Storytelling and the Sherlock x Molly Relationship 

 (Sherlock meta by strawberrypatty)

Okay, so I’ve been talking about Sherlock and Molly a lot in the past few days and of course I’m TERRIBLY biased because I’ve shipped them for a long time, but I really think that it makes sense based off the story we’ve been presented from them that Sherlock romantically loves Molly and tells her so in The Final Problem. 

The story between Molly and Sherlock has always been one with romantic overtones. In their very first scene together, Molly asks Sherlock out on a date and he is completely oblivious to the implications, because at this time, Sherlock is socially incapable of understanding that sort of thing.

Series One is primarily about Sherlock not understanding Molly’s emotions and her feelings for him. But those feelings are ever-present in their interactions. Romance plays a part in every scene they’re in. In A Study in Pink, Molly is asking Sherlock on a date and he doesn’t get it. In The Blind Banker, Sherlock flirts with Molly in order to receive access to the morgue. In The Great Game, Sherlock coldly dismisses Molly’s romantic interest in “Jim”, trying to be kind to her, but mucking it up horribly, because, well, Sherlock.

Their dynamic changes in A Scandal in Belgravia. It is only then that Sherlock realizes the depth of Molly’s feelings for him. She is actually in love with him. He does not reciprocate them, but we’ve reached a point where he doesn’t want her hurt.

In The Reichenbach Fall, Sherlock tells Molly how much she means to him. This is a huge moment. Sherlock is honestly telling someone their value to him. It is not just because she’s useful, but because he trusts her because of who she is. She has surprised him by being able to understand what he is going through and he chooses to trust her above everyone else in his life.

In Series Three, Molly has attempted to move on from Sherlock and he wants her to be happy. I’ve written a lot of meta about the hallway scene and how both Benedict and Loo play it. There is a melancholy in Benedict’s performance that indicates he might not be happy with the idea of Molly moving on. At the end of the scene, we hear Molly say “Maybe it’s just my type.”, telling us her feelings for Sherlock remain. When we meet Tom it becomes a certainty that she’s still hung up on Sherlock. Their relationship is continued to be framed in a romantic light. Molly turns Sherlock down for dinner because she’s engaged. This has heavy romantic implications on both sides.

The Sign of Three doesn’t have a lot of Molly in it, everything is incredible subtle, but is textual none-the-less. We see how she’s become unhappy with Tom, but she tries to show that she’s happy with him (her repeatedly kissing him and telling Sherlock they’re having quite a bit of sex comes off as overcompensation). Molly is the only one who notices Sherlock leave at the end, but she doesn’t go after him, because she’s trying to move on.

In His Last Vow, Molly becomes angry at Sherlock’s abuse of drugs. She has no problem yelling at him for hurting himself and those around him. It shows that Molly’s feelings for Sherlock are not romantic fantasy. She loves him, but she’s realistic about it. She loves who he is, but she’s also not going to put up with his crap.

When we see Molly in Sherlock’s Mind Palace, she is the only one who is HELPING Sherlock. She is telling him what he needs to know and is providing him some level of comfort. Mycroft is mocking, while Anderson is just reciting facts. While Molly is not what pulls him from death (it is the idea John is in danger) she plays an absolutely key role. Molly is utterly important to Sherlock. We still don’t know to what extent and as The Final Problem reveals that’s because Sherlock himself doesn’t know.

Molly’s part in The Abominable Bride is interesting. This is the only time we ever really see her in opposition to Sherlock. This is likely because of her angry at Sherlock (there had been no resolution to Sherlock’s drug use) and Sherlock’s guilt over hurting her repeatedly.

There isn’t a lot about Molly and Sherlock’s relationship early in Series Four. This is because Molly’s part was WOEFULLY underwritten, but there are still things we can glean. Molly is no longer the Morgue Mouse who squeaks “okay” if Sherlock insults her. She’s able to criticize him and when she tells him to do something, he does it. She makes him better.

Molly and Sherlock’s relationship in The Lying Detective is interesting because most of the salient details don’t actually come from their interactions, but from John. Yes, they do have moments together, but it is largely a retread of what we saw in His Last Vow. Molly is concerned about Sherlock’s self-harm.

But John’s comment on Molly is incredibly telling, “The one person who— unlike me— learned to see through your bullshit long ago.” It is a huge compliment to receive. Now I don’t think it’s true that Molly is the one person (I think Sherlock has an affinity for women who can do this. Look at Irene and Mary.). Molly is able to see past Sherlock’s charm and sees him for what he is. But we still see how much she cares for him.

At the end of that episode, we get a speech from John. The speech is primarily about John’s relationship with Mary and is framed as being about Sherlock and Irene, but it can be applied to Sherlock and any woman. John’s not preferential as to whether or not Sherlock is with Irene. He just wants Sherlock to find happiness with someone, because John has been robbed of it with Mary’s death.

I’m not trying to defame the ship of Sherlock and Irene, but in terms of the show itself Sherlock dismisses Irene as an option. He admits he texts Irene, but says it’s a “Bad idea” and he “Tries not to”. Even after John gives his speech, he doesn’t believe he wants to go down that path with Irene because that is not the type of relationship they have.

While initially Sherlock tries to brush aside John’s speech about romantic entanglements, saying they’re not for him, once John gets into it, he stops protesting. He listens to everything John has to say without comment. And there are some very important things John says:

“She thought that if you put yourself in harm’s way I’d … I’d rescue you or something. But I didn’t – not ’til she told me to. And that’s how this works. That’s what you’re missing. She taught me to be the man she already thought I was. Get yourself a piece of that.”

This is a huge scene in the episode and is textually about John and Mary, but as it is framed as a speech to Sherlock to find himself someone who would make him a better man. As I’ve already pointed out, Molly has been portrayed as this type of person since the beginning.

Another line from John’s speech which is incredibly important:

“That chance doesn’t last forever, Sherlock. It’s gone before you know it. Before you know it.” 

None of this relates to Molly, but it does relate to Sherlock. The issue of Molly and Sherlock’s relationship isn’t just one of will-they-won’t-they, it is Sherlock being emotionally ready and willing for a relationship with someone. This speech— given by one of the people most responsible for Sherlock’s emotional development— is important to him as a character. Sherlock also says that emotional entanglements are not for him and in the next episode, we find out why.

Welcome to The Final Problem.

In the beginning of the episode, Mycroft says that Sherlock had been an emotional child. He only cut himself off from that because of the extreme trauma he had suffered from his sister murdering his best friend. It’s not that Sherlock doesn’t feel anything, he feels TOO MUCH. He can’t deal with it, so he locks it away.

Eurus exploits Sherlock and Molly’s relationship. Here is my problem with the idea that Sherlock doesn’t love Molly: Eurus wouldn’t have an interest in her otherwise. She is entirely focused on hurting Sherlock, John and Mycroft, with most of her focus on Sherlock. She wouldn’t be content hurting Sherlock by having him hurt Molly. It’s not enough. I’ve written on this before, so I won’t rehash everything here.

The moment Sherlock sees the “I Love You” on the coffin, he knows who it is meant for. Yes, he has already made the basic deductions about the coffin, but it’s an abstract. When he sees the words he absolutely knows who the coffin is for, because he knows Molly has always been in love with him. Benedict plays it as a devastating discovery, closing his eyes and turning himself away from the words. He starts to blink a lot, generally becoming agitated.

This moment brings all of the previous Sherlock and Molly moments into focus. Everything is stripped down. There are only a few minutes to get everything done. Sherlock is fighting against the clock (“That chance doesn’t last forever, Sherlock. It’s gone before you know it. Before you know it.”) The scene is entirely between them. They aren’t interrupted by text alerts or fiances. They finally have the chance to be honest.

For all Sherlock claims not to lie, he’s never had a problem with bending the truth in order to get what he needs, especially in a life or death situation. There were a lot of ways he could’ve gotten Molly to say the words I love you. Hell, he could’ve asked her to sing the third verse of The Beatles’ “Michelle” and they would’ve been done in five seconds. But he can’t imagine Molly saying those words without it being a declaration of love to him. 

But Molly doesn’t want to to say it.

“Because it’s true. It’s true. It’s always been true.”

She also knows that Sherlock knows she’s in love with him. Their relationship has always been one with romantic elements, albeit heartbreakingly unrequited.

When Sherlock tells her to say it anyway, Molly tells him to say it first.

Like I said: Sherlock has never had a problem with lying. And as Molly said, she doesn’t want to say it because it’s true. Molly’s life is on the line and Sherlock doesn’t want to say the words, not because it’s a lie, but because he feels something for her and he’s still emotionally constipated from the trauma of Victor’s death.

But Sherlock struggles to get out the words. He isn’t able to look. And once he does get the words out, Benedict’s body language completely changes. Sherlock’s body relaxes and he opens his eyes and looks at the camera image of Molly while he says the words for a second time with no hesitation. Benedict acts like a dam has broken in Sherlock.

As stated in The Lying Detective, Molly is the one person who can see through Sherlock’s bullshit. If she didn’t think that he meant it, she wouldn’t have said it in return.

In the end, Eurus mocks Sherlock for it. Emotions are foolish and he’s stirred so many of them up. She’s been able to destroy both Sherlock and Molly by confusing them.

I’ve seen people critical of the scene between Molly and Sherlock in The Final Problem, but most of those are from people who don’t think Sherlock meant the second 'I love you'. They feel it’s just toying with Molly’s emotions yet again. But if Sherlock does truly mean what he says then it is the culmination of four series of back and forth between them.

Them admitting their feelings also fits with a lot of the tone of this episode and that is Sherlock letting go of the pain of his past, which will finally allow him to grow as a person. He has reached the point where he CAN admit he loves Molly, really and truly.

So… Why isn’t there any follow-up at the end? Well, I think part of that comes from the fact this scene was written very late in the process. The original scene sounds like it cut out any of the emotions, making it just about a puzzling where Molly was in danger. Mark and Steven liked that scene, but everyone else hated it. I’m betting Sue was a big opponent of it (as they have pointed out, Sue is the real boss). As I said, they needed to address Molly and Sherlock’s relationship with each other, because it has been a reoccurring element since Sherlock’s very first scene in the series.

The other reason we don’t get any follow-up is because… Well, it’s not about that. There was so much in this episode, it would’ve been incredible awkward to fit a scene in where Molly and Sherlock hash out what their actual feelings are. Sherlock might not even be entirely sure yet (Which is how Benedict played it). But the thing is, if Sherlock isn’t sure… That means he probably DOES have romantic feelings for Molly. It definitely means he does love her. He wasn’t just lying. A lie wouldn’t need any time to unpack. Also, if he just had platonic feelings for her, it wouldn’t be so complicated. But romance is something that is foreign to him so something he has to think about for longer.

By the end of things, we do know that everything is all right between Molly and Sherlock. Molly shows up at 221B, smiling and happy. They have been able to sort themselves out.

While canonically, it might be ambiguous, there is a clear thread throughout the series from the first moment in A Study in Pink. Sherlock and Molly have come a long way and they do have an ending in The Final Problem. Sherlock absolutely does love her.