"You're suicidal, you're allowed chips"

 (Sherlock meta by anarfea and notagarroter)

anarfea:

Also consider that we see Sherlock eating chips by himself in The Empty Hearse when Mary comes to him with the skip code.

notagarroter:

True, but I’m hesitant to read *too* much into that.

I mean, there’s a lot of exciting stuff one could draw from it, if so inclined – that sherlock is suicidal because John isn’t speaking to him, for one. Or, since the previous scene was Sherlock and Molly coming to some understanding about her engagement, maybe Sherlock is suicidal about that! Or, since he invited Molly out for chips in the first place, maybe he thought she was suicidal.

None of those possibilities particularly rings true for me in that scene. And I think, in the grand scheme of things, even if you generally avoid chips because they are bad for you/you’re watching your figure, everyone is entitled to indulge now and then without being put on suicide watch. ;)

Just my personal read on it, ymmv.

anarfea:

I agree that Sherlock asking Molly for chips is unlikely to mean he thinks she’s suicidal. But it does suggest that he was maybe feeling down. I’ve always seen Sherlock’s day solving cases with Molly during The Empty Hearse as one of the saddest sequences in the show. It’s not just that John isn’t speaking to him. It’s that when he makes his deductions, he hears John’s voice in his head making fun of him. It’s a real turning point in John and Sherlock’s relationship, IMO. John goes from being the one person who thinks his deductions make him brilliant instead of a freak to just another one of the chorus of voices saying he’s an arsehole.

As for Molly, she tries to do her part and be John. And Sherlock doesn’t want her to feel like a John substitute and tries to tell Molly that she isn’t John, she’s herself. But he fucks up and calls her John anyway, which hurts her feelings. And then he asks her out for chips, she turns him down, and they agree that Molly isn’t going to go out solving cases with him again because she’s engaged. And I’m not arguing that Sherlock is suicidal about Molly’s engagement in and of itself. But John’s engagement, Molly’s engagement, these are both reminders that his friends moved on while he was away, and he’s not the most important person in their lives (or possibly he doesn’t even have a place in their lives) anymore.

Anyway, I’m just saying that Sherlock’s comment to Faith had me re-think the scene where he’s eating chips when Mary comes looking for him, because I read that as a point in his life where he was probably especially low. It would not surprise me at all if he were contemplating suicide at that point. Especially because people who have had long term depression/suicidal ideation (which I think Sherlock absolutely does; that’s established in A Study in Pink when he considers taking Jefferson Hope’s pill because he’s bored), tend to think about suicide a lot. So yeah, I absolutely think that Guy Fawkes night was a Danger Night for Sherlock. And I’m happy to know that sometimes he got chips instead of taking drugs.