‘Bridgerton’ Season 3 Part 1 Climaxes With Penelope and Colin’s Steamy Carriage Ride

Ever since Netflix announced that Bridgerton Season 3 would feature the romance of one Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) and Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan), fans of Julia Quinn’s Regency romance novel, Romancing Mister Bridgerton, have been eagerly awaiting two specific steamy scenes. One is focused on a mirror and the other on a carriage ride. Netflix cheekily teased that the latter would indeed be happening in a cute video that announced Season 3 was in production way back in July 2022 and now — nearly two years later — it’s finally here! And folks, Colin and Penelope’s spirited carriage ride in Bridgerton Season 3 Episode 4 “Old Friends” was most definitely worth the wait.

**Spoilers for Bridgerton Season 3 Part 1, now streaming on Netflix**

The carriage ride scene in Bridgerton Season 3 encapsulates why we love the sex and romance in this show so much. Set to a string cover of Pitbull’s “Give Me Everything – Stripped Down” by Archer Marsh, it’s the moment Pen and Colin finally proclaim they want to be way more than just friends. Their passionate embrace is impulsive, illicit, and so damn euphoric. Colin looks absolutely lovestruck by Penelope, who in turn is soon moaning in ecstasy as her beloved lays his hands all over her body.

The carriage scene is an absolute masterclass in steamy romance and the perfect way to cap Bridgerton Season 3 Part 1.

Bridgerton Season 3 follows the “friends to lovers” story of Colin Bridgerton and Penelope Featherington. Pen has been pining after her neighbor Colin for years, but he has only ever considered her a friend. When he returns from traveling abroad — at her encouragement! — he is stunned to discover that every woman in the Ton falling for his newfound charms except Penelope. When Colin learns that Pen overheard him telling some other gentlemen that he’d “never dream of courting Penelope Featherington,” he understands the reason for her aloof coldness and vows to make amends.

Soon, Colin is giving Penelope secret charm lessons to help her land a husband. However, he’s almost too good of a tutor. Colin finds himself overwhelmed when Penelope practices her flirtation game on him and jealous when other men actually show interest. One night, Penelope begs Colin to kiss her just so she knows what it’s like. Instead of being a favor to a friend, the kiss actually unlocks Colin’s latent desire for Pen. He’s soon having sex dreams and confusing feelings for the girl he claimed he’d never dream of courting.

The tension crescendoes at the end of Bridgerton Season 3 Episode 4 “Old Friends.” The kind naturalist Lord Debling (Sam Phillips) is on the verge of proposing to Penelope when he figures out that she’s always longed for a love match with Colin. In turn, Colin finally plucks up the courage to tell Penelope that she shouldn’t marry Debling. He does this by joining her in her carriage home, a taboo for Regency society.

At first, Penelope is upset with Colin for ruining her shot with Debling, but then she’s terrified by Colin’s admission that he’s attracted to her. Colin gets on his knees before her and admits he cannot stop thinking of her, dreaming of her, and he doesn’t not want this torture to end!!! Penelope tells him, “But we’re friends,” and an embarrassed Colin backtracks his confession. “But I’d very much like to be more than friends,” Pen says.

The music swells, a glimmer of light shines through the carriage window, and soon Colin and Penelope are in the heat of an embrace.

The sex scene that follows is over two minutes long, full of long adoring stares, heavy panting, and a crazy hot moment where Colin begins to creep his hand up Pen’s dress, pauses and then keeps going after she enthusiastically nods, “Yes.” It’s a welcome return to the eroticism of Bridgerton Season 1 that was paused in favor of the tension of a glacially slow burn in Season 2. It’s also a tribute to the incredible work of Intimacy Coordinators Lizzy Talbot and Hannah Rose Goldstone.

When Decider chatted with Nicola Coughlan last month, she also opened up about the amount of work filming these intense sex scenes takes: “The sex scenes in Bridgerton like, they take days to film. And you know, it’s so much about that. And that’s the thing I really love about Bridgerton is it’s a show about female pleasure and women’s experiences. They’re so artfully, beautifully done or thought out.”

You can tell from the pacing, the setting, and the choreography of the carriage scene just how true that is. It’s not necessarily seven minutes in heaven, but it is over two minutes in absolute ecstasy…and it leaves us, like Colin Bridgerton, who cheekily asks if the driver can keep going when the carriage stops, wanting more.