The B in 'Bridgerton' actually stands for bisexual

• "Bridgerton" season three finally confirmed a long-held theory about a character's sexuality. 
• The finale revealed more than one seemingly bisexual character. 
• "Bridgerton" has been building to this moment since season one. 

Warning: Major spoilers ahead for season three of "Bridgerton."

Dearest readers, rejoice: Benedict Bridgerton is finally bisexual.

Until season three, none of the Bridgerton siblings were officially queer. The show had featured a few queer characters — an artist in season one, Queen Charlotte's footman Brimsley in her spinoff series — but never one of the show's eventual leads. And for those keeping score at home, Benedict isn't the only apparently bisexual character on the show now: his sister Francesca likely is, too, based on that major book change in the finale.

Benedict's bisexuality isn't coming from the void. The show has long been building a queer storyline for him, and this is the moment that's finally coalesced.

"Benedict's fluidity is something we've been talking about from Season 1, which is why I think viewers have picked up on it," showrunner Jess Brownell told the Los Angeles Times. "We wanted to do that storyline justice, and it felt like season three was a good place to do that to make sense of some of the threads we've seen with him before."

'Bridgerton' has been hinting at Benedict's queerness for a while

Before season three, Benedict Bridgerton had yet to kiss another man. But in season one, he encountered the possibility for seemingly the first time through his friendship with the artist Henry Granville. Granville strikes up a friendship with Benedict, inviting him along to art parties. At one of them, Benedict walks in on Granville having sex with another man.

When Benedict later confronts him about it and inquires about his marriage to a woman, Granville tells him that it's a necessary arrangement. His marriage allows his wife to pursue a life of her own while providing him with the cover to pursue his lover, Lord Wetherby, in secret.

"We live under constant threat of danger, Bridgerton. I risk my life every day for love," Granville tells Benedict. "You have no idea what it is like to be in a room with someone you cannot live without and yet still feel as though you are oceans apart."

Unlike his siblings, Benedict hasn't pursued many serious relationships on the show, even though we haven't yet hit his season as a romantic lead. And he's not ready to do so yet! Especially after opening up a new avenue of sexual exploration.

'Bridgerton' confirms that Benedict is bisexual through a threesome

In season three, Benedict's relationship with the widow Lady Tilley Arnold culminates in an invitation to join her and her friend Paul Suarez for dinner. Benedict and Paul flirt a bit on the terrace before Benedict encounters Tilley and Paul kissing. Paul then invites Benedict upstairs, causing him to panic and leave the house in a rush.

But fear not: After a conversation with Eloise at Colin and Penelope's wedding breakfast, Benedict decides to return to Lady Tilley's home. When Tilley and Paul return, he takes them up on their offer by kissing them both.

It might seem a little cliché or stereotypical to cement Benedict's bisexuality through a threesome. But the decision doesn't feel particularly wanton within the context of the show.

For one, Benedict is hardly the first Bridgerton brother to have a threesome on the show (this isn't even his first!). Furthermore, this man has clearly had some unfulfilled desires and curiosities that have been building since season one. We'll even pardon him for his corny remark in bed about loving a "party of three."

Ultimately, Benedict isn't ready to settle down when Lady Tilley confesses that she's developed romantic feelings for him. Their encounter with Paul, as well as their own casual sexual relationship, has made him realize how much he enjoys being "free."

It remains to be seen how "Bridgerton" will handle Benedict's story, though the writers appear to have set him up to be the romantic lead in season four. In the books, he falls in love with a woman named Sophie at his mother's masquerade ball, though he doesn't learn her identity that night. Eventually, they marry, but it doesn't seem likely that "Bridgerton" will allow his queerness to fall entirely into the background.

Regardless of what the future holds, let's celebrate this moment — a very bisexual "Bridgerton" season finale that, through both Benedict and Francesca, has set the show to foreground a queer romance in the future.