“They Better Get the Mirror Scene Right”: ‘Bridgerton’ Showrunner Jess Brownell Knew the Heat Was On for Colin and Penelope’s First Sex Scene

Romance fans might have endured a tortuously long wait for Bridgerton Season 3 Part 2 to land on Netflix, but the Shondaland show wasted no time following up last month’s iconic “Carriage Scene” with the incredibly hot “Mirror Scene.” Oh, yes, Bridgerton Season 3 not only gave us a sex scene that starts with Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) worshipping Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) in front of a mirror, but it arrives fifteen minutes into Bridgerton Season 3 Part 2!

**Spoilers for Bridgerton Season 3 Episode 5 “Tick Tock,” now streaming on Netflix**

If you poll fans of Julia Quinn’s book Romancing Mister Bridgerton — aka the inspiration for Bridgerton Season 3 — chances are they’ll tell you their favorite scenes are the “Carriage Scene” and “Mirror Scene.” The irony is the “Mirror Scene” doesn’t actually exist.

“I’ve seen a couple of fans being like, ‘They better get the mirror scene right.’ And I’m like, ‘The mirror scene doesn’t exist. Like we made it up,'” Bridgerton Season 3 showrunner Jess Brownell told Decider over Zoom last month. She was referring to the fact that most fans take a saucy line from Colin and run with it in their imagination.

“In the book, the mirror scene is just one line that Colin makes in reference to wanting to do something in front of a mirror. But we did want to pay homage to it because we knew how much fans love that line.”

But how do Penelope and Colin even get to the mirror so quickly? Because Lady Portia Featherington (Polly Walker) learns of her daughter’s engagement via Lady Whistledown’s column. Lady Featherington is so irate about this, she assumes the worst of Penelope and the match. Colin, who has been emboldened by his brothers to express his true feelings for Pen, arrives at the Featheringtons’ home just in time to hear how little Pen’s mom thinks of her and he’s apoplectic.

“You know, I love the scene where Colin walks in on Lady Featherington dressing Penelope down and stands up for her, the way he does, and it just felt like the perfect moment to send them into a more intimate space,” Brownell said.

That intimate space? The apartments that Colin and Penelope are to move into after they are wed.

Colin explains that he brought Penelope to their starter home without a chaperone because he figured it’s okay to be alone if they’re engaged. Naturally, the happy couple’s enthusiasm for each other boils over into a simmering hot sex scene. But that all starts with Colin taking Penelope to a mirror so she could see for herself how remarkable she is.

He begins by complimenting her character before letting down her ginger hair and caressing her lips. When Colin mentions there are other parts of her that he’s been dreaming about, Penelope physically guides his hand into groping her. They are soon smooching and Colin warns that if Penelope wants him to stop, she must TELL him to stop! She says she does not want him to stop! (Consent is sexy!)

“So obviously ‘friends to lovers’ is the [Colin and Penelope] trope and within that trope, I feel like their passion has already been simmering underneath the surface for two seasons,” Brownell explained. “I think a sub-trope within ‘friends to lovers’ is this idea of ‘she fell first, he fell harder.'”

“The idea being that, you know, even though he just realized his feelings for Penelope at the end of Episode 2, I think they’ve always been there. So while I guess we get to the intimacy rather quickly between them, I would like to think that actually it’s been building for so long that it felt appropriate to us to go there more quickly.”

Soon Colin gets to work undoing the back of Penelope’s dress, letting her gown fall to the floor. He unlaces her corset, exposing her breasts. When Pen shyly covers up, he whispers, “Lie down.” And the two make love for the very first time on a couch in front of the mirror.

Besides being the means by which Colin and Penelope consummate their relationship, the “Mirror Scene” has a larger, metaphoric meaning for Bridgerton Season 3.

“For us, the mirror became a real central motif, not only in that intimacy scene, but across the season, representing the idea of two selves,” Brownell revealed to Decider. “There’s the self you show to the mirror or to the outside world and then there’s the true self.”

“Both Penelope and Colin have real personas when they enter this season, a fake self and a true self. And so that’s something that we were playing with and I think comes to play a little bit in the intimacy scene as well.”

As for the intimacy scene that follows, it’s a euphoric meeting of two souls madly in love. The only problem? Even stripped down, Penelope isn’t sharing every part of herself with her husband-to-be. Colin still doesn’t know she’s Lady Whistledown (even if he’s inadvertently made good on his vow to “ruin” her).