Dearest reader, if you've accidentally inhaled the entirety of part two of the latest Bridgerton season in one sitting, we shan't judge you.
It was a little too easy to roll each of the four instalments into each other so that in the blink of an eye, the entire second part of the season was over.
The latest season of the popular Netflix series revolved around Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) who after enlisting the help of Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) to bag herself a husband, finds that the student becomes the master as Colin falls for his former friend.
Polin is on like Donkey Kong.
The first part of season three culminates in Colin proposing to Penelope after they enjoy some sexy time on a carriage ride and in part two, the couple have sex for real this time. Oh, and they get married.
What's in store for season four? It looks like we might have a long time to wait. Boo!
Until then, all we can do is tirelessly obsess about the season three episodes we do have which happened to be packed with clever Easter eggs, sneaky references and hidden details.
Listen too all the latest Bridgerton season three easter eggs you missed on The Quicky podcast here. Post continues below.
Penelope’s wedding dress was intentionally understated.
For her wedding to Colin, Penelope wore a simple gown, which was a far cry from the heavily beaded, dazzling ethereal gowns often seen on Bridgerton, especially on a woman’s wedding day.
Executive producer Jess Brownell said this was to signify that Penelope’s priorities were still with her work as Lady Whistledown — she wasn’t concerned about being the perfect bride.
“Our costume designer John Glaser designed a very simple silhouette for Penelope, that was in some ways a nod to her being this powerful career woman. She is not super fussy in that moment,” she told Glamour UK.
The wedding song and colour theme were a nod to their families merging.
Penelope walked down the aisle to Coldplay’s ‘Yellow’, a cheeky nod to the character’s most worn colour leading up to season three. The wedding’s colour theme being pale yellows, blues, and greens was also no accident: blue represents the Bridgertons, yellow for the Featheringtons and green is the colour created from mixing the two hues.
The colours the families wear mean more than meets the eye.
Like previous seasons, the Bridgertons stick to their favourite hue this season: blue. Fans have noticed that the family, especially the women, are often seen in the colour, along with their family's home decor. The colour was picked intentionally to signify the family's wealth and social status.
Production Designer Will Hughes-Jones told Town and Country after season one that the colour reminded him of Wedgewood blue, a blue featured in expensive ceramics and fine china in the Regency-era.
By contrast, the Featheringtons are typically seen in gaudy bright and clashing tones such as orange and pink. Their colour palette is often different from the rest of high society — reminding viewers of their outsider status.
As mentioned, Penelope's colour scheme before her season three makeover was typically pale yellow, a colour her mother encouraged her to wear. This was a popular colour in that time period for women so suggests how much Portia Featherington wanted her daughter to fit in. But little does she know that yellow also represents deceit and envy which could be a sly nod to Penelope's shady alter-ego as Lady Whistledown.
Penelope starts wearing different colours as Colin falls for her.
It could just be a coincidence but Penelope's makeover gown being green is something worth examining. Colin's family colour is blue and Penelope's colour is yellow, so the combination of those two hues being green could have foreshadowed these two characters' future romance.
Then as Penelope starts to entertain suitors, and Colin's jealousy rages on, Penelope starts wearing blue/green hues, signifying that she will soon become a Bridgerton herself.
Watch the season three trailer. Post continues after video.
Francesca was recast as a different actress than who appeared in the first two seasons.
If you thought Francesca looked a bit different this season — this would be because she is an entirely different person.
Hannah Dodd took over the role from Ruby Stokes after she decided to depart the series. Variety reported that Stokes opted to leave Bridgerton due to scheduling conflicts as she was also filming the Netflix series Lockwood & Co.
"It wasn't an easy decision," Stokes told Variety. "It was incredible being part of a cultural moment like Bridgerton."
Rather awkwardly, Lockwood & Co. was cancelled in May 2023. Sorry to this woman.
Francesca's character played a much bigger part in season three: she matured in age, started courting potential suitors and her style choices drew parallels with her older sister, Daphne, who was named the diamond in her first season.
The orchestral song covers had a deeper meaning.
Like every season of Bridgerton, the music was subtlety modern with orchestral versions of pop hits scattered throughout. And these songs are often tied to the storylines playing out.
For Penelope and Colin's wedding dance, an orchestral version of Taylor Swift's 'You Belong with Me' played. This choice was no accident, as executive producer Jess Brownell has confirmed.
"Thematically and lyrically, it makes so much sense for them. These characters have so many years together, and it's not a newer relationship. It's something that has been in the making forever. There is that sense of fate with these two. It just worked really well," Brownell told Glamour UK.
A cover of 'Jealous' by Nick Jonas played as Colin watched on with envy as Penelope boasted that a suitor asked to see her tomorrow. Sia's 'Cheap Thrills' played at a party scene when Colin realised his feelings for Penelope as Violet Bridgerton shares a cute moment with Lady Danbury's brother, Marcus.
Billie Eilishs's bittersweet song 'Happier Than Ever' croons as Penelope and Lord Debling share a dance while Colin watches on, realising he may have lost her. And then of course, during the hot-as-hell carriage scene when Colin admits his feelings for Penelope and they get a little freaky on a carriage ride, the only fitting song plays: 'Give Me Everything' by Pitbull.
Colin truly said "Grab somebody sexy" and he told Penelope "Hey!"
The music supervisor understood the assignment.
The cake moment was an iconic throwback.
As Colin's attraction to Penelope grows, there's a moment when she eats a cake and licks her fingers as he gazes at her. TikToker @aynsley_broom reckons this is a throwback to the horny moment The Duke licked a spoon in season one, as Daphne stared at him in all her horny glory.
@aynsley_broom The connections that Bridgerton makes throughout its seasons is truly amazing! The Easter Eggs from the show with references to the book is why I love Season 3 so much! #bridgerton #bridgertonnetflix #bridgertonseason3 #polin #penelopefeatherington #colinbridgerton #lukenewton #nicolacouglan @Bridgerton @Netflix @Shondaland @nicolacoughlan @Luke Newton ♬ original sound - Aynsley Broom
The Bridgerton writers say 'LET THEM EAT CAKE!' but make it... weirdly sexual.
There's also been a few further callbacks between Penelope and Colin. Bridgerton expert Aynsley Broom told The Quicky to look closer at season two, in the scene where the Bridgertons are playing a friendly game of Pall Mall, a lawn game that has an uncanny similarity to croquet.
As they play, each sibling hits the ball through the iron ring that corresponds to their season, so: Colin's ball goes in third, Benedict's goes in fourth and Eloise's goes in fifth.
Broom adds that the mallet used is yellow, which is known as Penelope's colour, a potential nod to the next season's lover.
Penelope's makeover was inspired by Marilyn Monroe.
But before Pen and Colin got freaky, she had quite the makeover so she could relaunch herself into society and meet a potential husband. This makeover was based around 1950s movie stars, as confirmed by Erika Ökvist, the show's hair and makeup designer.
"I just felt Old Hollywood would be the best — like Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe, all of them," she told Glamour UK. "Nicola was quite happy with that look."
Costume designer John Glaser shared that Penelope's aesthetic was a mix of periods. "We actually veered off from 1813 and went a little into the future to 1820," Glaser said, noting that 1820 silhouette more closely resembled the 1950s look he was going for.
"By the time we get to episode four, we’ve really gone to the maximum of that shape with her waist and bust."
Glaser also wanted the character to show more skin. "We tried, because of what her character is doing, to show as much skin as possible," he said. "That’s why a lot of her sleeves and gloves are transparent. Even her small gloves are just hints—hints of jewellery, hints of gloves, so we see her skin and body shape."
Penelope's hair actually didn't change.
Ökvist shared that even though Penelope's hair appears to be a deeper red after the makeover, it was the same wig Nicola Coughlan wore in seasons one and two.
"Obviously, in season one, with all those oranges and yellows that she's wearing, the hair looks more red and her face looks more ruddy because it reflects straight back up into her face. Yellow is not naturally her best colour, let me put it that way," she said.
"Even though she’s wearing the same wig, the cool, really nice neutral blues and greens make this quite bright red look more elegant and sophisticated."
Queen Charlotte's swan wig was two years in the making.
Queen Charlotte is known for her extravagant wigs but none compared to the swan wig featured this season. The actress who plays the Queen, Golda Rosheuvel, told Refinery29 that the wig which included a motorised swan was two years in the making.
"[Erica Ökvist] had the idea of making a wig with some kind of motorised thing in it. She had that idea at the beginning of season two. It took two years for all the different departments to be involved and for the powers that be to actually sign off on it for the actual design and creation and storytelling," Rosheuval said.
"It's very light because the mechanism was on my thigh — the motor was on my thigh... I think if the motor had been inside the wig, I think it would have been heavy. Those were the kind of talks that they were having for two years. How they were going to get the motor in the wig? Was it going to be in the wig? Was it going to be somewhere in the costume? I was very lucky [with what they came up with]."
For Rosheuvel, she felt proud of how her Black hair was incorporated into Queen Charlotte's hair designs.
"It was the first time that I had been in conversation with a head of a department of that calibre — or anybody — discussing the fact that she was going to incorporate my own hair into the looks and that it was very important for her to deal with different Black textures to really celebrate my Blackness through the wigs of Queen Charlotte," noted Rosheuvel.
"Nobody had ever had those conversations with me as an artist, a Black artist."
Cressida's expanding sleeves were to reflect a 'caged bird'.
Cressida Cowper's fashion has always been a little offbeat but this season, some may have noticed her sleeves got out of control. And this was an intentional choice. Showrunner Jess Brownell told Vanity Fair as recapped by TikToker @catquinn that her sleeves were to represent the character feeling like a caged bird.
"I know the real reason Cressida’s sleeves are so big in Bridgerton season three," she said.
@catquinn Cressida Cowper's look in Bridgerton season 3 changes, with oversized sleeves that emphasize her birdlike fragility. Costume designer John Glaser and hair and makeup designer Erika Okvist tell me about Jessica Madsen's new wardrobe, hair, and makeup and what it says about her mean girl character. #bridgerton #bridgertonseason3 #bridgerton3 #cressidacowper #jessicamadsen #creloise ♬ Bridgerton - The Harmony Group
"Costume designer John Glaser said that they wanted Cressida to look a bit like a caged bird. We see her in these over-the-top sleeves, juxtaposed with her home, making her look incredibly vulnerable like a caged bird inside a mausoleum," she explained.
"Knowing the way that Cressida has been a bully to Penelope through these seasons, it really feels like the costume department is working overtime to take her from this frosty, untouchable ice queen, to this fragile bird who wants to break free."
They're sipping real tea in the scenes.
In a deeply British twist, the cast is drinking actual tea during the many scenes when the families sit around, sipping tea. The crew makes massive gallons of PG Tips or Tetley tea so that the actors have something enjoyable to sip throughout scenes. The pots of tea are also surrounded by actual biscuits, including homemade madeleines plus lavender and rose biscuits.
Ummm, wtaf.
Okay, petition to join the show as the ninth Bridgerton sibling starts now.
Feature image: Netflix.
This article was originally published on May 22, 2024 and has since been updated with new information.
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