You know why I like Benedick?

I will tell you. It’s not because his name is Benedick – why is his name Benedick? – and it’s not because he’s BFF with dopey Claudio. It’s not even because he’s friends with Don Pedro, and I like Don Pedro, partly because Denzel Washington is so handsome and upright and nice in the role. It’s because he totally listens to Beatrice and trusts that her instincts are right.

I mean, the situation’s not really conducive. Everyone in town’s just been witness to the knock-down-drag-out-looks-not-like-a-nuptial fight that Claudio decided to pick AT THE ALTAR (he’s such a dope, no wonder I hated Robert Sean Leonard for so long), Beatrice is all upset and screamy, Leonato may actually have lost his mind, Hero’s off to go play dead, and Benedick has, rather graciously I think, stuck around through all this screamy fighting when any normal person who was not actually a blood relation would have slunk off long ago and gone home to gossip about that wacky governor’s family. And like, Beatrice is pretty great when he’s all dude I totally love you and she’s like So do something about it (I actually really like it when she says, Use it for my love some other way than swearing by it). But she’s asking him to challenge Claudio to a duel. A duel to defend the honor of a girl that not one but both of his BFFs swear they saw having sex with another guy. And yes, okay, Benedick has mentioned that their wisdoms could have been misled by John the Bastard, but a lot of people don’t seem convinced by that argument.

Anyway, the point is, he says, “Okay, look. Think you in your soul that Claudio hath wronged Hero?” and she says, “Seriously, yes,” and then he’s like, “Okay. I’m on it.” And hey. Wow. That’s some serious trust for her judgment he’s got there.

On the other hand, if she’d been wrong, he’d have killed his best friend just cause his new girlfriend said to. So there’s that to consider.