I don’t know if anyone’s pointed this out already but I was rewatching earlier episodes and I just noticed that John’s shirt on TGG and MHR are exactly the same but different in color.
John’s shirt in a scene in TGG where John is having a ‘domestic’ with Sherlock.
Red is the color of extremes. It’s the color of passionate love, seduction, violence, danger, anger, and adventure. Things John experience while he’s living with Sherlock. Meanwhile…
John’s shirt in MHR in a scene in John and Mary’s flat where John is presumably still adjusting to domestic life with Mary. Blue, as we all know, is typically associated with sadness, loneliness, and depression – things John experience while he’s living with Mary, his future wife.
It just makes me extra sad that John is willing to spend the rest of his life ‘in blue’ by proposing to Mary.
About ¼ of the way through TAB –– after the threat of the bride has already been introduced and John and Sherlock have been shown going through several cases –– Sherlock is deducing a case during his dream when he calls upon Watson’s assistance, only for Lestrade to say that Watson moved out months ago as Sherlock tries to brush the momen toff, signifying that he’s always thinking about and talking to John, even when he isn’t there (like John once asked in ASIB, “Do you just carry on talking when I’m away?” Sherlock replied, “I don’t know. How often are you away?”).
About ¼ of the way through TST –– after the threat of Moriarty’s post-humous revenge has already been introduced and John and Sherlock have gone through a montage of cases –– Sherlock is deducing one when he calls upon John’s assistance, only to see that John spitefully placed a balloon with a smiley face in place of his own position in the duo, signifying what John presents as his own feelings of inadequacy and resentment towards Sherlock.
Both Sherlock and John have had moments and feelings like this before: weighing how much they truly care about and matter to each other, parsing it off as largely in context of their professional relationship. But with the end of series 3, and John having already moved out as normal life seems to resume after Sherlock’s return, and the seeming salvation of John and Mary’s marriage, both John and Sherlock are telling a version of events imagining what that moment would be like when they finally realize that they can’t recapture what they had before, too much time has passed, too many feelings have bee hurt, and that both of them lost their chance to tell each other the truth, instead resigned to perpetually yearning for their early days as they subsume their feelings for each other.
hey anon! it’s not the same shot there’s one thing that has been clear to me since the episode aired: this hand holding the gun is absolutely not eurus’ but john’s.
our eye is trained from the introduction of tld to realize that this gun is going to hurt john, we see him laying down like he was already dead… moreso, the hand is john’s, i could recognize martin’s hand anywhere tbh and the credits also want us to understand that this gun, this hand, these two belong to john:
just like the superposition of the gun on john’s face and 221b is important, we know that john is in danger, from his own gun.
now what does the gun shot means? and also when do we see it in tld?
we see it three times:
– at the beginning, with a long shot panning to john laying down/unable to sleep. we know that subtextually it means that john is suicidal again, we get way too many echos to asip and his desire to just end it. it’s here for a reason. john wants to die because he’s alone and can’t be saved by anyone, unless that ‘anyone’ is sherlock
– second time during the scene of sherlock and faith talking at sunrise and the shot happens while sherlock says this:
SHERLOCK: “Taking your own life.” Interesting expression. Taking it from who? Oh, once it’s over, it’s not you who’ll miss it. (Resting
one hand on the railing, he looks westwards along the river towards the
London Aquarium. In a brief cut-away, a pistol fires towards the
camera, then there’s a brief shot of the exterior of the Aquarium as the
gunshot echoes and then smoke rises from the end of the pistol.
Sherlock now has both hands on the railing as he continues to gaze along
the river.) SHERLOCK: Your own death is something that happens to everybody else. (Faith has looked in the direction he’s looking but now turns to face him again. He lowers his head, his back to her.) SHERLOCK: Your life is not your own.(His voice becomes strained.)Keep your hands off it.
the gun is again linked to suicide idealization, suicide attempt and what would be the repercussion of killing yourself to the people you love. now we know that john has been deeply traumatized by sherlock’s fall. we see him being depressed, feeling suicidal and yet not wanting to end it this way. not 100%. he has one last hope: only sherlock could save him from dying, his life is not his own but sherlock’s… if sherlock wants him back.
– finally, the last shot, with eurus pointing it at john. we know eurus is an obvious john’s mirror but we also get the shot colored in red, à la james bond. sometimes in the narrative happened and john is on the verge of dying.
3 out of 3: the gun means john is dying and more probably by his own volition.
now whatever happening in s5, the reverse of asip would be quite interesting. one of the most iconic scenes of the show is after all john saving sherlock by shooting the cabbie, and we know the cabbie is a john’s mirror. sherlock saving john from a self-inflicted garridebs (of any kind) would close the circle.
‘save my life before my room i am lost without your love save my soul seek my room’ fcking hell
perfectly sound analysis but i was hoping you’d go deeper
sherlock making this joke 🔪 and giving john this tiny little glimmer of a smile 🔪🔪🔪 and john just staring at him in utter disbelief like he can’t even figure out how he’s managed to end up with this utterly gorgeous and insanely brilliant man flirting with him at a crime scene 🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪 and only breaking off eye contact when lestrade wanders back in 🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪
Ben’s current mustache gives us a tiny glimpse of the glory that could have been season 3’s ironic revenge stache
Imagine john walking into 221b after shaving for sherlock, all smooth like a baby and secretly hoping for some compliments and he steps into the living room and
John’s Jumpers Discourse Time: John’s jumpers are amazing you fools. how dare you call them ugly. and God forbid I see you call them itchy and terrible. I will bust through your walls like the kool-aid man and shove some soft merino wool in your face to show you how wrong you are. John would never wear terrible itchy wool, he is a Soft Sweater Boy who only wears Soft Sweaters, he would never wear something that isn’t a magnet for Sherlock’s face. only the squishiest yarn goes into making those sweaters to give Sherlock a good squishy handhold when he grabs John’s jumpers and kisses him!! name an article of clothing better than John’s sweaters!!
This boy’s taste in expensive coats though? Does not suggest manky Primark jumpers
As someone who lives in oversized primark jumpers because she’s piss poor, trust me, John would hate them
OP is actually Sherlock, you cannot convince me otherwise.
In BB, we see that Sherlock is not blind to his attractions, like Sebastian, but he is mute. Like Ariel from little Mermaid he has given up his voice in order to be close to the guy he likes.
He sends what he thinks are obvious hints to John and John does not understand them.
*
Lends him his bank card.
“Take my card”.
* Introduces him as, ‘friend’, after only one case together. This is the same guy that will say he has no friends in HoB.
“This is my friend, John Watson”.
*
Revisits an earlier conversation where John was worried. Since John doesn’t understand that he interrupted him asking for money to take a job for him to make him money, he brings up the conversation that was cut short. Though he must know what, ‘those letters’, were as they looked like this: "Overdue" in big red letters.
“What about this morning?”
“Those letters you were looking at”. ‘Bills’.
“He was being threatened”. ’…and not by the gas company’.
So, John is stressed about the bills. Sherlock has brought this up. Now, the, ‘what were those letters’, bit is an excuse to ask John about his problems. He obviously knows what the problem is but he’s giving John a chance to talk about what’s on his mind.
Also at Van Coon’s Sherlock feels out John’s ability to read between the lines:
“Those symbols at the bank, the graffiti”
“Why were they put there?”
‘Some sort of code?’
“Obviously”.
“Why were they painted?”
“If you wanted to communicate, why not use email?”
‘Maybe he wasn’t answering’.
“Oh, good, you follow”.
‘mmm, no’.
(The theme here is when there’s no way to communicate, you use code. This refers to Sherlock the man and the show, as well).
“what kind of message would everyone try to avoid?” (in the text, a death threat, in the subtext, a message that someone is interested in you. Fear of falling in love. Because death = falling in love, on this show).
*undertands neither text nor subtext, here*
Sherlock switches to conversation about the bills.
*
Sherlock trusts him to do his own leg of the investigation:
*
Tells him to go on a date with him instead of Sarah:
*
Saves him from Shan. Comforts Sarah:
*
We see that he has no voice throughout the show but it’s made into a neat visual, here. This is a line he paints there: his silence is self-imposed.This clue is for us from the showrunners:
*
Finally, he uses the cypher paint used to express how he feels now that John is around:
*
By the beginning of GG, he’s had enough of throwing out clues and feeling like his feelings aren’t reciprocated: hence, the shooting.
*
*
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P.S. Sherlock is especially silent with Sebastian in this bathroom scene. He lets John do most of the talking and when he tells him off, Sherlock lets him have the last word. Very telling: a man who doesn’t know Lestrade’s first name after untold years of friendship, calls this man, ‘Seb’, here. And one who, according to John, always has the last word, lets this man have it. Sherlock is only unable to speak when it comes to telling someone that he has romantic feelings for them.
what a treat to revisit your back catalog and find this gem!
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