Rewatching Sherlolly: A Study in Pink 

 (Sherlock meta by justanotherfangirls)

So today I decided to rewatch A Study in Pink. Ramblings, speculations, and theories follow. I did try to be as logical as possible, but my judgement may be clouded. Sorry.

Starting off, I found it very interesting that they chose to introduce Sherlock Holmes with him beating a corpse with a riding crop and some cute girl getting turned on by it. This girl asked him out for coffee and he seemed to miss her intentions altogether. So he is eccentric, attractive, sexy and sexually unavailable. His brilliance was not really apparent in the first scene, but in the next scene with John Watson. First impressions are important for any show and this was what they went with. He was firstly, desirable, in his scene with Molly. He was a lonely genius who craves approval, in his scenes with John. He has the ability to earn respect in his scenes with Lestrade. He can be warm, in his scene with Mrs. Hudson. He was rude and arrogant with Sally and Anderson. He was petty and childish with Mycroft. He was ruthless and unforgiving with Jeff. And even if he was not yet physically there, Sherlock holds a fascination to mystery and brilliance that matches his own, even if it reeks of evil, with Moriarty.

Let’s take a closer look at Sherlock and Molly’s first scene. He is about to beat a corpse she knew with a riding crop, and she had no qualms about it. Not just anybody would be alright with that, no matter how hot the guy is. Molly is probably one of the few people who can deal with his eccentricities and get turned on by it. She is an odd one too, in her own quiet way. Later, he says, 'Anderson won’t work with me'. Not the other way around. I think he has a bigger problem getting people to work with him rather than him with them because he assumes everyone are idiots anyway. If only because of this Molly becomes somehow special.

But it gets better. Sherlock then tells her to text him after twenty minutes on what bruises will form. He is very particular in his experiments and ordinarily assumes everyone is an idiot, he’s the type to perform them himself. But he trusts Molly to be right. Also Molly has his number - this is not the first time that he asked her to assist him. I absolutely wanted to know how she was able to prove to him that she is above average, thankfully we have fics to help with that. Later he tells Lestrade that he needs an assistant. Not something one says if they are used to working alone all the time. I think at the Yard he sometimes manages to get one, but that he had no permanent one and no preference there. Something tells me he has one at St. Bart’s though.

Molly adorably turns on her awkward charms during this whole scene to ask him out for coffee. Sherlock speaks to her almost mechanically and busily writes in his notebook while Molly hesitantly tries to ask, but then Sherlock gets distracted. 'Are you wearing lipstick? You weren’t wearing lipstick before'. He is observant, but he doesn’t just deduce and then dismiss it, he asks her. He stares intently, trying to read her face. He is curious. Why does he care? Perhaps Molly had not reached importance to him to more than a reliable assistant, especially considering how oblivious he is of her before, but at that moment she was more important than continuing his train of thought. Maybe alarm signals went at the back of his mind, wondering if she put that on for someone who isn’t him. Maybe it’s just Moffat trying to be funny with the punchline in the next scene. Molly gives a non-answer, Sherlock waits for more but decides to return to his notes when Molly just continued smiling widely at him.

Molly gathers enough courage to complete her question. You could tell that she had thought through this and probably even practiced it in front of a mirror. (She had a really cute expression trying to be seductive.) Considering her hesitation and excitement, it looks like her first attempt. Now it could be argued that Sherlock knew she was asking him out and decided to reject her without looking like it, but as we see later he is more direct with John. Was it because he wanted a good working relationship with Molly? Hardly. He clearly believes clear boundaries are best for lasting relationships. If he knew what Molly was asking, he would have said he’s married to his work, though he’s flattered by her interest instead of black, two sugars. It’s more probable that he is simply oblivious, perhaps thinking that Molly can’t be attracted to him because there’s another guy she put lipstick on for, or simply that he is spectacularly ignorant in the rules of attraction. I personally think he believes Molly likes him and admires him enough to make him coffee, but not in that way. He leaves the riding crop, maybe he’s distracted by this conversation or by the next experiment he’ll do in the lab.

At the next scene, when he sees Molly, he turns all attention to her as he gets his coffee. He stares for a considerable amount of time and notices that the lipstick was gone. Again he asks, 'what happened to the lipstick?' And follows up with, 'I thought it was a big improvement, your mouth’s too small now'. He means lipstick suited her. With that follow up, of course Sherlock is an ass and could do that without reason. But it’s almost as if he was offended by her and was having his little petty revenge. It still may be Moffat trying to be funny, though.

Molly was supposed to be a one-off character to introduce Sherlock, but they loved Louise Brealey so much that they wanted her back. Needless to say they saw much potential in her and the character of Molly Hooper. And with this (very) long post about these first scenes that changed the creators’ minds in having only ACD canon characters, I could say I also think there is much, much potential indeed.