The following contains spoilers for Bridgerton season 4.One of the most unexpected twists in Bridgerton season 4 was Penelope’s decision to retire as the infamous Lady Whistledown. Her decision makes a certain amount of sense, if only because she’s so happily settled in her own personal life. But the ton abhors a vacuum, and the reveal that someone had simply taken over her mantle probably shouldn’t feel as surprising as it does. (Outright stealing Penelope’s brand and reputation like that is something else, though.) “Are you perhaps feeling a little shock?” asks the new Whistledown (still voiced by Julie Andrews, thank goodness.) “You thought I was gone for good, but far too much transpires for this author to remain silent. It is assuredly a reunion rooted in care and love. Though this time with a very different author.”cnx.cmd.push(function() {cnx({playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530",}).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796");});Of course, this naturally leaves us all wondering once more: Who is Lady Whistledown? Here are a few of the most likely choices to pick up the infamous gossip monger’s quill. Eloise BridgertonHonestly, it’s kind of amazing that Eloise isn’t regularly publishing her own newsletter already. Though season 4 saw her soften some of her most vehement criticism of marriage as an oppressive institution that controls women, she’s hardly chomping at the bit to enter into it herself. She’s also certainly got the free time to pick up a quill and the level of access to society that would allow her to discover most of the same information her best friend did. Still, Eloise is perhaps the unlikeliest of our options, if only because now that we’re back in book-accurate romance order, season 5 should be her turn as the series’ main character. And since we’ve already seen Penelope attempt to juggle love alongside her secret pen name, such a twist would involve retreading fairly familiar ground. Now, should the show’s fifth outing turn out to be about Francesca instead, all bets are off. But it’s likely Bridgerton will give her some time to mourn before throwing her back into a romance. Cressida PenwoodThe woman formerly known as Cressida Cowper has already claimed to be Lady Whistledown once. Sure, it was a lie, but we shouldn’t put it past Bridgerton to pull a sneaky switch and make her lie eventually turn out to be true. And, to her credit, Cressida was smart enough to figure out that Penelope was Lady Whistledown before she announced herself. Yes, she tried to blackmail her with that information, but isn’t that just good business?However, season 4 seemed to be somewhat leaning into the idea that Cressida is reformed. She’s seen the error of her ways, settled down, and has even made a point of proactively apologizing to Eloise and Penelope for all that she did to them. Furthermore, there’s no real reason for Cressida to take up the Whistledown mantle, other than sheer love of the gossip game. (Which admittedly isn’t nothing.) But she’s married now, and to someone who isn’t old enough to be her father, thankfully, meaning that she no longer needs the independence (or money) that her original scheme would have brought her. Hyacinth BridgertonIn all honesty, Hyacinth Bridgerton would make a perfect Lady Whistledown. She’s young, obsessed with society, desperate to be part of things, and a huge fan of the OG scandal sheet. Her upset at Penelope’s decision to quit is both loud and evident. (How will anyone name her the season’s diamond when it’s her turn to debut if there’s no one writing about it?) The show is unlikely to get to her book for at least three seasons, which means Hyacinth needs something to do with no romance on the horizon. And her new sister-in-law, Sophie, has already taught her how to blend in: Pretend to be of the lower classes. Hyacinth’s delight at realizing that she can pretty much do anything as long as she pretends to be a maid feels an awful lot like it could be foreshadowing how she’ll collect information in the future. The only downside is that Hyacinth is quite young and hasn’t technically entered proper society yet. She’s unlikely to hear much good gossip from her younger compatriots and would surely be missed if she were constantly sneaking off to infiltrate her way into balls dressed as a servant. But it surely would be fun to watch her try. Mrs. VarleyBridgerton season 4 is the series’ most class-conscious yet, acknowledging both the privilege most of its main characters exist in and all the ways that the servants are who really make the proverbial trains run on time. That a servant — a maid, a footman, a butler — might decide to pick up Penelope’s mantle makes a ton of sense. After all, they’re uniquely positioned to both have access to the upper-class elites they’d want to cover and to be able to move among them largely unnoticed. (Hyancinth ably proves this point for us in season 4.) The most obvious candidate among the regular servants has to be Mrs. Varley. The Featherington housekeeper is lauded multiple times this season for her ability to suss out information and find out things her employers need to know. She’d be an amazing Lady Whistledown from a gossip-gathering perspective. And the concept of making her broadsheet a servant’s commentary on those around them is an appealing one. It would allow the show to still pretend to care about some of the class issues it raised in season 4, while keeping its focus firmly on the ton’s elite. But does the show still care about those issues now that Sophie’s rags-to-riches romance has it’s happily ever after? It’s probably too soon to tell. Penelope BridgertonWhat if this is all one big bait and switch? Penelope mentions several times over the course of the season how frustrated she is by what Lady Whistledown has turned into. Everyone knows who she is now, meaning that they either blame her for everything she writes or are somehow angry with her for what she doesn’t include in her broadsheets. She gets manipulated by the queen, has to deal with people constantly trying to use her formerly secret identity for their own ends, and doesn’t even get all that much good gossip anymore, since it’s not like she can hide who she is while she’s out and about. If Penelope wanted to fully reclaim her gossip empire and decouple it from her personal life, there are certainly worse ways to go about it than to fake a death of the author, if you will. That said, her surprise at the arrival of a new Whistledown seems genuine enough, as do her reasons for hanging up her quill. She’s got a young child and a hot husband at home, and doesn’t need the independence and safety net the role once offered her. Plus, she’s still writing and has even started a novel. She’s truly achieved the best of both worlds. Would she risk all of that to reclaim her secret identity?The post Cressida, Eloise, Hyacinth: Who Is Bridgerton’s Next Lady Whistledown? appeared first on Den of Geek.