'Bridgerton' Season 3 Has a Conflict That Keeps on Giving

There's nothing small or easily overcome about Penelope being Whistledown.

*Spoiler warning for all three seasons of Bridgerton.

What makes a good romance? Everyone has their own opinions. Enemies-to-lovers. Friends-to-lovers. The indefinable chemistry. But watching the brand new season of Netflix’s Bridgerton, I couldn’t help but notice that whatever central conflict the couple is facing has got to be among the top factors. What do I mean by this?

Well, let’s take a look at Bridgerton through the seasons. In season 1, the main challenge to Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) and the Duke (Regé-Jean Page) is that the Duke doesn’t want to have children so that he can spite his father by ending his family line, and also that he has not been honest about this fact to Daphne. In this way, the conflict is rather flimsy. It mainly consists of the Duke having to get over himself, stop being petty, and also to learn to actually communicate with his wife. As a viewer, I was rolling my eyes and yelling that he should forget this dumb vow he made to not have children and just choose happiness.

In season 2, the issue at hand was a little more believable, but no less flimsy, silly even. Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) began the marriage season declaring that he would marry the most eligible bachelorette, and leave emotion out of it. Given what we’d already seen of Anthony, this bullheadedness was well in character. On the other side of this equation, Kate (Simone Ashley) arrived in London with one goal in mind – to get her sister, Edwina (Charithra Chandran), wed.

Both of them clung to these preconceived notions even as it was made clear that they were in love with each other, and should abandon this plot for Anthony to wed Edwina. Once again here, the call was coming from inside the house. Anthony and Kate had to acknowledge their true feelings, find some maturity, and learn to communicate (are you sensing a theme?).

While I’m sure the debate over the best season of Bridgerton will rage on, and probably there are plenty of viewers for whom this one is not their cup of tea, there is one way in which season 3 reigns supreme, and that is that there is nothing small or shallow about its conflict. In fact, it’s damn substantial. A conflict that you truly wonder how the couple will make it through. I speak, of course, of the fact that Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) is secretly Lady Whistledown, the Gossip Girl-style columnist that has been publishing all of the ton’s drama for two seasons straight.

There’s a lot of layers to this particular problem. Penelope loves Colin (Luke Newton), but can she manage to reveal this massive secret to him? If she doesn’t, is she okay with starting a marriage based on lies? And what if she doesn’t tell him and he finds out some other way? Meanwhile, Colin has every right to be upset about Pen being Whistledown, given that Whistledown has written very cruel things, including about him and his family. Not to mention the fact that Pen’s been lying to him all this time. And once he does know, and maybe starts to accept it, there comes the question of whether she will continue to write her column once they’re married. Again, you can see why Colin would want her to stop writing, but for Pen, it’s a part of her, and she loves it, and she’s good at it.

All this would be enough to fuel plenty of drama, but they also have outside forces working against them. Colin’s sister Eloise (Claudia Jessie), who knows Pen’s secret, is threatening to tell him. The Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) herself is on a mission to unmask the columnist, and is willing to pay to get it. This, eventually, leads to the threat of Cressida Cowper (Jessica Madsen) as, in a last ditch effort to avoid her father’s (Dominic Coleman) sinister plans to banish her, she blackmails Penelope.

Unlike the previous two seasons where the whole of the conflict came from within the couple itself, here, there are external challenges that our couple has to overcome. Sure they have work to do on themselves. Penelope has to be honest with Colin, and also has to realize that she hasn’t always used her powers as Whistledown for good.

Colin needs to recognize that Penelope started her column because she had no power and no voice, not because she was trying to be cruel. He has to come to terms with his own privileges as a man, and to appreciate, and not envy, his wife’s incredible writing talent, and that this is a part of Penelope, indistinguishable from the rest of her. That’s a lot of delicious character-work to sink into! Unlike our seasons 1 and 2 couples, it’s not just that they need to stop being dumb, they need to really work on themselves.

Also, personally, I like that there are battles they have to win that aren’t only internal. A lot of times, a good love story is about the outside forces keeping a couple apart or from being happy. In this case, Eloise, then the Queen, and, finally, Cressida, endanger Colin and Penelope’s entire future. Penelope beats Cressida by demonstrating that she has learned her lesson about honesty. By outing herself as Whistledown, to the Queen no less, she takes away Cressida’s power.

It was such a relief this season to have a real, substantial conflict to luxuriate in. Penelope being Whistledown is huge, monumental, seismic, and the shockwaves of drama reverberated throughout the entire season. No longer was I just waiting for the main couple to find some maturity. There was actual work to be done here. It ultimately made the entire season – and the romance – a lot more satisfying.