Subversion and Sherlock: The Blind Banker

 (Sherlock Meta by Loudest Subtext In Television)

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The Blind Banker is where the difficulties in John and Sherlock’s early relationship become prominent. While they hit it off in the first episode, integrating their lives together is not without difficulty — and it doesn’t help that they are both trying to live separate lives, as flatmates do. Sherlock in particular underestimates John’s value to the work and takes John for granted. It’s fortunate, then, that the theme of The Blind Banker is finding the valuable things that hide in plain sight.

But it’s also about connections between similar pairs, and secret codes. Accordingly, this is the first time we’ll be drowned in subtext. Just as The Blind Banker features literal cyphers in its mystery, it introduces a number of subtextual cyphers that must be utilized the same way: by recognizing matching pairs within and across episodes, we’ll unlock the meaning behind Sherlock.

It’s cosmic, then, that The Blind Banker, easily the most overlooked episode of Sherlock, is itself an example of value hiding within what seems ordinary.

What John’s blog and this episode establishes:

• Everyone else thinks John is a ladies man, but his sister Harry is not aware of this. John earned this reputation before heading out to Afghanistan.
• John’s first “I’m not gay” happens on his blog. He will never say he’s straight, he will never say he’s not attracted to men, he will never say he’s not bisexual, and he will only ever resort to this when people suggest he’s in a relationship with Sherlock and won’t be convinced otherwise. It is never his first choice of phrasing, and he will never knowingly say “I’m not gay” within earshot of Sherlock.
• John’s distaste for a domestic lifestyle, as opposed to dangerous one.
• Sherlock is not smoking at the moment.
• Reinforcement of John’s idea that he’s too stupid for Sherlock, then textual confirmation from John of same.
• Reinforcement of John’s belief that Sherlock is psychologically a sociopath or a child, neither of which are suitable for a sexual relationship. Whenever John tells himself this, it is a sign he’s actually feeling attracted to Sherlock and trying to talk himself out of it.
• John notices that Sherlock is excited when someone else is clever; Moriarty and jealousy foreshadowing.
• Sherlock considers John a friend before the start of the episode, but does not consider him a part of his work. They have not done any other cases together.
• John does not consider Sherlock capable of something like friendship before the start of the episode. He’s convinced Sherlock is a psychopath.
• The first subtextual suggestions that John and Sherlock are headed for a physical romantic relationship.
• John’s PIN number seems to be 743; Irene’s phone code for SHER-locked will correspond to 7437.
• More of Sherlock trying to look physically attractive for John.
• Despite John’s irritation with domestic things, John is the de facto caretaker in their relationship: Sherlock can’t be bothered with anything domestic at all.
• Sherlock ostensibly wanted a flatmate to help pay bills, but he doesn’t care at all if John pays bills or spends Sherlock’s money. He doesn’t consciously realize John is part of his work either. Sherlock just likes living with John that much.
• Sherlock takes John for granted: he expects John to just be there whenever he needs him, doesn’t question it when John shows up coincidentally, and doesn’t realize how important John is to him until suddenly John isn’t there.
• Sherlock’s lack of friends, and being made fun of for being different, are a sore spot for Sherlock.
• John denies being Sherlock’s friend to Sherlock’s face. Sherlock understandably concludes from this that they’re not friends.
• The first subtext equating Sherlock’s heart to a locked-room mystery, and John to the one who infiltrates it/him. We’ll see this again.
• Sherlock smiling when John is clever, and this being entirely lost on John. It will happen constantly over the course of the show.
• John’s idea that Sherlock is a sociopath is reinforced when he witnesses Sherlock charm a woman in order to access a higher, locked floor of a building for a case. We’ll see this again.
• The subtext that Sherlock “fires shots” when he perceives someone has infiltrated his heart.
• More of John’s struggle to lead a boring life like he’s supposed to — and the suggestion that this life, in opposition to letting Sherlock be his life, includes women.
• Our first introduction to Thompson’s use of “mind in the gutter” dialogue and visuals.
• The idea that John and Sherlock have a powerful connection, but don’t realize it. The step further that they are fated to physically collide no matter how far apart they might get, or how focused they may be on other things or people.
• Sherlock gets a few suggestions that John is straight.
• The idea that John finds his way into Sherlock’s heart through Sherlock’s work/mind. We’ll see this again.
• Reinforcement of the metaphor of eating for sex.
• The first mention of the idea that John and Sherlock’s lives are so intertwined they’re the same person. We’ll see this again.
• Sherlock ruffling his hair because he wants to look good. We’ll see this again.
• The first strong nod to Sherlock’s damsel in distress thing. He genuinely cares about saving people, not just John.
• Our first example of Thompson’s signature romantic-touch-that-isn’t.
• John is sexually frustrated and looking for an outlet.
• Sherlock confirms John’s suspicions that Sherlock is not a sexual person.
• Subtext that John is trying to date women because he perceives he’ll end up hurt if he goes after Sherlock.
• Mrs. Hudson sees that John has a girlfriend, and will see more in the future, but will never believe John is not in love with Sherlock.
• The score emphasizing that John is not happy being alone with Sarah and is instead pining for Sherlock, despite however normal he acts.
• John saying, “I don’t understand,” as Sherlock wrestles with how much he values John. It will be called back in His Last Vow.
• Sherlock deducing himself into another surprise romantic revelation, as he must always deduce such subconscious feelings into conscious awareness. This time, Sherlock is forced to acknowledge that he values John a lot.

Interlude - Johns blog:

Now that the first episode is done, we get to read John’s blog. While John’s blog can be sketchy as regards timeline continuity, it is still fully utilized by the showrunners to incorporate further subtext and reveal John and Sherlock’s feelings and motivations, particularly between episodes. In the case of setting up The Blind Banker, John’s blog is crucial: without it, John and Sherlock seem to have somewhat odd characterization relative to the rest of the show. It’s one episode where John and Sherlock don’t seem to be in their groove, because they haven’t quite found it yet.

John’s blog lets us know early on that he dates a lot of women. The first substantial entry before John meets Sherlock, Bill Murray (the doctor who saved John’s life) jokes that John is a “casanova” who should remember Bill’s wife is Bill’s, and a “dirty boy” who apparently had a lot of women before they left for Afghanistan. Curiously, Harry Watson, John’s lesbian or bisexual sister, was unaware of this aspect of her brother and finds it hilarious.

The entry where John talks about meeting Sherlock for the first time, John’s odd comments about him lead Bill Murray to ask John if he’s “gone gay” to which Harry says, “He can’t be! The way he used to look at Clara!” If John is bisexual, it’s not something that people close to him know. So how does John handle these comments?

Well, John does not respond to this immediately. Instead, he tries to wave it away, writing, “Can’t you two email each other or something? This is meant to be for me to record my thoughts”. Understandably, Bill asks, “Not denying it then?” Just like in A Study in Pink, John is rather slow on the denials — and if you remember, he actually never denied it to Sherlock’s face. Odd behavior for a heterosexual man, but, now prodded, John does respond, “I’m not gay. He might be. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter.”

This is important because it’s John’s first “I’m not gay” moment. Remember what we endeavored to do in the introduction: abandon the heteronormative mindset. We do not assume people are not bisexual, and we do not assume people are not confused or conflicted about their orientation when it appears otherwise. Conflict about one’s orientation is a very common experience for queer people, and in particular for bisexual men. An accurate portrayal of a conflicted bisexual man would look a lot like John Watson, so it bears examining — and indeed, to dismiss it without examining it is to inadvertently narrow the spectrum of queer experiences that we’ll “allow” to be represented in media.

It’s fine to be skeptical right now and feel that John seems heterosexual: if John is bisexual, he’s clearly not yet comfortable being entirely open about it, and he’s intentionally letting people believe he’s heterosexual without actually lying. It’s hardly the audience’s fault for believing John in that regard. However, let’s keep an open mind and examine this going forward. There are blips in his behavior that are not typical of a heterosexual man, and are absolutely typical of a conflicted bisexual man. As the show progresses, the evidence will mount until it’s undeniable. The subtext alone in the The Blind Banker will be intense.

But for now we’re starting here, with this first “I’m not gay.” Lucky for us, there is already a lot to work with: several things are noteworthy about it, and it sets the pattern for future denials that follow.

First, John has to be directly prodded to say it, and that will remain the case through series three. It’s curious that he’s so reluctant to say it when it would head-off awkward conversations sooner — and as often as it seems to come up, you’d think John would have figured that out by now. John is typically a direct person, but he’s never direct about his sexual orientation.

Why might that be? Well, if John is bisexual, it would make sense that he’d feel frustrated having to resort to what isn’t technically a lie, but is still intentional obfuscation on his part. After all, there’s no indication that John thinks there’s anything wrong with same sex attraction: his sister experiences it, and he doesn’t react poorly to the gay characters he encounters. He likely wouldn’t enjoy denying it, as it would feel like it’s something worthy of denial. But John is a private person and people force him into a difficult place when they make his orientation their business, especially when they’re implying he’s in a relationship with Sherlock.

And that also never changes: John will only ever resort to “I’m not gay” when people suggest he’s in a relationship with Sherlock, which he isn’t — and this becomes more and more of a sore spot. And when it happens in person, John always denies the relationship first, then only moves on to “I’m not gay” when pressed. It’s a perfectly fitting response, too, because the assertion being made is almost always that John lives with a man whom he appears to be close to, therefore he must be gay and in a relationship with that man. But if John is bisexual, he could live with a man and have relationships with women — which is exactly what he does, or tries to do. John is objecting to the assumption and the narrowing of his sexual identity, which is understandably annoying for people who don’t fit the gay/straight binary.

If John is attracted to Sherlock and feels continually rejected, it would be even more annoying: it’s a reminder of everything John can’t have, all the reasons John imagines Sherlock would not be attracted to him, and the fear that other people can tell he’s attracted to Sherlock. After all, if those people notice, surely Sherlock does. Sherlock could tell at Angelo’s, and it seemed to bother Sherlock.

Accordingly, what else never changes? John will never say he’s straight. He will never say he’s not attracted to men. He will never say he’s not bisexual. He only says he’s not gay, which is true, because he is also attracted to women.

The most telling thing, however, is that John’s audience for these “I’m not gay” moments is never Sherlock, even despite the fact Sherlock thought John was hitting on him in the first episode and people continually assume they’re a couple. John is unwilling to obfuscate the issue even that much in Sherlock’s presence. John lets Sherlock believe he’s straight, but he never closes that door entirely: odd behavior for a heterosexual man, but absolutely reasonable for a bisexual man that is interested in a relationship with Sherlock and hopes Sherlock might change his mind. And while John will never knowingly say “I’m not gay” within earshot of Sherlock, Sherlock does overhear John say that to Irene in A Scandal in Belgravia — after which John tries to have a conversation about it with Sherlock, and is shut down.

So why might John keep his bisexuality private? Well, for one thing, Sherlock seemed to really dislike the idea of John being attracted to him. It makes sense John would just date women to keep Sherlock from getting the impression. Remember, John is willing to kill people to stay near Sherlock, so of course he would be willing to hide his sexuality too. Plus, if John tried to date guys they would assume he was interested in Sherlock, however unfairly. It makes the most sense for John to date women, and he doesn’t seem to have a problem with it. (Though, to be fair, with John you can never be sure.) It’s quite easy for bisexual people to live heterosexual lives: most people are heterosexual and assume everyone else is too, so heterosexual dating opportunities pop up without needing to be sought out.

But why wasn’t John already open about it, and why does he obfuscate the issue to his sister and Bill Murray? Well, there are hints to more reasons in these early blog entries. John was known as a ladies man before getting shipped out to Afghanistan, and in The Sign of Three we’re presented the character of Major Sholto, a man whom John greatly admires and has some of the same unsociable qualities Sherlock has; maybe the caretaker in John is drawn to people who seem emotionally wounded and skittish.

And in broader terms, it would be unsurprising if John’s homosexual side came to the fore when he was in the army and primarily surrounded by men — and indeed, in The Sign of Three we’re going to be given major homosexual associations with the army, and Major Sholto in particular. Plus, the show will reinforce over and over again that sex is important to John. If John has any attraction at all to men, it’s not unreasonable to think he’d act on it in an environment where there were few available women.

So what happened in Afghanistan? We don’t know, but it’s not at all difficult to speculate. Perhaps John didn’t get to act on it, and he doesn’t know how to identify. Perhaps it was unrequited, and he feels sad or bitter thinking about unsociable men. Perhaps it was requited and ended poorly. Perhaps he did act on it but there was pressure to keep it secret and, having just returned from the war, he’s not really sure how to go about being open about it given his prior reputation and his old friends being weird about it — not an uncommon issue for those who come out later in life, and Bill and Harry seem to find the idea funny. Making a joke about the idea that John could be gay wasn’t the most sensitive environment they could have constructed if John wanted to come out. Or perhaps John told himself it was only because women weren’t available, but he’s starting to realize maybe it was more than that. Perhaps he tends to prefer women, and men have to really be something special. Perhaps he wants children; John seems happy enough when he learns of Mary’s pregnancy in The Sign of Three. It’s not at all uncommon for bisexual men to have sex with men but only pursue relationships with women for that reason.

Or perhaps it’s a side of himself John associates with the war, and he’s trying to distance himself from it the same way he tries to distance himself from his attraction to danger in his struggle to adjust to civilian life. It is, after all, a trial to love dangerous, unsociable people, and the romantic in him would find it difficult to adjust to mundane relationships after experiencing a life-or-death bond with someone. So maybe John returns to London and tries to fall back into his “normal” life as a ladies man but, as he tells Stamford in A Study in Pink, he isn’t the same John Watson he used to know. We’ll get a possible suggestion of this in this very episode.

There’s a ton of possibilities, but what we’re given early on is that it’s probably linked to the army, and Sherlock seemed put off. Past that, we know John’s a private person. In The Sign of Three we’ll be given blaring subtext that John was deliberately lying about his bisexuality. That’s enough to be going on with, don’t you think?

The first post John makes about his new flatmate reinforces the dichotomy he perceives between a domestic life and a dangerous one: “He’s not safe, I know that much. I’m not going to be bored and I doubt we’re going to be arguing about whose turn it is to pay the gas bill or what we’re going to watch on the telly.” And this doesn’t seem to bother John. This foreshadows John’s unsuitability for typical married life, which will be reinforced in series three.

In the comments to this entry, we also find out that John took Mycroft’s advice and has not been returning his therapist’s calls, and indeed John has stopped going to therapy altogether. He won’t return until Sherlock fakes his death.

We also see the first comment from Anonymous, who is almost certainly Moriarty, prodding John with, “Oh yes, do tell us how Sherlock did it”. Moriarty periodically says cryptic things to Sherlock on his website, messages and codes telling Sherlock he’s coming for him. This comment lets us know that Moriarty took note of John Watson after he shot the cabbie.

Even this early in, Moriarty seems at turns bitter and amused by John’s association with Sherlock. (Moriarty is also possibly theimprobableone, in keeping with his trying two different personalities to get Sherlock to talk to him — his real one, and Jim from IT — but that’s a whole other meta on its own, dependent on whether Moriarty himself is indeed alive in series four. Both accounts are condescending towards John.) As the show goes on, Moriarty’s interest in Sherlock can be read as either sexual, or his simply trying to throw Sherlock off. The simplest reading is it looks as sexual as Moriarty suggests it is, but either is plausible. As the show goes on, I will argue that Moriarty has a real sexual attraction toward Sherlock and wants to be with him, whatever that might entail in Moriarty’s mind. In the end, though, it doesn’t really matter: whatever Moriarty’s motivation, he resents John and his humanizing effect on Sherlock. Moriarty will go on to pick up on the romantic feelings present, and mess with both of them for the rest of the show.

Sherlock isn’t made aware of this blog post about him until Stamford tells him so on Sherlock’s website. Sherlock isn’t obsessed with John yet and doesn’t seem to much care about John’s blog, but notes that John called him “arrogant, imperious and pompous.” He decides not to tell John he knows about it, presumably to see if John says other bad (or good) things about Sherlock. This also lets us know that John didn’t tell Sherlock about his blog — unsurprising, given how private John is and he’s been writing about Sherlock — and Sherlock didn’t go looking for it. Their bond is in the early stages.

The next page we get indications that Sherlock isn’t smoking at this point, though he’d like to. This will eventually become important over the next two episodes.

On the same page, theimprobableone tells Sherlock, “your new flatmate sounds stupid you need someone who can match your intellect,” reinforcing John’s idea that he’s too stupid for Sherlock. John responds, “Why don’t you come pay us a visit? I’d love to meet you,” because, well, that’s John for you, and he’s clearly sensitive about the idea that he’s too stupid for Sherlock.

John goes on to write up A Study in Pink properly. We get our first example that John associates Sherlock’s disinterest toward certain kinds of knowledge — the prime minister, the solar system — with his perceived sociopathy, and it puts John off: “In so many ways, he’s the cleverest person I’ve ever met but there are these blank spots that are almost terrifying.” He goes on to reinforce the Sherlock-is-a-sociopath idea: “The police seemed surprised by this as well I get the impression he’d not had ‘colleagues’ before.” John goes on to say he sees why Sherlock doesn’t have friends. John seems to think Sherlock isn’t capable of it.

He goes on: “I spoke to a policewoman and she summed Sherlock up. She said ‘he gets off on it.’ And he does. He didn’t care about the dead woman or any of the other victims. I suspect if he came back and found me and our landlady lying here with our throats cut, he’d just see it as an intellectual exercise. ‘Fantastic’ he’d exclaim, rubbing his hands together. ‘But the door was locked so how did they kill each other?’ The policewoman, she called him a psychopath. That seems harsh and it was hardly a professional diagnosis but I look back at what I wrote about him when I first met him. I called him the madman.”

Right here, John isn’t entirely sure whether Sherlock is a sociopath. He doesn’t want to believe it, but it seems believable. John is going to go back and forth on this all the way through series three — and presumably series four at least. For the moment, John thinks Sherlock would be excited if someone killed John, which of course would not be the case at all; John clearly does not realize his value as even a friend to Sherlock.

Then John goes on to reinforce the idea that Sherlock is a child socially, which is in contrast to an adult, i.e. non-sexual, harkening back to the nicotine patch transition we witnessed in A Study in Pink: John (as the camera) sees Sherlock sexually until Sherlock acts childish, and the sexuality all falls away in John’s (and the camera’s) eyes. Here, John says Lestrade “described Sherlock as a child and, in many ways, that’s what he is. I said that he doesn’t care about what others think and that he’s arrogant because of this but it’s not really that. It’s not that he doesn’t care, it’s that he genuinely doesn’t understand that it’s normal to care. It’s normal to worry about what other people think. Like a child, he just doesn’t understand the rules of society - which, of course, is probably why he’s so good at working the rest of us out.” By the start of The Great Game, it will be clear Sherlock does care what John thinks. His inner life is not nearly as simple as John tries to convince himself it is.

We then get foreshadowing of John’s jealousy of Moriarty in the next episode, and later Irene: “Sherlock thinks everyone else is stupid so he’s like a kid at Christmas when it turns out that one of us have done something clever.” John thinks he’s too stupid for Sherlock, and that Sherlock is only excited by clever people.

That realization made, John continues writing… and suddenly seems convinced Sherlock is a psychopath. Why, when paragraphs earlier he seemed to think Sherlock might not be? Well, John just desexualized Sherlock, and having eased into it and alighted on a big reason John feels Sherlock could never be attracted to him — John’s intelligence — John begins to desexualize him further by shifting the reasoning off of John’s intelligence to Sherlock’s incapacity to feel anything for other people anyway. It’s a lot nicer to think about if he focuses on Sherlock’s faults rather than his own. From now on, John will try to remind himself of the psychopath angle constantly so as not to be attracted to Sherlock; this will continue through series three. Whenever he does it, it’s a clue that he’s feeling attracted to Sherlock.

And because John is attracted to dangerous people, John is a mixture of fascinated and put off by the idea: “The taxi driver drove him to a college of further education so they could both educate each other on - well, on how their minds worked, I guess. It’s not something I’ll ever really understand and, to be honest, I’m not sure I ever want to understand it. To be that much of a psychopath. To be that above the rest of us. To be that dangerous. It’s pretty terrifying.” (And arousing, Dr. Watson?)

And then: “As far the taxi driver was concerned, he was outliving people. He was giving himself the power of life and death. And I do, I genuinely think Sherlock understood this.”

And finally: “He wasn’t going to let this other arrogant, pompous psychopath win.”

We get more foreshadowing of Moriarty jealousy, and more of John comparing Sherlock to a child: “Before the taxi driver died, he said a name. A name of someone or something that had helped him. Moriarty. I’ve never heard of it and neither has Sherlock. Of course, he loves it. He thinks he’s found himself an arch-enemy. He’s a strange child.”

Sherlock, however, will not read and comment on this post until after John writes up “The Blind Banker,” and there’s an important reason for that: Sherlock doesn’t become more curious about John until after The Blind Banker, for reasons that will be made clear. What Sherlock says in that comment becomes critical in setting up The Great Game and we’ll come back to it then, but for now, The Blind Banker lies ahead.

The next post John makes, after he’s cast all sexual thoughts of Sherlock from his mind, he says that Sherlock has turned down a missing diamond case because it wasn’t interesting enough. John titles it “Diamonds are Forever,” which Sherlock has heard somewhere. Sherlock only vaguely knows who James Bond is, which reinforces John’s idea that Sherlock is disconnected from other human beings.

Sherlock is clearly not relationship material, but John can give him a Bond night; it doesn’t involve any real danger. And though Sherlock complains beforehand on John’s blog, he actually enjoys it! Sherlock isn’t that weird, after all, he’s just oddly socialized.

Heading into the episode proper, Sherlock understandably thinks he’s found a friend. He enjoys having John around, but Sherlock doesn’t value John’s intelligence and doesn’t yet realize that John will become critical to his work; they haven’t done any other cases together, and Sherlock assumes he’ll be doing cases by himself as he always has. And John, well… he doesn’t view Sherlock as even capable of friendship.

They both underestimate each other. This isn’t looking good.

The Blind Banker:

"Soo Lin Yao pours tea": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhHdASAZe5Q

The episode opens with Soo Lin Yao, who over the course of the episode will be established as a stand-in for Sherlock. Andy, accordingly, is a stand-in for John, as are the teapots. I’ll point out the connections as we go, but for now: we see Soo Lin pouring tea with a distinctive water sound, and at the end of the episode we will see Sherlock pour tea from a similarly colored set from a similar height with a similar sound. It is notably not the white teapot we see Sherlock and Mrs. Hudson use in other episodes, and one of the few times we ever see Sherlock prepare tea.

The first time we see her, Soo Lin, like Sherlock, is obsessed with her work — in her case, attending to teapots. If we view this only on the literal level, it seems odd that so much time is spent lingering on the teapots, because it’s kind of boring. The camera, however, seems to think they’re incredibly important. Why? Because this is all subtext. The teapots, like John, seem ordinary, but their beauty becomes more obvious the more Soo Lin makes use of them. That’s exactly the path Sherlock will begin to walk of his romantic arc as he realizes John’s usefulness to his work. And just like Soo Lin and her teapots, Sherlock will become increasingly protective of and obsessed with John, even risking his life to attend to him. This also foreshadows how the work and John become inseparable in Sherlock’s mind as the show progresses, with John finally overtaking the work in series three.

But so far, that could be a platonic arc too. Here comes Andy, John’s stand-in and someone who is romantically interested in Soo Lin — already a hint — so let’s see what happens.

Soo Lin, like Sherlock, is aloof to Andy and his advances. Andy remarks upon Soo Lin’s using antiquities to make tea, and in her response, we get our first blatant hint that Sherlock’s romantic arc is going to be physical: “Some things aren’t supposed to sit behind glass. They’re made to be touched — to be handled.” It’s noteworthy that the script writer here is Thompson: Thompson always includes some kind of romanticized touch between John and Sherlock, and we’ll get our first one later in the episode.

Soo Lin goes on to describe the teapots (John): “These pots need attention. The clay is cracking.” Indeed, John is going to be irritated by Sherlock’s lack of attention to him this episode. Andy doesn’t see how making tea will help, and Soo Lin gives us the theme of The Blind Banker: “Sometimes you have to look hard at something to see its value. See? This one shines a little brighter.” And that’s exactly what Sherlock will come to realize about John over the course of the episode: John seems like an ordinary person, but he shines brighter than everyone else. (We’ll see even more of the idea that John is literally physically beautiful in Sherlock’s eyes in series three.)

Returning to the Andy-as-John angle, Soo Lin (Sherlock) is ignoring him in favor of her solitary work. Andy doesn’t know what to say in response to the teapots, so he tries being direct and asking her out. What does Soo Lin (Sherlock) say? “You wouldn’t like me all that much.” And we see this idea reinforced in pretty much every episode of the show: Sherlock does not consider himself likable. At the start of A Scandal in Belgravia, Sherlock has never considered that someone could be in love with him. In The Sign of Three, Sherlock outright says in his best man speech that he doesn’t understand how anyone could want to hang out with someone as awful as he is. Sherlock hardly thinks friendships are possible for him, let alone romantic relationships.

Andy (John) says, “Couldn’t I maybe decide that for myself?” And Soo Lin (Sherlock) says, “I can’t. I’m sorry.” This mirrors John and Sherlock’s romantic arc as the show goes on: John is the one person who can actually tolerate Sherlock and values him despite his flaws, but Sherlock shuts him down, refusing to acknowledge that’s possible. Sherlock will never internalize that John accepts him as he is until his best man’s speech in The Sign of Three.

And in yet another parallel, we see that Soo Lin (Sherlock) could really use someone’s help this episode, but she keeps refusing it and trying to go it alone.

Accordingly, the next scene we get is a back and forth of John and Sherlock trying to live separate lives: John is having a row with a chip and pin machine — regular life irritates him — and Sherlock is fighting an Arab stereotype. That diamond case? Turned out to be interesting after all. Sherlock was wrong, reinforcing the pattern of Sherlock underestimating things, just as he’ll underestimate John.

"John's PIN": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X58gXcrlyVc

During the sequence, we see that John’s PIN is 743. In A Scandal in Belgravia, Irene is in love with Sherlock and the key to unlock her “heart” (as Sherlock refers to her phone) is SHER, which corresponds to 7437. It’s doubtful we’re supposed to infer that John changed his PIN to Sherlock’s name, but it is one of many clues to their romantic connection that get hidden in the episodes. This clue would imply that Sherlock is the only one who can unlock John’s heart. It would also be odd to put such a clue in the show as mere queerbaiting, because it adds up to a lot of work to incorporate the sheer preponderance of these little things that most people will never notice.

"Consulting Peacock": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIV1ZtRkgjI

Curiously, once Sherlock has knocked out his adversary, he checks himself in the mirror, makes sure he looks good, and poses himself in his chair for John’s imminent return from shopping. Hm.

"Row with a Machine": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQWMOzXIlro

When John returns to 221B, he tells Sherlock that he didn’t get the shopping because he had a row with a chip and pin machine. Sherlock is clearly amused by this, but also a bit fond. Contrary to Sherlock’s fake smiles that fall as soon as someone turns away, he keeps smiling fondly at John even when John walks into the kitchen and can’t see it.

Unfortunately for poor John, Sherlock often gives him looks like this when John can’t see it.

Sherlock says, “You had a row with a machine?” and John responds, “Sort of. It sat there and I shouted abuse.” John, who we’ve established thinks Sherlock is a sociopath, then proceeds to do just that: he gripes at Sherlock while Sherlock sits there and says little. In The Reichenbach Fall, also written by Thompson, John will literally call Sherlock a “machine” in the text.

Despite the fact that Sherlock was ostensibly looking for a flatmate to help pay for things, he has no qualms about telling John to just take his card — which also demonstrates a lot of trust, especially coming from someone who doesn’t seem to trust or even like hardly anybody. But John’s his only friend, and Sherlock’s happy about it.

Sherlock does not include John in the diamond case, however: he actively hides the evidence of the fight from John by pushing the sword under his chair, and shrugs nonchalantly when John sighs at him about the scratch left by the sword on the kitchen table. Sherlock does not consciously consider John part of his work. Sherlock then smiles to himself after John glares at him and walks off.

John leaves to get the shopping again, and when he comes back, Sherlock is using John’s laptop to read an e-mail from Sebastian Wilkes, a guy Sherlock went to uni with. Seb is a rather greasy character: we know he doesn’t like Sherlock, but he opens the e-mail, “How’re things, buddy?” Seb will go on to be an example of a type of person Sherlock must encounter not infrequently: someone who just pretends to like him so they can make use of his deductive skills. John doesn’t do that at all, which is what makes him such a good friend.

John is understandably irritated and takes his laptop back — although Sherlock did just give John his credit card, suggesting he feels all their possessions are shared. That’s rather sweet. But John values his privacy and Sherlock just guessed his password. Sherlock takes in the laptop’s absence for a few moments, and then seemingly unbothered, lapses into thought. John rifles through a pile of bills ominously stamped in red, then remarks that he needs to get a job. Sherlock dismisses this with, “Dull.”

Let’s take an inventory of Sherlock’s new flatmate: John isn’t helping to pay bills. John had to spend Sherlock’s money on the shopping but won’t let Sherlock use his computer. John doesn’t have a job, but Sherlock doesn’t want him to get one. Sherlock doesn’t yet realize John is essential to his work. John gets irritated at Sherlock regularly.

Sherlock should care about this, but he doesn’t.

What, then, may we deduce about Sherlock’s heart? Sherlock likes John that much, at least as a friend. As the show goes on, I’ll argue that what is going on here is that Sherlock is latently physically attracted to John from the start — he subconsciously wants to look attractive for John — but has a habit of repressing all sexual urges as he has given up hope of ever acting on them, and they distract him from the work. Sherlock then falls in love with John, but he keeps himself so detached from sentiment, and truly believes it’s impossible for anyone to have a relationship with him (Sherlock), that going anywhere near that idea breaks Sherlock’s brain. (We’ll see it break at the suggestion in A Scandal in Belgravia, and again when John simply calls Sherlock his best friend in The Sign of Three.) Sherlock never consciously considers any of it until his best man’s speech in The Sign of Three, where he finally realizes what they could have had.

In light of this idea, it’s worth wondering if Sherlock never corrects people when people assume John is his boyfriend because he finds it flattering. In this episode, Sherlock very much wants Sebastian to realize he has a friend. For people to assume that Sherlock has a boyfriend, one whom Sherlock perhaps thinks is attractive and a decent person, could easily please Sherlock. We’ll see in The Empty Hearse that it’s important to Sherlock that John be physically attractive so Sherlock isn’t seen walking around with “an old man,” and in The Sign of Three we’ll get more hints that Sherlock finds John physically attractive. And, after all, when he rejected John in A Study in Pink, he did say he was “flattered” by John’s interest and was uncharacteristically polite.

For now, though, it’s already a big step for Sherlock to consider John a friend. So of course, John is going to ruin it.

Sherlock announces that he’s going to the bank (for the case, though he doesn’t explain) and leaves. He doesn’t wait for John, but John immediately gets up to follow. And for much of the episode, we’ll see John trailing Sherlock like this, often at a meter’s distance or more, sometimes having to jog to catch up. What’s remarkable is that while Sherlock consciously thinks he’s heading out to do cases alone, he nevertheless subconsciously expects John to be there, and won’t even register how odd it is when John turns up out of nowhere. He treats John like a prop and errand boy without realizing how much he relies on John.

"My FRIEND John Watson": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMRY75BiHfk

When Sherlock and Seb greet each other, Sherlock entirely ignores everything Seb says in favor of staring him down and saying, rather pointedly, “This is my friend, John Watson.” Sherlock knows Seb thinks he’s a social weirdo, and he’s throwing John in his face.

Unfortunately, Seb asks in surprise, “Friend?” and John, whom we’ve established believes Sherlock to be a sociopath, corrects it to, “Colleague.”

And Sherlock’s face just says it all: he was not expecting that. They had a Bond night, for god’s sake, Sherlock had enjoyed himself and he never complains about John’s failures as a flatmate. Sherlock is utterly speechless — a feat in itself — and looks hurt. But Sherlock is practiced at burying his feelings, and at acting in general: he shuts it down, and sits down to bait Seb the only way he has left.

Sherlock throws out an opener for a deduction, rearing to put Seb in his place: “Flying all the way round the world twice in a month?”

"We all hated him": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSYMyQqZ3sw

…Except Seb turns Sherlock talent into a bad thing, saying it was a “trick” Sherlock did and, “We all hated him.”

As soon as Seb starts in, Sherlock looks much less self-assured than we’re used to seeing. His foot moves in an edgy, pensive way and he inhales uneasily. His voice isn’t as confident or dismissive as it usually is when he says, “It’s not a trick.” When Seb says, “We hated him,” Sherlock actually looks sad for a moment. When Sherlock says, “I simply observed,” he can’t even look Seb in the eyes.

"I was just chatting with your secretary": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSXVe3084Dc

It gets worse: Seb says, “How did you tell?” which is always Sherlock’s cue to show off… except when he opens his mouth to explain, Seb talks over him with a parody of Sherlock’s deductions. John even smiles at this, probably because the obscurity of it is spot-on.

When Sherlock finally gets an opportunity to speak, he looks Seb right in the eyes and lies to make Seb look like a fool: “I was just chatting with your secretary outside. She told me.” Seb laughs his oily laugh, and Sherlock flashes a fake, terse fuck-you smile.

Seb then walks them through the beginnings of the case. John is attentive and asks questions.

"I don't need an incentive": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQtsvhDvHVY

Seb offers Sherlock five figures if he solves the case. John and Sherlock both need that money. But how does Sherlock respond? He coldly says, “I don’t need an incentive, Sebastian,” and stalks off, yet again leaving John behind. Sherlock doesn’t want Seb to have anything over on him.

Thankfully, John is more reasonable and accepts the check — yet another example of how John is the only one holding their life together on the domestic front, however much it frustrates him.

"Sherlock on ledge": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrTz612JNaQ

Sherlock goes off and investigates without John, as he will repeatedly do this episode. What are we shown shortly after Sherlock gets sad about his past? Sherlock walking out onto a ledge, considering the drop to the ground (punctuated in the score by a sound of peril), then consciously directing his thoughts back to the case and staying there for quite a while. He’s literally investigating the case, but it’s yet another visual enforcing Sherlock’s recklessness with his life, and foreshadowing suicide off a tall building.

This is also when we get our first Sherlock’s-heart-as-locked-room-mystery metaphor, with John as the one who infiltrates it/him. Thompson will double-down on this subtextual device in The Sign of Three. Sherlock spends nearly the entire episode trying to find who has inexplicably managed to break in and how, and yet he’ll keep being surprised by the acrobat. Odder still, Sherlock gets worse and worse at fighting the acrobat off the more he encounters him and the less surprised Sherlock is. We’ll get a loud signal that John is the stand-in for the acrobat later, but for now: the acrobat hasn’t taken anything as Sherlock would expect — but Sherlock perceives a threat just because he left a mark there.

Sherlock ducks and swerves around the office, still investigating without John, and figures out the graffiti is a threat for Van Coon.

"Sherlock smiles when John figures something out": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RnXoyej6j8

John catches up to him at the escalators. When John says he knows that Sherlock was purposely trying to irritate Seb, Sherlock smiles even though John can’t see it. John is right, after all: Sherlock does like it when people are clever, and Sherlock smiling when John says something clever will happen over and over as the show goes on. John just rarely notices when Sherlock thinks John is clever, and Sherlock isn’t the type to say.

They both make their way to Van Coon’s flat.

"Can I use your balcony": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5HZ_iax_zs

If ever John got confirmation that Sherlock is a sociopath, it would be right here: Sherlock pulls off acting like a normal, harmless person in order to get something. Tellingly, in His Last Vow we’ll see the same sort of camera angle, similar earnest facial expressions from Sherlock, and even the same idea of Sherlock charming a woman in order to access a higher, locked floor of a building for a case, when Sherlock fake proposes to Janine — and thus absolutely cements John’s idea that Sherlock is incapable of actual romantic love.

But right now His Last Vow is but an oppressively dark cloud on the distant horizon.

"Sherlock on ledge 2": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzYJizVJOqI

We then get our second juxtaposition of Sherlock considering a drop to the ground, consciously turning his thoughts back to the case, jumping from the ledge, staying out there a moment — this time even looking back over the edge from Van Coon’s balcony — then: returning to the case, which is a perfect locked room, and deciding to go it alone. Just like the bank scene.

This isn’t exactly subtle subtext: Sherlock uses cases to distract himself from sentiment that has the ability to devastate him to the extent of feeling suicidal. Apparently, his lack of friends is one such area of sentiment, as that set him off this episode. Sherlock will confirm that he uses cases to distract himself from drugs in the text of His Last Vow, and A Scandal in Belgravia also associates drugs with Sherlock losing someone he cares about, so presumably Sherlock’s drug use was sparked by his loneliness, and he switched to cases later.

John isn’t the only one who adopts a dangerous lifestyle to paper over more dangerous mental health issues. I did say this episode is about matching pairs, didn’t I?

"Sherlock locked room": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifo4wK8lVhA

And it doesn’t get any subtler: still stinging from John’s rejection of friendship, Sherlock wanders around the locked flat (his heart) refusing to so much as acknowledge John’s pounding on the door to get in. What’s even more telling is the score is minimal until John first buzzes the door, then suddenly the music surges toward panic. Why? Sherlock has found dead bodies before, and he had to have expected one here before he broke in.

Remember this surge of music, because we’re going to hear it SEVEN times total, and it will become damning as far as subtext goes.

John asks if Sherlock’s okay — a question of emotional state, which Sherlock won’t answer — and then goes so far as to echo the age-old romantic trope in the text when he says, “Yeah, any time you feel like letting me in.” Immediately, the score intensifies the anxiety.

Sorry, John: Sherlock would rather retreat deeper into the flat… where someone is already dead. And Sherlock’s certain someone inexplicably got in and killed the man, even though it looks like suicide.

The next shot we see, Sherlock has let everyone in along with John. Harkening back to the crime-solving-as-date analogy established in the first episode, it’s telling that Sherlock suddenly refuses to “date” John in this way, and only lets John near the crime scene when they have several chaperones. Sherlock’s distancing himself.

There’s a mirror in this room, but it never reflects John or Sherlock. Mirrors will keep popping up to emphasize how they don’t see themselves as a unit yet. Either they won’t be reflected at all, or they’ll be reflected and they won’t be looking at it, or only one of them at a time will be in focus, or they’re not looking at each other in it even though they’re staring right at it, etc.

DI Dimmock comes in and gives Sherlock a hard time. They move to another room with a prominently placed mirror, in which only John or Sherlock will be in focus at once, and they don’t look at it: they’re not seeing themselves as a unit yet.

Dimmock thinks it’s a suicide, and John is inclined to agree. Sherlock, however, begins to deduce them out of it. Dimmock doesn’t understand why someone would be waiting in a locked room with a gun, to which Sherlock responds: “He was waiting for the killer. He’d been threatened. He fired a shot when his attacker came in.” This is Sherlock’s-heart-as-locked-room all over: Sherlock perceives a threat, holes himself up and waits for it, and when he thinks someone has gotten in, he fires a shot. Sherlock doesn’t realize John’s value until the end of The Blind Banker, and at the start of The Great Game Sherlock will fire literal shots into the wall before firing figurative shots at John. Sherlock will proceed to run hot and cold with John through series two as he wrestles with his crisis of sentiment.

Luckily, the shots miss the “attacker” here, and Sherlock never manages to push John away entirely either — every time Sherlock tries, John has a talent for evading fatal blows. John will get in, land a perfect hit, wear Sherlock down, and escape to see another day.

It’s also worth noting that the victim was shot in the head: we’ll see in the next several episodes that Sherlock fears sentiment in large part because it renders him incapable of rational thought, which terrifies him — especially when it means he screws up and people get hurt. In The Great Game, he will tell us that he can only save people if he doesn’t care about them, and we’ll see this episode that Sherlock truly does care about saving people. Sherlock’s not a sociopath, no matter what Sherlock wishes or fears or needs others to think, or what John needs to believe.

For now, Sherlock leaves without warning again, and John is left to trail after him again. John’s had to witness some pretty off-putting behavior and we’re hardly more than fifteen minutes into the episode.

Oh, hey. The mirror thing again:

"John does the talking": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5b40R1Qgrc

They go interrupt Seb’s business lunch, Sherlock doing his best to make Seb look bad. They move to the loo, where John and Sherlock flank Seb and John does most of the interrogating. Sherlock is uncharacteristically silent, but it’s hardly surprising since Seb just makes fun of him when he tries to explain his deductions.

"Sherlock cedes the last word": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5maMlSLwwts

Seb says that the police told his chairman that it was a suicide, and all Sherlock says is, “They’ve got it wrong, Sebastian. He was murdered.” Seb commands Sherlock not to get sidetracked, and Sherlock, whom John will one day suggest will outlive God trying to have the last word, says nothing.

Sherlock has been made fun of for being different, and it still bothers him to have it used against him even now. This is the heart of Sherlock’s empathy for several characters he’ll encounter, and his hatred of Magnussen in His Last Vow.

And all of this is lost on John.

"No locked room is safe": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWJgGqjzUNA

So what do we hear immediately after Sherlock is reminded, yet again, of other people’s disdain for him and his general status as a misunderstood weirdo? The panicked flare of music from when John rang Van Coon’s buzzer to be let into Sherlock’s locked room. And we’re shown a man running for his life to retreat behind a couple locked doors — but it’s too late, his attacker got in anyway. The man turns to stare his attacker in the face, terrified. He ends up dead, of course.

Oh Sherlock. Uni was hell for you, wasn’t it?

Then we cut to Andy, our stand-in for John. The museum director tells Andy he has to do something that’s really Soo Lin’s area of expertise. Andy looks uncertain and protests as much, but the museum director says that Soo Lin’s not there to do it. In over his head, Andy (John) goes to Soo Lin’s (Sherlock’s) flat (heart), which is locked to him, and Soo Lin (Sherlock) isn’t answering. He leaves a note for her and leaves, returning to his own life.

We then cut to John, who is trying to get a job that fits his area of expertise, as opposed to Sherlock’s work, which he considers over his head. Hm.

When Sarah warns that it might be a bit mundane for John, John says, “Mundane is good sometimes. Mundane works.” We know that isn’t what John wants, though. Sarah remarks that John was a soldier, and John points out, “And a doctor.” John is trying to distance himself from Sherlock, whom he’s even more convinced is a sociopath, and retreat back to the life he thinks he’s supposed to want. And indeed, we’ll see a callback to this conversation in the subway car in The Empty Hearse, when John is trying to resist the pull of Sherlock’s return on his life and remain a doctor, with Mary, while Sherlock reminds him he’s a soldier.

And that opposite life John is after includes women: John flirts a bit with Sarah already. He’s really throwing himself into it.

Oddly, Sarah asks if John has any other skills, and Thompson chooses this moment to let us know that John’s past includes blowing phallic objects: “I learned the clarinet at school.” Perhaps it’s nothing, but the whole exchange is unnecessary and any other skill could have been written in. By the time The Sign of Three rolls around, we’ll see during John’s stag night that Thompson really enjoys putting in dialogue that makes you question whether your mind isn’t just in the gutter, so it’s worth wondering if this was intentional. It comes so fast and heavy in The Sign of Three that it’s certainly intentional there. This early on in the show, there’s only so much a writer can do to hint at John’s sexuality, so who knows.

There’s enough to work with in this episode it hardly matters if this was unintentional, so let’s head back to Baker Street.

"Pen catch": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Xt93SyY0tc

Sherlock is at 221B trying to figure out what the symbols might mean. When John comes in, Sherlock says, “I said, ‘Could you pass me a pen?’” He asked John an hour ago, without noticing that John wasn’t there: another nod to how Sherlock takes John for granted. John is even out of focus in the shot.

Then John tosses a pen to him. Sherlock catches it without looking… and neither of them realize how remarkably in tune they are with one another, in keeping with the theme of not seeing the beauty and value in things that are in plain sight.

"John's new job": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvWKS1ornBs

Then we’re shown John looking right at himself getting involved in Sherlock’s work in the mirror — what he’s trying to distance himself from —- but he’s too focused at literally looking at the work and discussing his new job to notice. John mistakenly refers to his new job as “she,” which implies he sought out the new job not so much for money, but to distract himself from Sherlock. Of course, he could just be really into Sarah, but the conversation he had with her was framed in opposition to Sherlock, and we’ll get big hints later that John is not happy about Sarah.

Sherlock, hearing of John’s new job and romantic interest, directs John to consider the case. It’s meaningful that we’re only ever shown Sherlock keeping John from locked rooms, not the other aspects of the case. And it might be meaningful that this is the first time in the episode he actually invites John to look at the case, right when John seems to be pulling away.

John reads aloud from an online article: “An intruder who can walk through walls…” We’ll hear this exact same phrasing in The Sign of Three. And just as perfect locked room mysteries grab Sherlock’s attention here, once Sherlock realizes John’s importance at the end of this episode he’ll become obsessed with figuring John out too.

Sherlock notes that the acrobat has “killed another one,” and notably, John has just worked his way enough into Sarah’s heart in the scene prior that the next time we see her, she asks John out despite his falling asleep on the job. John infiltrates two hearts in this episode. It’s good John is getting practice, because by the time he stands in for the invisible man in The Sign of Three, he’s infiltrating hearts left and right.

Sherlock then talks down to Dimmock in a way that he’s apparently incapable of talking down to Sebastian, even though Dimmock is a detective inspector.

Sherlock then investigates the locked room with a chaperone: Dimmock. John trails behind.

Sherlock goes on to deduce that the attacker “found another way in” despite everything being bolted shut. John finds his way in to Sherlock’s heart through Sherlock’s work, Sherlock’s mind, harkening back to the idea established in A Study in Pink that John triggers epiphanies for Sherlock that are visually and aurally orgasmic. In The Sign of Three, we’ll also see Sherlock deduce himself into realizing his feelings for John via rational processes: we’ll see evidence next episode that Sherlock considers romance to be something embellished and distinct from truth, and it will be further reinforced in A Scandal in Belgravia. Sherlock, of course, is unprepared for the possibility that romance could be a rational assessment of all the evidence, and all this time he’s left John a window to his mind to climb in through.

It’s ironic, then, that earlier in this episode Sherlock berated John and Dimmock for having a solution and “choosing to ignore anything you see that doesn’t comply with it” rather than “the only solution of all the facts.” We know from A Study in Pink that Sherlock gets it wrong sometimes — and he gets romance, and John’s feelings for him, so very, very wrong.

While Sherlock discusses how the attacker got in the locked room, we’re shown the drops to the ground two more times, a metaphorical reminder of how terrifying Sherlock finds this idea. He then sets out to find the attacker, saying — seriously — “We have to find out what connects these two men” — in an episode themed around the connection between John and Sherlock.

And then they run off trying to find matching pairs of things — books, graffiti — to find the answer that will reveal everything. Meanwhile, there’s still the parallel of their failing to notice their connection because they’re too focused on trying to find something else.

The subtext in this episode is so thick you could eat it with a spoon. It’s the Greek yogurt of subtext.

"Staring themselves in the face": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Mpyz81N34A

Then they… yes, literally stand in front of the mirror in 221B, looking right at themselves, while distracted searching for something else. Usually they’ll put clues up on the wall over the couch, but in this episode, it’s tellingly over the mirror, and the camera, like the two of them, doesn’t see their reflections. Sherlock doesn’t yet realize John’s importance to the work, and John doesn’t yet realize he can’t stay away from the work. But there they both are, doing the work. Together.

Sherlock then takes John along with him — not to a locked room, but another public place, where they’ll have a chaperone.

On the way to visit the graffiti expert, Sherlock tells John, “Cryptography inhabits our every waking moment,” which is a great summary of the show’s use of subtext in their relationship. Sherlock goes on to say, “This is different. It’s an ancient device. Modern code-breaking methods won’t unravel it,” which if this is somehow unintentional is nonetheless an amazing way to describe queer subtext, which has been in use since forever. Indeed, the graffiti Sherlock refers to is hidden in plain sight only to those who know where to look, and to whom it conveys great and detailed meaning despite looking like nothing — just like queer subtext.

Sherlock admits he can’t figure it out the connection himself, so they consult an expert who sees more with a glance than they do. And indeed, it’s always other people that tell them they’re a couple as the show goes on. In series two, it will be literal gay people who tell them this.

Sherlock then abandons John in the middle of solving a crime (date) — and we’ll see Van Coon’s secretary, who is a stand-in for John, echo this idea of being “stood up” as a reason why their relationship couldn’t be serious.

Right after Sherlock abandons John, we cut to Andy (John) expressing disbelief that Soo Lin (Sherlock) would “just abandon” her teapots (John). The museum director responds, pointedly, that perhaps Soo Lin (Sherlock) was getting too much unwanted attention. Which is, of course, something John has feared since Sherlock rejected him at Angelo's.

"They're giving me an ASBO": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8VEbzSo7_s

We then cut to Sherlock in front of the mirror, with only his own reflection visible. His back is turned, and he’s not looking at John — another nod to his ignoring John. Having gotten the information he needed from the graffiti expert, Sherlock didn’t even realize John was gone. And indeed, John is understandably upset about getting an ASBO, but Sherlock hardly hears him complaining and doesn’t care. Then when John’s reflection is in the mirror, Sherlock doesn’t register it. The camera is from John’s perspective and Sherlock is blurred, a visual reinforcement of the idea that they aren’t seeing each other as a unit, instead focusing on themselves.

Then, taking John for granted, Sherlock rushes John back out the door on an errand, and John just lets him. This partnership between them just inevitably happens, no matter how consciously they tell themselves they don’t care about each other.

It’s perhaps worth noting here that John is wearing something very similar to what he wore the first time he met Sherlock — similar shirt and jacket — that we later see Sherlock’s father (and template for physical beauty) wearing in series three. John looks similar to how he looked during Sherlock’s love-at-first-sight styled deduction of John in A Study in Pink. What happens? Sherlock actually puts his hands on John for the first time ever, albeit while ushering John back into the jacket.

This isn’t Thompson’s romantic touch of the episode, however. It’s just interesting.

As they exit, we’re given a shot of only their legs and feet: John goes through the door first, then stops and let’s Sherlock take the lead. He’s forever trailing him.

When they get outside, Sherlock sends John off to solve crimes separately. No dating, John.

We then see Sherlock with Amanda, PA to a powerful man who only gives her crumbs of attention — and she is accordingly established as a stand-in for John. (In The Hounds of Baskerville, John will be referred to as Sherlock’s PA in the text, much to his annoyance. And it carries a homosexual connotation when it happens, too: “live-in PA.”) For now, Sherlock utilizes Amanda in much the same way he utilizes John this episode: menial gathering of clues. And just like with John, he is less rude to Amanda than he is to other people.

Meanwhile, we see John say something unflattering about Sherlock: John tells Dimmock that whatever awful opinion Dimmock has of Sherlock, John is with him one hundred percent.

Back to Amanda (John), who says something unflattering about her boss Van Coon (Sherlock): he was “not appreciative.” Amanda (John) does not mention her attraction to Van Coon (Sherlock), and it’s certainly not obvious from the way she talks about him, but Sherlock (an outsider) picks up on it like it’s obvious. Amanda (John) looks troubled but does not say anything. Van Coon (Sherlock) may have treated Amanda (John) poorly, but her (John’s) resentment of that didn’t stop her (John) from having sex with him (Sherlock) when it was on offer. Interesting. It’s certainly in keeping with what we’ve earlier established about John’s orientation and apparent attraction to Sherlock: Sherlock behaves terribly and John still wants him.

Isn’t it weird that nearly all the pairs of foils we get for John and Sherlock in this show have a romantic connection to one another, not a platonic one? What could it mean?

Just like John, we find out that Amanda handles all of her boss’s travel arrangements: whenever Sherlock has to go anywhere, even by himself, John is the one who buys tickets and schedules things, as we’ll see in The Great Game and A Scandal in Belgravia and The Hounds of Baskerville. She also handles receipts, just as we’ve seen demonstrated this episode that it’s John who is responsible for looking at bills and handling their money.

This is also further reinforcement of John’s caretaker role, which will be used for subtext in the future.

"Sherlock bumps into John": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOULqT6lXKE

Then we get my favorite scene-as-metaphor of the episode: Sherlock, attending to his work and deducing aloud to no one, literally bumps into John like they’re fated to physically collide no matter how far apart they may get, or how they fixate on other things… and when they come back together Sherlock just continues deducing as if John were there the whole time, like it’s how things should be and he’s totally comfortable with it.

And remember, deducing aloud is analogous to sex for Sherlock. Unsurprisingly, the two stand incredibly close and the camera emphasizes this.

Neither of them really acknowledge how incredible this event is because — say it with me — they’re too focused on finding something else: in this case, the shop across the street.

And here John surprises Sherlock for the first time: John figured it out just as fast as Sherlock did. John kept up with him.

Meanwhile, John at best perceives a complete lack of appreciation on Sherlock’s part, and maybe even an insult in Sherlock’s utter surprise.

Inside the shop, the shopkeeper assumes John is straight in front of Sherlock: “your wife, she will like!” This is the second reinforcement Sherlock gets this episode that John is straight, the first being John’s mention of Sarah.

Then John, not Sherlock, finds the Hangzhou letters on the tea cups, maybe because John’s a big metaphorical teapot and is drawn to his own kind. Anyway, John is proving to be useful. Sherlock takes him outside and enthusiastically deduces to him, with John contributing a bit — a continuation of the sex metaphor. And if that weren’t sexual enough: ta da, Sherlock has dinner with John when he’s not hungry, another nod to Irene Adler’s euphemism for sex. Sherlock has got to be bursting to go work on the case, but he sits there patiently for a bit, watching John eat while John contributes to his deductions.

It’s also worth noting that, at least in the beginning, it’s only John that we see eating actual, physical food, which can be analogous to actual, physical sex. We’ve only gotten the suggestion of Sherlock eating before — tellingly, just after he swoons over Captain John Watson at the end of A Study in Pink and asks him out to dinner for real. For now, though, on camera Sherlock keeps to the mental-only level of the interaction, thinking that eating will slow down his brain — just like he thinks sentiment compromises him. And it’s cases that keep him from eating — just as he uses cases to distract him from sentiment. As the show goes on, the few times we see Sherlock eat actual, physical food are interestingly timed to say the least, and the times John tries to persuade Sherlock to eat or drink are interestingly timed as well. Keep it in mind for now.

Sherlock then leaves to attend to the case, and John abandons his food — sex — to follow Sherlock. John will always choose Sherlock over his girlfriends through series two, and in the middle of A Scandal in Belgravia, John basically settles for never getting laid again if that’s the cost of chasing after Sherlock — though not without some bitterness, as we’ll come to see.

They go across the street to Soo Lin’s locked flat. In keeping with Sherlock’s refusal to let John into locked rooms with him, he leaves John outside again — paralleling Andy at Soo Lin’s flat earlier. Sherlock’s negligence almost causes a container of water to shatter, but he catches it just in time — just as Sherlock will soon catch a teapot Soo Lin drops before it shatters. Hey! That’s a matching pair, and the teapots symbolize John, so could that mean…? Oh, right, yes: Sherlock saves John from death just in the nick of time at the end of the episode. Someone’s gotta keep Sherlock’s teapot safe and beautiful, even if he put it in danger in the first place.

Anyway.

John buzzes, saying, “Do you think maybe you could let me in this time?” which Sherlock ignores again. Notably, though, Sherlock and the score aren’t so panicked so quickly this time, and while Sherlock won’t actually let John in, he’ll talk to John through the mail slot. What’s loosened Sherlock up? Well, John twice surprised him by finding important clues, so Sherlock is making more of an effort to include him in the work; he just deduces back to him through the mail slot. And for now, Sherlock thinks that’s safe.

Plus, yanno, you can’t just have dinner with a person when you aren’t hungry and not talk to them afterward; it means something, and apparently even Sherlock isn’t that rude.

Sherlock uses deductions to talk over John’s expressions of emotion: John says, “I’m wasting my breath,” and “Any time you want to include me,” which frustrates John but not enough to leave — which we’ve established is exactly John’s thoughts on having a relationship with Sherlock. Did we leave out any of John’s other insecurities? For example, why does John think Sherlock won’t let him in? Oh, right: “I’m Sherlock Holmes and I always work alone because no one can compete with my massive intellect!”

Thank you, John. Very thorough summary of where you stand in your romantic arc. Sherlock just thinks you’re stupid, doesn’t he? It’s that simple.

Meanwhile, Sherlock realizes that while he thought he was safe and alone in his locked room — dun dun dun! — the attacker wasn’t outside after all, he’s still inside. Sherlock criticizes his own stupidity, which is entirely fair: if Sherlock wanted the subtext to go differently, he shouldn’t have talked to John this time around.

And he really shouldn’t describe the attacker this way while deducing him, while he’s at it: “Size eight feet. Small, but… athletic. Small, strong hands. …He’s still here.” Remind you of anyone? How about: “John! John!”

Don’t feel too bad for Sherlock. He does it to himself.

"John the acrobat": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeFl178cP58

So what about you Sherlock? How’s your romantic arc going? Geez, how embarrassing: it’s all in the score, everyone can hear how the attacker grabs you from behind and sets off the same music John set off when he buzzed Van Coon’s flat and no one was actually attacking you. Wow, we even get direct juxtaposition with John wanting to be let into your locked room. Tough luck, man. You’re never going to live this down.

And, oh, yes: you intend to attack first but the attacker has already snuck up behind you; then the attacker takes your breath away, wearing you down but leaving you alive to sputter, “John, John,” while he leaves his mark and escapes to later sneak up on you again. The attacker is surprisingly resilient to your attacks and hurts you way more than you hurt him, but he still runs away. You won’t talk about it to John afterward, you’ll only talk about the case because cases are how you distract yourself from sentiment. You’d never let on that someone got the better of you. And it’s too bad, because you really needed someone just now, and John really wanted to be that someone.

Not even subtle, but good job you guys. Gold stars all around.

Sherlock exits the flat, and tries and fails to act natural. John picks up on his odd behavior and is forced to conclude Sherlock is coming down with something, because the reality of it (literally: Sherlock was strangled, or figuratively: Sherlock is capable of feelings) isn’t something that would ever occur to John.

Oh, you two.

That’s going to keep happening. Whenever it seems like Sherlock may have tender emotions, particularly toward John, John will invent some other explanation. John’s disavowal of Sherlock’s clear feelings for him will get delusional by the time His Last Vow rolls around — and this even though John heard Sherlock warn us earlier this episode about picking a solution and ignoring all evidence to the contrary.

They’re a matching pair. Yes. We get it.

This scene is also the birthplace of the idea that John and Sherlock’s lives are so intertwined that they’re the same person, which will be emphasized in series three. You can’t build a subtext palace without laying the foundation first, after all.

Meanwhile, the note Andy left for Soo Lin asks if she’s okay — just as John asked Sherlock that same thing when he was calling for Sherlock to let him into Van Coon’s flat. Have I mentioned Andy is John? Andy is John. But don’t take my word for it. Seeing is believing:

"Andy is John": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0tisLGiS40

We cut to John and Sherlock and Andy at the museum. Sherlock stalks around, and the first thing he notices is the shiny teapot — just like Soo Lin would. Then they move to a different room and we get a neat sequence of John and Andy visually mirroring one another, because… okay, you get it.

Leaving the museum, John and Sherlock button their coats up at the same time because now we’ve initialized the “same person” subtext, and we’ve gotta spray it all over the episode.

"Hiding a tree": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_Z7nMCIHuw

The graffiti expert takes them to see a new cypher among walls drenched in graffiti. Sherlock says, “If you want to hide a tree in the middle of a forest, this is the best place to do it, wouldn’t you say? People would just walk straight past, not knowing, unable to decipher the message,” because hiding in plain sight is the theme of the episode, and it’s also analogous to depicting John and Sherlock’s relationship on screen by making it look like every other “tree” — we get a similar setting here as the earlier “our every waking moment is inhabited by cryptography” line and the other subtext-to-the-audience — and so on.

And indeed, the code is partially covered up by other things that are more flashy and eye-catching… just like John and Sherlock’s romantic arc relative to the plots of this show…

I mean, we can just go home now, can’t we? If we wade any further into this subtext we’re going to get trapped in it, like resin. We’re only halfway done and this couldn’t get any more…

"John, if we’re going to decipher this code, we’re going to look for more evidence."

Jeeesus, Sherlock. Fine.

"Mind in the gutter": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMvfV2vmzJ4 

…Now Sherlock’s gone and shoved a flashlight in his mouth while he experimentally brushes his thumb over the leaking tip of a phallic object designed to spray liquid with great force. Just— Look: I don’t know. Thompson, we know the crass visual stuff that will go on in your stag night section of The Sign of Three. A million apologies if our minds weren’t meant to go there, but you can hardly blame us: we’ve seen Sherlock wipe come off his face, so it’s not a stretch to imagine this might mean something. But hey: if this isn’t intentional it hardly matters relative to the rest of the evidence, so let’s not linger here.

Get the dick out of your mouth, Sherlock: the game is on.

Sherlock has purposely sent John off to look for clues on his own again: they’re rather secluded, and Sherlock is reluctant for it to be just the two of them because apparently John isn’t his friend and this isn’t a date. He ignores John’s attempts to contact him on his phone… so John runs up and retrieves him.

"Heterosexual face grasping and spinning": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCWpJdd1h50

John’s done it again! He’s surprised Sherlock and found a vital clue. And, oh snap, he’s still wearing your favorite outfit, Sherlock! This shining, beautiful teapot, am I right? Last time this happened you deduced with him and took him to dinner when you weren’t hungry. What can you possibly do to top that? Think big: there’s no chaperone to stop you.

Here comes Thompson’s signature romantic-touch-that-isn’t: Sherlock, breathing heavily in the moonlight, dramatically grasps John’s face in his hands, shushes him, leans in, and commands him to close his eyes. John understandably is startled, his voice going a bit high as he asks, “What are you doing?” Then Sherlock spins John in a circle like they’re in a goofy romantic movie. Except instead of kissing John, Sherlock takes the Sherlock path to romance by trying to get John to feed him data for his deductions. That’s safe, right? No sentiment involved.

Except John is even better at this than Sherlock expected: he’s got all the data, baby. It’s in his pocket, if you’ll let him get to it. Sherlock, stunned into speechlessness by just how much John’s pocket held, looks humbled.

John, on the other hand, is irritated at himself, mildly insulted by Sherlock, and sexually frustrated. This isn’t the only time Sherlock will physically invade his space, oblivious to what it must look like, and send John’s mind rocketing elsewhere.

They head back to 221B, the mirror nearly entirely covered by bits of the case now. John keeps falling asleep and Sherlock keeps talking. Nevertheless, John follows Sherlock to the museum where it’s the next day. John says that Soo Lin (Sherlock) is in danger because a killer is stalking her — and going forward Soo Lin’s stalker is a stand-in for Moriarty when we’re talking about Shan, and Mycroft when it’s in the context of her brother.

Andy (John) says Soo Lin (Sherlock) “could be a thousand miles away” for all he knows, just as Sherlock turns his attention elsewhere (figuratively a thousand miles away) and John asks what he’s looking at. Sherlock remarks upon the teapots aloud this time, further reinforcing his metaphorical mirror of Soo Lin.

We cut to Soo Lin, who has locked herself alone in a hidden place where no one can get to her while she focuses on her work, hammering home the metaphor of Sherlock and his heart. Just like the acrobat/John snuck up on Sherlock, Sherlock sneaks up on her and startles her so badly she drops her teapot. Now Sherlock and his mirror have each dropped a fragile container of water. Sherlock catches this one too because the law of subtext dictates he has to do it twice this episode in order to save John later. Sherlock then stresses the importance of respecting antiquities, because if you didn’t realize it, there’s a parallel set up between Sherlock and Soo Lin.

Sherlock then goes on to be uncharacteristically sympathetic to Soo Lin, and why wouldn’t he? They have so much in common! “You’ve been clever to avoid him so far,” Sherlock says, and Sherlock likes clever people who hide from other clever people. Soo Lin says she had to finish her work, which Sherlock can totally relate to. He asks if Soo Lin has met her stalker before, and Soo Lin has: it’s her brother! She (Sherlock) did what her brother (Mycroft) asked for a long time, but then when she (Sherlock) tried to escape and do her own work, he (Mycroft) kept hassling her (Sherlock) instead of letting her live her own life. Even though she (Sherlock) is clever and tries to hide, he (Mycroft) inevitably finds her. It’s been five years since Soo Lin tried to make a clean break, just as Lestrade lets us know Sherlock has been helping him with cases for five years in A Study in Pink. Soo Lin tells us her brother came to her flat and asked her to track down something, just like Mycroft continually tries to get Sherlock to help him.

"Mycroft's theme": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEr9Vb5hKek

After Soo Lin says it’s her brother, hints of Mycroft’s ominous motif (the one that plays when he moves the CCTV cameras for John, and when John meets him at the warehouse in the previous episode) even interweave with the Chinese motif in the score, and continue with Soo Lin’s line, “my brother has become their puppet in the power of the one they call Shan.” Which… may also be suggesting something uncomfortable about Mycroft’s relationship to Moriarty, though that remains to be seen. It’s such a small hint of his motif, and not even the big part of it, that it’s probably just underscoring Sherlock’s sympathy and a nod to being constantly watched.

So: Sherlock feels that, Soo Lin. He’s been there. He’s near tears just hearing this story.

This is also just one of many moments where Sherlock has sympathy for those who are in danger for being different — and this is also a big nod to his “damsel in distress” thing. Sherlock genuinely does care about saving people. Get used to it, because it’ll keep happening.

Sherlock is patient while trying to get Soo Lin to explain the code, but then all the lights go out, the music does the flare that signifies John/attacker — so of course Sherlock immediately flees John, running toward the literal attacker, even though we saw Sherlock try to escape the literal attacker at Soo Lin’s flat. So what is the score telling us that surge of music truly signifies? Sherlock’s panic at John infiltrating his heart — as if it weren’t already obvious from the fact that the first time we hear it at Van Coon’s flat there isn’t a literal attacker present, just Sherlock evading John because John said he’s not Sherlock’s friend.

John briefly tries to protect Soo Lin (save the life) because he’s not one to let people die, especially not when they’re subtextual mirrors for Sherlock.

Zhi Zhu (Soo Lin’s brother) begins running about the museum, which must be exhausting considering he’s been extensively used as a parallel for both John and Mycroft and should be pretty tired by now. He covers his face to hide his identity while he fires shots at Sherlock, and Sherlock tries to go it alone, so Zhi Zhu’s engaged his John mode for now. Wise choice: Mycroft is terrible for legwork. We’ll see the metaphor of hiding one’s identity equated with the subtext of John’s hiding his sexual orientation again in The Sign of Three, with another invisible man who infiltrates locked rooms.

Meanwhile, John quickly goes looking for the real Sherlock, because Sherlock’s subtextual mirror is a woman and doesn’t give John enough of a danger boner.

"John as pursuer": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoO8HhMPY2U

We then get a shot of Sherlock fleeing, with John glancing out at Sherlock’s back from behind a pillar like John is the one chasing him. It’s a subtext party, and the camera will be damned if it’s not invited. John heard gunshots, Sherlock! He’s in Captain John Watson mode wearing your favorite outfit and you’re missing it. Stop running and let him love you!

"John the acrobat 2": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81868MbWL8o

And — I can’t even make this up — the score flares into one final round right after we see John peek around that pillar… and stops when Sherlock gets up the stairs, out of John’s line of sight, where Zhi Zhu has actually cornered Sherlock and he should be in the most danger. Sherlock relaxes now that he’s further away from John.

Again: this flare of music indicates Sherlock’s panic that John could infiltrate his heart. When we hear it, we’re to make inferences to what it might mean in the given context. There will be a practical exam later.

Zhi Zhu fires some shots at Sherlock, who asks him to have respect for the antiquities. Because Sherlock is Soo Lin’s mirror.

Zhi Zhu, apparently realizing he came there to do a job, not mirror John when John has physically taken over Zhi Zhu’s role in the subtext anyway, leaves to kill Soo Lin instead. Sherlock and John, meanwhile, stand alone in separate parts of the museum, looking around for someone they can’t find.

Then there’s a gunshot, and John returns to see Soo Lin’s corpse. That’s what happens when you don’t bolt the door, Sherlock’s mirror. That’s what happens when you let people in.

There is one other way of looking at this: once Zhi Zhu reaches Soo Lin, he symbolizes Mycroft again, and it’s Sherlock letting Mycroft in, his not trying harder to fight Mycroft off, that really kills Sherlock’s chances at a relationship. Remember, Mycroft is the source of “caring is not an advantage.” We’ll see him cast off Mycroft when having his romantic epiphany in the best man speech of The Sign of Three.

"Fake smile for Molly": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l90J17IAtsQ

John and Sherlock both hassle Dimmock, who demands proof of the Black Lotus gang of smugglers. Sherlock goes to charm Molly into showing him some corpses. It’s worth remembering that in A Study in Pink and A Scandal in Belgravia, Sherlock has never considered that Molly could be attracted to him: he compliments her hair and smiles because he’s learned that works on her for some reason, which would be sociopathic if it weren’t so sad instead. His smile falls immediately when Molly turns her back — unlike the smiles he gives John — and he immediately checks his watch. Again, to read this as attraction to Molly requires a lot of heteronormative assumptions and disregard for Sherlock’s characterization. Molly wants to eat and Sherlock isn’t hungry, except apparently he doesn’t watch her eat after all as he leaves to retrieve Dimmock for the next scene.

Dimmock is convinced by the pair of matching symbols on the corpses’ feet, and sends crates of their books to 221B. It’s not clear where John was for the scenes at Bart’s, but he and Sherlock return home at the same time. They talk over the case together, the books arrive, and they start looking for matching books. John, at this point, has been awake for two days and has work tomorrow, but still diligently helps Sherlock until the next morning.

Of course, John falls asleep at work later. When Sarah asks him what kept him up so late, she assumes John was out with a girlfriend. John wishes that’s what rifling through books with Sherlock means — he says, “it wasn’t a date” — so he flirts with renewed vigor and lands himself a real date. Just like he’s supposed to want.

Sherlock, now on his third day without sleep and showing no signs of slowing down, is still going through books at 221B when John arrives, and several things happen.

"At least I hope not": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcSnHehn5rY

The first is that right as John comes into Sherlock’s peripheral vision, Sherlock ruffles his hair for the first time. Every time we see a hair ruffle, like a collar pop, Sherlock has reason to want to look good. It will be more obviously sexual in series three, but it happens twice in series one as well. It’s less clear that it’s intentional in series one, but let’s make note of them anyway. If the first two are meaningless, it doesn’t really detract from anything; they’re just subtext frosting.

Right now, Sherlock ruffles his hair before asking John on a date.

Specifically: Sherlock takes for granted that “we’re going out tonight.” John says he has a date, to which Sherlock responds with an appalled, “What?" John, who has written Sherlock off as a social weirdo, speaks to him like a child and explains, "It’s where two people who like each other go out and have fun." Sherlock, cementing the crime-solving-as-date metaphor into the text, says, "That’s what I was suggesting." John responds with certainty: "No it wasn’t," and then adds, "At least I hope not." Because as John will soon confirm to us, John equates dating with sex — and if he were to go on a real date with Sherlock, he’d want sex to be involved. He’s been on Sherlock’s idea of a “date” and it leaves him sexually frustrated: Sherlock does stuff like grab his face and tell him to close his eyes, only to spin him in a circle and insult him. He’s trying to escape that.

But what the hell, John? Sherlock had dinner with you when he wasn’t hungry. You shared deductions. Did it mean nothing?

Sherlock, naturally, just manipulates John into helping him later by suggesting his original date idea. Note that Sherlock isn’t yet overtly possessive of John, but this is the second time he’s tried to lure John away from Sarah with the case. John, yet again reinforcing his opinion that Sherlock is clueless about relationships, says, “I don’t come to you for dating advice.”

For some reason, John decides to take Sarah there anyway. John will almost always do whatever Sherlock suggests, no matter how opposed he might be. It’s like he can’t help it. John tells Sarah that a “friend” suggested it, but Sherlock isn’t yet around to hear it.

"Third Wheel": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIsV0xuy8fk

John has to give Sherlock’s name for the tickets, reinforcing the idea that they’re the same person. Sherlock shows up, introduces himself, and absolutely stares Sarah down. He then immediately leaves once the formality has concluded. It’s awkward.

"Consulting Virgin": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHeyEjMntTU

John follows after Sherlock, irritated that Sherlock couldn’t give him one night off. Sherlock tries to explain the importance of the circus, but John isn’t having it. He tries to tell Sherlock he has “other things on his mind,” and displays visible disbelief when Sherlock genuinely has no clue what he could be talking about. John has to actually spell out that he wants to have sex with Sarah — confirming that sex is important to John, and is indeed his conscious goal in dating Sarah despite the fact we know he’s also a romantic. It would seem that John is mostly looking for a sexual outlet at the moment. Hm. Where’s he getting all this pent-up sexual energy?

Well, John can be certain who will never be on the receiving end of that energy: Sherlock is stunningly oblivious. John can have no doubts now. He has a date to go on.

"The Real Third Wheel": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGVnKW-qNR0

But that’s the thing about sexual frustration: John can’t help how his attention is drawn to Sherlock instead of Sarah. In the initial shot, Sherlock is arranged so that he almost eclipses Sarah entirely, even though the shot could have been arranged otherwise. Then John talks to Sherlock before the act begins, not Sarah, even though both John and Sherlock have to turn around awkwardly to accomplish this. And though Sarah looks at both of them, neither of them look at her.

"The real Third Wheel 2": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIkJVerLFT4

As the act starts up, John and Sherlock watch it for a moment, then Sherlock turns his full attention to John, just watching him. John should be focused on the act or Sarah. John has no way of knowing Sherlock is looking at him. But they’re drawn together like that: John turns around and they look into each other’s eyes. Sarah stands there, the third wheel on her own date.

Rude, John.

"The Real Third Wheel 3": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts-l1XEftLE

Heeey, John looked at Sarah, that’s bett— oh, nope, back to Sherlock.

That’s not how you get laid, John. There’s nothing there for you, remember?

Then John gets his head in the game and looks at Sarah for half a second. Good job! Er, wait, what—

"The real Third Wheel 4": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slWfz8PDMkk

Oh honey. You’re not really getting the hang of this, are you?

"The Real Thirs Wheel 5": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhTxPOs_j8Y

Yeah. You’re not.

We’ll cut John some slack after that for turning around to look at Sherlock: Sherlock begins to actually talk, after all. John then manages to look at Sarah for another half second, but she’s going to have to try harder. Oh! There she goes: startled, she grabs John’s arm and giggles, which finally gets his attention. John likes that, someone actually touching him for once.

John stares at the progression of the sandbag, and Sherlock leaves while everyone is distracted.

"Where's my boyfriend": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsTjRKZUcYs

As soon as the trap is escaped, John notices Sherlock is gone: John couldn’t help looking at him every few seconds, so we’re not surprised. To his credit, however, John just stays on his date instead of trying to figure out where he went. That’s what Sherlock does, isn’t it? He just leaves John places. Basically the story of John’s love life through A Scandal in Belgravia.

Oh, hey, there’s some other subtext going on too: John’s mirror, an acrobat, escapes death just like John will escape at the end of the episode. And you know what happens when you let those two escape? They sneak up on Sherlock again when he tries to go it alone and thinks he safe, then Sherlock tries to fight them off. You know, just in case you didn’t get that they’re mirrors. And just in case you’ve ever wondered why Sherlock is such a massive dick at the beginning of The Great Game.

"John the acrobat 3": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEA-nOpVhbw

Speaking of mirrors, Sherlock picks up a can of paint, says, “Found you,” and then sprays the yellow line over his own reflection in the mirror. It means death, but he doesn’t actually know what the cypher means yet. He then sees the attacker come into focus, sneaking up on him — aaand there’s that music, so this is about Sherlock’s heart. What’s different this time? It’s probably not a coincidence that we get this toward the end of the episode, as Sherlock is beginning to realize John’s value (“found you”) but doesn’t have all the pieces yet: Sherlock isn’t as surprised this time, he sees it coming, but he still feels threatened by it. And yes, by the time The Great Game rolls around, Sherlock will be consciously struggling with his attachment to John.

This time the acrobat whoops Sherlock’s ass so badly he needs help; despite knowing it was coming, somehow Sherlock’s even worse at fighting him off than before. Who is it that comes to distract John from infiltrating Sherlock’s heart? Sarah. And it’s Sarah that keeps the literal acrobat from hurting Sherlock further: she beats the shit out of the acrobat. Meanwhile, John deals with his other acrobat mirror, Zhi Zhu, because John, too, is trying to keep himself from trying to infiltrate Sherlock’s heart.

The cherry on top of our triple scoop subtext sundae: Sarah is a bad-ass, and we all know that’s what John is attracted to, even if he had no way of knowing beforehand. (Foreshadowing Mary.) John pulls Sarah out by the hand, both of them trailing after Sherlock

We’ve just had our freakiest subtext orgy yet and we’ve still got twenty minutes of this show left. Christ.

The three of them talk to Dimmock, then head back to 221B. John and Sherlock are staring at a mirror that is entirely papered over, so something has happened to even further obscure them from seeing themselves as a unit. What could it be?

Not what, but who: Sarah, whose presence throws off their connection — Sherlock works alone, and John tries to pull together some food — even if she isn’t all bad. In several of the shots, both John and Sherlock have their backs turned to each other, and her, as she walks around in the middle of 221B. It suggests visually that despite John’s hospitality, neither of them actually want her there. We’ll get a bigger signal from the score once Sherlock leaves, though.

John tells her to stay, of course, having reaffirmed to himself subtextually that it’s Sarah from now on: three Johns entered the circus, and the one on the date left intact. The two that went after Sherlock ended up hurt.

Sherlock, who was perfectly polite to Sarah earlier and not that possessive of John, is now suddenly rude to Sarah and possessive of John. Why? The more Sherlock becomes attached to John, the more he tries to pull John in when John pulls away… and the more he’ll try to push John away when he gets too close. Welcome to an unhealthy habit that Sherlock won’t grow out of until series three. If you enjoy seeing John Watson tormented until he’s an empty shell of a man, you’ll like this show.

John tries to attend to his date instead of the case so his heart doesn’t end up wrecked. Sarah looks over Sherlock’s papers, and yet again, Sherlock has failed to notice something valuable right under his nose: the partially-decoded cypher, and another human being’s intelligence.

Mrs. Hudson comes up with food, and must understand that John is on a date. She will see more of John’s girlfriends, and John and Mrs. Hudson will even discuss if Sherlock’s ever had a boyfriend or girlfriend, but despite all this, Mrs. Hudson will never believe John is not in love with Sherlock.

Sherlock fills John in, and tells him he’s going to go find the book Soo Lin must have had open on her desk. John, however, chooses to stay with Sarah, so Sherlock runs outside on his own. Sherlock’s isolation is emphasized: he smacks into some people who are irritated by him, then can’t get a cab’s attention. The people around him reading the London A to Z are in pairs.

"Getting laid is sad": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE_VQK59muU

Meanwhile, John has ordered takeaway and hears a knock on the door. As he interacts with Sarah, he seems pleasant enough, but John’s sad, pensive theme kicks in. We never hear this when John is happy, only when he feels lost without Sherlock. (If you never noticed, the opening theme of the show is John’s four-note motif here, except bright and strong, joined by Sherlock’s motif, also bright and strong. When Sherlock’s motif isn’t there to join John’s, it’s like John’s motif loses the will to live. If you ever meet someone in real life whose motif is joined like that to another person’s, don’t even try dating them. You don’t have a chance, and you’ll have to hear depressing music on all your dates.)

Also, back to the idea of eating-as-sex, this sadness kicks in while John is pouring wine for them both — literally the moment he starts pouring — and waiting for food. Even outside the metaphor established by the show, drinking on a date alludes to sex. Why is John so depressed by the prospect of getting laid? It’s supposed to be what he wants, right? Why is he feeling lost without Sherlock right now? He’s been gone like, one minute. It’s not like John has any reason right now to have any kind of concern, platonic or otherwise, for Sherlock’s well-being or something to distract him. He thinks everything is fine.

It’s very difficult to read this as anything other than John wishing he were on a date with Sherlock instead, with the promise of sex that entails. We know he wants sex, but he does not seem to want Sarah. He’s missing Sherlock.

John is settling. And it’s alluded to when Sarah asks if she should lay the table, and John says they’ll just eat off trays. He doesn’t want to put in any effort, he doesn’t want the trappings even if someone else offers to put in the effort: he’s just here for the food (sex) thanks. And it’s depressing him, because yes, John is a romantic, and it’s not Sarah he has feelings for.

Then they never do drink the wine or eat the food. And we’ll see in the next episode that apparently they never do have sex, as Sarah makes him sleep on the couch. John is sexually starved and will remain so for some time.

John answers the door to a member of the Black Lotus, who thinks John is Sherlock. John says something we’ll hear again twice in His Last Vow, another episode that emphasizes how John and Sherlock are the same person: “I don’t understand.” And it means the same thing here as it will then: Sherlock cares about John, but John thinks he’s a sociopath incapable of caring for people, so John will completely misinterpret Sherlock’s behavior.

"Realizing hairpin's value": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B6C6n2fL1w

The guy clubs John across the face and, say it with me now: we get the surge of music that indicates Sherlock’s fear that John has infiltrated his heart, because this is when he’s going to get a big wake-up call of how much John means to him.

But right now, it only goes for one round because Sherlock doesn’t know what’s happened yet. He’s deciphering that something seemingly ordinary (a hairpin) is insanely valuable, and he’s only hearing about it because it’s been stolen. But remember: all of Sherlock’s romantic realizations ride along on his deductions and surprise him. In A Study in Pink he deduced that the person who shot the cabbie was John, and we had that whole pseudo-romantic ending where Sherlock is terribly fond of him. In A Scandal in Belgravia he’ll deduce that Molly is in love with him, making him consider that such a thing could be possible. In The Sign of Three he’ll deduce via the Mayfly/Invisible Man case that John lied about being bisexual to hide his feelings from Sherlock, and upon realizing that was possible, he acknowledges his own romantic feelings for John.

So Sherlock always needs to do this twice. Give him a minute, and we’ll hear the music kick in again for John.

"Realizing John's value": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLrm3RqEwI4

As soon as Sherlock deciphers the literal code, Sherlock automatically goes to get John instead of simply pursuing the case by himself. The score goes momentarily lax, as Sherlock takes for granted that John is there… then as soon as Sherlock sees the graffiti threat and finds John missing, it does a massive flare as Sherlock looks horrified. He’s just realized that someone seemingly ordinary is insanely valuable to him, and he’s only realized it because he’s been stolen.

John was already a teapot and an acrobat, he can be a hairpin too. He’s both sexually and subtextually versatile, your faves could never, etc.

We cut to Shan mistaking John for Sherlock because their lives are already so intertwined: they share money (Sherlock’s credit card, the check from Seb), they went on a date together, and John made such a ruckus trying to infiltrate Sherlock’s heart that anyone within a block would have heard it. They’re pretty married already and this is only their second case.

This quote from Shan is telling, considering the subtext we’ve established: “What does it tell you when an assassin cannot shoot straight? It tells you that they’re not really trying.” John has been a mirror for the assassins who left Sherlock alive, and we know John can literally shoot straight. We also know that he hasn’t really tried to totally go after Sherlock romantically; he’s holding back. This would seem to suggest, subtextually, that if John actually tried, he’d succeed. And that makes sense, because Sherlock’s whole arc until The Sign of Three is based around disbelief that anyone could ever tolerate him enough to fall in love with him, especially someone as great as John, and his assumption that John is straight. If John just laid it all out for Sherlock right now so that Sherlock had no room for assumptions, well, Sherlock’s brain would break first, but then he might be receptive. It would save Sherlock the embarrassment of his best man’s speech when he figures it out for himself.

Instead, Sherlock is going to obsess over how he’s attached to John when John doesn’t even consider Sherlock his friend and writes mean things about him on his blog — mean things that are true, which is extra hateful because the only thing worse than knowing he’s unlovable is knowing that John might have expectations of his behavior he could never hope to match. We’ll get all that next episode, by the way.

Sigh. You guys could have had years.

But this is more fun. Sherlock figures out where to go, and Shan puts Sarah in the firing line of her circus trap. You’d think after shit like this, John would find a new flatmate, but of course he won’t. He killed in order to stay by Sherlock’s side last episode, and he’ll do it again here.

"Gay pride": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28gFrBdWxE0

In the rush to get Sherlock to his damsel in distress, the cab goes past the London Eye lit up like a rainbow for Gay Pride. The showrunners may not have been able to time that themselves, but when they went to shoot, it was there, and they used it instead of an infinite number of other sequences.

Sherlock makes his super cool dramatic entrance — he does so love to look good in front of John. John gets to watch him bash a guy over the head, then kick over a flaming barrel, all while monologuing. Sherlock couldn’t be any more attractive to Dr. John “Danger Boner” Watson right now if he tried.

Wait, yes he could: Sherlock automatically goes to untie Sarah. See? Sherlock really does care about saving people, he really does have a damsel in distress thing. But now a masked assailant has snuck up on Sherlock and is trying to strangle him, just like before! That’s your mirror, John, trying to get into Sherlock’s heart! Quick: make a subtextual disavowal of your attraction to Sherlock! KILL!

Nailed it.

Except that just upped the adrenaline in here. And you just killed for Sherlock again. Mixed messages, John. Quick: make a textual disavowal of your attraction to Sherlock!

"Don’t worry. Next date won’t be like this."

Attaboy.

This is bad news for Sherlock, though: John is both the only one who can break his heart, and the only one who can save it. Sherlock is as mindfucked by this as you’d expect.

"Sherlock pours tea": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNfOjiszJbw

This is a public service announcement: in the episode you just watched, the character of Soo Lin Yao was a mirror for Sherlock. If you don’t want to end up dead like Soo Lin, what should you do? Include your friend in your tea ceremony, kids.

Hey, are you pouring John something to drink Sherlock? I know it’s subtext but it’s pretty blatant and I just said there were kids watching this.

…Oh, it was sneakily shot so that it was off-camera. We only see you pouring it for yourself. The subtext won’t allow you to make your feelings for John obvious, and accordingly, John doesn’t doesn’t drink it.

This fucking show.

Including John, but still keeping him at a distance, then. Sounds about right. Gotta lead into The Great Game where you act like an idiot. Let’s get right on that:

Cut to the bank, where Sherlock cracked the case due to his powerful memory for toiletries. He confronts Amanda, saying she wasn’t just Van Coon’s PA. Amanda (John) says, “It couldn’t last. He was my boss.” Sherlock asks, “Why did you end it?” and Amanda (John) responds, “I thought he didn’t appreciate me. Took me for granted. Stood me up once too often… he’d just leave; fly off to China at a moment’s notice.” We’ve seen almost all of this this episode, what with the particulars of Sherlock just leaving John to get an ASBO. Well, except Sherlock doesn’t fly off at a moment’s notice… oh wait, Sherlock’s last comment on John’s write-up of The Blind Banker: “John! I need you to book me some aeroplane tickets! I’m going to Minsk!” And Sherlock does go next episode, alone.

So why does Sherlock push John away at the start of the next episode and go it alone when he’s just realized John’s value? Well, we cut to Seb giving John a check. Seb says, “He really climbed up onto the balcony?” to which John responds, “Nail a plank across the window and all your problems are over.”

John got into Sherlock’s heart through an unexpected entrance: the work. Sherlock’s nailing his plank across the window.

To make it up to Amanda, Van Coon gave her the hairpin. Amanda says she’s pretty sure he stole it, and Sherlock says, “Didn’t know its value, just thought it would suit you.” In A Scandal in Belgravia Sherlock will steal John an ashtray from Buckingham Palace just because John had joked about wanting one.

Then Sherlock genuinely smiles when he tells Amanda how much the hairpin is worth: she is John’s stand-in, after all, and Sherlock isn’t a total sociopath.

Back at Baker Street, John is eating while Sherlock doesn’t, and they discuss the case. We end with some Moriarty foreshadowing: unlike the cabbie, Moriarty hadn’t sent Shan after Sherlock. Now Sherlock’s messing with Moriarty’s actual business, and he can’t have that.

So what’s Moriarty to do? If Sherlock won’t join him, Moriarty will beat him. Sherlock’s choice.

Next week on Sherlock: The Great Game! Will Sherlock do the responsible thing and fill John full of hot liquid to keep him from cracking? No. And John will indeed become so overwhelmingly attracted to Sherlock that, after the pool scene, he will take desperate measures to preserve his sanity. Stay tuned!

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