With Benedict Bridgerton taking centre stage in season 4, will showrunner Jess Brownell honour the character’s queerness?
Bridgerton lavishly celebrates romance in all its excess, from gorgeous balls to wildly flamboyant declarations of love.
But historically speaking, ‘the Ton’ hasn’t had a ton of same-sex romance in this same vein.
That is, until the back half of season 3 saw Benedict Bridgerton put his back half into motion – and presumably the front as well — in a three-way dalliance with Lady Tilley Arnold and her suave bestie, Paul Suarez.
The moment was a long time coming, so to speak, after season 1 teased Benedict’s sexual curiosity.
In the finale, he admitted that he loves “a party of three”, to the point where he can no longer just be with Tilley solo. “You’ve opened my world and I am not ready to close it again just now,” Benedict revealed.
Yet, that’s exactly what it sounds like Netflix might be doing next, if the new season 4 logline is anything to go by.
“The fourth season of Bridgerton turns its focus to bohemian second son Benedict,” it reads. “Despite his elder and younger brothers both being happily married, Benedict is loath to settle down – until he meets a captivating Lady in Silver at his mother’s masquerade ball.”
An Offer From a Gentleman, the Julia Quinn book this chapter will be based on, is essentially Cinderella, but set in ‘the Ton’. No, really.
Sophie Beckett, the Lady in Silver, escapes her mean — some would even say “wicked” — stepmother to attend a masquerade ball where she meets Benedict. He falls hopelessly in love with this mystery woman, who just so happens to run away at the stroke of midnight.
From that point on, Benedict dedicates his life to finding the Lady in Silver, who he’s already fallen helplessly in love with.
As well as sounding very familiar, this all sounds excessively straight, as traditional fairy tales often are – although it’s important to note here that pairing a pansexual character like Benedict with someone of the opposite sex does not negate his queerness. He could never touch a man again and he’d still be forever queer regardless.
Yet the show’s previous reluctance to explore that side of Benedict for so long, combined with Bridgerton’s lack of queerness in general, certainly has us wishing for at least a few more “parties of three” with men before the second oldest Bridgerton sibling settles down for good with Sophie.
That’s especially important given how the one queer sex scene we did get last season was indisputably more chaste than the countless horny bangs that Benedict’s brothers enjoy with women.
In recent comments to Tudum, showrunner Jess Brownell said, “It felt important for [Benedict] to explore the fullness of himself before he settles down. He is someone who has big appetites, and we wanted to see him living a big life before he goes into settle-down mode.”
But Brownell can’t just be referring to that brief encounter with Tilley and Paul, surely? Although it was a great start, that alone can’t be the extent of Benedict exploring “the fullness of himself”?
In another interview, this time with Deadline, Brownell shared more details on what to expect from Benedict’s arc in season 4, saying: “I think we will continue that storyline of him exploring his fluidity going forward. This isn’t the end of that. As far as Sophie, I can’t say quite yet when she’s popping up.”
Now, that sounds a lot more promising. Even this early on, Benedict’s “fluidity” is already being considered ahead of time, which suggests that there will be more naughty dalliances before or even after Sophie eventually makes her debut at the ball.
Perhaps Bridgerton season 4 will break sharply from the rigid norms of high society and introduce its first trans character – which feels unlikely considering the show’s tentativeness when navigating sexuality thus far, but certainly not impossible.
Given the anti-trans mood that continues to pervade society, what a special and vital moment that would be.
That’s not to say this will be easy to navigate, though. With Benedict’s rise to centre stage, Bridgerton must now balance the needs of newer fans enamoured by his queer journey with avid book readers who surely see Sophie as endgame.
And to anyone questioning why this is even something to consider, sexual and romantic feelings between any two people, regardless of gender, are “the most natural thing in the world”, as Tilley put it to Benedict when this whole arc began.
That was true back in England’s Regency Era, and it is undoubtedly true now as well, so it’s about time that the show’s considerable queer fan base have the chance to be included in the hanky panky too.
Whatever happens next, it’s heartening at least to finally see the flagship Bridgerton show grapple with queer desire in the same way that the straights have enjoyed for so long.
Add in Francesca’s own queer story arc, teased at the end of season 3, and it looks like fans will have not one, but two queer romances to celebrate in all their lavish excess moving forward.
