Bridgerton Season 4: Did it Reach it’s Pinnacle?

            With the promising start, my expectations for “Bridgerton” Season 4, Part 2 were tentatively high. All the storylines felt well developed, the relationship dynamics were incredibly engaging, and it was a great setup for going into part 2. There’s a lot to love about part 2, especially Francesca’s storyline. Though it was hard to see the character go through such a loss, Hannah Dodd did a fantastic job in the role, really breaking the audience’s heart. We grieved with her. To no one’s surprise, Queen Charlotte and Lady Dubry were wonderful; seeing their friendship evolve is one of the highlights of the whole season. And of course, there’s Benedict (Luke Thompson) and Sophie (Yerin Ha), who had incredible chemistry. Each actor did an incredible job at really bringing their characters to life. So many wonderful pieces, I don’t know why they had to fumble it at the last minute … Well, I do know it’s because the season could only be 8 episodes.

            One of my biggest concerns going into part 2 was how they were going to resolve the main conflict preventing Benedict and Sophie from being together. The season spent 7 episodes expressing how challenging Sophie being a maid and an illegitimate daughter is, this huge social hurdle preventing her and her love interest from being together, only for it to get a quick and dirty resolution and completely speed through because they were out of runway. There was a real benefit to seeing the tension that Sophie and Benedict need to face the consequences of their love story in the face of society. It would have been incredibly interesting to see them fighting for and choosing each other despite everything. We do get to see Benedict seriously consider leaving everything behind for Sophie … but could he have really? I genuinely believe so, and think both of them would have come out of it stronger, unfortunately we don’t get to explore that. In fact, with a quick wave of Queen Charlotte and a small heist to steal a will (that was far too easily attained), they solved classism. I mean, they had to have, otherwise, how was it possible for Hazel and the other staff to be at the wedding? It’s heartwarming in theory, but their stitched-together solution for Sophie’s situation didn’t actually change anything for the working class. So, if a servant can’t attend a ball, how is it suddenly socially acceptable for them to attend a wedding? Let alone a Bridgerton wedding?

            Part one of this season seemed genuinely interested in exploring the issue of class; we saw that from the maid wars and the arch between Lady Featherington and Mrs. Varley. Unfortunately, by the time we get part 2 the writers seem to remember their episode count restraint and need to ship focus from trying to have a meaningful conversation about class inequality to just getting Sophie from being a maid to just socially acceptable enough to marry a Bridgerton. Even the last conversation between Lady Featherington and Mrs. Varley is completely underwhelming. Mrs. Varley is basically forced to return to Lady Featherington’s employment because of how things went down with Lady Penwood, and Lady Featherington only needs to hint at an apology for Mrs. Varley to come back. With both of them saying they missed each other, it played into the very thing that Mrs. Varley fought back against in part 1. She is not family. She is an employee and deserves to be treated with respect and paid fairly. It’s implied that she goes back to the Featherington house having learned a lesson at Lady Penwood’s house, which is that she should have appreciated how much like “family” she was treated at the Featheringtons’ house, and she should have been more grateful.