Does Colin Find Out Penelope is Lady Whistledown? [Spoiler]

The third season of Netflix’s ‘Bridgerton‘ focuses on Colin and Penelope’s romance, finally giving the wallflower a chance to bloom. However, like every love story on the show, some hurdles prevent the couple from having a happy ending. For Simon and Daphne, it was his desire to end his lineage with himself; for Kate and Anthony, it was the forbidden nature of their love, stemming from some very poor decisions made by both of them.

In the case of Colin and Penelope, it is Penelope’s alter ego, Lady Whistledown, who casts a dark shadow on their future, especially after all the trouble the writings of Lady Whistledown have stirred up for the Bridgerton family. Considering how it ruined her lifelong friendship with Eloise, Penelope will want to keep it a secret from Colin, but she knows better than anyone else that the truth eventually comes out. SPOILERS AHEAD

Colin’s Discovery of Lady Whistledown is Inevitable

In the first episode itself, the third season of ‘Bridgerton’ makes it a point to put Colin at complete odds with Lady Whistledown if he wasn’t already. He goes as far as to say that he will ruin her whenever he figures out who she is. His hatred for the gossip columnist isn’t unfounded. She has been writing about him and his family for a while. When Daphne came out to society, Whistledown closely reported on every development in her and Simon’s relationship. She also outed Marina’s pregnancy, leaving Colin heartbroken, though saving him from a marriage that would never have made him happy. Then Whistledown turned towards Eloise, dragging her name through the mud, for her new friendship with Theo. To top off all that, she irked Colin by writing about him and how he is nothing more than his charm.

Meanwhile, Penelope seems in no rush to drop Whistledown. If anything, she comes back at it with unreserved fervor, especially after Colin’s comment about never courting Penelope. Dropping all hopes of ever ending up with the man she loves, Penelope decides to be reasonable and find a match that will not only give her the peaceful life she wants but also give her the freedom to keep writing as Whistledown.

BOOK SPOILERS AHEAD

In the book, Penelope decides to drop Lady Whistledown for good, but not after a lot of drama happens around it. In ‘Romancing Mr. Bridgerton,’ Lady Danbury calls for a competition to figure out Lady Whistledown’s identity, offering a thousand pounds to anyone who comes forward with an answer. Interestingly, Colin is the first one to figure out Penelope’s secret. At first, he suspects Eloise, but when he shares this concern with Penelope, the conversation veers in a completely different direction.

Later, Colin notices Penelope heading in the direction of the town unchaperoned. He follows her out of concern and curiosity, only to discover she is delivering her last Whistledown paper. Unlike in the show, the books don’t have Colin in conflict with Whistledown, so instead of being angry at Penelope for writing all those things about his family, he reprimands her in general, but again, the argument turns into a completely different direction, and they end up making out in the carriage, following which Colin proposes to Penelope. The show changes the timeline and brings this scene before Colin’s discovery to raise the stakes for the couple.

As impossible as it might seem for Colin to look past Penelope as Lady Whistledown, he eventually not only makes peace with it but even expresses his jealousy. One of the things that he has, unknowingly, in common with Penelope is a flair for writing, something she compliments him on when she reads his travel journal. At this point in his life, Colin is still looking for a purpose and discovering how Penelope turned her identity as Lady Whistledown into something that not only allowed her to pursue her passion but also to make a lot of money by it impresses him and increases his respect for her.

However, the show is less likely to take this turn. The thing that the series might pick up on from the book is the blackmail that Penelope faces when Cressida Cowper discovers her secret. In the book, she demands ten thousand pounds in return for keeping her mouth shut. It is Colin who figures out that it would be better for the secret to be out for good and announces it at a ball at the Hastings House. The show could take a similar route and help Colin see the importance of Lady Whistledown for Penelope and how all the things she wrote were with good intentions. The crisis on her reputation might also help the couple set aside their differences. Moreover, Colin’s support of Penelope’s writing is one of the greater things about their relationship in the book, and the show would want to replicate that, even though it currently remains a conflict too big to be resolved peacefully.

Read More: Do Colin Bridgerton and Penelope Featherington Get Together in Bridgerton?