He has always loved her

 (Sherlock meta by cherish--these--times)

 I was always convinced of that fact. I was one of the very few Sherlolly shippers out there who firmly believed that it would become canon. I knew I could be wrong, of course. But I think this is it. Or rather as close to canon as we can get. To me, The Final Problem confirms all of the suspicions I’ve ever had as to why they wrote Sherlock and Molly the way they did. Take note that what follows is obviously with shipper goggles on. But still.

You do count. I need you. You mattered the most. But why? 

I like the idea of Sherlock realising that he loved Molly under duress. I see no issue with the idea at all. It makes perfect sense to me. This is Sherlock Holmes after all. Loving someone romantically has never been an option. He wouldn’t even consider asking himself the question. Add his life-long conviction taught by Mycroft that caring is a disadvantage, the repressed loss of Victor, the loss of Mary, the constant threat of losing John and the case of Irene Adler to the mix and that’s what you get: Being in love? Never. 

But seriously, guys. He lost the battle against friendship long ago. What would be the point of that scene if not to prove that he lost the battle against love too? More of that in my other meta: Why I think Eurus knew Sherlock loved Molly. 

Can Sherlock Holmes love?

If yes, who?

This has been the unknown in the equation for John Watson since the very first episode, at Angelo’s (girlfriend? boyfriend?). Same question asked to Mrs. Hudson in ASiB. And an itch he needs to scratch both in Sherlock’s mind (murderous ghost scene in TAB) and in real life (the chat before The Hug in TLD). In a story, if a question is asked more than once, you can safely assume that it will be addressed later on. Another example: both John and Mycroft wonder what his feelings regarding Irene Adler can possibly be at Speedy’s as well.

And, coincidence (?) both are in the room when the phone call happens. Passive and silent. Spectators. An audience. Us. The scene is set to be a revelation for them as well as for the viewer regarding Sherlock’s heart. A forced and long overdue introspection into the one area left unexplored. Three minutes of unbearable tension leading to an outstanding emotional breakthrough. What could that be? That Sherlock loves Molly as a friend? Nothing new under the sun.

John believes that loving someone will complete Sherlock as a human being. A notion Sherlock doesn’t understand (”That doesn’t even mean anything.”) And it would have stayed that way. If not for Eurus. If not for his psychopathic sister who spent ‘such a good day’ reconciling his brother with what he suspected he already was. Human. And a very emotional one at that. John thinks that Irene will be the one to do the trick. Then distances himself from the idea and figures that Sherlock needs his own Mary. Unconsciously describing this potential person to be exactly what Molly always has been. Right before they go out to meet her for cake. Right before TFP happens. The universe is rarely so lazy.

If you consider the possibility that Sherlock discovers in the span of 3 minutes that he has loved Molly Hooper in that way all along, every single interaction clicks into place.

- His civility and, dare I say, enthusiasm with her in the early days. He is awkward in his approach and sometimes even indelicate. But he is also tempting to be nice. (He even drinks her awful coffee and doesn’t say a word!!). Keep in mind that this is before John Watson started to do his magic. Sherlock is at the peak of his sociopathic behaviour.

- His passive aggressive behaviour towards her regarding any potential suitor in the first two series (Jim in TGG, the mysterious recipient of her gift in ASiB, her lunch date in TRF). These scenes are, in fact, the only moments he becomes cruel. With Jim from IT, he even thinks he is being kind. Oh, and the line Molly says “He’s not gay. Why do you always spoil…?! He’s not.” suggests that Sherlock frequently deduces her dates to death.

- The idea of her not counting immediately sounds preposterous to him. Foreign.

- He comes to her when things become really dangerous and dark. The fall is coming. He’s got Mycroft and the entirety of the British Secret Forces or whatever on his side. He knows what is to come. He could have done without her involvement, surely. But he needs someone he cares deeply about to know the truth about him. That he is not a fraud. And so, he goes to her. Tells her he needs her. With tears in his eyes.

- His uncharacteristic tenderness on their crime-solving day.

- Why she’s the one who keeps him grounded and focused so he can fall on his back and prevent further damage when he gets shot.

- Why he hides away at her place when he needs it.

- His behaviour towards Hooper in TAB. He never strikes back in the morgue. Holmes is deliberately unresponsive. Better than that, BC acted tongue-tied. Same for the Christening scene in TST. She chastises him, knocks him in the ribs, teases him. He never looks annoyed. You can conclude from that interaction alone that he is incredibly fond of her.

Not to mention that the writers kept Molly intentionally free from any other man (end of her engagement). Because yes, to execute the Sherlolly becomes canon plan, Molly also has to stay emotionally available until he is on the same page. I see no other reason for it. Seriously. From a feminist perspective, that doesn’t sound very good. But Mofftiss have been careful. Molly is in love but it’s not gratuitous and purposeless, nor is it what defines her as a person. They made sure she always stands her ground. She takes care of him but doesn’t take any of his shit. She is not a bloody doormat. Up until the very end, she has the upper hand: “You say it. Go on”. Her love matters. Makes him a better man.

To me, TFP answers the question as to why Sherlock wants Molly Hooper to stay in his life. We know he is aware of her feelings for him and how difficult it is for her. Still, Sherlock needs her to stay close to him.

No matter what, through thick and thin, she is always, always there. It’s a beautiful thing from both perspectives. Molly stays because she is strong, she loves him and would rather be his friend than nothing at all. She doesn’t ask for anything in return. This is a lesson of bravery, selflessness and kindness. The lesson Louise Brealey cares so much about. From Sherlock’s point of view, and up until TFP, it’s not clear as to why, she stays because he wouldn’t have it any other way. The mere concept of her not being by his side is inconceivable. We know it is. She would have been long gone otherwise.

You could argue that he kept her around only because he loved her very very much as a friend. But if Mofftiss wanted Sherlock to become a good man (which is the whole point of the show) but didn’t want him to fall in love, then Sherlock would have stayed away from Molly for good after he realised what she felt for him. Because that’s what you do when you deeply love your friend and want them to be happy. Not doing so would be the most selfish thing in the world.

After TRF, two golden opportunities presented themselves to kindly deal with the problem of Molly Hooper and prevent her from becoming a potential love interest. One where she stays in his circle and one where she leaves. In a way, Mofftiss used both. And destroyed them in the next breath.

1. Happy ending. She stays.

She marries another man. Perfectly reasonable. She doesn’t see him for two years, falls in love and never looks back. She can stay his friend and we don’t lose awesome Molly. A very handy solution because she is Mofftiss’ original creation and they want her to stick around. Ideal to have her develop a beautiful dynamic with Sherlock based on deep respect and camaraderie. “God, you’re such a dick sometimes. I can’t believe I fell for you.” “I know. I don’t get it either, Molly Hooper.” They twisted that option and used it instead to prove that no one but Sherlock will do for her. It started as being a few hints in TEH and TSoT and became the truth in HLV with one single line “Sorry your engagement’s over, although I’m grateful for the lack of a ring”. 

I won’t even talk about that line. Come on. It’s so ambiguous it’s laughable.

Also, Tom was purposely made to be a facsimile of the real thing and Molly was droolin’ all over Sherlock during his speech in TSoT. So yeah. It’s him or nothing.

Not to mention THAT SCENE RIGHT HERE:

At the time, also known in my book as: Sherlolly is gonna become sooo canon bitches. I knew there and then, that something big was coming.

2. Bittersweet ending. She leaves.

The solution I mentioned before. Sherlock decides to do the right thing and lets her go. As a friend, as someone who cares (and we know he does), he cuts himself from her life and thus allows her to move on. Rings a bell? This is the hallway seen in TEH. It could have been the very last interaction between Sherlock and Molly on the show. And it would have been beautiful. If it was definitive, it would have been as effective to make Sherlock a good man as him destroying her coffin because he couldn’t bear to break her heart. I would have been sad, devastated even but all in all not surprised by this turn of event. I think we can all agree on that. We would have been proud of Sherlock. Relieved for Molly. He grew up. He wants to protect her. He lets her go, even if it means losing her friendship in the process.

But again, they nipped it in the bud. Again, with a single line.

“Maybe it’s just my type”.

Both keep coming back to one another. Like magnets.

Molly because she knows who Sherlock is deep down and loves what she sees. He’s her type, and it is what it is. Sherlock because he needs to have her in his life. In any way he can. He refuses to free her from him. Why? When you think about it, I think Mofftiss made crystal clear the fact that he just can’t. 

Because he is, and perhaps always has been, in love with her.

Lastly, best of all for me, the I Love You scene finally explains why he never made a move. I don’t know for you but my take on that was that he knew of his feelings for her but repressed them because he considered himself unworthy of Molly Hooper. It made my shipper’s heart happy. I never asked for more. It fit his behaviour as I read it and the show could have ended with them staying apart. I was satisfied with that view of things. In fact, if not for Sherlock Holmes to realise that he was in love with Molly Hooper, the I Love You scene was completely unnecessary. Just like the end of TSoT in the gif above.

And it makes perfect sense, now.

He simply was not aware of the depth of his own feelings, clueless idiot that he was. He needed a big push, in his case, a life or death situation, him contemplating a life with no Molly Hooper in it, for him to face the truth.

This is not far fetched at all, you know. It does happen in real life. I’ve known two specific examples, both with the same pattern. They are the best of friends. They spend so much time with one another that people keep asking them what is really going on there. They keep insisting that it’s only friendship. And then life takes over and threatens to tear them apart. That’s when they realise.

« I love you. » 

Oh.

Oh..

TLD!John… or, just John.

 (Sherlock meta by wssh-watson)

So after I’ve had some time to think about this, I want to say some more words about TLD!John. Or, just John. Just John Watson.

Before TLD, I was begging for more John. That was the one thing I wanted most of all: to have John Watson back. You don’t always like things when they are given to you, even though you asked.

I asked for John Watson. I wanted John Watson to develop. I wanted more of him.

I got it. I was appalled. Naturally. I thought it was horrid, still do. Horrid, scary, and problematic.

But guess what? John and Sherlock both have done horrid, scary, and problematic things right from the start. 

Sherlock drugged John and locked him in a lab to have the shit scared out of him as experiment. For proof? He did that, fully knowing that John has a war history. Then he jumped from a roof, condemning John to two years of extreme grief and mourning. How is that, any of that, okay? It isn’t. Why do we gloss that over? Oh, right, because John forgave him. Because the Sherlock we see in seasons one and two are the Sherlock John sees, and that colours our—the audience’s—perception. Sure, Sherlock is clever as fuck, and he’s scary, but he’s also very weird and maybe even oddly sweet. But we forgive him: it’s Sherlock.

We forgive Sherlock for three reasons. One: John forgives him. This is his POV, so the audience is likely to adopt his perception. So, John forgives him, and we forgive him. Two: that’s the first thing Sherlock is introduced as: a freak. We’re led to believe Sherlock may get off on crimes, he doesn’t do emotions in any capacity, he’s a social outcast, he’s a sociopath. Three: he developed. We got season three and we saw what was always there, just underneath the surface. We had time to adjust since then.

The sort of behaviour like drugging and locking John up and then jumping from a roof and damning John to two years of intense grief isn’t really contrary to the character as he was introduced to us, so we can get behind that. It isn’t stellar, it isn’t okay, actually isn’t okay at all, but to an extent we understand that. It’s still within the realm of that character’s world… and John forgives him. So we move on. And anyway, we have Sherlock realising his errors and striving to be a better man for John in season three. Isn’t it beautiful?

But why do we condemn John for the very same? Now I know that when I asked for more John Watson, what I was really asking for was this: can I have the one-dimensional John back from seasons one and two that called Sherlock amazing and looked at him as if he’d hung the moon? Can I have the John back who is always to a fault trying to be morally upright? Because that’s the John I wanted back.

I didn’t want a real John back. I didn’t want John to be like this. I didn’t want his messier side. I liked the messier side of him that likes a drink or two too much, the side that’s emotionally constipated. I didn’t like the rest.

But that’s the point the show makes. John himself even says so: “that’s the point. That’s the whole point.” We condemn John for the very same that we have seen Sherlock do because we don’t want to see it. Or at least I didn’t. Sherlock has become human and has progressed, and we’ve forgive him that. Hell, we’ve welcomed it, we’ve craved it, and now we look at him and think, yeah, obviously he can’t be anything but this underneath.

We saw Sherlock became human. Now John became human, too.

I think that’s what TLD is mostly about: for the audience not to forget that John isn’t just an army doctor with a danger boner. He’s also problematic and flawed. He shot a man in the first episode, and if that wasn’t a red flag for most of us I don’t know what else is. The John beating Sherlock to a pulp, as little as I like it, is still the John from season one and two and three. They’re the very same John—only this John has finally allowed himself to become human, after all these years.

Sherlock’s humanity is his softer side, his heart.

John’s humanity is this: his violent streak, a certain kind of monstrosity. We liked it when he shot a man for Sherlock in the first episode because that revealed a strong moral character, his “nerves of steel,” and because he saved Sherlock. Why do we stop liking it when we see the other side of that violence that necessarily must exist? Because it appals us. Because we don’t want to believe that this is something John is capable of. But he is.

Just as Sherlock is capable of the softer, warmer emotions, John is capable of the more monstrous, terrible ones. We shouldn’t forget that. John is human too. We take Sherlock’s humanity in stride because that’s what we wanted, but we see John’s humanity as fallibility, as horrible and wrong. It is horrible and wrong, just like Sherlock’s actions were, but it is still John. That’s the point of the show. They were both fucked up from the start, and we knew that. This could never be anything but a problematic and fucked up relationship, too.

But do you know what’s beautiful about it? Do you know the saving grace of this relationship? They’re two:

One, that when John became human, he did it in front of Sherlock. That humanity included beating Sherlock bloody, and it included crying and sobbing. Both in front of Sherlock.

Do you know how fucking monumental that is? That is a HUGE moment. This is the John whose grief we saw reflected only in Sherlock’s grave. Now we see John’s grief, as real as ever, and it is right in front of Sherlock. When we saw the world through John’s eyes, we got blinded to a certain extent: John included us in his grief but kept us at a distance. He allowed us to see that yes, he mourned Sherlock, yes, his entire world changed, but he didn’t allow us the details, didn’t allow us close. He didn’t allow us to see his face, his eyes, the tears on his cheeks.

And TLD? In TLD, he allowed Sherlock that.

Saving grace two is: they make each other better. Just like John unlocks love and affection in Sherlock and brings him down the sociopathic and superhuman pedestal and renders him blinking, stuttering, and in love, that’s what Sherlock does for John. Sherlock makes John loosen the tight grip he has on his own control, makes him lose it. Sherlock makes John let go, in more ways than one: he makes John laugh, but he also makes John angry and indulge in those violent impulses, and he also makes John cry and sob. He makes John human.

They make each other human. We’ve had a long time to adjust to Sherlock being human, and now it’s our turn to adjust to John being human and to welcome that: because it’s real.

But you know the best thing about it? Nobody gives a fuck if we can or want to adjust to that, because that isn’t the point. The point is for John and Sherlock to reach their human sides, to reach them with each other and accept them about each other. And just like they are fucked up and messy, their relationship is fucked up and messy. But that’s something they know, and still they are better together than without each other, always. And they know this. 

Maybe we, the audience, forgot John is human. Lucky for us, Sherlock didn’t. He tells John that unfortunately he believes they may all be human from time to time, “even you,” John. Sherlock knows John, and what he ends up doing is welcoming John into his arms. When he embraces John, he doesn’t just embrace the John that cries. He embraces the John that kicked him while he was lying on the floor until he was bleeding, because he knows this is who John is, too.

And how does he do it? He does it looking overcome and overwhelmed that John would grant him this, finally grant him this. His mouth goes a bit slack, and he blinks rapidly. His hand may just be trembling a bit. This is a big moment for him, this is huge, and he feels overwhelmed. He feels grateful. He feels like this is everything he wanted.

Like John’s subconscious in the form of Mary agreed: yeah, Sherlock knows you. He knows you better than anyone else. And, knowing this, John stays in Sherlock’s arms. He allows Sherlock to see those damned tears on his cheek, dripping down his chin. He allows Sherlock to hear his sobbing, to see his shaking shoulders—

just like he allowed Sherlock to see and feel the rage in his face and fists and feet.

And here we are, having them at the end of the episode, embracing one another with all that they have become: human.

It is what it is.

Euros and Sherlock and the violin conversation

 (Sherlock meta by winterdahlias)

[...] At the end [of TFP] when they’re doing the montage and Sherlock and Eurus are playing their violins it seems to me that it’s sort of an echo of when Sherlock first walked into Eurus’ cell and she asked him to “play you.” As in “tell me about yourself.”

So in the end he is telling her what is going on in his life through their duet, keeping her updated on his life like if she was “home.”

He tells her about he and John solving cases again, how he’s helping him with Rosie. Tells him about Lestrade and Mrs. Hudson. [And] about Molly. I was watching the tiny bit where Molly comes in through the door and walks in smiling brightly. The scene transitions to Sherlock playing and smiling at the same time. It is my personal belief that at that moment he is telling his sister that he is [...] happy because he finally has Molly by his side. And by continuing the duet with him, Eurus is telling him that she is happy for him, too.

People in Sherlock's life and what they taught him

 (Sherlock meta by o0katiekins0o)

I think about his draw to Irene and later Mary, how they are both people like him. They show him that people like them can make their way in the world. That there are places in life for them and, by extension, him.

Irene taught him romantic love was possible for him. Mary taught him family was possible for him. And Euros taught him that, not only were those things POSSIBLE, but they were things he actually had and was at risk of losing completely.

It almost felt like envy “Like always, you have everything and I have nothing.” She taught him what it truly meant to be alone. And no, it did not protect her.

Sherlock’s emotional abuse of John

 (Sherlock meta by violethuntress)

I agree with ALL of this; I just feel compelled to add Sherlock’s emotional abuse of John to this equation.

Not because it evens it out. Not because it excuses John’s physical abuse. But because it shouldn’t be overlooked because emotional abuse can be just as psychologically damaging as physical abuse and shouldn’t be seen as less significant.

I don’t actually think that instances of Sherlock drugging John, either seen (HoB) or reported (TSoT) was really a case of two co-dependent people being shitty to each other; John was the one with post-combat PTSD and Sherlock was squandering away his un-earned riches by being moody in a flat in central London. I actually reacted (and remember fandom reaction) to the end of HoB in horror, where the only saving grace was that it hadn’t actually worked. As this theme continued into S3 it started to become unforgivable to me. While Sherlock may have faked his death to “save John’s life” (how? that really wasn’t explained), at no point was it explained why he couldn’t have told John about his plans to spare him the deepest agony he experienced since the war zone (or his own suicidal ideation upon returning to London). At no point was it explained why he would have not gotten messages back to him for two whole years explaining that his death was faked. The depth of this cruelty really should not be forgotten.

I also had long conversations on this website after the infamous train-car scene because that was yet another breaking point for me; convincing someone there’s a live bomb and they are about to die in less than 5 minutes is considered torture according the terms of the Geneva convention. 

Moving into S4 and TLD, we watch as Sherlock emotionally manipulates John by basically pulling an elaborate version of “if you don’t come back now I’m going to kill myself!” and hems in John’s life from every angle, refusing to let him out of his orbit. Is this really to save him? Really?? (See Aja Romano’s tweet thread on this; sorry don’t have the link.)

Tl;dr I don’t disagree with this post at all, I just think that if we acknowledge John’s physical abuse, we should also acknowledge Sherlock’s mental and emotional abuse. They both need a lot of therapy and new interpersonal skills. They also don’t even come close to resembling the Holmes or Watson I know from ACD canon. (Holmes might come a little closer, but I’ve argued many times before that Holmes’ emotional manipulation of Watson pales in comparison to BBC Sherlock’s.)

John's physical abuse of Sherlock

 (Sherlock Meta by anarfea)

Q: I've seen a lot of posts lately about John beating up Sherlock in TLD, and I know you've been calling John out as an abuser since S3 at least. But I haven't yet seen anyone discussing Sherlock firing his gun in Mrs Hudson's general direction. Personally I found that scene pretty shocking. Any thoughts?

A: It was absolutely awful, but I don’t think it affected me quite the same way because it just seemed like one more incident in a series of awful incidents showing Sherlock’s appalling disregard of gun safety. While I do not own a gun, I have experience with them, and it is ingrained in me that you never, ever point a gun at anything you don’t intend to shoot, whether you think it’s loaded or not. Sherlock has pointed a gun at himself, at John, shot the walls, more times than I can’t even count.

So, yes, I agree with you, it’s terrible. He was high out of his mind and totally out of control in that scene and he could have killed her. The fact that Mrs H handles the situation as calmly as she does is a testament to her and an indication that she’s had a gun pulled on her lots of times before. The things she says in that episode “you’re not my first smackhead, Sherlock Holmes,” and also the line about not being a “civilian,” remind us that Mrs Hudson is a creature of the battlefield, too, just like Sherlock and John and Mary. We’ve known that about her for a long time (the first thing we learn about her is that Sherlock helped get her husband executed and she therefore owes him a favor), plus the fact that she took a beating from the CIA goons in A Scandal in Belgravia, show that Mrs Hudson was always a bamf, we just needed reminding.

Which is why I think that while Sherlock’s behavior towards Mrs H is terrible and I am not excusing it, I would not characterize it as abusive, where I think John’s behavior towards Sherlock absolutely is.

To clarify what I think defines abuse, I think it requires a sustained imbalance of power. Sherlock doesn’t have power over Mrs Hudson. She owns 221b, She could kick him to the curb if she wanted. When he is shooting wildly in her direction, she disarms him, handcuffs him, and hauls him off to John in the boot of her car. She is at her limit, she has decided exactly how much of Sherlock’s shit she is willing to put up with and this has just crossed it.

In other words, she sets boundaries. 

Why did I find John beating Sherlock in the morgue so much more disturbing? Because Sherlock has no boundaries. 

John punches Sherlock so hard it takes the skin off his knuckles and Sherlock is dripping blood from his nose and mouth onto the floor, then kicks him repeatedly, to the point that Culverton Smith, the serial killer, is like, “dude, lay off him,” and Sherlock’s response is “let him, he’s entitled.” What a telling, loaded word: entitled.

John thinks he’s entitled to hurt Sherlock because Sherlock hurt him, and Sherlock lets him, because he believes that he deserves it for having hurt John. The excuse that they both give is that Sherlock “killed his wife,” but John’s anger at Sherlock extends back further than that; he never forgave Sherlock for the fall, and Sherlock knows it. In a way, the scene is sort of a reboot of the reunion scene, where John tackles Sherlock to the ground in the restaurant, and Sherlock, although he is in agony (you can see it on his face and we know that he has just been rescued after being tortured in Serbia), lets John attack him because he thinks he deserves it for having faked his death. And then he lets John do it again and again as they get kicked out of multiple restaurants.

And this dynamic continues throughout S3 and TAB. John belittles him, and threatens him, because he thinks he’s entitled to, and Sherlock takes it and takes it, because he thinks he deserves it. Never once does he raise a hand in self-defense or ask John to stop.

And I know that people have said that Sherlock did shitty things to John, too, and he absolutely did (the train car scene is awful, the non consensual drugging was awful), but it felt different to me because I just saw two co-dependent people doing shitty things to each other where each of them was giving as good as they got. But I felt like since S3, Sherlock has been acutely aware that he could lose John forever. John leaves Baker Street. John marries Mary. John has a baby. And Sherlock is desperate to keep John in his life at any cost. If John wants to use him as a punching bag every now and again because he’s still angry about Sherlock faking his death to save John’s life, then Sherlock will take it. And honestly, at least on screen, it has never been made clear if John even knows that Sherlock did it to save John’s life, or that he was tortured in Serbia. Because Sherlock has never told John those things because to do so would be a form of self-defense. Would be asking for mercy he feels he doesn’t deserve.

So the tldr is:

Sherlock shooting wildly in Mrs Hudson’s general direction was terrible and he could have killed her. It would have been an accident, but it would still have been his fault. And Mrs H expertly defuses a very dangerous situation and gets Sherlock under control so he can’t hurt her or himself (without beating him, I might add).

John could have kicked Sherlock to death on the floor of that morgue and Sherlock would have let him. John kept kicking Sherlock even though he’d already disarmed him and Sherlock wasn’t fighting back.

And the later is far more disturbing to me.

Also, no one is shoving Hudlock down my throat. No one is telling me that if I don’t ship Hudlock I should stop watching the show. I don’t see Hudlock shippers telling other shippers “don’t ship Sherlolly or Sheriarty it’s abusive.” But I see these things and nastier ones from the radical arm of the dread acronym fandom, all the time.

And to make it abundantly clear: I’ve never said and will never say, “don’t ship Jlock because it’s abusive.” I have elsewhere defended people’s right to ship whatever they want. Fiction is not reality. Depiction is not endorsement. But the purity wankers don’t extend rare pair shippers the same courtesy, and I’m just tired of the hypocrisy, honestly. Every time someone calls John Watson a “bamf” for threatening to break every bone in Sherlock’s body while naming them, and then turns around and say that I shouldn’t ship Sherlolly because Sherlock doesn’t respect her, my blood pressure rises.

Honestly, I think the toxicity in Sherlock fandom is why I have pushed back so hard against John as a character and jlock as ship as much as I have. Because people keep telling me it’s beautiful and wonderful and I keep feeling like I’m being gasslit.

Why Sherlolly shippers enjoyed the ILY scene in TFP 

(explained in words JohnLock shippers can understand)

(Sherlock meta by paintedwithwords)

I’m seeing JL shippers so offended on behalf of poor Molly and surprised we would ejoy the I love you scene, so I want to explain it in words you can comprehend.

Euros said Sherlock was unaffected by all that was happening, he was lucid and concentrated on the puzzle she presented. Mycroft threw up when confronted with death and John felt guilty and upset but Sherlock kept his focus and Eurus did not want that. She knew that Sherlock would not let her shake him so she decided to strip him of his defenses, caring is not an advantage so she decided to make him admit that he cares, more deeply that he lets on about Molly Hooper. She could pick John or Mycroft, she actually gave Sherlock that choice but Sherlock had recovered by then, and he was smart about it, yes he protected them both because he loves them mboth but he could keep his cool and not falter.

What did she use instead to make Sherlock lose it? Molly Hooper. She used his own feelings for her to rip him apart. He lost, not because she died since she didn’t but because he could not turn back from the truth, once you said it you can’t take it back, you can’t un-say it. Once you’ve opened your heart you can’t close it again. Not only she stripped him of the obliviousness he had chosen for his own feelings, but she made him trample on Molly’s heart, she made him force Molly to admit that it was true that she loved him though he does not know what to do about it, because loving someone and being able to act on that love is not the same things and Sherlock has spent most of his life trying to deny that he needed that love. She was the wallpaper, the background of everything he did. She was the voice that guided his mind palace. She was the one that counted the most. He’s a graduate chemist but he needed the “practical experience” (seriously?), and It took him 4 years to remember Greg’s name, but no problem with Tom’s. All of that meant something.

Sherlock had to see a man kill himself, his wife die without a reason, and had to contemplate killing a little girl to save a city but he went mad when Eurus told him to look at what he did to Molly, that he had destroyed her, and in a way destroyed their relationship because he had treated her feelings like a joke, at least from Molly’s perspective in that moment.

For how painful it was that conversation was the most honest thing they ever shared and not a single word of it was a lie. His first I love you was supposed to feel fake to him but it didn’t, that’s why he said it again, because the words hadn’t felt unsincere, that made him connect the dots, because, guess what, it was true. Which doesn’t mean they’ll drive off in the sunset or get married and live happily ever after. But he truly does love her and at the end of the day love is always the only thing that matters.

The most important person

 (Sherlock meta by afirewiel and iamazonian)

Anonymous asked: [...] Sherlock did not say Molly was the most important to HIM, he said she was the most important in reference to the success of his fake suicide.

afirewiel answered: Here’s the exact quote: “Moriarty slipped up. He made a mistake. Because the one person he thought didn’t matter at all to me, was the one person who mattered the most.” The words “to me” are very important and clearly show that he wasn’t just referring to her helping him out with faking his suicide.

iamazonian replied: Also technically, the most important person in Sherlock’s suicide plan was Mycroft. Molly was very important in the plan, sure, but it’s a bit of a stretch to say that she could’ve carried out the entire plan without Mycroft (almost everything and everyone in the plan was under Mycroft’s authority). Mycroft, on the other hand, might have been able to find another pathologist who could’ve done Molly’s work and then just killed him afterwards or made him swear an oath (to protect the secret), but I suppose Sherlock insisted on the only pathologist who he really literally trusted with his life. In terms of sheer ability to produce and execute such a plan, as much as I love Molly, the British Government trumps St. Barts’ pathologist. In the plan, Mycroft was the indispensable one, not Molly. (Not to say she wasn’t important, or heroic. Of course she was. Also, imagine the level of trust that Sherlock and Mycroft has in her.)

With that said, logically, Sherlock wouldn’t have said Molly mattered the most to him if he were only referring to the suicide plan, since he knew very well Mycroft was the one who orchestrated the entire thing (in this case, Moriarty did miss, or at least couldn’t really touch, Mycroft and as such he made a mistake because it led to Sherlock surviving). So why was he saying this speech to Molly instead of Mycroft? Kinda makes you think there’s another reason… and a rather sentimental one at that.

Opinion regarding the beating scene in TLD

 (Sherlock meta by wssh-watson)

I’m still undecided. My first initial reaction was sheer disbelief and repulsion. I saw the character assassination too and still see it. Then I tried to rationalise it for myself and tried to contextualise it with John’s emotional distress and psychological trauma of the last years, specifically the repression he keeps practising–and I ended up in a place where this seemed plausible. (To me.)

I don’t think it’s anger over Sherlock supposedly failing Mary, that’s the least of it, if it even plays here a role at all. I think this is all of John’s frustrations and repressed emotions–and desires!–breaking loose. “It’s all a game to you,” “lying is like your mission,” “of course it’s about Sherlock, everything is about Sherlock.” John is always running from or evading or repressing his demons. Now Mary died and he cannot do that any longer: he must face them. And here they are, in a desperate and painful conglomeration of grief and anger and guilt and self loathing and desire he doesn’t want.

Grief –Sherlock always playing games like the game let’s jump from a roof and let’s let John grieve for 2 years because who cares?

Anger –he DID let John grieve for two years, left him alone; and Mary shot sherlock but he couldn’t blame her because she “saved him,” and anyway she is/was the mother of his child and he was her husband so of course he tried to forgive her, that’s what couples do; but she still shot and killed sherlock

Guilt and self loathing – he married her under false pretences too, cheating emotionally, never was as invested in this marriage as her, cheated when she took care of their child, and she died before he could ever tell her

Desire he doesn’t want –of course it’s about sherlock, everything always is, some people have this idée fix, their obsessions they can’t let go off, I wanted more and still do, I’m not the man you thought I was… and all this even though he left me to rot for two years and seemingly didn’t care and still here I am praying at his altar.

I think this is all those things breaking free, the lifelong trained repression finally falling to pieces–violently so. John’s always been into violence. Gun violence, vigilante violence… of course there’s a necessary downside to this violence. The shadow side of it.

It had to be Sherlock. This is John’s humanity, as awful as it is. We wanted Sherlock’s humanity because we wanted the extraordinary to turn ordinary. We don’t want John’s humanity, but here it is. And there is only one person John Watson could ever fully be himself with, could ever truly be his most human self with: Sherlock. That’s why the breakdown happens before sherlock too. At last they’re stripped bare.

They’ve seen the ugliest of one another. But they’re still here, fighting, and Sherlock has seen John’s humanity –has FELT it– and he still embraces all of him: the breaking apart, the anger, the self loathing. They’re important to him just like all the good, heroic parts of John are.

Feel free to tell me to shut up–I know many don’t agree and that’s okay. As I said, after lots of thinking this seems plausible to me for the above mentioned reasons, but that still doesn’t make it okay. John needs to apologise. He never was entitled. This was wrong and abusive and Sherlock needs to realise that and demand for John to stop treating him like this. John needs to get his shit together and apologise and work on this.

John is an abusive partner

 (A Sherlock Meta discussion between mazarin221b, youknowyougrow, angiefsutton and violethuntress)

mazarin221b: [...] I had some time to ruminate on a thing that’s come up a few times now over the course of the show.

John Watson as an abusive partner.

It’s awful to contemplate, I know. Not John Watson, not our lovely Doctor, not someone who doesn’t accept help but gives it, someone who, in the course of saving one man’s life, beat another until he spit blood.

His friend. Someone he’d killed for. Someone he’s almost died for. Abusive, toward Sherlock? Impossible. Except he has been, and Sherlock knows this and has used it to his advantage. 

Uck. Nauseating. But think about it: In S2, Sherlock wants John to hit him, to provide the verisimilitude that Sherlock’s a poor priest beaten up in the street by a mugger. John won’t do it, until Sherlock attacks him first, and in John’s shock and anger he lets go of his self control; he ends up choking Sherlock on the street. Unneccessary, and, as John put it, sometimes he hears “punch me in the face,” but it’s usually subtext. He’s got violent tendencies toward Sherlock in many ways, as much as he loves him, he’s helpless in the face of Sherlock’s cleverness and Sherlock *triggers that helplessness* to get what he wants.

And when Sherlock comes back in S3, right in the middle of his planned proposal to Mary - in John’s emotional shock that he’s alive, what does he do first?

Makes that subtext, text. Not once, not twice, but three times. Takes his emotional turmoil at Sherlock’s resurrection and channels it into a violent outburst because he’s helpless otherwise - he was played, and Sherlock deserves to feel as badly as John does for doing it.

Ah, but then, Sherlock twigs to an idea: Use John’s emotional/violent outbursts to shake him out of his trauma. So at the end, he lies to John to trigger his emotional outburst by thinking they’re going to die: but this time, John manages to physically keep himself together when he discovers Sherlock’s deciet, though it looked pretty dicey for a moment. Emotionally, though, he’s been terrible the entire episode: he locks Sherlock out, he won’t talk to him, refuses to listen to Sherlock’s explanations. It’s all about John, and maybe for a bit it should be. But for months? No. That’s hideously awful to your friend who suffered on your behalf, who left his life for years to save yours. It’s manipulative and selfish. But John blames Sherlock so Sherlock blames himself, and sets up a situation where John has to confront him about it.

And now, we’ve got the worst situation: Sherlock is dying by his own hand, on purpose, after the emotional turmoil of Mary’s death. He’s using John’s emotions for his advantage, again. We know Sherlock has learned to calculate everyone’s actions and reactions; we’re told so the entire episode. When he “lost it” in the Morgue and tried to stab Smith, Sherlock was counting on John’s reaction. John blames Sherlock so Sherlock blames Sherlock for Mary’s death. So once again, Sherlock sets up a situation where John has to confront him. He must. Not just because Sherlock needs the pretext to be in the hospital, but because in his brain, John needs to beat the shit out of Sherlock to “get even.” He “deserves to.”

Oh holy hell, Sherlock. Those are the words of an abuse victim.

John has, by his emotional and physical abuse, convinced Sherlock Holmes that he deserves all the blame, all the abuse he’s suffering, all the abuse heaped on him by his best friend. The Best Friend who’s been utterly incapable of watching out for the emotional needs of someone we all know to be almost incapable of fully comprehending how he feels.

John Goddamn Watson. Doctor John H. Watson. Selfish, frustrated, conflicted, PTSD suffering, emotionally constipated and emotionally and physically abusive John H. Watson.

And what’s worse, I think he knows it. “Why should everything be understandable?”

Goddammit, I hated writing this. It may not be completely comprehensible; who knows. But I feel like I’m seeing a fully developed abusive relationship being shoved at me when I look more deeply at it, past the comforting hugs and cases and conscience hallucinations, and it breaks my heart.

youknowyougrow: This…exactly this is what I have been feeling and seeing. You put this all so very well, and I am beyond being able to overlook it. I can’t even in fiction wish to see this visited on Sherlock. We’ve seen John do nothing but emotionally and physically abuse Sherlock for the last two seasons and it is gut-wrenching.

mazarin221b: And what’s killing me is that I’m following this emotional logic and I see it from Sherlock’s POV and it’s making sense. UGH. I get it. I know where they are with each other. But it’s awful and terrible and not the sort of relationship anyone should ever have. What, John’s abusive and terrible to Sherlock because he can’t have him? Is that it? Is he upset and frustrated that he can’t be the person he knows he should be, he could be, so he’s taking it out on the one person who is always there?

Maybe his breakdown, finally crying and letting Sherlock comfort him, will be what he needs to heal himself. Because that man has a lot of work to do to get his shit back together, and Sherlock needs as much therapy as he does.

Honestly, they need couples therapy, and I’m not being all shipper about it. I mean, seriously.

angiefsutton: Meanwhile, Aja Romano has pointed out that it’s not exactly one sided abuse.

mazarin221b: But that doesn’t make it *right*. Sherlock Holmes is a right emotional wreck and has zero sense of boundaries. We all know this. He’s a goddamn menace and John couldn’t get free if he tried. Sherlock manipulates John’s emotions for his own ends, I made that point above. But what’s so goddamn sad is that John had that hot mess there to manipulate to start with.

Couples therapy, seriously.

violethuntress: Thank you for all these very real posts. Can we also add Mary to this, at least as far as that posthumous DVD is concerned?

Maybe it’s because of my own personally history, but I was so shaken by her essentially telling Sherlock to self-destruct in order to reel John in–Emotional Manipulation For Dummies. If anyone has ever had an ex call them and threaten suicide because you broke up with them, you’ll know how scary and wrong this is. But Mary–the supposedly grounded one in this episode–essentially hands Sherlock the bottle of vodka and keys to the car. What the everloving fuck?

No to this, no to all of it.

Two puzzle pionts regarding John in TST and TLD explained

 (Sherlock meta by Ivy Blossom)

Q: Hi Ivy, I don't mean to treat you like a magic 8-ball, but you *have* magically explained a lot of things that hadn't quite come together so fluidly for me about TFP, so I want to present you with my two puzzle points about TST, instead. OK, so point 1 is why do you think Sherlock told John Mary's the better partner, whether that's technically correct or not. And point 2, how do you read John's growly wail and blaming/rejecting Sherlock to the point of thinking he's monstrous after Mary's death?

Ivy Blossom:

I’ll break this into pieces.

Why do you think Sherlock told John Mary’s the better partner? 

Sherlock is teasing John when he says Mary’s a better companion. That is some classic British affection Sherlock is demonstrating, generally known as “taking the piss.” You’ll notice in that scene that at no point does Mary actually think Sherlock means that they should leave John behind. They are teasing him.

John is the most important person in both Mary’s and Sherlock’s lives, hands down, no question. He is the man they both love. They are in the potentially awkward position of having to share John’s time, commitment, and affection. Suggesting they could just take off together without him is kind of wry commentary on the truth of this situation. Because they absolutely wouldn’t.

How do you read John’s growly wail and blaming/rejecting Sherlock to the point of thinking he’s monstrous after Mary’s death? 

I think John’s growly wail is a raw expression of wordless horror, shock, grief, and despair. He is beyond thinking, words, or hope in that moment.

John is at an all-time low when Mary dies. He is unhappy and behaving in ways he is deeply ashamed of when she absolutely out-heroes and out-nobles him. John has always been ready to die for Sherlock, but Mary did it for him. He had been betraying her, probably hating her at times, giving up on her. Now he will have to carry his guilt for the rest of his life. He is devastated, freshly grieving, and full of self-loathing. On top of that, this grief has pulled open his once-healed wounds from his soulmate’s suicide.

It’s not really a surprise to me that he takes it out on Sherlock.

John is a guy who believes that Sherlock can do anything, and is capable of miracles. Two years after Sherlock’s death, John is still asking him to not be dead. The faith John has in Sherlock cannot be underestimated. So when Sherlock promises that he will protect Mary, John absolutely believes that he can, all the time, and from anything. It isn’t fair to blame Sherlock for her death, as it was Mary’s choice to do what she did, but in his grief and guilt, there’s some logic in his reaction. A superhero, his superhero, has inexplicably failed him.

I’m not going to excuse how John treats Sherlock. I think that’s sort of the point of it, really: John does inexcusable things. He has the capacity to make very bad choices and hurt the people he loves. Usually he can keep himself on the straight and narrow, and even be a moral compass to those who need one, but when John is bad, he is terrible. This may actually be why John is a moral compass. Because he knows exactly what it means to be pointed the wrong way.

The violence John enacts against Sherlock in The Lying Detective is hard to watch, but it is not out of character. John is a violent man who is drawn to violence. His best self would never fail to restrain himself, but he is not his best self in The Lying Detective. He is his worst self, and this is it. These are his demons.

I don’t think this side of John is a surprise to Sherlock. I think he knows what John at his worst is capable of, and how harshly he judges himself for it. There’s something lovely about that, in spite of all the ugliness in the episode. Because John feels put on a pedestal, having betrayed Mary and never getting the chance to tell her and endure the consequences, which he certainly deserves. Sherlock knows him inside and out, a fact John is confronted with over and over in The Lying Detective. Sherlock knows him completely, even this terrible and dark corner. John’s dark corners are, in the end, useful to Sherlock. John is a loaded gun, and Sherlock is very comfortable with that.

In the end, Sherlock understands and accepts that noble, heroic, moral John Watson has the capacity to lash out and destroy the people he loves best. And John comes to understand and accept that mean, cold, brilliant, sociopathic Sherlock Holmes is a damaged, lonely, terrified, and loving man. They are ambiguous, they are contradictory and in constant conflict on the inside. That’s what fuels them, it’s what makes them strive to be better, and what makes them the legends they are.

 "I got shot.”

 (Sherlock meta by Ivy Blossom)

It’s such a pleasure to read John’s facial expressions. I love what his face says, in response to Mike asking him what happened: isn’t it obvious? Look at me, what do you think happened, ffs? I’m walking with a cane and incredibly obvious limp, do you think I’ve come home to join the circus?

And he follows it up with that trademark tight John Watson smile, which expresses so many of John’s inexpressible emotions. John smiles like that when he’s angry, impatient, offended, uncomfortable, embarrassed, feeling threatened, about to get violent, etc. In this case it absolutely does not mean what he’s sort of attempting to pretend it means: I’m perfectly okay with you asking me about that, I have no problem discussing it, I’m awfully glad to have run into you, what a pleasant surprise!

 John’s irritation about Mike’s failure to make the simplest deductions to save John this embarrassing conversation is interesting. He’s primed to meet Sherlock, isn’t he.

I would hypothesize that Sherlock does love Molly romantically 

 (sherlock Meta by Queen_Nyeela)

I would hypothesize that Sherlock does love her. Romantically. I understand the argument that he meant the second I love you platonically. Incredibly fair argument.

I would counter that with the fact that it was already well established that Sherlock has grown to the point of loving people as friends and already loves and respects Molly as such. Sherlock is also aware that he can love his friends and we see him move beyond the immaturity of eschewing friendship in Series 3. Also, it was explicitly stated by Moffat during Series 3 regarding Molly and Sherlock's friendship: "Of course he loves her. He adores her." That ceased to be a question last series.

It seemed very intentionally set up that this particular game/test was about romantic love, not platonic, hence using Molly as leverage because she is already established to be in love with him. It appears that the question the scene was raising isn't about whether or not the underlying theme is platonic love. The set-up is expressly exploring romantic love. I would add John's assumption that the coffin might be for Irene Adler as more evidence that this scene was specifically questioning Sherlock's capacity for romantic love or his response to romantic love concerning himself.

Taking away the aforementioned question, it seems the question/debate is: Did Sherlock mean it the second time or was he just acting in order to save his friend's life? Any argument for the latter is incredibly valid and is as much right as the first given that it was purposefully ambiguous. Gatiss states this in an interview as well.

I argue for the former because of the development of those two characters, their relational development prior to this moment, explicit teasing, and the scene and aftermath itself. I would lean more towards the acting theory if his face had not revealed that he was coming to a conclusion. None of the parties present, Molly in particular, could see his face during the second declaration. He genuinely seemed to be realizing this for the first time and had nothing to gain from altering his facial expression because the primary person affected would not see it.

His response afterwards with the coffin strengthens my leaning. Do I think they were in an official romantic relationship at the end? Not even a little bit. I imagine Sherlock has no idea what to do with these feelings or even how to qualify them properly. I do believe they reconciled when Molly was told about the test. I think there is great potential and even likelihood for them to be together in an official romantic capacity down the line, though we may never see that on-screen.

I also think, ultimately, that it is all left to interpretation and a good argument can be made for many scenarios. It also seems very clear that Sherlock had sex with Irene Adler (probably more than once). However, I don't think his text at the end of Ep. 4 was to her because he says the same thing to Lestrade in Series 1 and Lestrade shows up in the montage afterwards. I do think it is fair and smart to say that he and Irene have had significant moments off-screen and that speaks to Sherlock's development and Adler's uniqueness/power as a friendly (very friendly) adversary of sorts to Sherlock. She is The Woman after all.

That's my long-winded theory, mainly because I have spent a good amount of time thinking about that scene given that, in my opinion, it was the most poignant of the final episode. I fall into the camp of people who really enjoyed it and Series 4 as a whole, though there were things I had pushback on.

In The Final Problem, Does Sherlock Really Love Molly? 

 (sherlock meta by QuackyWackyDuck)

In The Final Problem, Does Sherlock Really Love Molly? The scene in which Sherlock must get Molly to say she loves him in order to save her life is easily the most memorable, heart-wrenching scene in the entire episode. However, it is created in such a way that it can lead to several interpretations. Let's go over the scene first:

Eurus instructs Sherlock, Mycroft, and John into their next trial where they discover an empty coffin. Sherlock begins to use his powers of deduction before Mycroft discovers the lid to the coffin with the engraving of the words "I Love You." The coffin is for someone who loves Sherlock but who? Sherlock concludes its Molly due to her being "Unmarried, practical about death, alone." and "distant from her close relatives."

Think about it: Would Molly really be the one to engrave the words “I love you” on her own coffin? Isn’t it your loved ones who choose what words to engrave on your coffin/grave not you? And since Molly is alone and distant from her family, she would have no one to engrave those words on her coffin…other than Sherlock (or Lestrade or Watson – which is highly unlikely). Clever Eurus has an IQ that could rival Mycroft, Sherlock, and even Isaac Newton himself. She’s the only one obsessed with analyzing Sherlock’s emotional context and if she has accurately predicted terrorist attacks just by looking at Twitter then she can accurately predict that Sherlock really does love Molly.

Anyway, back to the story. Eurus tells Sherlock that Molly's flat is rigged to explode in 3 minutes unless he makes her admit that she loves him. Eurus uses Sherlock’s phone to call Molly and when she finally does pick up, Sherlock begs her to say those dreadful words. However, she wants him to say it first. And, with a great amount of difficulty and irritation, he says “I…I love you.” But it sounds forced and hesitant. What's more convincing is the second "I love you" which is said with a softer tone and a sudden look of realization crossing his features. Could it be the suppressed emotions he'd always pushed aside (possibly to make more room for his deductions) have finally and forcibly been thrust to the surface for him to confront head on? Or does he realize that Molly can see through his “bullshit” so he tries to be sound more convincing the second time?

Eventually, Molly says “I love you” back and her life is spared. Or at least that's what Sherlock thinks. Eurus reveals to him that there were no explosives; Molly’s life was never in any real danger.

"Look what you did to her," she says, "Look what you did to yourself. All those little emotions, I lost count." Sherlock takes the coffin lid, gently placing it back on top of the coffin, slightly stroking it (sentiment?) and then, with a remorseful huff, smashes the coffin to pieces all the while screaming in agony.

According to this article, "Sherlock Hulk-smashes the coffin with his fists in a primal rage, an indication that — as the entire series thus far has aimed to show us — the most impressive aspect of Sherlock Holmes is not his brain, but his heart. Sherlock is deeply emotional, and it’s gut-wrenching to see him so distraught over causing emotional harm to someone else, someone he used to slight without a moment’s hesitation or afterthought."

So what does this mean? This article points to one interpretation that Sherlock doesn’t love Molly (at least not romantically) and instead, cares for her deeply – so much so that he is emotionally distressed over manipulating her to believe he loves her in the way she wants him to love her. Or he’s just so upset that the whole rescue was in vain that he destroys the coffin in rage.

While previous interpretation sounds accurate, I believe Sherlock destroying the coffin is for different reasons. It could indicate his frustration over the realization of love for Molly since Sherlock had always prided himself on his cold, calculating mind and superiority to feelings like love (or he doesn't know how reciprocate this love for Molly that would guarantee her happiness). And it can’t be a coincidence that, at the end of the episode, I remember reading somewhere that the writers feel he finally realizes he has an advantage over Mycroft and Eurus – his heart.

In conclusion, there is no wrong interpretation of this scene since it is rather vague. But, for me, I prefer to see this scene as a demonstration of Sherlock’s character growth. I like the possibility that someone who is often stoic and calculating can romantically love (especially a seemingly "ordinary" girl like Molly and not an "highly intelligent" but over-sexualized Irene Adler t.t). Maybe Molly can be the romantic exception to his nature. In addition, I’m annoyed that there is no resolution after this emotional scene. It’s clear it tore both of them apart yet Molly pops in at the end with a smile on her face as if nothing happened - lazy writing on the show's behalf.

Also, something else I should point out - even if it is unrelated to this scene - is that in previous episodes there had been small scenes between Molly and Sherlock that could have led for him to develop romantic feelings for Molly. I think most significant is when she helped him frame his death, after that he really does become slightly more affectionate towards her - giving her a kiss on the cheek (If they were really "friends," why would he give her a kiss? Besides, Sherlock doesn't seem like one to lead someone on - at least someone he cares about).

So, does Sherlock actually love Molly?

 (Sherlock meta by geekychristine )

I don't think the lack of closure destroyed the scene's impact at all -- I think the scene was a wealth of insight into the maturation of their relationship, looking back over the years, and a step in a new direction. But it's still just a step -- not a leap. It would have felt forced and uncharacteristic if they had total closure at the end of the episode. I just don't see Sherlock suddenly acting on any newfound romantic feelings impulsively; I think he'd have to ease into it. It is, after all, foreign to him. And I think Molly has already proven her patience -- she wouldn't rush him into anything if she knew he were interested, for fear of scaring him off.

I do think it’s reasonable to believe he may be more open to the possibility of a relationship, and Molly seems to be the most realistic candidate for something akin to "stable".

While I don’t think he’s head-over-heels smitten, I’m more convinced after The Final Problem that there is something there, however small, and no one was more surprised to discover it than Sherlock. He’s always been keenly aware of Molly’s feelings for him, being plain as day through simple observation. But this was the first time he’s been pressured to examine his own feelings in regard to Molly — a muscle he never exercised.

If this were Early Sherlock, I don’t think he would have hesitated to say he loved her at all. He would have lied, feigning emotion, manipulated her naive willingness to believe him, in the same way he proposed to Janine to get to Magnussen. Better to break her heart than watch her die. Yet he struggled, even as time ran out. It was difficult, even Mycroft acknowledged that. He had handed a gun to his brother and best friend mere minutes ago in the first test and expected them to murder a man without batting an eye. This is also the same man who has endured physical torture while unravelling Moriarty's network around the globe. But only after sharing a moment of vulnerability with Molly, Eurus chastises him for showing emotional weakness, and that was enough to set him off and destroy the coffin. Why would an indifferent disposition cause such an intense reaction?

Either he reached a new level of deception manipulating Molly, or there was some truth in his reply. Both are plausible -- certainly we’ve seen him do the former, but I’m more inclined toward the latter, based on collective evidence of his maturing humanity through the seasons, and his growing respect for the slight Pathologist.

He’s not the same man we met in Season 1 — he’s a bit less of a sociopath now, thanks to his friends, though he still has quite a ways to go. In The Great Game, we saw him sit on a solution to a puzzle he solved well in advance of a 12-hour time limit to get ahead in the game with Moriarty. That blatant delay and disregard for human life killed a blind woman strapped to explosives. Now in Season 4, we see him desperately implore “Faith” not to take her own life. (“Your life is not your own, keep your hands off it!”) His attitudes toward human life has evolved.

His pointed discussion with Mycroft about loneliness while playing “Deductions” in The Empty Hearse suggests that he himself is well acquainted with loneliness, whether romantic or platonic, recognizing its symptoms — something I doubt he would have dared admit earlier on. It’s also interesting to note that shortly after, he invites Molly to spend the afternoon with him on a few crime-solving excursions, thinking that spending time with him doing something "fun" was a suitable way to thank her for helping him fake his death.

He’s also witnessed what a happy, enduring relationship looks like through John and Mary, and has no doubt picked up on a few of its merits while observing. Maybe it was enough to convince him that happiness is attainable in romantic companionship, not impossible like he believed before.

Together, these speak of a man beginning to look at life a bit differently than he has in the past, starting to place a value on things like life, love, and friendship instead of discarding them utterly. ...

I've spent far too much time thinking about this.

Does Sherlock love Irene? 

(Sherlock meta by mollymatterrs)

Q: [...] Do you honestly believe that [Sherlock] felt love for Irene Adler? Moffat himself said that the episode was about "Sherlock /and/ love, not Sherlock /in/ love". Do you equate the sexual implications and mental manipulations (complete lack of trust) between Sherlock and Irene to "love"? Lust, I can understand. But I'd like to know why you think he felt love, and in a "large dose" too. Is being attracted equal to feeling love?


A: [...] First off, I’ll answer this plainly: I don’t ship Sherlock/Irene. I do not think Sherlock loved Irene, and I don’t think Irene loved Sherlock. They found one another intriguing, and they were both attracted to one another, but it wasn’t anything deeper than that.

So, with that in mind, do I equate the sexual implications and mental manipulations between Sherlock and Irene as “love”?

Evidently not.

[...] Sherlock—up until ASiB—had gone through much of his adult life in a very machine-like way. Indeed, [...] You cannot deny that Irene had a major effect on Sherlock. To be honest though, that was the whole point wasn’t it? Irene’s sexual confidence was a vehicle for Sherlock to realize that he isn’t the robot he has tried to be. [...]

Take the first time we meet Sherlock in ASiP. He is oblivious to everything except the case he’s currently working on and his experiment. Molly distracts him with her invitation to coffee, but he doesn’t register the subtext behind it, and as such, he continues on his merry way.

In my opinion, Sherlock meeting Irene in Series 2 was a catalyst. Irene, whilst being similar to him in terms of intellect and the way in which they both use emotions for their own gain, is vastly different in other ways. The most prominent is that she is sexually confident and isn’t afraid to show emotion; unlike Sherlock who prefers to lock it all away, deeming it distracting. (Example: His “don’t make people into heroes” speech from The Great Game.)

As such, it’s always struck me as quite odd that Sherlock only wanted Irene’s phone at the end of the case. That phone—whilst being a callback to the canon of Doyle’s books—is also the symbol of who Irene is; that’s a fact that is made plain throughout the episode. Sherlock even says, “This is your heart”. So why, when he’s of the belief that she is dead, does he request the phone? It is, as he said, her heart. Does that mean that Sherlock wants Irene’s heart?

My thoughts? Not really. It’s like I said [before]. Sherlock recognizes that meeting Irene has had a great effect on him: in a way, it changed his outlook on love, sex and relationships. But you’re right. How can Irene’s encounters with Sherlock possibly be considered as “large doses”?

I guess what I [mean] by “large doses” is the fact that Sherlock’s—for want of a better term—‘awakening’ comes at the hands of a woman who is overly sexual and doesn’t apologize for it. Just look at the sequence where Sherlock and Irene ‘prepare’ themselves for battle. When the camera focuses on Sherlock, it’s logical. But when the camera focuses on Irene, the focus is on her femininity. One could make an argument that this is over-sexualising a female character on television yet again, but the way I see it is that we are actually being shown just how out of his depth Sherlock is. He is wading into a territory he doesn’t fully understand (yet). This is emphasized with Irene’s nude scene, where Sherlock fails to deduce her because she is so upfront (“There. Now we’ve both been defrocked”). Sherlock’s deductive skills rely on seeking out hidden information. By putting everything out there—literally and figuratively—Irene gains the advantage. She continues this throughout until the very end where her explicit nature becomes her undoing (“I am SHERlocked”). Unlike the game played between Sherlock and Moriarty, the games and the mental manipulations played by Irene aren’t to do with the mind—they’re to do with the physical. (“He did know where to look.”)

As such, and for a man like Sherlock who was previously ignorant about such things, I’m pretty sure that his attraction to Irene could be considered a “large dose” of previously unknown emotion.

The experience he has with Irene continues to be built on in another “large dose” of emotion with HoB; this time though, it’s fear. Now Sherlock—within what I can only assume is a matter of months—has experienced the pain and europhia that comes with experiencing such large doses of two potent emotions such as attraction and fear. For a man who has basically been a walking computer for much of his life, that’s a lot to take in. So he of course reverts to type to prove that he is… working properly, let’s say.

But that still doesn’t answer the question of why he asked for the phone—could it be that he doesn’t want it as a souvenir his triumph over Irene? Could it perhaps be that he wants it a way to remind him that emotions aren’t as restrictive as he previously believed?

And by realizing that, he is able to open up to people he might not have before. People like… Molly Hooper. When we first meet Molly, she’s the archetypal girl-with-a-crush type, but throughout the events of Series 2, that changes and she eventually becomes the woman who can deduce the great Sherlock Holmes. (“You look sad… when you think he can’t see you.”)

Now, I’ll say this [...]: I ship Sherlolly. [...]

That’s why I appreciate the character of Irene Adler and the effect she had on Sherlock. His encounters with her were a stepping stone for his humanity to come through. Couple that with the events of HoB, and the result is a man who, in a moment of emotional turmoil, went to a woman he trusted: Molly. He bared himself to her, and told her that he was afraid, that he doubted himself. (“Molly, I think I’m going to die. […] If I wasn’t everything that you think I am—everything that I think I am…”) In that scene, Sherlock shows real fear and worry. But what does Molly do? She still wants to help him, no questions asked. Some people might call her a doormat for doing so, some might call her naive. I personally believe it shows an almighty amount of strength.

[...] Although Sherlock didn’t love Irene, he was attracted to her, and because of that, she did (inadvertently) start him on the journey to becoming human enough to love others—both platonically and/or romantically.

Mycroft and Molly: The two most important people inside of Sherlock’s Mind Palace

 (Sherlock meta by doortotomorrow)

This would be a great time to talk about the two most important people inside of Sherlock’s Mind Palace and what they symbolize inside of Sherlock’s subconscious.

In the entirety of the Mind Palace sequence, Mycroft and Molly are the two most prominent people we see and Sherlock’s reaction to when they switch places is a great way to gauge what they mean to Sherlock.

When Molly is by his side, Sherlock is able to speak, he’s able to breathe easier, and he’s open and receptive to communication. He’s more in control of the situation, and just thinking about Molly has placed him in a more relaxed state meaning he can think through the problem easier.

However when Mycroft shows up, Sherlock completely shuts down. He’s not able to speak, his breathing becomes erratic, and now he’s back into panic mode. He’s not able to think the problem through rationally; he’s paralyzed.

So what does this mean? It means that Sherlock associates Molly with being in control and being in a relaxed state of mind. She represents safety, security, and in this situation, life. Molly is Sherlock’s lifesaver when he’s been thrown overboard.

And even though we know that Mycroft loves his bother regardless of what he says, the way Sherlock perceives him is the absolute opposite. Sherlock has always felt intimidated, inferior, and has felt like a failure in comparison to him so that’s exactly what Mycroft represents. He represents fear, failure, and ultimately death in this scene.

So what we have here is an epic battle between Mycroft and Molly for superiority. Molly and Mycroft are fighting for the key to Sherlock’s heart and ultimately in the end when Sherlock reaches the deepest recesses of his subconscious, the last word we hear him utter is “control”. In the end, Molly overthrows Mycroft and sends him packing as Sherlock’s brought out of the limbo between life and death.

We already know that Mycroft has been paramount in forming Sherlock as a person due to how he was treated when he was a child, so what does that make Molly then? The person who’s been helping him become a man, and that’s why she matters so much to Sherlock.

Whenever there’s a big leap in development concerning Sherlock’s character, Molly’s almost always there to start it. She’s the catalyst, and in the end, she has made a profound impact on Sherlock’s life if she’s been able to reach this far into his mind.

All hail the queen.

Is Irene Adler the only woman Sherlock will ever have romantic feelings for?

 (Sherlock meta by mollymatterrs)

Q:  [...] It is kind of obvious from season 2 that there may never be any romantic interest for Sherlock other than Irene Adler. In [ASiB] Sherlock ends the episode by saying ’ The Woman’ and then ‘THE Woman’ stressing on the ‘THE’ the second time. Do you think he is suggesting that she is the only woman he will ever have romantic feelings for?

A: Good question. [...] I think the end scene in ASiB can be interpreted in two ways. The first is that Sherlock has decided that he has experienced enough of love and relationships and has now filed the information away in his mind palace. (The brief reappearance of Irene in Sherlock’s mind palace during TSoT supports this theory.) The second however, is the interpretation I hold. When Sherlock refers to Irene as “The Woman”, I don’t believe he’s saying “this is the only woman I will ever have feelings for.” I actually think that’s his way of compartmentalizing her. Irene, with all of her feminine wiles and mystique and flirtatious nature, showed him that you can be clever and brilliant without sacrificing your capacity for either love or sexuality. I know he uses her tendency for sentiment to win one over on her in the end, but he did infiltrate a terrorist group to spare her from execution. What is that if not sentiment?

In my mind, Irene is “The Woman” in that she woke Sherlock up to the fact that you can indeed have the best of both worlds. (Which is a complete antithesis to Mycroft’s attitude which–as we were shown in series 3–he drove into Sherlock from a relatively young age.) Irene was, in essence, Sherlock’s first love. And you never forget your first love.

But that doesn’t mean they’ll always be your last too.

What Molly thought during that “love of your life” moment in TEH

 (Sherlock meta by mollymatterrs)

Is it just me who reads that “love of your life” moment in TEH completely differently to other Sherlollians? I mean, not in a bad way, I’m not saying anyone’s wrong, but I just don’t think it’s Sherlock realising Molly’s the love of his life, as I’ve seen some people claim. I actually think it’s the reverse. Look at this gif of the moment in question: Sherlock’s facial expression is pretty much him going “WTF?” because he’s still an idiot who can’t understand that, yes, ordinary human people can form relationships online and become heartbroken when said relationships are broken off. (Or perhaps he deduced what was wrong as soon as the client walked into the room, and was just giving a look to Molly of “I can’t believe I have to sit here and listen to this when it’s pretty damn clear it was her stepfather who is sitting right next to her.”)

What’s important though, to me, in that scene is the look on Molly’s face.

Wide eyes, noticeably quick, heavy breathing? That is not the look of an engaged, in love woman. It’s the look of a woman who has managed to convince herself that safe and domesticated (Tom) is what she wants. It’s the look of a woman who has just been hit with the realisation that Tom is not what she wants. What she wants is a self-declared sociopath who can break up a marriage with the simple use of seven words: Weight loss, hair dye, Botox; affair. Lawyer. before he easily skips onto the next case.

It’s the look of a woman who after two years is realising that she’s still in love—with the supposedly ‘wrong man’. The man who isn’t nice, isn’t soft, isn’t gentle nor domesticated. And, if I might give an educated guess as to what Molly’s thinking in that scene, I’d probably boil it down to one word:

Fuck. 

Because, I don’t know about anyone else, but for me, finding out I’m in love with another man when I’m engaged to be married, well… that would be a tad inconvenient.

TJLC and The Real World

 (A conversation about fandom between mid0nz, bookshop, 

pj-gingernuts and greyhairedgeekgirl)

mid0nz:

Fandom is not an escapist respite from the real world. Fandom is a microcosm of the real world. 

There are so many parallels between what’s happened in the Sherlock fandom in the last three years with what’s happened on the global political stage. The same discourses we’ve seen wielded so effectively by Trump, Farage and their ilk are afoot in much of the tin hat fandom. Dogma. Conspiracy. Zealotry. Insularity. Religiosity. Xenophobia. Cultishness. Anti-intellectualism.

First under their attack were the formally-trained intellectuals (acafans) then the writers/artists who thought differently, shipped differently. Then the straw men: “casuals.”

They used dog whistles, gaslighting, trolling, doxxing.

A ray of hope 

If we can shed some light, if we can understand what the hell happened with this conspiracy- how it got legs, why and how it grew, how it is that good people got caught up and STAYED caught up in it even after hearing the history (#notall)- we might gain some insight for how effectively to resist the discourse and the oppressive methodologies of the current regime.

bookshop:

This is exactly the point I made in my article on how shipping has increasingly turned into ideology. My article focuses on the thought processes that go into these ideologies, not the methods — the methods mentioned above are increasingly common tactics for every facet of internet discourse at this point — and how shippers have fundamental thought patterns that feed into the idea of their ship as a crusade which hold true regardless of what the pairing is, regardless of whether the ship fictional (e.g. johnlock) or RPF (e.g. larry).

TJLC is a hugely prominent example of this, but I have seen this pattern play out again and again in fandom after fandom: Fans pick an OTP, then a) create a discourse around that ship being a “true” or “canonical” ship, and then b) use that discourse as a reason to demonize an “other,” whether that “other” is an oppositional ship, or a subset of fans who are shippers but who aren’t invested in the ‘truther’ discourse. (It’s rarely an “other” that exists outside of fandom.)

And once these core ingredients are in place — the rationale for the belief that the ship is “true,” and the existence of an othered minority to attack — the toxicity begins and develops en masse, sanctioned by the unshakeable belief in the truth/canonical nature/rightness of the core belief.

In other words, it plays out exactly like crusaderism has played out for centuries.

mid0nz:

Ok so if this is an age old phenomenon in scores of fandoms WHY? Why does it happen? Why is the pattern similar or more or less the same? What is is about fandom, or shipping in particular that makes it ripe for this kind of situation? How do these crusades tend to end? Is there one or another kind of personality that’s likely to lead the charge? What do they gain? What are their weaknesses? What do their followers gain? Why do they attack the others? HOW do they attack the others? What of their strategies are effective and why? Why is there such an unshakable fetish for “truth”? What kinds of relationships do the crusaders have with the putative author (or showrunner)? What kinds of ships tend to be at the center? Is it conversation that spreads the “truth” of a ship? Meta? Fic? What are the hallmarks of a “convincing” argument for the “truth?” What are the similarities among the ships at the center of these storms? How is it that those who don’t believe in the truth of a ship BECOME the minority, or the perceived minority? HOW, IN SHORT, DO THESE CRUSADES FUNCTION? 

pj-gingernuts:

I can attest to the “identity” part of TJLC. While I was following TJLC I felt I was somehow better than those who didn’t know about it. Difference is I was able to entertain other readings and could let go of TJLC completely once I saw the rest of S4. I was also able to just focus on basic construction of the show instead of The Conspiracy. But then, I’m 42, from a different generation than most of TJLC people. I also don’t “engage” in the fandom much but read it like a magazine.

My theory about TJLC’s implosion has a lot to do with it being kids in their teens and early twenties who are searching. I wonder if exploring the connection of this fandom stuff, identity and social/emotional development for millennials and the like would yield some good insight. Delayed adolescence. That kind of thing.

And this is not to say that all TJLC followers are/were people who have not developed emotionally or are all young. But the ones who are sending hate, who are so tightly latched onto their ideology with the ship and the creators “owing” them something - that is identity development related. I can’t remember what it’s called in psychology but there is a name for people who come out of adolescence with an unexplored identity and I think latching onto TJLC may be a result of some of that need for identity.

greyhairedgeekgirl: 

I’m a lit major with an interest in comparative religion as well as comparative lit. I remember seeing the initial interest in “meta” and thinking “wow, there’s some really interesting critical analysis happening over there, isn’t it great how fandom sparks all kinds of thought and writing?”

And then I saw it turn into a cult. I could see the Prophets emerging, some dueling for primacy, others becoming Apostles. I could see the critical play with words and ideas and images becoming hardened, encoded, treated as fact. Treated as Revelation. There was a Revealed Message in a Shared Text, and there were those who claimed to be able to to interpret that message in the Right Way. There were Those who Believed and Would be Vindicated, and Those who Scoffed and Would Suffer.

It’s one of the things that has convinced me of the basic human trending towards religious behavior and thought, actually. As we become “post religious” in modern democracies, as attendance at the traditional houses of any worship decline precipitously, I’d expect to see more of this. More of this replacement of religion with cult-like behaviors around media, around sports, around political candidates. I think that the need for structures and formative narratives and group behaviors runs very, very deep in the human brain, to the point where these types of “movements” emerge.

The Final Problem: Making Sherlock Holmes a good man 

(Sherlock meta by fffinnagain, with reply by vulgarweed)

fffinnagain:

After The Lying Detective, I didn’t know what to expect for the last episode of series 4. John and Sherlock had reconciled on screen after hurting themselves and each other so deeply over the course of years. Mary had made her mark and worked herself out of the series. In two episodes, the main problems left by Series 3 had basically been resolved. What was left for the big finale?

With that trepidation in mind, I was honestly surprised by how much I enjoyed The Final Problem. It wasn’t easy to watch, but I found it powerful and convincing in ways that many others apparently did not. It tied up a lot of standing issues: the Moriarty business, from his initial interest in Sherlock to the last Miss Mes, the Why of Sherlock from series 1 onward, the Why of Mycroft and the broken Holmes Brothers’ relationship. It gave an emotional grounding to the fundamental contradiction of this Sherlock Holmes: a strongly empathic person trying to override sensitivity and compassion with extraordinary analytic ability that is (strangely) a source of great insecurity. As a closing chapter on the story of Sherlock’s progress from being a Great Man to a good one, I found it incredibly satisfying. The bizarre premise of a series of rooms on an island fortress was romantic and dramatic, but not out of style for a show that has featured delayed-action stabbings (TSOT), an un-convict-able super-villain (TRF), and a serial killer engaging in a battle of wits with every victim (ASIP).

Maybe I read too many fantasy stories about quests as a child, but I wasn’t bothered by the improbability of the plot, nor by the use of all non-protagonist characters to further this hero’s journey. This episode wasn’t about John, or Mycroft, or Molly, or even Eurus. However, their respective relationships with Sherlock have made him grow in different ways, and the sequence of crises forced on him by Eurus serve to prove how much he has changed, both to her and to himself. That the depiction of these tests put the audience (well, at least me) through the emotional wringer heightened (my) satisfaction and confidence in Sherlock’s transformation. In the moment, I didn’t care if the action did not make much sense; the why has always been more important than the how in BBC Sherlock.

Over the course of four series, Sherlock has gone from being a self-destructive solitary man-child to shouldering the responsibility of healing his own broken family, and that change in perspectives and priorities is huge. He is willing to learn from Eurus (rather than feel threatened by her abilities), to work for the sake of his parents and siblings (rather than push them away like a whiny teenager), and to care openly about his chosen family. Finally, Sherlock has the stability to treat strangers’ needs with respect and sympathy, as mature Holmes does the stories of ACD.

Besides capping the great progress of Sherlock Holmes, The Final Problem also moved me with the story of Eurus. There are plenty of stories about weirdly precocious children, but this was the first I’ve really appreciated about a younger sister, and it really hit home. Around the comic violence, Eurus is treated with sympathy, her struggle recognised and respected. This is helping me think very useful thoughts about my own familial relationships and that kind of impact is a hallmark of good art.

There was plenty more to enjoy in this episode (just as there was plenty to criticise) but a last point that mattered a lot to me was a big deviation from the usually crime-solving content of detective stories (or stories about detectives). Through the Holmes family’s history and present, we finally have a look at the consequences of violent crime and the criminal justice process on the families of the incarcerated. The temptation to forget, the importance of remembering, the intra- and inter-individual conflicts about engaging with loved ones who are or are deemed dangerous. The specifics were fanciful and not without their problems, but it’s an important change from having so many antagonists dismissed as unconditionally evil. T

he Holmes and Watson of ACD repeatedly weight the cost of arresting the guilty with consideration for their families, but on BBC Sherlock, the wrong doers tend to wind up dead or arrested without questions of fall out. We haven’t seen a real moral quandary on screen, and I hope that kind of story will pop up in some future independent story about our Baker Street Boys.

vulgarweed:

Beautiful. And yes, the description as “Love conquers all” was completely accurate. It did. It was about familial love. (Which, as Sherlock was quick and emphatic to state clearly, definitely includes John, and we can assume his daughter as well).

It’s not an easy love even for a more “normal” family, and Holmeses have rifts that can never fully heal smoothly. But I was moved to tears by Sherlock’s devotion to their violin duets - if it’s the only way to get through to her, the only connection they can safely have, it’s clearly important to him.

Could he so easily forgive her for killing his best friend so cruelly? Hard to say. What IS forgiveness exactly? Is it accepting what the other person did as OK? No, that’s not what it is.

This is, after all, a man who forgave his best friend’s wife for killing HIM (he didn’t stay dead long, of course, that does make a difference). Is that all just self-loathing, or does it indicate someone who’s learning to see sympathetic motives woven into the most unsympathetic acts?

I found a lot of things about Eurus stretched my suspension of disbelief even more than I’m used to on this show - but less so than on some other shows and movies I enjoy, so it wasn’t a dealbreaker.

I think it’s an episode that’s going to reward a lot of rewatches for me. I liked it better the second time than the first, and the third time more than the second.