Bridgerton season four packed a lot of plot into that final ball. The Penwood and the Bridgerton families have a big confrontation. Instead of sorting out the mess, Queen Charlotte says, “carry on,” and walks off laughing. Later on, she and Lady Danbury are chortling away as they watch the guests dance at the ball. Are you still confused about why Queen Charlotte was giggling, and what this means for Sophie and Benedict? Thankfully, the cast of Bridgerton have explained in-depth why Queen Charlotte laughs.

Basically, the laughter confirms Charlotte knows everybody is lying about Sophie’s origins, but she wants the lying to continue. This Queen isn’t entirely daft. Alice already told her Sophie is a maid. It’s pretty obvious from Sophie’s phrasing of “I am a daughter of Penwood House” that she’s the illegitimate daughter of the last earl. The story of Benedict Bridgerton falling for a maid, Araminta attempting to send her to prison, and both families lying to cover it all up, seems really absurd to the Queen. However, she decides to go along with it all anyway.

She does it for the plot (Image via Netflix)

The Bridgerton showrunner, Jess Brownell, shared to Variety why Charlotte responded in this way. “It’s not in the books that the Queen is involved in sanctioning the lie, but I think it’s part of the language of our show that the Queen is somehow involved in blessing the union every season. And it felt like a nice cap on the Lady Danbury story, after the Queen has spent a season requiring Danbury to be in service to her, for the Queen to honour the personhood and humanity of a maid within a love match. That felt like a beautiful button on that story and like a gift to Danbury, in a way. And she’s giving her girl, the girl Danbury put forward, meaning Alice, a win. It’s really more about the Queen doing it for Danbury than anything.”

Golda Rosheuvel, who stars as Queen Charlotte, also explained her reasoning on Bridgerton: The Official Podcast.  The drama between the Queen and Lady Danbury during season four made the Queen realise that she needs people in her life who bring drama and entertainment. “There’s an element of understanding that she needs somebody to challenge her.” If Queen Charlotte keeps Alice as a lady-in-waiting, and goes along with her plot to bring Sophie into upper class society, she’ll have far more fun than if she’d called their bluff. “There’s something new and fresh for the Queen to experience in this new person.”

So, Queen Charlotte goes along with Alice’s plan for Benedict and Sophie. But as the whole saga seems so silly to her, that as she pretends to believe that Sophie isn’t a maid or illegitimate, she can’t help but laugh.