Bridgerton is back, baby! Well, partially—Netflix has split its fourth season into two separate parts, and as of January 29th, we’ve been given the first four episodes of the season. And as for the other half? We’ll have to wait till the end of February for those.
Still, Part 1 is a lot of fun all on its own. This season is finally—finally!—focused on the bad boy of the Ton, Benedict Bridgerton. After three seasons of making art, doing drugs, and sleeping his way through society, Benedict is finally starting to understand why his siblings have chosen a more traditional path and settled down. Well, sort of.
The season starts off with the Bridgerton’s masquerade ball, where everyone is required to keep their identities secret until midnight. Sophie Baek, the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman-turned-maid, sneaks into the event, hopeful that her stepmother won’t notice since everyone will be wearing a mask. But while she mostly stays under the radar, there’s one person’s attention that she can’t seem to shake: that’s right, we’re talking about Benedict.
Benedict is immediately smitten by Sophie, whose name he never gets before she rushes off around midnight. He nicknames her “The Lady In Silver” and searches through the Ton for his mysterious lady, but to no avail; at the same time, Sophie’s stepmother finds out that Sophie has secretly attended the ball and kicks her out of the house. Sophie is forced to go to the countryside to work for another household, only to run into Benedict again on one fateful night—and when Benedict saves her from her employee’s creepy son, he takes her back to London with him (after a short stint at his cottage, of course).
Despite their class differences (and the fact that Benedict is still smitted by the Lady In Silver”), the two can’t help but fall for one another. In fact, Benedict is so won over by Sophie that he asks her the age-old question: “Will you be my mistress?”
Yes, THIS is where part 1 leaves us, with Benedict’s misguided offer and Sophie leaving him behind.
So what comes next for our protagonists? According to actress Yerin Ha, this season follows the book more closely than past seasons, which means we actually have a pretty good guess about what we’ll see in Part 2.
Sophie’s Step-Family Moves Next Door To The Bridgertons—And Benedict Helps Hide Her
We get a taste of this during the end of Part 1, but it’s going to become a bigger problem for Sophie going forward as she continues to try to hide her identity.
It also might be what helps push her into Benedict’s arms. In the book, during the Penwood’s first call to the Bridgerton house, Sophie panics and tries to hide; Benedict finds her and coaxes her to come with him to his own bachelor pad. While there, they bond over feeling like outsiders in their own families and open up slightly about their lives, leading Benedict to the realization that he’s fallen completely in love with her.
In the book, this is also where they finally end up making love
Benedict Tries To Move Sophie Into His Bachelor Pad
It’s not enough that Sophie is living in the Bridgerton household—in the book, Benedict wants her in HIS home. After they make love for the first time, Benedict orders to have her things moved into his home, but she rejects him.
Benedict is hurt, but it also forces them to talk about why Benedict doesn’t believe they can marry—not only because of his own reputation, but because he knows the Ton will go after Sophie if they were to wed. Sophie also opens up about her own fears, which is that if she agrees to be with him, she will have an illegitimate child with Benedict—and that the child will suffer the same fate that Sophie did growing up.
While Playing A Game, Sophie Covers Her Eyes—And Benedict Has An Epiphany
While playing a game of “blind man’s bluff” with the Bridgerton children, Sophie ties a scarf over her eyes. Benedict happens to walk by and realizes that she looks familiar—not like the Sophie he knows, but like The Lady In Silver.
He finally puts the pieces together and confronts Sophie about it, hurt that she’d been keeping the secret from him. He angrily admits that he’s spent all this time looking for her, but Sophie tells him she was never going to allow him to find her. As he continues to ask about her identity, she finally admits she’s the illegitimate child of a nobleman and a maid.
Violet Admits That She Knows About Benedict And Sophie’s Feelings—And That Sophie Isn’t Who She Seems To Be
Violet is always the MVP, especially when it comes to her children’s love lives. Earlier in the book, Benedict admits that he’s fallen in love with someone who isn’t in his social class, and Violet tells that she will accept him no matter what; so it’s really not hard for her to put together the pieces and realize Sophie is the woman he’s referring to, though she keeps it a secret.
However, she does finally admit to Sophie that she knows about the couple and that she also knows that Sophie likely isn’t who she says she is. Though Violet doesn’t fire her, Sophie does tell Violet that she’s leaving the household and will find work elsewhere.
Sophie’s Stepmom Accuses Her Of Stealing—And Gets Her Arrested
Before Sophie can leave the Ton, her stepmom realizes where she’s been hiding and calls the police, accusing Sophie of stealing shoe clips from her (the ones that Posy had gifted Sophie). Sophie is arrested and taken to jail, which the Bridgertons only find out after it’s written about in Whistledown—and after Benedict has finally decided that he truly does want to marry Sophie, even if it’s considered taboo.
Benedict goes to the jail to get Sophie, and Violet insists on coming along. When they get there, Violet lies that Sophie is Benedict’s fiancée and that Sophie has been falsely accused. Sophie’s stepmom, Araminta, is at the jail as well, and though she claims the Bridgertons are lying, Posy appears and tells everyone that she gave the shoe clips to Sophie. She says that if Sophie is to remain under arrest, she should have to be put in the jail cell, too.
Eventually, the magistrate sets Sophie free. It’s also revealed that The Earl of Penwood had left behind money for Sophie, but that Araminta had stolen it.
Benedict Proposes
Benedict finally fully apologizes for asking Sophie to be his mistress—though admits he would’ve been a fool not to ask, because he was in love with her, even if they were not allowed to marry. However, he tells her that he’d decided to marry her anyway, and that he would’ve done so even if Lady Penwood hadn’t been forced to legitimize Sophie’s social standing.
This leads to the infamous “Bath Scene”: Benedict takes Sophie back to his bachelor pad and orders a bath for two, and he helps her bathe off the grime of the jail cell. He tells her that in his heart, she is already his wife, and they make love again.
Benedict arranges for them to get married within three days, and afterward, the two move to the countryside together.
