Luke Thompson urges fans to give Benedict ‘grace’ as Bridgerton Part Two arrives
luke thompson asked viewers to show Benedict Bridgerton "a little bit of grace" at a special screening at BFI Southbank, as debate continues over why his character fails to recognise Sophie Baek. The plea comes with Part Two of season four set to arrive on February 26th and amid fresh attention on a Cinderella-style romance that forces the series to confront its rigid class divides.
Luke Thompson at BFI Southbank screening
At the BFI Southbank event, Luke Thompson framed Benedict’s blind spots as central to the character’s arc rather than a plot oversight. "I think we need to give Benedict a little bit of grace, " he said, arguing that Benedict struggles to "square fantasy and reality" and therefore "can't join all the dots" because doing so would be too frightening. Thompson suggested that the character’s inability to recognise Sophie is emblematic of a deeper flaw: personal blind spots that keep him from seeing what is closest to him. He added that he hopes Benedict will resolve that in Part Two, which is due on February 26th.
Yerin Ha on the red carpet at BFI Southbank
Yerin Ha, who fronts the season as Sophie Baek, turned heads on the red carpet in a shiny gold double-breasted dress paired with knee-high black leather boots. The 28-year-old Australian wore simple make-up and dangled gold-and-pearl earrings. She was joined by Thompson, who arrived in a duck-egg blue monochrome ensemble and black patent leather shoes. Ha, a newcomer to the series who previously appeared in Bad Behaviour, plays a maid who disguises herself to sneak into a masquerade ball and meet Benedict.
The Sophie Baek–Benedict romance and the glove clue
The season’s central encounter occurs at Violet Bridgerton's glittering masquerade ball, where Sophie hides behind a silver mask, captures Benedict’s imagination and disappears at midnight. She leaves behind no name or address—only a single glove, the lone clue—which propels Benedict into a months-long search that haunts his sketches. The narrative then complicates matters: when Benedict later rescues maid Sophie from an altercation and spends increasing amounts of time with her at My Cottage and at his mother's house, he remains oblivious to the truth. Benedict’s misunderstanding drives weeks and months of yearning before the couple finally lock lips after four episodes of distant tension.
Class tensions with Lord Penwood and the Ton
Season four embraces a more overt Cinderella tone by depicting Sophie as an overworked housemaid and the illegitimate daughter of an earl—Lord Penwood—who infiltrates high society for one enchanted evening. That framing raises the harder question at the heart of the plot: whether a Bridgerton could ever be permitted to pursue a maid under the Ton’s rigid class structures. The season widens the view of Mayfair to include servants’ perspectives, and it signals social strain as workers across the city begin to demand better pay—unclear in the provided context how that movement will be resolved in the series.
Guests, series context and what this season changes
The screening drew a mix of cast and creative figures. This Morning presenter Alison Hammond attended in a maxi leopard-print dress, tall patent leather boots and loose beachy waves; she is 51. American actor and director Tom Verica wore a navy bomber jacket over a pink shirt, a colourful plaid tie and burgundy trousers. Bridgerton showrunner Jess Brownell was present in all-black with layers of chunky gold necklaces. The series is adapted from the books by Julia Quinn and follows the eight Bridgerton siblings in their search for love.
Critics have highlighted that the Benedict–Sophie storyline feels like a return to form, with some calling it the best romance since Regé-Jean Page’s Simon Basset and Phoebe Dynevor’s Daphne Bridgerton, the pairing that helped catapult the show to success in 2020 with a notably racy staircase moment. Reviewers note the season pulls the narrative downstairs to examine the servants who sustain the Ton, and contrasts the new Cinderella arc with prior seasons’ drawn-out plotlines—such as Penelope Featherington’s gradual reveal as Lady Whistledown and the Penelope-and-Colin storyline, which some found exhausted.
Other items mentioned in the screening coverage included that Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+ will be regulated by Ofcom in the UK and a separate note that Gordon Ramsay opens a final restaurant from his Netflix documentary. Part Two of Bridgerton’s fourth series will be available on Netflix from February 26th.
Thompson’s request for "a little bit of grace" for Benedict reframes the controversy as an intentional character trait: the cause—Benedict’s inability to reconcile fantasy with reality—produces the effect of prolonged obliviousness, and the season sets up whether that flaw can be overcome as its central emotional stake. What makes this notable is that the show is using a familiar fairy-tale engine to force a reckoning with class and power within its glossy world.
