Gentle reader, this author is going to come right out and say it: It’s high time we gave Cressida Cowper the credit she deserves.
In the flouncy, frilly world of Bridgerton, there are many hopeful debutantes vying for a ticket to freedom from their family homes via a church aisle and a wedding ring. The ballrooms are filled to the brim with candy-colored gowns, each worn by a young woman hoping to secure the Queen’s favor, to fill her dance card, or to catch a moment alone at the lemonade stand with a mutton-chopped suitor.
Since the show’s first season back in 2020, Cressida Cowper (Jessica Madsen) has been painted as the cold villainess. Among these hopeful brides-to-be, she is the fashionable, smirking Queen Bee. Cressida’s dirty tricks in the ballroom (almost) foiled our heroines on their journeys to true love. Her failure to secure a match in Seasons 1 and 2 felt like a satisfying and just comeuppance to her villainous ways… Or so we thought.
In Season 3, we finally begin to see the Ton through her eyes. And in Bridgerton (Cressida’s Version), things are bleaker than the poppy orchestral score would lead us to believe. Could it be that we all misjudged Cressida? Could it be that Cressida is, in fact, the unsung heroine of the show?
Let’s dig deeper…
Cressida’s home life is nothing short of horrifying.
Credit: Laurence Cendrowicz / Netflix
As this season has progressed, we’ve been offered a peek inside Cressida’s private life, and the Cowper home she returns to after each frothy ball is worlds away from the gentle house of the Bridgertons or even the silly house of the Featheringtons. The Cowper household is seriously grim. In fact, it’s dark, gloomy, and downright cobwebby; as Cressida somberly admits to Eloise, it’s more of a “mausoleum” than a home.
We are also introduced to the patriarch of this dreary abode. Cressida’s father — a grouchy, older man who cares only about marrying off his daughter — is strict, unloving and often even cruel. His relationship with Cressida’s fearful mother offers a sobering reminder of what a loveless marriage with a gruff, older man might look like for Cressida.
Cressida’s scheming has dark undertones.
Credit: Laurence Cendrowicz / Netflix
In previous seasons, Cressida is painted as nothing more than a selfish, overdressed mean girl, desperate to secure an enviable match. However, this Season 3 glimpse into her home life reveals the driving force behind Cressida’s determined search for a husband. She’s under immense pressure from her parents to marry. Plus, marriage offers an escape from the mausoleum.
And so, if she is a little too practical, a little too scheming, who are we to judge? After all, she doesn’t have the luxury of floating through the Ton passing judgment on the social structure (ahem, Eloise) — she has a job to do.
Her scheming continues this season as she competes for the affections of Lord Debling, a vegetarian explorer who plans to leave his wife alone at home for months on end. Lord Debling is looking for a practical, friendly, platonic marriage. This pleasant marriage of convenience would have been utterly perfect for her, affording her the independence she craves. This time, her failure to secure a match isn’t satisfying; it’s tragic.
Cressida is as unlucky in friendship as she is in love.
Credit: Laurence Cendrowicz / Netflix
All of this considered, her blossoming friendship with Eloise is one of the few glimmers of hope for Cressida. Finally, she has someone to confide in. “It has been difficult to find a husband,” Cressida tells her new friend in a rare moment of vulnerability. “It has been more difficult still to find a friend.”
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Cressida is — surprisingly — a really good friend. She listens to Eloise’s tirades. She seeks out her company. She reflects on her own toxicity in the past. She defies her father and continues to see Eloise against his wishes. And, crucially, she doesn’t spill her friend’s gossip about Pen’s slightly desperate flirting lessons with the newly glowed-up Colin.
Eloise, on the other hand, continuously lets her down. For one thing, she seemingly befriended Cressida as a means of making Penelope jealous. She is only ever interested in bemoaning the plight of women in society. When Cressida tries to explain the severity of her own position, her own need to find a match, Eloise can’t fully understand her. In fact, Eloise seems downright disinterested when Cressida comes to her with the news that her father plans to marry her off to a crass, cruel, elderly man.
Cressida is serving fashion.
Credit: Laurence Cendrowicz / Netflix
No ode to Cressida Cowper would be complete without appreciation for her fashion. Because, dearest reader, the looks! Cressida is, hands down, the most flamboyant, fabulous woman in the Ton. Her extravagant gowns and hairstyles rival the Queen herself. She decks herself out in ruffles and frills that erupt from her body, making her a sartorial statue. And her hair! There’s never a strand out of place; her locks twist and fan and curl into artistic structures that seem to defy gravity altogether. We now know that life hasn’t been easy for Cressida, but she never sacrifices her personal style.
There’s also more going on beneath the surface of her bright, lavish looks. In one way, fashion is the only act of defiance available to her; dressing up becomes a subtle refusal to be defined by the heavy, sad reality at home. On the other hand, her clothing actually reflects the ominous truth of her situation. As beautiful as they are, these outré outfits immobilize her. We need look no further than the jarring neck corset or the appliqué roses that seem almost to drown her. Her clothes are a visual representation of how she is suffocating under society’s rigid expectations.
Cressida is the layered anti-heroine Bridgerton needs.
Credit: Laurence Cendrowicz / Netflix
While she has newly revealed motivations, Cressida remains delightfully mean and conniving. The snide comments, the sneering looks, the endless scheming over great auks all remain. I’m particularly fond of her ingeniously silly feigned ankle injury after Penelope’s hot air balloon near-accident.
However, now we begin to understand why Cressida is the way that she is. “She’s a young girl trying to do her best with very limited information about life and a difficult childhood,” said Madsen to Vulture. “She’s doing her best with the blueprint she’s given.”
In the second part of Season 3, Cressida makes her most villainous (and most sympathetic) move yet. As she isn’t blessed to be in love with a wealthy suitor to marry her and take her away from her dreary home (Penelope, we’re looking at you), she decides to take matters into her own hands.
When the Queen offers a £5000 reward for the discovery of Lady Whistledown, Cressida sees her chance at freedom. She stands up in front of a crowded party at the Bridgertons’ and proclaims that she is the gossip columnist herself. Her plan, she explains to Eloise, is to rent a flat in Venice and live off the reward money. It’s easy to imagine her that way — a woman about town, living a very chic life of independence, wearing the latest Italian designs. It would be the happily-ever-after Cressida has worked tirelessly for across three seasons.
However, Cressida’s plan doesn’t quite work. Penelope doesn’t want to give up her beloved column so easily, and the queen isn’t quite convinced. Still, Cressida dazzles even as she struggles and even puts on a rather triumphant display, delivering her own version of Whistledown to a flabbergasted ballroom with a flair worthy of the gossip columnist herself. The Queen can only stifle a satisfying smile. After all, game recognises game, and Cressida more than delivers.
Bridgerton Season 3 is now streaming on Netflix.
