She can’t sit there
sherlockmeta:
So, I haven’t seen anyone mention that in His Last Vow, when John sees that Sherlock has moved his chair–doesn’t it seem like that was another adjustment Sherlock had made as part of his ruse relationship with Janine?
He went to all the trouble to allow her into his living area, and let her be physically close to him (to an extent)…but the one thing he couldn’t bear was to have her sitting in John’s chair. Because moving it to his own bedroom wouldn’t have kept it out of Janine’s way, I assume he carried it all the way upstairs to John’s old bedroom, to ensure it wouldn’t be violated. Lugging a bulky armchair up a staircase, by himself…quite a bit of effort to go to, and not the type of thing I see Sherlock doing if he’s simply trying to cut John’s place out of the flat in retaliation for his marriage.
No. His relationship with Janine was an elaborate performance, requiring sacrifices of his personal comfort in order to play the role to the hilt…but he was, in the end, unable to countenance the thought of allowing Janine to sit across from him, in the space that was rightfully John’s. And as soon as he’d got Janine out of the way, he immediately brought the chair back…
theleftpill:
It’s possible that this was Sherlock’s motivation, but by making Janine the reason he lost the chair and her absence the reason he brought it back, you lose not only a pretty big plot point but also the stronger symbolism connected to John’s absence and return.
John’s missing chair is a lovely physical, non-verbal, passive-aggressive, pity-party tantrum of a metaphor. Sherlock Removed The Chair. And then he didn’t re-arrange the furniture to balance out the room, he didn’t shift things around to better utilize his living space; he left a huge gaping hole in the middle of the floor. One you can’t possibly hope to miss. And when called on it, he gives such a lovely bullshit response. The removal is used as another metaphor for Sherlock’s inability to cope with John’s absence.
The chair returns to signal John’s “beginning of the end” of his trust in Mary. It’s Sherlock’s way to break the news gently to John that he’s soon to move back in, along with the perfume bottle working as the clue as to why. The chair’s return communicates that Sherlock is prepared to take John back, that John is welcome back, and neither of them have to discuss it. The trust and support is inherent and explicit. You know how these men hate to directly address all this touchy-feely stuff. It works beautifully.
If Janine is Sherlock’s motivation for losing the chair, you lose all of that metaphor. It’s not gone because of Sherlock’s pain; it doesn’t return because of Mary’s betrayal; it comes and goes because of the presence of this woman (whom Sherlock invited into his home, as the OP points out.) The chair then signifies John only peripherally. Janine also is made into a stronger force than John. Sherlock can cope with the empty chair: “Yes the chair brings fond/painful memories, but I can experience them and move on.” But put Janine in it: “But when this harpy comes in and tries to sit down well we need to put a stop to that. Sore feet is what she deserves.” This idea raises Janine’s emotional importance to Sherlock above John’s, and that’s just not this show.
It further reduces the gesture to an act of hostility towards a woman he’s using for a purpose. Sherlock is rarely (ever?) hostile without a reason - either manipulation to get what he wants or emotional retaliation. He has no reason to be vicious to Janine; she’s there because he wants her to be and he genuinely likes her. The chair’s return furthers the petty motivation and discards its use to forward the plot; it wasn’t there to tell John gently that he’s soon to move back in, it was already there for some other reason and John sat in it out of habit.
Sherlock’s inability to bear Janine in John’s chair can’t be the reason Sherlock lost it, if you want to keep the symbolism of the loss of John and how it works in the plot. It is a nice headcanon layer though.
And don’t forget that if she doesn’t have a chair to sit in, then she’s forced to sit in Sherlock’s lap. And that’s a bonus he probably didn’t mind having.
fkef:
I always find it incredibly interesting that people forget that Sherlock used Janine. And didn’t let her know what was up. Because he didn’t trust her. No, he didn’t like her. We saw his fake smile fall as soon as she left the apartment. Do we just all see Sherlock let a woman sit in his lap and all go, [OMG Sherlock in love]?
Jesus christ. I don’t think Sherlock liked her. He knew from the start that she was of use to him, and so he carefully nurtured that relationship. If Sherlock knew of Mary’s ex-boyfriend before meeting him, what makes you think he didn’t know where Janine worked before meeting her?
Sherlock calls himself a high-functioning sociopath (and we see that it’s pretty true until we meet Redbeard), and that means he manipulates people; he uses people. People are means to his ends (which, because he’s on the side of the angels, are “good” according to us).
The chair has nothing to do with Janine and everything to do with John. Janine was simply a key to Magnussen’s office.
theleftpill:
Of course he wasn’t in love with her; he was absolutely manipulating her by staging that “relationship.” But that doesn’t exclude him liking her. It’s most succinctly shown in their delicious “So we’re good? Of course” moment. That moment is genuine camaraderie; he respects her and enjoys her company. The Sign of Three is rife with great Sherlock/Janine moments. I mean jeez, the guy spends the whole day trying to find her a guy she can hook up with. This is Sherlock; why in the hell would he waste his time like that on someone he doesn’t like? He confesses his love of dancing to her. He searches her out to dance with. Yeah, Sherlock likes Janine. It’s all in the show.
I don’t think he “knew from the start that she was of use to him.” Until His Last Vow, Magnussen wasn’t on his radar: it was Lady Smallwood’s request of Sherlock to be a go-between that motivates his cultivation of their “relationship.” It was a “stroke of luck” that she happened to be the maid of honor (as far as Sherlock knew at the time.)
Sherlock knew about Mary’s ex because he’s seen the guy’s tweets and cropped Facebook pictures, because Sherlock is friends with Mary and he notices these things. Not because he’s been researching random people in the hopes that they someday might have use in a case.
Sherlock calls himself a sociopath. Sherlock is a crap sociopath. (I have a great gif set idea for this; anyone know how to build those?) We see it’s pretty not true; hugging and kissing Mrs. Hudson, revenging Mrs. Hudson, showing true remorse and apologizing to Molly, do I really need to list the proofs with John to you? Sure he manipulates people. He also is capable of liking them and having friendly relationships with them. One of the great dichotomies of his character is that he does both at the same time to the same person. Sherlock is a complete shit to the people he loves. I love that complexity.
So I’m sorry if it upsets you, but Janine is truly and canonically more than simply a key to Magnussen’s office. She caught Sherlock’s attention. She earned his respect. You can’t reduce that richness of character to a mere prop. (Well, you can and did, but that doesn’t make it accurate.)
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