Two instances where Sherlock Holmes is confronted face to face with Molly’s love

 (Sherlock meta by sherlollysmooch)

There’s another instance in the series of Sherlock where Sherlock Holmes is confronted face to face with Molly’s love, and I think that’s the first time he ever realizes that she has more than just a crush on him, and feels more than just attraction for him.

I feel like his reaction to Molly stating that the fact she loves him has always been true in The Final Problem is a bit similar to his reaction to her Christmas gift in A Scandal in Belgravia.

He deduces her and her presents scathingly until he finally sees that the gift is actually for him after reading the sweet tag Molly has placed there on the bow. His deduction stops before he can even finish it, and he looks shocked, and he even paces a little since he isn’t at all sure how to go about the situation now. He royally fucked up, and he feels bad, so he apologizes. It’s the first apology we ever see out of him, and it appears as if he means it.

The level of shock that we see there in his face has always made me think that up until this point Sherlock never knew that Molly loved him. He knew she liked him and found him attractive, and in the first season he used that to his advantage, but this new revelation leaves him speechless until he finally pulls himself together and says he’s sorry for what he’s done.

Back to The Final Problem, at this point Sherlock knows that Molly loves him, but to hear her say that it’s always been true is still a breaking point for him. Like he said in his best man speech, he never expected to be anyone’s best friend, and I feel like he never expected to be loved so wholeheartedly by a brave, brilliant, and kindhearted woman such as Molly Hooper.

I Want To Break Free: Or How Sherlock got his groove back 

 (Sherlock meta by penelope1730)

So, did anyone else think that Jim Moriarty’s playlist song - Queen’s “I Want To Break Free” - might have been intentionally introduced as one of the metaphors for The Final Problem? As well as Sherlock and Molly? Honest to God, I never thought, in a bazillion years, I’d end up writing a song meta. I love music, surrounded by musicians & music - but a meta? Who woulda thunk….

There’s some spectacular metas floating around that go into incredible detail about the Sherlock and Molly set-up (excellent reading, btw), but this song, more or less, sums it up in a nutshell. It truly is a mixture of fears, thoughts and feelings that have been exchanged between these two characters since the very beginning, including within themselves. It couldn’t have been more perfectly and surreptitiously placed in this episode. Especially as it’s introduced by a crazy mofo.

The focus of love, unacknowledged and unrequited, has always zeroed in on Molly. As she’s pretty much the only ‘real life’ relatable character in this fictional world (aside from Lestrade), one of her functions has been to humanize everyone in the story, although primarily Sherlock. Yes, I know John’s important, but this isn’t about John, so let’s just save focusing on him for another meta.

Love, romantic or otherwise, can’t exist in a vacuum. At least not forever. That’s not the nature of Love. Eventually it has to be set free and this is something we’ve directly seen Molly struggle with. We’ve witnessed her feelings mocked; we’ve witnessed her innocence broken along with her trust shaken and shattered; we witnessed her attempt to focus her heart elsewhere and when that failed, we even witnessed her use of distancing by focusing on the practical, yet unconditional, elements of love. She has always found a way to pick herself up and move on in the healthiest possible way. Always. But, and this is a big BUT, in our distraction of focusing on Molly, many never really saw (shipper goggles set aside), that Sherlock was stuck in the same vacuum.

Both characters, Molly and Sherlock, have needed to set themselves free. Not only from their respective ‘prisons’ that have prevented free expression with one another, but the lies they’ve told themselves, and each other, which sustained emotional bondage.

I really dig this passage from the book, A Course In Miracles:

“The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence, which is your natural inheritance. The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite.” 

Fear, in this case, has been the gatekeeper of the biggest lie. It truly is the final problem. Breaking down all those barriers to love’s presence. But, it’s also the message behind Queen’s “I Want To Break Free.” It can be so easy to look upon another and see their lies, game playing or self-denial. Not so easy with ourselves, however. Life has sorta trained us to look outside of ourselves for the causation of pain, leaving us beret of personal accountability and culpability of our choices.

I could make this strictly about romantic love, but it’s more than that. Romance is just one of the many avenues in which love can be expressed. Love, itself, is profound and indelible. Choosing to allow, express and receive love with another being is so much more than flowers, kisses, midnight pillow talk, and sex. It requires not only the ability to be vulnerable and authentic, but understanding of the Self. Truly, we cannot hope to extend love to another if we have no concept of who we are, what we’re about, or capable of.

Criminally insane and batshit crazy Jim Moriarty gave us two bold clues about the very long game that was being played out via his soundtrack.

The first was about himself: Staying Alive (Bee Gees, 1977). It was tough for him. Suicide has never been a shy theme in the SHERLOCK series and Jim Moriarty sought what he believed was the ultimate freedom: Death.

The second was about Sherlock’s life: I Want To Break Free (Queen, 1984) from lies. The Final Problem showed us that Sherlock, from a very early age (4 years old), chose a revisionist history over acceptance and allowance. If he didn’t like something personal to him, he’d re-write the story. In many respects, this is actually a really healthy thing to do. If we want to change a condition or circumstance in our life for the better - telling a new story is a good way to begin. However, when it involves suppression and self-denial - even when it’s roots were justifiably based in trauma or self-protection - it will eventually erode into attrition. Cognitively, the use of this application, over time, will create a sort of dissonance. With Sherlock, it no longer protected him from trauma - the event had long passed. Instead, it created a different kind of trauma by emotional crippling.

Honestly, all of this has been said before, and more eloquently, in other meta’s (go read ‘em), but the ‘I Love You’ and 'coffin’ scene are clearly represented in 'I Want To Break Free.’ 

“But life still goes on; I can’t get used to, living without, living without, Living without you by my side, I don’t want to live alone, hey God knows, got to make it on my own, So baby can’t you see I’ve got to break free.” 

In ASiP, Mycroft told John Watson that his therapist got it wrong. He instructed John to fire her. John wasn’t traumatized by the war, he missed it. For as brilliant and remarkable as Mycroft is, unfortunately, he got it wrong by misunderstanding the intention and meaning of “I Love You.” It’s perfectly understandable that he would. Love is something he denies himself, even though it’s something he desires. Mycroft thought 'I love you’ was about someone who loves Sherlock. And, in one respect he was right - it was the clue that Sherlock knew would bust open a fixed decision. And what this particular test was about. If you recall, it was “Vivisection” - the opening of Sherlock so he would recognize, as well as those present, how he really works… and expose what’s going on behind that immutable facade he wears. Ouch! Bet he didn’t wake up that morning thinking, “Today’s the day!” No. He was laid bare and vulnerable - all his arrogance and superiority crushed with three little words - because the I Love You wasn’t about who loves him, it was about who he loves. Ironic how he foretold us this in The Lying Detective:

Your life, once it’s over, it’s not you who’ll miss it. Your own death is something that happens to everybody else. Your life is not your own. 

Of course, he was talking about suicide (and Mary’s death, which he’s grieving), but the point he makes remains valid. Our death is a long term event that will be experienced through loss and grief by those who love us and miss our physical presence. It will be experienced through memories, possessions shared, voids where our life used to stand - but it will also be missed through - “So many days not lived, so many words unsaid, etc, etc, etc.” It might be a difficult fact to face, but when we’re dead, we’re no longer concerned with all the earthly, mundane affairs. We’re soaring through the clouds, re-emerged with non-physical energy and the Conscious Mind. It’s those we leave behind who will be thinking about all the things they never said, but wished they had. They will be thinking about all the things they wished they did, but never got around to. They will think about all the lost moments, never to be retrieved. That’s what grief is relative to death. Irretrievable loss. It’s what my neighbor is currently going through right now…his wife of 35 years passed away on Christmas day.

As a counselor, I speak with thousands of people - directly and through workshops. The primary questions people ask about their loved ones who’ve re-emerged into non-physical are not about “Why didn’t they leave a will?” Or, “I hope they rot in hell.” Instead, they are always about, “Are they okay? I never got to say good-bye. Do they know how much I love them? I never said I Love You. I never said it enough. I always thought we’d have more time. How do I move on? I don’t think I’ll ever be okay. This isn’t happening, it doesn’t feel real.” These are actual concerns the grieving confront upon the death of someone they love, especially as they move through despondency and depression. The dead don’t place a golden plaque on a coffin that says 'I Love You.’ That’s what their beloved does.

If you’ve ever read Harry Potter, Dumbledore sums it up pretty cool, too:

“Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and, above all those who live without love.” 

We’ll never actually know exactly how Sherlock and Molly went about resolving this whole thing. That’s what imagination and fanfic is for. But, like Sherlock, Moffat and Gatiss don’t have a problem saying: “We’ll leave you to your own deductions.” Since clues are like gold in this show, Molly’s effervescent smile at the end sums it up nicely: They Broke Free.

The Final Problem: Eurus’s crash therapy session

 (Sherlock meta by bassfanimation)

I’ve written one post talking about how my husband viewed the “I Love You” scene in The Final Problem. I wanted to write some more, as we’ve discussed TFP in depth together. We talk a lot about the media we consume because A) we’re nerds, and B) our views are usually quite different.

It’s also nice to have a male perspective on things, as it sometimes can shed some light where my female brain just bumbles around in the dark and stubs it’s toe on the Feels Dresser. My husband views things very textually, but he is also fantastic at thinking about stuff on a meta level. It’s nice because he has no ulterior motives either, no shipper goggles or anything. I’m going to write a bit about his theories about TFP and what it all meant in his eyes. I’ll add my own views as well, for comparison. This is going to be a long af post, so strap in!

(Disclaimer: this post may contain more shippy talk than you want, because I am a major Sherlolly/Molly Hooper lover, but you can also disregard my feelings and read for the hell of it.) 

My hub said he views The Final Problem as the final case for Sherlock, which is essentially, solving himself. I remember when Mary’s video appeared, and she said she was giving him the toughest case of his life. I seriously thought it was going to be for Sherlock to solve himself, which is the hardest thing for any person to do…to know yourself. Instead we got something equally wonderful, but a bit easier to solve: how to mend Sherlock’s friendship with John and save him from eternal despair. Thankfully, Sherlock was a rousing success. He solved it.

“The next one won’t be so easy.” -Eurus Holmes, The Final Problem

The Final Problem, as my dude talked about it, is about the Holmes family, but mostly Eurus. It was about Eurus trying to go ‘home’, only she couldn’t. She had to unlock the one person who could “save her soul”, as the song puzzle went. In order to do that…she had to literally break down Sherlock’s walls. Each major emotional wall he’d built was because of Eurus, so only she could break them down. Only she was smart enough, and ruthless enough, to accomplish this.

“You know the problem with disguises? No matter how hard you try, it’s always a self portrait.” -Irene Adler, A Scandal in Belgravia 

It’s very fitting that Eurus chose to reveal herself while she was disguised as a therapist, because TFP was in essence, a crash therapy session for Sherlock. Each room in Sherrinford was a self discovery trap. Now, someone was corresponding with me over the “I Love You” meaning and said it wasn’t real because it was manipulation. That is correct in that it was manipulation…but that is what all therapy really is. It is someone very skilled manipulating you into understanding your own true feelings. As a person going through intensive therapy currently, let me tell you, this is exactly what TFP was. A very elaborate therapy session.

Room One: Sherlock, John, Mycroft and the Governor.

My hub sees this test as about Sherlock facing the fact that sometimes his actions will hurt his friends and family. Eurus gave Sherlock the choice of giving the gun to Mycroft or John so they could kill the Governor. He was choosing whether to hurt John or hurt Mycroft. Either of them would be hurt by being forced to kill an innocent man. Mycroft absolutely could not do it. John thought he could, but he couldn’t either. In the end, their inaction killed two people, but Sherlock was directly responsible for that. He hurt John AND Mycroft without meaning to. The consequence was real…the Governor and his wife were killed. Sometimes your actions will hurt others, sometimes your innaction is just as dangerous. It will happen, and it will hurt you too. I actually 100% agree with this reading. My eyes popped out in amazement.

Room Two: Sherlock, John, and Mycroft.

My hub feels this test was to confront Sherlock with his arrogance. Three brothers, all hanging by ropes, one of them having killed their fourth brother, but which one? Sherlock solved the crime, but Eurus dropped the two innocent brothers, leaving the guilty one still hanging. The guilty man was eventually dropped as well, but it held a mirror up to Sherlock. How many times did he blithely solve a crime with no thought as to who might be hurt by that? It never mattered to him. Like Eurus said, “Innocent? Guilty? Punishing either feels the same.” This is Eurus throwing Sherlock’s arrogant disregard for real justice back in his face. He solves crimes to be “right”, no matter what the consequence, no matter who he hurts. He’s confronting his arrogance and his selfishness.

Room Three: Sherlock, John, and Mycroft. (This one may take some paragraphs, so bear with me.)

The coffin with the words “I Love You” on the lid. Me and my hub actually diverge a bit here, but I found his reading of it very interesting. Also, a man’s perspective on love is great to have, considering Sherlock IS a man, and this whole episode is about a man’s love.

My hub was very passionate about discussing this one, which surprised me. Something he talks about quite often with me is how he feels female fandoms think they understand the minds of guys. "100 travel brochures do not equal a single trip.“ To understand a man’s feelings about love, you really need a man’s perspective. I can respect that, as I’d want the same kind of respect as a woman with my own feelings.

First and foremost, he thinks Sherlock’s words were genuine. He said Sherlock’s reaction was not that of a man who did not mean what he said…in fact it’s the opposite, he meant it and it scares the shit out of him, hence the reaction we got. He said when you like someone, and they like you back but, for whatever reason, you refuse to pursue a relationship with that person. Often it’s feelings of inadequacy. Sometimes you just don’t really know how you feel about that person. Often, strong friendships can feel like love and if you are friends with a member of the sex you are attracted to, it can be easy to wonder if those feelings are love or not. The last thing you want to do is pursue those feelings and jeopardize that friendship.

If anything, the "I Love You” test showed JUST (he typed that in all caps in his chat to me) how amazingly important Molly is to Sherlock. He “humiliated” himself just as much as she did. By finally openly admitting that he might have feelings for her, he knows that he has essentially forever altered the nature of their friendship. Maybe it could grow into something more, but he could have easily destroyed it too. We see in the epilogue that they obviously got past it, but had we not gotten that scene it could easily have been the last time Molly ever answered his calls. That’s why he has been so afraid to even broach the subject before now. The hub added to this that once you understand that Sherlock isn’t a “high functioning sociopath” like he claims, then his actions all click and you realize he is a man who is seething with emotions and desperately trying to channel them in order to keep them contained.

“Sherlock is not all about thinking and rationality. He gets emotional, he lashes out, he shoots the wall. And when he can’t figure something out, he stabs it.” -Mrs. Hudson, The Lying Detective 

My hub continues on by saying that for someone as obviously traumatized by the loss of a close friend then it makes that scene with Molly so much more meaningful than just a guy telling a woman that he loves her. Imagine how traumatic it is to force someone like that to risk losing another close friend through their own actions. Sherlock actually doesn’t consider John a friend at this point, he considers him family. They are brothers in arms. There’s a special kind of relationship that guys share when they’ve fought alongside each other. That’s what Tolkien was trying to show in LOTR. It’s different from a romantic relationship. In some ways it’s more intimate and closer. I think Mary saw that. It’s why a lot of cops and soldiers end up divorced. Their wives see that bond that the guy has with his comrades and it puts a heavy strain. The fact that Mary was able to get past that and even encourage it is a testimony to just what an amazing woman she was. John was INCREDIBLY (his typed caps, again for emphasis) lucky to have her. (yay Mary Watson love)

To dovetail back to how this relates to Molly, my hub believes Molly would also be the kind of woman to be just like Mary. She would want him to be himself, to be with John, solving cases, being Sherlock and Dr. Watson. But again, he thinks Sherlock was just so afraid of losing Molly that he never even entertained the idea of being able to have a relationship with her, for fear of losing what they have. He is really surprised female fans don’t understand this. He’s heard so many women say that they couldn’t imagine pursuing a relationship with a close friend because they didn’t want to jeopardize that friendship. Even when you bring up that they are essentially already in a relationship with that person in everything but name. I actually agreed here, 1000%, because I’ve been in this situation myself…it is so, so, so painful…and you are always filled with regret over words that weren’t said.

The last thing my husband said about the coffin test was that, to him, the coffin symbolized the death of Sherlock and Molly’s current relationship, as it’s been throughout the show. It couldn’t go back to the way it was, not after what was said. There is no more unspoken feelings hanging in the air. Everything is out in the open. There’s only two outcomes now: either Sherlock did pursue a romantic relationship with Molly, or he simply couldn’t bring himself to actually commit to her, but the words being said freed Molly of her unspoken, unrequited love, thus allowing her to actually move on. He thinks they did pursue a relationship, btw. He wasn’t sure until our last viewing, but more on that later.

Lastly, I want to add that I view the coffin as an entirely different symbol. The coffin had the words “I Love You” on it. Where do we equate love coming from? The heart. When young Sherlock’s best friend was killed, it effectively killed his heart. It was broken, shattered, dark, put away into a box….dead. The coffin represents the death of Sherlock’s heart. It is the box containing all the love he used to feel inside it. The coffin test was by far the hardest test…it’s the one that had the most harrowing effect on him. Opening your heart is the hardest thing for us, as human beings, to do. But Sherlock Holmes did it, even if it confused and frightened him to do it. Eurus forced it open, in front of John and Mycroft no less! Sherlock gently touching the lid of the coffin, he is feeling his heart, the heart he has missed for so, so long. He wants to break it out of that coffin…so he smashes it to bits, screaming while he does it. He is breaking his love free of death, out of that coffin.

“So many complicated emotions. I lost count!”- Eurus Holmes, TFP

Love is also confusing as hell for Sherlock. It’s going to take a while for him to solve that particular one, for Molly. He can’t solve it completely while in that room, so of course…he does what Mrs. Hudson said he does…he stabbed it…or rather, he dismantled it soundly. That’s how strong his feelings were.

Room 4: Sherlock, John, Mycroft.

My hub felt this test was simple. It was to demonstrate to Sherlock that there will always come a time where he will have to choose between friends and family. He didn’t have much else to say, but I have some feelings on it myself. I think Sherlock actually managed to turn the tables on Eurus during this one. Remember, his heart is wide open now. He busted it out of that coffin. It is confused and scared, but it is raw and beating like thunder. He cannot, will not choose between friends and family, because his friends ARE family. They are HIS. Their love is HIS. He cannot choose because there is no choice to make. He would rather truly destroy himself than dare hurt the people he loves any more. We saw this with the Culverton Smith [The Lying Detective] case as well, so this one is no surprise. It was no surprise to Eurus either, which is why she was prepared.

Room 5: Sherlock.

Finally, the last bit of really amazing symbolism I want to talk about is when Sherlock was in the fake room, just outside Musgrave. The walls inside there were littered with photographs of the Holmes family. Sherlock, Mycroft, Eurus, Mummy, and Daddy. Sherlock’s family. He is forced to look at those pictures…forced to look at who he used to be. Who Mycroft used to be. Who Eurus used to be. The love that existed there, the love he felt, the happiness he so briefly knew. He had made a prison inside himself…but suddenly he realizes it…all he has to do is push, one last time. The walls of the fake room literally fall down around him. His prison is no more. He’s solved himself…now he must solve Eurus in order to save his family. He could only save John, and the little girl high above, if he solved The Final Problem: himself.

At last, we hear Sherlock say to Eurus when he’s holding her in her burnt childhood bedroom that she got lost last time, but this time she can do it right. He’s here now, here for her. He begs her to save his best friend this time…not let him die like last time. Sherlock effectively brings his little sister down to the ground again, and he did it with love. The entirety of The Final Problem represented unlocking Love. Love for his best friend, his inseparable partner: John. Love for his family, his big brother: Mycroft, who isn’t as strong as he thinks, and Eurus, a little girl who was lost inside her own lonely, cold brilliance. Love for the quietly strong woman who’s love for him was unbreakable: Molly Hooper. Love unlocked Eurus’ prison, just as it unlocked Sherlock’s. They brought each other 'home’.

And that is the long ass tale of me and my husband’s discussing of this incredible, frustrating, tragic, beautiful, brilliant, messy episode of my favorite show of all time. I’ll admit to you here, I cried in front of my hub when he compared the coffin to the state of Sherlock and Molly’s relationship. He felt so bad, poor guy. I had also spent the day so upset over Moffat and Gatiss’s flippant responses about the “I Love You” scene. Upon our final viewing at the theater though, walking out, my hub says, “I have a new theory. I’m almost positive Sherlock and Molly did pursue a relationship. When she walks into 221B, she’s smiling really brightly, and she’s heading in the direction where Sherlock was standing in the room.” He is right. Molly could have walked in and simply stood gaping at the miracle of 221B’s resurrection, or she could have stood alongside Mrs. Hudson. But nope. She went in the direction of the man she’s loved for so, so long. She was going to Sherlock, who is now the good man everyone knew he could be.

Louise Brealey tweeted just before the final series aired that “Molly was back where she belonged.” Molly belongs with Sherlock, just as much as John Watson, Rosie Watson, and Mrs. Hudson. She’s a permanent part of this Sherlock Holmes’s Baker Street. Forever. <3

In defence of the Holmes parents

 (Sherlock meta by thelonelybrilliance)

I keep seeing people complaining about the Holmes parents being too normal.

But are they really normal? Did it ever occur to anyone that they were so freaking traumatized by the tragedies that came with having three brilliant children, one so intelligent and emotionally unbalanced that she murdered someone as a small child? That their middle son, the emotional, imaginative one–then repressed his memories and emotions for the next few decades?

That their family home was burnt down and then their daughter was committed and then they thought she died?

At the very least, the Holmes parents must have serious, serious guilt and PTSD. SO maybe the way they coped was by moving to a small, comfortable home, and just finding what little bits of normalcy they could, while they continued to cope with their two remaining very complicated children, one of whom ran the government and the other who struggled with a recurring drug problem and later faked his own death.

And the fact that they were willing to get in touch with Eurus later, and were angry at Mycroft for not telling them, says that they weren’t at all normal. They wanted to love their psycho daughter. Even after all the pain and fear and guilt they’d likely suffered.

The Holmes Siblings

 (Sherlock meta by cogentranting)

So the Holmes parents, two brilliant but relatively normal people, have a son who’s a genius. And Mycroft grows up seeing through the workings of the world, knowing how people think, being able to manipulate and predict etc. etc. He’s acutely aware of the fact that he’s different. Other people aren’t like him, and probably don’t like him, so he’s very isolated and very lonely. He sees food as a comfort and gains weight. But while Mycroft isn’t very good with people, he does understand them. So he becomes very concerned with appearance. It leads to dieting as an adult, and above all a very high sense of propriety. Myrcroft follows the rules. Mycroft does what’s right. Mycroft never has a hair out of place. Mycroft wears the best suits. Mycroft doesn’t care what you think of him. Mycroft is in control.

After Mycroft comes Sherlock, seven years later. And things are different for Sherlock. He’s a genius too, also doesn’t get along well with others. But Sherlock isn’t alone. He has Mycroft. He’s not the only genius- there’s someone else like him, someone he can look up to. So he has the same problem the same isolation, the same feeling of being different from everyone else, the same loneliness. But just a little less.

Mycroft is the oldest, held to the highest standards of behavior. But it’s been seven years and the Holmes parents are a little more lax on the rules with Sherlock. And he’s seen his brother do things, break the path. And on top of that Sherlock and Mycroft have an interesting relationship. There’s a lot of love (despite what they say). Mycroft cares for his brother, wants to protect him and so he looks out for him. But sometimes he does so in odd ways that looks a little more like bullying. And sometimes he resents him a little bit for being that little bit less lonely, that little bit better with people. And Sherlock looks up to his brother. Believes he’s the smartest person in the world (because he’s, of course, the second smartest). So while Sherlock takes after Mycroft in certain ways, he’s very determined not to be like him in a variety of other was. So where Mycroft decides to give the appearance that he doesn’t care what others think by being above reproach, the perfect gentleman, Sherlock decides to show he doesn’t care what others think by spinning out and being different in whatever way he wants. Mycroft is above it all. Sherlock has abandoned it all. Mycroft wants control, Sherlock wants excitement. And Mycroft’s control, his protection and just the fact that he went first, gives Sherlock the room and the safety to be the pirate and the adventurer and the dragon slayer.

And then, a year after Sherlock comes Eurus. So Sherlock not only has a role model, for a time he has a peer. Someone like him, someone close to him. Between this difference, the freedom he has to be himself whatever the consequences and just his natural friendliness, Sherlock manages to make a friend. Little Victor Trevor, his co-pirate. And Sherlock gets to be almost normal for a time at least.

And Eurus might have been more like Sherlock. Except that she was a little bit more than genius. Smarter than Mycroft or Sherlock. And her emotional and interpersonal issues didn’t stem from her situation, being isolated or lonely because of her intelligence. No for Eurus there was actually something off, something not right. And it probably hid a bit behind the fact that something similar had developed in her brothers. So maybe her parents thought at first that it was the same thing but more. Eurus for all her genius couldn’t quite understand the world in some ways that counted. And so instead of adjusting herself to deal with the world the way that Mycroft and Sherlock did, she tried to bend the world to her shape.

Sherlock was her peer, close when they were young, and she wanted to relate to him but couldn’t quite figure out how. She ends up hurting him, and it puts a wedge between them. Then Sherlock manages to do what no other Holmes child was able to- he makes a best friend. And it really drives Sherlock and Eurus apart. Because Victor can bridge the gap for Sherlock and connect. Sherlock isn’t good enough with people, with forming connections, to make up the difference for what Eurus is lacking. But Victor can make up the difference for Sherlock. And Eurus gets jealous. In a regular child this wouldn’t be that big of a deal. Hurtful, formative, maybe. But Eurus doesn’t understand people so she tries to change them. She doesn’t understand Victor, so she gets rid of him and in her own way asks Sherlock to come back to her. And she can’t quite understand the reason why he doesn’t. Why he’s so upset. Why he won’t let her replace Victor. And so she gets angry and tries to change Sherlock- she sets the house on fire. Which of course leads to her being locked up and taken away (combined with the fact that the family is pretty sure she’s the reason behind the neighbor boy’s disappearance).

Sherlock might have grown up really pretty normal. Nice parents, a protective if somewhat mean older brother, a sister he was close to, a best friend. But then his sister murders his best friend, tries to kill him and is taken away. And Sherlock, naturally, is traumatized. So his mind rewrites his memories to get rid of the trauma- he forgets Eurus and Victor. But he can’t quite write out the pain so his mind creates something new as the source- Redbeard, the dog that he loved that died.

And the pain and the trauma create in him a fear of attachment and affection. His parents are devastated by the loss of their daughter, they feel they’ve failed her. But they also feel incredibly guilty, thinking they allowed her to kill a little boy and allowed her to hurt their son. They don’t know how to help their traumatized son who suddenly can’t remember his own sister. And because now they’re desperate to protect him, they decide maybe it’s best that Sherlock doesn’t remember any of it. So they lie, and let Sherlock believe his mind’s lie. Mycroft does too. Which sets the example for him for some of his later decisions- particularly faking Eurus’s death.

Meanwhile Sherlock gets older and his parents can’t quite bring themselves to keep him in line. Because they feel guilty about what they let happen, because they excuse his behavior as a symptom of his trauma and his intellect. And because he’s their baby and they’ve already lost one.

So Sherlock, wanting to embrace standing out, afraid to form attachments, afraid to love, becomes prouder and ruder and more insensitive and meaner. And wanting excitement and adventure and a challenge he becomes more and more self destructive and more impulsive. He gets into drugs. He becomes fascinated by crime (a subconscious effect of the Victor mystery) and eventually becomes a consulting detective addicted to danger (and heroin).

All this continues until Sherlock stumbles into a group of people (John and Mrs Hudson and Molly and Mary and Lestrade) who love him despite his worst qualities, despite the fact that he’s made himself unlovable and unable to love them. They love him anyway and so he slowly begins to accept that. And he begins to heal and begins to love them. And when he’s healed enough to admit that he is loved and he does love them, then he reaches out to his brother first, then his sister and starts to help them heal too, in what small ways he can help.

So in the end, the Holmes siblings find that, for the first time, none of them are alone in the world.

Why Sherlock is the most brilliant show ever

 (by thelonelybrilliance)

I’ve never known a show that developed like this over four seasons and far more years than that. It leaves me awed. It leaves me in love.

Sherlock Season 1 was fresh. It was new. It was everything we loved about Baker Street but with a myriad twists. Who was Sherlock? He was idiosyncratic, brilliant, cold. Fascinated with puzzles, puzzles none of us could solve. The episodes were complex but close to home. Everything revolved around Baker Street, this unlikely friendship.

But there was a whisper. The classic arch villian. These are simple, but age-old, dramatic stakes. Not so much man vs. man but mind vs. mind.

This is Sherlock Holmes come of age, with mystery behind and before him.

It ends with the grand entrance of his twisted mirror, mind vs. mind.

Season 2 raises the stakes. It look into Sherlock’s heart, his loyalties, his fears. It delves into the deepest and richest of Holmes canon–the Woman, the Hound, the Fall. Season 2 leaves us gasping for air. This is Sherlock in the Golden Age, this is Sherlock that has us whirling, trying to keep up with twists and turns, with how much we now care about Mrs. Hudson, Lestrade, Molly, Mycroft–the side characters who now are part of a universe.

A threatened universe. This is Sherlock and John’s friendship at its tested peak, this is a Sherlock who might just be more than cold exterior, this is Sherlock with problems and people he might not be able to solve. This is the greatest face-off between protagonist and antagonist we’ve ever known, perhaps because they’re so like and yet unlike.

This is the end of an era, and a fall we still don’t quite understand.

Season 3 changes the game. It reels us back from grief. It has its lighthearted moments, even while John struggles to believe in a world again he’d thought lost. Season 3 gives us Mary, a story in herself. Season 3 takes John away from Baker Street, Molly away from Sherlock, everything we’ve known away from itself. How can such grand and beautiful caricatures feel so close to our own life? The alienation and the joy combined that we’ve always felt at a friend’s wedding.

Threats we expect coming from people we never dreamed would be the ones pulling the trigger.

This is Sherlock the savior. This is Sherlock the sacrifice.

This is death cheated in different ways.

Season 4. What is Season 4? Season 4 is everything times ten. The drama, the complexity, amped to 100mph. Why are there complaints it’s too clever? Or that it’s somehow buckling under its own weight, when this Sherlock come full circle. This isn’t close to home, complexities around a simple nucleus–this is close to heart, all the truths we’ve always known, Mary dies in canon, Molly loves Sherlock, There’s another Holmes–and yet it is ALL turned on its head.

This was a brilliant masterstroke. I pray it’s not the last. My soul begs for Season 5. But this was a beautiful finale, if so it must be. This was John destroyed and a friendship forged all the stronger in the end. This is where we realize that Sherlock really is Sherlock Holmes, the legend we’ve all known. A man, as Moftiss said, with a heart you never doubt. This is Sherlock the human.

And suddenly we understand all the questions we didn’t know we had. A high-functioning sociopath isn’t that way because of some paltry quirk. He’s shut down. He’s closed off. This is Sherlock Holmes finally opening the lockbox of himself, stepping outside the mind palace into something far, far greater.

And this is when we learn that the “freak” has “always been the grownup”. He’s the one who forgives. The one who saves them all. The one who cannot kill the brother he loves, does not leave the sister only he does not fear, the one who opens his heart up to the possibility of breaking because he has only three minutes to save Molly Hooper.

This is an East Wind. Mary, gone. Rosamund, still beloved by many. Eurus Holmes, remembered.

And 221B Baker Street changed, yet also just as we’ve always known.

Raise a glass.

Sherlock is not ready to be in a relationship with Molly yet

 (Sherlock meta by cogentranting)

Q: But I don’t want Sherlock for Molly, brave wonderful Molly. She makes him better, so much better, but he doesn’t do the same for her. And she deserves that. She deserves more than crumbs from a table, even Sherlock’s table. She deserves a feast.

A: That’s fair. Molly does deserve the best. But for better or worse, Sherlock is the one who Molly loves. For as long as we’ve seen her it’s never been anyone else. And I think it’s a lot like what they said about John marrying an assassin- it’s what she likes. Sweet, brave, kind Molly, loves Sherlock. Sherlock who’s brilliant, proud, egotistical, thoughtless, devoted, passionate, loyal, fiercely protective, patient, good with kids, a dragon slayer for the weak and the outcasts. For better or worse, this is who Molly loves with her incredible steady, unconditional love. And, at least for this time in her life, she’s not going to love someone else so there can’t be someone better.

But don’t I think it’s fair to describe it as “crumbs from a table”. It’s not that. That implies that what Sherlock has to give he’s withholding. And he’s not. He may not have a feast for her but he’s raided his kitchen and put out the best he’s got. It’s just that this is Sherlock, coming from years and years of repressed trauma, denying his emotions and convincing himself he’s a sociopath. So he doesn’t have that much to offer, but what he has he’s giving.

He does make her better in some ways. He tells her how important she is. How much she matters. He respects her as someone to keep him in line and help him behave and as an expert in her field. And through this he helps her realize her own worth. I think that it’s through dealing with Sherlock that Molly learned to push back, to stand up for herself, to not let anyone toy with her. I think Sherlock showed Molly how to be strong and to know her own value and to stand firm against the naysayers. It’s not as much as she’s given him but it’s a start.

And so that’s part of why I think he’s not ready yet. He’s not ready to be in a real relationship with someone. Probably wasn’t even ready to bring those feelings out into the open. But he’s healing and he’s growing and learning how to love and be loved. And so I think, for now, it’s just about acknowledgment of both their feelings, and I think that’s really valuable. But I think Molly does deserve better and that they just need time to let Sherlock grow to be better.

What I think about the “I love you” scene in The Final Problem

 (Sherlock meta by cogentranting)

[...] Sherlock only said it because he was forced to. And he meant it. And he doesn’t know if he loves Molly. Basically yes to all the options.

Sherlock is entirely focused on saving Molly. He’ll do whatever she asks him to if he can only save her. He’ll do anything to keep her safe- and unfortunately that includes hurting her. That’s why he’s so loathe to do it. Why he hesitates and needs to be prodded by Eurus. He knows that this entire conversation is hurting Molly, and he hates that, but he believes it’s necessary to save her life. So, like he does the entire episode, he tries to minimize the damage.

Molly says she can’t say that to him. That he knows why. And Sherlock seems confused. “of course you can. why can’t you?” And part of that is because he’s trying to make this quick and simple and painless. He’s not asking for her love, just for the words. He has this desperate sort of hope that maybe, just for a few moments, she can be like him. She can bury the emotions and the words can just be words. Even when she admits in that breathless teary way that it’s true he pushes. His voice gets commanding, a bit mean. Trying to communicate his desire for her to put aside emotion and just say the words. To be rational. To be like him.

But she can’t. Or rather, she won’t. Molly Hooper, for all her soft-spoken mousey ways, is made of steel. She doesn’t make herself more like Sherlock. She makes Sherlock more like her. She’s not gonna play his games. If he’s gonna call without explanation and ask the impossible from her that’s what he’s going to get. She won’t hide her emotions for him. She won’t make it easy for him. And she’s going to make sure he’s not toying with her, not making fun of her. So she’s going to make him say it first. What he’s asked demands that she lay her emotions out in the open. So she demands he do the same.

And it catches him off guard. He didn’t expect that. Didn’t expect her to push back when he pushed her. He’ll do it- of course he will because that’s what it takes to save her. Just like shooting Magnussen was what it took to save John and Mary. And he has to make it believable. Say it like you mean it. He gathers himself, tries to find the way to say it, to do his best to convince her it’s true.

So he says it. And then he says it again. Because something surprised him when he said it. And he has to try the words again. See how they taste. What he finds is not the facsimile of emotion he tried to create. It’s actual emotion. Emotion he didn’t realize was there but has been for a long time. And he definitely means it. But he doesn’t really know that he means it. He’s never asked himself whether or not he loves Molly Hooper. He knew that he loves her in the way that he loves John or Mycroft or Mary. But that sort of love… he hasn’t allowed himself to question that.

Molly responds, almost inaudibly. Says the words he knew but wouldn’t think about. She loves him. Hearing those words from a person should be beautiful and wonderful and comforting. But these aren’t. These were ripped from her by force. The same as they were ripped from him. By Eurus. It’s ugly, manipulative, cruel. Forced, not earned. Premature. Molly and Sherlock are both wounded and bleeding, the words cut out of them, with Eurus forcing Sherlock to wield the knife.

Molly’s cut off and Sherlock has to press on, with Eurus pausing to taunt him and point out the damage. She leaves and Sherlock breaks down. Frustration, rage, pain, confusion. Because he had to hurt Molly, not even to save her life as he thought, just for Eurus’s experiment. Because the moment was so wrong, so broken. Because he was made to confront the fact that he feels something for Molly but isn’t ready to process those emotions. Because he feels helpless and knows there’s more to come. Because he’s afraid for everyone he loves. Because Eurus is cutting him open to show everyone all the carefully sheltered emotions he’s hidden deep inside. Emotions he’s kept locked up so tight that he doesn’t know what to do with them, so long protected that they’re fragile and painful to touch.

Sherlock told Molly he loved her, purely so that she would say the words to save her life. But in saying those words he revealed feelings he didn’t know he had. And in those moments he couldn’t think them through. So Sherlock still doesn’t know if he loves Molly.Which is fine because, as far as he’s come, he’s not yet ready to be in an actual relationship with someone. But the question has been asked- the question no one has thought or dared to ask until now. And Molly knows the answer. Maybe Mycroft and John do too. The answer is yes, Sherlock loves Molly. But he hasn’t realized it yet. He will. Given time. Happy times at Baker Street will give the feelings a chance to grow big enough for him to recognize, now that they’ve been exposed and given room to breathe. And Molly will wait. Painful as that cruel experiment was, it had a silver lining. As the entire Eurus catastrophe did. Terrible events that brought about good things, in spite of it all. Because Molly owns the truth. Molly loves Sherlock and that love is strong and determined and faithful, whether it’s requited or not. And Sherlock loves Molly, thought that love is new and uncertain and just learning how to be strong. Just give them time.

A random thought 

(about the 'I love you')

 (Sherlock meta by gettingovergreta)

A random thought Sherlock’s “I love you” reminded me of a moment that I’ve seen in patients in therapy who struggle with alexithymia (inability to identify/describe their emotions). To put it briefly, this work focuses on developing an emotional vocabulary (beyond feeling good or bad) and connecting emotion words with the physical sensations of emotion, and moving towards distinguishing emotions and behavior from thoughts in order to recognize the connections between them.

In the moment where Sherlock says “I love you,” he is forming an association between the word “love” and how he feels and behaves towards Molly. He’s just spitting out the words the first time, putting on his acting shoes, but when he speaks the second time, it appears that the word fits properly in some way, and he’s taken aback. Fans have been analyzing that “I love you” since the trailer first appeared, and many people wondered if it was a passcode or solution of some sort since Sherlock appeared to be having a revelation. A choice was made to have that as his response - he could have closed his eyes and looked down, ashamed at lying to her, for example. We also know how he looks when he simply feels guilty for hurting Molly - we saw a couple of variations on this in TGG and ASIB, and that’s not what we see either.

Moreover, Sherlock is familiar with love. He is well aware that he loves John – he says so in the best man speech, and it seems quite plain that he loved Mary as well. Why would he look surprised or stunned that he loves Molly, who he has trusted wholly and cared about for years?

Because it is different. He does not feel the same way towards Molly that he does towards other people that he loves, and yet something clicks for Sherlock in that instant when the way he feels around her and the way he thinks about her is connected with the word love.

Mind the gap!

 (Sherlock meta by mae-jones)

I noticed something in the series finale watching it on the big screen for a second time. Just before our ‘I love you’ scene, there is the announcement, ‘Mind the gap’. Remember Sherlock and Molly’s day solving crimes? Well, the doorbell at the train fellow’s flat rang, ‘mind the gap’. I thought this was a cool little addition ahead of Molly’s scene. It was a bit of a subconscious broadcast and buildup to Sherlock about what was to come.

The more I think about this episode and series, as well as TAB, the more little pieces I see that they were trying to steer us towards. The things happening behind the scenes.

What happens if you don’t, ‘mind the gap’?

You fall. You fall! But, falling isn’t the problem.

“It’s never the fall, Sherlock … IT’S THE LANDING.” 

So, we get to ‘The Final Problem’. The Final problem is about Eurus and what she did to Sherlock, right? Of course, but it’s also about ‘fixing’ him. The Final problem points to more than one theme.

For example, falling is well-known short hand for ‘falling in love’. So, the falling part isn’t the problem. It’s the landing, or realizing you’re in love. This would be the ultimate final barrier broken, final emotional problem solved for Sherlock. So, why did Eurus need Sherlock to land and land hard before he saved her?

She was lost. She couldn’t find her way. This theme was echoed over and over in this episode. The boat in the fog. The plane in the sky. The maze of Sherrinford.

Eurus needed Sherlock to land because only when Sherlock’s two feet were planted firmly on the ground could he become her compass. He had already reciprocated love in all its other forms (ie/ the other points on the compass). The landing of realizing he was in love with Molly Hooper and she with him, was something he needed to internalize. Molly Hooper’s theme this entire show has been that of unconditional love. Eurus needed him to fully accept and reciprocate that type of love and understand its importance, because she knew only unconditional love would save her from herself.

TFP: The Phone Call 

 (Sherlock meta by classeyspanks)

After we watched the episode my husband and I had two entirely different take aways from that scene and I wanted to address them here. His interpretation was in short that he felt bad for Molly and thought the scene was humiliating for her. He did not think Sherlock loved her and was almost shocked that I did… until I explained my reasoning.

Opens with Eurus setting up the new “case”. Someone is going to die and “It will be a tragedy, so many days unlived, so many words unsaid, ecetera, ecetera, ecetera” IMO she was referring to Molly’s death leaving Sherlock with words unsaid. Remember this is Eurus. Her deduction needs to be complex, something all others miss, and devastating to Sherlock. I don’t think deducing that the lonely doctor is in unrequited love with Sherlock meets that criteria by a long shot. But to deduce that Sherlock loves her as well but hasn’t realized it yet DOES.

When he sees the coffin lid and the engraving, the victim becomes clear. Notice the change in his demeanor fom high energy rapid deduction to slow dread. He turns away from the lid, eyes closed in pain looking devastated. His mouth is agape and he breathes so heavily his chest rise is easily seen. His voice cracks on describing Molly as ‘alone’.

He starts the call thinking, like I think most did, that the point was to make him hurt her, seeming to manipulate her much in the way he used to tell her insincerely about her hair and lipstick. He tries to keep it straightforward, business like but rapidly flips between aloof and panicked, the first real crack appearing when she says she is not an experiment.

She says that she can’t say she loves him because it is true. This seems to subtly affect him and he appears touched in a sad way. He might have suspected it but for him to truly know is another thing entirely.

And then she requests HIM to say it first. Now, my husband saw it as a desperation, like a pathetic need to hear him say it as if she would take any morsels he threw her way. Uh, don’t worry, I disabused him of that shit.

They have a complicated past that started with manipulation and since they moved on from that Molly hasn’t gone back. She is repeatedly referred to by other characters as one of the few that can really “see” or “see through” Sherlock and is one of the only ones who can make him apologize. So from her perspective, if she is going to play this game, if she’s going to humiliate herself by saying it (and she knows she can’t say it without meaning it) then she needs to hear him say it first to put them on equal ground. He’s going to have to put his pound of flesh on the table first.

And this, my friends, is where he really starts to crumble. Why? Does he think Molly will believe it if he says it and the fact that he doesn’t will hurt her? As I stated above if she were a casual friend, her hurt would be worth her life and he could easily lie and say them (like he did with Janine). Also I don’t see how a reasonable woman like Molly would take this as an actual admission of love, not from Sherlock under such strange circumstances. See here my friends, much like Molly, HE CAN’T SAY THEM BECAUSE THEY ARE TRUE, even if he is just in this very moment realizing it.

He says it. Twice. The first feeling forced as if pried from his lips with his eyes closed. But the second comes out almost breathlessly, earnestly with a hint of wonder as he looks directly at her though she cannot see him. When she says it back, he collapses in relief and announces to Eurus he won.

But she is from the same mentality of ‘sentiment is a defect found on the losing side” and mocks all his “complicated little emotions” and tells him he did not save her as she was never in any danger from Eurus in the first place.

“What have you done to yourself?” she asks. He has allowed himself to admit he loves Molly and now there will be no going back. He realizes that Eurus knew it even before and set this all up to expose him, make him vulnerable and tear down the man he thinks of himself to be. He is stunned, walking to the coffin lid to confront this new aspect of himself, jaw clearly clenching before carrying it to the coffin where he set it down. The entire time his eyes are on the engraved words, reading them.

“I love you”.

Yes, he now knows. He does.

He lets out a wry breath, a expression of his disbelieving acceptance and almost reverently slides his hand over top before

Absolutely. Losing. His. Shit.

And this is the one my husband could not refute and actually stopped mid sentence and said “You’re right.” (I also ran through all the significant moments between the two in all prior episodes as a reminder. Surprise, he forgot most of them.)

Sherlock destroys the coffin as he rebels against this thought. He doesn’t want to love. It only leads to pain… illustrated most recently by the agony he and Molly are now in.

It isn’t torture. Its vivisection.

Sherlock’s reaction when there is no reply from his brother

 (Sherlock meta by cumberbatchitis)

I saw complaints that The Final Problem was in a way unnecessary, because Sherlock’s emotional development and relationships with others had already been complete, but I totally disagree. The Final Problem brought the game to the most savage and personal battlefield - it was about family (and that officially includes John now, which made me immensely happy) and apart from the intriguing development concerning Eurus herself, there is still Sherlock’s relationship with Mycroft. That was uncomplete before this episodde, because while we could hardly doubt Mycroft’s love and worry for Sherlock, the latter had never openly showed the deep affection for his older brother. But in TFP we finally saw Sherlock openly admitting how much Mycroft means to him and that he worries about him too. That was definitely one of the most satisfying moments in the show, ever.

Imagine Eurus Holmes

 (Sherlock meta by aphraelsan)

I loved Eurus Holmes quite a lot, and Sian Brooke was absolutely amazing. BUT. Imagine a Newtonian-level Eurus Holmes with a scope and goals beyond getting her brothers’ attention. Imagine an anti-hero, big picture, sacrifices-must-be-made-for-the-greater-good Eurus, who wants to save the world and isn’t worried about who might get hurt along the way.

Imagine five year old Eurus realizing that Victor Trevor is only ever going to amount to a mid-level banker who occasionally hits his wife, but his death would push her brother to be the greatest detective the world has ever known. Hundreds, maybe thousands of lives can be saved. No brainer. Into the well he goes.

Imagine 20 year old Eurus realizing that she can save the world, and all she has to do is burn it down first. She knows just how to pull the threads that will create a lasting utopia on planet earth within 100 years. Yes, 4 billion or so people will die along the way, but the earth is overcrowded anyway. She sets about her work, manipulating poor Uncle Rudy and her older brother and the idiots at Sherrinford along the way. At first her access is limited, but she learned patience at an early age.

It gets lonely. She decides to seek out a little helpmeet in her adventures. She knows there is no one else in the world who can match her intellect, but she needs someone who is both smart enough to keep up with her and flexible enough to do what needs to be done. Someone who is not boring. She hopes she’s found that in Jim Moriarty, but within 20 seconds of meeting him she knows that he’s too invested in burning the world down to ever want to rebuild it again afterwards. Ample observation has confirmed that Mycroft, while more intelligent, does not possess the necessary mental and moral flexibility. A quick twitter search confirms that there are no other serious contenders - it will have to be Sherlock.

She sets her nets and she waits. Dear Jim is invaluable in this endeavor. She devises a series of trials that will teach Sherlock about the weakness of sentiment, drive him away from his pets (er…“friends”), and to make difficult decisions for the greater good. She carefully calculates the variables and concludes that once he has killed their brother, he will be ready to listen to what she has to say. She can be very persuasive.

But the day arrives and Sherlock not only refuses to kill their brother, he is prepared to die for him. Eurus is wrong. WRONG. She has never been wrong in her life. If she’s wrong about this, her own brother, what else could she have miscalculated? Could she have been prepared to sacrifice 4 billion lives on incorrect data? Eurus retreats into her own mind, shattered by her failure, destined to spend the rest of her life seeking the one variable she will never understand - love. Sentiment. Amo.

Sherlock's violin and Euro's deduction: "Oh!"

 (Sherlock meta by Ivy Blossom)

Q: Just how do you relate the violin to Sherlock's lack of virginity or possible awareness of his own sexuality? I just couldn't findd the sexual part of it, thought it was more of an understanding and acceptance of how he would not leave her

A: When Sherlock first plays his own composition for Eurus, she interrupts him, surprised, and says: “Oh! Have you had sex?”

Either this is just a non sequitur, or listening to Sherlock play just a couple of notes gives her new information about him. The “Oh!” suggests it’s new information that has surprised her.

Eurus has spent a fair bit of time with Sherlock, and she is a Holmes, the Ur Holmes, in a way. She is able to deduce better than either of her brothers. She spends a night walking around London with Sherlock, and while he thinks he is keeping a suicidal Faith company on a “danger night”, in fact Eurus is discovering all kinds of things about him. She finds him to be sweet, and much nicer than she expects him to be. I can’t imagine there is much she doesn’t know about Sherlock at that point.

When Sherlock comes to Sherrinford and plays her violin, her first reaction is surprise. “Oh!” Not that he can play; she knows he can play. “Oh!” suggests she’s deduced something new. “Have you had sex?” suggests that she has deduced, somehow, that he has.

Sherlock, in keeping with the firm ambiguity of the entire series, neither confirms nor denies it.

Behind the cold and logic facade:

 crack Sherlock Holmes open just a little and you’ll find he’s a romantic.

 (Sherlock meta by Ivy Blossom)

E: Well, that's interesting.
S: What is?
E: The way you think
S: Superbly?
E: Sweetley.
S: I.m not sweet; I'm just high.

One of the things I love about this show, all four series’ of it, is the hints in it about what Sherlock would be like if he could get past all his hang ups and issues. He puts on such a great show of being a creature of pure reason. His life has been dedicated to becoming something he is not, and now his facade has now become his character. It’s true, but it’s a lie at the same time.

Here he is as the cold deduction machine everyone knows him to be, and he thinks he’s about to be complimented on his prodigious brain power (as usual), but what surprises Eurus-as-Faith isn’t his ability to deduce. It’s his sweetness. The nature he’s been burying all this time is the first thing that strikes her about her brother.

And no wonder she can’t help but see it, even though few others ever will; that’s something that is, among the Holmes children, unique to Sherlock, and entirely alien to her. She can see the deduction better than Sherlock can, but he brings something else to it. He brings his sweetness. The seed of it is there in him and always has been, though it’s invisible to almost everyone else.

Crack Sherlock Holmes open just a little and you’ll find he’s a romantic.

Molly Hooper is the opposite of a reductive or weak character

 (Sherlock meta by preachersdaughtersthief)

[...] Molly continuously gets the upper hand in her most relevant interactions with Sherlock. She gets him, again and again, to say sincerely the things he has trouble saying. “I’m sorry”. “Thank you”. “You do count”. “I need you”. “I hope you’ll be very happy, you deserve it.” And now “I love you”.

To paint her as lovelorn, mousy and weak [as some people have been doing] is wrong and ignores every bit of development the character has had from the very first episode. Even in the “I love you” scene, no matter how heartbreaking it was for her, she still turns the [...] tables on him and says she is not going to do it unless he does it first.

Has Sherlock used Molly before? Of course, he has (unfortunately) used everyone in his life that has the least bit of affection for him, but she is also the one that, time and time again, ends up surprising him the most, and she did it again this time. Molly Hooper isn’t a reductive character nor a weak one, Molly Hooper can metaphorically grab Sherlock by the balls every damn time. And if you’re missing on that then I have no idea what show you have been watching.

The Final Problem: 

The Forced 'I Love You' And The Missing Sherlolly Scene

 (Sherlock meta by thedenimofrose)

Many have discussed to what extent Sherlock meant the “I love you,” and others also question why the writers would leave out the scene where Sherlock and Molly reunite. A sincere “I love you” can easily feel like a leap because it’s Sherlock, but the Sherlock first seen in series one was an illusion, and Eurus was digging deep trying to unearth the real him. Like classeyspanks said, the entire scene was vivisection. Euros was peeling back Sherlock like an onion, and though some have called the missing scene an oversight, there is a strong possibility that it was intentionally left out, and if so, it is not a sign of Molly’s insignificance, but could arguably be proof of canon.

“Say It Like You Mean It”.

1. Why the Fake “I Love You” Theory Doesn’t Hold Up

For Sherlock to become truly vulnerable, Eurus needed Sherlock to become wholly invested in that game. She couldn’t afford for him to be detached - to be in such control of his own emotions that his mask remained in place. The scene conveys that it was not forcing Molly to utter “I love you” that made Sherlock emotional. Of course, it pained him to see her in pain, and it pained him to be the source of her agony. Yet, through the beginning of the conversation, he remained in control of his emotions. He had been confident that he could get her to say it. When he ordered her to “Say it anyway,” his insistent expression revealed that he truly expected the next words out of her mouth to be compliance. She was going to say “I love you,” and he was going to save her. He still remained in control.

Then, Molly ordered him to say “I love you.” Though unexpected, it shouldn’t have thrown him. If three words were the only condition to saving her life, most people would have said it. John would have, even Mycroft was in the back making incoherent noises, trying to stay silent, but also trying to say “HURRY UP.” So why did Sherlock start to unravel when Molly asked him to say it back?

There was a very important parallel in that scene. While Molly struggled to say “I love you” to Sherlock because she meant it, Sherlock also wrestled with his own “I love you.” Had he not said just minutes earlier that the words were “very easy” to say? Now, they sat stuck in his throat, and he, the man who never begs for mercy, would rather look at his sister with his eyes pleading, “Please don’t make me do this.”

The theme of that scene was not “I love you” as one would say to a friend. Mycroft deduced that immediately. He said, “I’m assuming the list is short.” This part of the game was about Sherlock and romantic sentiment, his greatest fear and most hidden vulnerability. If he didn’t feel anything for Molly, but platonic sentiment, he should have been able to “keep it together,” like John and Mycroft. Yet, when Molly tells Sherlock to say it back, he freezes. It was not going to hurt Molly to hear him say it. She even smiled. So who was he protecting? The only other person he could have been protecting was himself.

Many people are dubious to believe he could truthfully say those words to Molly because she “doesn’t count.” That is a major reason why some people are so reluctant. Even though he stated in series two, “You do count.” People still struggle to believe he meant it. Yet, his behavior towards her over the series confirms that he did. The tenderness in his gaze when he kissed on the cheek in The Empty Hearse, the lingering look when she had already turned away, his respect for her, his burgeoning trust… Their relationship has grown series after series. Moreover, also, it’s important to remember that the writers have been drawing attention over the past four episodes to Sherlock’s romantic life and to the possibility that he may soon find himself in a romantic relationship.

This theme has been reoccurring since The Abominable Bride. In that episode, it was revealed tha
t Sherlock though discomforted by it, is capable of romantic attachment. John said in The Abominable Bride, “Surely, you have urges.” In other words, surely, you desire to be with someone, and I remember someone pointing out that this was all in Sherlock’s mind and Sherlock was telling himself that a part of him craves more.

Later in that scene, the audience sees Sherlock tell John to stop talking. Sherlock silences that voice in his head, suppressing that desire, saying (and I am paraphrasing), “This is who I choose to be.” Yet, then, the writers had John bring up the topic again in The Lying Detective, saying Sherlock needs to be with someone to keep him grounded. John contradicted Sherlock when he said (and I am paraphrasing) “Romantic entanglements aren’t for me,” and if John knew Sherlock was hiding from the truth, so did Eurus. She had been pushing an emotional context on Sherlock the entire episode. She knew the man who suppresses all emotion, who can’t love, doesn’t want to love - that was a lie. She wanted her Sherlock, the one she grew up with, so she twisted the knife, targeting where he was most vulnerable to get the facade to collapse.

Significantly, the theme was emotional context. Eurus focused on Sherlock’s emotional investments. John was the best friend, and Mycroft was the beloved big brother, so what was Molly? Eurus had friendship covered with John, family covered with Mycroft, the only other form of love is the romantic. As Amanda Abbington said, Molly had become Sherlock’s rock, and when Eurus threatened her, she threatened to strip Sherlock of the very thing that kept him grounded.

2. Why It Had To Be Forced

This game was not about Sherlock the Detective or Sherlock the Brain. It was about Sherlock the Man. Whether one sees this as an intentional act by Eurus or just by the writers, the entire scene was about getting Sherlock to confess he loved Molly Hooper, and he was never going to let himself go there unless he was pushed to a point of desperation, and he was. The “I Love You” scene tore down the carefully constructed framework of their relationship. While Molly pretends she doesn’t love him as more than a friend, he pretends that he doesn’t know her true feelings - even though Molly knows he knows. But it’s safe. The lie is safe to them. Sherlock can’t let himself feel, and Molly can’t let herself hurt, so they just stayed in their little dance until Eurus…

That scene didn’t shatter them. It shattered their false dynamic. It shattered their ability to go on in a lie, so to get to that point to the one in the end where she walks in grinning at Sherlock*, there was a scene (if not quite a few) we never got to see. Their closure scene. The scene that forever shifted the dynamic of their relationship and - many, including me, believe - made them really become canon.

3. The Doctor Who Tradition of Missing “I Love You” Scenes 

For those unaware, allow me to provide some background context - the writers [Steven Moffat] are from Doctor Who. They are accustomed to writing in the Doctor Who style, and in that show, the audience never gets verbal confirmation from the male protagonist that he loves the person we all know he loves. It’s Doctor Who (2005) tradition to never make it verbally explicit, which is why I believe we never got the scene where Sherlock apologized and told Molly what was going on.

4. The Oversight as Further Proof of Canon 

The oversight, in terms of canon, is actually necessary. The missing scene strongly suggests that he confessed AGAIN to her in some format. This time with no "Say it like you mean its” to make it dubious for those who are not fans. Like Doctor Who, BBC's Sherlock likes to leave things unanswered, but just because they don’t give an answer that doesn’t mean an answer wasn’t there.

Side Note: Can we take a moment to appreciate the parallel between Eurus killing the Governor’s wife and threatening to kill Molly? Because when she chose Molly as a pressure point, Eurus put Molly in perfect parallel with the governor’s wife. In an episode like this where people are purposefully left to wonder whether Sherlock is in love with Molly, this parallel is both massive and highly informative.

*Screen Time’s discussion of Molly’s smile in the last scene and the canonization of Sherlolly can be found here at 6:06.

Just a thought about Euros and the "I love you" scene

 (Sherlock meta by creamocrop)

Eurus didn’t rig Molly’s flat although she did install cameras inside, which means getting in and rigging it is not really a problem.

Eurus is supposed to be the most intelligent Holmes. One of the most impressive ability of both Holmes brothers - which they repeatedly showcase in different episodes - is that they can anticipate outcomes and choose which is the most likely one to occur. If they could do it, surely Eurus could do as well.

Eurus didn’t rig Molly’s flat because she anticipated that she didn’t need to. She predicted that her brother can and will make Molly say ‘I love you.’

But the whole point of the exercise is to inflict pain to Sherlock by showing him his vulnerability. As she said to him later on “Look at what you did to yourself”. 

She predicted that in the process of making Molly say those words, Sherlock will also hurt himself.

But how?

If anything, it’s obviously Molly who’s going to get hurt, because she is being forced to say I love you to the man who she believes does not return her sentiment! If she willingly says "I love you" to him, she does get hurt but she lives and Sherlock wins easily without the burden of guilt because Molly willingly said it. If she adamantly refuses to say it, when the time runs out, no bombs will blow up, so Molly still lives. The worst that could happen in that scenario is that a fall out occurs between Sherlock and Molly, but that is an aftermath - something that would hurt him later, not then, not within that room.

So how did Eurus anticipate that this would hurt Sherlock? How did she predict that his emotions would destroy him? “Emotional context, Sherlock. It destroys you every time.”

Answer: Exactly how it went. With this:

This realization.

Eurus knew that this would happen. She knew that in the process of making Molly say "I love you", Sherlock would come to his own realization.

Now here is the clever part that made me realize how fantastically manipulative Eurus was.

Since she knew that this would happen, she just had to reveal to Sherlock that there were no bombs. It allowed her the opportunity to throw Sherlock’s so called ‘win’, to his face. “You lost.” 

Sherlock is now on the losing side.

Basically Eurus is scary. She realized Sherlock's feeling before he did, so she decided to play this cruel game.

Mrs Hudson in TLD

 (Sherlock meta by aphraelsan)

Mrs. Hudson has to have an inkling of what Sherlock’s trying to do when he’s getting increasingly drug addled and mangy - they watched Mary’s message together. I imagine her internal monologue when he started into his Henry V monologue was, “That’s it. Screw this, my walls are not going to Hell with you and your handgun. John Watson can save you from the trunk of my bloody car.”

In seriousness, this is why she’s so insistent to John that he is the only one who can possibly help Sherlock. She knows it has to be him based on Mary’s message, but she disagrees with her idiot genius man-child on how to get the job done. It’s exactly what Sherlock knows she’ll do, because he doesn’t underestimate her in the least (excepting the trunk, which was pretty much the best part of the episode IMO). Hudders style.

Explaining Irenes text in TLD

 (Sherlock meta by strawberrypatty)

I also don’t feel like we’ve learned anything from this scene that we didn’t already have an inkling of? Like… He texts Irene. John was able to deduce it was Sherlock’s birthday because it was done on a random day. Meaning he figured they only texted each other on “events”, but since it was a random day, John guessed it was Sherlock’s birthday.

Sherlock also talks about the texts as not a big deal as a way to make John feel better. It’s all right that John texted E, because he texts the Woman some times and it’s just texts (I don’t AGREE with Sherlock, but whatever… This was how he was interpreting things).

Is the scene important? Yes it is. It does possibly set up a future for Sherlock and Irene, but that’s not primarily what it’s about. It’s about John and Mary. John is talking about how she’s alive and how Sherlock is wasting time. But it’s that John is grieving the fact that he lost time with the woman he loved. He’s actually got no clue what sort of relationship Sherlock and Irene want. Maybe they HAVE the relationship they want. Sherlock and Irene are certainly not people who fit into traditional relationship roles.

I just really don’t feel like we should be rending garments and saying that everything is over. We already knew Irene was important to Sherlock and we had a hint they were still in contact when we were told that Irene sent a rose to Sherlock. Sherlock also wanks off over Irene sometimes because she hangs out in his Mind Palace all naked.

So, you know… Calm down. This is all stuff we knew. Don’t try to make things about another ship. That’s not cool. But there are ways to look at things without twisting the scene into something it’s not. A ship got some wind in its sails. But that’s all.

Sherlolly is canon, and friendship is love too

 (Sherlock meta by rosesandloveforemily)

Sherlock romantically loves Molly, and I feel like that’s always been pretty clear. He just had to be forced to confront his emotions. (As per usual.) But it’s been even more clear throughout the series that Sherlock loves John.

Sherlock loves John in a way that isn’t romantic. It’s something more than that. They’re best friends and family and brothers in arms. I think we hold up romantic love as this shining ideal and an ultimate goal. But Sherlock isn’t about that kind of love, and the show hasn’t been hinting at a John and Sherlock romance. They’ve been poking fun at the fact that two men who share any kind of love are always assumed to be romantically involved with each other.

It’s so rare to see friendship between two masculine characters protrayed like theirs. The kind of friendship where you feel like you are completely understood and unconditionally loved. I could marry and raise a kid with my best friend but I’m not about to try to have sex with her. That doesn’t mean I love her any less. The same holds true for John and Sherlock.

tldr; Sherlolly is canon, and friendship is love too.

Why was Anderson working in the morgue in TAB?

 (Sherlock meta by mae-jones)

Alright, so this seemed a strange place to have Anderson to me as he and Molly have never worked together in the regular series. He should have been chumming with Lestrade but he was instead the intermediary between Sherlock and Molly’s morgue confrontation. So, as you know, I like to grasp at any Sherlolly straws I can get!

Remember, the TAB special largely takes place in Sherlock’s mind, including this scene. So, who is the one known canon Sherlolly shipper in the BBC show? Well, it’s Anderson who imagined them lip-locking in ‘The Empty Hearse’. I have no doubt Anderson repeated that little theory of his enough times that Sherlock knows about it.

Do you see where I’m going? Anderson is the only one who believes Sherlock could have real feelings for Molly. I think if Sherlock was adverse to that idea, he would keep them very separate in his mind palace. His placing of Anderson subservant to his queen gave me a lot of feels. Even in his mind, Sherlock places Molly with someone who sees her worth and holds her in high esteem (as well as wants to see them connected).

Haha, put that in your shipping pipe and smoke it!

Sherlock's comment on Mollys body in ASiB

 (Sherlock meta by ladycumberbunny and mae-jones)

ladycumberbunny: 

S2E1 - A Scandal in Belgravia

Is no one going to mention the fact that Irene Adler and Molly Hooper have almost the same body type? And here Sherlock is verbally shredding Molly about certain aspects such as her “small” mouth and breasts.

I am a hardcore Sherlolly shipper, but you have to admit that Sherlock had at least some interest in Irene, and he can say it was her mind all he wants, because for all the “everything else is just transport” nonsense, he is still a man.

I’m just saying that I think he is so very defensive towards Molly in this scene, and it makes me wonder why.

mae-jones:

Ah, well, if you think about what Sherlock said, he did not say that ‘in his opinion’ her breasts and mouth were too small, but implied Molly might think this of herself.

If you further contemplate Sherlock being all Sherlock, his derision and scorn was not for her appearance but rather the concept that she felt this way about herself for no good reason. This is a prime example of his disdain being misread, in my mind. In fact, in his Sherlock-y kind of way, he might have thought he was communicating the opposite (in that Molly need not go to such great lengths with her appearance because it was unnecessary).

Now, if you think about how he pauses and muses for a second after she calls him out, yes, he is surprised that he hurt her but you gotta know in that moment, a million possibilities of what he should do next ran through his mind. It is OOC for Sherlock to NOT to give a rambling response. That is why the moment stands out, because he didn’t do that. If Molly wasn’t special to him in some manner, he would have rattled off something else as he has been known to do when he has insulted others. He gives about zero shits for anyone thinking he is a dick so we know the apology wasn’t to make him look better to bystanders. He has never been hesitant to explain or misdirect before. So why didn’t he do that? Why?

You can see the wheels grinding in his head. He wants to minimize the hurt, that part is obvious. However, there is a lot going on in his head. He probably ran the scenario of explaining himself to her but rejected it, perhaps because his first inclination is usually to say exactly what is in his thoughts. What was he thinking then? Maybe it was that he DOES find her attractive, not something I think he wanted to admit in front of this particular gathering. In fact, he decided anything and everything he actually thought was best left unsaid.

So absent an alternative, he deduced it was better to just apologize and leave it at that. What he didn’t say spoke louder than words.