‘Bridgerton’: Season 3 Will Focus on Penelope and Eloise’s Broken Friendship
Bridgerton is a worldwide hit. The Netflix series focuses on love, family, and romance. Season 3 will follow the romance between Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) and Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton). However, that won’t be the only relationship front and center.
Bridgerton Season 3 will also focus on the broken friendship between Penelope and Eloise Bridgerton (Claudia Jessie).
Eloise and Penelope’s friendship ended in ‘Bridgerton’ Season 2
At the end of Bridgerton Season 2, Eloise discovers that her best friend Penelope had been hiding a life-changing secret from her. After being under suspicion herself, Eloise discovered that Penelope is the person behind Lady Whistledown.
It would have been one thing for Penelope to hide that secret from Eloise. However, the break in their friendship resulted from Penelope (as Lady Whisledown) tarnishing Eloise’s reputation and the Bridgertons’ overall reputation.
It’s unlikely that things will be OK between the duo when Season 3 premieres.
Penelope and Eloise’s broken friendship could be central to Season 3
For the first two seasons of Bridgerton, Penelope and Eloise were two peas in a pod. Now that the pair are at odds, nothing will ever be the same. It’s likely that Penelope will be torn between her lifelong friendship with Eloise and the identity, power, and platform that she’s built with Lady Whistledown.
However, since the pair have been the show’s heartbeat in many ways, it will be important for the series to explore the fractures in their relationships and how female friendships can shift, crack, heal and break over time.
Bridgerton may choose to implement a time jump halfway through the third season to truly illustrate how that dynamic may shift and change.
Penelope could make a new friend in ‘Bridgerton’ Season 3
While Penelope and Eloise are on the outs, Penelope could be looking to further expand her role as Lady Whistledown, protect her identity and work on her self-esteem. After all, after she overheard Colin telling his friends she was the last person he’d ever seen in a romantic light, she had to reevaluate how she felt about him.
“She has Colin on such a pedestal, and she thinks he’s perfect,” Coughlan told E! News about Penelope. “He’s not. He’s just a human being. So she needs to stop thinking he’s perfect and appreciate herself more.”
Moreover, now that Eloise is no longer talking to her, Penelope will need a new confidant. It’s likely she will find companionship with Lady Tilley Arnold (Hannah New). Deadline reports that Lady Tilley is “a firebrand widow. Widowed at an early age, she enjoys the privileges and power that come with being at the helm of her former husband’s estate, living life on her own terms with financial independence and sexual freedom.”
