‘Bridgerton’ Season 4, Part 2 review: Love does not always look how one expects

The first part of Bridgerton‘s fourth season left us on cliffhanger worthy of throwing glassware, with three little words hanging in the air: “Be my mistress.” And they’ll stay there, stitched into the hem of Part 2, which continues the season’s trials, trysts, and tribulations, and moves into more serious territory (don’t worry, it’s still Bridgerton, not Hamnet).

Season 4, Part 2 sees the Shondaland/Netflix series moving between joy, forbidden love, and tragedy, with soapy fairy tale twists and swoon-worthy romance decked out in the series’ signature pop Regency aesthetic. Steamy and sad, the season sees showrunner Jess Brownell lean into considerations of love beyond society’s rules, while laying the groundwork for one hell of a Season 5.

Bridgerton Season 4, Part 2 continues its Cinderella story to talk about class.

As in the first part of Season 4, Bridgerton’s second half continues its Downton Abbey turn to foreground a story of class, using the fairy tale framework of Cinderella to question society’s antiquated rules on marriage.

Importantly, it’s the first season of Bridgerton we’ve really gotten to know members of the Ton’s working class, a thread the series continues to weave through the second half, seeing characters like housekeepers Mrs. Varley (Lorraine Ashbourne) and Mrs. Wilson (Geraldine Alexander) as indispensable members of the Ton, keepers of information, and characters in their own right — including our protagonist.

Sophie Baek (Yerin Ha), who was previously a servant to her evil stepmother, Lady Araminta Gun (Katie Leung), and her daughters, Rosamund (Michelle Mao) and Posy (Isabella Wei), has taken up employment in the Bridgerton household. That’s all thanks to the man she’s secretly in love with, the Ton’s most eligible bachelor, Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson). He still doesn’t know she’s the masked lady in silver from the first episode’s masquerade ball, and she’s still running from Lady Araminta’s wrath, with Leung carving a sublime villain of the season’s antagonist. Honestly, step on my shoe clips.

Lady Araminta Gun (Katie Leung) with her daughters Rosamund (Michelle Mao) and Posy (Isabella Wei) in “Bridgerton.”
Credit: Liam Daniel / Netflix

Over four drama-packed episodes, Bridgerton sees Sophie remain steadfast on her reasons for not becoming a mistress, while Benedict simply cannot understand it from his position of rich male privilege. Joining the ranks of Bridgerton‘s multi-season yearnissance, Leung and Thompson’s chemistry never falters for a second, making Sophie and Benedict a genuinely cheer-worthy duo amid potential scandal.

Here, Bridgerton really digs into the practicalities of “improper” matches like never before, with Ha giving an impeccable performance through Sophie’s frustration at her options, lamenting “love in the face of generations of established practice.” The series also gives Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell) a complex narrative arc with her reaction to Sophie and Benedict’s attachment, gifting Gemmell and Thompson many a dramatic scene unpacking the nature of “appropriate” marriage matches. Plus, series favourite Jonathan Bailey is excellent this season as the devil’s advocate, Anthony Bridgerton, with a brief return seeing him lay down the societal law for his brother.

Bridgerton Season 4, Part 2 balances steam with solemnity.

Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) and Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh) in “Bridgerton.”
Credit: Liam Daniel / Netflix

While Season 4’s first half focused on a romantic slow burn, the second half pulls directly from Bridgerton author Julia Quinn’s books for some deliriously steamy sequences (social media feeds will inevitably slosh about bath sex for a while to come).

However, while the series lives up to its raunchy Regency reputation, Bridgerton parallels such vivacity by venturing into its most sombre territory yet. For a season that by no means will be its last, Bridgerton Season 4 bakes in many “ends.” The imminent departure of Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh) from Queen Charlotte’s (Golda Rosheuvel) side sees these two impeccable actors giving the season’s diamond performances — an unspoken moment between them in the season finale will stay with me forever.

However, there are more permanent ends afoot. Bridgerton has dabbled with loss, mainly through the omnipresent absence of Bridgerton patriarch Edmund, but death has always happened offscreen or long ago. A hard clash with the splendour, romance, and pink fluffy set decoration of the season, elements of Part 2 find themselves draped in mourning black. It’s one of the events of the Bridgerton books which readers know well has been sitting on the horizon from the very first Netflix season. I won’t spoil it here, but suffice to say main characters are sent down the “winding and illogical path” of grief and guilt — a hard pivot from gossip, filling one’s dance card, and taking tea.

It’s relatively unchartered territory for the series, allowing production designer Alison Gartshore, costume designer John Glaser, and hair and makeup designer Nic Collins to consider what Bridgerton looks like if Wednesday Addams landed in the Ton. But it also allows for quietly moving performances from two characters we’ll see much more of in the future.

Bridgerton Season 4, Part 2 lays the groundwork for one hell of a Season 5.

Michaela (Masali Baduza) and Francesca (Hannah Dodd).
Credit: Liam Daniel / Netflix

Much of Bridgerton Season 4 concerns lovers hailing from opposing worlds, drawn to each other like a moth to a flame despite not fitting the Ton’s social rules for marriage matches. As Julie Andrews’ always comforting Lady Whistledown voice-over says, “The draw of two differing desires can be torture at best… Perhaps the desire is not the problem, but the world itself.” This season, Sophie and Benedict struggle with the impossibility of their match across classes, and through subtle hints, keen-eyed viewers will see a long-overdue journey on the horizon.

The end of Part 1 saw the unexpected arrival of Michaela Stirling (Masali Baduza), the cousin of John Stirling (Victor Alli), whom we met at the end of Season 3. (This character is the gender-flipped version of Michael Stirling from the books.) Over the second part of Season 4, the show establishes the lived-in friendship between Francesca, John, and Michaela, whose connection in Quinn’s books is one of inseparable Three Musketeers energy, and sets up the hesitant, unspoken draw between Francesca and Michaela.

Hannah Dodd lets Francesca breathe a little with a few moments of unbridled emotion in Season 4, assisted by muffled sound design and close camera angles. However, Baduza deserves much more room to unpack Michaela’s “chaos,” as a “woman of passion” whose charm commands a room — instead, the majority of her character’s emotions and actions from Quinn’s books are relegated to Benedict this season.

Without spoiling things, many fans might be disappointed not to see the sapphic storyline we’ve been waiting for since Michaela’s character was revealed in Season 3. However, to me, this is an exciting clue that we may be looking at a Season 5 that foregrounds queer desire and love, instead of relegating it to a side storyline. This season, Bridgerton leans into a different kind of yearning: one of being able to live freely, outside of society’s rules. Benedict tells Sophie, “Society should not be allowed to dictate the rules of how one lives life. Or who one loves,” and it feels like Bridgerton is setting up Season 5 on a platform of love and pride, not scandal. “Love does not always look how one expects,” Michaela says.

As always, Bridgerton knows the power of the long game, delivering an action-packed, fascinating, swoon-worthy, and aesthetically magnificent Season 4, while holding its cards close to its chest for Season 5.

Bridgerton is now streaming on Netflix.