People on tiktok and twitter being pissed off for Benedict not recognizing Sophie as the lady in silver genuinely makes me wonder if it's all for gags or is media literacy really dead, if not dead, at risk?
You have to understand that the reason Benedict hasn't starkly made the connection yet was for one, it was just a stolen moment and in one night only. Time also had passed, and they were in disguise. Second, even if they were in close proximity especially now they've crossed paths (and Sophie as Sophie, not the lady in silver), you'd have to know that it's the aristocratic period. Even if Benedict had the inkling feeling they've met before (e.g. that scene at ep 2 of the encounter at the cavender/cavendar(?) house, and also the hand-clutch scene when he helped her onto the carriage), he would never clock it because he would never consider the lady in silver to be a maid. Again, aristocratic period.
The aristocratic period was the era where social standings were so deliberate and stark. They met at the masquerade ball, and it doesn't help that Benedict barely knew anything about her—except the feel of her hands and her lips—he was genuinely under the impression that she was a lady. A lady from a well-off family, or even just a known family. BECAUSE SHE. WAS. AT. THE. BALL. To be in attendance at the ball means you're from a capable background, and being a maid—it's impossible to ever be involved in all sorts of those gatherings. So of course even if Benedict is just as drawn to Sophie as a maid to when she was the lady in silver, it makes sense for Benedict to immediately omit the possibility for the lady in silver to be Sophie because of that. And honestly, I get the frustration but that's the point of the story but some are literally... I don't know, just boiling it down to benedict being stupid to not recognize sophie idk.
That's all, thanks for coming to my ted talk
