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[Thisstorycontainsmajorspoilersfrom[ThisstorycontainsmajorspoilersfromBridgerton Season four, part two]
Benedict (Luke Thompson) and Sophie (Yrin Ha) have finally found their happily ever after — but not without overcoming plenty of scandalous Regency-era gossip and high-stakes drama in… Bridgerton Season four. After all, model Jess Brownell had previously teased her Hollywood Reporter that the second part of the Cinderella-inspired season would have featured some “very exciting performances”.
In the second half, as Benedict and Sophie’s love intensifies (with some very sexy scenes), the challenges of dating across social classes also increase. Adding to the chaos is that Araminta (Katie Leung) also has a vendetta against Sophie, landing her in prison at one point, while Benedict wrestles with leaving society and his family to be with Sophie in the countryside.
“It was important to us that Benedict chose Sophie before this lie that was agreed upon between Araminta and Violet became an option. He’s totally planning to propose to her at the end of Episode 7 before he learns she’s the lady in silver,” says Brownell. Hollywood Reporter Their relationship. “It was important to us that his decision not be based on becoming part of the community.”
Fortunately, Lady Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell) comes to the rescue once again, devising the perfect plan that allows Benovi to get a well-deserved fairytale ending. As for the other Bridgerton family, Francesca (Hannah Dodd) is grieving the loss of her husband John (Victor Alley), Eloise (Claudia Jessie) is still avoiding men, and Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) is leaving her pen as Lady Whistledown forever. But don’t worry, because there’s a new mysterious gossip writer in town.
Below, Brownell reveals part two, including how Benedict’s romance with Sophie finally came together, the intense prison scene, Araminta’s hatred for Sophie, John’s death, Lady Whistledown’s new mystery and what viewers can expect in future seasons.
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At the end of episode five, why did Sophie surrender to Benedict? She truly trusts him at his word, but she has a lot to lose.
It’s a moment when they’re both really engaged. For Sophie, she also heard the words “I love you” and saw Benedict’s sincerity. Sophie has spent a lot of her life starved for love and not really feeling love, so it’s very meaningful to her, and obviously very meaningful to Benedict as well. He’s not the type to say that casually.
Benedict faces a major dilemma in Part Two, as he tries to choose between Sophie and society. Do you think that if Violet hadn’t come up with this plan in the end, he would have moved to the countryside to be with Sophie and cut ties with his family?
One hundred percent. It was very important to us that Benedict chose Sophie before this lie agreed upon between Araminta and Violet became a choice. He’s fully planning to propose to her at the end of episode seven before he learns she’s the lady in silver. This was the moment he would run away with her to the countryside. There’s also a moment in the bathtub where they don’t know how things are going to go with the Queen or not, and he’s very willing to propose to her again there, but she says, “No, not yet. Not while this is hanging over our heads.” So it was important to us that his decision not be based on becoming part of the community.
Fortunately, they were eventually able to be together, but do you think the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) would have been okay with Benedict having a maid? Especially after Alice’s big monologue trying to convince her.
As he put itThe good placeI think the queen is an anarchist who loves drama (He laughs), and for her, if something was fun and exciting, she was more or less willing to go along with it, in the same way she was willing to let Penelope appear as Whistledown because it was interesting and the game was afoot. But yes, there is a high possibility that the Queen would have allowed them to stay together, but they would probably have had to leave society. So the plan that Violet concocts to force Araminta to lie is the useful piece that allows them to remain in society.
Should the audience trust Araminta to keep her word and not expose Sophie?
Araminta knows that destruction is mutually assured. If Sophie reveals, Araminta will be accused of embezzlement. She could be deported and go to prison for embezzling Sophie’s dowry, and Armenta is very afraid of being summoned before the community. So I don’t think there’s any chance it’s back in the plan.
Seeing Sophie in the prison cell was also an intense moment this season. Why did Araminta hate Sophie so much that she wanted to lock her in prison for the rest of her life? This is some next level hate.
In reading the book, this was something we asked ourselves. In the book, she’s a bit more malicious, but we wanted to understand why she came off a little more in the show. So for us, it comes down to the fact that Sophie represents Araminta for everything that has gone wrong in her life, which is much more than Sophie has anything to do with. Sophie really becomes a scapegoat for feelings that are so scary that Araminta can’t really sit with her.
There were also some hot scenes anticipated in the sequel. Talk to me about bringing it to life off the page, especially the bathtub scene.
The sex scene at the end of episode five is not really for the books; It is more than our invention. In this scene, it was about having to create a scenario in which we believe that Sophia is trapped enough to allow herself to do this thing that otherwise, morally and ethically, she wouldn’t want to do because she’s so afraid of having an illegitimate child. Our director, Gia Ryan Harris, did an excellent job choreographing it with our Intimacy Coordinator, Lizzie Talbot. It was important for us in this scene to think about what spices look like. There are power dynamics at play in the relationship between Ben and Sophie, so we needed to neutralize those power dynamics in the intimate relationship to see true equality and mutuality occur.
We initially wanted Sophie and Benedict to orgasm side by side, because that visually tells a story of equality. Lizzie then pointed out that it was positionally very difficult for a man of Benedict’s height and a woman of Sophie’s height to communicate when they were lying side by side. So we had to tweak that a little bit, but hopefully the overall feeling of equality is there. Then we changed the bathtub scene a little bit from the book. In the book, Benedict is more like, “Smelly after prison,” but we liked the idea of him becoming the caretaker. Sophie has spent a lot of time this season in a service role, and to now have Benedict washing her hair and then cheering her up felt like a really nice switch that Sophie very much deserves.
Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) had a messy love story of his own in Season 2, so I find it interesting that he was so critical of Benedict and his decision. Why was he so harsh with his brother, even threatening to cut him off?
First of all, Anthony isn’t there to understand the depth of Benedict’s feelings for Sophie, and his understanding of their relationship is based on a version of Benedict that Anthony has known for a very long time, a flighty, enthusiastic person about things who’s overly fixated and then kind of moved on. So it was really about Benedict growing and Anthony not realizing there was a lot of growth going on. It was also important for Anthony, as the head of the family, to come forward and be the voice of the fact that in this time period, trying to legitimize marriage to a female servant was certainly detrimental to the family’s standing within society.
It was really interesting to get a break after the first part and see the anger that Benedict’s mistress brings forth, which we certainly expected, but I think there’s some education that hopefully Anthony will provide about the fact that in the 19th century, this was the only way this thing worked. So, actually, for Benedict to ultimately decide that he’s going to marry her anyway is incredible. And of course, it was yin He had to get there early, but hopefully people will have some compassion and understanding as to why this is such a difficult decision for him.
Will this be the last time fans see Anthony and Kate (Simon Ashley), or could that appear in future seasons?
I would love to have them back in future seasons. We’ll have to play it by ear a little bit and see availability and schedules and stuff, but I’m especially thinking about the younger siblings and how much Anthony really is a father figure to Gregory and Hyacinth. And if we’re allowed to tell those stories in Seasons 7 and 8, I’d especially like to see more of them after that.
Lady Bridgerton also puts a lot on the line, defending Sophie, especially before the judge. Why would she agree to do that, knowing that it would jeopardize her family name?
Obviously Violet will always do everything in her power to fight for her children to have love matches, but I think that’s why when we first started talking about this season, we felt like John’s death and funeral came at an important point in the story. This season has one of the biggest hurdles among the leads. Class was a difficult thing to overcome in this society. But I think losing John and watching Francesca lose John, it puts everything into perspective for everyone. And for Violet, who has clearly experienced the death of her great love, the reminder of that is the thing that turns her around and makes her go, “Who cares? We’ll figure out a way. Love is always worth fighting for.”
Francesca’s mourning of John’s death was also a major plot point in Part Two, so how do you balance this with sadness, while also continuing to tell Sophie and Benedict’s love story?
It’s amazing to watch that episode together. It’s like we’ve never seen an episode like this on the show. The only other person we lost was Penelope’s father, and he wasn’t someone we knew nearly as well as John. I think Tess Leibovitz, who wrote that episode, and Anya Adams, who directed it, did a great job finding the line. It’s a heavy thing, and we didn’t want to downplay how much John’s loss affected the family and how important it was to the writers and hopefully the viewers, but we also had to find moments of levity, moments of humor, which, for those of us who have experienced great loss, are subtle. Even in sadness, there’s silliness, there’s laughter, there’s weird things that happen, and the thing that I think we all love about the Bridgerton family is how real they are, and I just love seeing how they come together as a family and how every member of the family is really trying to find a way to help, whether it’s Benedict playing the piano with Francesca or Eloise trying to get Francesca to focus on the taste of the cookies. They all really put Francesca first, and I think that’s what helps the episode feel beautiful and uplifting in the end.
It looks like Francesca and Michaela finally became friends at the end of the season, so how will this advance their love story in future seasons?
recently. It was important to us that it wasn’t about that. Everything between them now is very platonic because what’s really special about Francesca’s book is that there’s a real friendship between, in this case, Michaela (Masali Baduza) and Francesca, while John is still alive. For our purposes, we wanted to take more of the conflict out of the relationship, and we wanted to watch them earn that friendship rather than have it start right away, because these characters are quite opposites in a lot of people. Knock. But it was important that they established that friendship before John died, and it’s also a nice part of Francesca’s arc this season to be able to figure out how to deal with Michaela’s mess. It actually helps her grow as a character and connect with John before he died.
The other big surprise was that Penelope ends her time as Lady Whistledown, but then a mysterious person picks up the pen. I think it’s Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh), because I think she kind of looked like her at the end, or is Julie Andrew still telling the story?
No, it’s still Julie Andrews. We had a session with Julie Andrews where our production manager, Tom Verica, asked her to change her voice a little bit to represent the fact that this is a new Whistledown, but she’s still Julie Andrews.
amazing! I really thought it might be Mrs. Danbury. Glad we debunked this now ( He laughs). Can you talk about why Pen’s time at Lady Whistledown ended this season?
First, we felt like we couldn’t continue Pen’s Whistledown forever, so when I decided to abandon it at the end of Season 3, we talked about, Well, how much longer would it be interesting to be a public whistleblower because the mystery and the risks are kind of gone? I think we got a really interesting storyline to watch her struggle with that this season, but it was really fun to have her let go and then someone else take over for her, because starting in Season 1, even though we played a little bit of the mystery, it was by the book, so everyone was always going to know. They just had to Google it. But now we’ve created a situation where we have a real mystery about who Lady Whistledown is that we can play with for the next few seasons.
Can fans expect to see more of Penelope and Colleen in Season 5?
We definitely have plans to see Pen and Colin in Season 5. The rhythm that we’re trying to establish and get viewers used to is that the season’s protagonists, you should definitely expect to see them in the season immediately following their main season, and after that, we’ll always hope to bring them back at least in a cameo, if not more. And in Season 5, we haven’t started filming yet, but we’ve been writing the scripts, and we definitely want to see how Penelope will respond to Mrs. Whistledown and we definitely want to see more of Colin giving his version of sisterly advice.
Can you also tell if Season 5 will be centered around Eloise or Francesca?
We’ve put together some clues one way or another. We’re not trying to be too shy about it. We’re just trying not to distract Benedict and Sophie at the end of the season, and we really want to give them a chance, but we’ll announce the main characters. We always make an announcement when we start production, and we’re not that far away from starting production. I can’t say exactly when, but people will know soon enough.
What prompted you to include the post-credits scene this season, and why did you make it focus on Benedict and Sophie’s wedding?
We always knew we wanted the Cinderella character to have her own fairytale wedding. Initially the wedding scene was supposed to take place immediately after the main event ended. But Shonda [Rhimes] And I felt like there was too much going on at the end, and fans might need a moment to catch their breath and process, so we saved the wedding as a sneaky little bit after the credits.
What do you hope viewers take away from this ultimate moment? Bridgerton together this season?
It’s lovely that almost the whole family comes together to celebrate Ben and Sophie, and it also helps that there’s a lot of the butler class downstairs at the wedding. We wanted to show how Ben and Sophie were able to merge fantasy with reality and have their own place in My Cottage.
Will Luke and Sophie’s post-wedding life be explored further next season?
One hundred percent. I feel strongly that Yerin Ha can’t wear enough ball gowns. I want to see Ms. Ha become a beautiful princess and wear jewelry, so I’m really excited for more of that, and I’m also excited for more of her relationship with Benedict and seeing what their bliss looks like.
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All episodes BridgertonSeason 4 is currently streaming on Netflix. Check all Hollywood ReporterCoverage of Season 4 is here.
