like something more than a simple friendship so the two kiss passionately in the carriage and indulge in very passionate effusions. Then, once they arrive at her Bridgerton house, Colin asks her to come home with him to introduce her to her family as her future wife. Penelope’s dream has finally come true, and this is how Bridgerton 3, part 1 ends. Colin, however, still doesn’t know that Lady Whistledown is Penelope, and we are sure that when he finds out he will be very disappointed.
The Finale of Bridgerton Season 3 Part 1
Thus, we arrive at a fourth episode, Old Friends, in which the protagonists are confused with their feelings: Penelope is not sure she wants to accept Lord Debling’s proposal that is approaching, and Colin tries to silence his feelings by unsuccessfully indulging in hedonism between bars. and prostitutes. The plot accelerates into a new ball organized by Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel). Penelope takes advantage of a dance with Debling to ask him if she believes that, over time, love will emerge between them. He responds that her work occupies a large part of her heart and that is why he is glad that she has other passions.
Colin had declined the invitation to the event, but, after remembering his last weeks with Penelope and knowing that Debling is going to propose, he decides to show up by surprise, just in time to interrupt the dance between the redhead and her suitor. The young Bridgerton tells his friend that he cannot marry Debling and that she does not know him, but she responds that she plans to accept her proposal. However, when she seeks out Debling, he tells her that he cannot propose to her due to the mutual attraction she and Colin share. The protagonist runs out of the event and gets into a carriage, but Colin soon catches up with her and gets in with her. Penelope reveals that Debling has rejected her because the scene that Colin has created with her has made him believe that he has feelings for her.
That’s when Colin, with tears in his eyes, opens his heart to her. “What if I felt something for you? I’ve spent a lot of time trying to feel less,” he says to her surprised face: “But these last few weeks my feelings have been confused. I’ve been unable to stop thinking about you.” “In that kiss.” She, still shocked by her statement, confesses that she wants more than just a friendship with him, and they kiss passionately. To the sound of Give Me Everything, they caress each other, and he slides his hand up Penelope’s leg until he touches her private parts. The pleasure comes to an end when they stop in front of the Bridgerton house. The protagonists laugh at what just happened and kiss sweetly again before Colin rearranges the sleeve of Penelope’s dress, gets out of her, and asks her, offering her hand: “Are you coming with me?”
“What? Your family will see me,” she responds, confused. He walks up to her and says, “For God’s sake, Penelope Featherington, are you going to marry me or not?” And she looks at him with emotion. Without a doubt, this ending is everything that ‘Polin’ fans could have wished for the couple, who finally gives in to their attraction. However, there are still several bumps in his path to happiness, which could hinder his happy ending in the second part of the season. The biggest obstacle has its name and is Penelope’s secret identity: Lady Whistledown. Not only does Colin not know that her lover is behind the columnist’s sharp pen, but at the beginning of the season, after she attacks him, she vows to discover her in society. What will happen when young Bridgerton learns the truth? This secret has already cost Penelope Eloise’s friendship, will it also cost her Colin’s love? Will Penelope and Eloise reconcile? She will have to wait until June 13 to clear up any doubts.
Why Does Penelope Decide to Get Married?
Penelope had resigned herself to her role as an “old maid,” after realizing that her feelings for Colin were never going to be reciprocated, although in the series only 3 years have passed since she entered the market (compared to the book, where eight years pass). However, when she realizes that living as a never-married woman means she must live by the rules of her mother and possibly her sisters, it makes her want to seek some independence through marriage.
This was confirmed by Nicola Coughlan in a Q&A: “She is very purposeful at the beginning of the season when she realizes that if she doesn’t get married, she will be trapped in the house, which will be run by one of her sisters, and her mother will dominate her forever. She says, ‘I can’t do this. I need to get a husband,’ so she’s decided that she’s going to grow up, that she’s going to do this, that she’s going to get a husband, she’s no longer involved with the Bridgerton’s, she’s on her own path”.
Why Did Colin Change in Season 3?
If you have already seen Colin’s transformation in the new season of “Bridgerton”, this is not only due to Netflix’s talent for making its protagonists extremely attractive (as we saw with Anthony’s change in the second installment), but it is also related to his character evolution. Marina broke his heart in the first season and in the second he didn’t know which way to go. This changes off-screen, with her travels.
“Over the summer, Colin has been traveling again, he’s been away. And there he has been a kind of transformation; He has matured, he has grown, he is looking for a purpose. His style has changed, his confidence has changed, now he has this element of arrogance”, explains Luke Newton.
However, in reality, Colin is acting more like the confident and seductive man he would like to be, not who he really is.
What Made Colin Finally Fall in Love with Penelope?
After so many years of friendship, what made Colin finally see Penelope with different eyes? Was it the change of clothes? The secret kiss? Or see that Lord Debling was about to stay with her and, like a dog in the manger, he won’t eat or let her eat? Although Penelope’s new dresses made her look beautiful and the kiss they gave outside her house lingered in her mind, the change in Colin was due to something deeper than that. According to the actor who plays him, it is when he “sees that she is the person who listens to him and loves him for who she is, not who she pretends to be, or who he thinks she should be”.
“She assures him that he doesn’t need to have a purpose; Her most valuable asset is being himself, which is enough, and she is the first person to help him believe that. That strips it all away and he just realizes that he had those feelings for her all along, he’s just a young man who’s been blinded by everything else”, he explains.
Will Colin and Penelope Really Get Married?
The hot scene in the carriage finally arrived and, although the previous events were different from the book, the result was the same: an intense exchange that would scandalize all the “Mammas” of London and a marriage proposal. To find out what will happen in the series, we will have to wait until June 16. However, those of us who have read “Romancing Mr. Bridgerton” (and anyone who knows that in “Bridgerton” there is always a happy ending) know that the wedding takes place, although with several obstacles in the way. One of the main mysteries to solve this season is whether Penelope will finally reveal to Colin that she is the much-hated Lady Whistledown. If he decides to do it, will he go ahead with her plans to marry her?
