Not sure if we have talked about this. Two men, same hair colour, same hair style, blue jacket, light shirt, sitting to Mary Watson’s left on a plane, both looking at her. Any ideas?
Okay so I know this guy is James Holmes who played Lady Bracknell in The Importance of being Earnest in the west end once and also played Emory, a very camp gay in The Boys in the Band alongside Mark Gatiss last September to November…
Yeah guys, of course that man who’s evidently 1000% done with Mary is a John mirror! The fact that it’s such a lengthy scene makes it evident too. She’s lying, presenting a fake persona – just like she does with everybody– and over-the-top acting – exactly the same she does when she jumps in front of Sherlock to take that bullet. And the things she says to that poor man!
MARY: Pardon me. I can hear a squeaking. Can you hear a squeaking? MAN: No. MARY: Only I watched a documentary on the Discovery Channel. MARY: “Why Planes Fail.” Did you see it? MAN: (Politely) Can’t say I did. MARY: Oh, truly terrifying. Swore I would never fly again, yet here I am! FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Everything okay, madam? MARY: No! No, it’s not, but then what’s the use in complaining? I hear a squeaking. Probably the wing will come off, is all. FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Everything’s fine, I promise you. Just relax. MARY: Oh, okay, relax. (Slapping the man’s arm) She said relax! MAN: (Trying his best
though clearly annoyed by her) Um, did you have a nice time? In London? MARY: It was okay, I guess, but did somebody hide the sun? (Laughing and slapping his arm again) Did you lose it in the war?
“Did you lose it in the war?” To John’s mirror, seriously? I hate this. I hate that Mary’s only purpose in this show was HIDING THE SUN that is John (specially from Sherlock) and darken John’s life in general. They even dare to make her poke at the wound of John’s traumatic experience in the War, TWICE. Because she does it again at the end when she says John is “The Doctor who never returned from War”, which is A TOTAL LIE AND A HORRIBLE THING TO SAY. That’s her most effective villanous plan; manipulating the boys into believing they’re still trapped in
what they used to be, using their traumas to keep them in the dark. Erasing their character development is what she wants. It’s like the creators took pains to make her mock the boys’ pain and therefore ours, until the very last second.
Anyway, I wish I was right when interpreting that Mofftiss’ intention in this scene was to show Mary as irritating as she could possibly be, in order to make everyone in the audience feel about Mary just like the annoyed man feels –and therefore
sympathize
with John. Because, otherwise I find this long, exasperating scene pointless. I don’t see another purpose for it.
also the windows….the sun (sherlock) and the woman who allures john (by acting like sherlock) in the same spot lol
FIRST OF ALL: JOHN’S BLOG. If I didn’t know that it was official, I would have thought it was a fan-site. It’s terribly romantic and John essentially fawns over Sherlock in almost every entry. Read especially the entries done during the hiatus. They’re… just… JOHN, PLEASE.
Martin’s acting. Just, every time John is around Sherlock, his face does 300 different emotions, but the most blatant is lust / adoration / incredulity.
Anytime the show is in John’s POV, it’s just… Sherlock is this ethereal being that John “can look but not touch”.
THE FUCKING PILOT. Just… The whole Pilot. John is literally one step away from jumping Sherlock in a back alley.And the really gay rooftop music.Just. Listen to that and be amazed at how gay that is. That’s ALL from John’s POV. AND John had this look on his face:
ASIP:
John had a limp until Sherlock came into his life and gave it new meaning.
John has trust issues – Mycroft confirms this and says John doesn’t trust easily – yet for some reason he was okay with Sherlock. “And the madman himself? He’s fascinating.”
He hits on Sherlock the first night. Granted this isn’t a sign of love, but dear god John had no idea that one little thing and rejection would start his endless pining.
Laughing against the wall together, and in awe at Sherlock curing his limp.
The eye sex. Good god, the eye sex.
He stands up to Mycroft DEFENDING Sherlock and he has no idea who Mycroft is or what he’s capable of.
Even though he didn’t know Sherlock that long, he ran after Sherlock when the phone pinged.
He killed a man for Sherlock after knowing him for only about 24 hours, and had no guilt about it.
TBB
His PIN is “SHER”. Like at this point he’s only known Sherlock for a couple months and he already changed his PIN to “SHER”???? COME ON, JOHN, PLEASE.
He goes after Sherlock rather than protect Soo Lin, because he is worried Sherlock will hurt himself.
Spends his whole date with Sarah thinking about and talking to Sherlock. He constantly checks over his shoulder to see Sherlock’s reactions to literally everything.
And this was all after he just constantly lingers his gaze over Sherlock for the first half of the episode.
Eye sex.
TGG
He has incredible guilt about the blog post that causes the Yard to make fun of Sherlock.
“I thought you would have been flattered”. Literally John is hurt that Sherlock seemingly doesn’t like his blog. They had a fucking DOMESTIC because of a BLOG POST and John’s hurt feelings. Hashtag MARRIED.
John races back to Baker Street from Sarah’s AFTER SHE’S SUGGESTIVE WITH HIM just to make sure Sherlock is okay.
John’s jealousy towards Jim flirting with Sherlock.
*sighs* EYE SEX.
John was willing to kill The Golem for Sherlock.
John, strapped to a bomb vest, took an opening and grappled and held on tight to Moriarty, told Sherlock to run. Essentially, he was willing to sacrifice his body to a slurry of gunfire and an explosion if only Sherlock would be safe from Moriarty.
“People would talk.” Why does that concern you so much, John.
Then, John was willing to die with Sherlock, without hesitation. They shared one single look and it was done.
ASiB
John’s jealousy throughout the entire episode; he wouldn’t be jealous if there wasn’t some latent pining.
MORE eye sex and toffee eyes, or John looking like a kicked puppy for half the episode because he is sad that Irene seems to have taken his place.
John essentially gives up dating in this episode.
John goes on a case for Sherlock because Sherlock was too lazy to go on his own.
Even though he was with Jeanette, John consistently pays more attention to Sherlock at Christmas, eventually driving Jeanette to call John out on his obsession with Sherlock, naming Sherlock as her “competition”.
John confronts Irene and tells her to tell Sherlock she’s alive, because he hates seeing Sherlock upset; he thinks Sherlock was grieving about her, and not over his confused feelings John.
Irene essentially tells John HE LOVES SHERLOCK. She compares herself to him, AND JOHN DOESN’T DENY IT, but silently acknowledges that yes, he and Sherlock are a couple.
John thinks Sherlock would be hurt to discover that Irene is for-real dead this time, so he chooses to lie, because John doesn’t want Sherlock to go into a sad fit again. John chose the “kinder” option, and then gives Sherlock what he wants when he asks for the phone even though it is not allowed.
THOB
John goes on a holiday with Sherlock. Just… they go on a holiday. There’s no argument about it, just… they go.
John doesn’t deny that he and Sherlock are together when the Innkeeper assumes they are together, rather he deflects, because it’s too close to the truth.
John pulls rank to show off to Sherlock for a change.
The cheekbones and the coat collar, essentially revealing that he stares at Sherlock all the time.
John forgives Sherlock for his brashness, experimentation, and ignorance of John.
TRF
Eye sex.
Another “people will talk” comment when they hold hands, and THEN John still holds onto Sherlock’s sleeve while Sherlock is babbling on.
John’s anger at both Kitty and Jim, defending Sherlock’s honour.
The rooftop exchange between the two and John’s unwavering faith in Sherlock (“I know you for real”).
John’s complete breakdown at seeing Sherlock dead.
Just the entire second half of MHR. John mourns like a grieving widower, needing a heavy drink and to be alone to watch the video of Sherlock again, holding back his tears as he watches Sherlock on screen.
John physically goes to Baker St. to “move on”. John couldn’t, in 2 years, bring himself to stay at Baker Street because it reminded him too much of Sherlock. Mrs Hudson calls him out on how he was “after” and John doesn’t say anything. Then he is angry about the comment that they were a couple because THEY WEREN’T. He blames himself for Sherlock’s death.
To “move on”, John jumps into a relationship to get over Sherlock believing that his miracle would never come, only to have Sherlock come back at the worst moment and Mary manipulate John into a proposal.
Donde Estas, Yolanda? This song pretty much is John’s heart speaking.Actually, most of the music selection is really very “John” and his inner turmoil of trying to understand if he should try to make a move on Sherlock. Music in Sherlock is always important; it’s always projecting the feelings of either John or Sherlock on a subtextual level.
More eye sex.
John returning to Baker Street on his own, before the bonfire, dressed in his old outfit… It’s the only time in the whole episode he dresses like “pre-S3” John"… And his oscillation on the pavement and all that.
And John’s RETURNS to 221b a second time. Because he can’t stay away.
Stag night, pretty much all of it. It’s clear John is trying to loosen Sherlock up to make him more receptive to John’s advances. John tries to hit on Sherlock one more time before the marriage, but Sherlock was too drunk to understand what was happening. John assumes, with finality, that Sherlock doesn’t want him that way.
The obviously staged tumble forward to grab at Sherlock’s knee, followed by, “I don’t mind” and an indifferent shrug.
“I’m there if you want it.”
John’s first reaction to Sherlock’s adorable confusion after the best man speech was to hug Sherlock; he loves him so much that he is very moved by Sherlock’s admission to the whole of the room to how much John means to Sherlock. John even cried beforehand, and you can just SEE his FUCKING FACE glow every time he looks at Sherlock.
John ALSO grabs and holds Sherlock’s neck not once but twice in this episode.
John cluing in at the end of the episode that Sherlock does indeed feel something more for John when they share a look, and not being able to deal with his mistake, so he no-homo’d out of there because it hurt too much.
HLV
Only a month into their marriage, John is having wet dreams about Sherlock, and is visibly disappointed when Sherlock is not the one at the door.
John contacts Mycroft when Sherlock is overdosed.
Only to kick him out shortly after because he is upsetting Sherlock.
He tries to make Sherlock laugh and succeeds.
John’s jealousy once again, this time over Janine.
John’s longing looks to Sherlock.
John’s subtle “I want to come, too” when Sherlock mentions the case.
When John is searched at the flat, he makes a joke about his dick IN FRONT OF SHERLOCK to another man.
John’s immediate reaction to Sherlock being shot.
John’s off-screen acceptance to let Sherlock show him the truth about his murderer.
Because this episode takes place entirely in Sherlock’s head, I don’t think we should really include it in this list, but I’m going to anyway, since Sherlock actually picked up on John’s love for him. He knows that John will accept him regardless of his faults if he confessed his love for him. I think this is why S4 doesn’t sit right with me, because it completely diverted from this HUGE revelation that Sherlock had made in TAB.
Mycroft’s plea to John signifies that Myc knows about how much John cares for Sherlock.
And these are a crapshoot, because the whole series did a 180˚ with the narrative and John’s character. I’m so angry because I don’t believe for one second John would choose Mary over Sherlock. Anyway, here goes:
T6T
Sherlock is made Rosie’s godfather. I know that’s not much since there are two other god parents, but John absolutely insists to Sherlock needs to be there.
Ghost!Mary is supposed to be a projection of John’s inner thoughts, feelings and inner turmoil. Ghost!Mary often refers to how important Sherlock is to John, and that Sherlock is “his”. As shittily annoying as she was, it was REALLY insightful into John’s own thought process about Sherlock.
The “romantic entanglement” speech. John is projecting here. He is essentially admitting to Sherlock that he lost his chance with Sherlock, and he regrets it.
I’m not even going to bother with this one, since I think this is a fake episode. I think the closest is, given that I think this is in John’s head, he uses Molly as a stand in for himself, and he projects himself into Molly and his own fears for confessing to Sherlock.
I hope all of these help you feel better, Nonny, and please, everyone, I most likely will have missed many-a-point, so please add to them – I study Sherlock’s character more than John’s, so I have a harder time seeing John’s cues!
John. John Watson. Sherlock Holmes is lost without his blogger. So are we. What’s happening to John? Well, Eurus did tell us, but did we listen?
Three Garridebs. Six Months. Who’s Evans?
The surname Evans is a patronymic surname created from the Welsh personal name Lefan, or Evan, which is a cognate of the personal name John. {x}
John. A dead man walking? When did this supposedly happen?
As I mentioned in a separate post, series 4 consists of events of the past, “5 minutes since Mycroft called” and 10 minutes after Sherlock landed. I may be changing my mind about how close to the present time we got by the end of TFP, but there’s really not much to go on. I think what we saw in series 4 included the missing months between Mary shot Sherlock and Christmas at the Holmes, which all connected back to Moriarty, TRF, and the cause and effect of Redbeard. All of which likely had something to do with Carl Powers,1989, kidnapped siblings (cough Jim and Mary cough), their wicked father, and Hansel and Gretel. Series 4 was not a dream, but we were mostly in Sherlock’s head. As Sherlock sorts through his memory of everything he observed and stored away, pieces from wildly different occurrences were inevitably melted together to represent various aspects of one single story: save John Watson. Not only his life but of his heart and his love – all of which tied to Sherlock’s own.
But how? Well, Sherlock was doing exactly what Sherlock Holmes does best: solve the murder. Let’s take a look at our timeline.
Six months before the tarmac scene. We know Sherlock spent a week in solitary confinement after the Magnussen incident; since his birthday was mentioned in TLD, it was likely Sherlock spent the day on the tarmac saying goodbye to his love and his life – no wonder Sherlock wanted to leave his name with John. Hahaha, but it’s not a girl’s name. FUUUUUUUUUCK. No, there is no baby, but still. Sherlock didn’t know. I don’t think he did. FUCK either way.
Anyway.
Six months – that put us before John and Mary’s wedding according to John’s blog. End of June, beginning of July. When John posted The Bloody Guardsman and The Hollow Client. I’ve covered the parallels between these cases and series 2 in part 1 but didn’t really think much about it in term of John. I rambled on a paragraph or two about The Poison Giant right after TST because of the six pearls and the Thatcher busts and the black pearl of Borgias; the jellyfish in connection to The Adventure of Lion’s Mane and how Mary’s possible posthumous revenge could work – but I didn’t pursue the idea further. However, after reading Doyle’s The Parasite and s4by @may-shepard I realized perhaps we’ve been given clues about what’s been happening to John, alongside Sherlock and Mycroft’s more distant past.
The sign of three referred not only to Mary (666) and Sherlock’s love (3rd death), it applied to John as well – John is the 3rd Bloody Guardsman. The case of The Poison Giant was likely the “planned and rehearsed”. But by whom?
Six pearls; six Thatcher busts. Swandale’s laptop; Ajay’s memory stick. A trap for Sherlock and John; a noose for Sherlock to put his neck into. A pair of jewel thieves; a pair of assassins. That’s… quite a few coincidences, wouldn’t you agree? Sherlock and John were able to escape The Poison Giant—Sherlock’s good with a sword and John had bought a gun—one of the thieves fell off the roof, and the other ended up in prison. In TST, Ajay ended up dead and then… nothing. Was what we saw on screen really what happened?
There are two not-good scenarios running side by side here, both lead to John being, um, undermined: a) delayed action poisoning (how little Carl died); and b) gun shot. I’m uncertain if they are both life-threatening or one is more symbolic of ACD’s The Three Garridebs:
This is fantastic @221bloodnun – thanks so much for writing this and pulling all the meta along! (and for the tags 😘)
You know, your theory of post TRF is entirely plausible – we had three repeats of ACD’s The Final Problem in Sherlock to date: TRF, the tarmac scene (as Holmes’ goodbye letter to Watson), and TFP. The wheel kept turning and the path has locked around everyone’s feet. The Reichenbach Falls scene in TAB being the exception, a happier ending if you will – my hope is that it’ll end up being a foreshadowing of what likely happened after TRF or some kind of combination with HLV…… TAB being a literal sign of “the four” in modern time to solve the final problem? Who knows, but I have a nagging feeling that the “miss you” dvd at the TFP was actually from Sherlock during his time away 🤞
Moriarty loves stories, fairytales. He planned everything like one. If we need to understand everything that happened since TRF, we just need to understand Appointment in Samarra. This is the key behind everything.
Sherlock is the merchant trying to outrun/outwit Death. If we consider Moriarty to represent Death (and Mary ultimately taking his title and his place in the narrative), Sherlock must find the one path to survive the Fall.
It begins with Sherlock/the merchant meeting Moriarty/Death and understanding, no, knowing that this person will take his life. So, he runs, he runs from his life in an attempt to escape his fate.
So, in the Reichenbach Falls, Sherlock fakes his death, thinking he’s done it. There was just a little problem with that plan:
The tale of Sir Boast-a-Lot, TRF never was the Final Problem, the same way the first meeting between the merchant and Death wasn’t supposed to end with the merchant’s death. Yes, Sherlock managed to escape Moriary’s plan but that was pointless. His appointment wasn’t in St Barthelemy Hospital.
Nor here.
Or even that, whatever that was.
We need to focus on this.
Because, ultimately Sherlock has been warned times and times again. Moriarty said it many times “I owe you a fall.” Not this little magic trick, no, don’t be silly. I’ll burn you, I’ll burn, the heart out of you. Survive this little game and you’ll have the privilege of seeing my real work.
Now, that’s more like it. You’ve got to admit, that’s sexier.
We both know you don’t care about your reputation, about the press slandering you. We both know that’s not your pressure point. But look how you care about John Watson. Well, your little pet, I’m going to take it from you. Let’s see how far you’re willing to go for him. That wife. Such a poor soul, so tragic. I’m sure she didn’t actually want to kill you, you were clearly a threat to her, if only you’ve told her you wanted to help her. Oh you did? Oopsie.
Well, the woman you call Mary? She’s going to take you everything, she will even break your little toy and there is nothing you can do about it. Enjoy the show.
Because John has always been and will always be his heart. He is the reason he decides to restart his, he is the reason he hasn’t killed himself like Jim. Separate them and death will be a kinder fate.
Somewhere, John or Sherlock is in terrible danger, dying and unable to escape his end. The electrocardiogram is still beating in TAB, like a phantom pain the wound still hurts Sherlock, John may or may have not escaped the bullet (no, a fuming gun don’t throw sleeping darts, it just can’t) “Eurus” shot.
Who cares how Sherlock survive the Reichenbah Falls? This wasn’t the point, this never was the Final Problem. Season 3 and Season 4 are the real thing.
Like a throwback to Jim in TRF, ‘Mary’ has become the author, the one calling the shots and stripped John of any narrative power. That is absolutely devastating, how can they survive if the two vilains have taken over the story so completely?
“Sherlock Holmes will now wear the silly hat because Mary liked it. It just felt right.She changed and illuminated the path of the show.”
Now that she is the one calling the shots, both men’s hearts are effectively reduced to ashes. Their identities have been stripped and they have become actors in their own lives.
Who you really are, it doesn’t matter. It’s all about the legend, the stories, the adventures.
This is Appointment in Samarra, you can’t avoid Death, not when the vilains are the one reading the story since TRF. This is predeterminism, all roads were leading to this ending. No matter how much Sherlock’s struggled, the author aka Jim/Mary has always planned this ending. Resistance has always been futile.
And yet… there is one fic that managed to save the merchant. Appointment in Sumatra may be a mere fanfic, Sherlock has succeeded in changing the ending. Mary, the new author, may have stripped John of everything that was him, he remains the first narrator.
The game isn’t over. This is a struggle between the two authors that have decided to destroy the story and the fans who need to find the one path that will save the merchant. Jim/Mary vs Sherlock and John, or if we are very daring between Mofftiss and the fans.
Samarra can be avoided but dear God, that’s going to a hell of a ride to save Sherlock Holmes. We just need to completely rewrite the ending, to let John take back his narrative power and let him lead Sherlock to Sumatra and avoid Samarra.
there are at least 3 bottles in process and mary isn’t drinking because she’s pregnant, so yeah. happy john.
Taken together with MHR, he possibly never stopped drinking…
Wonder how much that makes him loathe himself just that bit more. I suppose the first time he realises he smells like Harry, some of those bottles are gonna be smashed against a wall.
yes! had the same thoughts… remember the beginning of TLD, him standing against the wall with the glass… i still think s4 was not legit lol but they definitely wanted to make it look like john was walking harry’s path
@faithchan that’s okay to be skeptical, i just follow the hints they implied before. harry’s history and what ^Chris said about MHR.
i don’t know about months, but those didn’t stay there for years indeed. there’s only one bottle that looks alike (the one with the black end). but it is more empty in mhr than in hlv, so those are not the same
I do think it’s quite likely John might have been self-medicating with these the whole time. He was a mess throughout s3 too, and we never saw a thing, only saw him beat up a junkie because he needed it. With endless days home at night, domesticity, and a baby arriving? John probably didn’t even notice the bottles becoming emptier and emptier. Maybe he thought he was being responsible, too: “See, I can do this–settle somewhere. I get up, go to work, come back home again to stay with my family. I can do this.”
He could, too–with alcohol by the side.
Not saying this is canon, obviously. Just that it is very likely and I can absolutely see this.
Because I don’t believe for a second Mary’s death was so disastrous for him that this alone drove him to drink. He’d been a mess since Sherlock was gone, all throughout series three (and let’s not forget the fact that he almost lost Sherlock there again, too).
So John H. Watson says this on The Reichenbach case on Sherlock; The Casebook.
MEMORY BUNGALOW.
(Yellow is Sherlock and Green is John)
And we all know that The Reichenbach Fall “mirrors” The Final Problem.
Yes, but TFP wouldn’t be exquisitely “starting small”, isn’t it? Isn’t it more a “drama queen mind” that would create such mess?
I agree, @loveismyrevolution. This puts John on a level above and beyond Sherlock. But why is this post it a surprise now? That’s where the name for this theory originated, so why is this now ‘proof’?
“No, because for T6T, E is Watson’s bus-text/sext? flirtation. It actually reads like a superfluous subplot.” -Talalay
I AM SCREAMING
It’s been driving me crazy, the whole John text flirting thing. We were shown E’s note on the screen for a reason, but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why or what…… till now. Maybe. I’ll be the first to admit there’s probably quite a bit of wishful thinking on my part, but it’s…… like incredibly romantic and sweet if it were true? Please allow me to explain.
Let’s begin with these two seemingly random shot that led to John’s “Hey”:
Why show us the time 9:28 & 11:02? Two minutes till half of the hour; two minutes past the hour. I’m sure the actual time and duration of 1 hour 34 minutes mean something, too, but why the double mentioning of two minutes? Then there’s the addition of tick-tock within the soundtrack as soon as the lock screen of John’s phone appears.
Thanks to Callie-Ariane’s transcript {x}, I was able to find the only other instance of a double “two minutes” within the whole of Sherlock:
I’ll leave the analysis of soundtrack for those that have the expertise, but there were distinct tick-tock sound in ASiP as well, when Lestrade, Sherlock, and John climbed up the stairs and entered the room where Jennifer Wilson’s body was found.
Yes, it could simply be a coincidence and the double mentioning of two minutes just happen to be in both of these scenes. The tick-tock sound was everywhere throughout the series, therefore cannot be a credible connection to tie these scene together. I hear ya. Oh but there’s more.
This transition haunts me for weeks. I know it meant to remind us that John’s “you read my writing upside down” special power, but how?
Numbers upside down, with some… stars and moons? O, E… the obliquity of the ecliptic?
Okay. That may be a hint for us but what about John? All John saw was the numbers, and he just looked so… happy?
You can’t read numbers upside down, but you can read it backwards. The code can’t be something weird and obscure because John didn’t need anything to crack it. The easiest number-to-letter code is probably the one used by Cubes and Scouts:
So leaving out all the zeros and going backward, what do we have?
255 9 xx E 77 = BEE I kisses EGG
What the hell? “bee, I, kisses” all good, very good, in fact. But egg?
Well, remember the stars and the moons? The fact the E is in uppercase indicates that EGG could be an acronym – out of a hand-full, one actually is related to astronomy, it stands for evaporating gas globule. Here’s the kicker “Dense areas of gas shielded by an evaporating gas globule can be conducive to the birth of stars.”
Sherlock the bee sent his kisses to his conductor of light, his universe that gave him all the stars.
I don’t know about you, but I AM FUCKING DEAD.
(p.s. but what of the “I’m not free” if John knew this was Sherlock? Well, remember the surface narrative we were presented with was a heteronormative one, and there were many duplicate scenes throughout TST, which means the hidden narrative was barely beneath the surface. The fact that the note/number scene was constructed with an opportunity for a call-back to ASiP, to Sherlock and John’s first crime scene together was a perfect example – the plot was fucky because there was something else going on other than the one on the surface.)
I can’t believe yet that an army doctor, better known as John Watson, couldn’t recognize between dog bones and human bones.
Maybe John was actually a vet for the dog army, but he was so traumatized when he was wounded that he reimagined them all as people.
Sticking my head in here where I probably shouldn’t…to say that, as a doctor with general practitioner training and experience in orthopedics, including popping joints back into place, realigning fractures, and reviewing lots of x-rays, I have never been expected to identify a dismembered human skeleton and have definitely not been expected to differentiate between human and other remains. That is solidly in the domain of anthropologists, or the people who have PhDs in comparative anatomy, the people medical schools bring in to teach future doctors in our anatomy courses.
Not to mention that John was in a well, near-to-drowning, and recently sedated. Plus he had the psychological anchor to recognize any remains as canines because of the story both he and Sherlock believed at that moment.
Also, it depends on which bones he happened to grab. Some dog bones really aren’t that different from human ones in shape or in size – a large breed dog might have some larger bones than a human child. (Bull mastiffs, man, my parents love those things. You weigh 130 lbs, you are not a lap dog. YOU tell them that.)
Thank you, last 2 people on this tread! Plus lump on the head after being hit in the head, badly lit well, stressful situation and general disorientation. The same with the “plothole” I saw some people complain about. Why John hadn’t recognized grenade on the drone if he was in army. As if ordinary army people saw such fancy weapons. John probably guessed that it is grenade and asked Mycroft to confirm or add information. And that’s exactly what happened.
Whilst there were plot holes in S4, and show me something that Mofftiss writes that doesn’t have plot holes, John not recognising the bones is not one of them, for all the reasons above.
That’s why when random bones are discovered somewhere they’re taken off for testing. You can’t tell the difference by sight alone, and certainly not while stressed, exhausted, possibly suffering from hypothermia, drugged, with a head injury, down a well, in the dark. Sometimes I think people are trying to find something wrong with the series just so they can shout at Mofftiss.
Not to mention the fact that he was in complete darkness so he couldn’t even see the bones he was trying to identify
So yesterday I was reading @silentauroriamthereal‘s Best of Three, again (it’s a really good story!). And I realised that the John in that story is pretty much a total dick. He’s incredibly patronising and self-congratulatory about being such a wonderful friend to Sherlock etc etc etc, all the while being actually unimaginably cruel to Sherlock.
And I left a comment to the effect that I loved the story but hated John, and she very kindly replied that she thought it was pretty in character and I had this absolute oh my god moment because she’s bloody right, isn’t she?
And somewhere between Season 4 and Best of Three and SilentAuror’s comment, I think the scales sort of fell from my eyes with regards to John and the show. It’s not that Season 4 ruined John. Season 4 was the logical continuation of where they had taken the character, arguably from the second episode. Go back and look at the way John talks about and treats Sherlock, all the way back to TBB. Try to reconcile the way John talks to and about Sherlock with the way Watson talks to and about Holmes.
Season 4 John is not out of character. Not for BBC John. It’s extreme, but it’s not actually out of character. We think it is, but I think that we have good reason for that. In my specific case, I knew and loved the canon long before BBC Sherlock came on the scene. I know Watson, and I know how he feels about Holmes. So when John acted the way he did in Season 4, I thought it was awful, and terrible, and it came as a shock to me. Before Season 4, when John acted in ways that Watson would not have, I was like “well, maybe he’s just having a bad day’, but Season 4 made me realise that Watson hasn’t been having bad days, Watson has never been here at all.
We think that John is better and wiser and kinder than he is because we spend more time with the wiser, kinder versions of John Watson that we see in the canon and in fanfiction. We’ve been blinded by those Watsons to the truth of John’s character in the show.
And that leads me to another conclusion. BBC’s John doesn’t love Sherlock. We think he does, because Watson loves Holmes, and whether you think that it’s platonic or romantic or sexual or whatever, you can’t deny that there is love there, but John? He doesn’t love Sherlock.
I think he wants Sherlock. I think he’s addicted to Sherlock. To the cases and the life they lead and the danger and all of it. And I think that, like any addict, he hates Sherlock and everything that comes with him, and hates that he needs him. And that’s why the morgue scene happens. Because John, unlike practically every other Watson in history, does not love Sherlock Holmes. Because John wishes that he had never met him and wishes that he could live without him, and knows that as long as Sherlock is alive, he will never, ever be able to leave him for good.
Which means that yes, they really did do TPLoSH all over again, with a gay Holmes desperately in love with Watson, who doesn’t love him back. Except they dialled it up to 11, because everything has to be bigger and louder and hurt more, and instead of a straight Watson who still loves his Holmes, they have given us a John Watson of ambiguous sexuality who not only does not love Sherlock, but actively despises him.
(I also have some thoughts about how Sherlock has been moving toward becoming Holmes over the course of the series, while John moves further and further away from being Watson, but I’ll save that for another time.)
why do you hurt me???
i mean, especially after s4, i felt more or less convinced that John doesn’t love Sherlock back, certainly not in the way Sherlock loves John so selflessly and unconditionally
but to see you spell it out so well and dial it up some more….. oh my heart….. oh my poor sherlock…. it makes this scene THAT much more painful to watch
I believe you are absolutely right and I think that’s why S4 has been so difficult for me. I had clearly conflated BBC John with all the permutations of John that are fan created. The fan fic and fan art Johns that love Sherlock; that nurture and protect Sherlock from that place of genuine love for Sherlock. S4 John’s character arc is divergent from those fic Johns I have read and I’m starting to see that is on me, not the BBC writers. I now have to figure out if I can go back to the fan created Johns and enjoy them for what they are, and leave BBC John behind. I’m still trying to decide.
@lawyermargo we all did, I think. But the good thing is that fanon John is much closer to canon Watson than John is! I’m not sure if that’s a comfort to you or not, but we are not, and we were not, wrong. The John Watson we see is the real John Watson. It’s the BBC version that’s out of character.
Also, there are other Johns. Try Granada! Granada John is beautiful.
Or read canon and just imagine Martin’s face on it.
@high5sandchocolate, I think this is good analysis of why we’ve been struggling with S4.
I’m so glad someone is saying this and not getting bashed for it. Before S4 I rewatched all of S1, S2, and S3 with my kids. And to be honest, I hadn’t rewatched it all for at least a year, and had been thoroughly and happily buried in fic adaptations of Sherlock and John.
I remember saying to my best fandom friend (not tagging in case this post makes her sad) at the time that seeing it all again after some time and distance made me realize that John wasn’t actually very nice to Sherlock. He was a bit of a dick.
I do believe he cares about Sherlock, and comes to see him as a friend, and I do believe John knows that he owes Sherlock his very life, and he’s absolutely addicted to him as a surrogate for the adventure. But he also blames Sherlock for getting in the way of the happy normal life he thinks he wants. He goes back to Mary because he wants to, because he’s pissed off at both of them, but he wants Mary, and he doesn’t want Sherlock. At least, he doesn’t want to want Sherlock, and he never gets past that. And he hates Sherlock when Mary dies because if there hadn’t been Sherlock, there’d be a Mary. Sherlock is John’s fly in the ointment, his virus in the system.
And I think I went as far as to say that I didn’t think johnlock was endgame, that I would love to see it, because they’re my OTP, but I didn’t think the show had given us a foundation for it. We’d spent so much time in hiatus, consuming fic and seeing subtext in three-second long clips taken out of context, and just simply dreaming and wanting, but I didn’t think it would happen.
I don’t like it. I don’t like having my johnlock-colored glasses ripped off, but John didn’t turn into a dick. He kind of always was one.
And maybe that explains why I’ve found myself drawn more and more to Victorian johnlock lately, and why I don’t really write fixits, preferring AU.
At the end of it all I still find myself shaking my head and asking, “This? This is the story they wanted to tell?”
I don’t want to bash anyone, of course, but I do disagree. Naturally, a lot of this isn’t really open to debate– I mean, these are fundamentally emotional responses that can’t be ‘fixed’ by discussing them rationally. I should know, I’ve spent a while now arguing about exactly this with my two (formerly) Sherlock fan friends. They are convinced John doesn’t love Sherlock, though at least it’s more like it’s not equal. I don’t really know what to say to the idea it’s not equal– I guess I don’t think it has to be equal? And also I think John had some serious reasons for being upset and going through serious issues, in S3 as well as S4. I mean, if you’re rejecting the importance of Mary– which is simply canon, and there in Conan Doyle’s stories as well– then I suppose both S3 and S4 will be skewed, as @wildwoodgoddess wrote. One has to accept that John did love Mary and she’s problematic but not a supervillain, even if it’s not as much as he loved (and needed) Sherlock. Of course, there’s a bigger problem if one can’t accept he felt that way about Sherlock. Yes, even in HLV and TLD. Perhaps especially in TLD, even.
First of all, I think bringing Conan Doyle’s Watson into the equation might be natural, but it muddies the waters in terms of understanding. Sherlock isn’t ‘Holmes’ either, certainly not in Series 1. Maybe he’s becoming Holmes by the end of TFP, but for the most part, comparisons are mostly interesting for the sake of contrast. Of course, John and Sherlock had a tempestuous relationship full of misunderstandings in Series 1, but the problems were quite different than they had in Series 3-4. John’s behavior in TBB was clearly motivated by significantly different factors then than it was in HLV, say. That’s not about whether he loves Sherlock– that’s just basic character analysis. He was clearly insecure about his role in Sherlock’s life, and for good reason! Sherlock didn’t quite know what to do with John yet either, and as TGG showed, they didn’t quite click as partners until the end, at the Pool. This was growing pains. Sherlock was an ass, so was John. They’re alike in many ways. It certainly makes it much more confusing than it needs to be to forget how much of an arrogant ass Series 1 Sherlock was (cute as he was). Rewatch again and you’ll see.
Anyway, by Series 2, John’s devotion is pretty clear, isn’t it? Don’t you think so?
Watch ASiB again. Watch TRF again, man. Hell, watch TGG and the Pool scene again. He loves him. He would die for him. He believes in Sherlock no matter what (although he says ‘nobody could fake being such an annoying dick all the time’). They are both ridiculous boys who can’t express their feelings. Surely Sherlock is no better? It was his brilliant idea to come back after Reichenbach by pretending to be a waiter and then making jokes (nerves, of course) even when he saw John was upset. Anyway, then there’s John’s concern about Irene treating Sherlock right (even though he was jealous), attempts to talk about Sherlock’s feelings, which was quite a step for John. He gets violent when that police superintendent dares to say a wrong word about Sherlock. He thinks– he says!– Sherlock is amazing and brilliant and could come back from the dead if he wanted. Then there’s the way he was broken in half after Sherlock’s ‘death’, and in fact Mary only ‘fixed’ him superficially, it seems. We see him at the beginning of TEH still thinking about Sherlock, visiting his grave, remembering the early days vividly, feeling so strongly about him. Yes, there was anger as well as grief, but Sherlock was an ass, and then John forgave him within days. That’s love, surely.
Basically, fanon John couldn’t match any of this in a million years. He just… likes his tea and jumpers, doesn’t he? Okay, okay, I’m kidding. I’ll admit I do strongly prefer canon John, though. Fanon John always had it too easy. His love is too easy. He generally doesn’t struggle as much… and the more he does, the more in-character he is anyway. Yes, I agree, of course canon John is a dick. Of course he is. But so is Sherlock. So is Sherlock, and they both think that’s brilliant. They giggle at crime scenes, man.
I don’t know if I have to bring up TSoT, but I suppose for the sake of completeness: it’s also canon that John thinks he loves Sherlock at least as much as he loves Mary, at least, and he says so. Essentially, this whole reading is counter to explicitly established canon characterization, although I suppose that’s beside the point. John tells Sherlock he loves him in TSoT, just a few months after the whole debacle of Sherlock coming back from the dead. The wounds from that are barely healed, but then John never stopped loving Sherlock, no matter how angry he got. As he said in the train-car, ‘of course I forgive you’. This wasn’t because he wanted some more cases and adrenaline. He thought they were about to die in moments. Sherlock’s conviction that it was just about the cases for John– ‘just the two of us against the rest of the world’– was why he miscalculated so badly in not telling John he wasn’t dead in the first place. That’s why John got so angry at that exact moment that he headbutted Sherlock! It is obviously false, and moreover, that’s a major plot point without which the characters’ motivations in Series 3 don’t make sense.
Of course, Series 3 and 4 aren’t about a ‘bad day’ or even several, even though that’s how I phrased it in my recent defense of TLD John. It’s true, that’s an understatement for sure, though what I mean was a sort of metaphor. Like, the day we meet John in ASiP, he handles his gun– clearly considering suicide. That was what I meant by a bad day. Ivyblossom really said it better in describing the moments in S4 that it’s apparent that John loves Sherlock even on his bad days. It’s true that you have to think about it; look beyond the obvious. Still, the text rewards you. TLD rewards you for that effort, should you choose to make it.
Basically, John holds it all in, and then it explodes. Sherlock knows that, too. He expected John to explode after Mary’s death; he was counting on it. As @plaidadder initially described, this was part of Sherlock’s plan. Does this excuse John’s behavior somehow? No. But there’s no reason to excuse it. John doesn’t! He feels awful about it. As he says, some things are not okay. He hates himself so much that he leaves the cane at Sherlock’s bedside (as Sherlock knew he would, since he placed the mic there), symbolizing the end of Sherlock’s first ‘miracle’, when he first saved John from his demons. That never really ‘took’, after all. John wasn’t worthy of that miracle, in his own opinion.
However, just as John always forgives Sherlock for anything, Sherlock always forgives John: no question. You could claim that’s messed up, but ‘it is what it is’, and that’s the whole point. Sometimes it’s ugly, and sometimes it’s beautiful, but it is what it is. And what it is, is mutual devotion and love. It’s just after TLD, there’s also, finally, fully mutual understanding and acceptance, as Ivy described being evident during the Molly scene. By TFP, John has clearly accepted his role in Sherlock’s life– his being family. He smiles to himself, clearly pleased but unsurprised when Sherlock says that to Mycroft. A true family isn’t something you build out of an adrenaline addiction and pure need. Of course, John still needs Sherlock, as he always had done. No surprise, because Sherlock also needs John desperately, as he said during the wedding speech: John saved him in ‘so many ways’.
They do that for each other in canon, surely at least as much as in fanon. They save each other, they need each other. Sometimes they try to deny it (as Sherlock did himself, when he left John at Bart’s), but in the end they cannot. And why? Why is it, really, that they can never deny themselves one another?
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