SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from “Bridgerton” Season 4, Part 2, now streaming on Netflix.
After a slow-burn start to “Bridgerton” Season 4 in Part 1, Part 2 makes up for lost time with two deeply intimate but very different sex scenes between Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson) and Sophie Baek (Yerin Ha).
The first comes at the end of Episode 5 (the opening installment of the back half of the season) when Sophie and Benedict give in to their lust for each other and have sex in his bedroom despite their fears of being caught and her concerns about getting pregnant. Set to a Vitamin String Quartet cover of Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control,” the spicy scene is all about giving into that bad idea they started at the end of Part 1, before Benedict’s “mistress” proposal got in the way.
“I feel like the pacing of it definitely felt completely different when we were doing it,” Ha told Variety. “I think one is urgent, and one is a little bit more taking care of and taken care of, actually. There were things that we were discussing for the first scene, like, Sophie knows how to undress herself, because she’s a person who would know that. She doesn’t need help, there’s a lot of self-autonomy there. And so we wanted to also make it a little bit different, perhaps, to the other seasons about what it means to potentially make love with someone who is of lower rank and who doesn’t like help, essentially.”
The second doesn’t arrive until Episode 8, the Season 4 finale. Set to Strings From Paris’ rendition of Camila Cabello’s “Never Be the Same,” the moment is pulled straight from Julia Quinn’s “An Offer From a Gentleman” book, in which Benedict and Sophie share a bath in his room. But in this scene, there is no penetrative sex. Instead, Benedict cleans Sophie and pleasures her intimately without intercourse, honoring the fact Sophie is still afraid of getting pregnant, and the two are trying desperately to make sure they can end up together, now that they have his family’s approval, and just need society’s.
“With the bathtub scene, I think it was also about, like, what does Sophie enjoy?” Ha said. “What does giving pleasure mean, and what does receiving pleasure mean? And actually giving can also be a sense of self-pleasure as well. But also in that one, I felt like it was a lot about her taking charge when she feels like it, but then also being able to be happy with the surrender of receiving. I think in the first one, it was all about kind of equally trying to get somewhere together, as the other one was about more give and take and being a bit more poetic.”
Both scenes of physical intimacy were done in collaboration with “Bridgerton” intimacy coordinator Lizzy Talbot, who also assist Thompson and Ha in pretending to have sex in a giant bathtub of sloshing water.
“That bathtub was also very long, and I have short legs,” Ha said with a laugh. “So there was a lot of logistics, like, which arm am I gonna make sure that I hang on to so I don’t slip and go under the water? But Lizzy Talbot is great for that. She’s the best intimacy coordinator. And, yeah, bathtub sex scenes are not as glamorous as you may see it in the end.”
See more from Variety‘s interview with Ha below, including her thoughts on the “fairytale” of Benedict and Sophie’s future children, her conversations with showrunner Jess Brownell about her character — and how she’d like to see Sophie spend more time downstairs and get to know Kate more in Season 5.
When Sophie and Benedict are discussing their future together, he tells her he has had feelings for and had sex with both men and women. Sophie processes this quickly, and responds very compassionately and supportively given the time and historical context. Why do you think that is?
When I read it, I was like, “Oh, wow — Sophie is so open and generous.” And then very quickly, I was like, well, that makes sense, because I think Sophie is someone who has always been misunderstood her entire life. And she really struggles with people who judge her because of her rank. Jess mentioned to me as well that Sophie’s possibly open to the fact that Alfie is also someone who potentially has open sexuality as well. Like, she’s not unfamiliar with it. And the maids are also people who hold the gossip in all the households, and the people who really talk.
So I think she’s not unaware of the concept of what open sexuality looks like, or fluidity — and then also she’s someone who hates being misunderstood. So who is she to make him feel misunderstood as well?She’s someone who does hold a lot of grace and space, and it’s all about love, isn’t it? It’s not about the fact that he was with a man or a woman. It’s about the fact that he is able to express himself truly and freely, and that is so amazing. It’s actually about love with a person; it doesn’t matter about their gender or sex.
Sophie is finally allowed to live in society and has a whole new world to join in coming seasons — but do you think she will still be involved with her old life in the downstairs world and with her stepsister Posey?
Of course! I would love to see the interaction between her and the downstairs, or the differences in how the other Bridgerton siblings treat the downstairs people. I mean, they’ve always been people who respect the downstairs class, actually, but in terms of how they interact, I would love to see that. And definitely see Sophie in noble clothes going downstairs, that would be really fun. I would love to see that. I would love to see them still be very much prominent in the season. If I was a writer, that would be what I would do — but I’m not, so I can’t change that. But I’d love to see that, and see Sophie also just develop her relationships with the Bridgerton sisters and still maintain her relationship with Posey. That would be really sweet.
Araminta made the choice to lie to Sophie about her father, Lord Penwood, providing for her in his will. Sophie believes this unquestioningly until Benedict prompts her to reevaluate why. What is your take on why Araminta could treat Sophie so harshly, going so far as to have her thrown in prison — and why did Sophie accept Araminta’s story about the will?
I read an interesting quote the other day saying that, people portray hate because they don’t want to deal with the pain that they have inside them. And I think that is such a quality that Araminta holds. I think when she came into this marriage with Lord Penwood, she felt like she was betrayed to from the get go. And that pain, and her significant reminder in Sophie, makes her inflict a lot of pain onto Sophie — because she can’t deal with her own.
It was really a funny dynamic, but in terms of that will, I think Sophie’s a much bigger person than I am. But that’s the moral of the story — that no matter how much someone hurts you, you can choose to be the bigger person and rise above that, rather than stooping down to their level. But it just makes everything click for Sophie. And it heartbreaks me that she never went to see the will, and she couldn’t ever believe. Like, she just believed the thing that Araminta said because I think from a very young age, she always kind of sensed that the minute Araminta came into her life, her father may have been acting a little bit off, and that narrative that you create in your head can be so strong.
So I understand why she’s done things the way that she has, and she hasn’t believed the things that she has. When she found the will, it was emotional doing that scene as well, because I’ve experienced things where I’ve run with a certain narrative, and then actually, someone’s told me that that’s actually not the case behind the scenes. And it really throws things into perspective. It was actually a very emotional scene to shoot that one, and the one where I tell Benedict, like, “Actually, I was in the will.”
After a whole season exploring the pains of being an illegitimate child and fears of pregnancy, Sophie and Benedict are now free to have children that would be welcomed warmly into society. Do you think they will?
I would love to see Benophie babies. That would be great. Especially because Sophie, I think, for so long, probably didn’t think that that was going to be the case for her. Maybe she wanted it deep down inside, but she refuses to let her child live the life that she has, and so she’s probably set on such an idea that she can’t have one, but they’re now able to have a happy ending. And I think bringing a child into the world is something that she can change the narrative on herself of like actually instilling love and being a mother that maybe she never had. And doing that alongside someone like Benedict it’s like their own little fairy tale thing come to life. I would love to see Benophie babies. It would be so cute.
Sophie got to know a few of the Bridgerton women this season — Eloise and Hyacinth the most, while working for them, but also Penelope and Francesca — but had no scenes with Kate. Do you want to see those two team up in the future as the wives of the two eldest Bridgerton boys?
There was scene where I stand in the distance from Simone [Ashley]. But I was like, “Oh, gosh, it would be so nice…” I hope that’s the case in the future. I would love that and to have the Asian leads come together, I think it would be so beautiful. So I’m hopeful but, again, I’m not the writers, so I have no power. But I hope that and she’s such a lovely human being. So I’m manifesting that for our future, down-the-line stuff.
Detail: https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/bridgerton-sophie-benedict-bathtub-sex-scene-babies-1236673185/
