Colin & Penelope’s Mirror Scene Has Bridgerton Fans Swooning

Move over, Mirror of Erised — the most famous looking glass in the United Kingdom is now the one in Colin and Penelope’s Bridgerton bedroom. Spoilers ahead for Bridgerton Season 3.

While the couple’s eventful carriage ride in the first half of Bridgerton Season 3 had fans swooning, the mirror scene in Part 2 (which dropped June 13) was always going to be the main event. For the uninitiated: In Julia Quinn’s Romancing Mister Bridgerton, Colin and Penelope are about to sleep together for the first time when Colin has an inspired idea. “I want to see you sitting up, so I can see them full and lovely and large. And then I want to crawl behind you and cup you. And I want to do it in front of a mirror,” he says.

This vision doesn’t actually transpire in the book (“Later,” he promises), but fans got to see it come to fruition in Episode 5.

“You are the cleverest, bravest woman I have ever known,” Colin tells Penelope as they watch themselves in the mirror, tracing her body as he goes. “You make me feel seen in ways I have never felt seen before. And then there is the way your hair cascades down your shoulder, the way your eyes shine when you look at me like two blue pools. The firmness of your lips parted just so. The softness of your skin. And then there are... other parts I’ve been dreaming about.”

After a literal bosom-heaving moment, the pair embrace each other for a passionate kiss, during which Colin directs Penelope to the mirror, where he helps her disrobe for the first time.

As showrunner Jess Brownell told Vanity Fair upon Part 2’s release, the ensuing scene connects to the final moments of the season, which reveal Colin and Penelope are parents to a little boy, who’s not much younger than her nieces.

“We do live in perpetual spring in the first three seasons of Bridgerton, so what is time? But in our minds, they probably got pregnant in the mirror scene,” Brownell told the magazine. “So when you get to Season 4, and you see them, it won’t be so crazy that they already have their baby.” Quite an eventful tryst!

A New Perspective

Fans quickly reacted to the sultry scene in the wee hours of the morning Part 2’s release. Several viewers on X (formerly Twitter) praised the way Colin helped Penelope see just how beautiful she really is. “Colin taking Penelope to the mirror and describing how beautiful she is inside out has altered my brain chemistry,” wrote one fan.

“It’s Colin, who shows Pen how perfect she is. And it’s Pen, who rediscovers herself and her worth through the eyes of the man who loves her for the woman she is,” commented another.

Polin’s Refreshing Love Scene

After spending some quality time in front of the mirror, Colin and Penelope moved their party to the daybed. Viewers couldn’t be more pleased with the love scene, particularly the way Colin and Penelope were able to laugh and check in with each other throughout.

“It really felt like a real first experience with the uncertainty, the awkwardness & the giggling,” one fan noted. “You felt like it was two people discovering something for the first time. So beautifully done.”

Similarly, another celebrated “the compliments, the reassurance, the way he made it personal.... the confidence he gave her,” describing the encounter as a “beautiful first time.”