So, does Sherlock actually love Molly?

 (Sherlock meta by geekychristine )

I don't think the lack of closure destroyed the scene's impact at all -- I think the scene was a wealth of insight into the maturation of their relationship, looking back over the years, and a step in a new direction. But it's still just a step -- not a leap. It would have felt forced and uncharacteristic if they had total closure at the end of the episode. I just don't see Sherlock suddenly acting on any newfound romantic feelings impulsively; I think he'd have to ease into it. It is, after all, foreign to him. And I think Molly has already proven her patience -- she wouldn't rush him into anything if she knew he were interested, for fear of scaring him off.

I do think it’s reasonable to believe he may be more open to the possibility of a relationship, and Molly seems to be the most realistic candidate for something akin to "stable".

While I don’t think he’s head-over-heels smitten, I’m more convinced after The Final Problem that there is something there, however small, and no one was more surprised to discover it than Sherlock. He’s always been keenly aware of Molly’s feelings for him, being plain as day through simple observation. But this was the first time he’s been pressured to examine his own feelings in regard to Molly — a muscle he never exercised.

If this were Early Sherlock, I don’t think he would have hesitated to say he loved her at all. He would have lied, feigning emotion, manipulated her naive willingness to believe him, in the same way he proposed to Janine to get to Magnussen. Better to break her heart than watch her die. Yet he struggled, even as time ran out. It was difficult, even Mycroft acknowledged that. He had handed a gun to his brother and best friend mere minutes ago in the first test and expected them to murder a man without batting an eye. This is also the same man who has endured physical torture while unravelling Moriarty's network around the globe. But only after sharing a moment of vulnerability with Molly, Eurus chastises him for showing emotional weakness, and that was enough to set him off and destroy the coffin. Why would an indifferent disposition cause such an intense reaction?

Either he reached a new level of deception manipulating Molly, or there was some truth in his reply. Both are plausible -- certainly we’ve seen him do the former, but I’m more inclined toward the latter, based on collective evidence of his maturing humanity through the seasons, and his growing respect for the slight Pathologist.

He’s not the same man we met in Season 1 — he’s a bit less of a sociopath now, thanks to his friends, though he still has quite a ways to go. In The Great Game, we saw him sit on a solution to a puzzle he solved well in advance of a 12-hour time limit to get ahead in the game with Moriarty. That blatant delay and disregard for human life killed a blind woman strapped to explosives. Now in Season 4, we see him desperately implore “Faith” not to take her own life. (“Your life is not your own, keep your hands off it!”) His attitudes toward human life has evolved.

His pointed discussion with Mycroft about loneliness while playing “Deductions” in The Empty Hearse suggests that he himself is well acquainted with loneliness, whether romantic or platonic, recognizing its symptoms — something I doubt he would have dared admit earlier on. It’s also interesting to note that shortly after, he invites Molly to spend the afternoon with him on a few crime-solving excursions, thinking that spending time with him doing something "fun" was a suitable way to thank her for helping him fake his death.

He’s also witnessed what a happy, enduring relationship looks like through John and Mary, and has no doubt picked up on a few of its merits while observing. Maybe it was enough to convince him that happiness is attainable in romantic companionship, not impossible like he believed before.

Together, these speak of a man beginning to look at life a bit differently than he has in the past, starting to place a value on things like life, love, and friendship instead of discarding them utterly. ...

I've spent far too much time thinking about this.