I can’t remember ever being more frustrated by a TV show episode than I have been after watching The Lying Detective. (The Final Problem left me so numb that I reacted in a totally apathetic way.) What I personally got from this episode is that Steven Moffat decided to kill Johnlock off, not in the mortuary scene, but in the hug scene. I know it’s an unusual viewpoint but I would like to explain why I have this opinion. This hug seems to me like the seal on the ending of their romantic potential. Despite being mad at Steven Moffat for this, I admit one thing: this is an ingenious way to handle a tough issue if you are not sure whether you’ll have the chance to address it later.If.
This is truly a moment of proper, relatively deeper communication between Sherlock and John but I disagree with most fans that this step brings them closer to the notorious “romantic entaglement”. It doesn’t. The only positive attribute is that it heavily implies John was / has been in love with Sherlock and vice versa. This scene works as a subtle confirmation, which is relatively important but it does not work as a promise from the writers. This is clever because a confirmation is needed in case they return for a (better) series 5 but a promise should be avoided in case they don’t and their official ending is the one in The Final Problem.
In short, what happens in this scene is that we get implications that these two are in love but we are also told that both of them have completely given up hoping or expecting things. This for me is the greatest disappointment and the main reason I can’t like an episode that is otherwise mostly good. Sherlock and John are worn out by everything they ‘ve been through and the desire or excitement seems to have faded.
The most alarming sign of John’s fatigue is his controlled absence of jealousy when Sherlock gets a text from Irene, which confuses even Sherlock himself.
Sherlock looks bewildered by John’s uncharacteristic reaction. Sherlock tried to downplay the importance of Irene’s text because he was prepared for the usual jealous outburst, yet what he got was John pushing him to Irene, even being able to almost laugh at Sherlock’s firm abstinence. He frankly looks worried by this change in John’s attitude and I can only agree – all of John’s changes in attitude have been at least worrisome in series 4.
John is visibly tired. He has been for a long while but now he really lets it show. Does this mean he’s not in love with Sherlock anymore? No, I don’t think so. He wants more, doesn’t he? But he has clearly accepted the fact that he stands no chance with Sherlock and decided to sink in this bleak awareness. What’s worse (though justified), he feels he deserves it. He feels he should not have Sherlock after all and he makes it surprisingly clear when, after talking about Irene, this follows:
This is very sad but it makes sense. I think John and Sherlock would stop hoping for something to happen if they realized their relationship would be unhealthy. For both their sake.
In fact, I could believe this to be true, (I wouldn’t forgive the horrible s4 though) and it would make me understand the writers’ intentions, but then I couldn’t understand the whole groundbreaking thing. I mean, the BBC hinted at “making history” and Steven Moffat said once that it’s something never done before, that the other adaptations got wrong but with this show, they got it right.
Adapting into 21st century is not groundbreaking and making history to me. I’m not saying that what you said doesn’t make sense, but if it’s true, then they advertised it wrong.
But thank you for writing this 😊 I think it’s really well explained and it made me understand more what their intentions could be.
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