Thoughts on John and the cheating after TST

 (Sherlock meta by weeesi, bandersnatchmycummerbund, asortofbookevent, 

unreconstructedfangirl and notagarroter)

weeesi:

So my sense is: most people HATE the insinuation that John wants to or is cheating … Is that right? I ask because …. I think I don’t actually hate it? I think it’s 1) within the realm of John’s character and 2) a device to show he’s not happy/with the right person at this point in his life and 3) still an insinuation or suggestion at this point.

bandersnatchmycummerbund:

I don’t hate it! Honestly I love it– I think it’s in character and a super interesting storyline. Or rather that it would be. I don’t personally think that’s actually what’s happening here, but I’m super hopeful that John at least thinks that’s what’s happening because I’d love to explore John and his (bad) choices and struggles in that way.

I also like it, actually. On my read, John has always been someone who wants very much to be seen as a decent, stand-up guy, but doesn’t really want to do the work to be that guy (or maybe can’t, actually – because I’m pretty sure John’s idea of Myself, A Good Guy, is not full of barely-suppressed rage.)

In a way, hanging out with Sherlock has always been a great solution for that tension: he gets to be the normal one, and the clear-eyed moral compass, while being neither particularly normal nor particularly grounded in the moral mainstream – all while enjoying the pleasure of living in Sherlock’s London battlefield.

We saw him get anxious in the beginning of HLV, and I think this is similar. In a way, his attachment to Mary is beside the point; he actually chafes against the normal middle-class life he tells himself he wants… and that feeling makes him angrier still, because his fiction about himself has become harder to sustain.

So yeah, it seemed in character to me. Regardless of whether or not he loved his wife (and I think he did, in a complicated way, it YMMV, this is an point on which I think BBC canon is terminally ambiguous) I think John Watson would self-destruct just for the sake of a spark.

I love the character of John Watson, even on the days when I don’t like him very much as a human being. We all carry around fictions of ourselves – it’s part of being human – and it’s wonderful to see that realized so compellingly on screen. To me, the infidelity is a sharp but fitting piece of that puzzle.

asortofbookevent:

I would be surprised if we don’t see John’s “flirtations” explained by plot reveals in the later episode. But I do hope they don’t totally sweep away the element of infidelity, for the sake of the beautiful characterization you’ve described!

unreconstructedfangirl:

I don’t hate it, and I love @tiltedsyllogism‘s characterisation.

I feel like John is a guy that is pretty well in need of certain kinds of validation. Think about his attempt to make a move on Anthea, and more importantly, the woman he thinks is the new Anthea in ASIB, but who is really Irene’s agent. “Nothing I couldn’t heartlessly abandon…” Add that to his string of girlfriends?

The departure, really, from John’s prior characterisation is that in the past, John has always been loyal when he is emotionally engaged… but there’s always a first lapse if there’s going to be one, isn’t there, and I do think he is under pressure, so… it could happen.

That said, I don’t think he actually cheated, I think he just seriously considered cheating, and it’s enough to make him feel very guilty, which in the end gives me ample reason to forgive. He’s not a perfect man.

notagarroter:

To be perfectly honest… If anything, I like John *more* now than I did before.

Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t like this behavior in a partner or father of my child. Not in real life. But for a fictional character? Bring it on.

The fact is, “John Watson the Moral Compass” is a bit of a pill. He was always telling Sherlock how to behave and scolding him when he was "a bit not good.” Dull. He may have been the best and bravest man Sherlock ever knew, but he was also kind of bland and conventional, or at least he presented himself that way.

(And I totally agree with @tiltedsyllogism that John was never as decent or moral as he wanted to believe – it was a fiction both he and Sherlock created together, because it served their purposes.)

Now that the fiction is starting to fall apart, I find him suddenly fascinating and I’m desperate to know what comes next, what consequences there may be.

My hope is that he’ll develop a more subtle and empathetic understanding of the world around him, because he’s aware of his own weaknesses. It’s too bad Mary had to die, because I wonder if this new, weaker, more morally compromised John might have understood her better than sanctimonious S3 John did.