Bridgerton Season 1 Episode 3 Recap – Art of the Swoon

Daphne dreams of Simon and wakes up worried.

Lady Whistledown writes that Daphne has rejected three proposals that week alone because she thinks Daphne is waiting for the duke’s proposal.

Daphne and Simon seem to be having a good time in an ice cream parlor. Penelope browses through the letter when the postman arrives, hoping to find one from Marina’s lover. She sighs in disappointment when she finds none and goes to tell Marina. Marina gets frustrated, but Pen comforts her by saying that it might be hard for him to send letters, or maybe he is on his way to get Marina. Their conversation gets interrupted by Portia, who announces that Marina should reenter society and wed.

At their house, Violet asks Daphne who she likes to dance with at that night’s ball. She mentions Lord Weaver and Lord Hardy, but Violet wants to hear about the duke. Daphne tells her that the duke has not proposed, so she wants to keep her options open. Her mother tells her she should marry the man who feels like her best friend.

At that night’s ball, Daphne dances with Lord Weaver, whom she finds to be an airhead, Lord Hardy, whom she finds boastful, and Lord Tompkins, whose father wanted his mother to live with him and his wife in the future.

From a distance, Lady Danbury sees Daphne dancing with other men and tells Violet that she looks better with the duke. Violet then tells her that she needs to remind the duke to propose.

The queen and her nephew, the Prince of Prussia, arrive. Daphne and Simon watch as Cressida tries to get his attention. They talk about how the prince would tell every woman he meets that her gown is exquisite. Daphne approaches them, and the prince tells her that her dress is exquisite. This causes her to laugh and snort, confuses the prince, and displeases the queen.

Later that night, Genevieve Delacroix, the town modiste, bids her last customer goodbye and closes her shop. She hears rattling from the back and sees that it is Siena who has come to have a drink with her. Siena tells her that she will find a new lover, one that will never break his word or run home whenever her mother or sister needs him. With that in mind, Siena goes to the gambling club and engages the duke in conversation, inviting him to watch her perform the next day.

Daphne twists and turns in bed, but sleep does not come. She decides to go to the kitchen for milk, and Anthony joins her. They both regret their decision not to ring the servants when they realize they cannot heat the milk because they do not know how to operate the stove. They end up drinking cold milk while talking about the duke. Daphne asks Anthony why he is so opposed to marriage. After much hesitation, Anthony decides to tell Daphne that the duke barely knew his father and never knew his mother at all. He says he grew up alone and that she must understand that some people are not meant to be together, no matter how much they might wish otherwise.

At the Somerset House, a new wing opens, and this event will be Marina’s re-entry into the society. Prince Friedrich of Prussia also attends the event. The Bridgertons come, and Violet tries to pair Anthony up with some of the single ladies she sees.

Eloise rants to Penelope how the paintings were done by a man who sees women as mere decorative objects. Penelope sees Marina being dragged by her mother across the room to be introduced to Lord Middlethorpe. She’s begging Pen to help her, so Penelope interrupts the introduction. Portia tells both of them that they do not understand the gravity of her situation.

The prince approaches Daphne and talks to her about his travels, but Daphne is preoccupied with Simon. She excuses herself from the prince and follows Simon into a room where he quietly admires a painting alone. She tells him that she is enjoying that they are fooling Lady Whistledown. They talk about a painting that is said to be the duke’s mother’s favorite and find themselves touching hands. The intimate moment is interrupted when they hear a commotion. They step outside and see that Cressida feigned a swoon so that the prince may catch her. The two laugh while they watch.

Upon leaving the Somerset House, the duke gets asked if he would like to go to the opera as he planned to see Siena, but he says he’ll go straight home.

The following day, Cressida promenades the prince, and her mother is pleased reading about her in the society papers. However, the queen is displeased about what the author says about her and the king. Instead of paying much attention to what she read, she turns her attention to the prince and tells him that he should charm Daphne because she is the season’s incomparable.

At their house, Benedict grunts as he crumples yet another page of his sketchbook, and Eloise begs Daphne to stop practicing a piece on the piano. Daphne tells her to try and understand that she needs to be excellent at playing the piano if she is to find a husband.

Portia brings Marine to the slums to let her see what will happen to her if she decides not to get herself a husband during the season. However, Marina tells her there is nothing wrong with the slums because they are full of hardworking people. She adds that she has a lover and that he still writes to her. After telling him of her pregnancy, Portia then asks her if she has ever heard from him again. When she was unable to answer, Portia told her that many men make declarations of love when they want to make love, but only a few stay when they get a woman pregnant.

The next morning at the promenade, Daphne and Simon talk about Simon and Anthony’s adventures together at Oxford. Daphne also asks Simon what transpires between a man and his wife at night. While Simon initially refuses to discuss these things with her, he does so when she tells him that there is nothing wrong with them talking about such a thing because he is not a real suitor.

Simon ends up telling Daphne about touching herself when she’s alone at night, something she has never heard, let alone done before.

On the way home, Lady Danbury confronts Simon about wasting Daphne’s time. She tells him that Daphne has caught the attention of a prince, so if he is not serious about her, he should leave her be so that she would not miss the opportunity of a perfect match with the prince.

Benedict joins Eloise for another smoking session, and Eloise tells him that she has found a few pages of his sketchbook by the fireplace. He tells her that he cannot stand to see his sketches, so he throws them away. She tells him that he should practice drawing or hire a drawing master because he can because he is a man. She tells him that women like her have limited options and uses Lady Whistledown as an example. She tells him that Whistledown is a good writer, yet she has to hide and publish under a fake name because she is a woman and has nothing. She points out that Benedict is a man and has everything, so he must be bold so she could at least live vicariously through him. These musings lead Benedict to suspect that Eloise is Whistledown, but Eloise tells him otherwise.

Alone in her room, Daphne does what Simon told her to do and touches herself until she reaches a pinnacle. This must inspire her because the next morning, she finishes the song she was trying to write the previous days. She excitedly meets up with Simon, but she runs back home crying when Simon tells her that they should not see each other again. He tells her they were never friends and that she was just convenience and a diversion, but nothing more. He lies and says that his business in town is finished and adds that she will be very happy with the prince.

Back at his place, he orders his servants to expedite things because he wishes to leave England as soon as possible.

Right after her performance, Siena gets told that she has a visitor. Anthony comes and kisses her while he begs for her to come back to him. She pushes him away and tells him that she will not be a fool again because she knows their positions in life remain unchanged and that she will always be the woman he can only love in secret.

Penelope excitedly brings a letter from Spain to Marina’s room. Upon reading it, Marina wails and weeps as she tells Penelope that Sir George wants nothing to do with her anymore.

It turns out that Portia and Varley forged a letter to make it look like Sir George’s handwriting and manipulate Marina into finding a husband.

Violet reminds Anthony of the ball they will attend that night and gives him a list of eligible women he might like to consider. She tells him that time is of the essence, so he must find a wife soon.

Daphne decides to up her wooing game during that night’s ball, so she wears an exquisite white and silver gown.

At the ball, the queen seems displeased and bored as Cressida dances with the prince. The Featheringtons arrive, and Marina’s hand gets asked for a dance at once. The duke tells Lady Danbury he has decided to return home sooner, and the lady calls him a fool.

Daphne makes a grand entrance and catches the attention of everyone at the ball. She woos the prince, who asks him to be her first dance. She does a trick from her playbook and intentionally drops her feather fan for the prince to retrieve.

Lady Whistledown writes that Daphne has grown tired of waiting for the duke’s proposal, so she has moved on.

The queen watches with satisfaction as Daphne dances with the prince as the duke leaves.

Our Thoughts

Oh, so many things are happening at once in this episode! For one, we are surprised about how far Portia will go to convince Marina to rejoin the season. Second, we are annoyed just at how foolish Simon can be to let Daphne out of his arms when we all know that she has started to like him. All we can do is hope that Simon gets his bearings back and realize that he cannot stand her being with another man.

Benedict accusing Eloise of being the anonymous writer was funny as Cressida’s desperate moves to get the prince. Oh, the satisfaction we had seen her face when the prince leaves her to ask Daphne for dance is just through the roof! However, we are sad that Anthony cannot have a future with Siena just because of their social status – whatever happened to love?