Bridgerton Season 4, Episode 7, “The Beyond” Spoilers Ahead
Bridgerton‘s “The Beyond” is a moving episode that displays what it means to cope with loss, both in death and heartbreak. We pick up in the aftermath of John Stirling’s passing, where Benedict and Francesca are doing everything they can to hold it together, but eventually they both hit their breaking points.
Meanwhile, Sophie has to make a drastic decision in order to protect herself from Araminta’s hellbent pursuit of her. As much as the plot drives us into the season finale, the emphasis on the character-driven moments makes the episode rather poignant.
Francesca Adjusts To Life Without John
Bridgerton Season 4, Episode 7, “The Beyond,” gives Francesca (and by extension, the audience) space to accept her new reality. Grief fundamentally changes you as a person. There is no going back to who you once were; you learn to live with it. Grieving looks different from person-to-person, despite losing the same person in the same way. Francesca and Michaela face John’s death on opposite ends of the spectrum. Michaela wants to embrace her Scottish roots and celebrate his life more than fixate on him being gone. In contrast, Francesca is trying to keep moving forward, not pausing to sit in it, and is focused on proceeding the “proper” way. When Michaela suggests hosting a celebration of life, Francesca thinks it would be indulgent and shuts her down.
Francesca is numb to her own pain, and for a brief time, for a good reason. Francesca believes she’s pregnant. For a glimmer of a moment, Francesca has something to hold onto instead of the pain just gnawing at her for attention. It keeps her calm and grounded until the royal solicitor comes by and requests an official examination for proof. Even Benedict’s insistence to delay this invasive procedure isn’t enough for Mr. Dundas to relent. With Eloise and Violet at her side, Francesca does everything she can to not break down on the bed as the doctor confirms that she isn’t pregnant.
Grief is a language with its own unique dialect for each person. Others can speak it, but it’s not the same from person-to-person. In recent months, my last remaining grandparents died. It’s in no way the same as losing a spouse or a parent, but that grief I feel is specific to me. It’s what I thought about as I watched Violet attempt to comfort her daughter when Francesca didn’t want to sit with her grief. As Violet tries to share her experience with her, it finally gets Francesca to snap. Her mourning isn’t the same as her mother’s. Yes, they both lost their husbands, the great loves of their lives.
Unlike Francesca, Violet has eight pieces of Edmund to remember him by. Francesca doesn’t have anything to remember John by because, in her eyes, she failed to give him a child, and therefore, she has nothing. She’s not just mourning her husband. Francesca is mourning her chance to be a mother. The way Hannah Dodd breaks down in Ruth Gemmell’s arms in this scene is all the more heartbreaking.
In her eyes, Francesca did everything the “right” way, and it’s left her exhausted and hollow.
After Benedict briefly cheers her up at the piano, a spot that’s always felt safe, she finds Michaela and the two put together an intimate gathering to celebrate John’s life. With the help of a few fiddles and a stag dance, Michaela brings warmth to John’s wake like a hearth warms a home. She gives herself and other family members the floor to remember this good man. It’s what gives Francesca the support she needs to speak about what John meant to her — John was her husband and her truest friend. Although she still feels pain, she also lets herself feel the love that she has for him, and for now, it outweighs the grief. As Francesca and Michaela dance together, for a brief moment, they’re holding each other up and feeling a little lighter than before. Cheers, John, and rest in peace.
Benedict and Sophie Get Two More Chances To Say Goodbye
In the wake of John’s death, Sophie delayed her interview with Cressida in order to be with the Bridgertons in their time of mourning. Sophie is acquainted with grief. Like Benedict, she knows the pain of losing a father. Even though, from her perspective, her father broke his promise to her, his death still lingers like a bruise that won’t fully heal. She carries her parents’ loss with her every single day. And now she sees this family she’s come to love breaking apart again, and her heart breaks for them. It’s why she saves Francesca for a brief respite at the funeral, and it’s why she can’t walk away when she sees Benedict standing alone in the cold as he’s desperately trying to feel something other than despair.
Ever since Sophie said goodbye to him in the conservatory in “The Passing Winter,” Benedict has been in a constant state of anguish. The woman he loves and opened his heart for is leaving him and their future together. His sister lost her husband unexpectedly. With Anthony gone, it’s up to him to be strong for the family on one of the most dreadful days. Benedict is barely holding on, and he knows that if he lets Sophie back in even a fraction, he will fall apart. So when Sophie tries to console him, he reacts as sensibly and as passively as he can; it’s in a similar way as Sophie did in the previous episode. Benedict wishes her luck, but can barely keep eye contact. He has to physically turn away from her when she tells him goodbye a second time, replying to her while facing the swings that used to be his safe haven. It’s a deflated, dejected goodbye from two people who desperately wish things could be different.
However, fate is on their side for one more chance at a better goodbye. After Francesca learns she isn’t pregnant with John’s child, Benedict loses it alone in the Bridgerton study. He pushes off books, papers, and anything within reach to lash out at how much more cruel things could be for his sister. Sophie overhears the noise and comes in, giving them a chance to be in each other’s orbits again. After helping pick up the mess, Benedict confesses he hates the way they said goodbye at the funeral. Every time he sees Sophie, he’s consciously aware that it might be their last.
It’s futile, it’s heartbreaking, but here they get an opportunity for something more tender than before. Still unable to convey the depths of her feelings, Sophie goes to stand by him and simply lean her hand into his. From there, the star-crossed pair find themselves back in the same position as they were in the conservatory. Foreheads touching, eyes closed again as they savor each other’s presence like it’s their last chance. Even though Sophie stops Benedict from kissing her, they still hold on just a moment longer. Benedict simply thanks her, not for anything specific, but if I can extrapolate here for a second, it seems like he’s thanking her for letting him love and believe in the possibility that they could be together — for shooting him back to life after merely sleepwalking, for the sheer act of existing and changing him for good.
At the start of the episode, Sophie was planning to return to Penwood House to work alongside Alfie and Irma again. Because she chose to be with the Bridgertons in the wake of John’s passing, she forfeited that option because Cressida found someone else. When Alfie mentions another open position with a family heading to the Americas, Sophie really weighs out her options. It’s more than just leaving the Bridgertons or London — it’s leaving the country and starting over across the sea. However, thanks to a warning from Posy, she knows it’s her only option. Araminta won’t stop until she sees Sophie behind bars over those shoe clips. For the sake of her safety and her own heart, Sophie makes the choice to leave for good, only trusting Posy and Hazel with the truth.
After this last goodbye with Benedict, Sophie lets herself say goodbye to her life at Bridgerton House, at the place where it really began: the gazebo. As she leaves while the Bridgertons are at Kilmartin House, she has a moment alone in front of the gazebo, the place where she and Benedict’s invisible strings became intertwined in a dance they didn’t realize they already knew the steps to. Sophie allows herself to close her eyes and recall her dance with Benedict — a memory she could escape to. Even more than Benedict, Sophie had a life here at Bridgerton House. She had friends who loved her; an employer who actually adored her and protected her like one of her own; and most of all, she fell in love with a man who saw her, Sophie Baek. Bridgerton House and Benedict were more than a place or a person; they were her home. But with the temptation to be with Benedict becoming too much to bear, Sophie walked away and said so long to London. Of course, Araminta has other plans.
Violet Finally Understands the Depths of Benedict’s Feelings For Sophie
Violet and Benedict have been mostly avoiding each other since the end of “Yes or No.” However, with John’s passing, their own friction is put on pause for Francesca’s sake, at least for a little bit. It certainly doesn’t help that Violet brings up Sophie when she’s alone with Benedict, remarking how good it’s been having her around for the funeral. After the day he’s had, and now that he’s alone with just his mother, he can’t hold it in. Benedict loses it. Unlike snapping at her for her own dalliance with Lord Anderson, Benedict is utterly distraught because of the hypocrisy of Violet’s lifelong creed.
For each of the Bridgerton children, Violet has taught them that a love match in marriage is the most important thing. Benedict spent much of his life running from that because he didn’t want to understand it. It was safer not to, yet he finally met his love match: the captivating, maddening, real Sophie.
He loves her more than anything in the world, but he can’t be with her because of her class. Since Sophie rejected his offer, he has to let her go and act like she meant nothing to him when she is his everything. It’s this that finally breaks through to Violet. All this time, she thought this was just a lustful, unserious affair. Here, her son is in pain over losing the love of his life. What really gets to the heart of the matter is when he asks if his father were of a lower class, if she would’ve done the same thing. Benedict is this serious when it comes to Sophie.
To punctuate this point further, Violet finds Sophie in the drawing room as she’s searching for her missing pendant. Violet directly asks her if she’s leaving Bridgerton House because of her son. Sophie doesn’t deny it, but instead asks why she didn’t dismiss her. Within a short period of time, Violet has grown to care for her like she were her own; Sophie is the exact sort of woman she wants for Benedict. It’s why Violet practically begs Sophie to reveal her lineage to her so she can find a way to restore hers and her son’s happiness. Violet is a champion of true love, and in her son’s eyes, she’s failed him. And with Sophie cementing that she’s just an unsuitable maid, Violet feels defeated that the world is the way it is.
Now that Violet realizes that what Benedict and Sophie have is, in fact, love, she’s able to give her son the sobering reality of his situation. Similarly to Anthony, she doesn’t sugarcoat it. If Benedict chooses to start a life with Sophie, there would be no back-and-forth from the country to the ton; he’d be ostracized from society. Benedict would be sacrificing his family and future family milestones. He wouldn’t lose total contact with them, but he’d miss birthdays and weddings.
But where Anthony’s reality check stops, Violet presses on in a different direction. This is no longer a discussion about Benedict making Sophie his mistress. Violet is treating this as Benedict choosing to make Sophie his wife. She will never stop loving her son, and she’s only ever wanted her children to experience the great love she had with Edmund. Violet is clear that she will support her son no matter what he chooses, but she wants him to consider the weight of his decision to marry Sophie if that’s what he decides to do. Because she is Violet, she already knows what Benedict will do. It’s why she leaves her grandmother’s ring for him on the desk in his room.
Benedict Finally Realizes Sophie Is the Lady in Silver
Benedict does heed his mother’s advice. He does sit with his anguish over what to do. He’s also under the impression that Sophie doesn’t love him the same way he does her. She rejected his offer and is choosing to leave Bridgerton House for good. But thanks to his sister, his decision is crystal clear. As Francesca speaks about John, she says this:
“It’s a strange feeling to spend your entire life feeling out of place, and then to meet someone who understands you before you even say a word. Someone whose singular qualities match your own. Whose kindness makes you feel warm. Who can read your mind across a whole room.”
Like Francesca, Benedict has felt out of place much of his life; he often feels like an imposter within his own family. Then he meets Sophie, both at the masquerade ball and at Cavender’s house, and the missing piece that had been lost is found. Her perspective challenges him, her kindness inspires him, and her interest in his art heals his former rejection. Sophie saw him and understood him completely. She’s the one person who’s ever made him want to risk it all for love the way the poets describe. He loves his family, but there is no going back for him. Sophie is his future, and he leaves Kilmartin House to start that future immediately. That is everything he needs.
After finding the ring his mother left for him, another piece of jewelry catches his eye. Benedict finds Sophie’s missing necklace next to his bed. As he admires and recalls the last time Sophie wore it, it finally starts to click for him. The Lady in Silver — the woman who had become a figment of his imagination — wore that exact same necklace at the masquerade ball. For months, he spent hours drawing her, trying to keep every detail of her and that night alive so he could recognize her one day. Since Sophie always wore the pendant under her uniform and took it off while she was at My Cottage, he wasn’t able to piece this information together sooner. (I’m giving this bumbling idiot a slight pass!) The nail in the coffin is when he goes to Sophie’s empty room, and all that remains is the other glove that she left behind.
After Sophie and Benedict make love at the end of “Yes or No,” Part 2 has deviated from the book’s trajectory in a few key places, especially with the inclusion of John’s passing. In An Offer From a Gentleman, Benedict connects the dots about Sophie while she’s blindfolded playing with the Bridgertons’ younger cousins, which leads to a liar reveal confrontation where Sophie leaves Bridgerton House, and Benedict leaves feeling betrayed. Instead of Benedict being hurt by this revelation, it increases his urgency to find Sophie. Thanks to Hazel, he discovers the truth about her plans to leave for the Americas in the morning. The final scene of the episode shifts the Netflix series back towards the book as Araminta has Sophie arrested and sent off to jail.
Bridgerton Season 4, Episode 7 “The Beyond,” slows down to grieve the loss of John Stirling, as well as consider the weight of Benedict and Sophie’s actions moving forward. With Sophie heading to jail and Benedict desperate to find her, the stage is set as we head towards what should be a climactic finale. It’s all been leading to this.
Afternoon Tea and Further Thoughts
- I’m sorry, but Anthony and Kate should’ve been there for the funeral. I know we only had a small window for Jonathan Bailey and Simone Ashley, but being there for Francesca should’ve been a priority. Lilies aren’t enough.
- Give me more Francesca and Sophie scenes, please and thank you. As a matter of fact, more Francesca and Benedict scenes at the piano, too!
- Lady Danbury definitely clocked Benedict watching Sophie at the funeral, and she’s the only person who knows about Violet and Marcus’ betrothal. She really does know everything in Mayfair.
- “What is the point of finding love when your husband will probably die?” Oof, I was not expecting Hyacinth to be hit so hard by John’s death, but it makes so much sense.
- Another Alfie sighting! You a real one (even though Sophie’s heading to the Americas because of you)
- “You have no idea of the sacrifices we’ve made to maintain that honor!” Let ’em have it, Benedict!
- Araminta plans to speak to the magistrate over the shoe clips. Girl, it’s been months. Move on!
- Posy makes a stray comment about how handsome Footman John is. He is spoken for by Hazel, thank you very much!
- Who’s ready to teach me this stag dance?
Now streaming on Netflix: What are your thoughts on Bridgerton Season 4, Episode 7, “The Beyond?” Let us know in the comments below.
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