The Colin-Gregory scene at the recital has me thinking again,
Specifically, how Gregory's eagerness for society events and dancing, excitement for romance, and his focus on doing things right reminds me of a younger Colin.
Gregory was 12 in 1813 Season 1 and now we're roughly at 1817? In season 4, putting him around 16 years old. (I know time doesn't make sense in Bridgerton, but I still like to rationalize) He's still at Eaton for a good chunk of the year and not attending many society events, but that will probably change in the next couple seasons.
Meanwhile, Colin is 19-20 in S1 and has probably been attending society events regularly for a year or two at this point. He loves to dance and spend time with the debutantes, unlike both of his older brothers.
We're introduced to his time at the first ball of the season from Pen's eyes, dancing with another young woman. Like Gregory, he's happy to be there, but already so much more confident and collected. Sure, he's older and, unlike Gregory, doesn't have his eye on any specific girl romantically right now, but it makes me wonder whose example he's trying to follow.
Not his personality, that's all his own of course, but he doesn't have any kind of example in Anthony and Benedict and certainly neither are any of their friends. Marina even says "he's not like the other young men...he is eager." His father died when he was about 9/10, and he doesn't really have anyone else to fall back on or point to when Anthony's belittling him - so I feel like, if anything, he's probably trying to emulate some imagined version of his father, or an uncle perhaps, who lives in the country.
If Colin did have a better male role model than Anthony and Benedict to impress, he would've had a different arc, but I don't think he would've been in a much different place to begin with.
After all, Gregory DOES have another role model besides Anthony and Benedict, and both of them end up crushing hard on someone they don't know well, enjoying society, and being overeager for their chance to prove themself. They also both end up being the butt of their siblings jibes more often than most, and feeling left out from their older brothers which probably makes Colin that much more attentive when Gregory comes to him for advice.
I wish we got the scene of Gregory coming to Colin for advice, but alas I will have to speculate. Did he come to call when Colin was having the BIL's over? Or did Colin invite him because he knows what romantics Finch and Dankworth are as well? Colin is always very sweet with Gregory and I imagine he was very excited to be able to share his knowledge with Gregory (all too eager to listen.) He's definitely a little over sure of himself when it comes to romance, but certainly enough to know how to answer and questions his nervous younger brother can think of. I imagine he tries very hard to be the person he wouldve wanted to look up to at that age.
Colin gave credit to Anthony for inspiring his own bravery in front of Gregory like a good brother would do but he’s way too humble. No one but himself made his season events happen and there’s no doubt he would’ve said “love” that day regardless. No one paid attention to him. Mama B helped him but only after he asked her about friendship turning to love. Mama had 0 cares for what he was up to before then. Eloise as usual was just calling him a nuisance. Anthony and Benedict made it clear in the study post engagement that they had no idea. Et. al.
Colin was insecure and lonely - exacerbated by his own family’s relationship with him which was on the whole loving but honestly mostly shallow and overlooked his real needs - and he was trying things all on his own to not feel that way. And after asking Mama for a very little guidance, he finally got his own bravery and self worth enough in order to make his dreams happen.
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