In the Season 3 finale of “Bridgerton,” when Lady Whistledown steps into the light of her true identity — Penelope Bridgerton (Nicola Coughlan) — her husband, Colin (Luke Newton), learns not only to accept, but to applaud her for who she is. After that, Whisteldown imposter Cressida Cowper (Jessica Madsen) is shunned from London, the ton rejoices in the birth of a “Polin” baby (a boy, making them the new Lord Featherington) and delightedly theorizes about which Bridgerton sibling will take the lead next.
The answer to that question is not immediately clear, as huge storylines pop up in the final episodes for Benedict (Luke Thompson), Eloise (Claudia Jessie) and Francesca (Hannah Dodd). Benedict takes his new flame Lady Tilley Arnold (Hannah New) and her friend Paul (Lucas Aurelio) up on their offer of a threesome and explores his sexuality with them multiple ties over. When Tilly decides wants to return to their monogamous stage and not “share” him, Benedict gently ends the relationship, not ready to settle down after discovering a new part of himself.
Francesca marries John Stirling (Victor Alli) and is happy to be moving away from loud London to his quiet Scotland estate. But just before they head out on their happy honeymoon, Francesca begins experiencing butterflies while meeting John’s charming cousin Michaela Stirling (Masali Baduza), who fans of the “Bridgerton” book series will note is a gender-flipped version of the same cousin character, Michael Stirling.
And for Eloise, she’s made up with Pen, she’s happy for Colin, she’s over her friendship with Cressida — and she’s ready to get out of Dodge. She ends up accompanying Francesca, John and Michaela on their journey to Scotland, where she intends to live with them through the end of the year, promising Benedict she will return home to play with him in time for her mother Violet’s famed masquerade ball.
Variety spoke with “Bridgerton” showrunner Jess Brownell, who in Season 3 took over the Shonda Rhimes’ Regency-era drama from Chris Van Dusen. Below, Brownell discussed the third season’s approach to love and sexuality, as well as what the next installment of the romance series — as we grilled her about whether the lead will be Benedict, Eloise or Francesca.
What was your approach to what Colin’s reaction would be to learning that Penelope is Lady Whistledown just before their wedding, after they had sex for the first time?
We felt like Colin is definitely a gentleman, and because Penelope and Colin shared intimate moments, we knew that he was someone who’s going to follow through. Personally, I think deep down Colin knows he loves Penelope despite the fact that he’s so upset at her in that moment. And he’s working through some issues with envy and insecurity that — while he may not be aware of right away on the surface — they’re very much a factor in his reaction.
And that is really something we took from the book. I thought it was a beautiful nuance in “Romancing Mr. Bridgerton” that you have a character who has to square with the fact that his wife is really successful at this thing that he wants to do himself. That’s a very modern tale, and not something you often get to tell in a Regency-period drama.
How did you work through what Colin and Penelope’s first sex scene would look like — and when it would happen — compared to previous “Bridgerton” couples?
They’re the first friends-to-lovers story that we’ve told, and so their first intimacy stands out because there is that depth and that familiarity. And we knew that we wanted there to be laughter in the scenes. We knew that we wanted Colin to be a real caretaker of Penelope in that moment. And the main concern, I would say, was about what story we were telling in the scene, and making sure there are moments of character growth.
So for Penelope — whose arc in many ways is about needing to allow herself to be seen — the mirror scene is the moment where literally and metaphorically, she allows herself to be seen by Colin. And for Colin, it’s a moment where we get to see his sensitivity shine. And that’s something that he’s learning how to step into more, as well. So for both of the characters, it’s a big growth scene.
What about their other sex scene in the finale, when we see them only briefly and without nudity?
There’s less storytelling via sex once you get to the end of the season. Their characters have already gone through a major transformation, so we didn’t need to show as much. But I do think the image of Penelope on top is a perfect way to end her character, and it’s something that Nicola and Luke and I consulted on together and collaborated on.
How did you work through when and how to bring Eloise and Penelope back together after their huge fight at the end of Season 2, and their estrangement throughout much of Season 3?
So in many ways, their friendship before their breakup, if you will, last season was based on the fact that they grew up next door to each other, and they both love to read. And there’s a lot of love between them, but I think they didn’t fully know each other, because they weren’t being fully honest with each other — at least Penelope wasn’t being fully honest with Eloise.
So it was important for us to travel them on their arcs this season, allow them to mature separately, and then we knew that they needed to have a real reckoning where they were both totally honest about their vulnerabilities, their insecurities. For Eloise, that moment in Episode 6, where she tells Penelope, “Hey, I really need you to pick up your pen again and go write another Whistledown” — there’s a moment where Eloise admits, “I was partly at fault last season, I know that I was reckless last season.”
That was an important admission for Eloise to get to, and for Penelope to reach a place where she was being more honest with everyone around her. Now, they can meet each other on an equal ground. And the hope is that people feel the takeaway, which is that they are now closer than ever and less like friends of convenience and more really bonded as sisters and literally sisters-in-law.
How much of the story will be revolving around Lady Whistledown in future seasons, now that her identity has been exposed, and she’s seemingly been given a public stamp of approval to keep working from the Queen?
I don’t think we’re done with Lady Whistledown. I think there is more story to tell there, because now Penelope is a public gossip columnist who people are going to know is the writer when she writes about them. And certainly, as you referenced, 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.
Will Julie Andrews still do the narrator voice of Lady Whistledown moving forward? Or is Nicola Coughlan going to take it on full time after switching over to her in the finale?
That’s a really good question. And I’m gonna hold back on answering that for now, because I think I want people to experience it for themselves.
Did you put deliberate signs in the Season 3 finale as to who the focus of Season 4 will be?
Yes.
OK, because it’s not immediately clear to me. At the end, Francesca has big stuff, Eloise has big stuff and Benedict has big stuff — but Eloise mentions she’ll be back from her journey to Scotland in time for her mother’s masquerade ball, which makes me think it will be Benedict’s love story — in the books, his story kicks off when he meets his love interest Sophie at a masquerade.
I think that’s a great theory. It’s an intriguing theory.
If that’s the theory we’re working off of, then what were the motivations to introduce Michaela Sterling, who’s a gender-flipped version of the character Michael Stirling from Francesca’s book? And to have Eloise go to Scotland? Because those are clearly big thing to have for those two characters, going into a season they might not be the leads of.
So for all three characters, we are setting certain pieces of their story in motion. Francesca’s story, for those who are familiar with her book, spans a longer period of time — and so that one, we absolutely needed to get going on. As far as gender-flipping Michaela, I have a lot I want to say about it, but I’m cautious about talking about it in detail now, because I want people to see how it’s going to play out. And I’m not trying to be withholding, it’s just difficult to talk about the thought and the research that went into it without talking about what’s to come. And I’m just trying to be protective of what story we want to tell for Season 4 and beyond.
I understand that. It seemed to me that Benedict’s storyline this season in exploring his sexuality was weaved in a little bit from the start of “Bridgerton.” Whereas with how little we’ve seen of Francesca — with the actress change as well — it could have been planned from the start, or as a new idea for this season. How did both come about?
I don’t want to speak for Chris Van Dusen — he was obviously in charge creatively in Seasons 1 and 2. I can say, as a member of the writers’ room, we definitely talked about Benedict’s possible queerness. But ultimately we landed with what you saw in Seasons 1 and 2. I was in a position when I stepped in as showrunner where, of course I want to bring my vision to the show, but it’s also my job to make sense of what is in Seasons 1 and 2, and build on that. I can’t just go in a completely different direction because I want to.
I knew that people out there had a feeling Benedict might be queer. And personally, it made sense to me. He’s not just open minded, it’s that he seems like the type of person who wouldn’t be as concerned with gender — someone who might be more fluid and pansexual. He’s really attracted to someone’s spirit. And so it felt like we should make sense of those pieces that were in Seasons 1 and 2. That was what we were attempting to do with his storyline.
And for Francesca, because she was so rarely in Seasons 1 and 2, I did feel like we got to do a lot more invention and creation with her this season. It was exciting for me as a showrunner to almost get to start a character from scratch. And I hope that, if people watch what we set up with her from Episode 1 in Season 3, we’re planting the seeds of what we reveal at the end of Season 3 from the very beginning. We really got to set it up exactly as we would like to this season.
Does this mean that The Great Experiment inside the show will be expanded to sexuality, as well as race? Or will the show treat sexuality with the taboos of the time that we’ve seen in “Bridgerton” and “Queen Charlotte”?
Again, this goes back to my feeling that it’s important for me to be reflective about what was already set up in the show. There is evidence in Season 1 that gay men, to a degree, had to be closeted. That’s something we’ve talked about. But I think it is very possible that The Great Experiment could be pushed further in the future of the show. And I have a lot of ideas about how to approach that.
When we started talking about queer representation on the show, we started with a discussion that this is a show about happily-ever-afters, and that we’re not interested in queer trauma — that we really want to see queer joy. And if we’re going to tell a queer story, we would like to find a way for there to be a happily ever after.
So we have done a lot of research to figure out how we can achieve that within the confines of our world. And after people see the next couple of seasons, I’ll be able to talk about that more.
