How did Euros know Sherlock had sex?

 (Sherlock meta by ivyblossom)

Q: Hi Ivy, that scene when Sherlock starts to play Irene's theme and Eurus concludes he's had sex.. How did she know? It really hurt me because it implied he had sex with Irene, in which I will never believe, but they made it look like he did

A: Hi, I really want to help you with this, but I don’t think my words do much good. I’ve been talking about this since series 2, but I still hear this question every 10 minutes, so I’m not sure going over this one more time is going to help.

You are welcome to read the events of the story in any way that resonates with you. You are welcome to take whatever cues you like that exist in the story to construct your answer for yourself.

This is my answer.

I do not see any evidence in the story that suggests that Sherlock has feelings for Irene. The only evidence there is is that John is worried that he does, which says more about where John is emotionally than where Sherlock is. John has no idea how Sherlock’s emotional life works at that point in the story. He thought Sherlock doesn’t feel things that way, which we now definitively know isn’t so. Even when John tells us Sherlock moping and sad about Irene’s death because he loved her, his only evidence for that is that Sherlock’s behaviour is exactly the same as it always is. John doubts his own observations about this, and so should we.

Irene means something to Sherlock, most definitely. She is a pivotal figure for him. He sees himself in her. He sees himself in some ways gone very wrong; unguided, unable to resist temptation from the wrong sides. Pushing the envelope too far. She is a sort of warning, but also a promise: Irene is a version of himself with a sexual appetite.

When Sherlock confronts Irene, he is alarmed and ignorant about sexuality, especially his own. The story goes out of its way to show us that and tell us that. The introduction of Irene is the point where he has to face that anxiety, face his own sexuality, and accept that it’s there and something worth knowing about. That’s what Irene does, it’s literally her job: to point out what it is people want. Sherlock didn’t know he wanted that. But he does now, and he can’t unknow it, it’s part of him now. She forces him to face a fundamental complication about himself.

Irene is the most blatant Sherlock mirror in the entire series. They have their actions literally mirror each other repeatedly. They even style her hair so that it looks like his. I don’t know how this could have been more blatant. Any time Irene appears or is referred to, the topic of conversation is Sherlock’s romantic status, not because he wants to sleep with Irene (he tells us himself that he doesn’t, and that it would be a bad idea, which is obviously, obviously true), but because she raises the spectre of his neglected and denied sexual and romantic needs.

With Irene they take form; they exist, and he can dismiss them, but he still has to admit that they’re there. She knows what he wants, and now so does he.

My reading of Irene is, I think, confirmed by the fact that Eurus recognizes the song he plays as an indicator of his sexuality. Not “you’re in love,” just “sex”. That’s what the song is, this part of himself. And it’s changed in The Final Problem in a way Eurus recognizes.

If you think it’s possible that Sherlock jetted out and hooked up with Irene for a night, you’re welcome to think that. She’s missing from the final montage, so it doesn’t appear that she’s a big part of his life if that’s the case. Just a one time thing? Sherlock is such a deeply emotional and romantic soul, which Eurus goes out of her way to tell us on her jaunt around London with him. Is he the casual hook-up sort of guy? I think there’s far more evidence that something happened between him and John.

Since the start of this story I’ve been saying I didn’t want them to hook up fast, because once they do, the story will be over. The tension between Sherlock and John drives a lot of what we love about this story. Once they resolve that tension, something important drops out of the story.

As far as I can tell, that tension is gone in this episode. Honestly I think that’s what people are most upset about. With that tension gone, the view is that the relationship isn’t being given any attention. But in truth, the relationship on screen is so certain and confident and unquestionable that it feels invisible. It’s not the relationship that’s gone, it’s the tension.

Sherlock and John shared a really important emotional moment at the end of The Lying Detective. They were honest in a way they have never been before. They were emotionally stripped and didn’t turn away from each other. They have turned a corner. The tension that has been driving their relationship is gone, and they are completely certain of each other and their place in each other’s lives. John is not running around concerned what people will think anymore. He knows where Sherlock’s head is at at any given moment. They trust each other, and thus are no longer looking inward. They are looking out, together, as a cohesive unit.

This corner they have taken doesn’t have to be a sexual corner, but they allude to Sherlock no longer being a virgin without giving us much else to go on. So to me this is the most obvious conclusion, because the whole episode is evidence of an important change between Sherlock and John. Why not that?