#polin analysis

Because that is Penelope’s first instinct — to go to Colin, her husband — with any problem. She’s like ‘not getting off? Obvs, your man will fix it, hon. Mine always does.’

It’s such a neat little summary of what their relationship is based on, and how different their marriage is from everyone else in the ton. They’re best friends, truly. The kind that turn to each other first for everything. And it’s so unheard of for a marriage to be like that that Benedict is genuinely puzzled as to how Colin knows about his search for The Lady in Silver and Colin’s like ‘duh, dude, you went to my wife for help. There’s no difference between that and telling me directly.’

But also, besides all that, isn’t it so fucking cute that Pen’s answer intimates that she and Colin openly talk about what they like/don’t like in bed? I think we all knew that, but like now we know, y’know? The sweet little freaks probably have feedback sessions, kink negotiations, nights to try out something new Penelope no doubt heard about through Whistledown but didn’t fully understand…

And it all ties into Colin’s disinterest in mistresses because, when the men started talking about that, apart from the fact that he’s clearly terminally obsessed with his wife, he was probably thinking about the openness and intimacy he shares with her, and how sex itself is hardly worth it without those things especially now that he has something to compare it to.

It's a reason why we care so much about this two characters. We see them grow. The thing is we don't see the characters falling in love, we see them choosing love. We know there is love between them, even before the story starts. It was always there. But we see them to realize that they're in love. We see them accepting the love for the other and believing they deserve it.

Friendship is not less than love, it's love. Because it's possible the existince of ways of love like different kinds of people. You cannot measure it, you cannot tag it, but you can choose if it's grows or dies.

Colin and Penelope love story was destined to grow. Because that was their choice.

The most important aspect of their relationship it was always there. They inspire each other. They always cared for the other. And this is the reason. Because we can talk about first crushes, who knew it first, or why they love each other. The important thing, it's what this relationship creates between them.

They believe in the other. They always did. The bond between them makes them want to be a better person. So the line between a frienshship and love starts to disappear. Because romance it's about connection. To be close to the other person, and choose the other. It's a decision to give your life to be with this person. Pen sees in Colin someone kind, she valued this very much. It's possible this the seed that make her starts to love him in the beginning. She tells him this in 3x02 and 3x07. She's romantic from nature, so to her it was more easy to connect the dots. The need of connection she has with him makes her want to have a more intimate relationship, because she wanted more, specially kindnes. The lack of love in her life make her appreciate more the love she receives. But she doesn't feel worthy of it. She doesn't have the self-confidence to go for what she wants because she was teached she couldn't have it.

Colin on the contrary, it's more blurry. His mouth says one thing but his actions do something else. He doesn't see what is in front of him, but that doesn't mean he cannot feel it.

Everything decision he makes make him more close to the same result: Pen.

He's always choosing her.

Because maybe he didn't understood why or what it was but Colin always knew something: Pen makes him happy. It's sound cheesy, but it's not. She creates a feeling in him that nobody else does. That's why he is always seeking her out. When she says to him, he's kind and sweet. He says she's warm and clever. That he feels seen when he's with her. She makes him feel that he has value. Specially the parts of him that nobody else cares or sometimes even dismiss.

You can say that he loves her because the way she makes him feel, but I don't think it's the case. She makes him feel that way, because he values what she's.

He sees her good nature and that is the reason why he's always looking for her. She's not an idea in his mind. She transforms. She forces him to move, to be, to evolve.

She takes his breath away. She creates on him the need to be soft. He values her opinion more than anyone else. She's the person he is always looking for in the crowd.

He always acts like he has a string in his body that move him close to Pen.

But it's something more, his chest gets bigger and high when she's close. All his posture changes. Even, when he could denied it, sometimes even unconscious, he's trying to flirt and maker her seeing him like a man. He's always to close to her and he's always trying to touch her without realising.

Everytime she says something to him about it he ignores it. Because to him touch is something natural, it's about connection.

His heart gets warm when she's around. He sees her like someone sweet and kind too. That makes him want to be the same even more. The way she see him makes him believe in himself, he wants to be the person she sees on him. She believes in him, that's love, and that love gets reciprocate. Because he's not indifferent to it, he appreciates it, and with it he appreciates her too.

The love between them became something physically when the need of connection it's more strong. The letters made a romantic connection between them, specially because they create the illusion of exclusivity. The letters are something that is just between them. Nobody else can read them, nobody else is looking through it, not even Eloise. It just the two of them. It's the beginning of an intimate relationship. The connection was there before, and that's the reason because the letters exist. But they were a safe place for both of them being themselves and open to each other. So, when the letters stopped, Colin felt alone, and his need of connection grow so desperately that he tried to reach it how he could. But nothing was feeling the void. He missed his relationship with Pen and he wanted that relationship back. He knows for the first time what it feels not having her in his life, he doesn't want that. He hated it. He felt loss.

So, when Pen choose let go of him because she wants more from life, even when she still loves him. She knows she would choose him without even thinking about it, but Pen doesn't feel that she has that option: love is not an option anymore. In that moment he's choosing her, even more than before. So, he push back. But then, their relationship was never going to be the same.

Their friendship becames something that can't include other people, even when they tried. The need of connection it's more intense that it was before. The sexual attraction is too, for both of them. Because the need for the other is more stronger. So, the idea of one of each other being with someone else, physically or emotionally, becames impossible. Colin starts to understand what was the root of his need for her. He doesn't know if she reciprocates this, but he needs to. Because he does something that Pen did before him: have faith. She loved him even when she thought he didn't loved her, because she had faith in her love. She wanted love, even in the door to marry someone else, someone who wasn't offering love to her. She stills was waiting for him to go to her, she believed her love for him was enough. When Colin goes to the ball to search for her, he does it because he has faith in her but specially in his love too.

Even when he didn't know he was going to be reciprocated, he chose to love her without the guarantee of being loved. He's choosing to love, and that was a courage move. Because love is a choice that it requires courage. And they chose each other again and again without thinking about it, every time.

After it was revealed that Colin was helping Penelope find a husband, we have matching shots of each of them yearningly looking out the window.

We see Colin, having just read Whistledown, looking out across the square to the Featherington house. It’s a very short shot and it’s easy to just chalk it up to him being concerned for Pen. Which he is absolutely worried. She’s been utterly trashed in Whistledown, while he was left pretty much unscathed. Obviously this is because Penelope wrote it, but Colin doesn’t know this. So we have hero!colin who, in his desperation to fix his past mistake with Pen, has now created an entirely new and even worse situation for her. Colin has big feelings, guilt being the main one at the moment, that he has to compartmentalize and plan and work through before he does anything. He’s feeling like he squandered his chance to make things up to Penelope and may even be scared that he’s lost her again after barely getting her back. He most likely spent the entire day planning what he needed to say to Penelope, so by the time he actually does visit her, it is late in the evening. (There is also the risk of causing more scandal by calling on her, which is widely agreed upon within the fandom as to why he visits her at night.)

Then we have Pen, who is convinced she has ruined any prospect of marriage. She is taking the blame in this situation, having written what she did while leaving Colin as the innocent party. Enter Portia, who digs the knife in even deeper by pretty much telling Penelope that it was crazy to even think she had a chance at finding a suitor in the first place. Poor Penelope was already feeling low and to have her own mother confirm her fears is absolutely terrible to watch. She spends the rest of the day staring out her window accepting her fate as a spinster.

Until Colin shows up and now neither of them are looking out windows. They’re face to face and they are both feeling so much. Colin can barely get a word out before Penelope is asking him to kiss her.

(This is by far one of my favorite scenes to see analyzed and I am a firm believer that he absolutely did want to kiss her. We can use the book as reference to his inner thoughts as well as what we know of show!colin. My point in the next part can be taken however the reader would like to)

Is there a part of Colin who wants to kiss Pen? Absolutely. Is this a bad idea? Undoubtedly. Is this something he can give her when he has ruined her reputation not once, but twice now? Yes. Colin hates seeing Penelope upset, and if there is even the smallest chance this will make her feel better, propriety be damned, he’ll do it. He’s an “acts of service” guy through and through, which feeds his hero complex and insecurities that if he can’t do something for someone, what good is he to them. Unfortunately, this usually blows up in his face. In this instance, hero!colin makes an appearance, and it blows up in his face in the best way possible because holy shit he loves kissing her.

Consequences: 1,000

So, the question becomes what makes them such a good couple? I have a theory about this, and that kind of works for many of my ships.

Is it just me, or does this scene beg the question how late were they exactly and why?

Because it’s certainly enough of a delay for Francesca and John to notice and comment on it, so definitely longer than the frantic five minutes it would take to button a cravatless shirt and tuck a dick away. Especially if the delay was only when the carriage was already at Gunter’s, because then Fran and John would have seen it, known they were inside, and simply wondered why they hadn’t gotten out.

Apparently it was also long enough of a delay that Penelope and Colin felt they needed (really poor but fairly extensive) excuses. (Being delayed at home/by a broken carriage, per Mr and Mrs ‘Liar Liar’ Bridgerton, is not a short ordeal.) (And also disproves that the ‘lateness’ was simply down to them erm, freshening up, in the carriage.)

Using the beloved scientific method, one must therefore hypothesize that either:

1) these absolute utter horny little freaks (affectionate) went ‘round the block at least once (which explains the poor carriage driver’s need to loudly announce, with finality, Gunter’s! like they’d been asked to do exactly that lest this be a repeat of the night they got engaged)

OR

2) that they were already disastrously late from a previous, er… flirtation at home (finished or unfinished, you decide) and still needed to shenan-again in the bloody carriage.

I've just realized that these two moments are almost exactly the same, except for the fact that, at the wedding, Penelope can't verbally ask the question, so instead, she does it silently.

I love it, because it illustrates their growth perfectly. In both moments, Penelope is laying all her flaws bare for him to see -- she is being honest, in the first, about her insecurities, and in the second, about her faults. She cedes any power, any claim she might have on his duty as a gentleman, and offers him a choice (both times). And, in both moments, Colin decides that he loves her, regardless. He is consistent, but more than that, he expresses his agency in this, despite any hurt words hurled to the contrary. It's not default or duty-bound, for him, and he makes sure she knows it -- makes sure that, regardless of what it looks like on the outside, she knows he has chosen her. Both times he makes a vow -- to her, and only her -- and both times, he keeps it. This is particularly touching when you realize that, in Seasons 1 & 2, the theme of duty is so strong. In contrast, Season 3 highlights the theme of choice. I also think it speaks to Penelope's trust in him that she only ever asks him once, each time. She doesn't argue, she doesn't make excuses. There's no exchange. She only asks, and takes whatever answer he gives seriously.

I saw a post on IG about how Polin’s intimate scenes always end in 🥰 best friend goofy nerdy giggles 🤭, and I think those moments perfectly encapsulate why I connect to their love the most.

I think Polin is the only couple that married each other explicitly for enjoyment. Like, they went into marriage fully expecting to actually enjoy their union, in a way that was very, very rare, especially in that era. The other couples are blissfully happy too, of course, but each couple chose their spouse for a different reason.

Daphne and Simon chose each other for their shared passion and the excitement of their love. Anthony and Kate chose each other for their deep understanding of their flaws and burdens, and for the perpetual challenge. Francesca and John for their unique connection. Colin and Penelope chose each other for the ✨fun✨ and honestly, I feel like that’s both the most important and most underrated trope in romance.

We even see it when Colin (not-so) sneakily asks Violet what she hopes Francesca will find. Violet says “passion, excitement, a love that is thrilling”. She speaks of love through the lens of pure romance, because she knows (and admits) that friendship in love is rare — too rare for even someone like Violet to hope for, in all her children’s matches.

It’s why my favorite line of Penelope’s is: “It’s you. Kind and feeling, occasionally excitable, good-hearted man that I love,” because the mention of Colin’s excitability is everything. It says ‘I want us to laugh together, always. I want to spend my life laughing with you.’ It’s why, when Polin dances together, it’s different: they never dance when they’re courting, because dancing was never meant to be displayed as duty to either of them. They’re always dancing because they like it. They’re always dancing because it’s fun. 🤩 (Another dissertation for why the singular angry dance-confrontation was the perfect symbolism for their fight another day!)

And, in a way, the theme of fun, and enjoyment, and laughter is the perfect illustration of why both Marina and Debling were such poor matches for them — because fun is the exact opposite of practical, and those matches were always rooted entirely in practicality. (Even for Colin, because marriage to Marina was an effort to solidify an undeniable purpose.) Fun is frivolity, especially in Regency marriages, something people cannot afford to want or even fantasize about.

So yes, Netflix! Keep ending our besties’ sex scenes with giggles, plssss because fun and laughter and play is Polin’s thinggggg the sweet little goofs!

I love them so much. 😭

In a previous post, I said that the more I rewatch season three (especially part 2), the further in love I fall for Colin and realize just how much he loves Pen.

And now, on my nth rewatch, I don't know how I missed this delicious little morsel:

This is the second time in the season where the introduction of the Mondriches to the traditions of the Ton is used to illustrate exactly how completely improper and rebellious Penelope and Colin's relationship is, and how neither Penelope nor Colin ever intend to follow the rules of society.

Pen and Colin grew up in the Ton. They know all the rules. Penelope, particularly, one thousand per cent grew up with parents who definitely, definitely slept in different bedrooms. That is how it is done.

And yet...

Why, sir, when traditionally, according to the very stringent, very blatant rules of high society, you know you have your own whole-ass bedroom?

Even if we attribute it to the fact that it's their wedding night, there's no need to curl yourself onto the tiny settee (where you first did the deed, btw) - blanketless (see scene below) - like an angry puppy when you can Sleep Angrily With Your Back Turned to Her far more convincingly in your own very comfortable room.

This lovesick foolishness goes on for several nights, by the way, because contrary to the Mandela effect, this clip was not their wedding night, but the night (possibly nights) after.

Anyway, the point is, Sir Fool was Really, Really, Really Mad at Her and still chose to spend several nights on a sofa that was barely big enough for his two apples tall wife, even though it has been made rather clear in the world-building that there is some absolutely gargantuan four-poster bed awaiting him nary fifty paces away, as is common practice.

But no. Colin Bridgerton will throw his tantrum here where his wife can see, your honor, because he loves her and shall not be more than one (1) door away from her, even in principle, for a single night, goddamnit!