Smiling Sally

 (Sherlock Meta by consultingpiskies)

Q: Am I the only one who finds it strange to see Donovan actually smiling for once, instead of looking grumpily constipated?

A: No. It’s not strange to see Sally smiling. Because she loves her job, and she’s good at it, and she and Lestrade are finally going to bust a gang of criminals after working on the case for more than 15 months. Of course she’d be smiling. (And oh Vinette, what an absolutely radiant smile you have. Really your face is just perfect.)

But you know why if might feel strange? Because prior to The Sign of Three, we have NEVER seen Sally outside the context of being an antagonist for Sherlock. We see her interact with Sherlock (and John) at crime scenes, and we see her question Sherlock’s motivations. I’m not going to even get into who started it or who’s more at fault (because it’s not the point), but it’s obvious that their animosity didn’t start during A Study in Pink when Sally called him a freak and Sherlock publicly aired her affair with Anderson. That was a spat in an ongoing feud. And guess what? Sally is completely justified in being grumpy about a privileged, white man ignoring police procedure. But here’s the thing. We want to root for Sherlock, and more importantly, the writers want you to root for Sherlock, so Sally gets pigeonholed into grumpy, disenfranchised woman who just doesn’t get Sherlock’s brilliance.

But the opening minutes of The Sign of Three? This is Sally Donovan through an independent lens. And we get to see her as competent, snarky, determined, and joyous. Because she is a person and not just a device for us to view Sherlock’s greatness through. And people get to be three dimensional. Thompson has written some pretty shitty things about WoC on this show, but I will be forever grateful for this gift of Sally.