"I think she liked me" (I was so alone and I owe you so much)

 (Sherlock meta by likes-timelords)

The “I think she liked me” line has been destroying me a little bit every time it shows up. Because some people have been reading it as “I think she liked me, wink wink, nudge nudge, I’ve called her here so we can bang.”

But looking at her this way as a mirror for John, the way it seems she was intended, makes it hurt. Because here’s this person Sherlock thinks he can save in an evening, the way he saved John when they first met. He’s reminded of John, this person he loves dearly (however we want to read the word “love”), who is currently not speaking to him; who has basically told him to fuck off and leave him alone. Sherlock, who has reached the lowest of lows and feels so alone that he, only a few minutes later, believes he hallucinated the entire thing to give himself some company.

“I think she liked me” is him, for a second, thinking he’s met someone who liked him while he was at his lowest point within our canonical memory. He was rude, abrasive, and ultimately himself with this woman–and yet she called him “nice.” She appealed to his emotions. At a time when he’s desperate to fix John Watson and get back the man he knew, here was this mirror who showed up on his doorstep begging him to help her.

And then she liked him.

This poor, sweet, emotional idiot really just wants anyone to like him right now, because the one person he truly loves (again, read that how you want to) has outright stated that he’d literally prefer anyone else.

“I think she liked me.”