Growing Pains: John and Sherlock in The Blind Banker

 (Sherlock Meta by sherlockcharacteranalysis)

marryxmasmollyhooper: Hello! I just discovered your blog, and while I do Ship Johnlock, I think your analyses are spot on. One question, though, could you specify what behavior of John's in The Blind Banker would have made Sherlock insecure/defensive about their relationship? Was there anything more than the "colleague" correction? Thanks!

sherlockcharacteranalysis: Thank you for this question! (I’m assuming it must be about this post.) I’ve actually wanted to do an analysis of how The Blind Banker portrays John and Sherlock’s friendship for awhile now, and this is just the motivation I need.

The Blind Banker starts with both Sherlock and John coming off the honeymoon period in A Study in Pink, and then the episode is basically a series of growing pains that they overcome to reach a better understanding of each other.



(Go to the bolded part at the end if you want a short, not-so-detailed answer, because this is a bit long.)

At the beginning, after the row with the self-checkout, John comes home irritated and assumes the worst conclusion from what he sees i.e. that Sherlock sat around doing nothing all day, when we know otherwise. This is the opposite of A Study in Pink when John always gave Sherlock the benefit of the doubt or just straight up assumed the best of him even in the face of overwhelming evidence (like the drug bust). Here, he has almost no evidence and just assumes the worst (wrongly), just like everyone else.

Instead of getting irritated though, Sherlock decides to be magnanimous and sends John off with his credit card, because John is his friend and friends help each other, right? John comes back and is still irritated though, says he needs a job, asks Sherlock if he can borrow money. Sherlock ignores him, goes off to meet Sebastian instead, John in tow.

By the time Sherlock introduces John as his “friend,” John is pretty tiffed. In John’s world, a friend is someone who doesn’t just let you struggle up the stairs yourself with all the shopping, and most definitely would not ignore you when you’re in financial straits. At the moment, John doesn’t really feel like Sherlock considers him a friend, he’s more like some kind of live-in help…so “colleague,” he corrects. Now, I don’t think John said that entirely out of frustration; there’s also the fact that Sherlock introduced him as a colleague in A Study in Pink, not to mention that a “colleague” is connected to The Work, which Sherlock values, where as a friend is connected to human relationships, which are “dull”. That being said, I think if he had been less frustrated, he might have just let it go.





Now, however, from Sherlock’s POV the events are completely different:

First, as indicated above, Sherlock is actually trying to be nice this whole time. He doesn’t correct John, he tries to lighten the mood, he gives John his credit card. John comes back; he obviously doesn’t need help with the shopping. He’s a strong man, and look he even said he doesn’t need help. Hmm, but John is still irritated. Now he’s fussing about the bills. Dull. Besides, isn’t that suppose to be John’s strong point? Practical stuff like that? Why is he talking to Sherlock about it? Now he’s asking to borrow money. Sherlock just gave him his own credit card; what more can he need?

At this moment Sherlock decides to go to the bank and help Sebastian, something he had been ambivalent about before. Why? I think he actually does this for John. John likes the excitement of cases; it lets him escape the dull drudgery of ordinary life which is what weighs him down. Sherlock decides then that this case will cheer John up, just like it did before. Too bad John doesn’t understand any of this and Sherlock doesn’t think to explain at all, because to him it’s just obvious.

So he goes to the bank to help Sebastian whom he despises just for John, because he cares about John who is his friend, even introduces him properly as such…and then John goes and throws it back in his face. John considers himself a “colleague,” you know like Lestrade and everyone else down at the yard who thinks Sherlock’s a freak and not anyone to be admired or even respected. Sherlock had thought John was different, but now he’s wondering if maybe he’s not. Then to make matters worse, when Sebastian makes fun of him, John smiles right along. (In John’s defense, I think he thought Sebastian was just joking around, like old college mates do, and doesn’t notice how hurt Sherlock looks in that scene.)







When you look at it that way, it’s hard not to imagine Sherlock feeling extremely hurt and insecure about his whatever with John from then on. And I think not coincidentally, the next two places they go investigate, Sherlock intentionally shuts John out. (Or, very intentionally doesn’t let him in.)

The thing is, however he introduced him to The Yard, Sherlock hasn’t really been bringing John as a colleague. He’s been bringing John to cases as a friend; it’s “two people who like each other going out to have fun.”  Although eventually Sherlock starts to realize that John is actually quite crucial to the his work as well, I think this is always the primary motivation for Sherlock bringing John along. At any rate, at this point, he still thinks he’s been bringing John along mainly for John’s own sake: he took John to see the pink woman because John was frustrated about staying behind, to chase the cabbie to cure John’s limp, and now to the bank to distract John from his mundane worries.

So at this moment, I imagine Sherlock thinking (if subconsciously) something like this: “colleague? Do you really think I need you for my work John? You think that’s why I bring you along? Well that’s not why; let me show you.” Annnnnnnnd he leaves John locked outside Eddie van Coon’s flat.

Eventually Sherlock does let John in (dead body, would be good for John to check), but then John refuses to help out. Then he inadvertently betrays Sherlock again by  siding with D.I. Dimmock’s (wrong) theory over Sherlock’s.



Sherlock then retaliates by leaving John to fend for himself when the cops show up behind the museum and accuse John of vandalism, and then again outside of Soo Lin Yao’s flat. Except this time the assassin jumps Sherlock and his life is threatened…oh shit, maybe he does need John after all. (Not to mention that it was John who figured out that Van Coon and Lukis went to the Lucky Cat, which is where I think Sherlock gets the idea to “train” John on The Bruce Partington Plans case in The Great Game.)

After that Sherlock finally admits that having John along benefits him as well, so he decides to bring him along from now on if only for physical safety purposes…only to have John reject his offer because of his date with Sarah. So from Sherlock’s point-of-view this is three acts of betrayal by John already in this episode. (Now, John only does this because he feels like Sherlock doesn’t really need him, and Sherlock doesn’t tell John that he wants him along because it might be dangerous. Otherwise I have no doubt that John would have cancelled the date to go protect Sherlock.)

Still, Sherlock manages manipulate John into coming along anyway, and by the end of the episode John (and Sarah!) comes through for Sherlock, saving him TWICE.

Basically, in A Study in Pink, John makes Sherlock feel accepted, and Sherlock makes John feel useful, which was what they both craved and needed, hence their almost immediate friendship. In The Blind Banker though, they do the complete opposite to each other: Sherlock makes John feel useless by leaving him in the dark/locked out of the crime scenes, and John makes Sherlock feel rejected with the “colleague” comment, and then by siding with all the “normal people” (Sebastian, Dimmock, and Sarah) instead of Sherlock. However, they’re able to reverse this: after saving his life a couple of times again, John realizes that he is actually necessary to Sherlock, and Sherlock even says “I need your help” at the circus. Meanwhile, John slowly realizes that Sherlock is right and eventually sides with him against both Sebastian and Dimmock (and he breaks-up with Sarah in the long run). Then of course by saving Sherlock again despite his own life being in danger, he shows that he does actually care quite a bit about Sherlock.



But I think after this Sherlock becomes a bit wary and questions John’s unconditional acceptance of him which he had assumed after the events in A Study in Pink, and it’s not until John offers to die for him at the pool that Sherlock is sure of it again.

Sherlock really, really, really likes John by the end of A Study in Pink; I might even argue that he’s already in-love with John by this point, even if he doesn’t acknowledge it. By the end of The Blind Banker though, he’s not sure if John loves him back or if he’s protecting Sherlock out of some sense of obligation/duty. Then at the pool, Sherlock realizes that even if it’s not love, it’s goddamn close enough.

The thing is too though, that I’m not sure if John himself knows either why exactly he’s with Sherlock, whether it’s out of gratefulness or love or what, because Sherlock just doesn’t fit any of John’s notions about those things. It’s very likely that John discovers that he does indeed love Sherlock at about the same moment Sherlock does, when both of their lives are seriously threatened.