Bridgerton Season 3: Part 1 ending explained

Netflix's Bridgerton has delighted viewers with its latest season and we're desperate for the next lot of episodes to drop. While we wait, we explain the ins and outs of Bridgerton's season 3, part 1 ending. 

Bridgerton is back! Finally. We haven't been able to get the show out of our minds since Netflix teased the arrival of season three and the show has not disappointed - well, if you don't count the fact that we're still waiting for when season 3 part two will be released.  

While we wait after perhaps too eagerly making our way through season 3 part 1, excited to see Violet’s “garden blooming” after Ruth Gemmell gave us that wonderful teaser and turning our homes into regal havens with Regencycore interiors, many are wondering about the first part's ending. 

At the start of season 3, Penelope Featherington is feeling lonelier than ever, with her mother even suggesting that they'll spend their lives together as a sad, spinster-widow pair. She's having problems with her best friend, Eloise Bridgerton, and she's never even been kissed. But, by the end of the first lot of episodes, we've seen the secret writer do a complete 180.

Bridgerton Season 3: Part 1 ending explained 

At the end of Bridgerton season 3, part 1, Penelope's long-time crush Colin Bridgerton, played by Luke Newton, finally proposes to her after years of the couple's 'will they, won't they' storyline. The proposal left both the characters and their fans breathless as they spoke about their feelings towards one another in the back of a carriage, quickly cementing their love for each other with 'a romp' soundtracked by an orchestral version of Pitbull’s hit Give Me Everything.  

Speaking about the heartfelt moment, Nicola Coughlan who plays Penelope revealed to Netflix's Tadum, “It takes Penelope until the end of their conversation to go, ‘This guy really loves me. I think it’s a very slow process for which it can be and is in real life as well.” The couple's chemistry has even led fans to wonder if Nicola Coughlan and Luke Newton are together in real life.

However, the show's final episode ends before Penelope can answer Colin's plea, “For God’s sake, Penelope Featherington. Are you going to marry me or not?” Unfortunately, fans are going to have to wait for the new episodes to finally hear her answer - though we do have an idea of what to expect from season three thanks to the original novels. 

The cliffhanger is especially tantalising as, earlier that same night, Penelope was ready to marry Lord Debling whom Colin had set her up with at the beginning of the season. She is heartbroken when her ruins her near-engagement and fans are worried that Penelope could choose the stability offered by Debling over the love she feels for Colin.

But, rest your minds, as the showrunner Brownell isn't planning on Debling coming back to whisk Penelope away. “In the writers’ room, there were times where we were like, ‘Damn, we’re rooting for Debling,’ ” Brownell says. “But at the end of the day, Penelope wants love. She wants passion, and she has that with Colin in spades.” 

Speaking about the ending, Coughlan said, “We literally looked back at the script and we went, ‘Oh, that’s so good.' That’s so good because there’s so much you know is still to come.”