Because this week couldn’t get crazier, the people working on Netflix’s Bridgerton decided to capitalize on everyone being online all at once and disrupt the timeline with a short video proclaiming Season 4 of Bridgerton to be “Benedict’s Season.” The people are excited. Here’s what we can possibly expect, based on info from the showrunners and the book by Julia Quinn, An Offer from a Gentleman.
Last season, we saw Benedict finally accepting his bisexuality, engaging in what seemed like a multi-day threesome—which was probably just bad editing. He says he shows no interest in settling down. Meanwhile, his sister Eloise has run off to Scotland to ruin her sister Francesca’s honeymoon, but she promises she’ll be back for their mother’s masquerade ball.
What masquerade ball? There hasn’t yet been a masquerade ball on Bridgerton. Apparently Violet throws intermittent masquerade balls for the Ton and apparently, it’s time to don the mask.
If you’re a reader of the source material, you know that the third book in the eight-book installment, An Offer from a Gentleman is Benedict’s book. The fourth, Romancing Mr. Bridgerton, is Polin’s season. So we know we’re going out of order, and do keep that in mind if you’re feeling like everything needs to be the same as in the books. It won’t! There’s gay people now!
In the book, we open on a masquerade ball and Benedict sees a beautiful lady in silver who turns out to be Sophie Beckett, who has dressed up and snuck into the ball despite not being considered a member of the aristocracy. After a romantic evening cutting a rug with Benedict Bridgerton, she leaves when the clock strikes midnight. From there, the story progresses, ending with Benedict and Sophie marrying, despite her “status.”
Right. So obviously we’re working with a Cinderella adaptation here, and I happen to think it’s a pretty lazy one. Sophie is raised as a “ward” of her father but it’s an open secret that she’s his kid. He weds a woman named Araminta, who has two daughters of her own.
Similar to the stellar Cinderella story, Ever After, one of the step sisters is truly wicked and the other is considerably less mean. Also like in most Cinderella adaptations, Sophie’s father dies when she’s a child and her stepmother continues to treat her poorly and makes her serve as the family’s maid. The housekeeper plays a fairy godmother and gets Sophie set up to attend the ball by putting her in clothes that belonged to her father’s legitimate wife before Araminta (again, similar to the excellent gown in Ever After which belonged to Drew Barrymore’s character’s mother). Sophie wears Araminta’s fancy shoes. At the ball, she loses a glove, which Benedict uses to try and identify her.
Where the Bridgerton story diverges is after this point, when time passes and Sophie goes to work in the country after being fired by her stepmother. Benedict shows up, doesn’t recognize Sophie, prevents Sophie from getting raped, and gives her a job at his mom’s house.
From there we get some classic romance tropes: Benedict gets sick and Sophie cares for him. Benedict is discovered swimming naked. Because he’s a slut, Benedict makes advances on Sophie but she stops him, not wanting to be a mistress and possibly create another bastard. Sophie says Benedict is a good artist, which makes him realize he is in love with her. They can’t be together because she’s poor, but later, he sees her with a blindfold on, playing with his younger siblings, and realizes who she is, much like how Lois Lane couldn’t tell Clark Kent was Superman because he was wearing glasses.
Like in Ever After, Sophie gets sent away, this time to jail. Because they’re fancy Bridgertons, Violet and Benedict convince the magistrate to legitimize Sophie, they discover her secret, stolen dowry with help from the nice stepsister, and she and Benedict marry after declaring that it was love at first sight for both of them and, yes, boning.
Besides that this plotline is so tired AI might be able to do it better, there’s a lot in the show that will instigate necessary changes from the book. One is that we all love Polin now, they have a baby, and are back for the next couple seasons, as confirmed by Nicola Coughlin. Also, since Benedict’s book comes before Polin’s, the subplot in Offer is the stuff we already saw at the end of season 2 with Colin saying he would never court Penelope. Then there’s the sexuality of it all.
As much as fans love the idea of Benophie as they’re calling the couple portmanteau, people are also happy to see Benedict explore his sexuality. The epically vanilla storyline of the book does not lend itself to the art-filled, intellectual, bi-friendly world show-Benedict has cultivated for himself. Having him swear off all that, even if he wants something “real” might send the wrong message to people who don’t fit into the heterosexual box the original source material had each character wedge into.
Also, in the show, Araminta is Cressida’s mother’s name, so some fans speculate that Sophie will be Cressida’s illegitimate half sister or stepsister and Cressida can then serve the role of evil stepsister from the book, or can finally complete her character arc and transition to good-guy, something we were rooting for after last season.
So, yes, like many fans, I’m excited for Season 4 despite the stupid book plot. I’m excited to see Luke Thompson as Benedict take the lead. He’s a strong actor and has infinite charm. I’m interested to see how the showrunners incorporate plot points from the show into the current happily-ever-after structure as well as finally integrating some class-based storylines (I am purposely forgetting Eloise’s foray into snogging a poor). I’m also interested to check in with our subplots, namely Cressida, Eloise, and Francesca, all of whom have some looming storylines ahead, it seems.
Plus, giving the ever-endearing Polin the disgustingly happy married treatment a la Anthony and Kate will be fun, and I’d love to see Anthony as a dad. I don’t miss Simon at all. From the book, keep the masquerade, but please don’t lose Benedict’s free spirit.
