- Netflix’s Bridgerton Season 3 shines a spotlight on the underappreciated Featherington family dynamic.
- The show fleshes out characters like Portia and the sisters, adding depth and heartwarming storylines.
- Season 3 brings Penelope and Portia closer, highlighting their complex mother-daughter relationship in an unexpected way.
As Bridgerton revolves around the siblings of the titular family, the show boasts another storyline that turns out to be more heartwarming and poignant than we could ever have imagined in Season 3. The Featherington household’s drama has been churning on the back burner for the past two seasons, throwing out a fan-favorite character as well as some severely underappreciated ones. Season 3 reserves more screen time for the Featheringtons, gradually bringing their flourishing dynamics to the forefront and delivering an unexpected scene in the finale between mother and daughter. Considering these characters were barely even in Julia Quinn’s novels of the same name, Netflix has done a dazzling job with fleshing out their characterizations and motivations, allowing them to thrive in this jam-packed season.
The Featherington Storyline Is Sparse in the ‘Bridgerton’ Books
The Bridgerton novels kept the Featherington family on the sidelines, with only Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) making any real traction in the story. Though their story was sparse, Netflix has managed to weed out important details of their characters and create a lively background for them to thrive in the series. The entire inheritance plot and the family’s financial difficulties are non-existent in the book, with Lord Featherington still being alive and kicking, though he is not really involved in the storyline. There is no inheritance scheme in which Phillipa (Harriet Cains) and Prudence (Bessie Carter) are pitted against each other in a race to become pregnant with a son, a race that Penelope ultimately wins in the series. This race becomes the source of comedy for Bridgerton Season 3, resulting in the invaluable discussion around how intimacy is performed, which also leads to Portia’s (Polly Walker) increasing frustrations and worries. As such, in the books Portia is not concerned with the family’s finances like in the series, and instead, is simply another caricature of a Regency mother prowling the marriage mart for acceptable suitors who would be willing to marry her daughters.
While the Netflix series fortunately gives more attention to the Featherington storyline, it also removes an entire sister from the Featherington family tree. In Quinn’s novels, Penelope also has a younger sister, Felicity, who would have been around Hyacinth Bridgerton’s (Florence Hunt) age. Felicity was integral to Penelope and Colin’s (Luke Newton) love story, as Portia had initially set up Felicity to be married to Colin. Like in the series, Portia had written Penelope off as a lone spinster who would grow up taking care of her mother, and thus, her maternal efforts were poured into Felicity’s eligibility. However, when Colin comes over to ask for Penelope’s hand in marriage, Portia accepts, eager to have any association with the respected Bridgerton name at all, especially since her older daughters had already been married off. Interestingly, one was to Season 1’s Nigel Berbrooke (Jamie Beamish), though he was more irritating in the books rather than the slimy character he was in the series.
Portia Featherington Is Given a Backstory in Netflix’s ‘Bridgerton’
One of the major deviations from the Featheringtons in the book is the characterization and backstory of Portia, the matriarch of the household. In a series filled with powerful women and inspiring matriarchs, Portia is often forgotten and underappreciated, mainly because of how much she is villainized in the earlier seasons. Season 3 finally softens her story, allowing her cold and calculating demeanor to drift into the territory of grit, determination and resourcefulness. She finally gets the recognition and sympathy she deserves in this season, as Penelope finally realizes that for all her mother’s wile and cunning, she had good intentions.
The novels never really allowed this fierce quality to enter the character of Portia, as she was reduced to just another overbearing mother trying to achieve higher status and social regard through advantageous marriages for her daughter. Her character never really extends beyond this archetype, even when she finds herself in a rivalry with another lady over a maid in the books, a subplot that simply cements her interest in trivial social quarrels. Our beloved Netflix character, however, does not have a husband to financially support her, and we discover that the husband she did once have wasn’t able to either. It is her singular conniving efforts that allowed the Featheringtons to stave off poverty and retain any social standing in the ton, allowing them to be eligible for a decent marriage. Though her methods were less than savory, she was critically resourceful, managing to single-handedly sustain her family while navigating the restrictions placed on women at the time. As such, her shady dealings with Cousin Jack (Rupert Young) don’t seem as bad, especially since she had manipulated her way into removing his tyranny from their lives.
Penelope and Portia relationship in the books does not really extend past the initial neglect that is established, as Portia dismisses her daughter and is simply pleasantly surprised when she discovers Colin’s interest in her. By expanding Portia’s characterization, the series also delivers one of the most heartfelt and satisfying scenes of Season 3. Throughout the show, Portia’s immense efforts often go unnoticed by her daughters, who become more preoccupied with their own dramas or are content to just label Portia as despicable and let it be. This is particularly done by Penelope, who reveals she often feels voiceless in her household and thus adopts the nom de plume of Lady Whistledown and indulges in essentially venting about her family. With Portia ever worried about the family’s reputation, she constantly feels the pressure of Lady Whistledown’s quill, making for an interesting dynamic between the two on screen.
As such, when Penelope struggles with her secret identity as Lady Whistledown and eventually reveals it to her mother, their relationship finally comes to a head. While Portia is initially, and understandably, aghast that she would expose her family like that, especially after all the trials Portia has endured to keep them afloat, she eventually begins to respect Penelope’s power. This leads to a heart-warming mother-daughter bonding moment as Portia divulges why she has done what she has done and the frustration she feels about being a woman in the rigid ton. Penelope identifies with this, as she had considered giving up her success and power as a writer in order to conform to her new role as a wife. Their newfound understanding is an inexplicably huge reward for the inane arguments that arose between the two throughout the show, becoming one of the most invaluable additions the showrunners could have added to Bridgerton.
‘Bridgerton’ Season 3 Also Highlights the Featherington Sisters
But it is not only their mother-daughter relationship that captures our hearts this season, but also the completely overlooked sisters that we had dismissed as superficial and irrelevant. Penelope’s sisters also received a makeover in the series, becoming far more cruel to Penelope, and thus accidentally smarter, than they were in the books. By giving the two sisters far more personality than they had in the novels, the show renders this aspect of the Featherington storyline heart-warming as well. Throughout Season 3, Prudence in particular becomes envious of the attention Portia was giving Penelope, slowly growing warmer to Penelope in hopes of returning to her mother’s good graces. As she is vying for her mother’s approval, we almost sympathize with her, considering it is the only approval she really has ever had, since she is also often ridiculed in the ton. The fact that they still reside in the Featherington manor, a detail that also deviated from the novel, emphasizes their dependency on Portia, both physically and emotionally, despite having husbands. As such, it is touching that Penelope recognizes this and funds an extravagant ball for them, nudging Portia’s attentions back to Prudence.
