The thing I love about tab is that the first layer of subtext is that its referring to the canon, but then deep down its really referring to Sherlock’s own thoughts, like Sherlock feeling like he’s always faking when he’s in front of other people “do you have to pose while you do your deductions?” or Sherlock wanting to write out what he did to John at Baskerville “I was barely in the dog one” or regretting his recent relapse and feeling like John was the only thing that made him be better for a little while “Perhaps since I convinced the reading public that an unprincipled drug addict is some kind of gentleman hero.” this is all terrible
I appreciate the collection of perspectives, which I myself love perusing. My own view is probably closest to Ivy’s, in that I can’t think they’re ‘making love too difficult to work’ because even in this, John and Sherlock parallel each other. In their difficulty, their brokenness, their painfully sharp edges. I mean, we definitely love their idealized selves in fandom, and create new legends around them as much as we psychoanalyze and decide when something is ‘too much’. But it’s the characters who could really tell you when it’s too much, and I think that finally, in TLD we see that Sherlock and John see and accept all of one another. You could say that *theoretically* this should break them, but in fact it makes them stronger. If nothing else, by the end of TFP, it seems they’re happy. It’s not a tragedy, after all. It’s just a brutal thing to watch, they’re definitely both traumatized, by this and many other things. Their brokenness is supposed to be something they can use, though. As Ivy said, John’s flaws are part of what Sherlock needs and can use. The violence is part and parcel of how it works, because Sherlock knows how to help John channel it, how to make London into John’s warzone. And sometimes it’s all too much, but that’s been true for Sherlock, too. Sometimes Sherlock himself is way, way too much. But somehow they’re exactly what the other needs and can handle. That’s the secret of their dynamic.
Of course, I agree, it didn’t have to explore this possibility, even if it always existed in the realm of the possible for this or any Holmes and Watson. But at the same time, this started in Series 3, ‘cause they kept not dealing with the old traumas enough, ever since Reichenbach, and then piling on complications. John was set on a collision course with himself as soon as he married Mary and she turned out to be the worst possible option. It was a bad decision compounded by her pregnancy and further exacerbated by the ensuing series of events– that unfortunate vow, the shooting, Sherlock back on drugs and saying he killed Magnussen ’cause he’s a sociopath, Sherlock pushing them back together and John choosing to do it without dealing with any of their problems. Everything kept being swept under the rug, with the only explanation being that John ‘chose her’ and he should just deal with it. So he let it go, and let it go, and controlled himself and held back. And then (as Martin Freeman said), he just needed an excuse when he failed again (this time to protect Mary). In John’s mind, someone has to be in control: usually that’s Sherlock ’cause as Ivy said earlier, Sherlock can do anything. Sherlock is his superhero; his ‘commander’. Alternatively, of course, John *himself* expects to be in control, or it’s a personal failure. Remember how he took it in HLV, with Sherlock telling him (ruthlessly, from John’s perspective) that he chose Mary: it’s his ‘fault’. John automatically jumps to the question of whose *fault* it was that Mary was the way she was, and he wasn’t ready to take responsibility and accept this, but Sherlock pushed and so he did. Then, when another traumatic event happens, John doesn’t have any reserve left, I guess.
What I’m saying is, I think many of us knew that some kind of reckoning had to be coming for John in S4. But all the talk about John’s arc was mostly supposed to be about John getting better, not worse. And if he got worse, we expected to see him recover, step by step. And that didn’t happen. We got a hint, a first step, and I understand why that’s not enough for many people. At the very least, though, I don’t think it’s the same as the ‘tragic gays’ trope would have it. In TLD, even if they didn’t show us everything, they showed enough that it’s clear they do always save each other, even if it’s not in the ways that Mary or anyone else would expect. Even if John can’t see it anymore, or thinks he’s not that person, he’s still the person who makes Sherlock better. And when John stumbles, Sherlock would believe it enough for the both of them. And I do think, in the end, that it is enough.
I’ve often wondered if John’s easy forgiveness of Sherlock after being drugged in Baskerville ended up hurting them both more than helping.
Sherlock drugged John. A man with PTSD. A man that could have easily hurt himself or others while he was under the influence of the drug. John was terrified. And yet? He forgives him without even a moment’s hesitation.
If John had been more livid, more upset, asked Sherlock “why would you ever think that is okay to do that to me?” and stayed angry for some stretch of time, Sherlock would have not come back from TRF thinking all would be forgiven in a moment’s notice.
Sherlock would have known that jumping off the roof at St. Bart’s in front of John, and staying dead for two years, is not something easily forgivable. John was betrayed. Yet Sherlock comes back expecting the easy forgiveness he saw in Grimpen.
John does forgive Sherlock in TEH but marries Mary because he knows he can’t trust his heart to Sherlock.
What would have happened if the forgiveness after Baskerville wasn’t as easy? I think the entire jump and aftermath would have changed.
Their play with one another, and the affects that has on their mutual trust does interest me a great deal (yes I have a half finished meta on it). I think that HoB, was the first instance of Sherlock pushing John almost beyond what he could bear, and you can see that Sherlock is angry at himself for it.
In HoB John told Sherlock, “Get me out, Sherlock. You have got to get me out!” But Sherlock kept pushing, and pushing, when he really should have dropped it right there, should have just comforted John and been done with it. But he didn’t. John told him to stop, and he pushed through anyway. He knew he’d done wrong the minute he saw John’s face, but it was too late to take it back, and Sherlock, being Sherlock, didn’t quite know how to fix it, so he just turned that anger on himself and the situation.
I think his anger in the lab, when he throws the microscope slide against the wall, is as much anger and frustration at himself, for where he took things with John earlier, just to prove a point, as it is frustration over not finding any trace of a drug in the sugar (which further underscored the fact that he pushed john that far for absolutely no reason at all).
But, I agree with you that John needs to learn to speak up for himself, or that dynamic can go south fast. Part of John not doing so may come down to his (I suspect) abusive upbringing. He’s used to just taking the kind of treatment that undermines trust, and is used to making himself small, and to brushing things off and just getting on with it. But he can’t keep doing that. He really should have said, “That was not in any way okay! Don’t you ever push me that far again, do you understand!”
For lack of a better term, I don’t think that they have ever really set a ‘safe word’ with one another in this game they play (john doesn’t know his limits or when to say stop, he just let’s sherlock push him, even when it goes past what is bearable), and that is going to lead to trouble.
TRF DEFINITELY broke trust, almost irreparably. I do think that John felt he forgave Sherlock in TEH after the train car thing, and as weird as it may be to most people, the thing with the bomb really was a smart thing on Sherlock’s part. He pushed John to the edge again, right to the edge, almost too far, but then he had that big ‘ta-dah!’ moment where he revealed that he had been in control all along, that he had a plan, that he had called the police. It was Sherlock’s way of saying, “See, you can trust me. I do have a plan. We can go back to our play, I’ll give you the danger, the adrenaline rush, but I won’t ever push you that far, too far, again. I will never make you feel that your trust in me was misplaced. I’ve got you, John. You’re safe with me.”
So John forgives him, and is willing to go back to their old dynamic, their old play, but there is still a part of him left bleeding, and that loops back again to the point I think you are trying to make here, that John forgave, truly forgave, but that the trust wasn’t fully repaired, even if they both thought it was. It’s going to take a lot to fix that.
And remember, what does Sherlock turn around and do AGAIN in HLV? He shuts John out, he lies to him to keep him safe, he makes his own plans with Magnussen, and he fails at those plans, and the result is John having to watch Sherlock go to his death all over again, as he is shipped off to Eastern Europe. HLV was just TRF all over again. Even if John had been starting to let himself trust again a little bit between TEH and his wedding, all of that started to unravel again in HLV.
I hate HLV, so much. But then I think that is where Seasons 4 & 5 are going to have to take us, it’s what those seasons will have to address. How on earth do you repair a breech of trust so huge, and especially with a man who came to the table with trust issues in the first place?!
Sherlock and John have their work cut out for them, that’s for sure.
This is why I love HLV though. I think it’s actually a step in the right direction for them both, not a repeat of TRF. Sherlock doesn’t shut John out entirely. He doesn’t go off to confront Mary on his own. He doesn’t show up later and say, oh by the way your wife is the one who shot me, but it’s already been taken care of. He doesn’t put himself in yet another situation that might get him killed (because he knows that Mary isn’t going to shoot him with John there). Instead he asks John to trust him again. He puts John in that chair and says sit and listen, you need to be in on this, I want you to be part of this. John places an awful lot of trust in Sherlock to just sit there quietly while his wife aims a gun at him, a lot more trust than he probably has allowed himself to show since Sherlock came back really, but he does as Sherlock asked because he is allowing that trust between them to start to grow back to where it once was. And in doing so, it allows him to be in on all the secrets for once, to see that Sherlock trusts him, too. When Sherlock came back in TEH, he said he hadn’t been in contact because he was afraid John would let the cat out of the bag, and here in HLV he is literally opening the bag right in front of him and trusting John not to let the metaphorical cat escape. And that is a huge step in the right direction, and John even cements his regained trust in Sherlock in the domestic scene. “Your way. Always your way.”
Now we don’t know a lot about what happened before Christmas and how much of the CAM plan John was or wasn’t in on, so maybe that was a step backwards for them. But either way, I think that while Sherlock shooting CAM and subsequently getting sent off to Eastern Europe was obviously not something John would have wanted him to do, it isn’t really the same as TRF. Even in the midst of things, it was clear to John that whatever plan Sherlock had come in with, whether John was in on it or not, it had gone wrong. He was hoping Sherlock maybe had a backup plan (”Sherlock, do we have a plan?”), but Sherlock just closes his eyes and John knows he doesn’t. And so of course Sherlock improvises and does something drastic to try to get them out of it, to try to save John, but it isn’t the same as TRF because it wasn’t part of the plan. It’s shocking, yes. It’s likely the wrong choice, yes. But it wasn’t the huge betrayal of trust that TRF was because Sherlock didn’t intentionally manipulate him and lie to him about what was happening. Again, a step in the right direction. A small one, but one going the right way nonetheless.
I agree about Sherlock telling John that Mary shot him being a step in the right direction. A huge step in the right direction, actually. But, the only way I can see the Magnussen fiasco as not being another TRF, is if we find out in Season 4 that there was a plan all along, that Sherlock telling John that he could trust Mary during the 221b domestic was part of some deception that the two of them had arranged ahead of time, that John forgiving Mary was also a part of that deception, that there was some sort of mutual arrangement going on there, and that the thing with Magnussen was supposed to be the capping off of the whole plan, but for some reason went wrong.
Thing is, that John seems truly, and sincerely shocked when Sherlock drugs his entire family on Christmas day, and a helicopter shows up to take them to Magnussen’s place. John really seems to not have a clue what Sherlock’s got up his sleeve when they get there. I really think it was all a huge surprise to John. So, I don’t know…
Am I the only one who feels like after Sherlock shot Magnussen in HLV, John was never the same with Sherlock again?
On the tarmac John seems oddly distant and stoic. He’s got his soldier face on. True, maybe he’s just protecting himself…maybe he’s angry that Sherlock is going away again…granted, he doesn’t know it would be permanent…but it’s weird–it’s almost like he thinks Sherlock’s punishment (the way he’s aware of it) is deserved. I mean? John’s had to kill people before, he’s a soldier, he gets that stuff. So it seems out of character if that’s it. And he hesitates for so long before shaking Sherlock’s hand, and to me it just feels like that hesitation is John being upset at Sherlock. He certainly doesn’t watch the plane leave or arrive again with any real, sweeping emotion.
Then there’s TAB. Whether TAB’s modern-day scenes are real or not, John still seems distant. So even if it isn’t real, Sherlock has picked up on that distance and is revisiting it in his head.
And all of S4, I just didn’t feel like they were “them.” Hug aside, I sensed little real warmth emanating from John to Sherlock. The other way around, sure, but it almost feels like John is considering it a bit too little too late? Their interactions no longer seemed to have the tone of “just the two of us against the rest of the world.” Maybe you could argue that’s because of the baby, that the baby broke that bubble John and Sherlock existed in before, but…I don’t think that’s entirely it. And it bugs me.
Again, am I the only one who feels this? I haven’t really seen anyone discuss it.
I absolutely agree. I actually feel that Sherlock shooting Magnussen was a horrible misstep for the writers. And it really was the end of the intimacy between the two of them.
Ever since my tfp rewatch, I’ve been developing a sneaking suspicion that it might turn out to be one of my favourite pieces of media ever. I am not kidding about that.
This is a direct result of my decision, sometime yesterday, to try applying the mind bungalow keycode to the episode, a la @the-7-percent-solution: Eurus is John’s repressed desire; the episode is John’s tab, etc., etc. It works so beautifully, shot for shot, the whole thing becomes a complex machine ticking its way toward one conclusion: John is desperate for Sherlock to save him, in every possible sense of that verb.
But it isn’t only the fact that tfp works so wonderfully in this reading that makes me love it so much: it’s that you have to dig through the rubble of the text itself to find this beauty. I’ve been struck, since yesterday, with the way that mofftiss
somehow
managed to make a thing that is so ugly on the surface, so repellent, so grotesque, nonsensical, ridiculous, that the primary response to it will be to look away, hate it, and never reconsider it.
In the history of storytelling, this is a very weird achievement. The storytelling me wants to sit down and pull it apart, and try to figure out how it was done. (I suspect the real answer to that question involved a lot of giggling and possibly a few dares, alongside, one hopes, some serious talk about the symbolic network the episode meticulously creates on a subtextual level. But, who knows?)
My point is, I hated tfp so much on first viewing that I returned my theatre tickets. (Still don’t regret that–I’m not making any predictions with this reading, and if the whole thing goes to pieces in the coming weeks, and they leave us with the cliffhanger of textual mess / subtextually dying John, well, that’s not something I want to support with actual dollars, however I might admire it as a singular piece of storytelling.) I could never have imagined that I would pull such a hardcore 180 when, yesterday, I sat down, and went through the episode carefully, beat by beat. (I would never have given it another look if it weren’t for this fandom. So grateful for you all.)
My suggestion is, if you can at all stomach it, give the episode another look, and see how the mind bungalow keycode reading works for you.
I’ll close this already too-long post with some thoughts on what re-reading and reinterpretation can do, and why I’m motivated to promote this particular reading (besides that it’s just, you know, neat). I’m not fully tin hatting, although I want tin hattery to be true, and I’m super excited by the possibilities. I started the rewatch from the point of view that tfp did not sit well with me, and the idea that my experience of it certainly couldn’t get worse with a second viewing. I wanted to see if there was indeed anything to the idea that the episode might make some kind of sense. In other words, I wanted to see if I could make myself happier about it.
This from another iteration of the tfp rewatch post, in response to someone who said that they wished the mind bungalow reading were “true:”
Here is my entire point. It doesn’t have to be true. It just has to work.
An interpretation of a literary text has value insofar as it creates meaning and is consistent with that text. This one does, and is, to a shocking degree. I’m quite pleased with it.
Other readings (like the one I had yesterday, that the show is confusing trash), can also create meaning, and be consistent with the text. Fortunately we get to decide which one we like better. We can let ourselves be persuaded by the stronger reading, or, heck, the one that makes us happy.
The really important thing here is to take it for what it’s worth, and use it if you want, to help you reframe the episode for yourself. That’s what I did today, and it helped a lot. That’s how you become an empowered member of the audience.
I love this. I’ve been pondering the rewatch… I haven’t yet. But this makes me want to.
And… look it always was this intricate thing, and I enjoy that kind of thing. Regular tv bores me now. I got nothing to lose, and a lot to gain.
S4 is a tutorial on how NOT to continue SHERLOCK. Maybe that’s the point.
TFP is the only Sherlock’s episode I haven’t re-watched. Even the slightly strange and swiss-cheesed Six Thatchers had that “privilege”! This new reading, that has been gaining weight this week, may be the only reason that I’ll be able to do it.
(Irony: whether this episode is John Watson’s delirium or not, TFP will be for me, either way, the product of a dying brain. :-P)
I think it’s wonderful how due to this fandom’s incredible capability to decipher and find the beauty in Sherlock episodes that TFP for me has turned from the worst, most horrifying and nonsensical episode ever into the most precious and heart-breakingly clever thing in a matter of days. Even if there is no fourth episode, whenever I re-watch TFP i’ll always watch it with this reading in mind.
Reblobbing for the people who weren’t up in the middle of the night, and to gather this thread together with this comment by @rowanthestrange:
Honestly, with the ‘emotional context’ that this is John, it’s doesn’t just make sense, it is genius. Once you explain it it’s so simple.And it’s not instinctual – I meta’d the idea that this was all in John’s head after TLD, but somehow, on watching TFP I doubted it, even though it made more sense not less. It really showed to me the effect our community can have, and that if we hadn’t powered through it, we wouldn’t have this excellent reading.I don’t know about anyone else, but I needed…
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