Bridgerton Season 4 Hits 39.7 Million Views As “Far Too Much Transpires” For A New Lady Whistledown

Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) begins Season 4 navigating married life with Colin while managing the pressure of her secret identity as Lady Whistledown. Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel), who had used Whistledown’s dispatches as a tool of social control, now has a more complex relationship with the column’s author — knowing her true identity from Season 3.

A key Part 2 moment comes when Virginia, a woman whose affair was exposed in a Whistledown column, confronts Penelope directly about the consequences. This forces Penelope to reckon with the human cost of her anonymous writing — not just its power. Showrunner Jess Brownell described Penelope’s decision: “While she stands by everything she believes about gossip being information, gossip being power for the voiceless, she realizes that it’s time for her to stop being in that role.”

Penelope formally retires Lady Whistledown at Cressida’s first ball as Lady Penwood, delivering the announcement in a final Whistledown-style dispatch — giving the column a public farewell before shifting focus to writing a book under her own name. The source novel’s character page on Julia Quinn’s site provides the full book context for Penelope’s arc.

Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell) and Lord Marcus Anderson (Daniel Francis) agree to marry in Part 2. In the finale, however, Violet realises she needs more time before entering another marriage. Marcus expresses a desire to build a life together but doubts Violet shares the same readiness — and the two part ways, at least for now.

Her decision is framed as a need to rediscover herself outside the roles of mother and wife — not a rejection of the relationship itself. The show handles it without melodrama, giving Violet a quieter but coherent arc through the season’s final episodes.

Violet’s storyline also connects to a broader theme running through Season 4: women in Regency society exercising agency through means that fall outside social convention. The British Library’s research on women writers and anonymity in the Romantic era offers real historical context for how women in this period navigated identity and self-expression — context that sits behind both Violet’s and Penelope’s storylines.

With Penelope’s retirement confirmed and Queen Charlotte’s reluctant approval secured, a new Lady Whistledown column appears in the Season 4 finale — narrated by Julie Andrews in a noticeably altered vocal performance. Showrunner Jess Brownell confirmed Andrews changed her delivery deliberately to reflect the new writer’s different personality.

Jess Brownell told Entertainment Weekly: “We thought, what better way to create a genuine mystery around Whistledown than to hand it to someone new? Shonda and I have an idea of who Whistledown is, and that’s the direction we’re writing towards.” The new Whistledown, per Brownell, will operate “a little bit messier” than Penelope — and without the same principled motivation.

Crucially, in Julia Quinn’s novels, there is no successor to Penelope as Whistledown. This is entirely a show-original addition. Penelope herself is shown reading the new column in shock — unaware a replacement had already begun writing. The new columnist’s identity is set to be a central mystery in Season 5. Fans of long-form serialised storytelling might also find Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning’s approach to serialisation a useful point of comparison.