Bridgerton: Who Is the New Lady Whistledown After that Shocking bridgerton Season 4 Twist?

This article contains spoilers for Season 4, Part 2 of bridgerton. Part 2 of Season 4 debuted on Netflix on Thursday, and the episodes have already prompted casting talk, grief scenes and fresh criticism of the show’s intimate moments.

Hannah Dodd’s casting journey

Hannah Dodd, the English actress who is 30, remembers auditioning "quite intensely" for the first season of Bridgerton when she was up for the role of Daphne Bridgerton and ultimately lost the part to Phoebe Dynevor. A few years later Dodd was invited to film a self-tape for a "very secretive" project. "I had no idea it was ‘Bridgerton’ again, " Dodd says, speaking at London’s 180 House in mid-February. The pair selected a remote table at the members club to avoid anyone overhearing spoilers, though others at the club paid little attention to what she was disclosing about Part 2.

How production found Francesca

Several months went by before Dodd learned the project was Bridgerton. "Part of me was like, ‘Oh, do I want to go through that again?’" she says. "But I genuinely loved the material. A few days later I met with the team at Shondaland and a week after that I was at piano lessons. " Showrunner Jess Brownell said the casting process had been exhaustive: "We had seen hundreds of people and no one had felt quite right. We saw Hannah really late in the process and we instantly knew. She is such a subtle actor. She’s able to play shyness without seeming weak and you sense she has an inner strength that’s waiting to blossom, which was really necessary for a character who starts out in Season 3 as quite shy and reserved. But from this season and beyond, she’s a character who goes through quite a bit and is going to have a fierceness to her to survive it. " Brownell also discussed Season 3, the debate with Shonda Rhimes over Colin’s virginity, Julie Andrews’ fate as narrator and the visual changes coming to Season 4.

Replacing Ruby Stokes in the family

Dodd was cast as Francesca Bridgerton for Season 3, replacing Ruby Stokes, who had played the role in the first two seasons and departed due to scheduling issues. Dodd says she felt pressure joining a close ensemble: "Their chemistry was incredible and I could see from interviews that they seemed to absolutely love each other. I was like, ‘Oh my God, how do I join that and make sure that I have that chemistry?’ But the cast are so lovely and made me feel at home straight away. "

Francesca’s on-screen arc and source novel

Most events surrounding Francesca in the first four seasons are original to the show and largely take place before the timeline of Julia Quinn’s novel When He Was Wicked, known among fans as "Francesca’s book. " In Season 3 Francesca made her debut into the Ton and eventually found an unexpected connection with John Stirling, the Earl of Kilmartin, played by Victor Alli. By the beginning of Season 4 the couple have married and settled down in his London home. In Part 2, John tragically dies. Dodd notes the divergence from the novels: "People who have read the books understand that none of what they’ve seen so far happens in the books, " she says. "You don’t get to see her on the marriage mart. In Chapter 1 of her book, John dies and her story starts after that. " Brownell adds context on the novel: "John’s alive for about 10 pages of the book and then there’s a time jump, so we’re not spending a ton of time in what her immediate grief feels like. But it’s enough that we had some clues from Julia Quinn about how she might react. " Almost all of Francesca’s story so far has been imagined by the show’s writers.

Benedict’s plot and reception

The series continues to follow the Bridgerton siblings: Violet Bridgerton and her husband Edmund had eight children, named in alphabetical order, and the show remains focused on those marriages. Bridgerton Season 1 debuted in December 2020; Season 4, Part 2 began streaming a month after Part 1 debuted. The second son Benedict, played by Luke Thompson, has been notable mostly for his aimlessness. Anthony, the eldest son, played by Jonathan Bailey, is the exacting viscount; Benedict is affable and has had trouble finding his path. He picks up painting and sketching and then drops it, and he is seen drinking often late at night with a bohemian crowd. The show introduces a storyline in which Benedict figures out he is interested in both men and women, an element the writers created that does not appear in the Julia Quinn novels. At the start of Season 4 Violet, played by Ruth Gemmell, is in despair over Benedict’s future, and the Queen pushes for Benedict Bridgerton to marry. Benedict’s principal match this season is Sophie, played by Yerin Ha, a maid in another house and the illegitimate child of a deceased lord. Sophie sneaks into a masked ball dressed in borrowed finery, the two connect and are separated at midnight in a Cinderella riff; much of the season deals with the logistics of reuniting them, Benedict learning Sophie’s backstory, and the question of how a marriage could work.

How critics rate the sex scenes

Writers who evaluate the show’s intimate scenes returned to the series for Season 4. Rebecca Onion and Nadira Goffe, veterans of the series’ sex-scene assessments, had given Season 3 a 4 of 10 and the Queen Charlotte spinoff a 3 of 10. In their view the first overtly sexual moment of Season 4 belongs to Francesca and her new husband Lord John Stirling, Earl of Kilmartin (Victor Alli), but it reads as neither hot nor heavy. Nadira Goffe writes that the couple’s romance began in Season 3 through reserved, introverted moments; by the end of that season they had married and moved to John’s native Scotland. Now they are back in London, but only John appears to be fully engaged in their private encounters. In the brief sex scene the sequence opens with John on top of Francesca, slowly thrusting and moaning, while Francesca "just … lays there, albeit with a pleasant, if uninspired, smile on her face. " For John the interaction is "very nice, " but for Francesca it registers as run-of-the-mill.

Readers should expect grief, creative departures from the novels and a mixed critical reception to the season’s intimate scenes as they watch Part 2 of Season 4.