“Just because someone ends up in a heterosexual-presenting relationship, that doesn’t negate their queerness,” says showrunner Jess Brownell.
In Part 2 of Bridgerton Season 4, now streaming on Netflix, a private conversation between Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson) and Sophie Baek (Yerin Ha) becomes one of the season’s most important turning points — not just for their romance, but for Benedict himself. It’s the moment he brings his full self into their developing relationship, including his past loves of both men and women, and chooses to share that truth plainly with the person he loves.
Part 1 ended with Benedict asking Sophie to be his mistress, a proposal he believed was the best he could offer within the rigid expectations of the ton. For Sophie, whose own mother lived as a nobleman’s mistress, the offer hit too close to home. She fled from him and rejected the proposal, refusing a future that mirrored her mother’s, and leaving Benedict to reckon with what it truly means to love someone society says he can’t.
Benedict, however, is no stranger to relationships that exist outside the strict rules of the ton. In Season 3, he realizes the complete breadth of his attraction and enters into a group relationship with Paul Suarez (Lucas Aurelio) and Lady Tilley Arnold (Hannah New). But while Benedict’s past relationships — both heterosexual and queer — were defined by his disinterest in commitment, his connection with Sophie is different. With his soulmate, he wishes to bare his full emotional truth.
So, in Episode 6, Benedict brings Sophie to the Bridgerton conservatory for a nighttime rendezvous. Their date marks a shift for a man who has long kept intimacy, identity, and obligation neatly separated: This time, he’s summoning everything into the same space. As candlelight illuminates the edges of Bridgerton House, for a moment the rules that separate our Season 4 lovers feel briefly suspended.
At the beginning of the scene, Benedict shows Sophie his plans for My Cottage, his proposed sanctuary where they can spend life away from London’s scrutiny, and talks about their potential future; his sketch of the estate even reads “Our Cottage” now. But before he goes any further, he stops. He wants her to know everything about him, just as he hopes to know everything about her. He tells Sophie that he has cared for both the women, and also the men, whom he has been intimate with. He explains that society shouldn’t dictate how one lives or who one loves, that he refuses to feel shame about any part of himself. Bridgerton doesn’t frame the conversation as a confession or a shocking revelation; it’s simply Benedict being honest about who he already is.
For the creative team, that preservation of Benedict’s identity was nonnegotiable heading into Season 4. “It’s really important that just because someone ends up in a heterosexual-presenting relationship, that doesn’t negate their queerness,” showrunner Jess Brownell tells Tudum. “Benedict’s queerness is still very much a part of his identity.”
That commitment shows up clearly in how Benedict moves through the world this season. In the premiere episode of Season 4, we see him at a party, freely flirting and sharing a passionate kiss with a familiar male acquaintance named Louis (Sachin K. Sharma). The moment is casual and confident, presented as a natural occurrence in Benedict’s daily life. His attraction to men exists on the same plane as his attraction to women, and the show never asks him to justify it. “I think what’s really refreshing about him as a character is that he hasn’t had a very angsty relationship with his sexuality,” Thompson explained on Bridgerton: The Official Podcast.
By the time Benedict opens up to Sophie in the candlelit conservatory, he isn’t in the middle of discovering himself — he already has, and is quite comfortable with his truth. Now, he wants to share that reality with the person he loves. That distinction matters. “I don’t think it’s something he needs to get off his chest anymore,” Thompson tells Tudum, reflecting on Benedict and Sophie’s intimate conversation. “Or if it is, it’s only because it’s something that he doesn’t want to hide from Sophie. It’s all about Sophie in that scene.”
Sophie listens to Benedict’s vulnerability without judgment, then gently agrees that love is always something to be proud of, and that the world needs more of it. The relief on Benedict’s face is immediate. She understands that Benedict loves her for who she is, not her specific gender. “What’s so lovely about Sophie seeing Benedict is that she really just accepts him for who he is, in his entirety,” Ha explained on Bridgerton: The Official Podcast. “It doesn’t phase her because it’s him. We all have our secrets, and she does too.”
With Benedict’s truth out in the open, Sophie shares hers. She deepens their conversation, revealing her own truth about being born to a maid and a nobleman, about growing up as a secret, and about her fear of repeating her mother’s fate. She speaks honestly about wanting stability and a different future for any child she might have. Benedict answers her vulnerability the same way she answered his, promising that he’ll stand by her and protect the family they might create, no matter what.
“It’s a nice moment because it is about honesty. You know that feeling when you’re just sort of like, ‘Do I have to be honest? OK, yeah, I have to be honest,’” Thompson explained on Bridgerton: The Official Podcast. “It’s what human relationships — particularly when a couple are falling in love — [honesty] is what it’s based on.”
Benedict and Sophie’s emotional conversation in Episode 6 doesn’t just move their love story forward; it affirms that Benedict’s sexuality isn’t erased in their happily ever after. He brings his full self into the relationship without an apology, and Sophie only feels closer to him for it. In loving Sophie, Benedict doesn’t become someone else — he becomes more himself.
Relive Benedict and Sophie’s fairy tale in Bridgerton Season 4, now streaming, only on Netflix. And keep coming back to Tudum for all your Mayfair news.
