Netflix chose to celebrate Valentine’s Day in epic fashion with their virtual Bridgerton Season 4 special, giving the masses and fans much to consume to hold us over until Season 4, which is expected to air in 2026. Golda Rosheuvel, the queen herself, moderated the panel with this upcoming season’s leads, Luke Thompson and Yerin Ha — Benedict and Sophia (Benophie), respectively — as well as showrunner Jess Brownell.
Season 4 is turning its attention to Number Two himself, Benedict Bridgerton, and his forbidden love story with Sophie Baek, a maid to the Penwood family. In their book, An Offer from a Gentleman, their courtship has everything — love at first sight, class division, a push and pull that can’t be denied, a steamy scene at the lake, and a daring rescue from a jail cell. All this becomes the stuff of legend within the Bridgerton family lore, and it appears their story will get that same treatment in the Netflix series. We’ll have to wait and see how faithful of an adaptation it will actually be (we have trust issues for… reasons), but based on Brownell’s comments, this might be the closest yet.
At the panel, Brownell shared many details about this upcoming season, like which book scenes to expect in Bridgerton Season 4, first-look pictures from the masquerade, the new layers of dynamics between the working class of Bridgerton with the upstairs ton, etc. Honestly, I’m pretty overwhelmed by how much Benophie information was freely given throughout this live event. Yet, when I slow down and take it all in, I come back to the woman of the hour, my best girl, Sophie Baek.
After years of waiting for confirmation that she simply exists within the world of Bridgerton, seeing Yerin Ha on that stage answering questions feels like a fever dream. I’m waiting for someone to wake me up and tell me she’s not real. But she is. Sophie Baek is real, and she’s here. We’ll be seeing Benophie on our screens! The joy on Ha’s face throughout the event is infectious, and it’s that exact joy that draws Benedict to Sophie at the fated masquerade ball.
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Every fear I had about Sophie melted away once Ha was officially cast. However, hearing her speak about what drew her to Sophie as a character has given me a confidence I haven’t felt for Bridgerton in a long time. Here is what Ha said:
“I think Sophie is this super headstrong character, and she’s very independent, but she craves and yearns for love. Just because this man enters her life, she doesn’t surrender everything; she doesn’t give up everything. There’s a sense of self-respect and this dignity for herself. But I think the most interesting for me was the journey of her realizing that being vulnerable and also asking for help isn’t a weakness. That she, too, deserves love, just like everyone in this room.”
What has always stuck out to me about Sophie is this balance of being so strong in the face of the cruelness she has experienced yet still desires love. I wrote about her strength at length in my deep dive into her character. Sophie is resilient enough to survive when, at that time, she easily could’ve suffered a grim fate on her own; she’s strong enough to turn down the man she loves out of her own self-dignity. But it’s ok to break down and ask for help. It’s ok for Sophie to let go of the weight of her world and place it in Benedict’s hands.
Thanks to Luke Thompson’s performance of Benedict thus far, Brownell explained during the panel that his approach to winning over Sophie is going to look different from that of the book. In the show, Benedict is going to be “a bit more delicate and thoughtful.” Considering everything Sophie has and will face, this type of quiet vulnerability and care is exactly what Sophie needs. Even though the world has given her the opportunity to do so, with Benedict, he is her safe person to be vulnerable with. Sophie deserves to be cared for by Benedict after having a panic attack after locking eyes with Posy; she deserves to receive a mother’s love from Violet, to have sisters like Eloise and Hyacinth, and to be regarded as a person, not an object.
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What I’m (still) saying is that Sophie Baek deserves the world, and we need Bridgerton Season 4 + Benophie like we need air.
First Featured Image Credit: ©Liam Daniel/Netflix