The Joys of Things Unseen

 (Sherlock meta by Ivy Blossom)

I really enjoyed Sherlock the moment I first saw it, and I enjoyed playing in its universe. But the moment I truly fell in love with it was A Scandal in Belgravia, not just for what we saw, but the things we didn’t see. I love all the scenes that are implied, or easily imagined, that fit so perfectly into the story that it seems to rely on them. You can frame the unseen things in a number of ways, and far be it from me to judge the best way to do so, but for me the unseen things are a gift to the discerning audience: it’s up to you what goes here, it says. Imagine what you will. And so, of course, I do.

Disclaimer: I realize this is unsatisfying and frustrating to some, and you’re more than welcome to those feelings. I understand them and respect them, but do not share them, perhaps because I enjoy these hidden places and closed doors. I like them to be mine to uncover over and over again. I am just a greedy fan writer who likes to keep filling in these critical gaps in different ways. Your mileage may vary. This is not a statement about what should or shouldn’t have happened in the story, I’m just not that sort of fan. We have what we have, and I am still very much enjoying burrowing into it.

There are two key places in the story that my mind keeps drifting to: the space immediately after The Lying Detective, and the what comes after John is rescued from the well and the final montage in The Final Problem.

Something changes fundamentally in Sherlock and John’s relationship at the end of The Lying Detective, and while it is left open to multiple interpretations, I am very comfortable with mine. To me, The Final Problem shows us two people who have always meant to slot into each other who finally have. They trust each other completely and function together perfectly. They no longer have any real tension between them. The things that had kept them from this level of closeness are gone. The story about building that closeness, or rejecting it, or pining for it, or denying it, is over; this part of the story simply relies on it as a fact, and so it is.

I saw The Final Problem as two people in a very new phase of a relationship. It’s too new to talk about, but too wonderful not to be brimming with. Their interaction at Mycroft’s house felt very much like this to me. The rest of the episode is too fast and furious to confirm or deny my hypothesis, except to say that they are in no way uncertain about each other, and that they are emotionally in each other’s pockets and reach for each other when they are in need. They are each other’s mainstays. They are family.

This is not the case when we leave them in The Lying Detective, not quite. John nearly walks away from Sherlock for good, twice. Something happens between The Lying Detective and The Final Problem to cement that relationship. I find it difficult not to imagine what that is, and how it happened. That is a door I enjoy prying open.

The second place I find myself lingering is after Sherlock discovers who he really is. One can only imagine that it would take Sherlock a bit of time to adjust to the knowledge that his entire personality and self-image has been constructed on top of a self-protective fantasy. Except that I think he already knows it; not the why or the how, not the horror of the specifics, but certainly he knows that he isn’t the man he pretend he is. That has been the theme of the entire series, after all, but he especially knows it just prior to The Final Problem, and John knows it, too. John knows why Sherlock destroys the coffin at Sherrinford. He knows that Sherlock is hurting, and he understands why. They do not have those kinds of secrets from each other anymore; John will not make the mistake of thinking that Sherlock “doesn’t feel things that way” again.

But understanding his own origin story must be a shattering experience for Sherlock. Another door I like to wedge open is the one where Sherlock goes home and processes this, and lets his vulnerable self out in the safety of John’s presence. That part of him will influence everything he does from that point on, and will make him kinder and more empathetic. But I can only imagine that the person who knows the vulnerable Sherlock completely will be John.