Dearest Gentle Reader: If you think you’ve seen the last of Lady Whistledown, think again. After Penelope Bridgerton (Nicole Coughlan) puts down the pen midway through Season 4, a new, mysterious Lady Whistledown steps up to take her place in the explosive finale. Even Penelope and her husband, Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton), are left shocked by the development, as a fresh column is distributed across Mayfair promising “so much fun” ahead.
Keep reading to learn why Penelope ends her column — and who may have picked up Lady Whistledown’s pen.
Since being outed as the surreptitious scribe in Season 3, Penelope has struggled to maintain the freedom and creativity of her original column. Some members of the ton are desperate for her to cover their gossip, while others — those with truly scandalous intrigue — avoid her like the plague.
“Like you, I will always believe in the power of gossip,” Penelope tells Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) in Episode 6. “But since I have become known publicly, there has been a change. The power I hold over the ton is too great.” It doesn’t help that her identity reveal coincided with her marrying into one of the ton’s most formidable families. “I’m no longer a wallflower, an outsider,” she says. “I am a Bridgerton. I’m privileged to visit the queen. Whistledown takes up a space which makes it impossible to deliver good, true, fair gossip.”
To showrunner Jess Brownell, this development was only natural for the Season 3 leading lady. “Penelope went through such a giant growth arc last season. She’s not the powerless girl who needs Whistledown to take back her voice anymore,” Brownell says. “While she stands by everything she believes about gossip being information, gossip being power for the voiceless, she realizes that it’s time for her to stop being in that role.”
Before ending the column forever, Penelope — now a glamorous Bridgerton who regularly meets with the queen — has a meaningful look in the mirror. For a moment, she sees the wallflower she once was in the reflection, and smiles at her former self.
PHOTO BY LIAM DANIEL
At Cressida’s (Jessica Madsen) first ball as the newly minted Lady Penwood, Penelope delivers the news of her retirement in true Whistledown fashion: by dishing out pamphlets to all the partygoers and causing quite the stir. Much to the queen’s eventual glee, the announcement eclipses Cressida’s pink fete. But no Whistledown also means that Cressida, Penelope’s former bully and blackmailer, will be spared an embarrassing write-up about the queen skipping her ball.
Penelope’s retirement arrives after her having witnessed the pain that Whistledown’s work can incur. In Episode 5, Virginia (Francesca Lara Gordon), the mistress of Lord Hiscox (Cai Brigden), confronts Penelope for writing about their affair. Penelope intended the column as a reminder to Lord Hiscox to be discreet. But, for Virginia, the story destroyed her carefully laid plans for financial security. Virginia tells Penelope that coverage by Lady Whistledown turned speculative gossip about her into something very “real” and ruinous. Soon after this conversation, Penelope goes to the queen to discuss the end of Whistledown.
“For everyone in the ton, Whistledown functions just as this palace does for you. It keeps them trapped, watched, scrutinized,” she tells Queen Charlotte. “Knowing what it feels like to be so confined, would it not be pleasant to allow them to simply live their lives the way they wish? Without fear?” For the first time in all four seasons, Queen Charlotte commands the voice-over of Episode 8, instead of Whistledown.
The end of Lady Whistledown only lasts so long: In the climactic Season 4 finale, Whistledown returns — under new authorship. “Are you perhaps feeling a little shock?” asks the new Whistledown, still voiced by legend Julie Andrews. “You thought I was gone for good, but far too much transpires for this author to remain silent. It is assuredly a reunion rooted in care and love. Though this time with a very different author.”
Director Tom Verica and host Alison Hammond exchange a few theories about the new Whistledown on Bridgerton: The Official Podcast. Verica jokingly suggests it’s the Crabtrees, the pragmatic old couple who run My Cottage, where Season 4’s leading man, Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson), falls in love with the resourceful maid Sophie Baek (Yerin Ha). Hammond theorizes that Penelope faked her retirement to reclaim her anonymity as this rebooted version of the columnist. Watch the cast guess who the next Lady Whistledown is on Tudum.
While Brownell can’t reveal the new author’s identity, she is excited about the new Whistledown, particularly since this twist is not a part of Julia Quinn’s original book series: “Penelope was Julia Quinn’s Whistledown, so we knew we couldn’t really play with that reveal for too long because people could just Google it,” she says. “But now, we get to play with audience expectations.”
The new Whistledown also presents another opportunity to explore more of Mayfair’s working women. “Starting with Genevieve, the modiste in Season 1, to Penelope as Lady Whistledown, and now looking at Sophie as a maid, it’s really key for us to explore the lives of these women who do work, because it’s a time period in which women had so few options and so little agency,” she says. “Showing that there were women who didn’t just settle for what was handed to them, but tried their very best to make more of their station, it broadens the female experience in the show.”
Who has taken the mantle as the new Lady Whistledown, and what will be different this time? Stay tuned to Tudum to find out, and rewatch Bridgerton Season 4 until the series returns with Season 5.
