I wish I had a screenshot for this post but anyway…
at the end of TAB, just before John shows up with his gun and Sherlock realizes John will always be there to save him, he is battling Moriarty (his inner demons) at a Waterfall
at the end of TLD, just before the Hug when John realizes Sherlock will be there for him emotionally, he is talking to Mary (himself) and we actually see him crying, that’s the Falling Water
And it starts in TRF with the rainfall outside. (Because everything after TRF is the scenarios and consequences.)
ugh, YES, the rain… if the waterfall in TAB is Sherlock re-doing the Fall correctly by letting John save him, the hug is John re-doing this, dealing with the emotional fall-out correctly this time, by opening up about how upset he is, crying, and letting himself be comforted. I have hopes that they have both completed their emotional arc now….
yes, time to blast the doors off the closets, cupboards, coffins, elevators, etc.
so ever since i’ve watched the lying detective, even more than once, i’ve had trouble understanding the meaning of this dialogue at the end of the episode
SHERLOCK: It’s not a pleasant thought, John, but I have this terrible feeling from time to time that we might all just be human.
JOHN: Even you?
SHERLOCK: No. Even you.
now i recently watched the episode with my mom for like the fourth time or so, and since then, i’ve been endulging myself in video edits, metas, posts, etc. mostly about that episode. but a little while ago as i was watching this brilliant edit: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=njAhpocOO84 by buckysmyfriend, that part showed up towards the end. and then it hit me like a brick. so to start john says his “even you” because he’s implying the typical ‘sherlock being a machine without a heart scenario,’ (which we know isn’t true of course). BUT. the reason sherlock says that it’s not himself, but john, is because of john’s mistake of cheating. John Watson. making a mistake. doing what humans do, which is making mistakes. but it’s a terrible feeling to sherlock because of how he’d always thought of john.he never really considered john to be ‘human.’ he thought he was the one thing humans weren’t. he thought john wasperfect.
Exactly. I was just thinking about that scene today… and I don’t think about Sherlock much anymore. That’s precisely what Sherlock meant: he realized everyone is human and capable of error… and while he knew that very much about himself, he was just now learning that it was true about John.
I disagree. Yes, the „being human“ is about not being perfect. But this is not a change in perspective for Sherlock, but for John. John was the one hurting because he tried to fulfill a too high standard. John was beating himself up for not being perfect. And Sherlock was reminding him, that he as well is only human, that he‘s allowed to make mistakes and to be forgiven and forgive himself for these mistakes. It‘s a revelation for John, not for Sherlock.
Who remembers the series 1 fandom theory that it’s not Sherlock who has sociopathic tendencies but John?
Misses the war, hates being alone when he’s alone but thinks most people are arseholes, hugely impulsive, charming yet grumpy, puts on an act of being civilised and socially acceptable but calls his new friend all sorts of terrible things, coolly murderous at a moment’s notice…
Then there’s the mini episode, in which Sherlock made it clear that John’s friends don’t really like him.
The BBC version of John Watson cannot get unrehearsed words of sincere affection out, is drawn to an assassin, text cheats with another woman after becoming a father, rages against Sherlock to the point of beating him up, abandons his baby while grieving and giggles at crime scenes when nobody “ordinary” is looking.
It’s absolutely nothing like ACD Watson, and it’s an unpopular view, but there is a consistent line for BBC John’s character if you squint in that direction.
Yuuup, I’m in the very small camp that John beating Sherlock up isn’t /that/ out of character. (With what we’ve seen on BBC Sherlock). An over exaggeration maybe of what John should have done in that situation, if I was writing directing I would have toned it down a bit. Anyways, at the time of the episode airing I didn’t think it was off until I saw everyone on tumblr talking about it.
That is to say what John did was a load of hot garbage. All the pressure and other shit that was going on doesn’t excuse it. But yeah, it’s not completely unbelievable.
“There’s a little joke in there about Nurse Cornish, who’s named after the Cornish boatman,” Gatiss revealed, “who famously, when Conan Doyle’s being rowed across a river in Cornwall, this man says ‘do you write Sherlock Holmes?’
“And he said yeah. And [the man] goes ‘he was never the same after he came back from the dead, was he?’ So he was the first kind of critic.”
“He was the first comment section in the world,” Steven Moffat deadpanned. (x)
d’ya ever think about why they bothered to name sian’s character “elizabeth” in the credits of tst and tld? this is a show with a long history of characters with credit names like “blind lady” and “beautiful woman” and “creepy guy,” but no they credited her as “elizabeth.” and it’s not like just calling her “e” would’ve tipped us off about the “eurus” connection since they’d already given the whole thing away by the time we first heard the name “eurus” and also the bus lady just signed her name as “e” and more people saw that than bothered to read the credits so if we were all that clever they already gave us the hint anyway.
yeah it’s not like i still think about that either, that was a year ago hahahha ha hah ha h
Therapist: What about his brother? John: Mycroft? He’s fine. I mean, obviously normal and fine are both relative terms when it comes to Sherlock and Mycroft. Therapist: [Chuckles.] Obviously. But, I didn’t mean Mycroft. I meant the other one. John: Which other one? Therapist: You know, the secret one. John: Oh, that was just something… I said. I’m sure there’s… [He pauses.] How did you know about that? I didn’t tell you that. Therapist: You must have done. John: I really didn’t.
Images 1–5 above: From The Lying Detective, starting at approximately 1:02:58 Image 6: Zoom in on reaction of female agent in background when John first says the word “brother”
First of all, I need to make it clear that this catch—and it’s a great one—1000% belongs to @discordantwords. Not me. The only reason I’m building out a new post instead of reblogging the original is because when I saw the stills I went “Eh, maybe?” but when I saw the video I went “Woah, YES.” So this felt like something that needed a gifset.
I can’t remember ever being more frustrated by a TV show episode than I have been after watching The Lying Detective. (The Final Problem left me so numb that I reacted in a totally apathetic way.) What I personally got from this episode is that Steven Moffat decided to kill Johnlock off, not in the mortuary scene, but in the hug scene. I know it’s an unusual viewpoint but I would like to explain why I have this opinion. This hug seems to me like the seal on the ending of their romantic potential. Despite being mad at Steven Moffat for this, I admit one thing: this is an ingenious way to handle a tough issue if you are not sure whether you’ll have the chance to address it later.If.
This is truly a moment of proper, relatively deeper communication between Sherlock and John but I disagree with most fans that this step brings them closer to the notorious “romantic entaglement”. It doesn’t. The only positive attribute is that it heavily implies John was / has been in love with Sherlock and vice versa. This scene works as a subtle confirmation, which is relatively important but it does not work as a promise from the writers. This is clever because a confirmation is needed in case they return for a (better) series 5 but a promise should be avoided in case they don’t and their official ending is the one in The Final Problem.
In short, what happens in this scene is that we get implications that these two are in love but we are also told that both of them have completely given up hoping or expecting things. This for me is the greatest disappointment and the main reason I can’t like an episode that is otherwise mostly good. Sherlock and John are worn out by everything they ‘ve been through and the desire or excitement seems to have faded.
The most alarming sign of John’s fatigue is his controlled absence of jealousy when Sherlock gets a text from Irene, which confuses even Sherlock himself.
Sherlock looks bewildered by John’s uncharacteristic reaction. Sherlock tried to downplay the importance of Irene’s text because he was prepared for the usual jealous outburst, yet what he got was John pushing him to Irene, even being able to almost laugh at Sherlock’s firm abstinence. He frankly looks worried by this change in John’s attitude and I can only agree – all of John’s changes in attitude have been at least worrisome in series 4.
John is visibly tired. He has been for a long while but now he really lets it show. Does this mean he’s not in love with Sherlock anymore? No, I don’t think so. He wants more, doesn’t he? But he has clearly accepted the fact that he stands no chance with Sherlock and decided to sink in this bleak awareness. What’s worse (though justified), he feels he deserves it. He feels he should not have Sherlock after all and he makes it surprisingly clear when, after talking about Irene, this follows:
This is very sad but it makes sense. I think John and Sherlock would stop hoping for something to happen if they realized their relationship would be unhealthy. For both their sake.
In fact, I could believe this to be true, (I wouldn’t forgive the horrible s4 though) and it would make me understand the writers’ intentions, but then I couldn’t understand the whole groundbreaking thing. I mean, the BBC hinted at “making history” and Steven Moffat said once that it’s something never done before, that the other adaptations got wrong but with this show, they got it right.
Adapting into 21st century is not groundbreaking and making history to me. I’m not saying that what you said doesn’t make sense, but if it’s true, then they advertised it wrong.
But thank you for writing this 😊 I think it’s really well explained and it made me understand more what their intentions could be.
The thing is, after john’s little speech on taking chances with the people you love sherlock wasn’t like oh shit u right I gotta text irene no he stood up and rubbed at john’s back whilst john snot-wept into his dolce and gabbana shirt
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