Though every season of Bridgerton focuses on a different romantic pairing, Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) has been something of a shadow lead throughout the show thus far, unlike in the book series. Her story has been intertwined with the Bridgerton family through friendship and romance as well as her place in society as the elusive Lady Whistledown. Penelope and Lady Whistledown (voiced by Julie Andrews) have been driving plot points in the show since the first season just as much as the Bridgerton family members have.
Though Penelope’s place in the story might have seemed like a supporting role as a pining friend to those who had not read the Julia Quinn novels that inspire the series, Penelope and Colin (Luke Newton) led the romance in season 3, just as they did in the fourth Bridgerton novel. While Penelope gets the perfect ending for the novel version of her character there, the show has taken a different path for her, and her happy ending does not have to be the same.
How Penelope Featherington’s Main Story Ends In The Bridgerton Books
Penelope And Colin’s Love Story Is Romancing Mister Bridgerton
Penelope gets the perfect ending to her main storyline in the Bridgerton books in that novel precisely because of that timeline change.
Though Penelope Featherington is present in the first three Bridgerton books as a friend to Eloise and a neighbor of the Bridgerton family, much like she is in the Netflix series, it is the fourth Bridgerton book that provides the audience with Colin and Penelope’s love story. Romancing Mister Bridgerton is set when Penelope is 28 and Colin is 33, quite a while later in the timeline than it appears in Bridgerton season 3. Penelope gets the perfect ending to her main storyline in the Bridgerton books in that novel precisely because of that timeline change.
At that point in Penelope’s life, she has been in love with Colin for over a decade. She has watched three members of the Bridgerton family get married – and been instrumental in some of their love stories. She has also been writing as Lady Whistledown nearly that entire time. Penelope has been written off by most of society, including her mother, as a spinster because she is in her late twenties. It gives her the freedom to move about society she did not have when she made her debut, and she and Colin frequently find themselves alone together.
Because their paths cross so often, Colin gets the chance to know Penelope very well and falls in love with her. There is quite a bit of banter and bickering throughout their story largely because they are not the best of friends as they are in the Netflix show, one of many changes Bridgerton makes for the better. When Penelope and Colin become engaged, she makes the decision to give up writing as Lady Whistledown on her own.
Penelope believes it is time to move on from that chapter of her life, and her next decision in writing is to begin penning novels. At a time when few female novelists were successfully being published, that would have been a bold move for Penelope, but for someone who had spent a decade honing her voice as Lady Whistledown, it makes sense that she would like to tell stories of her own invention rather than simply writing the stories she heard whispered around society gatherings.
Where Penelope Ends Season 3 Of Bridgerton
Her Season 3 Ending Helps Set Up Season 4
It’s important for fans of the Bridgerton show on Netflix to understand that Penelope Featherington’s story is not exactly the same as in the novels. For one thing, her timeline is drastically moved up. During the events of the series, Penelope has been writing as Lady Whistledown for about three years as far as the audience knows. She has known the Bridgertons, however, since she was a child, and has had feelings for Colin just as long.
Penelope and Colin are shown to be friends in seasons one and two of the show, even bending the rules of propriety by addressing one another by their given names, exchanging letters despite them not being courting, and ending up alone together without a chaperon multiple times. None of the Bridgertons find it particularly odd because they treat Penelope like a member of the family, and Penelope is overlooked by the rest of society.
In the third season of the show, however, both of Penelope’s older sisters have secured a match and Penelope has realized that if she does not get out of her mother’s house, she will not have the freedom to continue to write as Lady Whistledown. She does not seek out a match born of love because she still has feelings for Colin, but instead, tries to find a match to a kind man that will still allow her freedom to be herself.
When Colin agrees to help her feel more comfortable and confident in society events to make up for his comments about “never courting” her in season two, he starts to see Penelope in a new light. Though there are a few bumps in their relationship, like Colin having trouble reconciling the Penelope he knows with Lady Whistledown, the season ends with Penelope revealing her identity to everyone, mending her relationships with her mother and sisters, and finding happiness with Colin.
The season ends with a flashforward to the happily married couple and their son and a voiceover from Lady Whistledown. It’s implied that Lady Whistledown is not gone for good, unlike the novels. Though Benedict is the main Bridgerton of season 4, Colin and Penelope’s love story is still present as they are both published writers in the flash forward.
Penelope Should Continue Writing As Lady Whistledown
Lady Whistledown Offers Penelope A Better Show Storyline
Penelope Featherington’s relationship to her Lady Whistledown persona is different in the Netflix series than it is in the Bridgerton novels. While the show does not reveal how she got started beyond her “writing to be heard,” the novels see her becoming Lady Whistledown almost as an accident when her father’s solicitor stumbles upon her writing and helps her get published. In the show, becoming Lady Whistledown is Penelope’s choice, not someone else’s. That’s one of the reasons she should continue to write as Lady Whistledown throughout the series.
Though Penelope is often remarked upon for her cleverness and her writing abilities, she has not been writing as Lady Whistledown nearly as long in the show as she has in the books. Writing as Lady Whistledown continues to allow Penelope to perfect her craft, something she has done in the novels by the time she decides to write fiction. It also gives her a career and a life outside of her marriage, something few other women in the series have.
It is also made very clear in Bridgerton’s Netflix that gossip is a source of power for Penelope. As Lady Whistledown, Penelope has the confidence and willingness to be forthright she does not have as herself. When she tells everyone who she is at the Featherington Ball in season 3, she gets the approval of Queen Charlotte and those around her. There is no real reason for her to stop writing as Lady Whistledown when society has accepted her.
Writing the society papers might prove to be slightly more difficult in the future since people will be more careful about what they say around her, but that could prove an interesting addition to the series. There are more possibilities with her identity being known and more room for new conflicts and side plots for her character alongside the main love stories of each season.
Lady Whistledown has also provided the voice for the Netflix series. She has narrated every season of the show – whether with Nicola Coughlan’s voice or that of Julie Andrews. It makes sense for the show to continue to use Whistledown as its storytelling framework, something that was not done in the novels. Penelope is arguably more connected to the rest of the family than the other heroines of the series whose stories have taken them away from the show.
Daphne has essentially disappeared because of her marriage and her move from the family home. Kate disappears in season 2 when she and Anthony decide to travel to India (though she is expected to return). Penelope, however, still lives across the street from the Bridgerton house, is still the best friend of Eloise, whose love story has not yet played out, and is admired by Hyacinth, whose love story should be one of the last told in the series should it continue.
The Netflix series has grafted Penelope and her writing onto the members of the Bridgerton family in a way that means she should not suddenly stop her career as Lady Whistledown.
What Nicola Coughlan Has Said About Penelope’s Future
Coughlan And Penelope Are Confirmed For Season 4
Though Nicola Coughlan has not had much to tell the press about Penelope’s role in the series moving forward, she has been clear that the angst that came with the romantic journey for Colin and Penelope is over. She explained:
It’s very fun to be playing, like, a happily married person with a very cute baby. It feels like they went through all their strife last time. So, they get to come back and just be in love and have the best time together.
Conflict for Penelope in the series, however, does not have to come from her romantic entanglements, which is where most of the other characters see their conflicts arise. There is still story to mine from Penelope’s place in society as a very public Lady Whistledown now.
In addition to Coughlan’s comments about season 4 of Bridgerton, showrunner Jess Brownell has shed some light on Penelope’s story moving forward in the show. Though some fans have worried that Penelope identifying herself as Whistledown means there is no point to Penelope continuing writing the society papers, Brownell has teased there is more story to gain following the reveal.
Brownell teased that Penelope will now have to “navigate what it’s like to be a public gossip columnist,” something that she had not previously considered. She also explained how this can create new stories for Penelope in multiple interviews:
…it felt like, in a season where she’s discovering the importance of her power, for her to then give up the column felt like it might be a down note. I think there’s more to come with Lady Whistledown — I think now Pen will have to navigate what it’s like to be a public gossip columnist, not only dealing with the people she writes about, but also taking steps to be more accountable in what she writes. Accountability and authenticity are two things that she’s had to really face this season, and we’re gonna continue that thread going into Season 4.
…she will have to contend with the Queen and the Queen’s demands, the Queen’s desires, the Queen’s scrutiny. So how Penelope balances that is fodder for Season 4.
It’s been made clear that despite Penelope Featherington becoming Penelope Bridgerton and finally seeing her dreams come true, her story as Lady Whistledown is far from over. There is still a lot more to explore in the future of Bridgerton.