Luke Thompson's Benedict was ironically always close to his mysterious Lady in Silver, who caught his eye at the masquerade ball in the Bridgerton Season 4 premiere. However, he fails to recognize her as she was dressed as his house's maid, Sophie Baek (Yerin Ha).The recently released season of Bridgerton features many hits and misses for its lead couple, who were stuck together in My Cottage yet remained distanced due to their contrasting social differences.In an interview with Deadline, Thompson unpacks the major theme of masking and unmasking of identities in Benedict and Sophie's story in Bridgerton Season 4 and how it hinders the couple from truly connecting:''It’s lovely that theme is carried on through the whole show with the masks and unmasking, and the moments when they miss each other and the moments when they connect. It’s really juicy territory isn’t it?”More on this in our story.Bridgerton stars unpack Sophie and Benedict's disguised love in Season 4 View this post on Instagram Instagram PostBenedict spent the entirety of Bridgerton Season 4 Part 1 torn between his connection to Sophie, the newly hired Lady's maid for his sisters, and his frantic search for the Lady in Silver, unaware that they were the same. Ironically, Benedict returns from My Cottage replenished with hope and determined to resume his search for the mysterious lady, unaware that he actually spent those tranquil days in the countryside with her.Benedict and Sophie's Cinderella-inspired love story begins with a masquerade ball that conceals their identity from each other. While Benedict eventually introduces himself as the second Bridgerton sibling, Sophie naturally keeps her identity hidden due to her low social status. While both Sophie and Benedict come from contrasting social backgrounds, they have more in common than meets the eye.Before his meet-cute with the Lady in Silver, fans saw Benedict's aversion and loathing of marriage throughout the previous three seasons of Bridgerton. As a self-proclaimed free spirit and Bohemian artist, Benedict loathed the idea of settling like his siblings and spent the social seasons holed up in his room, invisible from society's mamas.Thompson unpacked Benedict's desire to hide himself away from society as:“For Benedict, it’s more to do with not wanting to give himself in his entirety, to feeling that’s sort of too wild a bet to place in life, which makes sense if your dad died very young, you know?''On the other hand, Sophie does not have the luxury of being seen and noticed like the other ladies of the ton. As revealed in Bridgerton Season 4 Part 1, Sophie is an illegitimate child who was forced into a life of servitude by her father's second wife. As with most servants of the ton, Sophie is invisible.Thompson added how this invisibility binds both the lead characters in the latest season:“It’s a really lovely dynamic. It’s really interesting because they are two characters that struggle or have a complex relationship with the idea of being seen, of being fully visible, I think for very different reasons.''Yerin Ha feels her character's enchanting encounter in the Season 4 premiere changed her forever:''It was a little bit unlucky, in the sense that that night forever changes her and actually makes her yearn for love even more, that she never asked for.”Sophie finally found a Gentleman who noticed her but she fears letting her guard down and unmasking her real identity in front of him. Even when she is given a chance to connect with Benedict in the countryside, she chooses to continue with her ruse and the couple returns to London without revealing their secrets.The concluding part of Sophie and Benedict's love story will arrive in Bridgerton Season 4 Part 2 on Netflix on February 26.For the latest scoops on your favorite TV shows and movies, follow Soap Central.