Nicola Coughlan Just Revealed A Massive 'Bridgerton' Easter Egg You Probably Missed
Throughout Bridgerton Season 1, viewers had one major question: Who is Lady Whistledown? The anonymous writer somehow managed to keep up with all the gossip in Regency-era London, and the show concealed her identity until the very last moment. But apparently, there was an early clue about who she really was hiding in plain sight. In fact, Nicola Coughlan's Bridgerton tweet about about a Lady Whistledown easter egg may have you questioning everything.
Major spoilers for Bridgerton Season 1 follow. Coughlan's character, Penelope Featherington, was a shy and sweet social outcast for most of Season 1. She helped her bestie, Eloise Bridgerton search for Lady Whistledown's true identity and quietly crushed on Colin Bridgerton from afar. It certainly didn't seem like she was behind the writer's gossipy Society Papers, especially after Lady Whistledown ruined her family's reputation by revealing that her cousin Marina was pregnant out of wedlock. But at the very end of Season 1, it was revealed that Penelope really was Lady Whistledown all along.
It was a shocking twist, but as Coughlan pointed out on Twitter, there was a major hint about the big reveal during Penelope's first-ever appearance. "Ok I'm just curious, has anyone spotted the massive Easter Egg about Penelope in the very first scene of Bridgerton?" the 34-year-old actor tweeted on Saturday, Feb. 20.
One user responded, "The quill?" and Coughlan replied, "Ding Ding Ding!!" She then quote-tweeted the reply and added, "When I filmed Penelope's first scene I chose a prop, a massive massive feather that looked a lot like... 'The quill.'" So there you have it! Bridgerton was dropping juicy hints from the very beginning.
However, that easter egg is far from the only hint about Lady Whistledown's true identity throughout the series. If you rewatch, you'll notice that Penelope is present at every event detailed in the Society Papers. And she leaves a party right after Colin declares he's leaving the country to quickly wed Marina, presumably to plot an exposé preventing her crush's impending marriage.
It's unclear what gossip Pen will relay in Season 2, but Coughlan herself is pumped about what the reveal means for her character. "She’s a fascinating juxtaposition in that she’s the most low-status character in the room most of the time, while also being the most high-status person in all of London, because she controls everything. She can change people’s fates," the actor told Elite Daily in December 2020. "I think of it sometimes like the way drag queens are. Lady Whistledown is sort of her drag persona."
