The grand finale of Bridgerton season 3 reveals Penelope to everyone as Lady Whistledown. But can the series survive without the mystery in season 4?
The season 3 finale of Bridgerton aired on Netflix a few weeks ago and finally let the cat out of the bag: After numerous episodes of hide-and-seek and mystery, Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) has revealed herself to Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) and the rest of the London court as Lady Whistledown.
The mystery surrounding the gossipy hack has run through the series since the very first episode of the opening season, giving the Pride and Prejudice-esque story its unmistakable Gossip Girl character. But how can it continue without this essential element of suspense in future seasons?
Bridgerton needs Lady Whistledown to avoid degenerating into a simple soap
Admittedly, the most important theme in Bridgerton has probably never been the mystery surrounding Lady Whistledown, but the characters’ love affairs. Who has to or wants to, may, can or should marry whom has always taken up most of the show’s space and is what viewers have been most interested in over three seasons. However, if the series had no other storylines to offer, the soapy and simple who-with-whom would have become boring after just one season.
Bridgerton needs an underlying element of tension that stands above the friendships and relationships and connects them across seasons. Lady Whistledown’s gossip column and the mystery of her identity has served as just that so far and has impressively shown in season 3 part 2 that it can also exist as a superficial area of tension that even temporarily pushes the romance into the background.
(Nicola Coughlan in Bridgerton)
With Penelope’s revelation to Colin (Luke Newton), Charlotte and the entire court, this element of tension is now completely removed. Finally, the last piece of writing we see in the series from Lady Whistledown has even been signed with Penelope’s real name, while the reading voice-over, previously spoken by Julie Andrews in the original English, has changed to Nicola Coughlan’s voice. This makes it clear that Penelope must and will no longer act from the shadows.
Bridgerton must reinvent herself in season 4, otherwise the series is doomed
What Bridgerton needs in the coming seasons is a new element of tension that unites the many individual stories into one big whole. In the prequel series Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, Lady Whistledown’s secret played a subordinate role. Instead, the focus here was on fewer main characters, while the series also featured a mystery all of its own.
King George’s (Corey Mylchreest) illness initially puzzled viewers in the first few episodes of the series, but later on we worried with George and Charlotte about its revelation. A similar mystery construct came into play here in fast-forward, as was the case in the main series with Lady Whistledown over 3 seasons.
(Corey Mylchreest in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story)
In season 4, Bridgerton needs to find a comparable focus to keep us engaged. Otherwise the series is in danger of breaking up into its many individual parts – and degenerating into a boring soap that is hardly any different from other series
