Sherlock, Molly and Season 4

 (Sherlock meta by penfairy)

I really believe that Sherlock is gearing up for Molly to become Sherlock’s love interest in the next season.

Just think about it. If Moffat and Gatiss had wanted to take a Sherlolly romance off the cards they would have married her off to a nice young man and simply kept her as Sherlock’s friend. Instead they engaged her to a dumb Sherlock lookalike whom she dumps by the third episode.

Molly is a fan favourite and the writers know this. They know we want her to be happy, so they would not stop her from moving on and attaining happiness unless they had planned a romance more suited to her tastes in later seasons. The Tom/engagement arc is important because it would have been insulting to Molly’s character to simply have her moping around, alone, waiting for her beloved to return. But The Empty Hearse makes it clear that Sherlock is the only man for her. Almost all of her dialogue and body language is centred around showing how much she adores him. By comparison, her relationship with Tom seems strange and forced, an obviously inferior substitute for the relationship she truly wants.

Molly is in love with Sherlock Holmes. No surprises there. But what about Sherlock? How does he feel about her?

We know Sherlock only has one true friend in this world - John Watson. John is the only person he trusts to assist him on cases, the only person he will deign to eat dinner with. Yet in The Empty Hearse, Sherlock invites Molly to solve crimes with him and, at the end of the day he casually asks, ‘fancy some chips?’ He asks Molly to eat with him, an invitation that even the enigmatic Irene Adler could not procure. It is clear that Molly has pierced Sherlock’s most intimate sphere, a place that until now has only been broached by John.

Sherlock also makes it clear that she is not just a replacement for John. ‘You’re not being John, you’re being yourself,’ are his words when she expresses doubt in her abilities as his helper. For a man who is usually so callous and dismissive, who accidentally labelled her ‘John’ in Reichenbach while she was helping him because he simply could not be bothered to look up, this is a huge step. He values Molly’s companionship as much as he appreciates her help, and at the end of the day he thanks her for everything she has done for him, congratulates her on her engagement, wishes her happiness and kisses her on the cheek.

What does all this show? On a basic level, it shows that Molly Hooper is Sherlock Holmes’ friend. There is a beautiful softness and a sincerity in the way he treats her. She humanises him. She can make him apologise with a single look. And let’s not forget that she was the only person to notice he wasn’t okay in Reichenbach and she was the only person he ever showed fear in front of. He drops his mask when he’s around her. He trusts her unconditionally.

Let’s examine some other moments in season 3, shall we?

• They shared gentle jokes and smiles throughout the Empty Hearse, an episode that also featured an intense Sherlolly kiss which, although fake, could easily be read as foreshadowing 
• Sherlock refused to say anything bad about her fiance, when once he might have cruelly intervened as he did upon meeting Jim 
• Sherlock went to her for friendly advice on how to plan a stag night 
• Molly was the only one who realised how much Sherlock would struggle with public speaking and tried to rally help for him 
• Molly shed tears during his Best Man’s speech, a speech that emphasised the ability of this 'machine’ to love 
• Molly was the only one to notice Sherlock leaving the wedding early 
• Molly slapped Sherlock three times and reprimanded him in a way that John has never been able to do 
• Sherlock’s memories of Molly helped to keep him alive after Mary shot him. The Molly of his imagination told him which way to 'fall,’ reminiscent of the way she saved him in The Reichenbach Fall.

And then there’s Janine. Her appearance would hardly seem beneficial to Molly/Sherlock relationship, but it did show that he at least has the ability to mimic the workings of a romantic relationship and even hints that Sherlock is not asexual. Although he and Janine did not have sex, his statement “I was waiting til we got married” seems to suggest that while he does not engage frivolously in sexual escapades, he could engage in a relationship as long as he loved and trusted his partner unconditionally. Since Molly ticks both those boxes, I would contend that it would not be out of character for Sherlock to become romantic or even physical with her.

Further evidence of Sherlock’s sexual interest may be found in Irene’s appearance in The Sign of Three, where she turns up naked and alluring in his mind palace and he has to suppress the memory in order to concentrate on cracking the case.

All of these subtle hints finally lead us up to the big one: Moriarty’s return. It was only with Molly’s help that Sherlock was able to survive the fall: we all know the line.

“Moriarty slipped up. He made a mistake. Because the one person he thought didn’t matter at all to me was the one who mattered the most.” 

When Moriarty and Sherlock meet again, he won’t overlook Molly this time. Whatever happens in the next season, Molly will be heavily involved. Moriarty will come after her. And so, with Molly set to be a big player in the next series, I suspect we will see more development between her and Sherlock that will probably culminate in an expression of love or even a relationship.

Well, maybe that’s just wishful thinking. But whether you ship it or not, remember:

This smile, this beautiful, perfect smile right here, was for Molly.