A Bridgerton Line Might’ve Quietly Teased The Season 5 Lead

Spoilers ahead for Bridgerton Season 4. Benedict and Sophie’s swoony Bridgerton finale marks the end of the show’s first half of love stories. So who will usher in the next?

Showrunner Jess Brownell has confirmed that Eloise and Francesca are up next, but stopped short of revealing which sister gets which season. Eloise’s love story comes from Julia Quinn’s fifth Bridgerton book (To Sir Phillip, with Love), while Francesca’s is the sixth (When He Was Wicked).

However, this doesn’t necessarily mean the sisters’ seasons will air in the same order. For example, in the books, Benedict and Sophie are No. 3 and Colin and Penelope are No. 4 — but they swapped places on the show.

Naturally, there are competing theories about who will lead Bridgerton Season 5.

Is It Finally Eloise’s Time?

When it comes to predicting the future of Bridgerton, one of the most popular sources of speculation is the pall-mall scene from Season 2, Episode 3. According to a theory laid out by Redditors u/Ladysilvert and u/JilliusMaximusJD, the order of which balls go through which wickets seems to line up with the siblings’ season rollout — down to Benedict missing his shot and Colin besting him, which was (correctly!) taken as a sign that the brothers would swap seasons.

The same theory posits that because Eloise clinches the fifth wicket, she will get the fifth season. Francesca wasn’t around for this particular game, so the theory can only take us so far. But given its accuracy up to this point, it’s worth keeping in mind!

Story-wise, Brownell has previously explained her rationale for choosing the next lead, telling The Hollywood Reporter that the team moved up #Polin’s season because she and Shonda Rhimes “were both also growing weary of the dynamic where Colin has no idea that Pen has feelings for him.”

That logic could apply to Eloise, too. After years of rebuking marriage and leaning into self-described spinsterhood, she seems to turn a new leaf in Season 4.

After talking about love with Cressida, and watching her family come together in the wake of John’s death, she tells Hyacinth: “I can see that, on occasion, marriage might have its advantages — companionship, family, a prime seat at a soirée. And then, if not for mother and father’s marriage, we would not all have each other, which seems a rather large reward. Most of the time, anyway.”

Bridgerton tends to give its characters these kinds of epiphanic quotes ahead of their turn as lead. For example, in Season 3, Benedict said, “It feels right now that the next thing I might learn may change me entirely.”

Finally, in her book, Eloise’s love story begins from a place of loneliness. She’s said to feel “hollow” in the wake of her loved ones’ happy marriages. With both of her closest confidantes (Penelope and Benedict) finding love in swift succession, now would be a natural time to shift focus to her next chapter.

Francesca’s Love After Loss

One factor that makes Francesca less likely for Season 5 is that she spends a long time mourning John in her book — four years, in fact — before finding love with his cousin, Michael (who is Michaela on the show).

Granted, Brownell recently told Bustle that she’d likely account for this with a time jump whenever Francesca’s season arrives. “It’s very important for Francesca to take a significant amount of time to grieve John, because he is genuinely so important to her, and is one of her great loves,” she said. So, if Francesca were to lead Season 5, the show would still honor that mourning period.

But still, saving #Franchaela’s season for later could help deepen the pair’s simmering feelings for each other, especially as Michaela left London without a word at the end of Season 4. (In the books, she decamps to India.) As Francesca says in Season 4’s post-credits wedding scene, she’s not currently planning to remarry, saying that “one time is enough.”

If Eloise indeed takes the lead in Season 5, a significant subplot could revolve around her sister processing her grief and, maybe by the end, becoming a little more open to love after loss.