Exclusive Interview

‘Bridgerton’: Luke Thompson & Yerin Ha Break Down Benedict’s Bold Offer in Steamy Cliffhanger (VIDEO)

[Warning: The video above and text below contain MAJOR spoilers for Bridgerton Season 4, Part 1.]

Bridgerton‘s fourth season has officially kicked off, and it’s delivering book-to-screen excellence when it comes to Benophie’s fairy tale romance, as Shondaland’s Netflix hit tackles Julia Quinn’s An Offer From a Gentleman.

One adaptation aspect readers were most certainly looking forward to was Benedict  (Luke Thompson) and Sophie’s (Yerin Ha) stay at My Cottage, the country estate where Benedict resides on occasion. In this instance, the pair takes refuge there amid a storm after he helps her escape a dangerous employer. The joke is that the “cottage” is a sprawling Tudor mansion, but it’s a place that allows for various moments of connection between the main couple. But which moment was the most pivotal?

Thompson and Ha stopped by the Swooon studio to discuss the series and share their takes. Counting down from three, the duo blurts out their picks at the same time to see if they align. Funnily enough, they don’t quite match up in their answers as Ha believes the lake scene, plucked from Quinn’s pages, is the most important My Cottage moment, while Thompson selected the created-for-TV sequence involving the pair flying a homemade kite.

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“I would usually say kite, but I just… realized that kiss really sparks like an anxious attachment,” Ha clarifies, making sure Thompson knows she doesn’t fully disagree with his stance. For those who tuned in, the lake scene in the series finds Sophie strolling around the property when she happens across Benedict swimming in the lake in a particular state of undress.

While the show’s version of events is much tamer than Quinn’s depiction in the books, it does serve as an important turning point in their relationship, as it’s the first time Benedict kisses Sophie, knowing her as herself. The pair locks lips at the premiere episode’s masquerade ball, but Sophie’s Lady in Silver disguise keeps Benedict unaware that the woman in his midst at My Cottage is the same person.

Meanwhile, Thompson says, “For me, the kiss [at the lake] is like a bizarre echo of the masquerade ball.” The season’s leading man goes on to defend his kite scene pick, saying, “I think you really get to see how Sophie gets Benedict back on the ground sometimes and Benedict encourages her to lift her up.”

While Thompson may be referring to a metaphorical lifting up of Sophie, things get quite literal for the pair on the servants’ quarters staircase at Bridgerton House in Part 1’s final moments. Overcome by their feelings for one another, Benedict and Sophie crash into each other as she walks up the steps and he walks down, leading to an intense makeout session that may or may not include an errant finger or two.

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Taking Sophie’s positive reception to his actions, Benedict goes on to confess that the reality of Sophie is more tantalizing than any fantasy, but he keeps spitting words that go from sickly sweet to astoundingly cringey just seconds later when he asks Sophie to be his mistress. In the book, Benedict does this at the lake, so the addition of this staircase moment allowed for more buildup for the audience as to why Benedict wouldn’t think asking Sophie such a question would be bad.

Unaware of Sophie’s own illegitimate background as the child of a nobleman and a maid, she’s not only operating under the guise of being in a lower class, but her personal history keeps her hesitant to Benedict’s boldly delivered, “Be my mistress.”

“[Benedict’s] very persistent in the book, and I think it does turn into a little bit of a gray area… I’m assuming the writers didn’t want to make it that way and didn’t want to make Benedict be portrayed a certain way in that sense,” Ha explains of the book-to-screen shift.

“The staircase scene, it’s when they’re in the real world,” Thompson adds. “I think actually in the dream world, he probably would have said, ‘Will you marry me?'” Thompson continues to point out, “What I love about this season is that a lot of the time the context is what shifts the relationship… they don’t necessarily change so much, they’re changed by the condition that they’re in.”

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As for Benedict’s offer to Sophie, the confidence with which he delivers the question is akin to a mic-drop moment in his mind, making it almost comical in that context, but deeply painful under the veil of class difference in the Ton. “Yeah, it’s humiliating,” Thompson admits of Benedict’s obvious blunder.

“It’s a lovely moment, I think, because we think of Benedict as someone who actually tends to be pretty sensitive and tuned into what other people want him to do, and so, for someone like that to get it so spectacularly wrong, it’s like watching a really established singer sing off-key.”

What will Sophie’s answer be to Benedict’s question? Viewers will have to wait until Season 4’s second half, which arrives in February. In the meantime, watch the video interview with Thompson and Ha above, and stay tuned for more Bridgerton coverage in the days and weeks ahead.

Bridgerton, Season 4, Part 1, Streaming Now, Netflix

Bridgerton, Season 4, Part 2 Premiere, Thursday, February 26, Netflix