This article will contain many spoilers for Julia Quinn‘s Romancing Mister Bridgerton
Bridgerton Season 3 is almost here, bringing Colin and Penelope’s story to the screen after a long wait. What better way to count down the days than taking a deep dive into Romancing Mister Bridgerton, the book that inspired the new season?
I have a confession to make, friends. As much as I love the intense Kate/Anthony chemistry of The Viscount Who Loved Me and the seductive second chances of Francesca and Michael in When He Was Wicked, Romancing Mister Bridgerton has always been my secret favorite of the entire Bridgerton series. There’s something magical about the themes of coming out of the shadows, embracing your true self, and, most of all, being loved for who you really are.
Now, if I were to cover every important scene in the book, we’d be here all day! So, instead, let’s take a look at what makes some of the most memorable scenes so powerful — and what we hope they’ll feel like when they make it to the screen.
Romancing Mister Bridgerton: First Meetings and Laughter
When he finally rose to his feet, brushing off whatever mud could be dislodged from his clothing, he didn’t lash out at her. He didn’t give her a stinging set-down, he didn’t yell, he didn’t even glare.
He laughed.
Penelope hadn’t much experience with the laughter of men, and what little she had known had not been kind. But this man’s eyes—a rather intense shade of green—were filled with mirth as he wiped a rather embarrassingly placed spot of mud off his cheek and said, “Well, that wasn’t very well done of me, was it?”
And in that moment, Penelope fell in love.
(Quinn, 6)
A couple’s first meeting lays the foundation for who they’ll be as a pair and as individual characters, and Colin and Penelope’s hints at what makes them so special to each other and to readers. Their first meeting isn’t under romantic circumstances at a ball or an immediate sense of loathing that must be overcome. Rather, it’s something that gives them both what they need: he, to be seen as an individual and not just the third brother; she, to be part of the joke, not the butt of it. There’s a genuine sense of warmth to them from the very start, and who doesn’t love that?
A Painful Rejection
She said nothing for what seemed like an eternity, and then, finally, with a dignity she never dreamed she possessed, she looked straight at Colin and said, “I never asked you to marry me.”
(Quinn, 16)
Colin’s foot-in-mouth moment regarding Penelope is one of the most iconic scenes in the book, and yet, I find myself absolutely fascinated by book-Penelope’s reaction (versus the more visibly angsty version seen in the Netflix adaptation). She has just overheard the man she secretly loves tell his brothers, with no small amount of indignation, that he would never marry her. It hurts. And to add insult to injury, her instinctive reaction means she can’t even sneak away and pretend it never happened — all three of the brothers know she’s there and that she heard.
It is so satisfying, then, to see this moment of her standing up for herself. Penelope is often depicted, especially early in Romancing Mister Bridgerton, as never knowing the right thing to say. In many ways, she’s like a lot of writers (many of whom won’t admit it): she’s sharp and clever when she has time to think her responses through, but in the heat of the moment, her emotions cloud her wit.
That’s what makes this scene so delicious. The “wallflower” holds her head high, maintains her dignity, and smooths the moment over by pointing out that she is not going to marry Benedict, which is not an insult to either of them, is it? I also love this scene for the very brief interaction we get between Anthony and Penelope — there’s something fun about those underrated character interactions and the way he tries to protect both her and his brother at the same time.
Lady Bridgerton’s Party
“Escape is impossible,” Lady Danbury crowed. “Don’t bother to attempt it, and besides, I know for a fact you don’t see your mother. She’s attending to some brainless twit who tore the hem off her dress.” She turned to Penelope, who was now exerting such effort to control her laughter that her eyes were glistening with unshed tears. “How much did he pay you not to leave him alone with me?
(Quinn, 58)
It’s not exactly a romantic scene, but the sequence involving Colin and Penelope getting giddy at Lady Bridgerton’s birthday party — and then bantering with Lady Danbury — is just such a delight that we can’t overlook it. It has a little of everything: Lady Danbury needling the younger generation, Penelope and Colin at ease with each other, and people being goofy off in the corner of a party.
What’s also lovely about it, though, is the way that Penelope gets quiet recognition of her worth. In the company of two people who are smart enough to see her, she can let her true self shine through. She’s just a bit more confident, a bit quicker, a bit more joyful. One of my biggest wishes for Season 3 of Bridgerton is that, despite the significant changes to the plot from the book, we’ll still get the relationship between Pen and Lady Danbury. There’s just something wonderfully empowering about the bond between two women of different generations, both smarter than they’re allowed to show and both underestimated at peril.
“Isn’t it nice,” the older lady said, leaning in so that only Penelope could hear her words, “to discover that we’re not exactly what we thought we were?”
(Quinn, 72)
The Library and the Letter-Opener
“Why do you have to make it so difficult to apologize?” she burst out, dogging his heels as he crossed the room to gather the rest of his things.
“And why, pray tell, should I make it easy?” he returned., He didn’t face her as he said it; he didn’t even break his stride.
“Because it would be the nice thing to do,” she ground out.
That got his attention. He whirled around, his eyes flashing so furiously that Penelope stumbled back a step. Colin was the nice one, the easygoing one. He didn’t lose his temper.
Until now.
(Quinn, 112)
It takes a little while to really get the plot moving along, but once we do, we’re off to the races. A lot happens in this scene. Penelope stumbles across Colin’s travel journals, learning that he, like her, is a writer in secret. Colin finds her and is furious at her for snooping, giving us a taste of their first real, on-page fight. In his haste, he cuts his hand on a letter opener, and Penelope scrambles to help him, giving the narrative an excuse for them to have a moment of physical contact.
Colin and Pen have always been the “nice” characters, the “fun” ones, and this scene is the beginning of unraveling that. Sometimes (more accurately, the times I make the mistake of getting sucked into Internet DiscourseTM), it’s easy to get caught up in the criticisms of characters’ imperfections and the moments where they make “wrong” choices. But the thing is — those are the moments that make them human and drive their development forward.
No, Penelope shouldn’t have snooped, but we understand why she did. No, Colin shouldn’t lose his temper, but we understand why he did. And it opens the door for them to understand each other better. Their relationship is a complex one, even at this point; despite the fact that they know each other better than almost anyone, they also have been hiding pieces of themselves. This argument, and the subsequent heart-to-heart (and flirting!), opens up the door for them to start removing the obstacles between them and their HEA.
A First Kiss (AKA, Colin Bridgerton Is an Idiot)
She thought he’d kissed her out of pity.
And he was a knave because a small part of him wanted her to think that. Because if she thought it, then maybe he could convince himself that it was true, that it was just pity, that it couldn’t possibly be more.
(Quinn, 183)
Is there anything better than a first kiss? Yes — a first kiss that goes terribly wrong right after going terribly right.
Polin’s first kiss is, of course, the stuff of romance novels. The beats are familiar: Pen asks Colin to kiss her because she’s never been kissed and fears she never will be; Colin has just realized his own attraction to her; the kiss is much more than they thought, and Colin immediately mucks it all up out of guilt and misunderstanding.
One of the themes we see repeatedly throughout Polin’s story is that they’re both truly terrible at getting out of their own heads. They’ve spent so long in the roles they’ve been assigned and the boxes they’ve been put into by society that they’ve begun to believe it themselves. They can’t fathom any other option. They’re constantly at war between the people they want to be and the people they’ve convinced themselves that they have to be. So when they kiss — as they both want to, unbeknownst to the other just how much they want to — they do it for them, but then “reality” intrudes, and things go sideways. Given the theme of identity that runs through the book (including, of course, the Whistledown reveal), it really is a perfect way to push them over that line while retaining the core tension.
THE Carriage Scene
“I couldn’t let her do it,” she whispered. “I couldn’t let her be me.”
(Quinn, 260)
If there’s one scene that’s truly iconic in Romancing Mister Bridgerton, it’s this one: the carriage scene in which Penelope is unmasked as Lady Whistledown… and some other things happen, too. It’s a critical scene for Penelope as a heroine as much as for Polin as a couple.
Anyone who has ever been the target of a bully can relate to Pen in this scene. Of all people, she cannot let her proudest achievement be co-opted by the woman who has made her life hell for over a decade. It’s heartbreaking to realize that Penelope has never been allowed to grow beyond the put-upon wallflower role. Despite the fact that she is secretly a powerful businesswoman and an arbiter of taste in the ton, none of that has made any difference in the life she is permitted to lead in public. It may be risky, but it gives her something to cling to — again, with the theme of identity. She may be flawed and complicated, but she’s also every one of us who has ever dreamed of rising above the people who put us down.
And then, of course, there’s the other part of the carriage scene. Colin has to put his foot in it a few more times, but we get there eventually.
“You are beautiful,” he said, shaking his head in confusion. “I don’t know why nobody else sees it.”
Their intense make-out session in the carriage is a release of pent-up tension on both their parts, but it’s also more than that. They laugh together; they take in all the little details about each other in a way that only two people who know each other so well could ever do. And perhaps most importantly, Colin puts her first — her pleasure, her preferences, her desire. No one has ever done that for Penelope before; no one has ever bothered to find out what makes her tick. But Colin does, so naturally, and he continues to do so in the following scene, when he indignantly defends Penelope when even her own mother cannot believe that Colin wants to marry her. He may have been willfully blind, but he is more than making up for it now.
(And, for good measure, he spends the next few chapters angstily consulting with his happily-married siblings about how you know it’s love, and they promptly set his head on straight).
The Scene Netflix Keeps Teasing
This was the night. This was the moment. He was brimming with emotion, and he had to tell her. He had to show her.
“Stay,” he whispered, and he pulled her to him, roughly, hungrily, without apology or explanation.
“Stay,” he said again, leading her to his bed. And when she didn’t say anything, he said it for a third time. “Stay.” She nodded.
(Quinn, 370)
When Lady Whistledown’s denial column comes out during Colin and Pen’s engagement party, it potentially sparks a rift between the couple. Colin’s fury is understandable, as it comes from a place of fear, not condescension. Of course, we’ll later understand that there’s a hint of unacknowledged jealousy there, too, and you know what? That’s okay! It’s okay for characters to be flawed and messy and need to learn and grow. There has been plenty of Discourse-with-a-capital-D about Polin, especially the Netflix versions, and whether or not they’re “redeemable.” But isn’t that the point of the romance genre? To give us characters who are imperfect, but to remind us that we are all worthy of redemption, grace, and being loved for who we truly are?
Analyzing the entire love scene here would take far too long, but once again, it feels necessary to point out how Colin prioritizes Penelope by making her feel desired. Yes, there’s the ultra-hot line about wanting to make love to her in front of a mirror (which Netflix keeps hinting at in the Season 3 promo materials!), but it’s more than that. It’s tender, a little witty, and a moment where they can literally and figuratively see each other fully.
There’s a wonderful line where Colin says, “I don’t know when, I don’t know how, and to be honest, I don’t care,” about his feelings for her becoming romantic. It’s evocative of that beloved line from Pride and Prejudice: “I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.” It’s a more realistic sense of love: not a sudden realization from out of the blue, but a steady, growing feeling that sneaks up on you.
From One Writer to Another
“Publish them,” she said again. ‘Take a chance and see if you soar.”
(Quinn, 423)
I thought about ending this Romancing Mister Bridgerton scene-by-scene breakdown by covering the ending of the book, where Colin and his family fully embrace Penelope and Lady Whistledown, defanging the threat from Cressida, and so do the rest of the ton. But in some ways, I actually feel like that’s just a bonus. More important is this scene, where Colin and Penelope have a heart-to-heart about their respective writing pursuits and where Colin confesses his own envy that Penelope has been able to publish and receive praise while his journals languish out of fear.
Perhaps this scene is so meaningful to me because I, too, am a writer, and I could have had versions of this conversation with any number of friends and colleagues over the years. The bond you feel with another creative person is powerful, but even the best-intentioned, most supportive relationships can inevitably feel a hint of envy. And yet, at the same time, those people are likely to be your biggest cheerleaders (and you, theirs) because no one else can truly understand the work and the emotion and the commitment that went into getting those words onto the page and shaping them into something that matters.
As different as they may have seemed on the outside, on the inside, Colin and Pen are the same: they both are talented at observing the world and putting pen to paper to tell the stories they see. There is nothing more satisfying, affirming, and uplifting to a creative person than meeting someone who sees what you do and loves you for it. To see Colin and Pen have this mature conversation and end it by raising each other up? Now that’s a romance for the writers as much as for the wallflowers.
What are your favorite scenes in Romancing Mister Bridgerton? Let us know in the comments below.
First Featured Image | Book Cover Credit: ©Avon | Julia Quinn