As the title of the show suggests, the Bridgerton siblings, as well as their loving mother, are an extremely important part of Netflix’s costume drama Bridgerton. Each season of the aptly titled series is devoted to one member of the alphabetically named group of brothers and sisters making their way through the marriage mart and stumbling into true love. Season 1 focuses on Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) as she finds her other half in the rakish Duke of Hastings (Regé-Jean Page), while Season 2 chronicles the complicated relationship between Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) and Kate (Simone Ashley) and Edwina Sharma (Charithra Chandran). Currently, in between its first and its second half, Season 3 is all about Colin’s (Luke Newton) friends-to-lovers affair with Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan).
With so many characters and so many different personalities, it’s not hard for the viewer to find at least one Bridgerton sibling to relate to. From free spirits like Benedict and Eloise (Claudia Jessie) to the overeager young Hyacinth, there’s a Bridgerton for everyone out there. If this season is not your cup of tea, rest assured that another one will be. However, when we look at the show more carefully, we quickly realize that the most interesting character in the entire story is not a Bridgerton at all, but a Featherington.
Penelope Featherington Is the Real Protagonist of ‘Bridgerton’
Now, the Featheringtons aren’t as easy to love as the Bridgertons. Sisters Prudence (Bessie Carter) and Philipa (Harriet Cains) are as funny as they are empty-headed, and mother Portia (Polly Walker), though a lot more understandable when we take into consideration the troubles that she has to deal with, is just one of the many pushy mamas of the ton who keeps pushing her daughters to marry rich. And don’t even get us started on the many failings of the late Lord Featherington (Ben Miller) and his cousin Jack (Rupert Young)! But, among this mess of a family, the actual star of Bridgerton stands out. By far the most well-rounded and complex character in the entire show, Penelope is the link tying all seasons together, at least so far. And even in Season 3, a season meant to be centered around Colin, she’s the one we follow and who we actually root for.
This might sound obvious when we consider that Penelope is Colin’s love interest in Bridgerton Season 3. Just like Simon and Kate in previous runs of the show, she has, of course, a lot of screen time. However, in past seasons, we had the unmistakable impression that we were following the adventures of Daphne and Anthony, with Simon and Kate serving as co-protagonists. Things are a bit different now that we’re on Colin’s season, though. For the most part, he’s the one that feels like an addition to the main character’s story: Penelope. The youngest of the Featheringtons is the one who goes through a glow-up, who must navigate her way through the marriage mart, and who has to grow and learn from her mistakes. Colin is relegated to the role of love interest — a role that was once Simon’s and Kate’s.
And it’s not just in Season 3 that Penelope stands out as the protagonist. Over the course of the past two seasons, she has always been at the forefront, even if her story wasn’t the one central to the plot. Perhaps this has something to do with the hard-to-match charisma of performer Nicola Coughlan, who commands attention at every moment she’s on-screen and makes Penelope feel real with her outbursts of anxiety. Most certainly, it has to do with the fact that Penelope is none other than Lady Whistledown’s (voiced by Julie Andrews) secret identity, and thus is the one that pushes the entire plot forward from the shadows. This could change if the show goes the same route as the books, but, so far, it is her desires and opinions that actually make the plot of Bridgerton move.
Penelope Hasn’t Always Been the Good Guy in ‘Bridgerton’
And Penelope’s desires and opinions aren’t always the easiest to defend. More often than not, she’s meddling in the lives of the Bridgerton siblings as they navigate the ton and try to find someone to marry. Okay, she’s the one that named Daphne a “diamond of the first water”, but her actions as Lady Whistledown, more often than not, are the cause of real damage to the relationships of the show’s protagonists-by-name. Penelope isn’t without her flaws, and some of the biggest have left a mark on society and the series.
Let’s start with her poor cousin Marina (Ruby Barker). In Season 1, Marina moves in with the Featheringtons to look for a husband in London. Getting married quickly is of the utmost importance to her, as she is pregnant out of wedlock with the child of a dead man. Now, eventually, Marina ends up married to Sir Phillip Crane (Chris Fulton), her lover’s cousin, who proposes to her out of duty. But, before Phillip turns up, she nearly manages to make a much more affectionate union with Colin Bridgerton. There’s just one problem: Penelope has been in love with Colin for as long as she can remember. As one of Colin’s closest friends, she doesn’t like seeing him deceived, because Marina does not reveal the truth about her pregnancy to him. But rather than pull Colin aside privately or confront Marina, Penelope hides behind Whistledown and reveals the truth of Marina’s circumstances in front of the whole Ton.
Season 2 shows her doing something just as bad to her best friend, Eloise (Claudia Jesse). While trying to uncover Lady Whistledown’s identity, Eloise meets and develops feelings for a printer’s apprentice by the name of Theo Sharpe (Calam Lynch), who catches her attention with pamphlets about women’s rights. Afraid that Theo might give away her secret and that Eloise might invite a scandal by getting involved with a working-class man, Penelope runs a whole issue of Whistledown devoted to exposing Eloise. For a while there, this has the Bridgertons completely shunned by the ton, and once she realizes what Penelope has done, Eloise decides to stop talking to her.
Penelope Is the Most Well-Developed Character in ‘Bridgerton’
In Season 3, after struggling to attract the attention of suitors even after her wardrobe change, Penelope runs an issue of Lady Whistledown’s Society Papers mocking Colin for his sudden personality shift after his trip across the European continent. However, in this case, considering how callously Colin declared that he would never court Penelope at the end of Season 2, maybe he kind of deserves it. And therein lies the secret of why, for every Penelope hater in the Bridgerton fandom, there are just as many people who love her: we are constantly given the context for her actions, no matter how selfish or misguided they might be. This doesn’t necessarily serve to make her misdeeds justifiable, but it goes a long way to helping us understand what makes Penelope tick.
Penelope has seen a lot of growth from Season 1 to Season 3, whether it’s by getting out from under her mother’s thumb and facing the gentlemen of the ton headfirst or by having her actions finally catch up with her with the loss of her friendship with Eloise or by being brave enough to ask for Colin’s help in securing a match to avoid spinsterhood. Penelope starts the show as an observer and an outsider whose only voice comes through Whistledown, but more and more, she has become conscious of her actions as Lady Whistledown and conscious that the gossip column does more harm than good. Time will tell how those closest to her will react at the revelation, including Colin, who wants revenge against Whistledown. She might make some questionable choices, but after three seasons, it’s hard to deny that Penelope is an incredibly well-developed character, perhaps the most complex in the entire show.
