Benedict-Sophie Sex Scenes, Whistledown Surprise

[This story contains major spoilers from Bridgerton season four, Part 2.]

Benedict (Luke Thompson) and Sophie (Yerin Ha) have finally found their happily ever after — but not without overcoming plenty of scandalous Regency-era gossip and high-stakes drama in Bridgerton season four. After all, showrunner Jess Brownell had previously teased to The Hollywood Reporter that Part 2 of the Cinderella-inspired season was going to deliver some “very juicy offerings.”

In the second half, as Benedict and Sophie’s love intensifies (with some highly steamy scenes), so do the challenges of dating across social classes. Adding to the chaos, Araminta (Katie Leung) also has a vendetta against Sophie, leading to her getting thrown into jail at one point, while Benedict wrestles with leaving society and his family to be with Sophie in the countryside.

“It was important for us that Benedict choose Sophie before this lie that gets agreed upon between Araminta and Violet became an option. He’s absolutely planning on proposing to her at the end of episode seven before he learns that she’s the Lady in Silver,” Brownell tells The Hollywood Reporter of their relationship. “It was key for us that his decision is not dependent on her becoming a part of society.”

Thankfully, Lady Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell) came to the rescue once again, devising the perfect plan that allows “Benophie” to have a well-deserved fairytale ending. As for the other Bridgertons, Francesca (Hannah Dodd) is mourning the loss of her husband John (Victor Alli), Eloise (Claudia Jessie) is still avoiding men and Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) puts down her Lady Whistledown pen for good. But don’t worry, because there’s a new mystery gossip writer in town.

Below, Brownell unpacks Part 2, including how Benedict and Sophie’s romance finally came together, the intense jail scene, Araminta’s hatred of Sophie, John’s death, the new Lady Whistledown mystery and what viewers can expect in future seasons.

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At the end of episode five, why does Sophie give in to Benedict? She’s really is trusting him at his word, yet she has so much to lose.

It’s a moment in which they’re both really caught up. And for Sophie, also hearing “I love you” and seeing the sincerity from Benedict. Sophie has spent a lot of her life starved for love and really not feeling loved, so it’s very meaningful for her, and it’s obviously very meaningful for Benedict as well. He’s not the kind of person who’s going to say that casually.

Benedict is facing a massive dilemma in Part 2, trying to decide between Sophie and society. Do you think if Violet didn’t come up with that plan at the end, that he still would have moved to the countryside to be with Sophie and cut ties with his family?

One-hundred percent. It was very important for us that Benedict choose Sophie before this lie that gets agreed upon between Araminta and Violet became an option. He’s absolutely planning on proposing to her at the end of episode seven before he learns that she’s the Lady in Silver. That would’ve been a moment where he would’ve run away with her to the countryside. There’s also a moment in the bathtub where they don’t know how it’s going to work out with the Queen or not and he’s very willing to propose to her there again, but she says, “No, not yet. Not while this is hanging over us.” So it was key for us that his decision is not dependent on her becoming a part of society.

Thankfully they were eventually able to be together, but do you think the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel) could have been OK with Benedict being with a maid? Especially after Alice’s big monologue trying to convince her.

To quote The Good Place, I think the Queen is a messy bench who loves drama (laughs), and for her, if something is fun and titillating, she is somewhat willing to go along with it, the same way she was willing to let Penelope come out as Whistledown because it was interesting and a game was afoot. But yes, there’s the good possibility that the Queen would’ve allowed them to be together, but they still probably would’ve had to leave society. So the plan that Violet concocts, forcing Araminta into the lie, is the helpful piece that allows them to stay in society.

Should audiences trust Araminta to keep her word and not expose Sophie? 

Araminta knows that it’s mutually assured destruction. if she exposes Sophie, Araminta will be exposed for embezzlement. She could be put away and go to jail for embezzling Sophie’s dowry, and Armenta is deathly afraid of being called out in front of society. So I don’t think there’s any chance that she’s going to go back on the plan.

Seeing Sophie in a prison cell was also such an intense moment this season. Why did Araminta hate Sophie so much that she wanted her locked up in prison for the rest of her life? That’s some next-level hate.  

That was in reading the book something that we asked ourselves. In the book, she is a little more purely villainous, but we wanted to understand why a little bit more in the show. So for us, it came down to the fact that Sophie is representative for Araminta of everything that’s gone wrong in her life, and it is much more than Sophie has even anything to do with. Sophie really becomes a scapegoat for feelings that are far too scary for Araminta to really sit with.

There were also some highly anticipated spicy scenes in Part 2. Talk to me about bringing those to life off the page, notably the bathtub scene. 

The intimacy scene at the end of episode five is not really from the books; it’s more of our invention. With that scene, it was about having to create a scenario in which we believed that Sophia is caught up enough to allow herself to do this thing that otherwise, ethically and morally, she wouldn’t want to do because she’s so afraid of having an illegitimate kid. Our director Gia-Rayne Harris did an excellent job choreographing that with our intimacy coordinator, Lizzy Talbot. It was important in that scene for us to think about what the spice looks like. There’s power dynamics at play in the relationship between Ben and Sophie, so we needed to neutralize those power dynamics in the intimacy to see real equality and reciprocity happening.

We initially really wanted Sophie and Benedict to orgasm together side by side, because visually that tells a story of equality. Then Lizzy pointed out that’s actually quite difficult positionally for a man of Benedict’s height and a woman of Sophie’s height to connect when they’re lying side by side. So we had to tweak that a little bit, but hopefully the general feeling of equality is there. Then we changed a little bit of the bathtub scene from the book. In the book, it’s more Benedict being like, “you smell bad after jail,” but we loved the idea that he becomes the caretaker. Sophie has spent so long this season being a role of service, and for Benedict to now be washing her hair and then pleasuring her felt like a really nice switcheroo that Sophie deeply deserved.

Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) had his own messy love story in season two, so I find it interesting that he was so critial of Benedict and his decision. Why was he so intense with his brother, even threatening to cut him off?

First of all, Anthony wasn’t around to realize the depth of Benedict’s feelings for Sophie, and his understanding of their relationship is based on a version of Benedict who Anthony has known for a very long time, someone who is flighty and gets excited about things and hyper fixated and then kind of moves on. So it was really about Benedict’s growth and Anthony not having realized so much growth had happened. It was also important for Anthony, as the head of the household, to come in and be the voice of the fact that in this time period, trying to legitimize a marriage with a maid was certainly detrimental to the family’s status within society.

It’s been really interesting having the break after Part 1 and seeing the outrage to Benedict’s mistress ask, which we definitely anticipated, but I think there’s some education that hopefully Anthony provides around the fact that in the 1800s, this was absolutely the only way this thing worked. So actually, for Benedict to then eventually decide he’s going to marry her anyway is an incredible thing. And of course, he should have gotten there earlier, but hopefully, people have some sympathy and understanding for why it was such a difficult decision for him.

Will this be the last time fans see Anthony and Kate (Simone Ashley), or could that appear in future seasons?  

I would love to have them back in future seasons. We’ll have to play it by ear a little bit and see about availability and schedules and stuff, but I especially think about the younger siblings and how much Anthony is really a father figure for Gregory and Hyacinth. And should we be allowed to tell those stories in seasons seven and eight, I would especially love to see more of them then.

Lady Bridgerton also puts so much on the line, defending Sophie, especially in front of the judge. Why is she OK with doing that, knowing it’s putting her family’s name at risk?

Obviously, Violet is always going to do everything she can to fight for her children to have love matches, but I do think it’s why when we first started talking about this season, we felt like John’s death and funeral came at an important point in the story. This season has one of the greatest obstacles between the leads. Class was something that was very difficult to overcome in this society. But I think losing John and watching Francesca lose John, it really puts everything in perspective for everyone. And for Violet, who’s obviously been through the death of her great love, being reminded of that is the thing that really turns her and makes her go, “Who cares? We’ll figure out a way. Love is always worth fighting for.”

Francesca mourning John’s death was also a major plotline in part two, so how did you balance that grief and sadness, while also continuing to tell Sophie and Benedict’s love story?  

It’s amazing watching that episode come together. It does feel like we’ve never had an episode like that on the show. The only other person we’ve lost is Penelope’s father, and he was not someone we nearly knew as well as we knew John. I think Tess Leibowitz, who wrote that episode, and Anya Adams, who directed it, did a phenomenal job finding the line. It is heavy, and we didn’t want to underplay how much John’s loss affects the family and matters to the writers and hopefully to the viewers, but we also had to find moments of humor, moments of levity, which, for those of us who have been through big loss, is accurate. Even in grief, there’s absurdity, there’s laughter, there’s weird stuff that happens, and something that I think we all love about the Bridgertons is how real they are, and I just love seeing how they come together as a family and how each family member is really trying to find a way to help, whether it’s Benedict playing the piano with Francesca or Eloise trying to get Francesca to focus on what does the cookie taste like. They all really are putting Francesca first, and I think that is what helps the episode feel beautiful and ultimately uplifting.

It seems like Francesca and Michaela finally become friends at the end of the season, so how does that tee up their love story in future seasons?

Eventually. It was important for us that it’s not about that. Everything between them right now is very platonic because something that’s really special about Francesca’s book is that there is a real friendship between, in that case, Michaela (Masali Baduza) and Francesca, while John’s still alive. For our purposes, we wanted to get a little more conflict out of the relationship, and we wanted to watch them earn that friendship rather than it starting right away, because these characters are so opposite in so many ways. But it was important that they established that friendship before John died, and it’s also really a beautiful part of Francesca’s arc this season to be able to figure out how to operate with Michaela’s chaos. It actually helps her grow as a character and really connect with John before he dies.

Another big surprise was having Penelope end her time as Lady Whistledown, but then a mystery person picking up the pen. My guess is it’s Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh), because I think it kind of sounded like her at the end, or is that still Julie Andrew narrating?

No, it’s still Julie Andrews. We did do a session with Julie Andrews where our producing director, Tom Verica, asked her to change her voice just a little bit to represent the fact that this is a new Whistledown, but it’s still Julie Andrews.

Wow! I really thought it might be Lady Danbury. Glad we’re debunking this now (laughs). Can you talk about the reasoning for ending Pen’s time at Lady Whistledown this season?

First of all, we felt like we couldn’t have Pen’s Whistledown forever, and so when she decides to give it up at the end of season three, we talked about, Well, how long is it interesting to have her be a public Whistledown because the mystery and the stakes have kind of gone away? I think we got some really interesting story of watching her struggle with it this season, but it felt really fun to have her give it up and then someone else to take it over, because starting from season one, even though we played a little mystery, it was from the book, so everyone was always going to know. They just had to Google. But now we’ve created a situation where we have a genuine mystery about who Lady Whistledown is that we can play with for the next few seasons.

Can fans expect to see more of Penelope and Collin in season five? 

We definitely have plans to see Pen and Colin in season five. The cadence that we are trying to establish and get viewers accustomed to is that the leads of a season, you should definitely expect to see them in the season immediately following their leading season, and then beyond that, we’ll always hope to bring them back at least in cameos, if not more. And season five, we haven’t started shooting yet, but we’ve been writing the scripts, and we definitely want to see how Penelope is going to respond to Lady Whistledown and definitely want to see more of Colin giving his version of brotherly advice.

Can you also tease whether season five will be centered on Eloise or Francesca?

We have put some clues in one way or the other. We’re not trying to be overly coy about it. We are just trying to not distract from Benedict and Sophie at the end of the season, really wanting to give them their moment, but we’ll be announcing the leads. We always make an announcement when we start production, and we’re not too far away from starting production. I can’t say exactly when, but people will know soon enough.

What led you to include a post-credits scene this season, and why make it centered on Benedict and Sophie’s wedding?

We always knew we wanted our Cinderella figure to get her fairytale wedding. Initially the wedding scene was meant to take place directly after the main action concluded. But Shonda [Rhimes] and I felt like so much happens at the end, fans might need a moment to catch their breath and digest, so we saved the wedding as a little sneaky piece after the credits. 

What do you hope viewers take away from this final moment with all the Bridgertons together this season?

It’s lovely having nearly all the family together to celebrate Ben and Sophie, and also so meaningful to have so many from the downstairs servant class at the wedding. We wanted to show how Ben and Sophie have managed to merge fantasy with reality and carve out their own special place at My Cottage.

Will Luke and Sophie’s post-wedding life be explored more next season?  

A hundred percent. I feel very strongly that Yerin Ha didn’t get to wear enough ball gowns. I want to see Mrs. Ha getting to be a pretty princess and wearing jewels, so I’m really stoked for more of that, and I’m also just stoked for more of her relationship with Benedict and seeing what their bliss looks like.

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All episodes of Bridgerton season four are currently streaming on Netflix. Check out all of The Hollywood Reporter‘s season four coverage here.