Nicola Coughlan as Penelope Featherington.
Nicola Coughlan as Penelope Featherington in season three, episode six of "Bridgerton."
  • "Bridgerton" season three, part two has the longest sex scene of the franchise so far.
  • Colin and Penelope have an intimate scene that lasts more than 5 ½ minutes.
  • The actors, Nicola Coughlan and Luke Newton, have been teasing this scene for months.

Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Bridgerton" season three, episode five.

"Bridgerton" season three gets a whole lot sexier in part two.

For years, "Bridgerton" has been praised for its female-gaze-focused, explicit sex scenes. Season one and the "Queen Charlotte" spin-off were filled with raunchy romps that weren't usually seen in Regency-era series.

But Colin Bridgerton and Penelope Featherington take this to a whole new level in season three, episode five.

A day after his sudden proposal — and that steamy carriage hookup — Colin (Luke Newton) takes his childhood friend Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) to see the Bridgerton property that would become their home after their marriage.

While alone, Colin tells Penelope he loves her and begins describing all the parts of her body he adores. As the pair look at each other in the mirror, Colin starts touching Penelope up and down her body and then strips her of her clothing.

Though there have been many shirtless scenes with male leads, this is the first scene in "Bridgerton" history in which a female lead character is fully nude in front of the camera.

Colin and Penelope then have an extended lovemaking scene on a chaise-lounge chair while a string cover of Ariana Grande's song "POV" plays in the background.

The scene is sensual, and Penelope, a virgin, is much more of an active participant in the sex scene compared with the previous lead couples' first times.

From the physical foreplay to the end, the scene lasts more than 5 ½ minutes, which is the longest sex scene of the show, according to Business Insider's extremely scientific calculations.

Nicola Coughlan said they broke a piece of furniture while filming the scene.

Luke Newton and Nicole Coughlan at the premiere of
Luke Newton and Nicole Coughlan at Netflix's "Bridgerton" season three world premiere in New York City in May.

For months, Coughlan and Newton have been steadily building anticipation for this sex scene in numerous interviews, sending fans into a frenzy.

Coughlan told Entertainment Weekly in April that she and Newton broke "a piece of furniture" while filming one of the intimate scenes.

She wouldn't say what the furniture was at the time, but the chaise lounge in the episode-five scene fits Coughlan's description when she spoke about it again to CapitalFM in May.

"I would say it's like a piece of furniture that you would more see in the past than the present, but yeah, we did break it during a sexy scene because we were really going for it," Coughlan said.

After season three, part two was released, Coughlan confirmed that they broke the chaise lounge, sharing a picture of the broken chair on Instagram.

In May, Coughlan also told Stylist that she specifically asked to be "very naked on camera" during an explicit scene to clap back at people who'd commented on her body in the past.

"It just felt like the biggest 'fuck you' to all the conversation surrounding my body; it was amazingly empowering," Coughlan said, referring to people who'd body-shamed her on social media.

Netflix's marketing team also helped create buzz around season three's sex scene by releasing promotional material showing Colin and Penelope in front of a mirror. Fans of the books that "Bridgerton" is based on immediately saw this as a signal that the show was adapting the "mirror scene."

All these teases made "Bridgerton" fans believe they would see some very spicy scenes this season. Sure enough, season three, part two finally rewards their patience.

All episodes of season three of "Bridgerton" are now streaming on Netflix.

Read the original article on Business Insider