Welcome back. The gentleman in the warehouse.

 (Sherlock Meta by abidos)

Or, how to get your brother a flatmate in three easy steps.

I finally sat myself down and got my thoughts together about Mycroft and John’s first meeting. Was supposed to be brief but ended being a rather lengthy piece analysing a five-minute scene.

The interaction between Mycroft and John can be roughly divided in two parts; before and after his offer to pay John to spy on Sherlock.  The first part consists mostly of a power display on Mycroft’s part and on him presenting himself as a sinister, menacing person.  In the second part, without losing any of the menace of the first part, the focus of the conversation shifts to John. Let’s look at it more closely.



It starts with the ringing phones, an unsettling start because, like with the cameras later on, they are everyday tools that all of a sudden turn hostile.  Much like the not-a-threat to get John in the car and not-Anthea, it isn’t just a power display, it isn’t just danger.  It is something deeper.  Like spending a relaxing day sailing and all of sudden realising that something huge is moving under your boat.  The car ride would have been much scarier with a thick necked, armed to the teeth, growling gorilla.  But a well-dressed, attractive woman, who doesn’t even look up from her phone, makes a joke about not telling you her name and casually points out that she already knows who you are is disconcerting.  Being the object of interest of people for whom this type of activity is just part of their job is unsettling, much like realising that through those CCTV cameras someone might actually be looking at you.

Next is the arrival at the warehouse, a sinister setting (no one to hear you scream, etc…) but more on that latter.  There is a chair for John, again, a rattling show of consideration in what is almost a kidnapping.  Another noticeable thing is that Mycroft calls John by his first name, something he did not do during the phone conversation, nor will he do again for the duration of the episode.  Quite possibly, it is a reference to the conversation John has with not-Anthea in the car, where he presents himself a John.  Another show of Mycroft’s omniscience.



Mycroft says that the reason behind the warehouse, the car, the cameras and all the rest is to avoid the Sherlock noticing.  Except this is not the case at all.  Sherlock is capable of deducing where a man has been by the stains on his clothes.  By putting John in places he has no reason to be (luxury car and abandoned warehouse) there is a considerable chance that Sherlock might deduce that something strange might have happened.  On the other hand, having John step in a cab and meeting with him somewhere he might go (supermarket, bar, his own hotel room) would not be hard to arrange and a lot more discreet.

Next Mycroft calls John stupid, presents himself as Sherlock’s arch-enemy and throws in a little more intimidation.  Then he shows the reach of his information again, by mentioning the Baker Street address and John’s economic situation.

I love the theatricality of taking out the notebook to check the address.  In Conan Doyle’s stories, Mycroft analyses information from all governmental departments, for which he, no doubt, possesses a remarkable memory.  Although we do not know if in “Sherlock” Mycroft has, or will have, a similar function, it is not too much to assume that he has an equally good memory.  Therefore, it is doubtful that he would need to write down the probable future address of his brother (which also happened to be the address of one of Sherlock’s few friends).  But much like not-Anthea’s ignoring John, it makes the entire proceeding seem less personal.



Now we reach the point where Mycroft asks John to spy for him, which he refuses to do.

Let’s stop at this point to look at the possible explanations for Mycroft’s behaviour until now.

The first would be to take his intentions at face value.  He wants John to spy on Sherlock without his brother being any the wiser.  We already saw that, if Mycroft didn’t want his brother to know about them meeting, this was a rather counterproductive way of doing it.  Furthermore, presenting yourself as a sinister and menacing figure, part of a large organization with extremely far-reaching resources, for which abduction and intimidation is a common occurrence and identifying yourself as your target’s “archenemy” is probably not the best way to go about it.  Calling John stupid is also not likely to help much.  This would be the case with most people, but particularly with John.  We know Mycroft has access to John’s psychiatric notes, no doubt he has also read his military file and any other information available.  Therefore, he has at least some basic knowledge of John’s character.  His bravery, loyalty, moral sense and stubbornness would have been noted by his superiors.  That this wouldn’t have worked would have been apparent.

Of course, we could just assume that Mycroft really sucks at this kind of thing, but since he is at least involved with the secret service we would hope that he would be a bit more efficient at acquiring information and predicting people’s reactions.  If this was really what he was after it would have been a much safer bet to take John to a bar or a restaurant and play the concerned older brother card.  John’s sister is an alcoholic, which would have made him even more sympathetic, especially since Mycroft doesn’t ask for anything that John would consider indiscreet

Another interpretation I have seen floating around is that Mycroft is simply trying to scare John away.  Again, if this is his aim it all seems so terribly ineffective.  Mycroft could arrange for John to be recalled to the army or something else that would force him to move out of London. Or, he could have some of the people that work for him intimidate John, there is no need for him to get personally involved in the affair (you know, legwork…).



The last explanation is that it is a test, and this works beautifully.  Let’s look at it from Mycroft’s perspective.  He feels his brother needs supervision, and is unwilling or unable to do this in person.  And along comes John.  He’s a doctor with military training and has experience on the battlefield.  Very desirable characteristics for a companion for someone who mixes with dangerous criminals for a living and with a weakness for drugs.  But this doesn’t mean that he is perfect for Sherlock, particularly given the fact that he has been diagnosed with PTSD.  PTSD can present in many forms and in the most extreme cases, the person suffering from it can be a danger to themselves and others.

So what does Mycroft do?  He designs a meeting to scare the fuck out of John, so that he can see exactly how he will react when under stress in a dangerous situation.  And John reacts perfectly, or at least as good as could have been expected.  Furthermore, he turns Mycroft’s offer down without thinking about it.  Having a very strong moral compass and being stubborn are very good qualities for Sherlock’s flatmate.

Now, let’s see what Mycroft does after this.

First, he pokes around a bit in John’s reason for his uncharacteristic attachment to Sherlock.  Then comes the hand-thing.  Now, Mycroft has already seen that John’s hand isn’t trembling, it is quite possible he even told not-Anthea to be on the lookout for this sign.  So, the manoeuvres with the hand are more for John’s benefit then they are for Mycroft’s.  He uses it to prove to John that the cause for his psychic problems are that he wishes to go back to war, right after he equates being with Sherlock with being on a battlefield.  He finishes by urging John to pick a side, this after a conversation where he has identified himself (to John’s mind) as Sherlock’s enemy, who kidnaps people, spies, has access to private information, etc…  And called him stupid.  Not hard to guess what side he expects John to take.  Mycroft would have been slightly less subtle if he had handcuffed them to each other.



Going back to our interpretations, if Mycroft wanted someone to spy on Sherlock, it wouldn’t make sense for him to urge a man who won’t do so to stay close to his brother.  It makes even less sense if his initial intent was to frighten John off.  But if the first part is a test, and Mycroft is happy with the result, it would make perfect sense for him to try to manipulate John into becoming Sherlock’s flatmate.

The test explanation also neatly ties in with Mycroft’s proclamation in A Scandal in Belgravia that he doesn’t trust people who spy on others for money.

A final consideration on Ella, John’s psychiatrist.  I remember reading a post here on Tumblr (I’ve lost it, if anyone knows which one I’m talking about I’d be very grateful if you could send me a link) that said that, unlike what Mycroft claims, she is not necessarily mistaken in her interpretation of John’s problems.  However, given the people and situations Mycroft has to deal with, it is quite probable that he has a decent understanding of PTSD. And if he hadn’t before, he would have acquired it before talking with John.        

An important part of why John wants to become Sherlock’s flatmate is his PTSD, the fact that he “misses the war”.  It could be that Mycroft tells him to fire Ella because he doesn’t want him to get better, since that would make him less likely to stick with his brother.

Finally, I really like how Mycroft never lies to John.  Some might explain this as the result of some moral considerations; I personally think it is how he gets his kicks.