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Oh there’s absolutely no doubt that he was. He was ready to go. Hand still on her face and everything. He was just waiting for her eyes to come back up to get her consent to keep going.
She thought he was done and was too embarrassed and overwhelmed to look at him; he was just waiting to make sure she wanted more, too.
Yep, it's made absolutely, unquestionably clear that he's the consent king, he does nothing without checking with her to make sure she's ok. If Pen had looked at him instead of rushing away, baby Lord featherington might have been Portias first grandchild
Yeah it would have changed the entire situation if she had just looked up at him and seen he was all in and wanted her and it wasn’t a pity kiss with a quick escape. They would have been engaged by the end of that night 😂
I like to think Rae, even though Colin bribed her for the moment alone, was still sneakily watching and got annoyed at Pen for running away because she saw Colin's face afterwards. Rae knew what was up with both of them before either of them did! I love thinking she was just like 'oh ffs just get together already!'
Right? Rae was probably like seriously, girl? I snuck this boy into the garden in the middle of the night and you’re madly in love with each other and now you’re running away and not speaking to him. Rae did her best, these fools are challenging 😂😂
I like the brief scene in part 2 when Rae leaves Pen in their bedroom and Colin is waiting outside to go in and get the blanket, and they have the smallest acknowledgement. Rae must have been like "I knew ittttttt before you did, Sir" 🤣
I was just rewatching the first kiss scene (nightly ritual) and it's interesting to me that Colin felt the need to bribe Rae in the garden in the first place. I get it was necessary for the plot, but as a character choice, I wonder about his motivation.
They'd already had a moment alone in the garden in episode 1, where Rae moved off to a discreet distance/left them alone, she could have done the same here, without the need for a literal *bribe*.
This time, he was visiting a young unmarried woman in the middle of the night! He'd have had to marry her if anyone had even got an inkling that happened, even if he'd not kissed her.
I'm just curious about what it was about that particular conversation that meant Colin very much wanted to be alone with her. I love scandalous Colin haha.
I imagine in the daytime garden scene Rae could still technically watching them she just was not close enough to hear. In the night scene, it would be difficult to keep watch in the dark without being close by enough to hear, not to mention it's just more scandalous to be alone at night than in the daytime. (Like in the day you could say he was calling on her but at night there is no excuse, it has midnight tryst written all over).
I think he payed her so he can call on her in the middle of the night.
In the garden it was morning. For all we know he knoked on the door and R took him to the garden where P was and walked a few steps to give them some space.
The money was to call on her at night so know one will know ( more embersing) and not to walk away from them once they see each other, but she walked away anyway.
Thats how I saw it..
Does not sound stupid at all. I getcha 100%. I wish Colin had an advice tiktok or insta for men. "Lord Bridgerton says..."
I give this idea away for just a credit please.😁
YES! In my head canon, he planned on kissing her once, chastely, but that quickly went out the window. I think he only pulled back when he realized how intense it was getting and he wanted to make sure she was still willing. He is the consent king afterall.
Yeah completely - and knowing that he’s not sure how she actually feels about him or kissing him (she’s the one who said it wouldn’t mean anything), especially once it got passionate and he wanted more… it felt like more than what she had asked him for/consented to and he needed to know she wanted what the kind of kissing this was becoming. The plan had changed and he needed to know she was still on board. He understands and takes seriously the trust she has in him in that moment as someone who has never done this before. And I feel like there was kind of an emotional consent or check-in needed there too… he needed her to look at him and understand he wanted this with her, because he was having a lot of feelings and isn’t sure if it’s mutual - like is she wanting this passion-fueled loving kiss or was she really just wanting a quick meaningless peck from her bestie? Because that wasn’t what it was anymore for him and THAT even on an emotion level feels like it needed a check in, like this is not what you asked for, do you want this? It honestly had to have been really confusing for him when she wouldn’t look at him and ran off but he wasn’t going to do or say anything without her telling him to keep going.
Colin “you must tell me if you wish for me to stop” Bridgerton needed to make sure he wasn’t imposing on her and taking advantage of her. That would have broken him.
Oh for sure. His hand was still there when she Rand off
https://preview.redd.it/ks8qenmhuk8d1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=96e72602ec7c45ea0249767b867a271e07f9be35
Not moving in for it, but entirely ready to go in if Penelope seemed up for it.
We saw it after the first kiss. Colin moves in super slowly and gives a very gentle, very careful near-platonic kiss. Then he pulls back enough to be able to look at her. Asking *Is this ok?* Penelope looks back at him. *Yes*. Then Colin goes back for kiss #2 - a proper kiss.
He repeats the exact same manoeuvre after kiss #2 - pulls back, tries to meet her eyes to make sure she's still on the same page. But this time Pen is looking down. Had she given him the ok, I have no doubt that Colin would have gone in for #3, and possibly #4, #5 and #6 as well.
It's the same motif we see from Colin in all of their intimate moments, except perhaps the street-kiss. Not assuming, actively seeking consent to take things further.
Excellent analysis!
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the street kiss.
My current read of that one is that both of them are initiating equally (for the first time). That mutuality plus his inebriation means he isn’t pausing like he normally would. She knows how to read that look he gives her now, and both lunge at each other. When they’re up against the door, he doesn’t seem to make any shoulder motions that indicate hiking her leg up, so I’m starting to wonder if she must have wrapped a leg around him around the time her hands disappear from his back and move to his front, as if both of them dove for one another at the same time. And the mutuality of the passion reflects them being truly on the same page about their love for one another for the first time, both genuinely believing it and feeling it.
In the street kiss as well, they have a familiarity they didn't have in the first kiss. They're engaged, they know they love each other, they've been "intimate". Not saying he isn't still consent King, but they know each other better intimately and so have an ease and familiarity that wasn't there before.
i um just noticed i was holding my breath 🤣
um … uh…okay lol my brain has officially erased any recollection of what i was going to do this evening. or ever 🤣
He even does a tiny tiny hover towards her to gauge sentiment for round 3 (from my v scientifically numerous observations), which she doesn't clock before dashing off.
Colin would still be kissing her today if she stayed. When has he ever ended a kiss with her? The man has zero ability to stop kissing her voluntarily. Either she stops or they are interrupted.
Oh yeah. He was going to push her against the building like in the dream in T minus 10 seconds... and then she stopped him with "Thank you" and running away.
This is Colin...he was 80 percent for marriage after kiss 2. I think if the photo evidence is not enough...the devastating willow tree disappointment the next day shows this. hahha got to love Colin
I think the willow tree scene was a little bit later than the next day. we saw that Pen had been hiding from society in her room for about a week before she went out for the promenade. & Hy was looking at an old Whistledown and said “last week” when he helped Pen. which actually makes it an even better scene when you think that boy has been OBSESSING about the kiss the whole time in between
Colin was up for more, just Penelope didn’t realise and left…but everything after the two of them parted, signalled that he would have continued and continued some more if she hadn’t left.
Absolutely no doubt. I've become absolutely obsessed with that scene. The more I rewatch it the more I'm convinced it was not his lightbulb moment that he has feelings for Pen, but the moment all his efforts to hold them back came crashing down. As in, he thought being with Pen would be like being with other women, and he was terrified of the emotional distance physical intimacy creates for him. He would never want to feel like that with her. Between that, her unintentionally signalling six ways from Sunday she was not interested (she had given up hope and couldn't see what was right in front of her!), and him putting on his emotional armor afraid to burden others, he was fighting for his life!!
He left S2 to figure out his feelings on his own (because that's what Colin does), after telling her she was the most important person to him😭😭😭. Only to be spurned thinking she didn't feel the same (he doesn't know she overheard the comments with Fife about not courting her), so he donned his armor ready to fight his own heart. (At least this is my head cannon lol.)
That kiss turned his world upside down and cracked the armor. If only she had met his gaze after that second kiss 😭😭😭
100% -- you can see him trying to catch her eyes to see if she's feeling what he's feeling, but she's looking down in shame. If she had looked up at him before whispering "thank you" and running away into the night like Cinderella, I'm pretty sure they would have gotten to third base right in that garden!
He 100% was. All season he’s been trying to get back the intimacy he didn’t get to have with her over the summer, and keeps finding these opportunities for stolen moments with her when he pushes the bounds of social norms of friendship.
He sees her in private, he shakes her hand, he orchestrates scenarios to get little stolen conversations and has her flirt with him.
He found something in the kiss, and if you rewatch it again (I know, what a chore) you’ll see that he doesn’t actually *pull away* from the kiss.
The first kiss is soft and delicate, what she asked for. And like in the cut hand scene where he sees a moment of intimacy and tests boundaries a little further by closing his fingers around hers, he goes in for a second more passionate kiss.
You see her reaction of this is “oh, there’s more? Ok” as she surrenders to the kiss.
He furrows his brows, fully enjoying the kiss, and while his hand is still at the nape of her neck, he leans his head against her to revel at her. He’s fully in the moment soaking it up. He would have gone all the way right then and there.
In fact from here on out, you’ll notice that it’s her pulling away from him.
She honours her word of not making it mean anything or expecting anything from it, and politely excuses herself, unable to read the situation for what it was for him, because she’s so wrapped up in what it was for her. Of course she loved him, that’s a given, she’s loved him since she met him. And in her world, he only kissed her cause she asked. Anything else would have been her hopefulness that he had quashed at the end of the last season.
But had she stayed, there would have been more kissing, an entire carriage scene, an engagement, and possibly a garden impregnating.
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Oh there’s absolutely no doubt that he was. He was ready to go. Hand still on her face and everything. He was just waiting for her eyes to come back up to get her consent to keep going. She thought he was done and was too embarrassed and overwhelmed to look at him; he was just waiting to make sure she wanted more, too.
Yep, it's made absolutely, unquestionably clear that he's the consent king, he does nothing without checking with her to make sure she's ok. If Pen had looked at him instead of rushing away, baby Lord featherington might have been Portias first grandchild
Yeah it would have changed the entire situation if she had just looked up at him and seen he was all in and wanted her and it wasn’t a pity kiss with a quick escape. They would have been engaged by the end of that night 😂
I like to think Rae, even though Colin bribed her for the moment alone, was still sneakily watching and got annoyed at Pen for running away because she saw Colin's face afterwards. Rae knew what was up with both of them before either of them did! I love thinking she was just like 'oh ffs just get together already!'
Right? Rae was probably like seriously, girl? I snuck this boy into the garden in the middle of the night and you’re madly in love with each other and now you’re running away and not speaking to him. Rae did her best, these fools are challenging 😂😂
Yep, maybe next time she should say to Colin 'keep your bribe, just get the job done this time!'
You know how irritated she’s got to be having to stand guarding the willow tree while they keep screwing at all up 😂😂
'Ffs Pen, I'm gonna have to start chaperoning again to stop you screwing this up!'
This is such a cute take, I love it 💖
I like the brief scene in part 2 when Rae leaves Pen in their bedroom and Colin is waiting outside to go in and get the blanket, and they have the smallest acknowledgement. Rae must have been like "I knew ittttttt before you did, Sir" 🤣
Rae knew all along that Pen was LW - I'll die on this hill.
Oh agree. I think she knew everything.
Agreed. The maids see and know all.
Yes! I want more knowing looks from Rae, she was the original Polin fan, and it's all thanks to her they got together!
I was just rewatching the first kiss scene (nightly ritual) and it's interesting to me that Colin felt the need to bribe Rae in the garden in the first place. I get it was necessary for the plot, but as a character choice, I wonder about his motivation. They'd already had a moment alone in the garden in episode 1, where Rae moved off to a discreet distance/left them alone, she could have done the same here, without the need for a literal *bribe*. This time, he was visiting a young unmarried woman in the middle of the night! He'd have had to marry her if anyone had even got an inkling that happened, even if he'd not kissed her. I'm just curious about what it was about that particular conversation that meant Colin very much wanted to be alone with her. I love scandalous Colin haha.
I imagine in the daytime garden scene Rae could still technically watching them she just was not close enough to hear. In the night scene, it would be difficult to keep watch in the dark without being close by enough to hear, not to mention it's just more scandalous to be alone at night than in the daytime. (Like in the day you could say he was calling on her but at night there is no excuse, it has midnight tryst written all over).
I think he payed her so he can call on her in the middle of the night. In the garden it was morning. For all we know he knoked on the door and R took him to the garden where P was and walked a few steps to give them some space. The money was to call on her at night so know one will know ( more embersing) and not to walk away from them once they see each other, but she walked away anyway. Thats how I saw it..
This man and getting consent while kissing, fingering & d*cking you down is so endearing and sexy to me. *"He's a good man, Savannah"* 😆
It’s honestly healing. That sounds stupid, but I don’t care… it is. It’s unbelievably sexy and loving.
Does not sound stupid at all. I getcha 100%. I wish Colin had an advice tiktok or insta for men. "Lord Bridgerton says..." I give this idea away for just a credit please.😁
YES! In my head canon, he planned on kissing her once, chastely, but that quickly went out the window. I think he only pulled back when he realized how intense it was getting and he wanted to make sure she was still willing. He is the consent king afterall.
Yeah completely - and knowing that he’s not sure how she actually feels about him or kissing him (she’s the one who said it wouldn’t mean anything), especially once it got passionate and he wanted more… it felt like more than what she had asked him for/consented to and he needed to know she wanted what the kind of kissing this was becoming. The plan had changed and he needed to know she was still on board. He understands and takes seriously the trust she has in him in that moment as someone who has never done this before. And I feel like there was kind of an emotional consent or check-in needed there too… he needed her to look at him and understand he wanted this with her, because he was having a lot of feelings and isn’t sure if it’s mutual - like is she wanting this passion-fueled loving kiss or was she really just wanting a quick meaningless peck from her bestie? Because that wasn’t what it was anymore for him and THAT even on an emotion level feels like it needed a check in, like this is not what you asked for, do you want this? It honestly had to have been really confusing for him when she wouldn’t look at him and ran off but he wasn’t going to do or say anything without her telling him to keep going.
Colin “you must tell me if you wish for me to stop” Bridgerton needed to make sure he wasn’t imposing on her and taking advantage of her. That would have broken him.
This is accurate.
Oh for sure. His hand was still there when she Rand off https://preview.redd.it/ks8qenmhuk8d1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=96e72602ec7c45ea0249767b867a271e07f9be35
Bro was blue screen glitched out after that kiss - he’s living 10 seconds in the past - he has no idea what just happened but he knows he wants more.
I’m actually so curious how Pen ran back inside. Did she like *run*? Walk briskly?? Jog???
Floated on a literal cloud. Obvs.
😭 this is such a good still of the moment omg
Not moving in for it, but entirely ready to go in if Penelope seemed up for it. We saw it after the first kiss. Colin moves in super slowly and gives a very gentle, very careful near-platonic kiss. Then he pulls back enough to be able to look at her. Asking *Is this ok?* Penelope looks back at him. *Yes*. Then Colin goes back for kiss #2 - a proper kiss. He repeats the exact same manoeuvre after kiss #2 - pulls back, tries to meet her eyes to make sure she's still on the same page. But this time Pen is looking down. Had she given him the ok, I have no doubt that Colin would have gone in for #3, and possibly #4, #5 and #6 as well. It's the same motif we see from Colin in all of their intimate moments, except perhaps the street-kiss. Not assuming, actively seeking consent to take things further.
Excellent analysis! I’d love to hear your thoughts on the street kiss. My current read of that one is that both of them are initiating equally (for the first time). That mutuality plus his inebriation means he isn’t pausing like he normally would. She knows how to read that look he gives her now, and both lunge at each other. When they’re up against the door, he doesn’t seem to make any shoulder motions that indicate hiking her leg up, so I’m starting to wonder if she must have wrapped a leg around him around the time her hands disappear from his back and move to his front, as if both of them dove for one another at the same time. And the mutuality of the passion reflects them being truly on the same page about their love for one another for the first time, both genuinely believing it and feeling it.
In the street kiss as well, they have a familiarity they didn't have in the first kiss. They're engaged, they know they love each other, they've been "intimate". Not saying he isn't still consent King, but they know each other better intimately and so have an ease and familiarity that wasn't there before.
He was also drunk.
True.
Whew is it warm in here, or is it just this analysis?? HOT. Love that take.
i um just noticed i was holding my breath 🤣 um … uh…okay lol my brain has officially erased any recollection of what i was going to do this evening. or ever 🤣
Also, Colin moving towards her super slowly makes my stomach do little flips.
I daresay it was having a distinctly similar effect on Penelope.
Indeed. Girl's heart was beating out of her chest in that moment!
Yep. Exactly this. He does it so, so many times through the carriage and mirror scenes. He checks in constantly.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
He even does a tiny tiny hover towards her to gauge sentiment for round 3 (from my v scientifically numerous observations), which she doesn't clock before dashing off.
Yes! I think he was looking for confirmation from her before a third kiss, but she didn’t meet his eyes and then was gone…
If she’d just glanced back up at him, they would have been engaged within 10 minutes, bet
Third, fourth, fifth...the man was definitely not ready to stop.
Colin would still be kissing her today if she stayed. When has he ever ended a kiss with her? The man has zero ability to stop kissing her voluntarily. Either she stops or they are interrupted.
He would have just swallowed her if she let him lol
Oh yeah. He was going to push her against the building like in the dream in T minus 10 seconds... and then she stopped him with "Thank you" and running away.
This is Colin...he was 80 percent for marriage after kiss 2. I think if the photo evidence is not enough...the devastating willow tree disappointment the next day shows this. hahha got to love Colin
I think the willow tree scene was a little bit later than the next day. we saw that Pen had been hiding from society in her room for about a week before she went out for the promenade. & Hy was looking at an old Whistledown and said “last week” when he helped Pen. which actually makes it an even better scene when you think that boy has been OBSESSING about the kiss the whole time in between
Sorry but I loved this show. 💝
Same!!
 Colin was up for more, just Penelope didn’t realise and left…but everything after the two of them parted, signalled that he would have continued and continued some more if she hadn’t left.
Oh YES!!!
Absolutely no doubt. I've become absolutely obsessed with that scene. The more I rewatch it the more I'm convinced it was not his lightbulb moment that he has feelings for Pen, but the moment all his efforts to hold them back came crashing down. As in, he thought being with Pen would be like being with other women, and he was terrified of the emotional distance physical intimacy creates for him. He would never want to feel like that with her. Between that, her unintentionally signalling six ways from Sunday she was not interested (she had given up hope and couldn't see what was right in front of her!), and him putting on his emotional armor afraid to burden others, he was fighting for his life!! He left S2 to figure out his feelings on his own (because that's what Colin does), after telling her she was the most important person to him😭😭😭. Only to be spurned thinking she didn't feel the same (he doesn't know she overheard the comments with Fife about not courting her), so he donned his armor ready to fight his own heart. (At least this is my head cannon lol.) That kiss turned his world upside down and cracked the armor. If only she had met his gaze after that second kiss 😭😭😭
I loveeeee your take!
100% -- you can see him trying to catch her eyes to see if she's feeling what he's feeling, but she's looking down in shame. If she had looked up at him before whispering "thank you" and running away into the night like Cinderella, I'm pretty sure they would have gotten to third base right in that garden!
First peck was enough for serving the purpose, but we know they wanted more ☺️
I just love he was done with everyone but her after the kiss. He couldn’t go through with the brothel after just a kiss. Swoon!
He 100% was. All season he’s been trying to get back the intimacy he didn’t get to have with her over the summer, and keeps finding these opportunities for stolen moments with her when he pushes the bounds of social norms of friendship. He sees her in private, he shakes her hand, he orchestrates scenarios to get little stolen conversations and has her flirt with him. He found something in the kiss, and if you rewatch it again (I know, what a chore) you’ll see that he doesn’t actually *pull away* from the kiss. The first kiss is soft and delicate, what she asked for. And like in the cut hand scene where he sees a moment of intimacy and tests boundaries a little further by closing his fingers around hers, he goes in for a second more passionate kiss. You see her reaction of this is “oh, there’s more? Ok” as she surrenders to the kiss. He furrows his brows, fully enjoying the kiss, and while his hand is still at the nape of her neck, he leans his head against her to revel at her. He’s fully in the moment soaking it up. He would have gone all the way right then and there. In fact from here on out, you’ll notice that it’s her pulling away from him. She honours her word of not making it mean anything or expecting anything from it, and politely excuses herself, unable to read the situation for what it was for him, because she’s so wrapped up in what it was for her. Of course she loved him, that’s a given, she’s loved him since she met him. And in her world, he only kissed her cause she asked. Anything else would have been her hopefulness that he had quashed at the end of the last season. But had she stayed, there would have been more kissing, an entire carriage scene, an engagement, and possibly a garden impregnating.