By and large, Bridgerton Season 4 successfully adapts Julia Quinn’s An Offer From a Gentleman for the Netflix audience. This season is centered on the Cinderella-esque/forbidden love story between Benedict Bridgerton and Sophie Baek. While many key scenes from the book play out in the show, like the masquerade ball and the lake, Season 4 gives audiences a few new scenes that make Benedict and Sophie’s love story truly soar. One such scene is when Benedict and Sophie fly a kite together at My Cottage in Bridgerton Season 4, Episode 3, “The Field Next to the Other Road.”
As we’ve seen in previous seasons, it’s a risk to deviate too far from the source material. Sometimes, it works to the story’s favor, while other times it falls completely flat, like the prolonged love triangle of Season 2 or even Theo, for that matter. However, this quiet new scene is not only a great addition to the season, but it also encapsulates why Benedict and Sophie are ultimately drawn to each other.
Benedict has been agitated since Mrs. Crabtree has had him on bed rest while he recovers from his injury from Cavender. He’s essentially grounded, and he’s grown restless. When he finally can’t take it anymore, Benedict makes a break for it, but he doesn’t want do it alone. After their interaction in his library, Benedict’s view of Sophie has shifted. She’s not just a maid to him. Sophie is well-read, she listens, and she engages with his art, a passion he’d let grow cold now starting to thaw once more. In many ways, she’s as much of an enigma to him as the Lady in Silver is. But the Lady in Silver isn’t here. Sophie is. He wants to spend time with her. So, Benedict takes it upon himself to fix Gregory’s old kite for Sophie and convinces her to join him on his mini jailbreak.
At first, Benedict is unsuccessful at getting the kite in the sky. Even as Sophie snorts at his attempt, he’s undeterred. In fact, he’s trying to impress her. In his eyes, Benedict has humiliated himself in front of Sophie too many times since they rode off to My Cottage at the end of Bridgerton Season 4, Episode 2. He failed to anticipate the rain; he couldn’t start a fire; even his French pronunciation could use some work.
Meanwhile, Sophie excels where he lacks, practically an expert at everything she does. After being treated as an invalid by Mrs. Crabtree (lovingly), Benedict is trying to rise to the occasion over a kite. That’s why he declares that he’ll fix the kite when Sophie attempts to help. In his words, he claims to know kites. So it’s a personal triumph for him when he does eventually get it in the air, capping off his victory with a smug “ha” to Sophie.
As the kite takes flight, Sophie stands by Benedict as she admires it in the sky. While Benedict remarks how he’s forgotten how much he used to enjoy this, Sophie’s mind goes somewhere a bit more pensive. She admits to Benedict that she hasn’t flown a kite since she was a little girl. From what we’ve seen from Sophie’s past in “Time Transfixed,” we can piece together that prior to Araminta’s arrival, Sophie did get to be a kid. Lord Penwood might not have claimed her as his own, but she has some happy memories, even if they’re only a handful. There are enough for her to hold onto so that if she wishes, she can escape to them, like she told Benedict during the masquerade ball. It’s these pleasant memories that remind Sophie of the goodness in her life, even if Araminta has done everything in her power to snuff it out.
“It’s good to be reminded of such happy memories.” It’s at that statement that Benedict looks at her with such warmth and care, like he’d do anything to keep that happiness alive instead of fleeting. That’s when he hands over the kite to her. After all, he fixed it for her. When she initially says no, Benedict challenges her that she’d realize she might have fun (certified ragebaiter). Sophie grabs it, and that childlike wonder settles back in for the first time in years. As she runs with the kite (after Benedict encourages her to do so), the pair run around, completely oblivious to the Crabtrees watching or the outside world ready to bring them back down to earth.
For all the romance, yearning, and heat on display throughout Bridgerton Season 4, Part 1, the kite scene is modest in nature. There are no major revelations nor sexual tension you could cut with a knife. Yet, it stands out in my mind as one of the most romantic scenes between Benedict and Sophie in Bridgerton Season 4 Part 1. The magic of this scene is the childlike freedom on display. There’s no one around. Their smiles are genuine and their laughs uninhibited. Benedict and Sophie are so playful with each other, as Benedict teases Sophie into having fun with him. They both come from opposite ends of a childhood, but they meet together in the middle, genuinely enjoying each other’s presence with a toy.
If you take a step back, this is also one of the first scenes Luke Thompson and Yerin Ha filmed together. It’s a scene not included in the books; therefore, as actors, they had complete freedom to make this scene their own. No expectations, no lines from the book — it’s just them. They got to experiment with this new, precious relationship without the eyes of the rest of the cast on them. In one scene, Thompson and Ha discovered and created what Benedict and Sophie will be through this pure, playful encounter. They set the tone for what Benedict and Sophie’s dynamic will be, as they went back to film previous episodes, as well as where this couple goes from here.
This is the purest form of Benedict and Sophie as a couple and as individuals. Here in this moment, they are unmasked and unrestricted by society’s rules. Benedict is more than Number Two. Sophie is more than a maid or a nobleman’s bastard. They see each other’s souls and experience the peace and contentment of just being there together. If a scene could be a thesis statement for why Benedict and Sophie are soulmates in every sense of the word, the kite scene is it.
Bridgerton Season 4, Part 1 is now streaming on Netflix.
First Featured Image Credit: ©LIAM DANIEL/NETFLIX