Sherlock’s vow, the dance, and his broken heart

 (Sherlock Meta by thetwogaydetectives)

I’ve been wanting to analyze this scene for far too long, but I haven’t had the time.

Here I’ll be analyzing the whole scene, or series of scenes, starting from when Sherlock plays the waltz to when Sherlock leaves the wedding.

We first hear the violin sound, and then turn to see John and Mary dancing. Now, they look lovely. They seem to be in love, and happy. We see them smile, we hear them laugh. They truly seem in love (which at this point they are.) However, the cinematography tells a different story.




First, take a look at the room, what do you see? A TON of yellow. In film, small amounts of yellow symbolize energy, vitality, and happiness.  However, yellow is a dangerous color. When framing a scene, most cinematographers always try to use light, sort of pastel, yellows, and they use it in small amounts. When they do use it in big amounts, they always go for a very light yellow or for gold, and it is rare to see a frame in which a room is yellow. The reason is that large amounts of yellow is not aesthetically pleasing. It is seen as a disturbing color, when used in copious amounts. Yellow (in large amounts) is often seen as an unstable color, and an attention getter(which is why cabs are yellow). Also, darker shades of yellow are used to represent caution, decay, sickness, and jealousy. Lighter yellows represent friendship, lightness, happiness, but not romance. Now, maybe this is just me, but this is not the type of color you want to use, in large amounts, at a wedding (in film). Yet this scene is filled with yellow, and darker shades of yellow at that.

Coincidence? I don’t think so.



Now, throughout the dance, we see mostly 3 different colors. Yellow (that, as I said, is a bit not good), purple, and green. Purple is a hot color. It represents passion, and desire. It is not as strong as red, obviously, but  it is still considered a “passion” color. However, what is interesting, is that we always see it mixed with green and yellow. Green represents different things. In film, when green is mixed with yellow, it is meant to represent sickness, cowardice, discord, and jealousy.

Look at the walls. What do you see? A green pattern, on a dark yellow wall. These are really bad colors for a wedding. They are the opposite of romantic, they are repelling. In film, you generally don’t use green and yellow in a romantic scene.

Now, let’s take a look at the frames where Sherlock is shown.



What do you see? MUCH LESS yellow. We see that here, the purple is not mixed with anything. The light is coming from the window. This hot color is reflecting on Sherlock’s face. Who is Sherlock looking at? John.

They are framing Sherlock, the best man, with romantic colors, while they frame the couple with green and dark yellow, which are colors meant to symbolize negative things. How interesting.



In this take, the candles completely overshadow the dark yellow color in the background. We see a bit of green, a bit of yellow, and candles. I’m sure you know the candles give the frame a very heavy romantic connotation. So, when reading this part, you must see this in a romantic setting. The colors behind him help us. If you notice, the candles don’t drown the green, or the purple. Half of his face is lighted with a purple light, while the other half is lighted with the green/yellowish light.

Purple half- You don’t really need me to explain this. The guy is in love. He is literally looking at the man he has chosen to give his heart to, thus the light reflects this.

Green/yellow light- the love of his life is getting married. Is he jealous? Yes. Is he breaking inside? Yes. Those two colors represent negative emotions, and jealousy. Pretty much what Sherlock is feeling at the moment.

The song ends, they laugh, and then they kiss.



The shot is beautiful. The people are blurred, and they concentrate on the couple for a few seconds. This is the only moment, throughout the whole scene, where the cinematography shows two people in love. We see a bit of red in the background, representing romance, which is a nice addition to the scene.  However, they immediately cut to Janine. This take last aprox. 3 seconds. A tad short, if you want to show romance.

We cut to see Sherlock throwing his rose to Janine.




Notice that they give the flower a frame of its own. Now, I know it’s fast, but a flower shouldn’t really need a stand alone frame, unless they were trying to draw attention to it.

There is a lot of symbolism behind that flower. Remember that we are at a wedding. Generally, the bride will throw her bouquet to the ladies present. In romantic films, however, the one that generally catches the bouquet is the close friend, or the protagonist, that is moving on (usually was in a relationship with the groom, and lost him to the bride) and is ready to find love elsewhere.

So what does the flower do?

* It equates Sherlock to the bride, for only the bride throws her bouquet

* It puts Sherlock and Janine in a strong friendship. Janine is the bridesmaid, and bridesmaids are generally the bride’s best friend. If Sherlock is the bride(as the subtext tell us), then Janine is his best friend.

* It takes away attention from the couple, which is interesting for, so far, I have seen only one 3-sec take that was about the bride and the groom (specifically just them being together as a couple, a shot about just them.)

Next, Sherlock takes the stage to make a vow. Now, as far as I know, the best man never makes a vow. Who are the ones that make a vow in a wedding? The bride and the groom. The vow comes right after we see Sherlock throw the bouquet. They are literally perpetrating this idea of Sherlock being equated with the bride. What should immediately pop up in your mind when hearing his vow is this:

More importantly, however, today we saw two people make vows. I’ve never made a vow in my life, and after tonight I never will again.

First of all, they mention John and Mary’s vows. It is interesting that they are drawing attention to something we didn’t see, which leads us to think there is something else there. When you look closer you see that that sentence gives Sherlock’s vow a romantic undertone.

The bride and the groom’s vows are generally romantic. When shown in film, the vows are generally one of the most romantic scenes in the film. However, we didn’t get to see their vows, so the only logical explanation as to why we need to hear that is to associate Sherlock’s vows with the bride’s and groom’s, immediately giving this short monologue a romantic connotation.

Who do you generally make a vow to? To someone you love. Sherlock has never made a vow in his life, thus he has never truly given his heart to anyone before. John is the only man ever to have entered Sherlock’s heart so deeply. He also mentions that he will never make a vow again. He is literally binding his heart to John. There will never be anybody else.

Mary and John: whatever it takes, whatever happens, from now on I swear I will always be there, always, for all three of you.

He mentions Mary and the baby. Note that they are insignificant here. The only reason Sherlock is protecting them is because John cares about them, and Sherlock will never let someone John truly loves get hurt. This vow is for John. Now that that is clear, what does this remind you of?

 I,____, take thee,_____, to my wedded Wife/husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part.

Those are the standard wedding vows used almost at every wedding. What do they say? I will always be there for better or worse. What is Sherlock saying? The exact same thing. His vows are an allusion to actual wedding vows.



Notice the colors. The yellow is barely noticeable, given that it is overshadowed by a pinkish purple, which is a romantic color.

We then see him go to talk to John and Mary. He informs them that Mary is pregnant, and their reactions are worth noticing.









We start with shock, which is absolutely normal. Every first time parent will be like whaaaa for the first minute or so. In real life, this generally can go down three ways

1. They both start grinning and kissing and are happy about it. The baby was planned, and they couldn’t be more excited.

 2. The baby wasn’t planned. They are freaking out, but they are still incredibly happy. I’ve seen many cases like this, and it is the absolute cutest.

3. You weren’t planning to have a baby, and you don’t want it. I’ve seen this happen once, and it was not nice. They both looked scared, angry, and… disillusioned I guess.

John and Mary seem to be a mix between 2 and 3. John, if you notice,turns hostile once he finds out. Mary at first smiles, but then her face goes awry.They don’t seem to be too happy about the news.  they become snappy and flustered. John is quite rude to Sherlock, and he is generally rude to Sherlock only when he is angry. Mary seems to be worried about something else (especially in the last picture.)  They use a lot of reds and blues, which when combined are often distressing colors. Of course, it is changing so fast, this may not have been intentional. However, right when Sherlock mentions the three of them, they show us Mary and John, and they use red and blue to light them, so it may be a tad intentional.

SHERLOCK: Absolutely no reason to panic.
JOHN: Oh, and you’d know, of course?
SHERLOCK: Yes, I would. You’re already the best parents in the world. Look at all the practice you’ve had!
JOHN: What practice?
SHERLOCK: Well, you’re hardly gonna need me around now that you’ve got a real baby on the way.

Sherlock, your self deprecation is, once again, showing.

Taking care of a child is extremely hard. it is exhausting, stressful, and time consuming. Anyone that has ever had a kid knows this. I’m not saying there aren’t good times, because having a child, as far as I know, is wonderful. The level of love you have for your kid makes it all worth it, but comparing spending time with someone with taking care of a baby is extremely derogatory and insulting.

Sherlock is saying this about himself. He believes that anyone that spends time with him sees it as a burden (since taking care of a baby is not easy.)

He also mentions that now John won’t have time for him, which is absolutely true, as I spoke about here. A baby is a huge turning point. Since I’ve already talked about this, I’m not going to go into it here.

We see them laugh. Why does John begin laughing? Because he honestly thinks it’s a joke. That’s what he and Sherlock always do. They always joke at the most inappropriate moment. They will laugh at crime scenes, and make jokes to evade talking about feelings. It is who they are.

For a minute John goes back to those wonderful times, and instinctively puts his hand around Sherlock’s neck. We can see he is much more comfortable with touching Sherlock now. I once read a meta (which I can’t find) that mentioned how John is much more comfortable (physically) with Sherlock when he is in a steady relationship with a woman, because no one will question his sexuality, and I have to agree. Now that he is married, it is much easier to act on his impulses and desires, because being married offers him a shield; no one will question him. Notice also that he hesitates when he turns to Mary. He doesn’t touch her immediately. It shows us that his relationship with Sherlock is much more fluid.

However, even though Sherlock laughs, we soon notice that for him it wasn’t a joke.







You can see Sherlock struggling to keep himself together. The laughter fades away, and his smile turns into a small frown. His eyes reveal his pain, and, for a second, John sees it. He notices that Sherlock is actually not ok, and he looks away. You may think, “Whyyyyy”, and i totally get that, but look at it from John’s POV. They don’t do that. They don’t do feelings. It is incredibly hard for both of them to talk about that. Sherlock looks heartbroken and John doesn’t want to know why, because he is afraid of that why. He was (and is) in love with Sherlock, but he is married now. He has a wife, and in many ways he is trying to move on. He loves Mary too. When Sherlock died, so did John and he had to eventually force himself to try to move on. Trying to comprehend what Sherlock is feeling would mean looking back. It would mean facing his own, very much alive, feelings, and he can’t do that. He can’t do that to his wife. And so he looks away, because what the eyes can’t see, the heart can’t feel.

Sherlock realizes that John doesn’t want to face this at the moment, and so he quickly tells them to go dance. He is trying to get John away from him. Why? Because he is in pain, and he doesn’t want John to see. He is swallowing his feeling because he thinks that Mary will make John happy, and his presence/feelings/ etc. are not welcomed.

JOHN: We can’t all three dance, there are limits

SHERLOCK: Yes, there are

MARY: Come on husband, let’s go

These lines are laced with subtext. They are once again comparing Sherlock with Mary, but this time they do it to take Sherlock out of the equation. if they all danced together, then they would all be equally important. However there are limits. John is married, and so he can’t dance with both. Dancing, as you probably know, is often used in a romantic context. i.e They’ve been dancing around one another for years.

Certain types of music will always have romantic connotations when dancing. Given that they are at a wedding, it is safe to assign these romantic connotations to these lines. So, subtextually, what they are telling us is John can’t be with Sherlock as long as he’s with Mary and vice versa. Mary  secures her place by subtly reminding them and the audience who John is. He is her husband. This piece of text places Mary as an obstacle (when you think about it in the context of the show.)

SHERLOCK: Don’t worry Mary, I’ve been tutoring him

JOHN: He did, you know. Baker Street, behind closed curtains. Mrs. Hudson came in one time. Don’t know how those rumors started

I love John, I really do, but after he said this, I wanted to slap him.

Dancing often serves as a subtextual reference to sex. Many books refer to sex as a dance. Behind closed crutains is also a sexual reference. It’s generally used for affairs, or (years ago) to mention queer relationships. Given that before queer people couldn’t talk about their sexuality, it was always something that happened “behind closed curtains.”

Mrs. hudson is literally the core of the Johnlock ship. This woman has been shipping these two since the beginning of time, and they all know it. So, basically, he is joking that he and Sherlock have slept together, Hudders caught them, and that’s how the rumors started.

Why make such a joke? Although I hated that joke, it was actually useful. It once again shows us that John is much more comfortable with his sexuality. Do you honestly think he would have made such a joke in s1 or 2? nope. Remember that he and Sherlock make jokes at the worst times. It is really important to know that he is comfortable enough to make a joke about it. Also notice that he tells this to his wife.

It also shows us that for Sherlock (and I’m sure John too) teaching him how to dance was something very special, and it hurts him to hear John say that(even if he didn’t mean it like that) as you can see in these pictures;




These shots are a mix between mid-shots and close ups. They want us to see Sherlock’s face. They want us to see that pain. Also notice that the light behind him is red, which is a hot color. Red can stand for love, loss, and pain. Sherlock most certainly did not find that amusing.





Sherlock begins looking around, and the camera pulls out extremely slowly. He’s in the first third of the frame, highlighting the fact that he is alone. They want us to feel his loneliness. He is lit with mostly greens and yellows, which, as I mentioned before, serve to show jealousy, loneliness and a ton of other negative feelings. He moves towards Janine, but notices she is dancing with someone.

Have you ever been alone at a party? Generally, when you don’t have a date, you will try to find a friend. You don’t want to be lonely, but you also don’t want to feel uncomfortable. Sherlock has spent the entire day with this woman. She seems to be aware that he is not interested (“I wish you weren’t… Whatever it is that you are), and so she is the perfect friend. He goes to her because he is alone, and we turn to friends when we need someone that will be there, but she already has somebody, and so Sherlock doesn’t go towards her. That’s very important. She showed interest in him. If he wanted to, he could have dismissed the guy that was dancing with her, and she wouldn’t have minded. But she wanted to get laid, as she mentioned at the beginning of the episode, and Sherlock can’t give her that. And so he doesn’t interfere. He lets her dance with a guy that can satisfy her sexual needs. This is further prove that Sherlock is not interested in women, as he himself said in s1.





We then see the music score, and him folding it and putting it in the envelope. They use a deeper red, and a tiny bit of green. Sherlock wrote this score. That is something very intimate, and very romantic. Him leaving the song there is almost like him leaving a love letter (the red lights help enhance the romantic subtext.) Given that Sherlock leaves immediately afterwards, you can see it in many ways as a goodbye. He is letting John be happy with Mary. He is stepping down. He is, once again, being a selfless romantic.

Molly notices him leaving, but she doesn’t stop him. Why? Because she knows. No one leaves a wedding early especially not the best man. She doesn’t stop him, because there is nothing she can do. She can’t help Sherlock, and she has finally started realizing that her life can’t orbit around this man. She lets him slip away quietly, because She knows that is what he wants. He wants to be left alone right now, because he is breaking, and he is Sherlock Holmes. He is not supposed to feel, and he can’t let the world know that. He can’t let the world know that he is breaking apart.





The room behind him is lit with purple lights, which immediately gives this scene a romantic context. It starts as a wide shot, which highlights the fact that he is alone. This scene is in slow motion, so that we, as the audience, capture every second. We see him putting on his coat. For him, clothing has always been important. We have seen him “prepare for battle” before. We saw it in s2, and we saw it at the beginning of the episode when he was getting dressed.

So what does him putting on his coat mean? Shields up. He is closing himself off. This is basically “conceal, don’t feel.” The coat has always been a representation of who he is. That coat represents Sherlock Holmes. That coat many times represents his cold unwavering logic. He is covering his heart, once again, with his brain. All the progress that he has made emotionally, is being pushed back. It doesn’t mean that it’s no longer there. It just means that he doesn’t want to deal with it anymore. It hurts too much.