Bridgerton’s season four romance is its best in years. Here’s why

In its fourth edition, though, Bridgerton has finally got its mojo back, thanks to its most compelling love story in years. This time, the focus is on the second-eldest Bridgerton son, the lothario bachelor Benedict, who strikes up an unlikely Cinderella-style romance with newcomer Yerin Ha as Sophie Baek, a maid who is secretly the illegitimate child of Lord Penwood. Truly, dearest reader, this is the best Bridgerton romance — and season — since the brooding relationship between Regé-Jean Page’s hunk Simon Basset and Phoebe Dynevor’s Daphne Bridgerton, the couple responsible for catapulting the Netflix show to stratospheric success in 2020 (with the help of a particularly racy staircase moment).

Here’s how it happens this time: Sophie sneaks into the Bridgerton family’s masked ball — wearing her wicked Stepmother's old gown — and shares a flirtatious, but fleeting, encounter with Benedict before vanishing into the night. She leaves behind no name, no address — only a single glove, the lone clue to her identity.

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A besotted Benedict, who is under the impression that she is from a well-to-do family, spends weeks and months trying to discover the identity of his lady in silver, without realizing she is the maid working before his very eyes. When the pair finally lock lips — after four genuinely wholesome and suspenseful episodes of distant yearning — I found myself cheering out loud at my screen.

This is exactly what Bridgerton needed. The past three installments have drawn out Penelope Featherington’s gradual revelation as Lady Whistledown (which nobody seems bothered about anymore), and Penelope and Colin’s love story has been wrung bone dry. This Cinderella narrative brings something new to the table — it challenges the social fabric of Bridgerton’s fantasy society and class system, finally bringing together two worlds that have largely been kept separate on this show. For the first time, Bridgerton pulls back the velvet curtain and heads downstairs, viewing the ton through the eyes of the servants who quietly sustain it.

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The tension comes from the fact that a Bridgerton could never be allowed to pursue a relationship with a maid. Yet as the season unfolds, we glimpse a wider view of Mayfair’s simmering social conflicts. Workers across the city begin to demand better pay in what is dubbed the “maid wars.” The Featherington’s loyal housekeeper, Varley, gets into a salary dispute with her employer and the Queen’s unreasonable demands are put under the spotlight by her long-suffering lady-in-waiting, Lady Danbury.

Class is one thing keeping Sophie and Benedict from being together, but there’s another catch to this love story: our male love interest is… Benedict Bridgerton. Yes, the unruly stag who we’ve come to know from vignettes of his frequent orgies and constant rotation of mistresses. Will he shed his old habits for true love for Sophie? It’s what we’re all rooting for — but the cliffhanger in episode four suggests that there’s some work to do. Benedict, get yourself together.

He must come to his senses, surely? With his social standing, my theory is that Benedict would get away with dating a maid and that the ton will eventually embrace her, especially because she’s actually half aristocrat. After all, in the land of Bridgerton, anything’s possible. But if this romance doesn’t end in marriage and lots of Benopie babies, then take back everything I just said and call the whole thing off. Your move, Netflix.