John’s words have power. John misreads Sherlock and it shapes the text, it shapes how Sherlock sees himself, it shapes how he behaves.
HOLMES: […] all emotion is abhorrent to me. It is the grit in a sensitive instrument … HOLMES and WATSON (almost simultaneously): … the crack in the lens. WATSON: Yes. HOLMES: Well, there you are, you see? I’ve said it all before. WATSON: No, I wrote all that. You’re quoting yourself from The Strand Magazine.
I love this meta, and I love this show.
John criticizes Sherlock carelessly on the presumption that he’s incapable of being hurt by it. Sherlock takes in all of John’s criticisms, strips them of all their context, and uses them to punish himself.
Sherlock
Holmes has become such a beautiful, strong man.
Look how
he patiently listens to John Watson telling him to make a move on a woman he
has zero interest in.
Oh, he
tries to tell John: “As I think I have explained before…” he starts, but John
interrupts him. John knows him better now. Romantic entanglement would complete
Sherlock as a human being, he thinks, and John Watson is right, he’s always
right, it’s boring, isn’t it?
It doesn’t matter if you think that
John is talking about himself and Mary
John is talking about himself and the bus lady
John is talking about himself and Sherlock (…obviously…)
Sherlock thinks John is talking about himself and Mary, whom he lost
The point
that comes out clearly in this gif-set, is that whatever we or anyone else
thinks either of them is thinking about, Sherlock is clearly reacting to one
thing.
That
chance doesn’t last forever. Trust me, Sherlock, it’s gone before you know it.
Before you know it!
This is
what Sherlock reacts to, with a face so heartbroken it chokes me up, because…
This is
the same face. That chance doesn’t last forever. Trust me, Sherlock, it’s
gone before you know it. Before you know it!
John,
Sherlock knows that very well. He has lost you so many times over and over
again, and he’s let you go each time because he thought you’d be happier that
way. He let you go to Mary, because you chose her. He let you go at the tarmac,
because he knew his death would destroy your life, just like what he wanted to
say wasn’t “Sherlock is actually a girl’s name,” but very probably, “I’m in
love you, thank you for all you’ve done for me.” But he didn’t.
Because
he knows if you knew that chance would have been there–only to see it
irrevocably go this time, to Serbia, to death–this would have broken you, too.
So he
chose to be kind instead. He may have left you, first, but he paid the price.
Multiple times. You probably began thinking this up there after his fall…
You said
it now. You said it years later; you’ve been thinking it the entire time. It
has haunted you.
Don’t you
think it’s haunted Sherlock, too, once he realised he had been in love with you
all this time? The self-loathing, John, that you have not been privy to
in TAB, must have been intense. Gone before you know it. Yes,
Sherlock has been there, too.
But he’s
been kind to you, and he is being again, now. Oh, he tries to tell you…
“Forgive me, but you are doing yourself a disservice,” he starts, and is about
to tell you that it is you, that it has only ever been you, who
is his fulfillment of ‘romantic entanglement,’ but just like before at the
tarmac and at your wedding, he lets you go. He lets you choose. You interrupt
him by confessing “I cheated on her,” because it’s something you need to get
out. It’s something you need to resolve, and this is the right moment for you.
“Forgive
me but you are doing yourself a disservice. I have known many people in this
world but made few friends, and I can safely say–”
So he
lets you speak. He lets you interrupt. He lets you, once again, not let him say
it. He lets you once again silence him.
He is
being kind. He knows you need this. He knows this is the wrong moment. He lets
you. He allows it.
He wants
you to know, I think. He is so ready to say it here. But his last face in that
gif-set? He may not know where he is standing with you–do you hate him? are you
okay to be friends with him again? you said he didn’t kill your wife but you
still harboured strong resentment towards him for various reasons–but he will
will not allow you to belittle yourself, because you are so much more, to him.
You’re human, even you, and he is done letting you beat yourself
up. You’re doing yourself a disservice. Out of all the people in this world,
there has ever been you. You’re human, and you’re imperfect, but you’re
perfect for me.
He wants
you to know that. And, wanting that, he makes that face in the last gif-set,
listening patiently to you telling him to make a move on a woman he has zero
interest in. Maybe he’s thinking about how little you realise things, still,
even though you’re so clever. You’re an idiot, after all.
He is
hurting, he is resigned. This pains him. He wants you to stop talking about it.
“It was just texting.” Texting means nothing. Texting Irene is your bus lady
moment. It’s nice to know you are being wanted. It’s nice to allow yourself to
feel wanted, sometimes, to try it out, even if you may not want that person
back.
But this
isn’t it. This isn’t ‘more.’ You wanted more, and you still do.
Now look
at Sherlock in this gif-set and tell me he hasn’t wanted more, for years, and still does.
Please,
let him speak, next time, John. Let him speak. You will want to hear what he
has to say.
Try not
to beat yourself up too much after that though: you could have had it long ago.
I scream every time the moaning text alert goes off because
John goes absolutely still while his subconscious walks around saying
things like, “posh boy and dominatrix,” taunting and provoking him while he walks towards Sherlock
like a fucking predator totally intent on–?? on what?? I don’t even know.
Everything vanishes from John’s head when he hears that noise, and it isn’t curiosity.
If you were curious about this you’d stop, maybe turn around and say,
“Oh, so you’re still on with her, then?” Throw in an impish grin or two,
give a thumbs up. Good on you, mate. Go for it! It’s time.
What does John do? He’s going stupid on the inside while trying to keep it cool. But he’s going around the bend.
And, “Seriously, we’re not going to talk about it?” ??? What is there
to talk about, John? Why are you so intent on this? You’re even worse
than TAB Watson, and he already was… you know. Quite intent. There’s nothing to talk about… but that doesn’t stop him.
He
can’t believe Sherlock doesn’t text her back. She’s alive, for one.
Everyone else seems to be dying these days, but the Woman is alive,
right? And she’s good for Sherlock. Beats him professionally, not
when she has psychotic breakdowns. They’re the same level of weird.
She’s just as clever as he is, he’d never call her an idiot, would he?
Not like John. With his psychotic breakdowns, his stupidity, his
constant trying to be normal; God, no, not like John, with all his bloody
issues. (Quite literally bloody, too. Like Sherlock on the floor in a morgue.)
Irene
is better for Sherlock. Could maybe be the only one for him–there
aren’t many psychopaths around, though John has met quite a number of
them–so why doesn’t Sherlock go for it?
John’s self-loathing is
incredibly strong here. Let’s throw in a ‘mate,’ there, he has the
necessary distance now. It’s not weird if he rants about her now, is it?
He is pushing Sherlock towards her, right? No one can make this
into anything it isn’t, because–well, it isn’t anything else. John just
dislikes the noise. He can’t stand it. Had to listen to it 57 times, Christ, and–
no. No, that’s not good. It doesn’t matter. The point is Irene is good for Sherlock, even if she’s Irene Adler.
Anyone but John.
If
only Sherlock weren’t staring up at him with his eyes–wet? are they
wet?–like they are, silent, just letting John go on. When he wants to say something, it’s good that John can just cut him off. Isn’t it?
I’m fascinated by the aggression and danger of the Baker Street confrontation in HLV.
I think everything that Sherlock does in this scene with regards to John is for John’s immediate safety. In the long term, too, but at that moment, Mary is armed, dangerous and backed into a corner, they cannot afford to have John antagonise her. There’s a possibility that Mary’s mission protocol after being caught is to terminate them both and flee.
I think that, with this in mind, we could see Sherlock speaking to Mrs Hudson as he walks through the door as an attempt to immediately get rid of her, for her own safety. If Mary were to suddenly abort the mission and shoot John and Sherlock in the head, Mrs Hudson would also be a target because she would be a witness. I don’t think Mary would want to leave any loose ends if this were the case.
So, when they come home and Mrs Hudson happens to be there in the flat, Sherlock immediately tells her to leave, specifically to go to her kitchen. Sherlock knows about Mrs Hudson’s drug habits: the line, ‘isn’t it time for your evening soother?’, is, after all, from ASiP, the first episode,
Bonus: Sherlock says this to get rid of her. This line means, ‘Isn’t it time for you to go?’. Here a reference to Mrs Hudson going to get drugs means, ‘get out of here, immediately!’. Also, note the similarity in his facial expression as he says, ‘what exactly in the point of you?’, in HLV and here, in ASiP, as he encourages her to leave his flat.
Mrs Hudson’s specific drug habits are reinforced via Magnussen’s earlier assesment: Marijuana and alcohol,
This is a reminder to the audience about Mrs Hudson’s backstory: it does not include using morphine. In fact, that’s one of Sherlock’s pressure points according to Magnussen (upon seeing his behaviour when they meet at the restaurant) but not one of Mrs Hudson’s.
Later at the Baker Street Confrontation, Mrs Hudson reminds us that it was not she who was the drug dealer, it was her husband,
Sherlock brings up her past as an exotic dancer, reinforcing the idea that Sherlock knows a version of the facts that Magnussen showed us earlier,
Again, no references to morphine in sight.
Sherlock must know that Mrs Hudson does not have morphine in her kitchen or anywhere else in her flat and yet he asks her to fetch him some. I think this is Sherlock’s veiled attempt at getting her to safety. In this scene I think he’s trying very painfully to get John to understand that they’re in grave danger. He can’t come right out and say it precisely because they are in great danger. He tries to redirect John’s anger at himself even as he tries to give John hints of how much danger they’re really in.
I think it’s worth noting that Sherlock avoids eye contact with Mrs Hudson as he requests morphine from her and immediately after as he yells at her. I think that when Sherlock lies he often fails to make eye contact and I think here he’s hoping that she’ll just go away and be offended enough not to come back. We see how he protected her in ASiB, I don’t think he’s doing things any differently in this situation: he’s just doing it covertly.
Mary instantly heads to a defensible position when they enter 221B.
She stands with her back to the wall, within easy reach of the knife in the mantelpiece.
Whatever her intentions, she’s definitely prepared for a fight. I think she’s not convinced that John won’t go for the knife to use against her.
Did you see how both TAB and TFP began with a close-up shot of John’s and little Eurus’ (Mirror-John’s) left eye, respectively? They’re letting us appreciate that precious thing from up close, because we’re not gonna be able to see it anymore. Yes, you can start mourning it.
Remember how we thought Sherlock was gonna be the one going blind thanks to Skully’s brilliant theory? Well, I guess we got many of the hints at ‘blindness’ happening at some point, only that it wasn’t Sherlock’s, but John’s in one eye.
Yes! I speculated this in another post that cannot find at the moment, but I agree, especially with how often the focus on John’s eyes is brought to light. You CAN survive a gunshot to the head – in fact I watch a documentary recently about a man who was shot in the face and recovered for many months but lost one of his eyes – And a parallel to Sherlock coming back to life for John, John may will himself back to life for Sherlock, realizing how much Sherlock loves him.
Why DID they have all the dark allusions? Nothing in the episodes really were that dark (aside from a few poignant scenes in TLD). Those allusions are WHY the blind theory came up in the first place.
Okay, the Jane Eyre connection. I thought from Day One that the child being named Rosemonde was so interesting. This is the name of St. John’s love in Jane Eyre, the one that he gives up so that he can be a missionary. Was the child’s name an allusion to this character? The point of Jane Eyre, of course, being a repudiation of St. John’s renunciation of love. In the same way, Sherlock is a repudiation of the renunciation of love that took place in the original Canon.
Ooh this is brilliant. Plus Mofftiss kept saying we were missing something that was “blindingly obvious” or something like that, as I recall.
Brilliant additions, everyone! And don’t even get me started with Jane Eyre because it’s too trmojas. Seriously read that classic if you haven’t yet. The parallels between Edward/Jane and John/Sherlock are outstanding even in the smallest of details.
And omg yes, Mark did try to call our attention to something ‘blindingly obvious’ last September for Radio Times:
“There are things that come to fruition in this series which we’ve been planning for years. But people also find things that aren’t there. Which is my favourite. And then miss the blindingly obvious things that are there. People read an awful lot into it.”
the framing of this?????? molly standing in almost presentation mode, sherlock completely uninterested, and yet john, literally popping into frame, trying to slide into the space between them, snarling a compliment as a cover alkdghjsfasfkhdjks
every single frame in this entire scene is a fucking masterpiece
Check out this gorgeous mirroring in TBB, the episode that never fails to show you something you hadn’t seen before… note the mannequin behind Andy in the background, looking like Soo Lin (Sherlock’s mirror), reaching out to Andy (John’s mirror), through glass ❤ ❤ ❤ (Read this mind-blowing piece of meta about the character mirrors in TBB if you haven’t already)
Oh fuck
ugh and Sherlock almost looks like he’s part way in the case, part way out help
Okay but even after watching this episode multiple times and seeing Mary disappear in and out of shots (and acknowledging that she’s definitely in his head in some bits), I have to admit that this first scene still reads to me like Mary is pressuring John into pretending that she’s dead.
(2/2) so do you think John truly understands now? Like if he woke up right now would he just pull Sherlock down for a kiss immediately or would he still need Sherlock to say it first to be able to believe it? And his repression/Eurus was healed with a loving hug so is that barrier down for good now? And in that case was that montage at the end really the best that John can imagine or does he still not dare envision himself and Sherlock as a full blown couple? Thank you and sorry for the bother 😉
Woah there, Nonny!
Thank you for your kind words. It’s no bother at all, but I just wish I had all the answers! I mean, don’t we all? That said, I’m gonna try my best and give you a coherent answer to these questions with my humble opinion. 😉
On Mary’s characterization at the end:
John just made up a whole story about someone who’s able to completely brainwash people with a seemingly friendly/helpful message. Before shooting him, Eurus told John “you can hide behind a smile”, so he dreamt that “smiling is advertising”. Think of the ‘Miss You’ DVD as John’s implementation of this theory. Mary may look sweet but what she says is actually not good at all: it’s all manipulation. One of the things that stands out the most to me, is the way John seems to translate Mary’s words from the real ‘Miss me’ DVD. He turns “the man we both love” into “I know what you could become”. But that’s in no way a supporting statement on what Sherlock and John ‘could become’: that’s John thinking she always knew about his and Sherlock’s true feelings for each other. And given her actions since TEH, that only speaks ill of her! So I see this message as John realising he’s been thoroughly manipulated by her. I mean, he even hears her fueling his self-loathing in “who you really are doesn’t matter”, and voicing his fears –and possibly her contempt towards them– describing them as “a junkie who solves crimes to get high and a doctor who never came home from war”. That’s the opposite message from literally the whole story! It negates their character development. Though it makes sense that as the villain, she’d want them stuck in the past with their issues unsolved. And of course, note the possessive pronoun in “My Baker Street Boys”. Ownership, chains.
On John understanding Sherlock’s feelings for him:
We can’t know whether this is how John thinks Sherlock truly feels, or how he’d want Sherlock to feel.
But he certainly imagined Sherlock caring for him, crying for him, being soft with him, telling him is not too late for them, breaking him free, saving him and saying ‘I love you’ three times. Now, the climactic ‘I love you’ scene gives us a good insight into John’s pov. Everything Molly says is what he thinks. Again, it reflects his fear that Sherlock only wants him as a friend to tag along for the cases, and therefore that his love is unrequited. We can see his incredible repression and his desperate need to hear Sherlock telling him those three words. And literally, his dying wish to confess his love for Sherlock. Then, after Molly (read:John) is gone, and Eurus reminds us of aborted declarations of love (”all those words unsaid”) John imagines Sherlock in denial and desperate about losing him. To the point of almost commiting suicide later on (”I’m remembering the Governor”). We also get the whole Eurus=Sherlock parallel, with John characterizing her as an unfeeling machine, a freak that turns out to be a traumatized emotional being that “just needed a hug”, and gives her a redeeming arc. So, given that John’s dream centers around making Sherlock an emotional vivisection in order to figure him out, I’m inclined to think this is not ony the creators showing the audience Sherlock’s true nature, but John himself understanding it.
On John’s attitude, and daring to envision himself and Sherlock as a full blown couple.
He couldn’t even imagine the ‘I love you’ exchange without the use of a mirror– grant it, this is as close as the creators could get without spoiling the real love confession! But the image of them raising Rosie together did flash before John’s eyes. Also, Sherlock might’ve confessed his love to an unconscious John for all we know. He may actually remember hearing those words. Now, we saw how repressed John is, how unsure he feels. I don’t think John “I find it difficult, this sort of stuff” Watson would just ‘pull Sherlock down for a kiss immediately’, like you put it. Not without Sherlock reassuring him his feelings are requited. Also because in this aspect, what we saw in
Sherlock’s Mind Palace and John’s Mind Bungalow harmonizes perfectly: in TAB Sherlock realizes he’s the one who has to make the move and finally confess, while in TFP John wishes Sherlock to be the first one to say ‘I love you’. They’re on the same page even on this, it seems 😉
That’s my take on it, Nonny! Hope that helped. Thanks for the ask.
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