Excellent analysis! I really loved how they weaved this myth into the season without feeling the need to be a straight up allegory for it. Totally agree that joining of the soul in the myth is in line with the show's ultimate lesson of "you have to know and love yourself before you can love anyone else".

Thanks for your thoughts, Melody! There are actually FOUR tasks Psyche must perform. For some reason, many authors of retellings make it three. The second task is gathering the golden wool of Apollo’s fierce and crazed rams. She is helped out by a breeze playing through reeds - shades of Zephyr and Pan, whom she encountered as she began her wanderings. Her third task is to gather water from the ouroboric river that flows between Life and Death. Interestingly, it is Collin who is being kept in Darkness rather than Penelope, since he doesn’t know about Lady Whistledown. But once the light is shown (would be interesting to go back to that scene and watch for plays of light and dark), Penelope is “cast out” from him, metaphorically speaking. Regarding the physical wound, as opposed to the emotional wound in Part 2, it’s been mentioned that Collin is wounded by a lamp in Part 1. The character, unlike the actor, is right handed and his right hand is wounded. I’ve never seen this mentioned in all my research of the myth, but Eros is wounded on his right shoulder, which means he can no longer draw a bow - he can no longer fulfill his purpose as the god of Love. Collin being wounded on his right hand could allude to that he can’t perform his function as a writer until the wound is healed - or that search for purpose that has been a theme of his story arc. The four tasks allow Psyche to come into her own Sovereignty so that she can become the “great and powerful Sorceress” that Aphrodite recognizes her as after the third task. With Penelope speaking to the ton, she comes into her own Sovereignty and power and can then speak as her true self.

I also found myself recently commenting on another analysis video about things i saw in Penelope's Whistledown journey through season 3 especially but really the whole series that i could view through the lens of Alice Through the Looking Glass. Particularly the idea that she and the queen are playing chess with each other throughout and the reveal speech is her recapping the game from the time she entered as a pawn (debutante) for the ton before bowing to the queen to become a queen herself. The whole series then becomes Penelope's coming of age story including her feminine hero quest of blending all her aspects together to become both wife and author, queen of her destiny and in power over her whole self (her kingdom of the soul). It explains why she starts that speech at the ball in her high, young, quavering voice and builds to boss-lady power before settling into her relative social position versus the queen, which is definitely higher than she started, but not so high it threatens to overturn the board. If she didn't succeed at this trial before Aphrodite, she would totally incur the wrath of the gods, so to speak. I also believe the either the Alice/chess lens or the Psyche/Eros lens totally explain why Penelope had to do the reveal speech at the ball before the Queen/Aphrodite alone. There couldn't be other players on the board to protect her or distract the opponent. It had to be on a public stage because the game had already been played in public (in print) all along and the Queen/Aphrodite needed to be seen granting forgiveness or "crowning" Pen in public to reaffirm her own relative power. There's a lot to unpack with either lens, but they do help to clarify possible reasons for some of the choices made in the show that otherwise get a lot of flack.

Thank you for this. I keep thinking of when the imaginary arrow from the gifted bow of the youngest is pointed early on aimed at Colin's heart. There is just so much woven in. Am glad that they have added this depth to the show.

I am wondering if Penelope offering the annulment to Colin was her (even unintentionally) healing that emotional wound. And sorry if I am repeating something you already said. It seems in that is where he starts to stop internalizing everything and waking up because he never wants to lose her. He loves her that deeply. It seems that Penelope and Colin have the most potential to hurt each other, even unintentionally because that can happen, but they are also the ones that can heal each other the most.

Thank you, this is a very interesting analysis. Initially, I was associating Penelope with the character Penelope in Homer's Odyssey (literally waiting for Colin to come back from his travels, including the one to Greece :). However, now I see the many parallels with the Psyche and Eros story, also just to add that Colin did prick himself (not just metaphorically), or rather, cut his hand on a piece of glass from the broken candle holder on his desk (another synchronicity with the candle/light!!!) and that was at a point when I think he was beginning to realise how much Penelope's presence is affecting him and that he does not only perceive her as a friend.

Oh I loved this analysis! It's really interesting to look at the parallels between the stories. And yes it's not exactly the same, but there are lots of similarities that make some of the scenes in the season make more sense to me, like Colin sleeping on the sofa. Thanks for posting your analysis!

Although they didn’t have ants, they still had bugs help her at the ball. I found it interesting that they used a Greek myth with a happy ending of Psyche and Eros this season, after Colin compared himself in his season 1 engagement to Marina to Leander and Hero, the doomed Greek myth lovers.

I also liked how you mentioned the queen was the antagonistic side of Aphrodite because we see her being set up as Penelope’s/LW’s antagonist in season 1. Do I feel they rushed some of these scenes. Yes. I feel with some tweaking, they could be more cohesive. But I like her being the one who grants Penelope the pardon, but I wonder what would happen if Penelope chose to not write nice things about the queen. If she decided to not get on the queen’s good side. I think the result would be different, but now I get why the end result of the show was needed.

You really have the most pleasant voice, I could listen to you talk all day 😍 What a great analysis! I was trying to find those similarities between Eros&Psyche and Colin&Penelope on my own, but I must admit you've done much better job than I did. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, have a nice day and take care 💘

Been waiting for someone to analyze this, thank you so much for doing it!

❤️❤️❤️❤️ Amazing thank you for this, made my day. I am struggling with the season but I think having this as a base for the story telling helps understand some choices in writing as well and what they were trying to achieve. Also I think Eros fails in Bridgerton to do the partitioning when Colin tries to do so with Cressida, they make him fail so Penelope/psyche can be the one to pass the trial her self and retrieve her love back and deservingly (feel like they made her this way because psyche tends to be lost a lot in the myth and need others to help her lol it’s nice to see a version of her that actually goes no and passes the trials by her self and also gains the Gods acceptance her self I guess. Eros also being healed by seeing her devotion to him as well. There’s more I wanna say, but for now this was amazing thanks again

Amazing analysis ! This is captivating!

Kudos, Melody. I have never in my entire life heard anyone speak of my favorite fairy tale: East of the Sun West of the Moon. I love your thoughtful analysis.👏🏾📖

Excellent analysis

This was so enjoyable to listen to. Thank you!

I never would have been able to see this! I thought it was just a ballet. It helps me relate to the season part two differently… better! although I still think there was room before the LW discovery “battling it out” for a few more cute moments - episode 6 especially.