‘Bridgerton’ Season 4 is All About Looking Past What’s on the Surface
“We all fall in love,” says the series’ star, Yerin Ha.
Yerin Ha as Sophie Baek in Bridgerton season 4. Photo: Liam Daniel/Netflix.
One of the enduring questions from the latest season of Bridgerton is how the season’s male lead, Benedict Bridgerton, can’t figure out that the woman of his fantasies is the same person as Sophie, a maid he’s starting to develop real feelings for.
Spoilers ahead for the latest season of Netflix’s Bridgerton, or at least the first half—the second half will drop on the streaming service on February 26th. This season of Bridgerton follows the titular family’s second-eldest son Benedict (Luke Thompson) in a Cinderella-esque love story. After meeting the Lady in Silver, a masked woman he cannot recognize, at a masquerade ball, Benedict vows to find the mystery lady and marry her. Little does he know, the Lady in Silver is Sophie (Yerin Ha), a maid working at a neighbouring household. By circumstance, the two find themselves face-to-face again and soon begin a steamy romance.
Yerin Ha as Sophie Baek in Bridgerton season 4. Photo: Liam Daniel/Netflix.
For Sophie, who knows she's the one he’s looking for, she conceals her true identity to stay in line with society’s expectations of her as someone outside of the esteemed upper class of the ‘ton. Benedict, meanwhile, finds himself consumed with desire for a woman who he cannot ever legitimately be with because of their class differences. And he's so blinded by their class that he can’t recognize that Sophie is the lady he’s spent much of the season searching for.
That invisibility and blindness that Sophie and Benedict are playing with in this season of Bridgerton is a fascinating meditation on how love requires looking past what’s on the surface and ignoring societal expectations. And it’s a theme that’s repeated throughout romances. It’s why Ha believes that representation is so important in love stories.
Yerin Ha as Sophie Baek and Luke Thompson as Benedict Bridgerton in Bridgerton season 4. Photo: Liam Daniel/Netflix.
Ha, who is of Korean descent and grew up in Australia, says that she never saw love stories (unless they were K-dramas) with Asian leading ladies. “I think because of that, I didn’t see myself being able to fill those shoes,” she says. Just as Sophie feels bound by her identity in the society of Bridgerton, Ha says that when you don’t see representation, it limits the roles you feel like you can inhabit.
But love is “a universal thing,” Ha explains. “We all feel love, we all fall in love. So to have an East Asian person lead, I think audiences will be able to see themselves in those stories.”
Yerin Ha as Sophie Baek and Luke Thompson as Benedict Bridgerton in Bridgerton season 4. Photo: Liam Daniel/Netflix.
Bridgerton is Ha’s breakout role. While she’s been on stage in big productions like Dune: Prophecy and Halo, portraying the love interest in one of the most popular global shows was still a daunting task for the 28 year-old actor.
“I put a lot of pressure on myself—I think that might be the Asian DNA in me, just always saying I have to work harder, twice as hard, to feel like my voice is extra heard,” she says. That being said, Ha explains that being a part of such an iconic show is her own fairytale come true. “I just hope that if people can see that we too deserve to be in those roles, and it can continue to open up opportunities for more stories.
Bridgerton season 4 Part 2 is out on Netflix on February 26, 2026.