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Dear gentle readers: If you thought you’d seen the end of Lady Whistledown, think again. After Penelope Bridgerton (Nicole Coughlan) puts down her pen midway through Season 4, a mysterious new Lady Whistledown rises to take her place for an explosive finale. Even Penelope and her husband Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) are shocked by the development, with a fresh column handed out in Mayfair promising “a lot of fun”.

Read on to learn why Penelope ends her column and who picked up Mrs. Whistledown’s pen.

Why did Penelope retire from Lady Whistledown?

Since being exposed as the secret scribe in season 3, Penelope has struggled to maintain the freedom and creativity of her original column. Some Tong members desperately want her to cover up their gossip, while others with truly scandalous plots avoid her like the plague.

“Like you, I will always believe in the power of gossip,” Penelope tells Queen Charlotte (Golda Rochevel) in episode six. “But since I became publicly known, there has been a change. The power I have over the Tong is too strong.” It doesn’t help that the reveal of her identity coincided with her marriage into one of the Tong’s most formidable families. “I’m no longer a wallflower or an outsider,” she says. “I’m Bridgerton, and I’m honored to be able to visit the Queen. Whistledown takes up so much space that it’s impossible to tell good, true, unbiased gossip.”

For showrunner Jess Brownell, this development made sense for Season 3’s leading lady. “Penelope has grown tremendously over the last season. She’s no longer this helpless girl who needs Whistledown to get her voice back,” Brownell said. “While she is all for the belief that gossip is information and that gossip is the power of the voiceless, she realized it was time to step down from that role.”

Before ending her column forever, Penelope (now a charming Bridgerton who regularly meets the Queen) looks meaningfully into the mirror. For a moment, she looks at the wallflower she once saw and smiles at her former self.

When will Penelope retire from Lady Whistledown?

At Cressida’s (Jessica Madsen) first ball as the new Lady Penwood, Penelope breaks the news of her retirement in true Whistledown fashion. Create a fuss by handing out pamphlets to all party attendees. To the Queen’s final delight, the announcement would overshadow Cressida’s pink festivities. But no whistledown also means Penelope’s former bully and blackmailer, Cressida, is spared an embarrassing article about the queen skipping the ball.

Penelope retires after witnessing the pain her job at Whistledown causes. In episode 5, Lord Hiscox’s (Kai Brigden) mistress Virginia (Francesca Lara Gordon) confronts Penelope for writing about their affair. Penelope intended to write a column to remind Lord Hiscox to be cautious. But for Virginia, the story ruined her carefully laid plans for financial stability. Virginia tells Penelope that Mrs. Whistledown’s reports have made the speculative gossip about her very “real” and destructive. Immediately after this conversation, Penelope goes to the Queen to discuss the end of Whistledown.

“Whistledown works for all people in the same way this palace does for you: it keeps them locked up, watched and scrutinized,” she told Queen Charlotte. “If you know what it feels like to be so confined, wouldn’t it be fun to just allow them to live their lives the way they want, without fear?”In episode 8, for the first time throughout season 4, Queen Charlotte is the narrator instead of Whistledown.

Is Lady Whistledown gone forever?

The ending of Lady Whistledown doesn’t last long. In the climactic Season 4 finale, Whistledown returns to a new original author. “Maybe you’re a little shocked?” asks the new Whistledown, voiced by the legendary Julie Andrews. “You would have thought I was gone forever, but too much has happened for this writer to remain silent. It is certainly a reunion rooted in compassion and love, albeit with a very different writer this time.”

Who is the new Lady Whistledown?

Director Tom Verica and host Alison Hammond swap some theories about the new Whistledown Bridgerton: Official Podcast. Verika jokingly suggests that they are the Crabtrees, a down-to-earth elderly couple who run My Cottage, where Season 4’s protagonist Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson) falls in love with the resourceful maid Sophie Bek (Yerin Ha). Hammond theorizes that Penelope faked her resignation in order to regain her anonymity as a rebooted columnist.

Although Brownell cannot reveal the identity of the new author, she is excited about the new Whistledown, especially since this development is not part of Julia Quinn’s original book series. “Penelope was Julia Quinn’s whistle-down, so I thought I couldn’t play around with that reveal for too long because people would just Google it,” she says. “But now we can meet the audience’s expectations.”

The new Whistledown also offers new opportunities to explore more of Mayfair’s working women. “Starting with the modest Genevieve in Season 1, and then looking at Penelope as Lady Whistledown and Sophie as the maid, it’s really important for us to explore the lives of working women, because it was a time when women had very few options and very little agency,” she says. “It broadens the experience of women on this show by showing that there are women who are not just satisfied with what they are given, but have done their best to further their status.”

Who has been installed as the new Lady Whistledown? And what will be different this time? Check out Tudum and watch again. bridgerton Season 4 until the series resumed with Season 5.