Molly.

 (Sherlock meta by unreconstructedfangirl, 

pennypaperbrain, vulgarweed and justaminion)

unreconstructedfangirl:

So, I’ve read several people talking about what a shit thing this was to do to Molly in this episode – “treating her like a loser who’s still in love with Sherlock.” I don’t want to call anyone out, here, but…

Come the fuck on!

Why is she a loser? Because she’s single? Because she loves him? Because she’s having a bad day when he calls? How is that not straight up misogyny?! Who knows why she’s having a bad day? They didn’t tell us! Maybe her cat died! Ooh! A CAT! Why assume it makes her a loser? When is the fucking predetermined expiration date on her love, and why is that something that should affect her level of dignity? If there’s one thing that Loo has always done BEAUTIFULLY with Molly, it’s lend some fucking dignity to unrequited love. She made him say it to her FOR REAL, and guess what? He REALLY DOES love her. Maybe not the way she wants him too, but to say that her love for him, or his inability to return it makes her PATHETIC?

NO.

As a longtime serial sufferer of unrequited love, I object! I love Molly. I love who she is to Sherlock, and I love that she makes him treat her like her feelings are real. She forces real feeling out of him, and I loved her part in this.

HARUMPH! MOLLY!

pennypaperbrain:

I love Molly too. As ever, Loo and Ben do a sterling job of making something complex and dignified there. But all this season the writers have just been using her as a plot function; that’s the problem IMO. Time to service Sherlock’s angst; wheel in Molly. Inevitably that’s part of her character function but she needs to get to do something else too.

unreconstructedfangirl:

Here’s how I look at it: this show is about Sherlock, so we see her interactions with him. I mean, is it just because she’s a woman? Because I have WAY less of a sense of who Greg Lestrade is, in comparison, and we only see his interactions with Sherlock, too. Molly is MUCH more of a character than he is! And honestly, I don’t think it’s fair to say “wheel in Molly” to serve Sherlock’s angst! They know who they are writing for! They know what these actors will do with it. I think she does a lot more than serve Sherlock’s angst, but the bottom line is that, as a secondary character in this story about him, she does serve the story… about him.

We don’t see every minute of Molly’s days. Molly is obviously a highly competent, fascinating person who has all manner of other interactions in her life that don’t involve this man she loves without hope, and seriously, I LOVE HER. I love her clothes, the feeling I have that she is a shy, very clever, introvert, the fact that I feel like I know she has a cosy home and cat… I want to hang out with her! And, I think her love is generous and real and that she shows Sherlock to himself. Sherlock is lucky to have her, and he very clearly has the good sense to know it.

Maybe Molly is for us to write. In fact, I hereby vow to write her. I love her.

vulgarweed:

Thank you! I’ve honestly realized that people calling Molly “pathetic” is kind of a berserk button, because she is clearly anything but, and people who can look at the woman on screen and call her that, well…either they’re not watching the same show I am (and that’s very possible - and if so, I’m glad to have the one I’m see, because I think it’s much better than theirs) and/or they have a lot of internalized ideas about women that make my skin crawl.

I’ve been exactly where Molly is WRT unrequited love, and it’s a very vulnerable place, sure. It can be sad and lonely. But is it pathetic? No. It’s very human. That’s the reality of love. Not all lovers get their happy ending. Love doesn’t have to be mutual to be deep and real - and Molly’s love is deep and real. She passes out of the infatuation of S1 and early S2 by TRF, I think - when Sherlock needs her, not just because she loves him but because she is the only one with the skills and connections to do what he needs. For two years she keeps his secret. Because she’s his dupe? No, because she honors her commitments.

I definitely feel I have a strong sense for who she is. I know her humor, I know her sorrow, I know her anger. I know her courage and her desires and her way of moving through the world, frequently underestimated but never fully defeated (she dumped Jim Moriarty and survived).

I don’t really ship Sherlolly but I’m fond of many people who do. But this phase of the fandom has me questioning what it means to me to “ship” something or not. Shipping for me has never ever meant that I expect or need it to become canon, and that hasn’t changed at all, I still don’t care all that much about that WRT what I ship. Do I ship Sherlolly in the sense that I’ve enjoyed a lot of art and fics? Well yeah, because I have. I even wrote Johnlockolly once and very well might again. I still haven’t disembarked the giant ship Johnlock completely. But is there a part of me that wants Molly to get the particular happily-ever-after she wants after all? Hmm. Yes. Sure. Because there is NOT ONLY ONE ANSWER. Not ever. Not in fandom. Fandom has infinite possibilities for that. There are many universes in which she does, and I’m fine with that. There are also many in which she doesn’t, or she finds another love as deep and real eventually. As long as my girl is happy somehow in the majority of universes, I’ll feel justice is served.

justaminion:

I would certainly have loved to have seen more of Molly, but I think Steven and Mark have always been more interested in finding new and clever takes on old canon material than indulge themselves in a non-canon character, as much as they love her. From what they’ve said I think Molly kind of represents the canonical characteristic of Sherlock as being gentle and kind towards women, and the fact that he never rules out marrying and being a father one day - so she’s trapped as a possibility - Sherlock’s “High Wycombe,” if he chooses that.

The beauty of the phone call scene is that it’s inevitably going to break them out of this trap. Sherlock might have previously believed Molly was over him, but not any more. The new “grown up” Sherlock is going to realise he has to decide where they stand, whether he’s going to let her down gently (which, as many have pointed out, he’s never done despite every opportunity), or try for something more. Either way, we know from the end montage that Molly absolutely over the moon. And we get to fill in the blanks, which is awesome.