Showrunner Jess Brownell Answers Every Question About the Bridgerton Season 3, Part 1, Finale

Liam Daniel/Netflix

With new showrunner Jess Brownell at the helm, Bridgerton season 3 has delivered—and then some—on all the romance, drama, and beautiful costumes we’ve come to expect from the Netflix series. And we’ve only seen part 1! We still have more Bridgerton episodes coming in less than a month. (June 13, to be exact.)

But let’s back up and recap the incredible Bridgerton season 3, part 1, finale: Lord Debling (Sam Phillips) is technically still in the picture for Penelope (Nicola Coughlan), but by the end of the episode—titled “Old Friends”—it seems he’s on his way to becoming a distant memory. He’s the perfect suitor for Penelope, but nothing can compete with the passion she feels for Colin (Luke Newton). Of course, even as Colin witnesses Lord Debling charming Pen, he still goes off to have a threesome with some random women…. At least he admits his enthusiasm is elsewhere and, wow, how things will change within the next 35 minutes.

And when Lord Debling asks for permission to marry Pen, she’s still unsure. “Oh, do not tell me you are holding out for love,” her mother, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker), says. “This is the very reason why I discouraged you from reading. Love is make-believe. It is only in your storybooks. Do you know what is romantic? Security. Be smart, Penelope.”

Meanwhile, an angsty Colin wants to stay home for the evening…that is, until his mother shares that Lord Debling might propose to Penelope later that evening. When Colin thinks about Penelope and that time she took care of his hand injury, the memory is apparently enough to prompt him to get up and stop her from accepting Lord Debling’s proposal. He’s so motivated he even declines his friends’ invitation to skip the ball and go out drinking. Colin is undeterred; he’s off to find his girl.

While Lord Debling and Pen dance, she asks about his work schedule and if it will allow for their love to grow. He says he doesn’t know—but he’s glad she already has a full life. And then, you-know-who interrupts. “Colin, you are going to ruin things between me and Lord Debling,” Pen says, annoyed. “Well, perhaps that is for the best,” he counters. “Pen, you cannot marry him. You hardly know him.”

Now, with less than 14 minutes left in the part 1 finale, Penelope tells Colin she’s going to accept Lord Debling's proposal. But when Colin says he won’t stand by and watch Pen make a mistake, she says the only mistake was ever asking for his help in the first place. Oooh, the tension.

Pen runs off to find Lord Debling—who had excused himself so she could talk to Colin—but he says he now knows why she sits in the drawing room window: Because it’s directly across from the Bridgerton house. “Colin Bridgerton would never ever have feelings for me,” she replies. “We are friends, nothing more.” When Lord Debling asks if she would like it to be more, she stutters. Lord Debling tells her that it’s essential that he be with someone whose affections are not already engaged elsewhere given how much time he’ll be gone on his travels. And with that, they are done.

Lady Featherington is not pleased, which only makes Pen feel worse. She runs outside and gets into a carriage. Colin, hot on the pursuit, manages to stop her carriage and hops in. He asks if Lord Debling proposed, to which Pen scoffs. When he—meaning Colin—wanted to help find her a husband, she didn’t realize that also meant he might try to deny her one as well. He says it’s his business because he cares about her. “You cannot marry that man,” he says. “He is…just not right for you, Pen.” Penelope says Lord Debling decided not to propose because of Colin. “The scene you caused led him to believe you have feelings for me,” she says. Of course, she adds, the idea is preposterous so Colin needs to leave her alone.

“What if I did have feelings for you?” Colin replies. Pen is stunned. He then gets on his knee in front of her and says he’s had “a total inability to stop thinking about you. About that kiss. Feelings like dreaming of you when I’m asleep. And in fact preferring sleep because that is where I might find you.” Oh, my. He continues, “A feeling that is like torture, but one in which I cannot, will not, do not want to give up.” Pen urges him to stop saying things he does not mean, but he says on the contrary, “It is everything I have wanted to say to you…for weeks.”

With that, we start hearing the orchestra play “Give Me Everything,” which it’s on. “But Colin…we are friends,” Penelope says. Colin starts to take that as rejection until she finishes, “But I’d very much like to be more than friends. So much more.” And then…off they go!

Colin looks in shock, which is both sweet and hilarious, while Pen takes charge. It’s nice to see, especially as she feels true pleasure for the first time. It’s a spectacularly romantic moment between the two, which should make long-awaited #Polin fans giddy with delight.

But then a knock at the carriage door stops these two in their tracks: They’ve already arrived at the Bridgerton house. Colin wishes the driver would keep going, which makes them both break out in laughter. He then lifts up Penelope’s dress strap and gets out of the carriage. She thinks he’s leaving, but he asks if she’s coming with him. She’s taken aback. “Your family will see me…,” she stutters.

And then: “For God’s sake, Penelope Featherington, are you going to marry me or not?” Fade to black. Well, that went from 0 to 180 rather quickly. Then again, this is Bridgerton.

While we anxiously await the second batch of episodes, we hopped on a Zoom with showrunner Jess Brownell to talk Bridgerton season 3 and that finale. Grab some tea and scones, dearest gentle reader. You’ll be here for a while.

Glamour: Let’s start with the carriage scene in the last few minutes of the finale. Walk us through how it came together.

Jess Brownell: The carriage scene where Colin confesses that he sees Penelope in a different light is a moment in the book, though we’ve styled it a little bit differently. Andrew Ahn directed episode 304, and when we were talking about that scene, I had initially pictured it as Penelope and Colin sitting side by side. Logistically, that was hard to shoot. We just had this tiny carriage on a sound stage, actually. And so Andrew pitched staging it so they’re opposite one another.

By doing that, it forced Colin to move closer to Penelope and actually get on his knees to talk with her intimately. It became the perfect visual for Colin, who has ignored Penelope for so long. He literally has to get on his knees and beg for her now, which Penelope deserves at that moment.

How did you choose the orchestra version of Pitbull’s “Give Me Everything” for that much-anticipated scene?

Songwise, I—for better or worse—chose the Pitbull song that’s in that scene. It was on a track list that Justin Camps, our music supervisor, gave to me at the beginning of the season. I remember hearing it the first time and not immediately realizing that it was a Pitbull song but thinking, “Wow, this has the exact right build.” That moment needs to crescendo a huge amount because it’s the culmination of so many years of longing. We tried some other more low-key romantic tracks, but I think it needed Mr. Worldwide to bring it all together in that moment.

It was perfect. However, their happiness feels like it’s going to be short-lived since it has to come out that Colin will find out Penelope is Lady Whistledown. When might that reveal come in part 2?

Colin and Penelope can’t fully know each other until Penelope tells Colin this secret. In a season that is very much about Pen needing to embrace her authentic self, she’s going to have to tell him sooner rather than later. But as you can imagine, it will be a difficult secret for Colin to learn after everything she’s written. Colin’s also a burgeoning writer, so you can imagine there might be some simmering jealousy or envy that might come to the surface.

In the Bridgerton books, Colin is upset when he finds out about Lady Whistledown’s identity but he moves on relatively quickly. Based on what we’ve seen so far, it doesn’t seem like he’ll take it as well in the series. What can you preview about how he’ll react?

Yeah, I mean, our Whistledown has shot for the fences a little bit harder than book Whistledown because we’ve made more story out of that secret identity of Penelope’s. We’ve had her go after the Bridgertons at different points, so there’s quite a bit more for her to own up to, which changes the nature of the reveal.

Penelope and Eloise also aren’t in a good place, and understandably so. Is there any hope for them to come back from that this season, or is this going to take a lot longer?

Friendships, especially the ones made in childhood, often have a growing pain at some point or another. So the question for them is really whether they are friends who are going to be able to grow and mature in the same direction and come back together, or whether they are a friendship of convenience that was born from growing up next door to each other. There are a few extra obstacles other than just coming of age. In this case, there’s Penelope getting together with Eloise’s brother, and there is the fact that Pen has this giant Whistledown secret. So whether or not they will be able to survive that is up for grabs in the back half.

Speaking of friends, Colin and Penelope are different from any other couple we’ve had because they were friends first compared with Kate and Anthony, and Daphne and Simon. So how might any upcoming intimate scenes be different, since there is that familiarity, as well as awkwardness?

Without spoiling anything, there is obviously real depth between them and a real sense of care. As you can imagine, that will translate from their friendship to an intimate space. Something I’m excited about with the intimate scenes this season is that there’s a playfulness and a lot of laughter in those scenes. It’s a portrayal that I think needs to take up space on television because we have so many portrayals of passion and longing and torture; it’s important to balance that out by showing that sex can be really tender and it can be really comfortable. I’m thrilled to have been able to do that.

Let’s talk about Kate and Anthony. We happily see a lot of them in the first couple episodes, but then they’re not as present in the next two. Will we get back to them in the second half of the season?

Yeah, we are going a little bit deeper with them in the back half. Episode 301 is really about their love bubble and things just being easy. It’s not to say that things are difficult necessarily in the back half, but we’re seeing how they make decisions together as a couple and delving into how supportive they are of each other when new situations arise.

Will we get more sex scenes with them?

I will say you get more sexy scenes with them, which is to say that anytime those two are in a scene together, I think it’s incredibly sexy because they do have incredible chemistry.

Moving on to Violet Bridgerton, there seems to be an attraction with Lady Danbury’s brother, Marcus. And he tells Violet that he doesn’t intend to give up on a love match. What can you preview there?

We had this incredible backstory from Queen Charlotte, so it got us as writers really excited to carry that into season three and to continue to develop more about Lady Danbury’s backstory. Bringing Marcus in was a way to do that, and creating this friction between him and Lady Bridgerton also keeps Danbury connected to the Bridgertons. As far as the romance that is bubbling between Violet and Marcus, I think Marcus is smart in knowing that Violet needs to move very slowly. So I would say the pace will continue to move slowly, but that’s not to say that there aren’t some sparks and some real chemistry between those two.

What about John and Francesca? How serious might their budding relationship be?

The relationship between John and Francesca is one I was really excited about writing because it is such a different type of relationship from the ones we’re used to having on this show. And in a very nonhierarchical way, we wanted to portray that love based on companionship, friendship, and respect is valid. It might not be the type of passionate love other characters on the show have had, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t something really special there. We’re going to continue to develop that in the back half.

And what about Benedict and Lady Arnold?

As far as Benedict’s connection with Lady Arnold, there’s more to come in the back half. I think Benedict’s really enjoying his time with her. He has a lot to learn from her in terms of how to blend his unconventional self with the conventional one who is beholden to society.

Not to leave out the youngest Bridgerton sibling, but we see Gregory with a sling on his arm. Was that an injury that actually happened to Will Tilston, the actor who plays him, and you just wrote it in?

Weirdly, no, it didn’t happen to Will. We just liked the idea that he’s a cheeky kid who is adventurous and had climbed up onto the roof. It gave him some really fun business to play.

What were some of the most challenging scenes to either write or film this season with the Bridgerton cast?

The balls are always tricky, and this season they were trickier than ever. Especially the full-moon ball in episode 302 because a lot happens there, so much so that we had to split up the action into three separate adjoining ballrooms so that it didn’t feel like we were stuck in one space the entire time. I realized that as a writer and story breaker, I tend to love stories where all of the action comes to a head all at once, which is fun but difficult for production. So I have to pull back from it later in the season.

What scenes in the first half were you most excited for fans to finally see?

There are so many parts from the first half that I love from a fan perspective. But at the moment, I will say I love pairing characters together who either haven’t been together before or who are in an unexpected pairing. One of my favorite scenes is the one where Penelope and Francesca connect on the wall in episode 1. We realized writing that scene that in so many ways, they’re very similar people, so giving them a chance to be friendly was nice. I also love all the awkward comedy and banter that Nicola portrays with Penelope trying to step out of the shadows this season, like that moment where she’s trying to talk to suitors and we’re intercutting with Eloise, who’s trying to talk to debutantes. It’s heartbreaking in a lot of ways because you can feel the pull they still have to each other. I loved writing the Eloise-Penelope story as a romantic breakup in certain ways because friendship breakups can be very impactful.

What about any Easter eggs in the first four Bridgerton season 3 episodes?

I tried to approach every episode with a very tight theme. So every episode obviously has a story theme, but often the Whistledown theme is connected to the story theme as is the ball theme. So episode 1 is really about transformation and change. Whistledown is about transformation and change. The ball that Lady Danbury throws is a four-seasons ball, which speaks to changing seasons. And then costume designer John Glaser designed all the costumes after that theme using ombré colors, which suggests a transformation of color. We tried to do something like that in every episode. There are also a lot of butterflies throughout the season, which is very important to the Featheringtons. You’ll see them all throughout the sets and the costumes.

Finally, what can you tease about part 2?

The tension in the back half ramps up double-time to the tension in the first half. If I were watching it as a fan, I would want to watch them all in one sitting. I’m biased, but I want to rewatch them. Our artisans and craftspeople and department heads on this show did such incredible work, so every time you watch, there’s something new to feast on. Producing these episodes is like making eight small movies, so it’s nice to roll them out more slowly in two parts and let people savor them.

Jessica Radloff is the Glamour senior West Coast editor and author of the NYT best-selling book The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series.

Originally Appeared on Glamour