Relationship Deep Dive: Penelope Featherington and Colin Bridgerton

Type: Romantic
Book | Show: Julia Quinn’s Romancing Mister Bridgerton and Netflix’s Bridgerton
Featured Characters: Penelope Featherington and Colin Bridgerton

As a Polin enthusiast for many years prior to the release of Bridgerton Season 3, I was most curious about how the show would choose to tell this deeply personal story of a slowly evolving relationship between two friends. So much of the love story in the book (Julia Quinn’s Romancing Mister Bridgerton) is internal—those subtle changes as friends become lovers largely occur inside Colin and Penelope’s heads. Colin Bridgerton notices Penelope Featherington is attractive and proceeds to agonize about whether she’s always been that way and he just hadn’t noticed.

Penelope begins to feel self-confident as she takes control of her wardrobe, allowing her to let her true self shine in her interactions with Colin. How could a television show—a largely visual medium—capture the way these characters’ feelings are slowly shifting as they think (and overthink) every aspect of their relationship?

Much Ado About Polin

With the introduction of a suitor to inspire jealousy (among other techniques), of course! But I’m not mad about it. The changes made to showcase how the friendship between these characters evolves into something more were necessary in many ways because otherwise, it’s difficult to capture.

Penelope Featherington and Colin Bridgerton: Inner and Outer Personas

I have always loved that Colin and Penelope’s relationship is complicated to portray, actually. It’s something that is so special and feels so fragile as it’s developing. Both characters are sensitive but in different ways, so it feels like one breath is all that separates them from either being together forever or retreating with fear.

Their feelings are tentative in a way that is so illustrative of their different types of sensitivity. Colin is a man who is adored by all who meet him, but underneath the confident, charismatic facade, he is unsure of himself and his place in the world. Conversely, Penelope often goes unnoticed in person, but her internal persona showcases her wit, intelligence, and, in a way, her self-confidence. Both Colin and Penelope’s true selves exist somewhere in the middle of their external and internal personas, which is why their connection feels fragile at first. They both need to find a way to be vulnerable with one another, showing the inner persona along with the outer one. Their love can’t transition from friendship to romantic love without knowing more about one another’s true selves. 

Penelope, in my opinion, takes the first step toward vulnerability by admitting she could use Colin’s help to attract a husband. Considering how long she had been in love with the idealized version of Colin she held in her mind, it’s hard to imagine how difficult of an admission that was for her. By accepting his help to find a husband, she is admitting that she is giving up on being with him. She wants the freedom marriage can give and is willing to let go of her childhood crush on Colin to make that happen. 

Regency Flirting Lessons

The way the show employs the idea of Colin teaching Penelope to flirt as a way to show their relationship evolving is a classic romance trope that feels right at home in this story. Showing Colin’s romantic experience (which has mostly occurred off-screen) is a crucial part of getting the audience to buy into his changed persona, so this plot point is useful in more ways than one. To Luke Newton’s credit, he does a great job of showing Colin’s obvious confusion at his own jealousy whenever Penelope interacts with other men.

In the beginning, he’s able to convince himself that he cares about what happens to her because of their friendship, but after one kiss, he’s down bad over a cupcake she ate, and he knows it’s more than that (side note: we love a Duke licking the spoon moment for them!).

As more and more of Penelope’s true personality comes out in her pursuit of Lord Debling, Colin’s jealousy escalates. Newton again portrays his inner conflict well—it’s clear from expressions and his body language that Colin doesn’t fully understand why he feels the way he does about seeing Penelope come into her own. It’s a side of her he has only seen through their personal correspondence. I think because of that, it’s possible Colin subconsciously thought this side of Penelope was mostly for his eyes only—that he was the only one who knew her on a deeper level, and that fuels the jealousy a bit.

One component that is so important to Penelope’s eventual admission that she cares less what other people think of her is Colin’s reassurance throughout. He has a way of hyping Penelope up that is so genuine, and in his earnest portrayal, Newton manages to not make those compliments feel like pity. The last thing a girl as proud as Penelope wants is pity, but it has never been that. Colin protected her from her cousin last season and told her she was special to him. He admits that he missed Penelope’s letters, seeks her out at society events because he enjoys speaking with her, tells her that she’s Penelope Featherington and should never forget that. He even stops her from calling herself a stupid girl who thought she had a chance at love.

Without that reassurance from him, both this season and in prior seasons, it would have been harder for Penelope to come out of her shell, and he might never have felt brave enough to show her his inner persona without her taking that first step into vulnerable territory.

First Kiss

It is remarkable that showing the small amount of vulnerability that Penelope showed allowed them to grow close enough that she was courageous enough to ask him for a kiss. That alone shows so much growth from her. She spent the past two seasons pursuing agency only covertly while otherwise doing exactly what is expected of her. This season, though, she is pursuing a more independent life for herself and taking a more active role in her own happiness. Part of that agency is ensuring she gets even a small chance to understand what it feels like to be kissed. 

The juxtaposition of the characters’ romantic experience is at play here, with Colin cast as the character who knows what a good kiss ought to feel like (again, the idea of Colin gaining his romantic experience off-screen is being employed). Aside from the very cute banter about the logic behind it, this is a pivotal point in their relationship. Prior to this moment, Colin certainly knew Penelope was a romantic option (since he clarified to others that he wasn’t interested in courting her), but this is the moment in their story where the line truly starts to blur for the both of them. Anything prior to this was theoretical or idealized.

This short kiss, though, makes it real for both of them. It isn’t the same as Penelope’s girlhood fantasy, and it isn’t the same attraction as what Colin has felt for anyone else. It’s much more realer and even better than either of them had dreamed anything could be. Each Bridgerton couple has a feeling of inevitability, a sense of deep emotional connection, and this moment, as this relationship crosses into reality, is the moment those things solidify for Penelope Featherington and Colin Bridgerton. 

Crucially, another beat of the story that makes this moment soar and illustrates to the viewers that things between Colin and Penelope are not purely platonic is when Penelope reads Colin’s journal. The entry she reads is centered around one of Colin’s key moments of growth from his travels: the idea that being physically intimate does not equate to the feeling of emotional intimacy. Society definitely wants him to believe that it’s enough just to be physically intimate and live like a rake.

One important reason why Colin comes back so changed, and why things with Penelope begin to become romantic, is that he isn’t looking for meaningless relationships any longer. He came back unsure of his place in the world (and eventually, jealous of Whistledown’s established career as a result) because he learned that protecting himself from being hurt by pursuing meaningless attachments was empty. He learned living like other men his age and chasing women rather than looking for actual affection is unsatisfying. He realized through traveling that the intimacy and belonging that comes with emotional vulnerability can’t be replaced. And he doesn’t know that’s the lesson he took from traveling until they kiss—until all the reasons for missing her and going out of his way to be around her come crashing down. 

Deep down, he wants that vulnerability, and he wants it with Penelope not because she’s finally wearing flattering colors and doing her hair differently but because she always has been who he shared his true self with most. She has always accepted and cared for him exactly as he is. Their friendship facilitated exactly what he wanted from a partner without him even realizing it. Both his and Penelope’s growth converges at this moment to give them what they truly want: a life where they can be themselves without fear of judgment, a life where their partner brings out the best in them. Both characters have spent two seasons looking for assurance of their place in the world, and they find their place in each other. The kiss is just the physical catalyst.

Carriage Ride

Okay, be honest. You knew I was going to write about this. 

I have an extremely hot take about the carriage scene. My hot take is this: it is probably the most perfect Bridgerton scene ever (truly unbiased opinion if you ask me!). I have evidence to back it up. Think about everything you have read so far while I walk you through it.

First, we have Colin stopping the carriage and asking Penelope pleadingly to let him in. Come on—it can’t get better than just this. With all the dancing around one another, he’s asking for her to both let him into the carriage and let him into her vulnerable moment. What a perfect way to start the scene.

Then, Penelope issues what is basically a dare to Colin. She says Lord Debling rejected her because of Colin, which is laughable because there is no way Colin would ever have feelings for her! So laughable, right?

And reader, he hears that dare and takes the most tentative step into vulnerability possible, still trying to protect himself to the last—“What if I did have feelings for you?”

Please watch the way Newton pauses, agonizing over the idea of truly putting himself out there, before he realizes it’s time to fully admit it and actually tell her how he feels. Romance television really doesn’t get better than this pause.

And then it’s a waterfall of emotion as he leans into her to tell her the truth he has been wrestling with for so long now. And she doesn’t believe him! Just like he tried to protect himself from being fully vulnerable with her, she is, to the last moment, trying to guard her heart, too. 

When he thinks he has failed and that she doesn’t feel the same way, he tries to pull back. Jumping into this requires both people, not just one, to be vulnerable—and that’s when Penelope finally admits she wants to be more than friends. As they always do, they meet in the middle, both equally scared and equally vulnerable, to face things together (which is what they do best). 

The scene is just everything, and I love every detail of it so much, especially the proposal. If Colin Bridgerton as a character was completely distilled into a one-phrase marriage proposal, it would be this: “For God’s sake, Penelope Featherington, are you going to marry me or not?” Truly iconic of him.

Romancing Miss Featherington

The real moment, though, where everything comes together is in the confrontation of Penelope’s mother.

Penelope spent years being made fun of by her own family—to the point where her only recourse to deal with feelings of rejection from the people who should be supporting and loving her is to tear them down in her gossip column. She didn’t do it out of a desire for vengeance. She didn’t know how else to defend herself and had no other means to protect herself or even deal with how it made her feel. Talking with Eloise about it certainly wasn’t an option since Eloise’s family always seemed so perfect to Penelope. 

So when Colin hears Portia speaking about Penelope rudely, he employs his charisma and status to explain exactly why he is marrying Penelope to a woman who desperately needs to hear it. Penelope struggles to see her own positive attributes, but only because that mindset has been reinforced for so long by her own family. Others have defended Penelope from bullies like Cressida in previous seasons, but nobody has ever defended Penelope from her own mother. In many ways, that makes her love for Colin even more real than it already was.

It’s illustrative of the yin and yang of this couple. Colin, a man whose outward charm hides inner sensitivity, and Penelope, a girl whose outer gentleness obscures wit, humor, and confidence. Nobody could defend her more fiercely than the man who knows exactly who she is, just like nobody defends Colin more fiercely throughout the series than Penelope, the person who knows him best.

And it couldn’t mean more for her or be more honest than seeing him defend her from the person who most sought to take advantage of her. It couldn’t be more real than knowing her life with him would be exactly what she wanted—what she always wanted with him. To truly know one another, to be each other’s best friend, and to find and build their own place in the world together.

First Featured Image Credit: Cr. Liam Daniel/Netflix © 2024