Nicola Coughlan & Luke Newton on Polin’s Carriage Scene Love Confession (VIDEO)

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Bridgerton Season 3 Part 1.]

Dear reader, Part 1 of Bridgerton‘s third season has arrived and there’s much to discuss about the Ton’s latest romance between longtime friends and new lovers Penelope Featheringon (Nicola Coughlan) and Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton), a.k.a. Polin.

While she spent the last two seasons pining after Colin, Penelope turned the tables on him by turning her back and seeking out a husband during the latest social season. During the first four episodes of Season 3, Colin is forced to grapple with his changing feelings after he agrees to help her find a husband through a series of courting lessons.

When the pair share a fateful first kiss in Episode 2, Mr. Bridgerton is a goner, and when he realizes Lord Debling (Sam Phillips) is on the verge of proposing his chance to confess his feelings could disappear. Ultimately, Colin disrupts a dance between Penelope and Lord Debling at a ball to deter her from accepting the other man’s proposal.

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Although Penelope doesn’t plan to adhere to Colin’s request, Lord Debling rescinds his impending offer as he notices the connection between Colin and her. Still, Penelope isn’t convinced of Colin’s feelings until he confesses them in the long-anticipated carriage scene fans have been waiting for.

Plucked from the pages of Julia Quinn’s Romancing Mister Bridgerton, the sequence sees Colin get down on his knees and lay out his feelings on a metaphorical table. Famous for its love confession scenes, Bridgerton continued the tradition, but was there an added pressure considering the carriage scene is so important to book readers?

“What’s really special about the journey that they share is that we felt like we were in it together,” Newton tells TV Insider about his experience filming the scene with costar Coughlan. “So I never felt an individual pressure for anything. I knew that we were going to tackle this scene as best we could. We knew that there was pressure around it because of it being the carriage scene. But in terms of his confession to her, I felt like it’s something that I’ve been looking forward to actually. It’s something that I wanted for him.”

“I’ve been a big Colin supporter from day one, and it was really nice to have that moment where he figured everything out,” Newton adds triumphantly. “He’d been a bit tortured this season in particular, and he’s finally got his ducks in a row and knows what he wants. And to see him go for it, I was really excited and proud for, but the carriage scene as a whole was something that we were really excited about.”

The actor recalls the day of filming there was “just a little buzz on set that everyone kind of felt… It was just like, we really want to do [the fans] proud in this moment.” And based on fan reactions so far, they certainly succeeded.

The sequence also leads into Bridgerton‘s “first happy engagement moment,” Coughlan points out.

“I think it’s one of those beautiful moments in the writing where viewers will feel like everything’s going to be okay,” Newton adds. But as fans know, there’s one big secret looming over them as Penelope’s double life as Lady Whistledown remains unknown to Colin. “As soon as you really think about it, you go, ‘the elephant in the room, what are we going to do about this?’”

Still, Newton says, “I loved shooting that because it felt so Colin and Pen,” regarding the carriage and proposal sequence.

“It’s romantic in how real and genuine it is,” Coughlan adds. “I think that’s what gets you is how genuine [it is], because at that moment, they truly love each other.”

Will love be enough to weather the potential storm of a Lady Whistledown reveal? Only time will tell. Stay tuned for more on Bridgerton Season 3 Part 2 as we approach the premiere and check out the full video interview, above for more fun Polin reveals.

Bridgerton, Season 3, Part 1, Streaming now, Netflix

Bridgerton, Season 3, Part 2 Premiere, Thursday, June 13, Netflix