'Bridgerton' season 3 teasers have fans freaking out about the famous 'mirror scene' — here's what actually happens in the book

"Bridgerton," which just released its season 3 trailer, has alluded to the "mirror scene" in teasers. Here's what actually happens in the books.

• Teasers for season three of "Bridgerton" have hinted at the famous "mirror scene" from the books. 
• The third season focuses on the romance between Penelope Featherington and Colin Bridgerton. 
• Here's what actually happens in the "mirror scene" from Julia Quinn's fourth "Bridgerton" novel.

If you were paying attention to frankly any of the "Bridgerton" season three marketing, you might feel very intrigued by something that the book's fans call the "mirror scene."

Netflix released a teaser on March 27 for the new season showing 15 seconds of Nicola Coughlan as Penelope Featherington and Luke Newton as Colin Bridgerton. This isn't the first time we've seen Penelope and Colin on "Bridgerton" — both have been around since season one — but this season is focused on their love story, corresponding to the fourth book in Julia Quinn's "Bridgerton" series.

That teaser for the new season, which premieres its first half on Netflix on May 16, is only half a minute long, but trust me — it's plenty. It shows Penelope looking at herself in a mirror, Colin emerging to stand behind her before the two look at each other with enough sexual tension to knock you flat.

Fans were quick to link the sequence to the book's famous "mirror scene."

"BRIDGERTON GAVE ME MIRROR SCENE??" one fan wrote on X.

Another fan uploaded the clip to TikTok, writing, "FREAKING MIRROR SCENE!!!!!!! AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH SKDHJFHDBEISNKS."

If you've been paying attention, "Bridgerton" and its stars have been teasing this for a while. Coughlan told Entertainment Tonight in a 2022 interview that "mirror" was a word that she'd use to describe season three of the show. An image teaser for the new season showed Penelope looking at herself in a hand mirror.

And on the day that Netflix released the first proper trailer for season three, the official @Netflix account posted — and shortly deleted, for reasons unknown to us — an image on X showing Penelope and Colin looking in a mirror with the caption, "Let us have a look in the mirror."

And yet another teaser image, released the same day as the trailer for season three, very plainly shows Penelope looking in a mirror with Colin putting on his best smolder in the background.

This is the point where I'm going to get into some pretty smutty dialogue and book spoilers, so if neither of those is your jam, best close out the tab and wait to watch the series.

Here's how the 'Bridgerton' mirror scene actually goes down in the book

In book four, "Romancing Mister Bridgerton," Penelope and Colin finally get engaged. Shortly after officially announcing their engagement (and some drama over Penelope's secret identity as Lady Whistledown), the pair have sex for the first time. But before they really get into it, Colin drops a devastating line of dirty talk.

Here's the actual passage from Quinn's novel:

"I want to see you sitting up,'" he groaned, "so I can see them full and lovely and large. And then I want to crawl behind you and cup you." His lips found her ear and his voice dropped to a whisper. "And I want to do it in front of a mirror."

"Now?" she squeaked.

He seemed to consider that for a moment, then shook his head. "Later," he said, and then repeated it in a rather resolute tone. "Later."

We don't see any actual sex in front of a mirror play out in the book, though. But that doesn't mean "Bridgerton" won't take things a step further in the new season, and we won't see Colin's fantasy play out on screen, though that level of nudity would be a bit past what "Bridgerton" has done so far.

As it stands, the teaser is the strongest depiction of the "mirror scene" that we've seen yet — but there's plenty of time left to see more once the season actually premieres.