Colin Needed To Be A Villain In Bridgerton Season 2 For Him To Truly Deserve Penelope Featherington

Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) might be the romantic hero of Bridgerton season 3, but in Bridgerton season 2, Colin has a few moments to appear like a villain in the story. As the third Bridgerton son in a wealthy Regency Era family, Colin is a little bit lost in the first two seasons of the show. He does not have the same level of responsibility as Anthony (Jonathan Bailey), but he does have the same earnest belief in true love that his mother (Ruth Gemmell) does.

Colin is seen as fun-loving and a bit of a jokester. He teases his siblings, enjoys the snacks at tea-time, and has something of a penchant for gossip himself when it comes to the ballroom scenes of the season. As Colin gets a little more fleshed out as a character in season 2, however, the audience gets to see him less as the comic relief of the show and more as a romantic hero as he helps Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan), but he also shows off a somewhat more villainous side.

Colin Bridgerton’s Season 2 Visit To Marina Crane Is Harsh

Colin Wants To Be The Hero Here

It might be unfair to call Colin Bridgerton a straight-up villain in season 2. After all, he is instrumental in getting cousin Jack out of the Featherington home. It’s also clear that he cares deeply for those around him. He has moments, however, where a more villainous side slips out. Those moments both concern his love interests in the series - Marina and Penelope.

When Colin goes to visit Marina in season 2, it’s a brief visit. The aim is to give himself closure and make sure that Marina is okay after the debacle of their courtship in season 1. He is still angry that she did not tell him the truth about her pregnancy, and it seems like he still holds a kind of responsibility for her. Colin needs to understand, not for Marina’s sake, but for his own guilt, that Marina is okay. Colin repeatedly asks Marina how she is doing and cannot understand her being content in a relationship without love.

In fact, Colin handles the entire situation poorly. Not only does he show up at the house of the woman he thought he was going to marry the previous year unannounced, but he does it after treating her badly for trying to save herself in a society that would have completely shunned her. He also does not take her answers to be truthful because he cannot fathom her being happy now when she wanted to previously marry him for his kindness. Colin also overstays his welcome, just buddying up with her husband even though Marina is clearly uncomfortable with that.

Marina, rightly, gives him something of a reality check during his visit. She explains calmly and concisely that he has a very immature worldview and that he does not understand the life she lives. She also reminds him that he does not have to be her hero because her life is her responsibility, and Colin might come away with a measure of closure about their relationship, but he still does not entirely learn from the situation.

Cutouts of Benedict & Sophie and Colin & Penelope against a photo of Anthony & Kate in Bridgerton with sparkles.

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Colin Is Needlessly Cruel At The Featherington Ball

Colin Does Not Realize How His Words Could Hurt Penelope

Not in your wildest fantasies, Fife.

By the end of Bridgerton season 2, Colin has helped Penelope’s family get rid of Jack Featherington, believing he has uncovered Jack’s scheme to steal from the ton. He is Penelope’s hero for a few shining moments before he shatters her world in much the same way he barged into Marina’s. Penelope overhears other men at the Featherington ball teasing Colin about his relationship with Penelope. They joke about him courting her, and Colin quickly laughs it off to say, “Are you mad? I would never dream of courting Penelope Featherington. Not in your wildest fantasies, Fife.”

While fans who already know which Bridgerton ends up with which love interest can see this as a Colin in denial, there is more to it than that. Colin does not yet see Penelope as a viable romantic interest. She is his friend. As he has said before to her, she is “Pen, you do not count,” when it comes to things like swearing off women. Pen is, at this point in the show, essentially an extended member of the Bridgerton family.

Colin cannot see her in a romantic light just yet - even though Marina hints at their connection during his visit to her. Marina essentially gives Colin permission to transfer the focus of his hero complex to Penelope, who she knows is stuck in a toxic household, and who she knows has feelings for Colin. Colin is oblivious to Marina’s words, though he does help Penelope in one scene and then hurt her in his exchange with Lord Fife.

What makes the line particularly cutting and hard to dismiss is his addition of, “Not in your wildest fantasies, Fife.” That addition to his denial is not simply a case of a man protesting his feelings. It’s needlessly cruel. It demonstrates that Colin knows exactly how the other men in his social circle view Penelope. He might save Penelope from a greedy cousin or a bullying Cressida Cowper, and he might dance with her more than is considered socially acceptable, but he draws the line in Bridgerton season 2 at others implying he could court her.

Of course, Colin also says this because he wants to get the other men off his back. He wants to brush their words aside, head to the gentleman’s club, and have a few drinks. It does not occur to him that talking about Penelope this way would only cement her as undesirable in the minds of the other men and make it more difficult for her to get a husband still. It also does not occur to him, despite him being at a ball hosted by the Featherington family, that Penelope could hear him and be hurt by his words.

Colin Bridgerton is needlessly insensitive and cruel in season 2, but it is not his intention to come across as a villain.

Penelope Featherington writing over an image of her writings from the Bridgerton season 3 credits

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Violet Bridgerton Understands Her Son’s Flaws

Colin Does Not Understand Them Right Away

Luke Newton as Colin Bridgerton and Ruth Gemmell as Violet Bridgerton in Bridgerton season 3 episode 3 (2) — Ruth Gemmell as Violet Bridgerton in Bridgerton season 3 episode 3

Colin Bridgerton’s villainous moments in season 2 are underscored by his own mother identifying his fatal flaw in the story. She calls him her “most sensitive child,” and she also remarks that he does so much for others that he often forgets to do things for himself. On the one hand, Violet does not initially see how his heroic actions towards others are actually born out of Colin’s need to be needed, but she also is not wrong in her assessment of him.

Even in the first season, in which Colin is not a focus of the story, he is seen entertaining his younger siblings, teasingly including Eloise in situations he should not, helping Anthony prepare for a duel, saving Penelope from Cressida’s cruelties, and helping his drunk mother up the stairs after a ball. Colin is exceedingly helpful and wants so badly for everyone around him to see him that way. It’s part of the reason he feels so betrayed by Marina - she uses his eagerness to be a hero against him.

Violet recognizes that Colin has a hero complex, even if she does not know the modern phrase. Violet’s recognition of that comes before Colin decides to essentially turn himself inside out between seasons 2 and 3 to better fit in with the idea of who society thinks he should be. He still holds onto that hero complex despite his seeming personality change at the start of season 3, which is why he attempts to teach Penelope how to get a suitor and make up for his cruel words the season before.

Colin, however, does not realize that he has this intense need to be a hero until he finds out that Lady Whistledown and Penelope Featherington are the same person.

Colin’s Flaws Help Him Grow

Overcoming His Flaws Helps Colin Become A Romantic Hero

Penelope is the one who helps him realize he does not have to be a hero in order to be loved...

When Bridgerton begins, Colin has a very immature take on the world around him. He does not understand why Anthony would not want him to marry Marina. He thinks simply a dance around a ball will get rid of Penelope’s bully problem. And in season 2, despite traveling in search of his purpose, he does not really grow at that point. Actor Luke Newton also acknowledged that in an interview with Glamour about the second season of the show:

I think, actually because it threw me off a bit, was the fact that he hadn’t had as much growth and self-discovery as I thought he would from traveling. I was really excited for him to come back and have this sort of revelation while he was away of what he wanted to do with his life. But actually he didn’t. He was almost stuck in this weird place.
After I spoke to [showrunner] Chris Van Dusen about it, it really excited me about the role because it was like, Right, you've missed a year of what everyone else has been doing, but in terms of Colin, nothing’s really changed. He’s been riddled with guilt and feels stuck in the same place. That was most exciting for me to be like, “Okay. I’m taking off exactly where we left the audience.” It was really fun to dive straight back in where we left off, really.

It takes his moments of supposed villainy, which are really more Colin simply being naive, for him to begin to grow up following season 2. Colin needs Marina’s reality check after he rudely barges back into her life. He needs Penelope to give him a reality check as well about how he treated her. More than that, Colin needs to see Penelope as a woman who can take care of herself and who can be an equal partner to him instead of someone who needs to be saved, which he does in season three after he sits with the Lady Whistledown revelation.

Colin even says to her in one of their arguments, “what good am I to you,” when she assures him that she can take care of herself in the working-class part of town. Colin has to reconcile the fact that as protective as he feels of Penelope and as much as he wants to take care of those around him, he does not have to. Penelope is the one who helps him realize he does not have to be a hero in order to be loved, which is precisely what helps him to become his version of a romantic hero in Bridgerton season 3.

A composite image of Benedict Bridgerton looking on wryly with Penelope and Colin standing side by side in the background from Bridgerton

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Colin Reflects A Bridgerton Pattern

Love Changes The Bridgerton Brothers

Hyacinth, Violet, Anthony, Colin, and Benedict standing together in Bridgerton

Colin’s villainous behavior and his missteps in Bridgerton season 2 reflect a pattern in the Bridgerton series. Each of the Bridgerton brothers has said and done things that could be considered “villainous” before they find the love of their life. They make some potentially scandalous decisions, bad remarks, and often do not realize the position of privilege in which they live before they fall in love with someone who helps them see the error of their ways.

In the first season, Anthony is wrapped up in his anger and the weight of his responsibilities. He is ready to marry Daphne off to a man who would have made her miserable if it meant quickly fulfilling his family obligations. He also had an affair with Sienna, an opera singer who was hoping to find a life of security with him, and then abandoned her for those same family obligations. If she was from the upper echelon of society, she would have been “ruined.”

In season 2, Anthony courted Edwina Sharma despite feeling a connection to her sister and continually put the Sharma sisters and himself in scandalous positions before giving in to his heart and marrying Kate instead. Once he marries Kate, season 3 sees Anthony as a much freer man. He does not have the same weight, he is open with his feelings, and he is not quite as quick to snap at others. Even when he makes remarks about Colin and Penelope’s engagement seeming sudden, he does not lecture him the same way he would have Daphne in the first season.

There is a similar lightness in Colin once he accepts his feelings for Penelope and asks her to marry him. He slips back into some darker behavior when his anger gets the better of him as he finds out she is really Lady Whistledown. But he takes his time, refuses to give up on his love for her, and works out why he is so angry. He accepts Penelope wholeheartedly as Lady Whistledown instead of continuing to judge her. His love for Penelope allows Colin to set those “villainous” tendencies aside.

It’s likely the show will see the same pattern emerge with Benedict Bridgerton as well. Benedict has led a life mostly free from responsibility as he explores his art and his sexuality. He has also been clear about loving that freedom and not being interested in settling down with a wife. In the novels, even when he meets Sophie, he makes some poor decisions regarding her that give him similar flaws to Colin and Anthony, not understanding the position he is putting Sophie in until he almost loses her.

Anthony, Benedict, and Colin all overcome their flaws - or learn to accept them - as they fall in love in the Bridgerton series.