Summary
- The recently revealed episode titles for Bridgerton Season 3 suggest references to Julia Quinn's novel Romancing Mister Bridgerton.
- If most of them refer to the main romantic plot line, there's one that stands out and suggests a lot of drama in the second half of the season.
- With the knowledge of the book, we can theorize what exactly will happen and who will be to blame.
It's two and a half months until May 16th, when the first part of Bridgerton Season 3 will finally premiere. That means 11 weeks, 77 days, 1,848 hours and over 110K minutes of anxious waiting, obsessive speculation and passionate drooling over every detail of the beloved show for the massive Bridgerton fandom.
It's a good thing we have stuff to analyze and over-analyze, as the promo campaign for the story of Colin Bridgerton and Penelope Featherington has already launched. Among other teasers released in February, Netflix revealed the titles of the upcoming episodes, giving fans plenty of food for thought and discussion.
And it seems we already know which episode will be the most drama- and suspense-filled.
Episode Titles
Fans have noticed that many Bridgerton episode titles refer to the original Julia Quinn’s book series, and Season 3 will be no exception.
Part 1
- Episode 1: Out of the Shadows
- Episode 2: How Bright the Moon
- Episode 3: Forces of Nature
- Episode 4: Old Friends
Part 2
- Episode 5: Tick Tock
- Episode 6: Romancing Mister Bridgerton
- Episode 7: Joining of Hands
- Episode 8: Into the Light
While most of these phrases refer to the season's main romantic storyline, one stands out and leads us to believe that it will be related to the intense Lady Whistledown arc. It is episode 305, Tick Tock.
Chain of Thought
Knowledge of the fourth Julia Quinn book, Romancing Mister Bridgerton, and some logic allows us to speculate about what will happen in the fifth episode.
It is clear that the main conflict of the upcoming season will be everything related to Lady Whistledown's column. Now that Eloise knows who the enigmatic gossip writer is, it seems only a matter of time before she lets the cat out of the bag.
Most likely, she will not reveal Lady Whistledown to the ton, and even frustrated, will keep Pen's secret, but there are two details that are a recipe for drama.
First, after their rift, Eloise is set to replace Pen with a new friend. And we can assume that it will be Cressida Cowper, since Jessica Madsen, who plays her, and Eloise's Claudia Jessie are cozying up in the promo videos.
Second, in the book, Cressida acts as a real villain and terrorizes Penelope. At first, she decides to pose as Lady Whistledown for fame and money. But when Pen publishes a rebuttal, she finds out who really holds the quill and starts blackmailing her, forcing Colin, who is already Pen's husband, to take action and publicly expose his wife.
Tick Tock
These two facts lead us to believe that somewhere in the first part of the season, Eloise will unwittingly reveal Pen as Lady Whistledown to Cressida. She will probably let something slip in a conversation. Or maybe the sneaky new friend will overhear her talking to a family member.
In any case, it is likely that Cressida will decide to use the knowledge to her advantage, blackmailing Pen either for money or to leave Colin alone (it seems that Cressida may have a romantic interest in the third Bridgerton). That's why the episode is called Tick Tock, which is often used when you give someone a deadline to do something.
So rest assured that the beginning of Part 2 will be particularly dramatic and pivotal for our favorite characters. More than that, it is likely that Part 1 will end on some kind of exciting cliffhanger, such as Cressida discovering the identity of Lady Whistledown.
Will Colin and the other Bridgertons help Penelope out of this mess, as they did in the books? We'll have to wait and see. The titles suggest that the wedding (Joining of Hands) comes after the blackmail incident, so Pen will probably have to deal with it on her own.