‘Bridgerton’ Season 4 Episode 8 Recap: Happily Ever After (Season Finale)

There have been three questions rattling around in my brain since the first episode of Bridgerton Season 4 that would need answers if this season was going to resolve itself in a satisfying manner. First, will Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson) ever realize that the Lady in Silver and Sophie Baek (Yerin Ha) are one and the same? (As we saw in Episode 7, yes, finally.) Number two: How will Benedict and Sophie manage to skirt the rules of society to actually end up together? And most important to this vengeful, grudge-holding author, number three, will Araminta Gun get the comeuppance that she deserves? Fortunately, yes, we get answers to all of these, although I wish Araminta would have faced more brutal consequences because have I mentioned I’m vengeful and grudge-holding?

I also had no idea there would be a fourth crucial question coming in hot at the end of the season: Will Sophie be destined to spend the rest of her years in jail? Because that’s where we find her at the beginning of Episode 8. She’s locked up by the constable at the behest of Araminta, who claims Sophie stole her diamond shoe clips and impersonated nobility, and even though technically Sophie is allowed a proverbial phone call, if she were to reach out to Alfie or any of her other close confidantes, she risks implicating them, too. At least the system has always been broken and this isn’t something that’s just new in the American justice system.

Alfie does learn Sophie is in jail though because Lady Penwood’s maid, Varley, who has slowly come to realize that her new boss is a thousand times worse than her old boss, Lady Featherington, tells him. (Eventually Varley will make her way back to Lady Featherington, one of the most satisfying love matches of the whole season.) He then relays that information to the Bridgerton’s maid Hazel, who, along with Mrs. Wilson, reveals it to Violet, Benedict and his siblings, who have also just learned that he’s in love with their maid. It’s a lot of information to take in.

If it wasn’t cruel enough of Araminta to have Sophie arrested, she visits her in jail and proposes a deal for Sophie to confess to her crimes that she’s not even actually guilty of so they can avoid trial and spare the Bridgerton’s any public shame for harboring Sophie. When Sophie refuses, that sends Araminta into a fury and she tells Sophie, “You have always made poor choices. At least now, you shall get what you deserve.”

We then get the most dramatic courtroom scene in the history of Bridgerton (also the only courtroom scene in the history of Bridgerton). After their conversation in jail, we immediately cut to a judge sentencing Sophie for her crimes (based solely on Araminta’s testimony) but that’s interrupted when Benedict and Violet rush into the court and demand Sophie’s release. When Araminta tells Violet that Sophie stole her shoe clips, Violet gets a fire in her voice and goes full Julia Sugarbaker yelling, “Do you have any proof?” in a way that makes Araminta shut right up. And then she immediately turns around an feigns helplessness, begging the magistrate to let Sophie go because Violet cannot possibly live without her ladies maid. It’s quite the performance. Araminta seethes at the Bridgertons for coming to Sophie’s rescue, and the judge releases Sophie into their care as long and suggests that the Bridgertons and Araminta resolve this conflict between themselves. “There is to be no agreement,” Araminta sneers. “She is going to prison.”

“We shall see about that,” Violet hisses back.

Sophie is brought back to Bridgerton House but not to work, she is allowed to live there as a guest while they try to figure out the answer to my two remaining questions: How can she and Benedict find a way to be together despite their different social statuses, and how can they bring down Araminta? The answer to both of those things lies in one place: Sophie’s father’s will.

Now that there are no secrets between Sophie and Benedict, she explains to him how she went from being the daughter of an earl to becoming a maid, explaining that Araminta told her she was left nothing in her father’s will when he died. Benedict asks Sophie, “Did you see this will yourself?” and she says she has not. Then he apologizes for asking her top be his mistress, they take a bath together, and then she decides she needs to find that will so she can truly know what it says.

The will is located in the study at Penwood House, where Cressida Cowper, the new Lady Penwood, resides. Sophie asks Eloise to do her a solid and pay Cressida a visit so that Sophie can snoop around and find the will, and Eloise begrudgingly says yes. While Cressida and Eloise discuss Eloise’s reentry into the marriage mart (also done begrudgingly), Sophie races off to find the will. When she does, she learns that Araminta’s been withholding a whole lot of money from her. (And Eloise and Cressida’s conversation yields some revelations for Eloise, first is that Cressida might be a secret feminist, but also, Cressida makes a case for the importance of love in one’s life, and it has a subtle but clear impact on Eloise’s view on the marriage mart.)

Benedict and Violet’s mother-son relationship has been strained at times this season because Benedict has been pushing the boundaries of acceptable behavior, but now that his feelings for Sophie are all out in the open, she confides in him that she’s only been hard on him because he reminds her of herself as a young woman, passionate and carefree. It’s a conversation that feels freeing for both of them, but it also makes Violet realize that the reason she has been holding off on announcing her engagement to Lord Anderson is because she hasn’t tapped into that carefree side of herself in a long time and she doesn’t want to be tied down. Lord Anderson takes this as well as he can, but he’s clearly blindsided.

While the Earl of Penwood’s will might have some effect on Araminta getting her just desserts, it may not be enough for Sophie and Benedict’s relationship to be accepted by society. In one of her last duties before she leaves the ton, Lady Danbury regales Queen Charlotte with the story of the maid who stole Benedict’s heart, in an effort for the couple to earn the Queen’s blessing and give them the social standing they need so they won’t be ostracized forever. Despite the fact that the Queen has good money on Benedict getting married this season, she is… unimpressed.

This, in turn, gives Alice Mondrich, the Queen’s newest lady in waiting, the chance to prove to Charlotte she’s a suitable replacement for Lady Danbury as the Queen’s trusted sidekick. Alice decides to take a big swing and arrange for Sophie to attend the Queen’s upcoming ball with Benedict.

Sophie, having learned that her father left her (as well as Rosamund and Posy) a dowry and paid a large annual stipend for every year that Sophie lived with Araminta, also has leverage now. Araminta was not only profiting off of Sophie being her maid, but she stole the money earmarked for Sophie’s dowry and gave it all to Rosamund, the daughter she knew would be hard to marry off on account of the fact that she sucks.

At the ball, Alice arranges a surprise meeting between Sophie and the Bridgertons and Lady Penwood. Araminta is not happy about this ambush because this is where Sophie reveals, in front of Rosamund and Posy, that she knows now about how Lady Penwood stole her dowry and stipend to take care of her, while forcing her into servitude. Rosamund and Posy are outraged, Posy then admits that she stole the shoe clips and gave them to Sophie, and Araminta continues to lash out, calling Sophie her father’s “greatest mistake.” Surely her comeuppance is coming uppance soon? I want this woman to suffer. Alas, Gentle Reader, my vengeful and grudge-holding heart grows ever more disappointed, because she does not receive any comeuppance at all. The only real punishment for Araminta is that she is forced to leave London and live at her country estate for the rest of the season, and Rosamund’s new fiance dumps her when he’s told that Rosamund’s dowry is less than what was originally promised. It’s something, but it’s not enough.

With Araminta taken care of, Alice Mondrich appeals to the Queen to meet Benedict and Sophie so she can see how in love they are. The Queen refuses to endorse the relationship of a man and his maid, until Alice appeals to the Queen’s salacious side, telling her that by ignoring the lower classes, the Queen is missing out on the real juicy soap operas of the world. “Your Majesty, you are missing all the good gossip,” Alice tells her. The Queen is convinced by that argument, so she goes to meet Benedict and Sophie. When she gets there, Violet introduces Sophie as the daughter of Lord Penwood’s cousin, a lie, but she forces Araminta to corroborate. So that’s how they get around Sophie not being true nobility, by lying about her lineage. The Queen looks Sophie up and down and declares, “You would have made a wonderful diamond.” And so, with the Queen’s blessing, they’re free to get married and take all the sexy baths they want together. In front of everyone, Benedict proposes at the ball, and for once, Sophie doesn’t have to flee at midnight.

And now for the breakups. As I’ve mentioned, Violet has gone through an about face this season and broke things off with Lord Anderson, which was disappointing but necessary for her to rediscover herself. At the end of the episode we also learn that Michaela Stirling has left London without telling Francesca – perhaps because she feared they were growing too close The saddest breakup of the season though? Queen Charlotte and Lady Danbury. With the debutante season nearing its end and Lady Danbury planning to leave town for a while, Queen Charlotte isn’t afraid to show just how crushed she is. “We have such fun together,” she tells Lady Danbury through tears, clutching her hand, and it’s as tender as we’ve seen this Queen. Theirs is a platonic love story for the ages.

And so, as the season wraps up all of our biggest questions have been answered, but new ones has arisen. Such as, who is the new Whistledown? After the excitement of the Queen’s ball, Lady Whistledown pens one final newsletter of the season. But with Penelope retired, the newsletter declares that this one is written “by a very different author,” it leaves everyone wondering just who the new fly on the wall is. Care to place your guesses?

In a post-credits scene at Benedict and Sophie’s wedding, the couple finally gets their true happy ending, a blissful wedding in the country. Anthony and Kate are there to join in the festivities, Alfie gives Sophie away, Hazel is her maid of honor, and Irma, the Penwood House cook is in the crowd, too. And so are the cock-blocking Crabtrees of My Cottage fame! Even Posy and her new wealthy boyfriend are there. Aww, I like when only the good people are invited. Eloise explains, that she really does love a wedding because it’s “all the best people in the same place,” as this guest list certainly proves. I’ll be pleased if that means that the next wedding we celebrate might be hers.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.