Season 3, Episode 4 Recap: Old Friends
Penelope receives a proposal and it looks like she will get her happy ending but not before a tumultuous carriage ride with Colin changes everything...
From the very beginning of Bridgerton we have known the Featherington sisters to be silly. The writers have firmly ensconced them in their ugly sister role and, while this season they have been more comedy than bitchy, viewers have been waiting for the day when Penelope has her Cinderella moment and gets her Prince, while they have to watch on from the sideline. And This. Is. It. The opening of the final episode before the mid-season break and Lord Debling (more David Attenborough than Prince Charming) has come to call on Pen and is clearly smitten, while her sisters have to witness how he dotes on her. No wonder Penelope looks like the cat that’s got the cream.
In the Bridgerton house, Colin isn’t quite so happy. After witnessing Penelope and Lord Debling together at the ball the previous evening, he is clearly wrestling with his feelings for his ‘old friend’ (note the title of the episode).
Meanwhile, Benedict is having rather more luck with the ladies as he goes to call on the sophisticated Lady Tilly and ends up in her bedroom.
In a different kind of call, Lord Kilmartin visits Francesca and the two proceed to sit in silence together as they did at the ball much to the rest of the Bridgerton’s confusion.
As usual Eloise chimes in brilliantly:
‘I am in awe. I thought you had to use wit or banter to dissuade a suitor. But simple silence is radically more effective.’
Francesca doesn’t appear to be dissuaded and when the more eligible Lord Samadani enters, is put out that Kilmartin has to leave. Later, he gives her the ultimate Francesca present, a sheet of music (no diamonds for this lady).
Later at what appears to be an open library event (who knew that was a thing in the Regency?), Lady Featherington advises Penelope not to appear too bookish to Debling, saying,
‘Let him tell you about it. Men love to explain the world to us. If we have already explained it to ourselves through reading, they will feel superfluous and unmanned.’
The way that Lady Featherington always sees her daughter through the lens of her marital rather than intellectual value is so sad for Penelope. That she is never understood within her own family and has only ever been herself with the Bridgerton’s (more on that later) and through her writings as Lady Whistledown.
However, Debling also sees her or at least is trying to. He asks about her favourite books and she replies, ‘Stories of love,’ because ‘They are histories of connection. Of hope for a better life.’ Debling who has his own passion for nature, understands Penelope and they talk about a life together where they could both indulge their interests while providing companionship for each other.
Of course Colin witnesses their talk, which sends him back to the brothel and another threesome but this time his heart isn’t in it and he opts just to watch. I know this scene will eventually serve as a counterpoint to how Colin approaches sex with someone he is in love with but, for me, it seems out of character and gives me the ick.
But, I digress.
Lord Debling isn’t a ditherer and has gone to the Featherington house to ask Lady F for her permission to propose. This is all Lady Featherington has been waiting for and can barely contain her excitement at the impending nuptials. When Penelope dares to say that she hasn’t accepted yet, her Mama tells her not to be greedy in her success and that she is foolish to hold out for love. That security is romantic. I find this mother-daughter relationship so fascinating in the way Lady Featherington’s experiences as a woman married to a financially feckless husband has coloured her whole perspective on marriage. Penelope is not allowed to want more for herself than a husband who can pay the bills and yet, Penelope has shown through her side hustle as Lady Whistledown that she has the same entrepreneurial spirit as her mother to take care of herself. To me it seems they have more in common than they can see.
Lady Bridgerton is getting ready to go to another ball and encounters a hungover Colin who tells her he won’t be coming. Violet, who seems to be the only Mama in the entire series (maybe the world - fictional and real!) who ‘gets’ all of her children and seems to know exactly what is on their mind at any one time, tells him,
‘Living to please others? I can imagine it can be wearying at times. Painful perhaps? So I do not blame you for putting on armour lately.’
And there she lays out what Colin has been doing since episode one when he turned up from his travels no longer a boy but a man that despite the flirting and new muscly bod was not being true to himself. The self that Pen (his old friend) knows inside out. Will he choose to accept his true feelings for Penelope now?
At the ball Penelope has the same question to resolve - will she be true to herself and marry for love? Or will she settle for a practical match with Lord Debling, who when pressed says that most of his heart is taken up by his work, which let’s face it is not the kind of thing a gal wants to hear. But fear not, Colin has arrived and is making his way across the dance floor to tell Pen not to marry him. The penny drops for Debling and he realises Penelope is in love with Colin too and withdraws his proposal. And for the third time this season Pen flees the ballroom.
Now, this is the bit we’ve all been waiting for. The carriage scene. Let’s just get our pieces in place; Pen is in the carriage and Colin (thank goodness he’s been working out) is running after it. When he finally catches up and jumps in, he’s ready to declare his love. He gets down on his knees, finally lets down his guard and gives in to his feelings. It’s so beautifully pitched for both characters from the writers - Pen's utter bewilderment that this could be happening, Colin’s crestfallen look when she says, ‘But we are friends,’ and then the realisation from both of them that they are going to be so much more. It’s a true Bridgerton fan moment and that’s before the sexy stuff gets going. Not to go into a full account but again, they get it so right. The passion these characters have for each other together with the tenderness of so many years as friends. It’s something we haven’t seen in Bridgerton before and when the carriage comes to a stop and they burst into laughter, you can see that it’s so natural and right for them both. It was my a ha moment. Of course they should be together! Why are they not already?
Now they’ve arrived at the Bridgerton’s, Colin jumps out of the carriage and asks Penelope to join him. He’s confident, she’s confused, unsure where they go from here. And then he says what we’ve all been waiting for,
‘For God’s sake Penelope Featherington, are you going to marry me or not?’
And just like that all Pen’s dreams have come true.
What did you think of episode 4? Will Pen and Colin get their happy ever after? Will Whistledown write about it? And what will Eloise say? I’d love to hear your thoughts!