Bridgerton Season 3 Episode 6 Recap: Colin Discovers the Shocking Truth

The eight episodes of The Bridgerton Chronicles Season 3 is finally here, and although we had a bit of a wait between part one and part two thanks to Netflix releasing the season in two halves, the entire season is now available to stream worldwide.

Bridgerton Season 3 Recap

This season follows the romance between Penelope Featherington and Colin Bridgerton as their friendship blossoms into romance…and of course, it’s been far from easy for the couple. But if they finally found each other at the end of the first part, Lady Whistledown’s secret still looms and threatens to shatter their happiness…

Victor Alli as John Stirling, Hannah Dodd as Francesca Bridgerton in episode 306 of Bridgerton. — Lord Kilmartin and Francesca announce their engagement to the family. (Image credit: Liam Daniel/Netflix © 2024)

The fifth episode of season 3 opens with everyone wondering where their last Whistledown Journal is. With Cressida ‘confessing’ to being the perpetrator in Episode 5, Mayfair is now in short supply of gossip. Meanwhile, the real Lady Whistledown, Penelope, has gone into hiding after fainting and is desperately, but unsuccessfully, trying to write a new article.

Colin comes to Penelope, worried that she is sick, and she tries to hide her inky hands from him. As the two men talk about their love for each other, Lady Featherington does a very poor job of pretending that she isn’t listening to their every word. After the two discuss Cressida’s claims that it is Whistledown, Colin presents Penelope with his engagement ring, which she is delighted with… so delighted that she forgets her inky hands when he puts it on his finger. He questions her dirty hands and she claims she wrote letters to everyone informing them of their engagement and Colin seems to buy her lies.

At Cressida’s house, she is delighted when her father tells her that the elderly man she was supposed to marry has withdrawn his offer of marriage, but her good mood is soon spoiled when her angry father reveals that she is a disgrace to the family and will move to live with his aunt Jo in Wales. Her mother is more understanding, not believing for a moment that her daughter is Whistledown and trying to come up with a plan to make all this drama go away… but before she can come up with a plan, the Queen’s soldiers arrive and announce that the Queen Charlotte demanded that she come to the palace immediately.

As Lord Anderson calls to collect his hat from the Bridgerton House, it’s clear he’s there for more than picking up forgotten items and he flirts with Violet, who appreciates his attention. But soon she is distracted when Francesca and Lord Kilmartin announce that they are getting married. Everyone is happy and there is now a second wedding in the family to organize.

Adjoa Andoh as Lady Agatha Danbury, Daniel Francis as Lord Anderson in Bridgerton Episode 306

Colin and Eloise refer to Cressida as Whistledown and he asks if she knew that. At first, Eloise thinks he’s talking about Penelope and almost blows his cover, but she quickly resolves their issues and keeps Penelope’s secret when she realizes how heartbroken Colin would be if he found out the truth – and that she had also lied. for him all this time, as well as for Penelope.

Eloise goes to Penelope, who is still trying to write her next Whistledown article, and asks her to stop writing gossip and instead focus on her marriage to Colin. At first, Penelope is upset about giving up her life’s work, but she knows that Eloise is right and that she can’t have Wistledown and Colin in her life.

At the palace, Queen Charlotte meets Cressida and makes her understand that she does not believe for a single moment that she is Whistledown. The Queen tells Cressida that she will receive the £5,000 reward as soon as she publishes her next article… something she knows she can only do if she is truly Whistledown. Cressida panics, knowing she has her work cut out for her and her mother tells her that if she cements her Whistledown name by publishing a newspaper, then no one will marry her, to which Cressida points out that no one will marry her now .

Francesca and Lord Kilmartin are upset when Violet says they should wait to announce their engagement, knowing that the Queen will not be very happy, having decided to match Francesca with someone else. But the couple say that’s why they want to ask the Queen for her blessing, and they want Violet to speak to the monarch for them.

As the Featheringtons begin planning Penelope’s wedding, she hides in her room, claiming that she still doesn’t feel well, but she’s really brooding over the fact that she has to give up her Whistledown papers. But Portia goes to see her daughter and in a rare moment of warmth, she tells Penelope that she is lucky, that she is romantically involved with a very eligible man and that she should not take him for granted.

Luke Newton as Colin Bridgerton in Bridgerton episode 306

The next morning, at church, Colin and Penelope’s wedding rings are read and, to their great relief, no one opposes their wedding, which is to take place in three weeks. As everyone leaves the church, Colin and Penelope share a moment together, where Colin presses Penelope about what she wanted to talk to him about. But instead of confessing about Whistledown, she tells him that she’s been in love with him since the moment they met, and they dance, looking like the picture of happiness.

Outside the church, Lady Danbury, annoyed by her brother’s flirtation with Violet, attempts to set him up with another widow. Meanwhile, Eloise is shocked to see Cressida hovering and goes to talk to her. Knowing she has her work cut out for her impersonating Whistledown, Cressida asks Eloise to be her writing partner. However, secretly knowing that she is lying about being Whistledown, Eloise tells her no and that they are no longer friends.

That night, Penelope hides her writings under her floorboards and burns her collection of Lady Whistledown’s papers, deciding to put this part of her life aside so she can focus on her marriage to Colin. But in a sad reminder of what she gives up for marriage, we then see Colin in contrast happily writing his travel memoir.

Under Lady Danbury’s leadership, Mr. and Mrs. Mondrich throw a ball and invite the Queen, while Penelope sets about wedding planning. But things are still going badly for Cressida who is struggling to write her first Whistledown. Her mother tells her that her father has taken away her dowry and that they therefore need this £5,000 from the Queen more than ever to secure her a husband from the continent or the countryside.

Benedict, who is clearly falling in love with Lady Tilley Arnold, agrees to meet a friend of his called Paul for dinner that evening. He asks Benedict about his interests and when they later go for a cigarette, Benedict asks him why he and Lady Arnold have never been a couple if they are such good friends. Paul implies that he is more interested in Benedict than Tilley, and soon the friends ask Benedict to join them upstairs, an idea which shocks him, and he rushes out.

At the Mondrich Ball, the Queen seems disappointed with the whole evening until she unveils a stunning floral centerpiece and soon the mood improves when Queen Charlotte shows her appreciation. But soon the drama of the evening escalates when Cressida arrives uninvited and brings with her an announcement from Whistledown telling everyone that a new paper is imminent. Soon, Eloise panics and Penelope is forced to usher her out of the room, while Queen Charlotte is quietly impressed and tells Cressida that she is looking forward to tomorrow’s edition of the newspaper.

Meanwhile, Francesca asks her mother to speak to the Queen right away, but she refuses, telling her daughter that now is not the time. Francesca notes his reluctance to speak to the monarch and tells him that she loves Lord Kilmartin and that although this is not the marriage her mother wanted for her, she intends to marry him.

Violet leaves the ball upset and Lord Anderson chases after her, only to be stopped in his tracks by Lady Danbury and we finally find out why the siblings have been fighting all this time. Lord Anderson thought it was because he was the family favorite, being the eldest son, but Lady Danbury reveals it was because he ruined her chances of happiness by telling their father she was trying to run away the night before her wedding.

Jessica Madsen as Cressida Cowper in Bridgerton episode 306

Eloise tells Penelope that they created a monster in Cressida and she can’t believe she wrote something coherent. She tells Penelope that Cressida now has almost as much power over the ton as the Queen and that she has once again put her entire family in danger by inviting her into her family home.

Worried, they come up with a plan where Penelope will write another article in which she will discredit Cressida and end her power. But as Penelope writes it in haste and takes it to her printers in disguise and under the cover of darkness, Colin catches her in the act and finally the penny drops that she is Lady Whistlesown. Let the fallout begin!

All episodes of The Bridgerton Chronicles season 3 is now available on Netflix.