Share and Follow
The Season 4 debut of Bridgerton whisked audiences into a grand ball, where we witnessed Sophie Baek’s daring entrance and her enchanting encounter with Benedict Bridgerton. Episode 2 dives deeper, unraveling the tale of how Sophie orchestrated her bold escapade and the inevitable fallout once her wicked stepmother, Lady Penwood, discovers her secret.
Sophie, portrayed by Yerin Ha, spent countless hours crafting an exquisite mask for her stepsister Rosamund to wear to the illustrious Bridgerton masquerade ball. However, as luck would have it, the mask vanishes just before their departure. Sophie is hurriedly tasked with creating a replacement. Rosamund eventually finds the missing mask under her dressing table, yet accuses Sophie of misplacing it out of jealousy. This petty accusation reinforces Rosamund’s unpleasant character, making her seem deserving of any misfortune that might befall her, even those that afflict the wealthy.
With a second mask now complete, it would be a shame to let it sit unused. Sophie’s confidants among the household staff, chef Irma and footman Alfie, encourage her to attend the ball incognito. “It’s only one night. One glorious night. All to yourself. Serving no one. Being a lady,” Alfie muses. Given the anonymity of a masquerade, Sophie decides to seize the opportunity. She adorns herself with the shimmering silver mask, a vintage gown, gloves from the attic, and a dazzling pair of shoes borrowed from Lady Penwood’s collection. Despite the risk of being caught, Sophie is unfazed, reasoning, “Lady Penwood has more shoes than I can count. I doubt she will even notice.” (Spoiler: she eventually does.) The ensemble, though hastily assembled, is breathtakingly perfect.
For Sophie, the evening unfolds as the most magical of her life, complete with an unforgettable meeting with Benedict Bridgerton, played by Luke Thompson. In those precious moments, she tastes the life she was meant to lead as a true member of society. The episode reveals that Sophie should indeed belong to this world, as it intersperses flashbacks to her past. In these scenes, we see a younger Sophie introduced to her new stepmother, Araminta Gun, now Lady Penwood, by her father, Lord Penwood. Presented as Lord Penwood’s ward, Sophie is actually his illegitimate daughter. Lady Penwood’s immediate disdain is palpable, and as Lord Penwood passes away, she cunningly informs Sophie that she was left out of the will, offering her a place in the household only as a maid. It’s a cruel twist of fate that forces Sophie from her rightful place into servitude within her own home.
Benedict, captivated by Sophie, struggles to trace her origins due to her lack of noble status. Without a name or address, his search seems futile. He confides in his sister Eloise, played by Claudia Jessie, showing her a glove he kept from their encounter as a token of his affection. The glove is almost scandalous, akin to a personal garment, highlighting the depth of his feelings. Aware that his interest will ignite their mother’s matchmaking ambitions, Benedict swears Eloise to secrecy about the mysterious woman and the emblematic glove.
There is someone else who might be able to help Benedict locate the Lady in Silver, and that’s Penelope (Nicola Coughlan). As Lady Whistledown, Penelope is the eyes and ears of the ton, but even she has no clue who Benedict’s mystery woman is, she agrees to drop hints about Benedict’s search for his mystery woman in her newsletter. Once everyone reads in Whistledown that Benedict Bridgerton is searching for a young lady, the local mothers of the ton go crazy. Everyone is delulu and thinks that maybe their daughter is the one he’s after but of course none are correct.
Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell), who knows more than her children give her credit for, is the one who knows exactly how to find the owner of the glove. After she reads Whistledown, she later learns Benedict has Sophie’s glove which she instantly recognizes as a Penwood glove, which has distinctive embroidery sewn inside. Armed with that knowledge, Benedict goes to the Penwood home. He already knowns Rosamund is not the Lady in Silver, but he calls on Posy, having overlooked her in the past.
Of course, it’s not Posy he’s after, but Sophie overhears him while he’s there, she debates whether she should just reveal herself. She wishes more than anything that she could and Alfie, a solid wingman if ever there was one, encourages her to, but she just can’t. “He does not want to find me, he wants to find the lady in the silver gown,” she tells Alfie, adding, “And she is not real.”
As Benedict asks Posy whether or not she was wearing any silver at the masquerade, Araminta starts to realize that he’s not actually looking for one of her daughters. She starts piecing together clues –– her new silver shoes that were scuffed after the ball, Benedict’s curiosity about whether there are any other family members who live with them, the fact that he’s in possession of a Penwood’s glove –– and she realizes exactly who Benedict is looking for. This is exactly the excuse Lady Penwood needs to get rid of Sophie forever. “I have suffered having you under my roof all these years,” she tells Sophie, “and you repay me with this duplicity?” She even goes so far as to call Sophie her father’s “error,” whom she never should have even tried to help, and with that she kicks Sophie out. Sophie packs her only belongings into a bag and as she says her goodbyes, Alfie, who might be my favorite character this season, hugs her and says, “Don’t say anything, I want to stay angry.” Posy, proving to be the only member of the family with a conscience, also comes to say goodbye to Sophie and gifts her a set of jeweled show clips she can sell which earn her enough to pay for a carriage out of the city where she can, hopefully, find a new job and a new life.
Over in this episode’s B-story, Lady Danbury has been avoiding Queen Charlotte ever since Charlotte forbade her from leaving London. Lady Danbury has been itching to retire from society and return to her ancestral home, but Charlotte flatly refused the request in episode 1, and the two women have been ice cold to each other ever since. And Charlotte’s footman Brimsley has proven to be a poor substitute for Danbury, so he visits her and begs Danbury to return, telling her to apologize and all will be well. When Danbury refuses, he hilariously tells her, “You know you do not need to have something to apologize for. If Her Majesty needs an apology, one apologizes for nothing.”
Danbury realizes at that at this stage in their lives, she is Charlotte’s only true friend, and she agrees to visit her. It begins uncomfortably, with Charlotte once again forbidding Agatha to leave her, a command from the Queen to her royal subject. Agatha is hurt that she is is considered simply a subject and not a friend, and turns to leave. But then, Charlotte does something she’s never done before: she apologizes to Agatha and then she breaks down, revealing that she’s terrified to be left alone, especially once her husband, the ailing King George dies. She wilts into Agatha’s arms in tears at the thought.
Also on the verge of an emotional breakdown? Benedict! He is growing weary at the thought that maybe the Lady in Silver doesn’t want to be found, and he starts to worry that he really is an lovable rake, so he goes on a bender. He wakes up after days of drinking at a country estate that’s the Regency version of Epstein Island, where every man is powerful and terrible, and every woman is a potential assault victim.
As Benedict tries to sober up, it’s clear that he’s starting to realize that these men, this lifestyle… well, maybe it’s not for him anymore. When he goes outside, he sees some of these men attempting to assault a maid, when another maid, Sophie, steps in to rescue her. Benedict then steps in to fight the men off, and that’s when he’s finally reunited with Sophie, he just doesn’t realize it’s her. “Are you certain we have not met?” he asks her, feeling a flutter of recognition when he looks at her. “How could we have, sir? I am only a maid,” she tells him. Come ON, Sophie, tell him who you are! We need this!
Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.