It Suits You

 (Sherlock Meta by rrohe)

In the first episode, after the lipstick incident, Molly changes the part of her hair from the middle to the left. Sherlock comments, though manipulatively, that it suits her, she helps him with something or other and here we are anxiously awaiting season 4.

Watching season 3 I started to wonder if Molly kept her hair parted on the left through the seasons. So, after watching His Last Vow, I did some homework. The following are my notes from the rewatch:

SEASON 1

s01e01 
8min middle
s01e02
52min left (when she changes it and he tells her it suits her)
s01e03
18min left

SEASON 2

s02e01
42min (for party) straight back gift bow on right
45min (after party incident) middle
1:02 (sherlock xraying Irene’s phone) left
s02e02
not present
s02e03
37min left
1:02 left
(both pulled back, but still on left)

SEASON 3

s03e01
~2min proposed scenario 1 left
38min middle (throughout until the engagement party)
1:22 (engagement party after Sherlock takes her with him and tells her how important she is to him and he realizes that she’s engaged) left

s03e02
12min (at wedding and for duration of wedding time line) straight back, similar to Christmas party in s02
18min (flashback talking to lestrade, after engagement party) middle with braids in back.
18:30min (on phone with Mrs. Hudson presumably after the Lestrade meeting) left
43min (helping sherlock prepare for the stag night) left

s03e03
12min (does his drug test and apparently is not engaged any more, but slaps the shit out of him like she means it) middle
34min (mind palace after he’s shot) middle
45min (after sherlock is shot and lestrade is trying to find him) left
“Just the spare bedroom, well my bedroom. We agreed he needs the space.”

Interpretation of Analysis:

Molly has 3 hair styles: middle part, left part, and her going-out ‘do.

In terms of relationships with others, I think it can be safe to say that we as humans do things that we know our other likes/enjoys. To Molly, Sherlock apparently likes the left part.

If we look at the pattern in the first two seasons, Molly only goes back to parting in the middle once: after Sherlock embarrasses her at the Christmas party and she finds out about the texting with Irene.

After Sherlock identifies the body and is upset by it she goes back to parting on the left (“We all do silly things.”) in the scene where Sherlock x-rays Irene’s phone.

Even when she’s parading “Jim” about, seemingly to try to make Sherlock jealous, she still has her hair parted on the left.

Applying this Data:

In the newest season, when we meet Molly again (not in the bungee scenario, that’s not verified reality) she’s gone back to parting her hair down the middle. It’s been two years since Sherlock’s gone off. Perhaps she’s “forgotten” (I only put forgotten in quotes because I don’t think she intentionally did it before, I think it was unconscious) the change because Sherlock wasn’t around. Maybe she’s moved on in some way. Either way, when she arrives at John and Mary’s engagement party, her hair is parted on the left again.

At the wedding she’s got her hair pulled back similar to Christmas in season 2. However, there are two flashbacks in The Sign of Three. In the first, she’s talking to Lestrade, perhaps closely after the engagement party. Sherlock had said all those lovely things and maybe old feelings came back, but they “go to the pub on weekends” and she’s “met his mum and dad.” Molly got her head on straight, realized she was with Tom and that was that.

Next we see her, though, she’s talking to Mrs. Hudson, it’s closer to the wedding, and her hair is parted to the left again. Even closer to the wedding, she helps Sherlock with the “practical experience” of the stag party.

At the wedding, Molly seems frustrated with Tom and in the end when Sherlock is playing for the Watsons, she’s physically separated from Tom, watching Sherlock perform.

In the beginning of His Last Vow, Molly is parting down the middle again. She slaps the holy hell out of him and scolds him. In Sherlock’s Mind Palace she’s middle parted. When Lestrade and John are out looking for Sherlock after he’s escaped the hospital, she’s left parted and says: “Just the spare bedroom, well my bedroom. We agreed he needs the space.”

In His Last Vow, I think Molly and Sherlock are already together. At the beginning she seems overly worried to just be doing a drug test. Let’s go to that last line she utters in the episode: “Just the spare bedroom, well my bedroom. We agreed he needs the space.” I don’t recall ever seeing Molly’s place, but as they’re engaged, I think it could be safe to assume that Molly and Tom were living together. After they broke up, she may have needed a place to stay. There’s a spare room at Baker St. now that John’s away.

So, what else would this entail? We already know that Sherlock trusts Molly a great deal (see: faking his death). Likely, he’s told her about his newest case. If she’s staying in John’s room, she would no doubt hear Janine and Sherl’ carousing (though they never consummated the relationship) and then he disappears for the night going who knows where.

She may have agreed to his methods, but she probably wouldn’t like them. Sherlock keeps saying that “It’s for a case.” It sounds a bit repeated, to me.

After she slaps him she says “How dare you throw away the beautiful gifts you were born with,” acknowledges John and goes on to say, “How dare you betray the love of your friends?” Then Sherlock says the snide “sorry about Tom,” as if he’s trying to pick a fight.

Molly’s never addressed Sherlock like this. At the Christmas party, she says the obvious, that he says such awful things. But when she slaps him, there’s a familiarity. Perhaps it’s just the time they’ve spent together, but I think it comes from her being in a place where she’s okay with speaking to him so.

With all this said, I’ll concede that I may be a little biased as I am all for team Mollylock or however it goes. I don’t know the cannon, so I’m not familiar with how their story should play out (if there’s a Molly in the books).