How Did Cressida Uncover Whistledown? It’s A Bridgerton Plot Hole
I need a fact-check on this.
Spoilers ahead for Bridgerton Season 3. This season of Bridgerton was full of moments that fans had been eagerly waiting for: Colin and Penelope’s love story, Francesca’s introduction to Michaela Stirling, and the grand reveal of Lady Whistledown, to name a few. But there’s one serious plot hole that is causing chaos among the Bridgerton fandom, as audiences struggle to wrap their heads around how Cressida uncovered Lady Whistledown so effortlessly.
In Season 3, Episode 7, Cressida paid a visit to four print shops total before she found enough information to identify Penelope as the gossip columnist. At the time, Cressida wasn’t even trying to find Whistledown — she just wanted to be paid for her faux Whistledown column. After she asked the worker if Whistledown had been printed there, he got chatty.
“You’re not her, though, are you? I’ve always wanted to meet her,” he told Cressida. “My boss at the last place I worked used to print for her. Said that she was a redhead, though.” At that point, Cressida continued to ask him questions, trying to figure out what else he knew, as the scene faded.
Later, Cressida confronted Penelope with what she knew. But fans were still lost. It was shockingly easy for Cressida to get all that information — she literally stumbled into it without any concerted effort — but Queen Charlotte, with all of her resources, had been attempting (and failing) to uncovering Whistledown for two whole seasons.
Fans of the show did not buy it, calling it “lazy writing.” Another questioned, “What were the Queen’s men doing?” On Reddit, one fan went so far as to say the plot hole made them “check out of the season.”
On X, fans were quick to point out how the discovery didn’t work, considering the show’s ongoing plot about how the queen has been trying to uncover the gossip columnist. “how Cressida got that easily infos about lady whistledown just by knocking at the printers discredits all the storytelling about the queen not being able to discover who she is,” one tweeted.
“Queen Charlotte is the QUEEN couldn’t she just go to the printers and demand they tell her who whistledown is ???? hello @ Bridgerton ??” another tweeted.
Here’s hoping Bridgerton Season 4 answers these questions.
