Caroline Turner, Opinions Editor 

Please note that the following article contains spoilers from Bridgerton Season 4. 

Dearest Gentle Readers: 

There is a difference between a name and a voice—and the showrunners for Netflix’s Bridgerton seem to have forgotten that. 

I, like many viewers, have fallen in love with Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton Series and the Netflix adaptation that brings her characters to life. While the series is known for its romance and drama, what truly sets it apart is Lady Whistledown. She is not just the narrator offering commentary as the wallflower of the ton, but an active individual who shapes the world of the show, influencing reputations, relationships, and the way characters and audiences interpret events. 

As someone who has watched all that Netflix has adapted and read through the first four novels of the series, I will admit that I was nervous about Netflix’s choice to reveal Penelope Featherington, now Bridgerton, as the woman behind Lady Whistledown’s Society Papers so early in the timeline. While Penelope is revealed as the Whistledown in the books, the reveal ends the Whistledown column once and for all. Book Penelope hangs up her quill as the ton’s gossip writer and works toward her goal of being a novelist. 

Watching through the most recent season, I was glad to see the ways that the show was following along with this plot for Penelope and that they had found a way for her to remove herself from the expectations and weight of being Whistledown. In the books, Whistledown ceases to exist, and the world continues. I was pleased that they seemed to find a way to stay true to Quinn’s text despite the differences in the timelines between the page and the screen. 

That is, until the end of the final episode of season 4, in which the familiar voice of Whistledown returns, with a slight change in tone. As the new Whistledown writes at the end of the season, they are a “very different author.” 

I am not going to say that they’ve ruined the show by changing this fragment of the story. Plenty of adaptations I enjoy make changes from the source material. But it does feel difficult to place the voice and importance of Whistledown as an institution in the hands of a new writer with unknown experience and positioning in society. 

I’m not questioning the skill, but the perspective. Lady Whistledown’s Society Papers always carried weight because they were grounded in Penelope’s perspective as someone both within and, simultaneously, on the fringes of society. That perspective was what helped Whistledown’s gossip sheets thrive, as Penelope notes in the season herself. Since she is no longer anonymous, she’s unable to observe and write how she had in previous seasons. 

I’ve had enough conversations with friends and seen enough commentary online to know that we’re all guessing who the new Whistledown is—Hyacinth, Eloise, Varley, Alice Mondrich, Brimsley, Colin, Posy, Cressida. Honestly, I’ve seen almost every character in the Bridgerton universe listed as a guess for the new Whistledown somewhere, but they all feel wrong to me. 

I think it’s less that the guesses feel wrong and more that I feel like we might not have needed a new Whistledown in the series. I didn’t view Whistledown as a device to move the plot forward, but to help reflect the views of the ton and help get the audience acquainted with Regency-era expectations. 

I’m not going to stop watching the show; if anything, I’m more curious as to how the entire thing will pan out. Will the new Whistledown say anything of importance? Or will the critique of the wallflower be lost in the shuffle of the excitement of a new “fun” author? 

I suppose I’m going to have to wait, just like the people of the ton, for a new season of fun. Bridgerton has been confirmed for its fifth and sixth seasons, with a projected release in 2027 or 2028.