Secrets Threaten Bridgerton’s Match of the Season in Soapy Part 2 Trailer

Netflix’s Bridgerton has long been affectionately called an eighteenth-century revamp of Gossip Girl, and based on the new trailer released earlier today, the final four episodes of Season 3 seem likely to lean all the more into the kind of drama that’s been missing from the small screen after the original Gossip Girl came to a close.

What do you do when it seems like someone you know, someone you love, might be spilling your secrets to the world? What do you do if you are that someone, and keeping your influence and power comes at the cost of the love of the people you care about? But while the Gossip Girl that terrorized rich kids in New York seemed to have little in the way of motive, Bridgerton‘s own Gossip Girl spreads scandal not out of bored intrigue, but because she’s discovered that weaponizing gossip can grant her agency and power that norms regarding her gender would otherwise bar her from even dreaming of.

“Polin” diehards rejoiced last month when the seasons-long slow-burn between Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) and Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) finally began to pick up speed—but this wouldn’t be Bridgerton if paradise came without its fair share of trouble. Penelope—and her best friend, Colin’s sister Eloise (Claudia Jessie)—knows something Colin does not: Penelope’s yearning was not the only secret she tried to keep from him, nor was it the biggest. Normally, Lady Whistledown would be all over the messiness of this latent drama, but this time, perhaps, she might hesitate before putting quill to ink, given that, for once, it would be her own secrets laid bare. Because, as audiences learned at the close of Bridgerton’s first season, and as Eloise discovered at the climax of the second, notorious high-society scandal author Lady Whistledown is none other than a pseudonym for Eloise’s own best friend Penelope Featherington. Meanwhile, Colin, who vowed in Part 1 of Season 3 to unmask Whistledown at all costs, remains blissfully unaware of any of this.

The trailer for Part 2 lays out the expected stakes that follow Season 3 Episode 4’s proposal heard ’round the world: Colin’s surprise betrothal to Penelope sends ripples throughout the gossip-hungry upper circles of eighteenth century London while Penelope desperately attempts to keep her Whistledown-sized secret from her years-long crush-turned-husband-to-be, and Eloise bristles at the thought of her brother remaining in the dark, causing the rift between these two best friends to stretch even wider. These four episodes will serve as a culmination not only of the season that began in May, but of series-long threads and dynamics that audiences have been following for years: will Penelope finally find happiness, or will love with Colin come at the cost of her ability to follow her own dreams—or vice versa?

While the trailer certainly depicts this drama as the heart of the upcoming episodes, other stories will surely continue to unfold at its edges, such as Eloise’s new friendship with the impertinent new debutante Cressida Cowper (Jessica Madsden), or the quiet, developing bond between Francesca Bridgerton (Hannah Dodd) and the mysterious Earl of Kilmartin (Victor Alli). In other words, Bridgerton’s famed ensemble cast is sure to deliver in full force, even with the spotlight currently on Polin.

Bridgerton was created by Chris Van Dusen for Netflix, and based on Julia Quinn’s book series of the same name. Produced by shondaland, Bridgerton’s showrunner is Jess Brownell, and it is executive produced by Shonda Rhimes, Betsy Beers, Tom Verica, and Van Dusen.

Watch the trailer below; Bridgerton Season 3 Part 2 premieres June 13th on Netflix. 

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