Dearest Gentle Readers,
The ton is back, and so are the Bridgertons…well, most of them. According to the Queen, the one to watch this season is the middle Bridgerton brother, Benedict. Apparently, she believes he might finally choose a wife. Lady Whistledown–along with anyone who truly knows the “free-spirited” brother–disagrees.
After the Bridgertons’ masquerade ball, however, I couldn’t help but side with the Queen. The Lady in Silver seemed to captivate Benedict enough to tempt him to finally settle down. The only problem is that she isn’t exactly who she seems–and despite being halfway through the season, he has yet to find her. Well, I mean, he’s sort of found her…but somehow, he has yet to connect the dots between his new maid friend and the Lady in Silver. (Or has he?)
The final four episodes are still a few weeks away, and I’m sure some of us are wishing we hadn’t binged it all in one weekend–or one evening, if you’re me. For now, though, this Bridgerton drought feels like the perfect time to take a deeper dive into the first four episodes.
SPOILERS AHEAD
The Ton Didn’t Need a Masquerade
The Masquerade is the focus of the first episode, and it is where Benedict’s love story begins, but I think the meaning behind it goes much deeper. With this being the fourth season in the series, we have seen our fair share of balls by this point, but this is the first Masquerade. Of course, it is perfect for this Cinderella x Bridgerton tale, the perfect way to hide Sophie’s identity without a magical fairy godmother. But was it simply a unique ball, or does it also signify the underlying theme of this season?
A Masquerade is the perfect opportunity to hide one’s identity–to pretend to be someone you’re not–but in the Ton, aren’t most of them already pretending? The young women are pretending to be the perfect debutantes, ready to be the perfect wives if they are lucky enough to be chosen. As for the men, their freedom is their mask. Being a ‘rake’ is celebrated by other men and accepted by the ton as a whole, and it’s okay as long as they choose to settle down in the end. But is it freedom at that point or just another social expectation that those of high standing must follow?
Benedict is the perfect example of this. He has always been portrayed as the carefree brother… the one who is living life to the fullest, seemingly with no care in the world. He isn’t the eldest, so he doesn’t have to have the responsibilities of being the Viscount of his house, and that gives him freedom, but it seems like that freedom makes it hard for him to commit to a path in life. He could follow in his brother’s footsteps, join the courting season, and find a wife, but he doesn’t have to–yet. However, that expectation hovers over him at all times, and it makes his ‘rakish’ ways seem like the best way to fight it, even if, deep down, he wants more.
Sophie is the first person he meets who sees that internal struggle. She acknowledges that he prefers shallow water, but points out that it is dull to stay in the same water every day, even if it is warm and pleasant. And then she asks, “Will you not wade out deeper with me? ” This moment defines their entire love story. Benedict can continue being comfortable, following societal expectations by living freely and eventually choosing a lady who meets expectations, or he can wade out deeper and potentially find that happiness he has been searching for.
The question that remains is–will Benedict take off the mask and allow the world to see him for who he truly is? But more than that…will the Ton finally open their eyes to the masks they have all been wearing? We shall have to wait and see.
Sophie Beckett: A Lady, a Maid, or Something More?
Sophie Beckett, in many ways, is the opposite of Benedict. As a maid, she doesn’t have any societal expectations to live up to–in fact, she is practically invisible to those of the Ton. Unlike some of the other maids, she has a hard time accepting her role. Raised as a Lord’s daughter, she was accustomed to being a part of society until her stepmother entered the picture, and suddenly she was illegitimate–nothing more than a maid’s daughter. After her father’s passing, her stepmother claimed that nothing was left for Sophie but told her that she would always provide her a home as long as she performed her new duties as a maid.
Now, I am not entirely sure of the rules of the Ton when it comes to illegitimate children, but I would think that, being a Lord’s daughter, Sophie is considered higher on the social totem pole than a typical servant and is meant to be treated as such. Although her father originally referred to Sophie as his ‘ward’ and not his daughter, which was a bit off-putting for me. Either way, it seems like her stepmother downgraded her, and eventually, the truth of her heritage will come out.
Downstairs Bridgerton: The People Without Masks
Sophie is the first main character we have had who exists outside of the Ton, and she opens the door to the downstairs Bridgerton that the other seasons barely touched on. These are the people without masks, the ones that are so invisible that they don’t need one. We finally get to see behind the scenes and get a glimpse of the unending work these ‘invisible’ people put in so that the elite can enjoy their luxurious lives. And honestly, this is part of the reason why I think that this is the best season yet.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the slow-burning love stories, I love the Whistledown drama, but I don’t think it’s fair to focus on only the lives of the privileged, even if this strict social hierarchy is historically accurate. In the Regency era, the class divide was a wealth-based, moral belief that some were meant to rule and some were meant to serve. They truly believed the upper class to be superior, but I think we can admit that this type of classism is not okay and realize there is no need to conform to those beliefs by making shows based on only this elite 1%. So thank you, Shonda Rhimes, for breaking the mold and giving us a look into the less glamorous parts of this era.
The invisibility of the lower class isn’t just a metaphor; quite literally, the Queen questions if she has any servants at all, just to be told she has over 100. It makes complete sense that the maids started an uprising, or in today’s language, a strike. They know that they will never be treated as equals to the upper class, but they decided that they at least deserve respect and a livable wage. And it was all thanks to Sophie being fired for borrowing her stepmother’s shoes to sneak off to the Masquerade.
For me, I just hope that there is more to this plotline, like perhaps society finally opens its eyes to the fact that they are all humans and no human is better than another simply because they come from a specific bloodline. I hope that, if Sophie gets her happy ending with Benedict, it isn’t because her father was a Lord but rather because Benedict loves her and they want to marry. And I hope their marriage breaks the imaginary glass they have created that separates the lower class from the Ton.
The Creation of A Beautiful Fairy Tale
Okay, so, yes, the layered themes and the deeper exploration of class make this a groundbreaking season–but as someone with a daughter named after Cinderella, I can’t pretend I didn’t fall completely in love with the fairy tale Bridgerton created this time around. From the midnight escape of the masquerade to Sophie’s baby-blue dress at My Cottage, combined with the instrumental version of Taylor Swift’s “Enchanted,” Bridgerton fully committed to its fairy-tale fantasy. And surprisingly, they did it in a mostly innocent way.
I love that Benedict falls in love with Sophie twice, once as the Lady in Silver and then again for the real Sophie, the maid he rescues and takes on a journey to London (for some reason). The latter part felt a bit far-fetched, but I was willing to overlook it because everything was so perfect. Even after leaving My Cottage and Benedict hiring Sophie as a ladies’ maid for his sisters, I was still fully invested in their love story.
The Moment The Glass Slipper Breaks
Benedict was almost my favorite Bridgerton, and his love story with Sophie almost made my top five romances of all time–until it all came crashing down in the final five minutes of Part 1. He kisses her on the stairs, finally admits that he cares for her, that he wants to be with her, and then delivers the worst possible line. A line that shattered the fairy-tale illusion we had all been living in.
“Will you be my mistress?”
Sophie was left speechless in the worst way possible, and as Part 1 came to an end, so was I. Instead of offering her the life she deserves–one where she is respected and finally gets to be loved as part of a family–he offers for her to be the girl he sees on the side while he creates a family with someone else?
It isn’t often a show can make one feel so much with one question, so I suppose props to them, but still…I feel tricked. In the end, the fairy tale itself was part of the masquerade–and I fell for it.
Am I still impatiently waiting to see what happens next? Of course. But if Benedict wants to win Sophie (or us) back, he will need to step out of his delusional shallow water and do some long-overdue self-reflection first.
