'Bridgerton' Season 4, Part 1 Belongs to Violet and Her Long-Awaited New Love Story
"I am the tea you'll be having."
Violet Bridgerton is the quiet revelation that made the loudest statement.
While Bridgerton Season 4, Part 1 is structurally built around the love story of Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson) and Sophie Baek (Yerin Ha), the emotional plot-stealer—unexpected, tender, and deeply resonant—is Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell) and her blooming relationship with Lord Marcus Anderson (Daniel Francis).
One of the most beautiful things about Violet has always been her capacity to love, but more importantly, her ability to recognize that love changes shape and intensity across time, space, and people. Over the years, she has guided her children toward love that reflects who they are, not replicas of the relationship she once shared with her late husband, Edmund. Violet understands something many parents struggle with: love does not have a singular blueprint.
And in Season 4, for Violet, that wisdom turns inward.
While her attention is split between Benedict’s unfolding (and fumbling) romance and Eloise’s continued self-discovery, Violet finally turns the mirror on herself. And what Ruth Gemmell gives us is the forgotten innocence of it all—the quiet shock of realizing that love can bloom again when you didn’t know you were still fertile ground for it.
When Violet clumsily confides in Marcus about her feelings, she blushes. She hesitates. She is awkward and slightly embarrassed, not because she’s ashamed—but because she didn’t expect it to feel like the first time all over again. That vulnerability is intoxicating, and Marcus meets it with patience rather than pressure.
And this is what makes Marcus such a compelling love interest: he gives Violet space.
He allows her thoughts to fully articulate themselves. He lets her feelings settle and rest in the space between them, giving her time to grow strength from these emotions rather than shrink away from them—all without dampening his attraction to her. There is balance in his patience and desire, and he understands the most important truth of it all:
Violet holds all the power.
After all the buildup—the honest conversation, the quiet vulnerability, the subtle blessing from her ladies’ maid—Violet’s new love story takes center stage, becoming the true pinnacle (yes, I had to) of Bridgerton Season 4, Part 1.
But Violet’s story isn’t just romantic. It’s cultural.
She represents sensuality and desirability in a woman of a certain age. A widow. A mother of many. A woman who has already lived a full love once—and dares to want more.
Even as social norms inch forward, conversations around women and sexuality remain shackled by the concept of “respectability.” You’d think The Golden Girls would’ve settled this decades ago, yet Hollywood—and society—continues to push the idea that women lose desirability after 35.
Violet Bridgerton pushes back against that narrative with grace and conviction.
She believes—and feels—that if anything, she is better now than she was before. She has more knowledge. She is more in tune with her body, her wants, and her needs. With time has come confidence, and with confidence comes clarity. That self-assurance crescendos beautifully in Part 1, reminding us that desire does not expire; it evolves.
The only lingering question now is not if this love will deepen… but how long before her children find out?
Bridgerton Season 4, Part 1 is available to stream now on Netflix. Part 2 arrives February 26.