In Sex Reviews, writers offer a sober critical assessment of the sex scenes in new films and television series. This installment contains spoilers for Season 4 of Bridgerton.
As every romance fan knows, Violet Bridgerton and her allergic-to-bees husband Edmund had eight children, and named them in alphabetical order. As every romance fan also knows, Netflix, being addicted to the many engaged minutes viewers have spent with this family since Bridgerton Season 1 debuted in December 2020, will not stop giving us seasons of Bridgerton until all of these kids are married off—some of them more than once! And so Sex Reviews returns again to the world of singularly kind and appealing brunette aristocrats, with Season 4, Part 2 of the series now streaming on Netflix a month after Part 1 debuted.
This time around, we’ve got second son Benedict (Luke Thompson), who has, up until this point, been notable mostly for his aimlessness. While the eldest Bridgerton son Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) is an exacting type perfect for the duties of being the viscount, Benedict is an affable guy who’s had trouble figuring out what he wants to do with his life. He picks up painting and sketching for a while, then drops it. He figures out that he’s interested in both men and women (an invention of the show that’s not present in the Julia Quinn novels on which it’s based), and we’ve seen him drinking often, late at night, with a bohemian crowd. At the beginning of Season 4, Violet (Ruth Gemmell) is in despair over her son’s future, and the Queen herself wants Benedict Bridgerton to marry.
All of his apathy seems to come to an end when Benedict meets Sophie (Yerin Ha), a maid in another house and the illegitimate child of a deceased lord, who sneaks into a masked ball dressed in borrowed finery. The two of them connect, only to be separated at midnight. (Yes, this is a riff on Cinderella.) Most of the season is spent in the logistics of getting the lovebirds back in the same place, Benedict finding out Sophie’s true backstory, and the two of them figuring out how they can make a marriage work. In all of this, the all-important question: Is there any room for sex?
Slate senior writer Rebecca Onion and staff writer Nadira Goffe are veterans of Bridgerton Sex Reviews, having given Season 3’s sex scenes a 4 of 10, rating it only slightly more horny-making than the Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story spinoff miniseries, which they rated 3 of 10. Will Season 4 best these not-so-carnal scores? Read on to find out.
Season 4, Episode 3, Minute 22:30: Francesa and John Are Not Satisfied
Nadira Goffe: And so our journey begins! But not with the couple that was promised, as it were. Instead, the first hot and heavy moment of Season 4 belongs to Francesca Bridgerton (Hannah Dodd) and her new husband, Lord John Stirling (Victor Alli), Earl of Kilmartin. Sadly, it is neither hot nor heavy.
The couple’s romance began in Season 3, where the two introverts bonded over more reserved moments of connection, like shared silences, compared to the fancy parties of the ton. By the end of last season, they had gotten married and then moved to John’s native Scotland. Now, they’re back—but only John seems to be truly enjoying their alone time. In the brief sex scene, we start 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 it seems to be a simple, run-of-the-mill engagement for Francesca.
Here’s the rub: Francesca is fairly eager to fulfill her wifely duties and have a baby. When she asks John if there’s anything she can do to expedite conceivement, he explains that he’s heard that “a woman is more likely to conceive if she achieves her pinnacle.” Francesca looks a little surprised and confused to hear this, which prompts John to ask if she has been climaxing. She lies, of course, saying yes before rolling over in bed. But we all saw what just happened there—the only pinnacle she was reaching was a pinnacle of thoughts. This is a rather bold choice for the first sex scene of this season, don’t you think, Rebecca?
Rebecca Onion: A pinnacle of thoughts! That really is about all that was achieved here. I feel so sorry for Francesca, who will, in this episode, go around asking all of her female relatives oblique questions about what a “pinnacle” is, without even knowing enough about it to understand how to frame her query. (I see online that apparently people at this time wouldn’t have used that word—nobody ever accused this show of total fealty to history!) But I also feel sorry for John, a really nice guy who seems to have missed all the memos about friction, clitoral stimulation, foreplay, varying positions to see what works, and so on. It’s a bummer for this character to have to be the guy who’s meh at sex when every Bridgerton man seems to be a genius at it—but, at the same time, I guess the show needs contrast, and John is the sacrificial lamb.
Nadira: There’s a “nice guys finish last” joke in here somewhere. But I totally agree! I think a lot of Francesca and John’s relationship feels like they’re trying to stuff a bunch of plot into a small space, and maybe that’s because they are. Speeding through this bit of their relationship is only setup for the rest of Francesca’s story (which we need not spoil here), but it still hurts to see. Poor John!
Season 4, Episode 3, Minute 30:20: Colin and Penelope Get Carried Away in the Carriage
Rebecca: Speaking of contrast, just a few scenes later, we flash on Colin (Luke Newton) and Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) in a carriage, headed to an ice cream date with John and Francesca. They’re doing a reprise of a climactic carriage encounter fans loved from Season 3, this time with Penelope seated on Colin, apparently having sex clothes-on. Polin, as the couple is known to fans, is interrupted in the act by their coachman telling them they’ve arrived, and they walk into the double date adjusting collars and giggling, making jokes about needing “cool refreshment.” Francesca doesn’t know what just happened, but she knows it’s what she’s missing! Nadira, did this callback to a past sex scene work for you—or do you, like me, find it kind of squicky to see last year’s couple get it on again?
Nadira: I think I’ve said this before in past Sex Reviews, but when it comes to TV and film, I often like the displays of sensuality and intimacy more than the sex scenes themselves. What I so enjoy about the glimpses we get of, say, Kate (Simone Ashley) and Anthony Bridgerton is that their small scenes are often about the logistics of early parenthood, managing the Bridgerton estate, mundane things like that.
So much of Penelope’s story this season is about her trying to reconnect with her writing, which she struggles to do now that she’s been outed as Lady Whistledown. What, even, is Colin’s job? I think that’s what I want from Polin, not sex scenes in carriages (or, at least, not just sex scenes in carriages), but scenes showing how they support each other in their endeavors. I want to know how their lives have changed, not how they’ve stayed the same!
Season 4, Episode 3, Minute 47 and 1:04: First Kisses Aplenty
Nadira: By now, our main couple, Sophie and Benedict, have been having a Cinderella story of their own. When Sophie’s stepmother, Araminta (Katie Leung), finds out that Sophie pretended to be a part of the aristocracy and attended a masquerade ball hosted by the Bridgertons, she kicks her stepdaughter out of the house. Sophie then finds work at an estate in the countryside. Meanwhile, Benedict, who searched for his mystery lady in silver everywhere before finally giving up, attempts to drown out his heartbroken sorrows by attending one of his friend’s bashes at the home where Sophie incidentally now works. When Benedict catches some of his partygoing friends attempting to assault Sophie and her fellow maid, Hazel (Gracie McGonigal), he defends her honor and gets injured in the process. Benedict offers to take Sophie back to London, but their carriage is caught in a downpour. The rain and Benedict’s injury result in them taking refuge together at his nearby cottage for a few days.
Sophie revels in her time at the cottage, where she’s treated as Benedict’s guest and not a servant. The two have had some pretty intense chemistry that they’ve both been trying to hide, but their coyness goes out the window when Sophie catches Benedict swimming in the lake buck naked. She stares, he catches her staring, he questions her, and she accidentally blurts out that she “cannot help but notice” him. Then they share a passionate kiss that starts out slow and hesitant, but gets hungrier and hungrier until they both pull away, awkwardly apologizing to each other. I thought this kiss was pretty good, Rebecca! I like the ones that start out tentatively but get more intense—some real old-school tactics of the romance genre. What about you?
Rebecca: OK, Bridgerton is back on its bullshit with this shot of Benedict’s butt from behind while he puts his pants back on. Good butt! I liked the little fight these two were in right before they kiss, stepping closer and closer to one another until a kiss seems inevitable. No offense to Colin and Penelope, but these actors’ heights are much better matched than last season’s tall–short pair, and this whole kiss looks really natural.
I also really liked the other first kiss in this episode, in the Bridgerton drawing room, in which Violet, seated on a settee with Lord Anderson (Daniel Francis), stammers through an explanation of all her misgivings about starting a new physical relationship (including describing her children as “dogs on a fox,” which was delightfully apt), which he puts to rest first with words, then with a kiss. She looks so nervous, and then so into it—good for Violet.
Nadira: I do love Violet and Lord Anderson! For obvious narrative reasons, the show is more invested in the lives of the Bridgerton children, but I so enjoy these small moments where we get to see Violet opening herself back up to the possibility of love and sex. It’s been so long since her husband’s untimely death, and she (plus her hired help) has done so well in raising these dogs on a fox, she deserves this! It’s also adorable to see her get so nervous, and funnier still when you think about her sons just rampaging around London trying to have sex with anything that moves. Ah, youth!
Season 4, Episode 4, Minute 41: Francesca and John Try to Spice It Up
Nadira: Since John’s mention of a “pinnacle” in the previous episode, Francesca has been on a mission to have one—which includes finding out what one is, to start. She confides in Penelope and her mother—“No similes, no analogies, no sentimentalities. I just need answers,” she tells Penelope—and her sister-in-law advises her to try to create some excitement through spontaneity. Francesca ambushes John with a kiss in the drawing room, but bails when a quick wave of embarrassment washes over her. John admits that he enjoyed it, and in fact was restraining himself for her sake. But later on in the episode, when they are finally going at it, it seems like Francesca is a little more into it, until she very noticeably pretends to have an orgasm and screams out John’s name. He calls her out on it, and she admits, opening up to reveal that she feels frustrated by her inability to have an orgasm and also to conceive. But before she pretended to climax, she felt “tingling sensations, warmth,” and, overall, “good.”
Though the Francesca/John plotline is pretty boring overall, I really loved that even in this fantasy world, men can still fail in the bedroom. I like it not because it’s comical, but because the show is romanticizing things clicking immediately, but also honesty without embarrassment and working toward a common goal. What did you think, Rebecca?
Rebecca: I loved “No similes, no analogies, no sentimentalities,” and the fact that Penelope replies advocating spontaneity, when really, I think the advice Francesca needed was far more mechanical. If I’m Penelope, I’m naming and locating the clitoris, and asking how often Francesca gets touched or rubbed, and how! But not even Penelope, one of the most matter-of-fact people on the show, and armed with the experience of having had good sex, seems to be able to bring herself to say this straight to her sister-in-law and friend. I actually like this—Bridgerton is often anachronistic and ahistorical, and is a show that does depict cunnilingus, female masturbation (we see Sophie doing this in her bed 10 minutes before Francesca’s scene), men reaching around to give manual stimulation during sex, and lots of women having orgasms. But it feels right that there would be at least one woman who just isn’t happy in the bedroom. I suspect future seasons will see Francesca satisfied, and as a book reader, that’s all I’m going to say!
Season 4, Episode 4, Minute 52: Violet and Lord Anderson Get Familiar
Rebecca: Clothed in a baby-blue lingerie set, Violet is in her room, looking at a miniature portrait of her late husband Edmund, which she lovingly caresses and then flips upside-down so he can’t “see” what she’s about to do next. (Do people do this in real life? They certainly do on TV!) What’s she about to do? She’s arranged a night when all of her children will be out of the house, so that Lord Anderson can come for “tea” in her private quarters. He suggests taking it slow, and she’s like, “Absolutely not! Undress!”—and then we get another shot from behind his butt, before we cut away to another scene. Nadira, do you think they’re overusing the behind-the-butt POV this year, or do we love it?
Nadira: Me? Generally, a fan. But I agree that I think the show is overusing this particular shot. Or maybe the issue here is more that I think the Benedict Bridgerton shot was more narratively effective than this one. Just let them have sex! This points to one of my larger issues with this season, which is how boring all of the other plots outside of the main romance feel. This isn’t usually an issue I have when watching Bridgerton. I don’t know if it’s because I’m growing fatigued with the show, or if it’s because the show is actually failing to be interesting—maybe it’s a little of both. But, in that vein, I wish Violet and Lord Anderson were offered a little bit more excitement than just fun lingerie and solid buttocks.
Season 4, Episode 4, Minute 54: Benedict, Stairwells, and a Mistress? Oh, My!
Nadira: By now, Benedict has gotten Sophie a job on staff at Bridgerton House, and despite their best efforts to let their wanton kiss live in the past, they keep finding themselves in moments of sexually frustrated conversations. They like each other—more than a little—but know that this is simply improper in the Regency era, as alternative as this timeline may be. At the same time, they just can’t quit each other. And all of this tension boils over into an impassioned clandestine make-out session in a dimly lit stairwell. Benedict rips off Sophie’s cloak, lifts her up, pushes her against the wall, and fingers her until she has an orgasm. “I stay away because you consume me,” he tells her. He speaks of racing heartbeats and how he loves the reality of her more than any fantasy—he “cannot live without” her, he says. All before he—record scratch—asks her to be his … mistress. The string quartet version of whatever pop hit that was playing comes to a halt, Sophie’s face falls, and she flees the confined space as someone calls up for her.
This is where the Season 4 midseason break left us, with a big cliffhanger that seemed to offend plenty of watchers. Sure, it’s demeaning to Sophie, but it’s also true of how things would have worked at the time—it doesn’t seem like an unusual offer for a member of the Regency aristocracy to make. (I mean, at least he took his fingers out of her before he made it.) But I’m not the history buff here; Rebecca, what did you make of this scene?
Rebecca: One thing I feel like this season didn’t quite play up enough is the fact that Benedict, having been a rake with a lot of experience in decadent settings, is probably good in bed! And, sure enough, he’s giving pinnacles here. I knew the big mistress reveal by having read the book, but part of me wondered whether the show would actually have one of its beloved siblings propose to put a woman in this position. It’s certainly not historically inaccurate (though it might have been uncommon for a maid to be asked to take on this role), and it’s actually an interesting narrative move for the writer of a romance to make, highlighting the limitations of a cross-class coupling and making it clear how totally weird it is that these aristocrats have to pick a spouse out of a tiny group of eligible fellow toffs. (I especially appreciate that we got this plot in the context of Bridgerton, which tends to be completely uncritical of the aristocracy.) But it is, as the rest of the season will show us, an offer that’s borderline unethical for the man and a very uncertain bet for the woman. After this scene, Sophie has got some good evidence that this would be a pleasurable arrangement, but it’s probably not going to be enough.
Nadira: I also am sort of charmed by how real this show makes the stakes of their relationship for what feels like the first time in the show’s history. It gets clearer, as the season progresses, just how big of a deal—and how much of a sacrifice—committing to this partnership would be for both Benedict and Sophie. And I like how the show depicts the facts of mistress-hood as both taboo, but also not uncommon. If I had to choose a Bridgerton that would wind up marrying someone from a lower class, it would have been Eloise (Claudia Jessie), though I’m sure this decision has even more weight for a woman of the aristocracy than it does a man. Still, class is always an interesting element to consider in any genre, and I’m happy Bridgerton is finally playing around with it here.
Season 4, Episode 5, Minute 57:28: Benedict and Sophie Finally Give In
Rebecca: Sophie and Benedict have it out in his room, and he confesses that he loves her. “You cannot,” she says. “No, I cannot,” he replies, “and yet …” He tells her that while he once couldn’t “sit still,” now he wants to be in “one single place,” beside her, “for as long as I might live.” This is a big dramatic love speech, complete with Benedict promising that he wouldn’t take a wife if they were together, and Sophie can’t resist. They’re kissing, the music stops, they look at one another, and it’s on: the big dramatic sex scene.
First, some brief cunnilingus (there it is!) with Sophie on a side table, her hair tumbling down. Then, they undress and take to the bed, and Sophie, a virgin, asks Benedict to go slow: “I’ve heard it can hurt.” They do it missionary; then spoon-style with Benedict reaching around; then side-by-side, kissing passionately. John, take notes!
For a season that mostly withheld big sex scenes, this was a major one. First of all, Nadira, did you feel like they had chemistry? (I did!) And second, let’s take one minute to remember a fun fact: In the past few seasons, Benedict discovered he’s bisexual. Now he’s committed to be with one person—a woman—for the rest of his life. Seems big, but the script this season handles it with just a couple moments, a proposition from a former lover early on and then a small confession of sorts to Sophie. Am I being weird for thinking it’s a little minimizing how the show handled this?
Nadira: Oh, I think when it comes to chemistry, the only couple that beats these two are Kate and Anthony from Season 2. I like this couple! But, yes, I have to agree that I am pretty baffled by how the show has handled Benedict Bridgerton over the years. At first, the show really forefronted his bisexuality and his nonconformist tendencies, which is why he was so close with Eloise, of all the other siblings. He’s a struggling artist! He was having an affair with the modiste, Madame Delacroix (remember that? Of course not!), and then with that widow in Season 3, Lady Tilley. It’s Tilley who really gets him out of his comfort zone when she encourages him to have a throuple with her male friend. But I have always felt like Bridgerton wipes Benedict’s slate clean at the start of every new season, refusing to engage in any character development he could have sustained over the years. And, as much as I enjoy this sex scene and this couple, I do find it odd that this season barely mentions Benedict’s sexuality or even any of his past relationships.
Season 4, Episode 8, Minute 19: Things Between Benedict and Sophie Get Steamy
Nadira: Rejoice! Benedict got his family’s blessing to marry Sophie, and Sophie is one step closer to getting retribution for Araminta’s conniving decision to lie about Sophie’s father’s will. The lovebirds decide to hold off on the pomp and circumstance of marriage until their legal matters are all but settled. Still, outside of walking down the aisle, there are other things they can do without shame, now that they’ve committed to each other. One of those things is, naturally, romantically bathing together.
They start making out in a tub full of cloudy water and flower petals that strategically cover all the parts of themselves that Netflix would rather we not see. There’s a funny moment when, as they’re kissing, Sophie pushes Benedict toward the back of the tub, and a splash of water goes over the side. They can’t risk Sophie getting pregnant yet, so instead Benedict fingers Sophie while she gives him a handjob. It’s a short scene, but I thought it was rather effective! It definitely felt more arousing than the other scenes thus far for me. One of the things I’ve appreciated about this season is, despite how little sex there is, that much of what is there is about figuring out sex for you or some of the other options that exist outside of the classic type of penetration. Did this scene work for you the way it worked for me?
Rebecca: Hell yeah. A historical romance has to have a bathtub scene. And Sophie, of all people, can appreciate the incredible labor it took someone (or more than one someones) to bring hot water upstairs to fill that giant tub. I loved this scene, with both of these exhausted and tentatively hopeful people relaxing into spending time together. And I agree with your assessment: This season of Bridgerton was like one long advertisement for fingering. In a good way!
Overall:
Rebecca: Now is the time when we rate. How horny did this make us, on a scale of 1 to 10? We’ve been a little merciless toward Bridgerton in our Sex Reviews the past few times around, and before Benedict and Sophie’s stairwell scene, I might have slapped a 4 on this one, as well. But from the end of Episode 4 on, the show kind of got me. This is a 6, and I’m only rating it that low because I recently got conditioned via Heated Rivalry to expect a sex scene every episode. What was there was good! I just wanted a little more. What did you think?
Nadira: We’re always in league with each other when it comes to these final scores, Rebecca! This was also a 6 for me, mostly because, even though there was so little sex, the sex that was there was narratively intriguing. Before the break, I would have rated this a 3, but I did really love Benedict and Sophie when all was said and done. Though, I do have a hankering for more scenes documenting their getting to know each other. If I’m being honest, I’d rather give this season a 5.5, but I don’t mind rounding up to account for Francesca’s character growth this season (and how much her sex life was a part of that).