Sherlolly is Canon. Always has been. 

 (Sherlock meta by mae-jones and with additional quotes by elennemigo)

mae-jones

Sherlolly is not canon because Sherlock admitted he loved Molly. Sherlolly canon doesn’t need for him to declare his love as romantic. Sherlolly is canon because it is unequivocally true that Molly loves Sherlock in a romantic way.

“Because it’s true, Sherlock. It’s always been true.” 

Now, we already know that Molly can read Sherlock. Much has been made of Molly being able to sense whether Sherlock meant what he said over the phone. We understand that Molly is a lie detector from John declaring it and previous seasons’ scenes like this one:

“You can see me.” 

Funny thing, even with the above scene and her declaration, WE still discount Molly’s love as proof of Sherlolly. We wrestle with the interpretation of Sherlock’s enunciation of it. We doubt her.

“… every time, always, always.” 

See, we need to give more credit to Molly and her feelings. She loves Sherlock. Love, true love, the kind of love that lasts for YEARS, does not exist in a vacuum. It cannot be sustained without some sort of reciprocation. The fact that Molly has loved Sherlock romantically all this time means that she sensed his capability for it and possibly his underlying, burgeoning feelings for her, even if she didn’t believe it in her conscious thoughts.

“But, a person can still love someone who doesn’t love them back!!!” You say.

Not Molly. Molly broke up with two different blokes because the love was not authentic. First, with Jim from IT (Moriarty) because she sensed his heart wasn’t in it and then with Tom. We learned from the recent script releases that originally Tom wanted space. Tom didn’t love Molly the way she needed, nor did Molly love Tom in the right way.

It’s absolutely canon that Molly can’t continue to love when the love isn’t the right kind of love. 

Molly doesn’t need for Sherlock to confirm his romantic love, neither do we. Molly’s love is the key. It always has been. Always, always. 

elennemigo:

May I add?

“Molly simply loves him… I don’t think it’s a stupid thing. I think, there’s something pure and beautiful about her love for him… We’ve seen more of his (Sherlock’s) vulnerabilities, and humanity, and I think Molly saw it from the start, and I think that’s one of the reasons why she cares for him.” 

“I think she unsettles him… I think there’s something about the, sort of, purity and simplicity, and, sort of, unconditional nature of her love, which he does see, ultimately. And there’s something about that doesn’t sit well with him. I dunno. Maybe it frightens him!…” 

“She can’t find happiness with someone else, because Sherlock is just in her blood…”

Loo Brealey - Masterpiece Studio Podcast

Pessimistic and realistic Sherlolly readings on the ILY scene

 (Sherlock meta by diane-w, eugeniebatch, bassfanimation and justaminion)

diane-w:

Molly didn’t ask him if he loved her. She already knew he did. She just wanted him to say it first.

eugeniebatch:

(I’m writing this as the pessimistic and realistic Sherlolly shipper I try to be) Indeed. She didn’t ask him: “Do you love me? Because if you do, I’ll say those words to you”. No. She knows he doesn’t love her. She always knew (or at least, she thought it). That’s why she asks him: “Say it like you mean it [because I know you don’t, but if you want to play with me, then I’ll play with you]”. HOWEVER, he didn’t need to say it TWICE! He said it twice just because he wanted to. And that’s a fact.

bassfanimation:

I can see this logic being absolutely real, but I still slightly disagree. I’m not entirely pessimistic, though I am still somewhat rooted in reality. I think my view is my brain trying desperately to see at least some sunshine in this world.

I think Molly said “Say it like you mean it”, because she knew he would just try and play it off like he didn’t mean it. That’s how closed off he is to the mere idea of love. He even stated it in The Lying Detective, right at the end, that whole “While romantic entanglements might be fulfilling for other people” bit. I still feel that was his whole rehearsed “bullshit” he’s fed himself, and everyone else, for years. That’s what Molly was prepared for…his act, his game. 

If Molly Hooper is the one who ‘sees through his bullshit’, then she probably has (and has had for a while, remembering The Empty Hearse) a sense that Sherlock does feel for her, but that he’d never, ever say it. It would always be something he wasn’t comfortable actually admitting or getting ‘entangled’ in. Her saying, “Say it like you mean it”, to me, was her saying to him, “We have had this thing together for so long, but you refuse to make it real, so I’m not playing with you anymore…you have this chance to make it real. Will you, or won’t you?”

I do think maybe Molly thought he might not say it and mean it. I think this was a gamble she took. He could have simply repeated it that one time and that would have been it, she’d have hung up, and they’d be damaged beyond repair. But…I do agree with your last line there, he not only said it once, but TWICE, when he didn’t really need to? Not unless he needed to say it again for himself. That last ILY was, as most people have noted, almost like a realization to himself rather than to Molly. Molly, I still think, already may have known Sherlock loved her. Her frustration with him though, of him never acting on it, that was really tearing them apart. To me, that was the actual ticking bomb…the one between Molly and Sherlock.

Truth is, we’ll never know. Both of these could be true, or hell, he may not have meant it at all. Unless Moffat gives us a real, concrete answer, we’ll always be left wondering, and Moffat never gives real, concrete answers to anything.

diane-w:

Since she sees through his BS, I do think she suspects he loves her, too, but he won’t admit it or accept it. I also get the impression (I know she was having a bad day but still) from her demeanor that even though he’ll always have her heart she is just about done with him. She was glaring at the phone before picking up. I think Eurus unintentionally did them both a favor.

justaminion:

It’s really fascinating because she does see through his BS but the exception is when it involves Molly herself (e.g I don’t count). I think she asked him to say it as a practical demonstration, because he didn’t understand why she couldn’t ‘just say it anyway.’ Which means she also must believe that he cares for her enough to feel uncomfortable saying it. But I don’t think she believes he loves her romantically, or even understands romantic love in the slightest.

bassfanimation:

Oh that’s a wonderful observation and it perfectly explains the whole back and forth with Sherlock asking why she can’t say it, and how he doesn’t even understand why she can’t. Also, just telling her to “say it anyway, if it’s true”…is the most Sherlocky thing in the world… He’s still thinking with logic to a degree, as if Molly saying that to him is just her stating a fact…but it isn’t. It’s so much more powerful than that. That is why the second time he says it, he seems to be surprised by his feelings, and why Eurus lost count of all of his ‘complicated’ emotions. That is why he freaked out and obliterated the coffin. That is why he slide down the wall, sitting looking as if he was just emotionally exhausted. He now suddenly understands the feeling Molly Hooper has had for 7 years because he is now feeling it himself. The pure, raw, complicated chemistry of love.

To only be focusing on Molly in the ILY scene is dismissive to Sherlock

 (Sherlock meta by theleftpill)

Q: One thing keeps bugging me though and I would really like to hear what people think. I've loved Sherlock's and Molly's dynamic since The Reichenbach Fall and I think that for some time she's had a deep appeal for him although he didn't really understand it. Although it was being further explored since TEH I never expected them to become a couple because it's not that kind of show. That is why I was a bit taken aback by the inclusion of the ILY scene and the way it was played.

Anyway, the sheer intensity of the ILY scene for both was so obvious, that even without the second ILY it seemes clear that the impact on him was just as strong, and even much stronger on some levels and that he's gone through something quite big and it's defenitely not just pity for her.

That's why it really confuses me that most of the press that I've read entirely centered on how it was difficult and painful for her, and why would they do that to her again and why not give hera resolution etc. It seems such a reductive reading and it saddens me that the reviews missed the beauty of that scene, because of what  happens to both of them. What happens to him.

It is in this light that I read Moffat's annoyance at everyone focusing on Molly, because what happened to Sherlock in there was also massive, and kind of doesn't get attention despite the marvellous acting. It sort of made me sad and I hope they got other feedback as well that sees so much more than "Poor Molly, he's just wrecked her again"

A: Hello anon! Thanks for your ask - can I just say that I love my anons??? Seriously. Y’all send me the best thoughts and questions and really get me thinking about the show which I am absolutely here for.

1. ILY is almost entirely about Sherlock; its purpose and reason in the story is Sherlock’s progression and growth, and any romance really is secondary. 
2. Even though ILY is really Sherlock’s Big Moment, people want to know all about Molly because she’s a great character and we just didn’t get enough of her. 

You’ve got two different topics going on here:

First is Sherlock (first is always Sherlock), and the idea that "I Love You" was a more important scene for him than for Molly. First let’s acknowledge that the show is about him so that’s going to be the focus always, and move on to more fun analysis.

I think “I Love You” was definitely more powerful and destructive for him than it was for Molly. Molly has been present and wrestling with these feelings for years. Literally. She has had time to process and consider and work things through. She’s already done the work. So while the moment was intensely difficult for her, she has a groundwork to support her.

Sherlock was hit like a freight train. He started the game knowing how difficult this would be for her; I don’t think he had any idea what it was going to do to him. You’re completely right that he didn’t understand what he feels for Molly. He has spent those same years denying, suppressing, not even being aware of his feelings for her. Think of all the times she has confronted him, think about the looks on his face:

He is always surprised. He is always surprised. Sherlock is always surprised by her reactions to him, and how they make him feel. He doesn’t know that those feelings are there, and it always throws him off. He hasn’t processed who she is to him, and that’s Eurus’ game: to make him confront those feelings. Molly is collateral damage to her - but not to Sherlock, as he’s realized for the first time.

Which is why we have the explosive scene with Sherlock destroying the coffin. He’s just had a bandaid ripped off that he didn’t even know he had; he’s been manipulated, exposed, just had to devastate one of his dearest friends, and through all that came to a realization he was absolutely not ready for. Shoot the wall, stab the files, karate chop the fridge: that coffin didn’t stand a chance. All those years of suppression and passion finally let go.

The second issue you raise concerns the audience, and our connection to the character of Molly. [...] I think people are focusing on her because she’s become a well-loved character. This was a huge moment for her. I mean it’s clear that the game is all about Sherlock’s progression, and ILY is a showcase scene for him - it’s the climax to act 2 [...] - but we have an emotional investment in Molly by this point of the show. Everyone else in the game so far have just been pawns, disposable physically and narratively - but we want to know what happened to Molly. Because she counts. She’s a dynamic, complex, and entertaining character. She has her own story being told that, while secondary to the narrative, connects very strongly with viewers. Molly is the one missing from the narrative, and we want to know what happened.

And it’s pretty much agreed, that regardless of shipping or romance, Molly was sorely underused in S4. I think it’s a testament to how important her character has become for the audience that people are left wondering how she reacted to the phone call, what her experience was, and how their relationship resolves, rather than “oh that poor sad woman well I guess that’s over ok what’s next?”

[...]

I can see your take on Moffat’s annoyance about the outcry about Molly, that he would have been frustrated about the audience missing the point of his big dramatic scene. But it’s true that something as big as ILY needs a resolution between those two characters, and this is a point where they dropped the ball. My own personal conspiracy is that S4 is two series mashed into one because they figure they won’t get to a S5 any time soon, so they crammed six episodes into three. I firmly believe she figured much more heavily in the story originally, but was sacrificed for time. It would be easy to say “oh they just don’t know what they have in Molly” but I think Mofftiss know exactly how important she is - I mean, they made her that way - but that’s where the TV stuff intrudes in these characters’ lives. There just wasn’t enough time to tell her story. (That’s our job.)

I also don’t believe, and I think you’ll agree with me, that Molly is “wrecked” from ILY. Besides the Happy Shot at the end, Molly has shown way more fortitude in her dealings with Sherlock, both emotional and Sherlockian, that I’m sure she had a good cry and a good rant and gave Sherlock a good piece of her mind when he got home, and I’m sure even without the Happy Shot that she’ll be fine. It’s Sherlock that ended up a mess from ILY.

I hope all this answers your query. I’d also like to hear others’ viewpoints on this - it’s a great question.

Janine does not know who Sherlock really is, but Molly does

 (Sherlock meta by iamazonian)

She kept saying that she’s the only one who knows who Sherlock really is (in 221B), or that she at least knows who Sherlock is (in the hospital, where she didn’t say “only one” but still carried that implication in her tone).

Excuse me, dear Janine, but you didn’t even know that your whole relationship with “Sherl” was a scam.

You can use the whole “blinded by sentiment” excuse, alright, but that just means that for the entirety of your acquaintance, you were blinded by sentiment and thus everything you know about him is not only sugar-coated but downright wrong. It was falsified, and you didn’t know. The version of ‘him’ that you know is not what he is. It’s so ridiculously simple.

If for your whole life, your brain has been registering salt as sugar because of some sort of malfunction in your taste buds, you cannot claim to know what salt is or what something being salty means when the time comes that your taste buds are corrected.

And for you to tell him that you’re the only one who knows who he is in front of his best friend, well you’re just downright flipping delusional.

Also, it’s funny, because I could’ve sworn someone was shown to be quite… experienced in the matter of seeing the real Sherlock even when he’s actively trying to hide what he’s feeling.

And that someone didn’t even think she counted.

I see the strength of Molly Hooper shine through even though she wasn’t in any Janine scenes in this episode. Because she possesses the gift of knowing who Sherlock Holmes is, through a combination of knowing him for years and working with him on a regular basis and loving him without expecting that he’ll love her back and being his friend who’d suffer through insults and deductions to help him without any sort of payment and basically just being there for him through the bad and the worse and the worst of times.

Because she doesn’t put herself on a pedestal even after Sherlock Holmes literally told her that she mattered the most.

Because even through everything she’s done for him, and everything that she can see in him that no one else can’t, she still doesn’t claim that she’s the one who knows Sherlock the most. Which, with the exception of Mycroft, may just prove to be true.

And I’m sorry, but I just can’t let that hospital scene go: You know that he’s not what you thought he was, and still you claim to know him? Who he really is?

And claim that you would have been friends, right after you’ve spread lies and rumors about him? I mean yes, he was a downright arsehole and he did 100% deserve that, but how do you show genuine friendship after you make money off of lies you’ve fabricated about a person?

I’m sorry again, but I happen to remember that a certain pathologist to whom he’s shown some of worst arseholery to, and over a prolonged period of time as well, puts him in his place without making a profit out of him. And still offers herself (“You can have me.”) even though she really believed he doesn’t consider her as a friend.

Forgive me if these are shipper goggles talking, or just probably common sense, but that’s what friendship and love (whether platonic or romantic) is. At least, to me.

Not freaking asking someone on his hospital bed why he didn’t initiate/encourage sex at least once with her before he broke it off.

No, darling, you weren’t disappointed that you didn’t become Sherlock’s friend. You were disappointed because you didn’t manage to get his dangly bits into you. You were disappointed because the illusion of a fairytale whirlwind romance was brought to a stop, and your belief that you were the person who’s conquered Sherlock Holmes’ mind and heart was shattered. It was your ego that was bruised. And that’s what you’re annoyed about.

Rewatching the "I don't count" scene

 (Sherlock meta by sherlocklock)

I was just watching Reichenbach and I, of course, came across the scene “I don’t count” and I had to pause for like 30 seconds to get my shit back together. Cause I think that Molly just says it offhand, like, “Of course I don’t count. It’s just a fact.” She’s not asking him to refute it, she just accepts it. And it just makes me so sad because even, in the face of that, she still extends her hand of friendship. She is willing to do anything for Sherlock without question, despite the fact that doing so puts her in horrible danger, and she doesn’t ask for anything in return. She just loves him and wants to help.

And while I think that Sherlock is probably incapable of having a relationship with anyone, romantically, if he were to be in a relationship, I think Molly would be the one because over the three seasons, she watches him and begins to understand and accept him. [...] I think that, other than John, Molly is one of the only people who truly loves Sherlock for who he is and doesn’t want him to change and wants the best for him and will throw herself in any position for him (including making herself be the bad guy when she slaps him in order to do what’s best for him).

So in conclusion, Molly is amazing and I love her.

Love is not a game

 (Sherlock meta by heart-knows-no-shame, cumbercougars and bassfanimation)

heart-knows-no-shame:

It’s been weeks and I’m just so struck by the fact that the whole theme of Sherlock throughout the years was…“The game is on!”. Sherlock using the distraction of his detective work as a substitute high, and honestly a way to keep himself at arms length from ‘humans’ and any emotional and/or romantic relationships of course.

And then there’s The Final Problem and in comes Eurus Holmes, setting up this game for Sherlock, and putting Molly Hooper’s life in danger, and during that call we get all this…

• Is this one of your stupid games? No, it’s not a game. 
• I’m not an experiment, Sherlock. No, I know you’re not an experiment, you’re my friend, we’re friends. 
• You know why. No, I don’t know why. 
• Because it’s true, Sherlock. It’s always been true. Well if it’s true then just say it anyway. 
• Say it like you mean it. I love you. I love you. 

He spends the whole phone call worried and pleading and as soon as it’s done he tries to shut all that off and get back to the game so he says…”Eurus, I won, I won…I won, I saved Molly Hooper.” 

But then you have Eurus coming back with that emotional context speech and being like, Haha nope, silly boy, you just lost, you proved yourself wrong, you have emotions, you do care. 

And the writers had Eurus use Molly Hooper against Sherlock, like this, to facilitate this exact epiphany, (disapproving everything he’s said over the years, that he’s not a hero, that he doesn’t have a heart) because Molly Hooper does count, she matters the most, he loves her, and love is not a game.

And  I just can’t get over how important that scene was [...] for Sherlock’s  entire arc of character development !

cumbercougars:

The “…if it’s true, say it anyway…” is even more poignant in repeated watchings because that’s when the penny drops with him. It makes my heart ache for both of them.

bassfanimation:

I still cant get over the fact that this scene essentially broke down Sherlock’s character into it’s purest, rawest form. A man finally letting himself love. For real. The game is over, his game with himself is over. This finally frees him from his own cold chains and he sees that the game never was fun, it was never who he was supposed to be. Molly saw that from the beginning…saw through his “bullshit”, his "game". Now everyone else knows Sherlock does have a heart…all thanks to Eurus Holmes and Molly Hooper, and of course everyone who loves Sherlock. But Molly was the key…the last door that unlocked that made it all possible. “You made it all possible.” “What do you need?” “You.”

A question about Molly and her 'bad day'

 (Sherlock meta by rosamund–mary, half-past-chaffinch and vulgarweed)

rosamund–mary: 

So when Sherlock calls Molly and she says she had a bad day what defines a bad day as a mortician ? Would it be having to do an autopsy on a child? ??? I’m really curious and would love to hear your thoughts!!

half-past-chaffinch:

I love this question! Thank you so much for posting it!

To answer your question: maybe you’re right…having to do a difficult autopsy would be tough. Or maybe (harkening back to TAB) she had to deal with some hospital administrator or some doctor being dismissive with her for some reason. Or something else going on with work or with her family (we know her dad died, but don’t know much or anything else)

But Molly’s comment about her “bad day” it is almost a throwaway line, and it’s one that usually gets passed over as folks jump to analyzing the “meat” of the scene. So that’s why I’m glad you brought it up.

In the world of Sherlock, everything by definition revolves around Sherlock. That’s what we see, that’s what the show presents. But in that scene, with that line, the show lets us know that Molly exists, on her own, as a whole functioning human being even when Sherlock isn’t in the room. She has her own highs and lows, unrelated to the Great Detective. She was having a bad day before her phone rang, before Sherlock entered into it. She had something else going on in her life, and her emotional life, unrelated to him.

Sure, maybe some will say she was upset because she’d heard about the Baker St explosion, and hadn’t heard from Sherlock since then, so she was upset. But that didn’t seem to be it. If she was worried about him, wouldn’t she have answered the phone when she saw it was him? Or at least registered some visible relief that we could see even if she acted annoyed to Sherlock? But she didn’t; she ignored his call the first time he rang, and only picked up when he rang again. So it seems her “bad day” * was completely unrelated to Sherlock and his drama.

And I love that we got that little hint, that indication of the fact that the Molly we see with Sherlock is just the tip of the iceberg of who Molly is; there is a whole other part of her existence that we never see. But that is still there out of sight.

And I also love that when we see her, upset from her bad day, she is taking care of herself: she’s in her lovely kitchen, making herself a cup of tea (with lots of oranges apparently…don’t go near that woman when she is armed with a sharp knife :D ). She is not wallowing, she is not being self-destructive. She is upset, but she is doing something nice for herself.

*oh and Molly saying she’s having a “bad day” is just one of several dozen little callbacks Mofftiss gave us to S1 and particularly to A Study in Pink. It recalls her (I think) very first line in the who show, when she asks Sherlock “Bad day, is it?” when she finds him flogging a corpse in her morgue.

vulgarweed:

I just figured she had a bad day like any other person might have a bad day. She had a fight at work. She had a family problem. She had a conflict with a friend. She’s out of spoons and weary and had bad transit luck. She got bad financial news. She’s been a little bit ill and didn’t sleep well. Her rent got raised. Her cat is sick. Who knows? it’s not relevant to the plot directly - but she is a human being who exists in her own right 24 hours a day, she’s not just an auxiliary (or, god forbid, a fucking “mirror” for some other character, omg is that line of thinking hateful to me) so she has bad days.

Not everything DOES revolve around Sherlock. Nor should it. Pay attention to the women characters in their own right, and you will see evidence of their own independent lives. Mrs Hudson is probably the strongest example of this, but Molly definitely has her own existence and her own agenda.

On the confession scene

 (Sherlock meta by berlynn-wohl, cumbercougars, marykk1990 and isabeau221b)

berlynn-wohl:

JOHN: Every time Mary left the room to take care of our baby, I was texting with another woman. SHERLOCK: Don’t sweat it, bro, that’s not really cheating...

cumbercougars:

Oh you who live such pure lives…

Both men know it is cheating. John is being consumed alive by the guilt of it, we just watched him beat Sherlock to a pulp because of it, while Sherlock was consumed by the guilt of Mary’s death. Sherlock is attempting to comfort John, to assuage his guilt a little as a good friend would. What would be the point of grinding him down even more at that point. John needs to move beyond his guilt into healthy grief so that he can then get better and be the father Rosie needs and deserves. A man eaten up by guilt who sees his dead wife’s phantom dissaprovibg everywhere he goes does not make a good dad.

marykk1990:

Thank you @cumbercougars, I’m sick of people raking John over the coals. He’s obviously devastated by what he did and he knows it was wrong. He’s sobbing in pure grief over cheating on Mary and over losing Mary. And what else is Sherlock supposed to do? He’s going to comfort and support his friend. (And no, that is not a Johnlock hug to all the Pushy Jlockers out there.) They both loved Mary. This is a scene where John admits his guilt and begins to redeem himself.

isabeau221b:

Oh, thank God, some sanity at last! Sorry, it’s just that I started to get offended that so many people could not even fathom a man comforting another man without throwing them in bed. This was such an important scene for the character development of both Sherlock and John, that has multiple valid interpretations. The problem isn’t those who ship them, but those who insisted there was only one meaning behind the hug.

Irene has been completely discounted

 (Sherlock meta by elenarider)

It’s not that people dislike her, and they’re certainly not upset with her for breaking up their ship — if anything, most people are like, “AAAAH I LOVE HER, SHE SHIPS JOHNLOCK YAY!” — but it’s like she’s been completely discounted. Because practically everyone ships Sherlock and John. And it’s not that I don’t ship Johnlock. Because I do. I don’t think that they ever have or ever will have sex or get married to each other (not that it doesn’t make me grin madly when they do in fic), but they are, as I’ve said before, soulmates, and the love between them, platonic though it may be, is undeniably strong. But there’s no room in almost anybody’s head to think that Sherlock could possibly ever be attracted to anyone else. Like it or not, there is attraction between Sherlock and Irene, for their minds if not for their bodies.

It’s rather obvious that Irene loved Sherlock, since that was the entire point toward the end. I hate it that some people say that she’s weak and that her portrayal is sexist because of it though. Firstly, they say that she’s sexualized, but that’s part of modernizing the scandal. It’s hardly enough these days for her to just have one photograph of her standing with a male monarch. And yes, she showed up naked and she uses sex to get what she wants, but I don’t see how either of those are sexist. If anything, they’re empowering to women, especially since she’s not the typical ideal of beauty but is still so comfortable with herself. And there are male characters in the media that sleep around to get what they want, and they’re not called sluts for it, but that’s another story entirely. To get back on track, people also say that because she feels more deeply than Sherlock, it’s reinforcing the stereotype that women are more emotional than men. I don’t think that’s true at all. After all, Sherlock felt something too. It’s less defined, but it was definitely there. He was a little heartbroken when he thought she was dead. He definitely wasn’t getting over her death very quickly anyway. Even Mycroft could tell: “the promise of love, the pain of loss, etc.” He knew that Sherlock had developed feelings for Irene and that she used them. However, in the end, she ends up losing because of her own feelings. But is that really such a bad thing, to be able to feel sentiment? Moffat says in the commentary that the intention was for the viewer to start that scene hating Irene, but end it hating Sherlock because he really was cruel to her there. Obviously, she’d started it, but his revenge was still absolutely brutal. And it’s extremely hypocritical to say that Irene is weaker than Sherlock for loving him, but then say that Sherlock is stronger than Moriarty despite, or because of, his love for John. Plus, a recurring theme for Sherlock throughout all the episodes is for him to become almost mechanical and lash out when he’s at a low point, like a man cornered. When he was afraid at Baskerville, we got him telling John that he doesn’t have friends. When he was about to fake his death at Bart’s, he said that alone protects him. And here, he cuts down Irene. Sherlock’s “power” or “strength” in this situation is not that he doesn’t feel, but that he can act like he doesn’t feel, that he can turn it off when he chooses. Because, once again, he does feel something for Irene. Even after the excitement of the game, there was still that feeling between them. She texted him her last goodbyes before she thought she was going to die, and he went all the way to Karachi to save her life and help her escape for good. And then he asks, he pleads, for her camera phone from John to keep as a reminder of her. And I like to think that, tucked away with it in some drawer, is a hand-written violin piece titled, “The Woman”. Because Mycroft was right in the end: Irene is, to Sherlock, one of a kind, the one woman who matters. That’s not a discredit to Molly Hooper because Molly is a very, very good friend that Sherlock recognized in the end, but only Irene did he ever see as a woman.

His Blind Spot

 (Sherlock meta by sherlocklock)

Molly Hooper is so lovely. And I just want to make one little meta.

I think Molly Hooper is Sherlock’s blind spot. There have probably been metas about this before, but in A Scandal in Belgravia, John obviously knew that the gift was for Sherlock but HE didn’t know until he saw the package. She was obviously dressing up for him and smiling at him and staring at him when he wasn’t looking at her, but he didn’t notice any of that despite the fact that it is painfully obvious to the audience.

The same thing happens in The Final Problem. For heaven’s sake, I knew immediately that Molly couldn’t say it because it was true. But Sherlock had no idea. I mean, sure he was frazzled during the phone call which could have impeded his brain but that didn’t seem to shake him up before when deducing other cases, both in The Great Game and in The Final Problem. There was a clock. He should have deduced her and hurried on with it.

And I think it’s because he loves her in a way that’s foreign to him. That’s totally shipper’s bias, but I still think it’s a pretty damn good theory. He has such a hard time saying 'I love you' and I read a post earlier when I was half glancing at tumblr trying to figure out if my lovely girl died, but this post said it and I think it was right: time was of the essence, he should have just blurted it. And he only had to say it once. He had a hard time saying it, but when he did, he repeated it like he was in a daze. Like all of a sudden, he understood.

And I feel like it’s an epiphany. Like all of a sudden, he kind of understands this romantic love and what he feels. That love drives him to beat up a coffin in pain. Nothing else before that seems to faze him like that. She was never in real danger. She didn’t die. Yet he is completely shaken and can barely move on. “Soldiers.” After all this, he isn’t a machine. And this allows him to turn the gun on himself and empathize with Eurus, which allows him to save her and John.

Geez, it’s just so brilliant. That emotion was the thing that helped in this episode. I cried eight times.

(And I tried to leave this fandom because it was too stressful, but who was I kidding? This show is the reason I breathe.)

This scene is not an example of Sherlock’s manipulative nature

 (Sherlock meta by svartalfhild)

Okay, okay, so I just have some feels about this scene that I need to get out.

Everyone always cites this as an example of Sherlock’s manipulative nature and his mistreatment of Molly. Basically, people remember him as being an ass here. I don’t see it that way.

Sherlock could have taken a totally different route to get what he wanted. He could have intimidated and insulted her until she complied just to get him out of her hair, but he didn’t. He greets her with a joke, which is quite unnecessary to his purpose (he could have asked to see the bodies straight away, but he didn’t), indicating that he was probably just being friendly *ooh shocker*.

Yes, Sherlock Holmes is capable of being friendly in a non-manipulative manner. After all, he jokes freely with John on-screen more than once because John is his best friend. What about Molly, though? Are they friends? He’s known Molly longer than John and we know from The Reichenbach Fall that he’s always trusted her. We know from A Scandal in Belgravia that he complains/talks to her about things in his life. In The Great, he answers Molly with bright enthusiasm when she cheerfully enters the lab and asks how things are going. He shows concern for her in his own misguided way by telling her about Jim. Conclusion: Sherlock and Molly are good friends and have been probably long before the start of A Study in Pink; he was being friendly in the same way he is with John.

The way he handles Molly here is more of a testament to that fact that she counts than a display of insensitivity on his part. Like I said, he could have torn her down like he does with so many others, but he doesn’t. He uses far gentler methods. By his standards, he’s being quite lovely. I don’t see how that could mean anything but that she matters to him. This scene is not as cold and calculated as a lot of people seem to think.

"I think she liked me" (I was so alone and I owe you so much)

 (Sherlock meta by likes-timelords)

The “I think she liked me” line has been destroying me a little bit every time it shows up. Because some people have been reading it as “I think she liked me, wink wink, nudge nudge, I’ve called her here so we can bang.”

But looking at her this way as a mirror for John, the way it seems she was intended, makes it hurt. Because here’s this person Sherlock thinks he can save in an evening, the way he saved John when they first met. He’s reminded of John, this person he loves dearly (however we want to read the word “love”), who is currently not speaking to him; who has basically told him to fuck off and leave him alone. Sherlock, who has reached the lowest of lows and feels so alone that he, only a few minutes later, believes he hallucinated the entire thing to give himself some company.

“I think she liked me” is him, for a second, thinking he’s met someone who liked him while he was at his lowest point within our canonical memory. He was rude, abrasive, and ultimately himself with this woman–and yet she called him “nice.” She appealed to his emotions. At a time when he’s desperate to fix John Watson and get back the man he knew, here was this mirror who showed up on his doorstep begging him to help her.

And then she liked him.

This poor, sweet, emotional idiot really just wants anyone to like him right now, because the one person he truly loves (again, read that how you want to) has outright stated that he’d literally prefer anyone else.

“I think she liked me.”

Does Sherlock realize he loves Molly in the ILY scene?

 (A Sherlock meta conversation between m1crobr3w, Iheartmyshoes and flor12186) 

m1crobr3w:

 I say yes. I think he realizes it the second time he says it.

But moreso, we've been told in various ways since as early as Scandal in Belgravia, that Molly is the only person who sees through Sherlock's bullshit. John even says it in The Lying Detective. Sherlock says it in The Reichenbach Fall. So that first time Sherlock says "I love you", we can tell it's forced, and so can Molly. Look at her incredulous smile after he says it. But then, he says it again, and his tone and facial expression say he just figured something out. He just figured out that it's true. So he says it again, and now Molly knows he's not lying...so she says it back.

If it wasn't true, she would know, and she wouldn't have said it back. We know from other episodes that Molly is no longer afraid to stand up to Sherlock, to call him out when he's being a bastard.

One last thing. John is in danger, Sherlock is calm and collected. Mycroft in danger, Sherlock is calm and collected. Mrs. Hudson in danger, Sherlock is calm and collected. Always calculating, always thinking, always acting with a purpose, even though we may not see it or understand it. There's only one time this entire show when Sherlock Holmes completely LOSES. HIS. SHIT. And that time is when he smashes that coffin. Because of Molly. Sorry, but you can't tell me that there isn't a strong emotional connection there, of a type he's not really experienced before.

Iheartmyshoes:

Yes...that's true too! You're absolutely right. The only time Sherlock loses it is what happened with Molly. Even Cumberbatch said that in the interview. Holy cannoli you guys on this thread are good at deductions!

flor12186:

Benedict and Loo played the scene like he does love her. Moffat says no, but he's a fan of turning secondary characters into props to show off his hero's brilliance and/or tortured soul. I'm used to ignoring what he says in interviews.

Eurus certainly thinks he loves her. Consider this point that I saw on tumblr earlier today: When you die, it's not you who decides what to put on your grave (or in this case, coffin). It's the grieving friends and family left behind. So when this poor, practical, 5'4 woman with no family dies, who is it that has the 'I Love You' engraved on her coffin? 

Also, the Woman couldn't make Sherlock beg. Molly did, and neither one made him say "I love you" twice, he did that on his own.

Iheartmyshoes:

That's very true flor12186. I never thought of that. The engraving of I love you on the coffin would have been put there not by Molly, but by someone else...so Eurus does think Sherlock loves her. That's a genius deduction!

Your life is not your own. Keep your hands off it. 

 (Sherlock meta by ablack-reblogs)

Taking your own life. Interesting expression, taking it from who? Once it’s over, it’s not you who’ll miss it. Your own death is something that happens to everybody else. Your life is not your own. Keep your hands off it. 

As a person with depression who is constantly grappling my worth in the world - whether suicide would make the lives of those around me easier - this was such an important bit of the episode. Hearing Sherlock Holmes, a character I truly admire in every single way, speak and address suicide (suicidal tendencies) was phenomenally powerful.

He makes it clear that taking one’s life is not a proper resolution. Sherlock, a man who is a threat to himself, is the embodiment of every suicidal person in the world. He would quickly let himself die in any of his crazy stunts, studies, or cases - knowing that it could happen, maybe even hoping for it occasionally. But he would never let another person commit suicide, which he proves by telling her to pay with the gun in her purse.

We know he’s genuine about stopping this woman from killing herself simply because he has no idea that it’s a hoax - that this is just a moment within a larger game. At the time he wants to help her solve a case but also save her from herself. She liked him, and that surprises him later, but he had to care first.

Sherlock had to care about her well-being before she could like him, before she could keep him company. That’s how it was in his mind. Sherlock cares so much more than he gets credit for most of the time. Mrs. Hudson tells us that this season - “it’s more emotional than that.”

I cried watching these small moments. As someone who wants to write and get into screenwriting eventually, this felt like a specific message to the audience. It felt personal. In that 90 minutes I was watching, those scenes captured me and felt directed at me.

I felt represented and noticed. And that is so important to have that, especially with mental illness. It wasn’t profound or overbearing but it was there and it matters.

It matters so much.

Blaming Mycroft, blaming the parents...

(Sherlock meta by bbcsassdeadass, anarfea, mollymatterrs, 

introspectivenavelgazer, strawberrypatty and nctanthcaarchive)

bbcsassdeadass: 

This. This made me so angry because she’s blaming him again. She is blaming a poor kid that tried to make everything better for his God damn family and all he gets is this response. Like do you think about what age he was when shit started? When Euros killed Redbeard and he had to comfort and change his brother’s memory. Can you imagine how guilty he felt? Do you think about how stressed this man is about everything and the fact that he is raising your God damn children and makes sure that Euros gets what she wants? Where were you when Sherlock was using drugs? Why aren’t you making a list? Where were you when he searched for his little brother? Do you think about the fact that he is always wearing that gun-sword-umbrella because he is always in a defensive mood because when he took the job he knew the risks it involved? So no lady, he shouldn’t have "done better". You should’ve raised your children. You should’ve done better. You should’ve thought about the brother that raised your other children when you weren’t there.

anarfea:

And this is why Mycroft has a file …..

mollymatterrs:

I feel inclined to remind people that Mycroft continued what their Uncle Rudy had started, that it’s implied Eurus was taken away from the family against their wishes, that Mycroft explicitly told his parents that Eurus was dead, burned in a fire, that Mummy Holmes didn’t have the resources Mycroft has had, and she was just moments earlier told that all of that was a lie and her daughter had actually been alive for years, kept as a prisoner.

She’s mother, who has just learned her daughter’s been locked away and grown up without her in a remote island prison. How do you think she’d react?

“I’m so sorry Mycroft, that you purposely took on this burden and didn’t involve us, didn’t allow us to make the choice when it came to our own child.”

This is a broken family, for lots of reasons, and I am so angry that people are shafting the parents to bolster Mycroft. They made mistakes, Uncle Rudy made mistakes but, hell, let the men suffer concequences too. 

introspectivenavelgazer:

It’s more interesting that he messed up by not telling his parents. Like his attempt to protect backfired SPECTACULARLY.

strawberrypatty:

I feel the need to also mention: Mycroft encouraging Sherlock’s memory suppression is NOT a good thing. Sherlock has had childhood trauma that had impacted his ability to form relationships and most likely contributed to his drug abuse. Repressing that doesn’t make it go away, it just buries it. Mycroft has good intentions, but he does do things he shouldn’t. Sherlock should’ve been able to heal from his problems. Eurus should’ve had human interaction other than solving things for the government.

We know very little about the Holmes family dynamic, but we do know there are three children who from a very young age thought they were smarter than their parents. Uncle Rudy (who I’m guessing is very much like the Holmes children) also thought he was smarter. People made decisions for Mr and Mrs Holmes about the way their children should’ve been raised.

nctanthcaarchive:

[...] This is not okay. As an older sibling myself I can empathize with Mycroft so much. This is not fair to him in the slightest. Also his Uncle is the one that helped him with Eurus. Why is darling Uncle Rudy not in trouble as well?

Mycroft has done everything in his power, practically his whole life, to protect his family. No one, NO ONE, is more dedicated to watching out for them than Mycroft Holmes. So don’t you dare tell him that he could have done better. You are the parent. You could have done better.

I do realize she didn’t know her daughter was alive but even for Sherlock it doesn’t seem as if she has done much to help him since he moved out. She just expects Mycroft to do everything. I understand the fact that parents have to let their children make their own life choices. But you can’t decide that and then decide that it is your other child’s fault for not interfering with his sibling’s downward spiral.

Why didn’t Sherlock see the glass? 

 (Sherlock meta by sherlock-addict)

There’s been a lot of bantering about how it could be possible that Sherlock didn’t notice there was no glass in Eurus’ cell, so I thought I’d have to try to explain this fact to you.

Have you ever been really stressed? Do you know what happens to your brain when you are confronted with a really stressful situation?

Your cognitive abilities shrink, your vision field is limited to the point in which you can get your vision tunneled.

All your senses can become tunneled when you are stressed. For vision, it means your visual attention can be focused on one small geographic area of an emergency scene or one task being performed at a scene and you miss seeing things in your periphery.

When you are suffering from tunneled senses your situational awareness is vulnerable because you are likely to miss important clues and cues.

No wonder, even for such an observant person as Sherlock, that in those extremely stressful circumcstances - seeing his long forgotten, psychopatic sister, after he heard (and ignored) “vatican cameos” from John, he lost his usual abilities to see details, he was doing his best but it was his humanity, normal physiological and emotional reactions that didn’t allow him to use his brain to its fullest, as usual.

I am really not surprised Sherlock didn’t see there was nothing to see.

When Mary says "Who you really are doesn't matter"

 (Sherlock meta by Ivy Blossom)

Q: [...] How do you read Mary's presiding over the last minutes of The Final Problem in that context, saying that who Sherlock and John 'really' are doesn't matter and only their adventures do...?

A: This is how I read the sort of unfortunately-worded “it doesn’t matter who you really are” line:

The theme of Sherlock as an entire four series arc is that Sherlock both is and isn’t what he says he is. He isn’t a sociopath, but he is a brilliant consulting detective who solves crimes for fun. Sherlock’s actual self, the one he himself didn’t entirely understand until the end, is not what the legend suggests that he is, but that doesn’t matter. Sherlock is actually a loving and sweet man, deeply and probably permanently traumatized by the events of his childhood. His greatness isn’t impaired by the fact that he’s the product of tragedy, that his desire to solve puzzles and crimes is a psychological wound that he picks at and worries endlessly, or that he can see through others but couldn’t see into himself. That’s not something he’s going to show off to the world, and not really something he wants people to know. That’s private, and that’s okay. He’s allowed his privacy. His greatness and his legend isn’t impaired by the fact that it’s a little bit fake. Because it’s fake in a way that is still actually true.

And we learned in this series that the same is true for John. He too isn’t what he appears to be. He’s a war hero, a moral compass, the angel on Sherlock’s shoulder, but he is capable of great cruelty, betrayal, and violence. Like Sherlock, John is permanently broken. To Sherlock, he is a conductor of light, the person who leads him to do the right thing. John is capable of profoundly failing on the moral front, but again, it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t detract from what he’s capable of. He still is what he is, he conducts light all the same. In spite of the failures that demonstrate how much John is as much of a fake as Sherlock is, it’s him who transforms Sherlock into a good man he is capable of being, and it’s John who brings him peace. Even mired in the depths of his faults, John makes Sherlock better.

I’m not bothered by Mary narrating this, personally. Here’s what: a final narration can’t be John, and it can’t be Sherlock. It’s about them, not about just Sherlock, and that needs to be one step removed. It can’t be a conversation between them, either. I feel like we got the last of the frank conversations between Sherlock and John in The Lying Detective, and every other intimate conversation they have is going to be behind closed doors.

Someone had to narrate it. It’s an echo of Mycroft’s narration of what might become of them at the end of A Study in Pink. I suppose it could have been Mycroft again at the end. Mary threw herself into a bullet; I guess that final narration helps explain why she did that, why John being with Sherlock was so important. It’s because the legend is the two of them in a scruffy flat, ready to help the desperate, the unloved, the persecuted, now and always. She saw that, and she helps them to see that. And so they are.

John's talk with Sherlock in The Lying Detective

 (Sherlock meta by Ivy Blossom)

Q: You've said that John's marriage is 'heading down a pretty dark path' and disintegrating in TST, and sometimes he's probably even hated her. So firstly, was his talk with Sherlock in TLD actually meant to suggest he wishes he could've saved the marriage and genuinely wants Sherlock to be in a relationship with someone else?

A: John’s talk with Sherlock was about John’s own failures. It’s odd to me to look at it as “wishing he could’ve saved the marriage”, because John’s not exactly talking about his marriage. He’s talking about how he failed to be the person he hoped he would be, the one everyone assumes he is. I mean, he wishes he had been a faithful, trusting and loving husband, is that “saving the marriage”? I suppose it is. He hadn’t ended his marriage though. John knew what he was doing to Mary and hated himself for it.

At this point John won’t ever know what would have happened if Mary hadn’t died. Would he have confessed his sins, been more honest, found his way back to loving her, saved his marriage? Perhaps he believes that he would have continued to betray and hurt her instead. That must be how he sees himself; he has grown terrible and cannot recover. With Mary dead, it seems he doesn’t have a chance to.

Does John genuinely want Sherlock to be in a relationship with someone else? In that moment, yes. He certainly does.

At a couple of points in The Lying Detective, John turns his back on his life with Sherlock; he says goodbye when he leaves the cane in Sherlock’s hospital room, and I’m 100% sure that was meant to be a final goodbye. When John is waiting with Sherlock in 221b for Molly to arrive, he nearly leaves 20 minutes early. Those 20 minutes, I think, are pretty critical. They represent a major life decision: either he’s in Sherlock’s life with both feet, or he’s essentially out. He tries to leave early, he tries to bail entirely. He’s resigning from the role of Sherlock’s one true companion for a second time in the episode.

John doesn’t leave Sherlock because he doesn’t love him or doesn’t want to go on adventures with him. He does it because he’s painfully aware of what a terrible partner and companion he actually is. John’s seeming rejection of Sherlock are expressions his own self-loathing and self-punishment.

When John tells Sherlock to find someone who makes him want to be better, he is, as we well know, describing his own impact on Sherlock’s life. But John has lost faith in his ability to be that person. So he wants Sherlock to find himself someone who is actually good enough.

But John is good enough. It doesn’t matter that he has the capacity to fail so spectacularly. It’s allowed. He is exactly what Sherlock needs, not in spite of, but with his flaws. He’s not the perfect moral compass and hero that he wants to be, and that everyone expects him to be, but it doesn’t matter. He still is what he is; Sherlock’s perfect partner.

John doesn’t leave 20 minutes early. Instead, he stays with Sherlock well past that. And as we see in The Final Problem, John is back in his role, not just as a trusted companion, but as family. And he has happily accepted that.

Eurus and John 

 (Sherlock meta by Ivy Blossom)

One of my lingering questions about S4 is about Eurus’ texting affair with John. Why did she do it? We aren’t given any answers, so we can only extrapolate.

What we know is that Eurus has been gearing up to meet Sherlock for quite some time. We also know that she has a history of getting rid of whoever is closest to Sherlock. It would make sense for John to become Eurus’ new target. Is he?

What did Eurus intend to happen when she gave John her number? Was she aiming for a texting-only relationship that could be conducted from Sherrinford as easily as from a bus stop in London? Or did John just fail to entirely take the bait?

Eurus is trying to seduce John, and from the sounds of it, sex with Eurus is violent and ends in death. If John had given in, would Eurus have killed him and given Sherlock a rhyme to help him find his remains? Or would she just have put him in that same well (as she finally does in The Final Problem?)

Or did Eurus intend for John’s text-only cheating to destroy him from the inside out, slowly erroding his sense of self-worth, until he’s convinced that he can’t be Sherlock’s trusted companion anymore? Is John’s pain in The Lying Detective the adult version of leaving a boy to die in a well, forcing Sherlock pull out all the stops to try and save him? That seems like a stretch, but Eurus has demonstrably set stranger events into action before, and that is in fact what happens.

It certainly lets John off the hook for his bad behaviour. Does John’s actions trouble him so badly because it actually is out of character and against his nature, but he couldn’t stop himself for reasons he doesn’t understand? The story gives us information from which we can surmise that this could easily have happened, but the story doesn’t confirm it. John’s relationship with Mary was in trouble, so his behaviour can be reasonably, if distastefully, explained in an alternate way. But the circle is never squared, and a finger is never directly pointed Eurus’ way for this, so it’s hard to say definitively.

“Oh, have you had sex?”

 (Sherlock meta by notagarroter, addignisherlock and mirajani)

notagarroter:

So some people are reading this as Eurus deducing from Sherlock’s playing (of Irene Adler’s theme) that’s he’s had sex. Which is a very plausible reading.

But I think it can also be interpreted in the opposite way.

We (the viewers) have heard a lot about Sherlock “the virgin” who “wouldn’t know” about sex, so we think it’s self-evident that he’s virginal, and it would be surprising if he weren’t.

But Eurus hasn’t been around for all that. To her, he’s just a 40 year old man who has *not* been raised in an institution. It would be natural to assume he has had sex at some point. So quite possibly her deduction based on his playing is that he *hasn’t* had sex, and that’s why she asks the question.

addignisherlock:

That’s what I thought too tbh, the way she asked the question it’s just…. To me it sounds similar to when you ask a 20 year old “have you ever ridden a bike” as a more polite version than “have you never ridden a bike” (because this version contains negative word “never” and therefore seems more rude and condescending) coz you just sort of assume that everyone learnt to ride a bike during childhood and that not being able to ride a bike as an adult is generally perceived as embarrassing or incompetent. And I feel like the tone in which Eurus asked the question is similar to this, except it’s about sex instead of cycling.

mirajani:

Maybe she felt his playing lacked passion, the kind that could be released by expressing oneself sexually.

Two completely different opinions regarding John's OOC 

in The Lying Detective

 (Sherlock meta by thanangst and thecutteralicia)

thanangst:

[...] S4 raises a thousand unanswered questions, unless you just dismiss common sense and six years of character development. I have one burning question which was NOT explained, unless one thinks character assassination is a good idea: WAS THE BEATING AND KICKING JOHN GAVE SHERLOCK REAL? OR A DRUGGED DELUSION? If John truly beat Sherlock bloody like that, unreasonably believing that Sherlock was responsible for Mary’s death, then his character is totally OOC and in direct opposition to the John we were shown prior to S4. Flooring Sherlock in The Empty Hearse was *nothing* next to John’s insane rage in the morgue scene, and by his actions he would be adjudged an ABUSER. Seriously? John Watson? Is that what Moftiss think of John?

thecutteralicia:

[...] It’s your opinion that John hitting Sherlock is out of character. It is not to me. John is a soldier and an adrenaline junkie. He previously punched Sherlock for a case and then was high on adrenaline he couldn’t stop (A Scandal in Belgravia). And that’s when he was healthy and happy! In The Lying Detective, John was pushed to the brink. He wasn’t sleeping and was drinking. He was depressed and grief-stricken. He was already angry about Sherlock’s drug abuse back in His Last Vow and The Abominable Bride and here it continued and got even worse. Now John, already at the edge, saw a deranged and high Sherlock attempt to kill another baddie after having seen Sherlock shoot another person in the head already. John broke. Was it pretty? No. It wasn’t meant to be. We were meant to see two characters who love each other be - at their lowest points - cruel and awful to each other.

The reason I like this version of John Watson above all others is because of the fact he’s complicated. He’s not warm and fuzzy despite the fandom portrayal of him. He’s always been capable and loyal and haunted and quick-tempered. The things going around fandom now about it being an “abusive relationship,” GTFO with that. Seriously. That is an offense to all domestic violence victims.

Why I think Eurus knew that Sherlock was in love with Molly

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

I think we can all agree on the fact that Eurus had no interest in hearing Molly Hooper say the words ‘I love you’.

She wanted Sherlock to say it. Like Mycroft says: ‘This is all about you. Everything here’. She went as far as engraving the words on the coffin, placed artfully in the middle of the wall for all to see. Like the title at the top of a music sheet. Not so dumb an image. In that room, I felt that she played Sherlock like she would an instrument (the countdown set up the pace of her musical composition and, like a true conductor, she would be in charge of the tone of the piece ”Softer, Sherlock”).

But I digress. As I said, the lid of the coffin is a dramatic way of announcing what was to come. This was more than an I Love You scene. This was The I Love You Test.

Sherlock’s test.

Now. And this is where it gets quite good.

If hurting both Sherlock and Molly by making her believe that he was in love with her but actually wasn’t was the purpose, Eurus could have just urged him to say the words to save her life by changing the deal to:

Molly must say ‘I love you too’.

In fact, that would have been ideal. Sherlock would have been horrified at the prospect. Perhaps once and for all associating love with destruction and it being the ultimate emotional manipulation. He would have said 'I love you', we know he would have. He would have done anything to save her, as we all witnessed.

Three possible outcomes:

1. He says it and doesn’t mean it: Molly is happy and says the words back. She’s saved. But Sherlock loses her forever in the aftermath. 
2. He says it and doesn’t mean it. Molly doesn’t believe him and therefore doesn’t say it back. More likely since she can see ‘through his bullshit’. As we know, there was no bomb. She is still saved. But Sherlock loses her forever in the aftermath. 
3. He says it and means it and Molly says it back. They live happily ever after and have plenty of babies.

Actually, I’m fine with option 3.

But no.

Eurus didn’t do it like that. She sees things ´beyond the scope’. She knew Molly would want Sherlock to say it first. Say it like he means it. As many of you noticed, Eurus aka The Therapist heard John mention that Molly would be able to tell. Eurus doesn’t understand love, or what it looks like. Unlike Molly, I am personally unaware if she is able to see through Sherlock’s acting skills at first glance.

Choosing Molly is a smart choice.

Not only because I truly believe Eurus suspects she is Sherlock’s hidden heart, his overlooked pressure point, but also because Molly would be the only one able to confirm if yes or no, he really meant it. Or at the very least sounded like he did. Molly Hooper is Eurus’ very own living and breathing lie-detector. Perfect to confirm her suspicions. If the cameras have been there for a while, she probably witnessed Sherlock coming in and out of Molly’s house and take her bed. That enigmatic out-of-the-blue anecdote finally makes sense if you see it that way. She suspects that Sherlock is in love with Molly Hooper. He just doesn’t know it yet. The I Love You Test, him saying the words, is evil and perfect for her emotionally constipated brother to come to the same conclusion.

In fact, when Molly orders him to say the words first, Sherlock does a double take and turns automatically to his sister. As if to say: So this is what you were after.

From a villain’s perspective, this is by far the best option for Eurus to spread havoc in her wake and make her point. As we could see, both parties ended up miserable. Molly thinks Sherlock made fun of her and Sherlock must now deal with waaay more feelings than he thought he had before entering the room. Not to mention the fact that he hurt a very dear friend and perhaps lost the woman he might just be in love with. A love hidden in plain sight. Well, he always misses something, doesn’t he?

And worse? It was all for nothing. His sister knows this is the best way to get to him. Push the right buttons. Break the walls he so carefully constructed around himself ever since Redbeard. A point of no return.

Mark Gatiss said it: Molly is ‘very Key’. The one person that mattered, that counted, that could ultimately make Sherlock Holmes scream in despair. Destroy a coffin with his bare hands out of helplessness, rage, confusion, sorrow.

The coffin is a nice analogy, actually.

By breaking the coffin, by tuning out everything else and expressing his agony over hurting someone he deeply cared about, he marked the demise of his former self. Forever gone is the High-Functioning Sociopath, for all the world to see. Molly is The Key. Eurus opened him up with it. With her. Vivisection. You go, Eurus. You’re horrible. But thank you .

Lastly, I will add that yes, I do believe he does love her in a romantic way. Why?

From a pure storytelling point of view, suggesting otherwise would mean Eurus (and the writers) have been staging the hell of a show just so he would admit to something that everybody already knew. That he loves her as a friend. ‘You’re my friend, we’re friends.’ Would be a bit anti-climatic, don’t you think?

If anything, I think this episode was about confirming as well as exposing Sherlock’s love in every shape or form to the audience.

Familial = > Mycroft (last test of Sherrinford), Rosie (proud, tender and playful godfather at the end of the episode) and Eurus (Seek my Room).

Friendship = > John (the well), Mrs. Hudson, (whom he wants to protect from the explosion at 221B), Victor (he had a best friend in his early years and loved him very much), Lestrade (he calls him Greg).

Sexual History (perhaps romantic?) => Irene (the music he composed for her on his violin).

Romantic love => Molly (I love you).

I will conclude with BC’s words that sum up Sherlock’s growth quite well throughout The Final Problem. And in hindsight, what ‘Sherlock’ has been about since Day One:

Love Conquers All.