Note: This story contains spoilers from “Bridgerton” Season 4, Part 2.
After “Bridgerton” Season 4, Part 1 left off with an impossible ask from Benedict (Luke Thompson) to Sophie (Yerin Ha) as he asked her to be his mistress, Part 2 saw things get much more complicated for the couple as they thwarted attempts from society — as well as Araminta Gun (Katie Leung) — to keep them apart.
Araminta’s pursuit lands Sophie in jail by the finale, though Benedict, fresh off of realizing Sophie is his lady in silver, and Lady Bridgerton come to her rescue, bringing her safely back to Bridgerton house as they concoct a plan for what’s next for the couple.
It’s then that Benedict and Sophie share an intimate scene in the tub, a more tender follow-up after their steamy hookup in Episode 5, which showrunner Jess Brownell notes is about “urgency and two people who are so caught up in the moment that they’re forgetting themselves,” pointing out that the couple’s preceding love confession sets that tone.
“The bathtub scene was meant to show the evolution of both characters to show that Sophie is thinking things through, while still allowing herself some pleasure and joy, and Benedict is putting himself in the caretaker role with Sophie, washing her hair, pleasuring her, making sure she’s taken care of and that her boundaries aren’t crossed,” Brownell told TheWrap. “It allows us to show growth even within the sex scenes.”
Despite the weight of society against them, Sophie and Benedict gain enough allies to figure out a solution: lie about Sophie’s legitimacy ever so slightly by saying she’s the late Earl of Penwood’s niece, rather than his daughter. With Araminta corroborating the identity due to her own lies about the Earl’s will and landing the blessing of the Queen, Benedict and Sophie head out into society hand-in-hand.
“They happen to work out this little white lie that allows them to be in society, but chiefly, I think it’s important that they chose each other first before that happened,” Brownell said.
It’s not too long before Benedict pops the question of marriage to Sophie on the dance floor, and their nuptials are shown in a post-credits scene. “One of my favorite parts of their story is just how much they overcome to get to their happy ending — It’s one of our pairings that has the biggest hurdle between them, the obstacle of class,” Brownell said. “For them to have decided to choose each other despite that is really magical.
The final moments of the finale also reveal a shake up in the identity of Whistledown after Penelope put down her pen, introducing a new mystery to be carried on in future seasons. Brownell unpacks that shift, as well as the season’s biggest moments, below. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
TheWrap: The latter episodes of Part 2 see Benedict come out to Sophie during their greenhouse date. How did you want to construct that moment?
Brownell: It was really important for us that these two know each other fully, and, in order for Benedict to be loved for who he is, he has to be known for every part of himself. His queerness is a part of who he is, even if he’s ending up with Sophie, and for him to put that out there, and for her to acknowledge it, and more than accept it, to love about him that he’s someone who isn’t bogged down by class or gender, I think is a really beautiful thing.
How did you want to portray that moment of realization for Benedict that Sophie was the lady in silver?
We’ve changed it a little bit from the book. In the books, Sophie is wearing a mask as she plays hide and seek with the children. We set up this idea of the necklace really early on. It’s an amethyst necklace that Sophie would have received from her mother, and became symbolic in many ways for Sophie’s past and for the secrets she’s keeping, so using the necklace within the reveal of her true identity, felt really thematically on point.
It’s a big moment for Benedict. We talked about what his reaction would be. We didn’t want to portray him as just being angry — for him to be at a place where he’s evolved enough in his journey to recognize why Sophie might not have told him, it felt like a good example of growth in the character.
How much more will we see of Benedict and Sophie moving forward? Will it be as scaled back as Kate and Anthony?
We’re establishing a cadence for viewers where the leads of the season will be a significant part of the season immediately following theirs, and then going forward after that it will be more like cameos, or when our schedules align and we’re able to get them in, so you can definitely expect more of Benedict and Sophie next season.
That definitely makes sense with Penelope stepping down as Whistledown. Why was this the best move for Penelope’s character? Was it mostly to allow for that cadence?
With Penelope, we felt like the stakes and the juiciness of her story as Whistledown once she came out of the shadows — something was lost a little bit. I’m proud of the story we told in Season 4 — the pressures rising around her, people starting to breathe down her neck and asking her to be more accountable, that was an important story to tell, but it didn’t feel like there was much more of it. So having her resign and then having this new person take over allows us to play with the mystery of who is Whistledown for seasons to come.
Did you ever consider getting rid of Whistledown entirely?
We talked about it. But actually all the way back in Season 3, when we knew Penelope was going to come out publicly as Whistledown, we talked about, “OK, what if she eventually gives it up and someone else takes over?” It is so key to the style and feeling of the show, and it’s really useful for us as writers to use the voice of Whistledown to establish the themes of the episode and speak some of what’s going on internally with our characters. And it’s Julie Andrews — if you’ve got Julie Andrews, you find a way to make her stick around.
Does anybody in the cast know who the new Whistledown is?
No one in the cast knows who Whistledown is. Everyone has their guesses. Shonda [Rhimes] and I, and my writers, are the only people who know who Whistledown is at this point.
So it got the Shonda approval?
Yes. Shonda and I initially had a conversation. We decided between us who we thought it was and my writers are in on it, but they’re good secret keepers.
We had a nice surprise with Cressida coming back. Why did you want to bring her back?
I knew when we finished her story at the end of Season 3 that we were going to bring her back in Season 4, because I felt like Cressida got a bad deal. She hasn’t always been the best person, but I think her time in exile in Wales has probably shaped her quite a bit and I loved having her come back with a happy ending.
And, more to the point I love the way it plays on Eloise, and allows Eloise to show her own growth that she realizes that the whole time she was caught up with what was going on with Penelope in Season 3, she was losing sight of the fact that Cressida was in a really dire situation, and that for Cressida, marriage and romance was actually the only path forward for her in which she could take any agency in her life.
Eloise, through that situation, is starting to grow towards seeing the ways in which marriage can be useful for women, even if she’s not yet there herself.
Is the love story between Violet and Marcus fully over?
I don’t know if it’s completely over, but I think it’s definitely a breakup. This is the first person Violet has dated since Edmund died, and I’m excited to see her put herself in the spotlight a little bit more. She still has a few more children to see through the marriage mart, so we weren’t ready to wrap up a love story for her.
Jonathan Bailey is extremely busy. What do you anticipate for his involvement in the future?
We’re always delighted to have both Jonathan and Simone [Ashley] back, and so grateful to them that they they both have eagerly made that time for us. As I said, leading couples, their role will start to get smaller and smaller in every season that is past the one that they start in. But, at the same time, they’ll always be welcomed back, and it depends on the sibling, also the sibling who’s leading that season — some of them have closer relationships with others, and so, for example, in an Eloise season, you would expect to see Penelope and, in the guys seasons, it felt really important to see all the guys together. So there are different considerations, but we’ll always hope to see as much of Anthony and Kate as we can.
Can we expect the same maybe like two year little under cadence for the next season?
For this season, we hit almost a year and a half. It might have been the year and three quarters, something like that, but we did tighten it up a little bit, and I’m eager to keep beating that every season. Can’t promise anything, but we’re on track for beating the two year mark going forward.
“Bridgerton” Seasons 1-4 are now streaming on Netflix.
