For anyone who doesn’t know, season 4 of Bridgerton came out early this year and it was an absolute emotional rollercoaster.
The beginning of the story is very similar to that of Cinderella, with the caveat of her being the child of the late Lord Penwood and a maid. Her father gets married, dies and leaves Sophie Baek (our protagonist) in the care of his wife, Araminta Gun. The same wife who suspiciously told Sophie that her father left absolutely nothing for her in the will. Though of course — as the ever benevolent person she is — she would take care of Sophie… by making her a maid.
Araminta Gun, or Lady Penwood, is perhaps the epitome of evil stepmother. Honestly, after Edwina’s grandmother from season two, I really didn’t think there was a way to hate a mama that much. That was, until we met Lady Penwood. She is, quite possibly, the most self-centered, narcissistic person ever – second only to her eldest daughter Rosamund. As the season’s main antagonist, she did an incredible job absolutely infuriating me. Not since Lord Berbrooke in season one have I had such a strong desire to strangle someone. Frankly? I was hoping that Sophie would either irreparably destroy her closet or pour scalding tea on her lap.
Going back to our main plot, Sophie snuck out to a masquerade ball, meeting this season’s main Bridgerton, Benedict, before running away at the stroke of midnight, losing her glove. Benedict becomes absolutely obsessed with finding her, but Araminta finds out Sophie defied her orders and attended the ball and fires her, causing her to get hired on the countryside. There, she coincidentally meets Benedict and he instantly… does not recognize her. They end up growing closer, even sharing a kiss, before returning to Bridgerton house where Benedict convinces his mama to hire Sophie.
We of course couldn’t go through the season without the signature, Bridgerton style love confession. Absolutely swoon-worthy… until it was completely ruined by Benedict asking Sophie to be his mistress. I may or may not have thrown my phone across the room after hearing that. Unfortunately, it seems that just like his brothers, Benedict insists on being incredibly dense until sense finally gets knocked into him. Even after they finally confess their love for each other and make a plan to run away together, it is cut short by Sophie’s fear of being abandoned by Benedict, like her mom was by her father.
Momentarily diverging from the main relationship, Francesca’s friendship with her husband’s cousin, Michaela, was probably one of my favorite things about the season. Seeing Francesca come out of her shell around her was amazing and that makes what happens later even more heartbreaking. There were definitely tears running down my face, but the worst part was seeing Francesca put up a metaphorical mask in front of everyone and try to be strong. That whole plot had me in my feelings, especially Francesca’s face at the end when she discovers that Michaela lied about staying.
Going past my emotions, my biggest problem with the season was that they never actually addressed the real problem of caste discrimination. They talked about it, sure, how they “wish it could be different” and all that. However, in the end, they don’t deal with it, rather passing Sophie off as a *legitimate* distant relative of Lord Penwood. There was an opportunity to address an important issue and they just glossed over it.
On the surface, with its classic British Regency era charm and complex character, Bridgerton season four was amazing. However, in the end, there was room to do so much more with the class differences plot and it fell short.
