Let me get this straight: Our sweet Lord John Stirling dies at the end of the previous episode, and within seconds of the beginning of “The Beyond,” we get a shot of bees? BEES?! The literal murderers of another beloved Bridgerton husband? Honestly, how dare you, show? We are too fragile for bees. And if we are in deep levels of mourning, you know the Bridgerton family are too. Everyone is dressed in black, there are black shrouds placed over all the paintings and mirrors, and even the vases are replaced with black ones. Again, now we know how rich the Bridgertons are — they have separate vases stashed away just for when people die. More important to our business here, of course, is the internal mourning going on. Everyone reacts differently to this great loss, and it is sure to send the season and perhaps the series in some interesting new directions. I mean, I’m already crying again — let’s talk about “The Beyond.”
Ain’t no funeral like a Bridgerton funeral
Bridgerton has explored grief before — quite lovingly in season two especially — but never this kind of palpable, immediate grief. The family are stunned. John was beloved, so they miss him, of course. They also worry about Francesca, and naturally, this sense of sudden loss makes them take stock of their lives. At the funeral, it’s Benedict who gives the eulogy, but the man — who back in season two was improvising poetry and just last episode was speaking eloquently on how society’s narrow-minded rules make all of them smaller — seems to be at a loss for words here. He speaks of John’s integrity, his unwavering love and loyalty, but he’s just stunned. Francesca, on the other hand, has compartmentalized so efficiently in order to survive, she seems ready to explode at any moment.
In fact, at the reception, she fixates on the cookies, practically forcing Benedict, Eloise, Gregory, and Hyacinth to eat them. Eloise plays a small role in this episode, but I keep thinking about her nonetheless — here, when she goes along with the cookie thing because she sees this is what Fran needs; later, when she tells Francesca that it’s okay to scream if she wants; and again when she finds Hyacinth swearing off love because it only ends in heartbreak, and El’s own heart breaks to see Hyacinth this way. Since Hyacinth called her out for being selfish and narcissistic, El has been anything but — the bitterness from part one of the new season is all gone. But her siblings can only say so much about cookies, and when Hyacinth turns teary-eyed and starts to talk to her sister about her loss, it’s Sophie who pulls Fran out before she loses it. She brings her upstairs to fix her hair and give her a breather. Sophie talks about her own grief after the loss of her parents and how she always tries to honor their memories. (One of those ways is by wearing her mother’s necklace, which Sophie realizes at that moment is missing.) Fran is thankful for what Sophie’s done, but she goes right back to bottling it up and worrying about doing things the right and proper way — it’s not a lasting strategy.
Honestly, Benedict isn’t doing much better than his sister. During the funeral, Sophie heads outside to gather some mint from the garden and finds Benedict standing there in the cold. “I just wanted to feel something other than despair,” he tells her. That’s bleak, baby. He’s appreciative that Sophie decided to stay on through the funeral, but she’s leaving in a week. Nothing has changed. When she goes to comfort him, he pulls away. He is trying to be strong for his family, but he’s barely holding it together, and being around Sophie is only making it harder.
Meanwhile, Violet, who knows the loss of a great love, is trying to be there for Francesca, even if she isn’t receptive. She admits to Lady Danbury, the only one who knows about her and Marcus’ engagement, that it just doesn’t feel right to take her focus off Fran at the moment. Violet’s worried her daughter isn’t allowing herself to grieve, and getting married, or even announcing that she’s getting married, doesn’t seem like it should be the priority. When she tells Marcus this, he is unbelievably understanding: “Anything you need, I am here for you.” How she doesn’t just marry him right there and then, I will never know.
She’s right to worry about Fran. Back at Kilmartin House, a grieving Michaela tells Fran about how they honor the dead in Scotland. They should celebrate John’s life with laughter and dancing and joy. That’s what he would want. Francesca takes it as a slight, as if she couldn’t host the funeral correctly, that she has failed, like she failed in so many things. She lashes out at Michaela and refuses to turn John’s death into “a circus.” The two new friends can barely speak to each other. When Eloise and Pen come to see her, they too try to get Francesca to let go and feel safe enough to express whatever emotions she wants. She doesn’t lash out at them, but she tells them one reason why she is attempting to remain calm: She believes she’s pregnant.
Everyone is sad!
When Queen Charlotte laments to Lady Danbury, just weeks before Agatha is set to leave Mayfair, that “it is a sad time,” man, she is not kidding. Everyone is sad! With the one-two punch of John’s death and Sophie breaking his heart, Benedict is bereft. He’s never been one to sit up straight in a chair, but still, the level of slouching going on really tells you how awful he’s feeling. When Violet comes to see him and brings up Sophie, he loses it. He’s angry at Violet for spending all their lives filling their heads with the idea of finding true love, and then once he has found it, Violet is telling him to walk away. It’s so hypocritical! Violet is in shock — she had no idea this was more than a tryst. She had no idea this was love.
This changes Violet’s perspective, but not her belief that this relationship needs to end. She finds Sophie frantically searching for her necklace in the drawing room, and after fessing up to knowing about her and Benedict, Violet searches for some loophole, some tie to nobility to make this work, but there is none. “I wish the world were different,” Violet tells her would-be daughter-in-law.
Benedict isn’t the only one tormented by having to walk away from this relationship: Sophie admits to her pal Alfie that it is torture staying at Bridgerton House; she needs to get out of there. Unfortunately, Lady Penwood — Cressida Cowper, remember? — hired someone else for the open position when Sophie had to postpone her start to stay on for the funeral. (I mean, Pen just did Cressida a solid by ditching Whistledown in time to not write about that botched Penwood Ball; you’d think she’d owe the Bridgertons a favor, but this is not Cressida’s way.) Alfie, who apparently moonlights as Mayfair’s servant HR manager, knows of another position available, but it is as a ladies’ maid for a family moving to the Americas — in three days. Sophie is torn. It would officially end any chance of some happily ever after with Benedict. But the internal debate gets much easier after Posy, a real MVP this season, sneaks out of her house through a window — completely upending Araminta’s evil plan to have Varley follow Posy and lead them to Sophie — and warns Sophie that Araminta is going to have her arrested if she finds her. Sophie tells her not to worry — she’s going to take a job in the Americas; she will be gone in two days. Araminta will never find her. It seems like a lot of details to give someone who lives with your archenemy, but what do I know?
If Sophie funnels her torment into a major life change, where does Benedict put his? Well, when our favorite royal lawyer, Mr. Dundas, shows up to discuss the Kilmartin line of succession with Fran and basically demands that she get an exam to prove she is actually pregnant, Benedict takes out all of his anger on that guy. He is protecting his sister from an invasive procedure in the middle of all the other pain she’s going through, sure, but he’s also railing against the demands of society at large. He is disgusted. Alas, as Ben knows too well, society is not a force easily toppled, and Francesca agrees to the exam, if only to end all the arguing. Add it to the list of ways Benedict feels he has failed the people he cares about.
The exam is as horrible as you’d expect. Eloise and Violet hold Francesca’s hands as she tries to hold back tears throughout it. And in the end, Francesca is not pregnant. There will be no child of John to inherit the Kilmartin name. This reveal is what finally pushes Francesca over the edge of grief. Following the examination, Violet is again trying to be there for her daughter, who now only wants to sleep in the drawing room. She tries to offer some understanding — she knows what this feels like. But as Fran points out in an increasingly emotional rant, Violet has no idea what this is like because Violet had eight kids with her husband. She has eight pieces of him with her. She has nothing of John, and on top of that, she failed him in her wifely duties, she yells. She admits that she wasn’t sure she even wanted kids, and it cursed her. John wanted kids, and she couldn’t give them to him, and now he’s gone. She sobs in Violet’s arms. Hannah Dodd, everybody.
A change of heart
Violet is shaken by this interaction. At home, she tells Mrs. Wilson that she fears that she’s letting her kids down. Edmund was supposed to be here to help her; she can’t answer all their questions or solve all their problems on her own. Mrs. Wilson, always a real one, reminds Violet that her kids don’t need her to answer all their questions — they “only need you to love them.” Violet is both moved and inspired.
She finds Benedict sulking and slouching around the house and asks him to have a drink with her. She’s been thinking about how lucky she was to be with the love of her life for as long as she did — some people never get to experience that. Through everything that’s happened, she has been reminded that when it comes to love, time is not on our side. If he really loves Sophie, if he really wants to be with her, he has to do it. But, she reminds him, whatever decision he makes now, he will have to live with it forever. If he does choose a life with Sophie, it will have to be a life away from the Bridgertons. They could write but not often. He would have to miss out on so many things. They couldn’t risk ruining his sisters. She needs him to know that if he has found love, he deserves to go after it. She needs him to know that if he does choose a life with Sophie and they do have to part ways with the family, “it will never change how much I love you.” Violet has had some pretty incredible chats with her children over the past four seasons, but this one is a doozy. So, what will Benedict do? He heads to his room for the annual requisite “main Bridgerton sibling lies in bed to reflect” shot.
Benedict having to be kept apart from his family would certainly be a substantial loss. Take, for instance, one of the most gorgeous scenes of the season, when Benedict comes to check on Francesca, and they sit at the piano together. He plays her a little tune — he’s so good — and tells her he used to play it when she was little, and it would make her laugh. As he goes all self-deprecating about how piano is yet another skill he gave up on, she tenderly tells him he is too hard on himself. He thinks the same of her, and he goes on to make sure she understands how much joy she brought to John’s life. “You lit up his entire world,” he says. “It was almost insufferable for the rest of us.” What a gift Benedict gives to Francesca at that moment. She is able to let go of her need for propriety and instead finds Michaela to take her up on that offer to celebrate John’s life with a little bit of joy.
A much less tender and loving heart-to-heart between family members takes place over at Araminta’s house when she decides to use a different tactic than “get the housekeeper to spy” in order to get Posy to give up info on Sophie. She tries to explain herself to Posy: The treatment of Sophie is coming from the desperation to give her daughters a good life — if the ton were to discover Rosamund and Posy grew up with someone’s illegitimate daughter, they would be ruined — and her cruel demand for perfection is a survival tactic. It’s not that she is making this up, and she was certainly given few options in life, but she is only telling Posy this in order to manipulate her … and it works. Posy, moved by her mother’s vulnerability, tells Araminta that she doesn’t need to go after Sophie anymore, that she’ll be gone the next morning on a ship to the Americas. Posy unwittingly just ruined Sophie’s chance to escape Araminta for good.
C’mon, everybody — do the stag!
All of this leads to one of the most eventful evenings in Bridgerton history. All the Bridgertons in town head over to Kilmartin House for the celebration of John’s life. And Michaela was right — this is much more cathartic, moving, and respectful of who John was than that cold, proper English funeral. It begins with people saying a few words about John. Michaela talks about how John was her “greatest friend and partner in mischief since birth.” He was her “guiding light.” (Listen, I know we’ve been worried about Fran since John’s death, but we really should be checking on Michaela more. In so many ways, John was also her soulmate.) All the Bridgertons have kind things to say about John and the “deliberate” way he spoke and acted, his love of a gesture, and how he always showed his heart in the way he not only loved Fran but also all of Fran’s family.
Finally, Francesca would like to say something. She proceeds to give a heartbreaking, gorgeous speech about how she doesn’t want to remember John by thoughts of how unfair and inconceivable his death is, but rather she wants to remember the joy and love he brought into her life. He understood her from the moment he saw her; he knew what she was thinking by just looking at her. “He was more than my husband; he was my truest friend.” This is painful now, but he brought so much good into her life, and she “would not change it for anything.” And then, teary-eyed and mournful, Michaela leads everybody in a dance she and John used to do when they were kids. She has Francesca join her in the front of the room, and they do the stag, and they spin, and suddenly the whole room is dancing and laughing — a perfect, joyful tribute to John’s life.
The evening provides catharsis for Francesca, but it also provides clarity for Benedict. After hearing what his sister said, he has made his choice: He needs to be with Sophie, regardless of how hard some parts of that life may be. He tells Violet he needs to leave, that he cannot wait any longer, and not only does she understand what he is about to do, but she also tells him that she left her grandmother’s ring for him in his desk. She knew what choice he would make. And then, Benedict is off! On horseback, no less!
He races to his room and finds the ring, but then he also finds a necklace on the floor under his bed. A necklace he instantly recognizes, twice over. He remembers Sophie wearing it the night they had sex in his room … but he also remembers his Lady in Silver wearing it. He rummages through all of his sketches and sees that the necklace in his hand, Sophie’s necklace, is the same one he’s been drawing on his mysterious lady. And if that didn’t sell him on the fact that Sophie and the Lady in Silver are one and the same, finding that second glove up in Sophie’s room sure does.
It is a mad dash to find her. He races into the kitchen to ask the servants where she is. They tell her that she’s already left for her new job at Penwood House. Thankfully, Hazel knows the truth, and she tells him about Sophie’s plan to join a family leaving for the Americas. Tomorrow morning! At dawn! But she doesn’t know the name of the family. Benedict must find her! It’s very stressful, and to be honest with you, reader, I am sweating.
But Benedict will not find Sophie — at least not yet. And that’s because the moment she steps outside Bridgerton House to head to this other family’s home, she is stopped by Araminta and a police officer. “This is the thief I was telling you about!” Araminta yells. Sophie Baek is hauled away to jail.