BRIDGERTON has thrilled fans with it’s Gossip Girl style narrative.
Like the noughties teen drama, the Netflix show sees anonymous writer Lady Whistledown report on scandalous events involving members of the Ton (high society).
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Who is Lady Whistledown in Bridgerton?
WARNING: Contains MAJOR spoilers from season one of Bridgerton.
While Gossip Girl waited six season before being outed, Bridgerton did it a lot faster than that.
The identity of Lady Whistledown was revealed at the end of season one, episode eight.
The big reveal came in a flashback to Eloise Bridgerton thwarting Whistledown’s capture by the Queen – but in turn didn’t find out who she was herself.
But for us viewers she was revealed to be Penelope Featherington.
What were the clues about Lady Whistledown’s identity?
There were several clues which eagle-eyed viewers may have spotted, which aluded to Whistledown’s identity.
One of them was the access Penelope had to the Ton’s parties.
Due to her mother being a member of high society, she was invited to any ball and luncheon she wanted to go to.
Here she could scoop up all the gossip and pass it on to her readers.
This further aided to us working out her identity as she DID NOT report on the Queen’s luncheon.
In the first episode, we see Lady Danbury say: “Lady Whistledown only writes what she sees.”
We see this play out in episode 7 as the Featheringtons are frozen out of high-society events, including the Queen’s luncheon.
Before the Featheringtons are turned away, Eloise and Penelope have a brief exchange.
“Lady Whistledown has gone too far this time,” Eloise tells Penelope about their entangled family drama. Pen smiles faintly and says, “And I thought you her greatest admirer.”
Why was Lady Whistledown’s identity revealed earlier than in the books?
While Netflix’s Bridgerton stays true to the original book series in regards to the real identity of Lady Whistledown, the big reveal actually came a lot later in the books.
Penelope isn’t revealed as the gossip writer until the fourth novel, Romancing Mister Bridgerton.
Bridgerton creator Chris Van Dusen told Oprah magazine that the unveiling was done so soon as it “sets up future seasons in a really interesting way.”
Will there be a season 2 of Bridgerton?
Despite the show’s popularity, it has yet to be renewed for season two.
However, fans think it will be back as the show is based on a series of books – and is just the first one of eight.
Each book focuses on a different Bridgerton sibling, so with this in mind we could have SEVEN more seasons of the show.
