Bridgerton Season 3 Part 2 brought us Peneloise back! However, not everything was smooth sailing. Until reaching the final reconciliation, the emotional distance between the two became increasingly greater, and, just when everything seemed lost, the two understood that they could not lose each other. They are chosen family, so they both fight to find each other again. In this editorial, however, we will analyze Penelope and Eloise’s reasons behind their conflict. Ready?
Here we go!
The Secret That Makes the Difference in Bridgerton Season 3 Part 2
In Bridgerton Season 3 Part 2 Peneloise conflict takes one of the central focuses. It all starts when Eloise doesn’t take Polin’s engagement particularly well but…why? Eloise deserved more from Penelope — and Colin — after so many years of friendship, but in reality, it goes much deeper than that. Penelope hid from her the two most important things that were going on in her life: her identity as Lady Whistledown and her feelings for Colin.
Eloise may come to understand why Penelope kept Whistledown from her. She can understand that Penelope was afraid that her identity would be discovered and that by hiding everything from her, Penelope was somehow protecting her; but knowing that this secret was not the only one Penelope kept to herself destroys her.
One secret is something that Eloise can relativize and come to understand, but two? That makes a difference because these two things are the biggest things that are happening to Penelope, her best friend. And if her best friend doesn’t tell Eloise the biggest things that she is experiencing, that she is feeling, are they really friends?
Eloise thought she could count on Penelope beyond being spinsters together. Eloise always felt that Penelope understood her like no one else, including her own family. The Bridgerton family sees her as a woman who rebels against social conventions and has radical political ideas. But Eloise knows that they would like her to be more…conventional.
But Penelope… Eloise felt that she not only understood her but that she shared her way of thinking. Eloise felt more accepted and understood by Penelope than by her own family. She felt a special connection with her. With Penelope, Eloise could be herself without feeling judged or feeling like a weirdo, without feeling like the black sheep in a wonderfully perfect family.
The Power of a Wallflower in Bridgerton Season 3 Part 2
However, upon learning that Penelope was hiding everything important that was going on in her life, Eloise feels that the connection she had with Penelope was a one-way street. Penelope doesn’t understand her as she thought, she doesn’t know her as she thought, and she doesn’t trust her the way Eloise thought she did.
How could she if Penelope was hiding so much of herself from Eloise? Did Eloise meet the real Penelope or just the person she pretended to be to the world? At this point, Eloise isn’t even sure if the person she thought understood her more than anyone else exists. And this disappoints her and makes her question the very foundations of their friendship.
But is this true? Yes and, at the same time, no. Penelope didn’t hide her identity as Lady Whistledown from Eloise because she didn’t trust her to keep it secret, but because Whistledown was the only thing she could call hers. Ostracized and on the edge of society, being part of it but not belonging to it, Whistledown was the only voice Penelope found to be heard.
Penelope Featherington was an insignificant wallflower but Whistledown is powerful, she is the most admired writer in the entire Ton. And she is hers, Penelope built her from scratch. So it’s not about a lack of trust in Eloise, but rather that Penelope didn’t feel ready to share the only thing she has, the only thing that is truly hers, with anyone else.
The Survival Instinct as a Daily Mood
As for Penelope’s feelings for Colin, that’s more complicated. To understand why Penelope kept something so important about herself from Eloise, we have to be aware of the toxic environment in which Penelope was raised. The only thing Penelope knows is rejection. Her family always rejected her. She was never pretty, thin, or bold enough. She was never enough.
And, when Penelope confessed something important to them, the only thing she received in return was mocking. Case on point, when Portia and her sisters discovered the correspondence between Penelope and Colin in Bridgerton season 2, they made fun of her for thinking they were friends.
Penelope grew up with rejection and mocking as a constant in her life, and when that happens, you get the message that your thoughts and feelings will be ridiculed by anyone who knows them. If your family, the people who are supposed to always support you, make fun of you, what won’t others do? That is a deep emotional wound that doesn’t go away with time.
That being the case, the survival instinct causes you to become cautious and keep your deepest feelings and thoughts to yourself, to avoid being mocked. Somehow, this means that you can’t trust anyone to be yourself, but instead, you keep parts of yourself that you don’t show to anyone because you have fear of how they will be received. This is exactly what happens to Penelope.
Changing Perspective is the Key
Penelope is so used to being the object of ridicule when she shows herself as she is, that she learned that she couldn’t trust anyone with her most intimate secrets due to insecurity and fear that that anyone would use them against her, judging and mocking her.
The constant rejection of her family served to feed Penelope’s fear that, if someone knew her most intimate secrets, they would never accept her or love her, on the contrary, they would mock her.
Does this mean Penelope thinks Eloise would make fun of her feelings for Colin? Of course not. Penelope meets Eloise and she knows in her heart that Eloise would never do it but, after years of being rejected, it’s very difficult to trust that anything will be different.
Penelope learned, the hard way, that it was best to keep parts of her just for herself, where they were safe, because she couldn’t trust anyone to keep them that way. As a result, Penelope never allowed anyone to fully know her.
This became a reflex act, a survival instinct, which, when she grew up, was very difficult for Penelope to change. It was very difficult for Penelope to trust and understand that Eloise would never do something like that to her, that, with Eloise, she could be completely herself. And honestly, we can’t blame Penelope for feeling that way.
So, you see, both Penelope and Eloise have understandable reasons behind their feelings and actions and neither is completely right about what moves the other. Peneloise has always been one heart-to-heart talk away from truly repairing her friendship.
Eloise had to get out of her bubble and understand that not everyone has the luck and privileges that she has, thus putting herself in Penelope’s shoes to understand her point of view.
Penelope, for her part, had to fight to overcome all the years of rejection and mistreatment by her family to discover her own value and understand that she can fully trust Eloise to be herself and let Eloise know her completely, secrets included. We’re happy they finally did it!
Bridgerton season 3 Part 2 is available to stream on Netflix.
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CATCH UP ON ALL OUR SEASON THREE COVERAGE
REVIEWS
- EPISODE 1 REVIEW
- EPISODE 2 REVIEW
- EPISODE 3 REVIEW
- EPISODE 4 REVIEW
- EPISODE 5 REVIEW
- EPISODE 6 REVIEW
- EPISODE 7 REVIEW
- EPISODE 8 REVIEW
EDITORIALS
- PLUS-SIZE WOMAN PORTRAYAL
- MIRROR SCENE
- PENELOISE CONFLICT
- PLUS-SIZE WOMEN WOUNDS
- CRESSIDA
- QUEEN CHARLOTTE & BRIMSELY
- FRANCESCA REINTRODUCTION
- LORD DEBLING OR COLIN BRIDGERTON?
- LORD DEBLING
- BENOPHIE SEASON 4
INTERVIEWS
