‘Bridgerton’ Season 3 Part 2’s Best Change From the Books? Cressida Cowper’s “Desperate” Lady Whistledown Announcement

Bridgerton Season 3 Episode 5 “Tick Tock” ends with Cressida Cowper (Jessica Madsen) once again taking the wind out of poor Penelope Featherington’s (Nicola Coughlan) sails. However, for once, Cressida wasn’t acting out of cruelty, but pure self-preservation. Netflix’s adaptation of Julia Quinn’s beloved Bridgerton novels imagines a more nuanced reason for Cressida’s big Lady Whistledown gambit and, in doing so, makes Cressida all the more fascinating…

**Spoilers for Bridgerton Season 3 Part 2, now streaming on Netflix**

Bridgerton Season 3 Part 2 opens with Penelope Featherington enjoying the bliss of her sudden engagement to long time love, Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton). However, there is one small problem with her happily ever after. As Eloise (Claudia Jessie) points out, Colin has no idea that Pen is Lady Whistledown.

Penelope’s problem only becomes more dire when Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) announces she is offering a reward to anyone who identifies Lady Whistledown. Cressida Cowper, who is staring down a bleak future as the wife of an old conservative friend of her father’s, decides to claim the reward for herself.

“You would like to know who Lady Whistledown is?” Cressida announces at Penelope and Colin’s engagement party. “I am she.”

With that shocking statement at the end of Bridgerton Season 3 Episode 5 “Tick Tock” on Netflix, Cressida Cowper not only puts a damper on long-time rival Pen’s happy news, but inadvertently steals her life’s work. In Julia Quinn’s Romancing Mister Bridgerton, Cressida does this as she does everything, for cruel, mercenary reasons. However, in Netflix’s Bridgerton, Cressida’s actions are that of a scared girl.

“I think it is so desperate, you know?” Bridgerton star Jessica Madsen told Decider over Zoom. “She doesn’t have options. She has this idea of what life could be if she could get out and escape and is like, ‘This is my ticket out. Oh, my God!'”

In the lead up to Cressida’s impulsive declaration, we watch as she eagerly listens to members of the ton describe the wealth and freedom that the infamous Lady Whistledown must have.

“You know, she’s sat there and she’s listening to everyone say like all of these things and she’s like, ‘That’s exactly what I want!'” Madsen said. “And I love her confidence for that, you know? Like, I love how confident she is and she goes for it and then we see it sort of set in where she’s like, ‘Oh, God, what have I done?'”

Bridgerton Season 3 showrunner Jess Brownell explained to Decider that one of the reasons she wanted to bring Cressida to the “forefront” this season had to do with the fact that “she’s always been a part of Penelope’s story.” We’ve not only seen her positioned as Pen’s primary bully, but she plays a key part in Penelope’s book. Brownell saw the opportunity to say more about the Regency world with Cressida on the show.

“I love deepening a villain character and understanding why villains are the way they are,” Brownell said. “I think, in general, especially in the Regency world, in which women are granted such little agency and power, I think it misses the point to one-dimensionalize any woman and classify them as a villain.”

“To be a villain as a woman in that time period? They were all victims and vulnerable in the time period in so many ways that it just seems unfair to villain-ize Cressida in that way.”

As Bridgerton fans soon learn, Cressida’s gambit has serious consequences. The Queen doubts that Cressida has the wit to be Lady Whistledown and demands a new issue to prove she is the author. Naturally, Cressida struggles. Her mother (Joanna Bobin) finds her daughter in the nursery — because, as Cressida explains, there is no desk in her room! — and we see a panicked Cressida tell her mother she’s scared.

“It was really great to be able to see their relationship develop,” Madsen said, noting that the Cowpers are “quite stiff” and have “English energy” that has hitherto kept them from being close. “You can’t imagine them having a real big hug.”

Cressida’s mother comes to her rescue, helping her pen a passable note from “Lady Whistledown.”

“We see them connect in a way that’s as good as they could get, I think, between them,” Madsen said. “And she helps her out, you know? She comes and she saves her with that one.”

Brownell emphasized that it was “really important” to give Cressida this additional context, “to understand that her ‘mean girl’ stuff comes from a deeper place.”

Madsen concurred. “I do hope that people hold on to what we’ve seen in the first half and understand that she wasn’t left with an awful lot of choice in navigating it. You know, she tries to cheat the queen, she had to do all of these things and she doesn’t really understand the weight of what she’s doing or the reality of what she’s doing. She has such a naivety.”

Cressida Cowper: secret good girl?