What happened to Sherlock's revelations about himself in TAB?

 (Sherlock Meta by 57-circlesofhell and sussexbound)

57-circlesofhell:

I keep thinking… We saw sherlock go through tab. We saw “it’s always two of us.” We saw Sherlock leaping off the waterfall and accepting his emotions. So why doesnt that seem reflected in his character in TST? Instead of taking “it’s always two of us” to heart, Sherlock often ignores or fails to appreciate John, puts too much trust in Mary, and runs off on his own without John’s input. I think that’s part of what feels off to me. Sherlock doesn’t seem much developed by the “events” of TAB, and i wonder why that is.

sussexbound: 

I know I’ve done a couple posts about this. One right after TAB I think. And my point then was that it was amazing that Sherlock had so many revelations about himself and his feelings in TAB, but going out into the real world and now actually putting those revelations into action–well, that’s the real work.

And I saw hints in this episode that Sherlock is mad in love with John and knows it, and accepts it, but my god sometimes he looks at John like a shy middle schooler with his first crush. It’s so new, and fresh, and John is not free, so how does Sherlock assimilate all these feelings when they can only be expressed in such small and limited ways?

Sherlock seems to choose to fixate on the work and on his vow. We have never seen him pour himself into his work in such a manic way. And everything he did re: Mary was about keeping that damn vow, because to Sherlock, keeping that vow is the greatest expression of love he can give to john. It was a vow born of pure love, and was a lifetime commitment, and keeping that promise was the only way I think Sherlock felt he was allowed to show john how much he loves him. He would do everything in his power to protect John’s family. In many ways Sherlock was more invested in the Watson marriage than the Watson’s were.

Also worth noting is that I think that a lot of the stuff with Emelia, the band of women, the Carmichael case, the missing body, etc., was being processed at such a deep level of Sherlock’s subconscious (and aided by substance) that when Sherlock woke up again he lost it, or at least his brain tossed out the details but he never managed to interpret them correctly. Like when you wake from a dream, remember a lot of disjointed details, but can’t interpret them. I think this is why he kept getting premonitions in TST. It was his brain still trying to process the stuff from TAB.

I think this also explains weirdness like the increasingly bright skull picture in 221b as Death draws ever closer in the form of the Abominable Bride. In the next episode I think this is going to start to get worse and worse, triggered by stress and grief, and also probably by whatever sick games Culverton is playing.

TAB is the dream that his brain and heart is going to spend this entire season interpreting and putting into practice. The TAB waterfall scene where Sherlock makes all those beautiful realizations about His love for john, John’s commitment to him, and the fact that they can only truly defeat Moriarty together, is the famous waterfall scene from the ACD canon story, “The Final Problem”. The last episode of this season is called “The Final Problem”. They have never used a direct canon title before. So that is significant. By the end of this season Sherlock will have found his way back to that waterfall moment, but in real life. And in that moment, when he makes dream a reality, when he puts all those inner lessons into practice, love really will conquer all!