Not Soldiers Today

 (Sherlock meta by Ivy Blossom and 8minutehooper)

Ivy Blossom:

I’ve been thinking about the things we aren’t permitted to see.

What we learned in The Final Problem is that there is another Sherlock his harsh exterior has been protecting. Sherlock is most definitely not a high-functioning sociopath. He’s a deeply emotional, loving man who needs companionship and affection.

We see the secret Sherlock a couple of times in series 4: at the end of The Lying Detective when he holds John and tells him what he needs to hear (”Even you”), and, fleetingly, with John and Rosie in a snippet of a scene that can only be described as their happiest moment on record. Sherlock is so happy he looks out of character. We have never seen John grin like that before.

But we don’t really get to see Sherlock and John behind closed doors again. And I’ve been thinking that.

Sherlock has a secret self that is different than the persona he has been cultivating. How weird would it be to drop a mask like that? He can’t drop it entirely, can he? Certainly not while he’s solving crimes. That is who Sherlock is now. He can be gentler and kinder, but he’s still Sherlock. He’s still got to be that person.

The hat goes on and he becomes Sherlock Holmes for the world, the logic machine, the famous consulting detective, but at home, when the door is shut, does the secret Sherlock emerge? In The Final Problem, John says they are “soldiers today”. John is aware that they both put on a guise in public; Sherlock is the calculating genius, John is the hero. But there is a time when they stop being soldiers.

Maybe no one gets to see the secret part of Sherlock. Not the clients, not the police, not even us. But John has seen it. John knows that secret Sherlock well. Maybe only he ever will.

There has always been a Sherlock for the outside world, but finally Sherlock has an inside world in which he is not alone.

8minutehooper:

I agree, but I’m gonna take it one further and say that those who know him best have all seen the secret inner Sherlock, not just John, (who is incredibly blind to some things), but also Mary (Just look at the way they smile and tease each other… “Motherhood is slowing you down” “Pig!”), Mrs H (“No, not Sherlock, he’s more emotional….karate chop the fridge…”), Molly (goes without saying…she wouldn’t be in love with a ‘thinking machine’ for 7 years, plus we know Sherlock is different around her when they’re alone, we’ve heard about it “Sherlock was complaining-saying” and we’ve seen it in The Empty Hearse when nervous, smiling Sherlock asked Molly to solve crimes.) We also saw it the first time we see Sherlock with his mum and dad (“Promise?” “Promise”), Lestrade even gets a little glimpse here and there. So try as he might, Sherlock can never completely keep the emotional affectionate side of himself hidden from those he cares about (even Mycroft!), and it’s not just John he reveals that side to.

Ivy Blossom:

I haven’t articulated what I meant clearly enough.

The secret Sherlock I’m talking about isn’t fully fledged or visible to anybody, probably not even to Sherlock, until the end of The Lying Detective. But it’s starting to shine through, because Eurus sees it when she’s mascarading as Faith. She can see Sherlock’s sweetness when he doesn’t know he’s letting it show. In fact, he may not entirely know it’s there himself!

The entire arc of Sherlock is the story of his slow emotional metamorphosis; it’s the story of a great man becoming a good man. It’s in that context that I believe I see the evidence of the new and emotionally complete Sherlock, one we are barely witness to. Sherlock reaches an emotional apex in The Lying Detective, and instead of just keeping that to himself, I believe that he has shared it with John. Not with us: just with John.

I agree with you that John has indeed missed some critical things in the past and profoundly misunderstood Sherlock. John has always believed the lie that Sherlock doesn’t feel things the way other people do. That’s largely why I believe he’s gotten to know this secret Sherlock in a way that we have not: his misunderstanding has been fully corrected by the time we get to The Final Problem.

John now knows how Sherlock feels, and how deeply he feels. John knows this secret Sherlock well enough to understand exactly how difficult Eurus’s tasks are for him. Even an episode ago, certainly a series ago, John would not have had that insight. He was stunned that Sherlock didn’t know he was John’s best friend; he was gobsmacked by Sherlock’s best man speech. As close as they are, John doesn’t really know Sherlock very well. But he does now. Those errors have been corrected.

John being up to speed on Sherlock’s emotional life is functionally confirmed by Sherlock insisting that John stay while Mycroft reveals the Holmes’ family dirty laundry. Sherlock has nothing left to hide from John, so Mycroft can share something as deeply personal as this: “[Sherlock] was, in the early days, an emotional child. But after that he was different, so changed.”

The story makes no room for John to be surprised by this, but he should be. Unless he’s already met Sherlock’s deeply emotional side. He must already know that Sherlock’s persona is a grand construction before Mycroft tells Sherlock in front of John: “Every choice you ever made, every path you’ve ever taken, the man you are today is your memory of Eurus.” This is Sherlock’s facade acknowledged and laid bare.

Mycroft knows about Sherlock’s false persona because he knows his brother’s whole history; John can be present for this conversation because he now knows that Sherlock is not the cold, calculating machine John believed him to be. He must already know that Sherlock’s persona is protecting a very sensitive man underneath.

Sherlock still puts the hat on when he goes out to meet Molly for cake after his heartfelt conversation with John at the end of The Lying Detective. His persona remains intact for the outside world. Softened, certainly, and now informed by empathy, but the Sherlock Holmes most people meet is still a facade. But it doesn’t matter: his invented self has become real, and his emotional self has a home. In order to support his persona, that home must only exist behind a closed door.