One Reason Why Colin Will Have a Long Redemption Arc in Bridgerton Season 3
The character has not yet realized that he has done something wrong.
Summary
- Season 3 will focus on developing the Polin arc.
- Colin doesn't understand that he has hurt Penelope on so many levels.
- He has to suffer for a while to get their love story off to a fair start.
By now, every Bridgerton fan should know that the upcoming third season of the popular Netflix period drama will revolve around Colin and Penelope redefining their relationship and falling in love. While this doesn't align with the order of Julia Quinn's novels on which the show is based, this narrative makes perfect sense, as the two characters had a very dramatic moment at the end of Season 2.
At the ball hosted by Portia Featherington, Penelope inadvertently overheard Colin laughing at the idea of him ever courting her. Since Pen had an unrequited crush on the third Bridgerton son, his words deeply hurt her feelings and she decided to cut him out of her life. However, since Colin was unaware of this, he didn't really understand why Penelope was ignoring him.
As the trailer for Season 3 shows, Penelope will open his eyes to the problem and they will work things out and eventually fall in love. But there's a very serious reason why it shouldn't happen too soon.
Realization and Remorse
Sure, Colin might feel sorry as soon as Penelope tells him about the day, and remorse might even keep him up at night. Then he would simply apologize to Penelope and make up with her. But it's crucial that he understands why she was so offended by his words.
While Penelope's crush on Colin may play a role, it's not really the main reason why his mockery hurt her so much. As Pen says in the trailer, in her third year on the marriage market, she's considered a spinster with little to no chance of finding a suitor. And Colin's words about her may have hurt her prospects even more.
What Colin doesn't seem to understand is that the Bridgertons are a very influential family, which means that their words and opinions carry weight. For this reason, Colin's comments about Penelope not only affected her view of him, but also affected other people's views of her and warded off potential suitors.
Atonement
In this light, Colin deserves to feel unrequited love for Penelope and to pine for her as penance for his wrongdoing. He must experience some suffering for their love story to be fair. Otherwise, it would appear that he simply changed his mind when he saw how beautiful she was and condescended to court her.
In other words, Colin has to understand that his words not only hurt Penelope personally, who had a crush on him, but also damaged her socially. And an appropriate amount of pain on his part will be a perfect price to pay for the mistake.