Warning: Spoilers ahead from Bridgerton season 3 episode 6.
If Bridgerton season 3 episode 5 started the tick, tick, tick of the bombshell, episode 6 brought the BOOM! After Cressida's sudden (false) confession that she's the anonymous writer behind Lady Whistledown caused Penelope to faint during her engagement party, the dust of the latest ton's scandal is settling... and questioning the future of Lady Whistledown.
Cressida's attempt to emulate Penelope's writing style was endearing, but her mother soon realizes her daughter doesn't have what it takes to fool the ton. (If her father had it his way, Cressida would be banished for tarnishing their "good" name.) With her mother's help, Cressida's able to crash a ball and announce the impending drop of her next issue, which sends Penelope and Eloise into panic.
See, the guilt of secrecy isn't crashing down only on Penelope. It's crashing down on Eloise, too. She's lost two friends over Lady Whistledown now, and she's lied to her brother the whole time. Even though Colin has been softened by love and put his pitchfork down when it comes to Whistledown, the actual truth about Penelope's writings and his sister's knowledge would still hit him like a ton of bricks.
Colin catches Penelope as Lady Whistledown!
That's exactly what happens at the episode's end when Colin follows Penelope's carriage and catches her in the act of delivering her latest issue to the printer. He's stunned when he sees his future wife cloaked under the dark of night and a hooded cape and realizes she's been writing Lady Whistledown all along. There's really no foreseeable way she will get herself out of the truth this time.
Before he caught her delivering the new Whistledown newsletter to the printer, he'd spotted Penelope whisking Eloise away from the ball to talk after Cressida's dramatic display. They had both looked distressed and rushed out of the ball. Surely, he was starting to piece together some suspicion. She passes out after the first reveal and runs out of the room with her ex-best friend after the second? He knows something's not adding up.
In spite of feeling territorial over her work as Whistledown, and for good reason, Penelope had resolved to let the column die with Cressida... until she had made such an unexpected comeback at the ball. Penelope chose her life with Colin over her writing. Colin had even started adapting his journals into a book. But the power that comes with Whistledown's pen is too much to surrender to Cressida.
Penelope vowed to Eloise to publish one more time in order to discredit Cressida and take away her power over everyone. She wants to right her wrongs by taking down Cressida and ending the column once and for all. However, now that Colin caught her in the act of delivering the final blow to Cressida, will she actually be able to do the good she planned?
"Romancing Mister Bridgerton" might be one of the hands-down best episodes of Bridgerton ever for all of the build up to what we have been waiting for. The mystery and truth of Lady Whistledown has been bubbling at the center of the series since day one, and now she's backed into a corner. Colin finally knows the real truth. All hell's breaking loose. Don't you love this suspense?
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