The Sense of an Ending

 (Sherlock Meta by ivyblossom)

As far as I can see, there are roughly three ways to end this story.

There’s no question in my mind that John is head over heels for Sherlock, and that Sherlock is head over heels for John. There is way too much evidence for both of those arguments. And it’s not only that they adore each other. They are also romantically and physically attracted to one another. To me that part is not even in question. It’s there, it’s a tension between them, it’s unspoken, but drives most of their decisions about each other. You may disagree, but I remain unconvinced by any dissenting arguments on this.

So how might it all end up?

I’m not in the business of predicting how fiction ends, and even though I’m writing about this now, I’m still not making predictions. I have no idea what they’ll do. But in my mind, there are three general options at this point:

Option 1: They Hook Up

Obviously, they could resolve the romantic and sexual tension by hooking up. This makes the most sense. I mean, in real terms, when you’re so in love with him that you’d rather die than see him hurt, when you actively complain about how sexy he is and ask him to cut it out, when you characterize him as a drug you’re completely addicted to, hooking up is a really logical and reasonable option.

Since all of this is apparent but completely unspoken, we can still imagine that they aren’t aware that the feeling is mutual. But we’re not even at that point yet, I don’t think. This story started with one of the principals apparently not realizing he was having a feeling in the first place and certainly not wanting to entertain one, and the other one claiming a different sexual orientation than the one in question, so they were starting from pretty far back behind the starting line.

We have a ways to go yet before they can simply misunderstand each other. Sherlock has a lot to work through personally before he can bring himself to admit that he might be interested in or capable of pursuing something, which the show is clearly going out of its way to explore. John obviously has his own commitments to attend to before bringing himself to consider whether Sherlock could actually be his one and only. He has issues to settle in his head, his heart, and in his life choices. Nothing is easy here.

These writers are currently in the business of creating more barriers to keep Sherlock and John apart. So it seems that even if they both twigged on the tarmac at the end of series 3, they still wouldn’t run off into the sunset together. It’s too complicated, they’re not ready, they might still be in a bit of denial while sober. There’s quite a ways to go yet.

Resolving romantic and sexual tension has a narrative impact that might be hard to overcome. If you hook them up, the story is sort of over. This is a story about a relationship, so as long as that relationship has somewhere to go, this story can keep on. No point in rushing through it, is there?
A good storyteller can hook characters up while keeping enough of the tension to stay interesting, and I have faith that we are dealing with good storytellers. But doing so turns the story into a different kind of narrative. I don’t know if resolving that tension is in the best interests of the narrative. At this point, anyway.

Hooking them up eventually seems like the kindest thing to do, if you love these characters. They are made for each other, and we want them to be happy. They will only be happy together, I am entirely certain of that. Hooking them up in the end makes sense.

Option 2: They Never Hook Up, and their Intense Attraction Chills Out into Legit Platonic Affection

Maybe this sexual and romantic attraction is flash-in-pan. Maybe it’s just John’s fascination with the work. That would become apparent should Sherlock stop being a consulting detective for some reason, and John realizes that he’s not actually attracted to Sherlock at all. I’m sure that would be a relief to him. Maybe Sherlock’s sexual/emotional feelings just spontaneously burst out of him and John was the closest target. All this tension between them is just circumstantial, and they are able, at some point, to laugh about it.

This is incredibly unlikely.

But it’s an option. Imagine that: they confront the tension between them only to discover it’s what they pretended was the case was actually true the whole time: their feelings are intense but platonic! They’re just friends.

I don’t even want to write any more about this, it annoys me. It’s made of lies. It’s like the ending of Little Women.

Option 3: They Never Hook Up, but Remain Intensely In Love with Each Other

The tension that never ends: maybe they stay pretty much as they are, without ever resolving the tension, and without ever completely revealing themselves to each other.

This is a painful but fascinating option. The desire to see a resolution (in a word, frustration) is what drives us to turn pages or stay in the theatre, or watch the next episode or season. Building it and maintaining long-term frustration sounds bad but is great storytelling.

On the upside, this option leaves a tremendous amount of room for fanfiction writers. If the relationship never actually resolves, it means we get to redefine how that resolution would happen, and we get to do it a million different ways. You may not not consider that much of an upside.

It’s narratively dangerous. If the tension doesn’t change, it gets boring. The level of tension between these two characters has to change, one way or another. It can get more intense, get flattened out, resurrected, brought to a boil, but it has to change episode by episode. We’ve already seen that happen several times, and I can’t imagine that stopping.

Tension exists to be resolved, so leaving it completely unresolved long term might seem like a cop out. But it’s not unheard of. It’s the choice of artsy, edgy, sophisticated storytelling. Lots of high brow literature prides itself on not providing resolution to things, as if the frustrated gloom it leaves you in is more intellectual than a happy ending.

I don’t get the sense that these writers are the sorts of people who require a sad or frustrated ending in order to feel like intellectuals, though. They seem to be happy ending people to me. (I think happy endings are just as smartypants as sad endings, myself.)

But it could be that John genuinely can’t reconcile being in love with Sherlock with his presumed sexual orientation, who knows. Maybe his marriage, or his child (?) somehow prevents him from taking that step. I don’t find any of those arguments especially compelling, I have to admit.

Far more likely, Sherlock may decide that letting his emotional and sexual desires live in a too easily accessible a part of his brain is unacceptably detrimental to his work. I mean, it obviously is. Series 3 as proven that. Maybe that’s the choice he makes: his emotional well-being, or the work. He did start out telling us he was married to his work, and we know the Great Consulting Detective remains what he is through his life. He’s capable of compartmentalizing and deleting things; maybe that’s how this tension resolves. Maybe he will shut John out completely when it comes to these sorts of matters, choosing to remain logical at the cost of a fuller and more honest relationship with John. Not because he doesn’t love John, but because the world needs Sherlock Holmes. They would remain desperately in love and desperately attracted to each other, but unable to act on it.

Or, they do act on it. Once. And then never again. Because of the work.

It’s horrible, but it’s kind of beautiful at the same time. I mean, if you like your tension intense and with a diamond-hard finish, of course.

Solving crimes together in order to cope with not being together. I can’t imagine that would ever get easier.

That’s as far as I can go down the prediction trail. Possibly I should stay away from it entirely from now on. I’m really no good at it.

*My apologies to Julian Barnes for the title. (I love Julian Barnes.)