Sherlock is actually a girl’s name.

 (Sherlock meta by notagarroter)

Can we talk about this moment a bit? I mean, really? I just finished watching my way through the entire series for the umpteenth time (really fifth, I think), and every time this scene makes me a little angrier.

I know the usual fandom reading. Everyone focuses on the previous line, “John, there’s something … I should say; I-I’ve meant to say always and then never have. Since it’s unlikely we’ll ever meet again, I might as well say it now.”

And they get their hopes up in whatever way suits them. I love you, I yearn for you, you complete me, you had me at “here, use mine.” Whatever they are picturing, it is not “Sherlock is actually a girl’s name." And so that statement is read as a joke and as a disappointment. And all the focus is on what Sherlock really meant to say.

Here’s the thing: I don’t think it’s a joke. And that makes this scene so much more heartbreaking for me.

In some sense, of course it’s a bit of a joke. But it’s not one Sherlock’s been planning for ages. It’s a response to what John said only moments earlier.

SHERLOCK: William Sherlock Scott Holmes.
JOHN: Sorry?
SHERLOCK: That’s the whole of it – if you’re looking for baby names.
(John chuckles.)
JOHN: No, we’ve had a scan. We’re pretty sure it’s a girl. (x)

Sherlock asked John to name his baby after him. And John said no, on an extremely flimsy excuse. So Sherlock asked again. And John laughed.

I don’t want to know what Sherlock "really” meant to say. I want to know, what was so damn funny about Sherlock’s request?

Of course we, the audience, know that Sherlock’s exile will only last five minutes, and he and John will be reunited shortly. But Sherlock doesn’t know that. Sherlock believes he is being sent to his certain death. And even if John doesn’t know that, Sherlock explicitly tells him “it’s unlikely we’ll ever meet again." Doesn’t that mean anything to John?

Sherlock has no children, and (there’s reason to believe) he never will. John is supposed to be the closest person in the world to him, and he has a baby on the way. Would it kill him to name this child after the most important man in his life? The man who sacrificed everything – up to and including his very life – to protect John, his wife, and his child?

Surely everyone knows that the gender argument is bullshit. My sister Karen was named for my mother’s uncle Charlie, who died in WWII. This happens ALL THE TIME. Especially after a war, many girl babies are named for recently deceased male loved ones, to honor their memory. Usually they are given feminine versions of the name – Georgina, Patricia, Josephine – but it’s not unheard of for parents to just flat out give a girl a traditionally male name, for rememberance.

And that’s not even to mention how many traditional boys’ names have been used for girls just out of fashion or whim. Paris, Dylan, Ashley. Nor to mention that "Sherlock”, being extravagantly rare as a name for any human, can’t seriously be said to have a strongly gendered association.

And then there’s Sheryl, Sherla, Sherleen, etc. if you insist on being REALLY gendered about it. Or take William and do the traditional Wilhelmina. There were LOTS of options.

Why won’t John give Sherlock this one thing? Forget the passionate kisses and grandiose declarations of undying love. This is what Sherlock asked for, and there’s every reason to believe it would mean a great deal to him. To be remembered, in a significant way, by the person he cares about the most. To have a small piece of him passed down to the next generation.

Goddammit, John. What’s the matter with you? Why won’t you name your daughter Sherlock?

I can’t even wrap my head around how wounded Sherlock must be that John laughs off his suggestion.

Naming the baby

 (Sherlock meta by notagarroter)

Q: Mary told John she gets to name their baby. Maybe he already suggested Sherlock and Mary vetoed it? That's why he's trying to play it off?

A: I assume this is a response to my earlier meta, Sherlock Is Actually a Girl’s Name.

What you suggest is possible, but… I don’t see any evidence for it on the show. Why would Mary veto the name? And why wouldn’t John just tell Sherlock that, if it were the case? It’s not that I can’t imagine plausible answers to these questions, it’s just that they aren’t in the show – it would be pure speculation.

It’s true that there is a scene in this very episode where John asks Mary for naming rights to the baby and is denied. So it’s not unreasonable to point to this as an explanation for why John laughs off Sherlock’s proposal in the tarmac scene – maybe John has no say in naming the baby.

But let’s look again at the dialogue between John and Mary.

image

JOHN: I choose the baby’s name.
MARY: Not a chance.
JOHN: Okay.

I’d say there’s more than one possible interpretation of this exchange. (Please indulge me in a bit of sarcastic hyperbole here.) Some fans read John’s line to mean, “I want a fair and equal part in raising our child,” and they read Mary’s response to John as meaning, “I hate you and am basically evil, and am therefore denying you any parental role at all. Also btw the baby isn’t yours, and I’m probably not even human, but an odious abomination released from the depths of hell for the sole purpose of thwarting pure, true, holy love such as that between you and Sherlock.” :P

There is another possible reading, however. Given the context of their relationship, and assuming neither person is angel or demon, but are complex, imperfect humans, we might conclude that what John means is, “I’m still really angry about your deception, so as payback, I’m demanding the right to name our child without consulting you at all, because I know that will hurt you.”

To which Mary quite reasonably responds, “Not a chance, we will name the baby together, and we both retain veto-rights over truly objectionable names. Your anger is fair, but it’s no reason to let our kid go through life with a name like Horsefeathers McMonkey just to spite me.” And John agrees to this.

If we assume the second scenario is more likely than the first, then the polite, grown-up response to Sherlock would have been, “I’ll talk to Mary about it.” Of course John shouldn’t unilaterally decide on a name without discussing it with the kid’s mother, but Sherlock wasn’t demanding a yes or no on the spot – he was just offering his name up as a suggestion. And given the precise situation (Sherlock sacrificing his freedom and possibly his life for their well-being), it seems likely to me that Mary would have agreed.

As it happens, I don’t believe Mary is the reason for John’s refusal to name the baby after Sherlock. I’m more inclined to believe (as many have suggested) that John simply isn’t comfortable with the larger implications, i.e. that Sherlock isn’t coming back (supposedly). It’s an emotionally-charged situation, and John isn’t handling it well. He is giggling and joking and relying on humor to get him through a difficult conversation, just as he did at the scene of his own murder. Sherlock, for his part, knows that’s all John is capable of at the moment, so he’s playing along with it.

Also it’s worth noting that Sherlock’s line (“That’s the whole of it, if you’re looking for baby names”) is a clear call-back to ASiB, when John offers up his whole name as a sardonic commentary on Sherlock and Irene’s flirting. Since the original line was a joke (albeit with an emotionally-charged undercurrent), it’s not surprising that John assumes Sherlock also intends the same line in a joking way. And I think Sherlock sort of does intend John to read it that way – he’s deliberately trying to keep the conversation light, and avoiding the kind of sentimentality that would make both of them uncomfortable.

But he’s not cracking just *any* joke. It’s my contention that Sherlock intends a serious undercurrent to his little joke – he brings up the baby names lightly, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t sincerely important to him. My best guess is that, however John reacts in the moment, Sherlock hopes that in a couple of weeks, when the baby is born and Sherlock has disappeared, John will think back on this conversation and reconsider whether he might want to honor his friend in this way.

[...]

An in-depth analysis of the Mind Palace sequence in HLV and what it means for Sherlock and Molly

 (Sherlock meta by creamocrop)

I got carried away in analyzing Sherlock’s mind palace and Molly’s presence in it.

Yes, it has been pointed out again and again that Sherlock envisioned Molly, a pathologist who works with the dead, as his saviour when he could have imagined John who is actually an army doctor and who, I imagine, has more practical experience with bullet wounds, because of you know…being from Afghanistan! 

So going by the fact that his mind resorted to an image of Molly rather than someone who is an expert in dealing with life and death situations, he clearly feels something for her. Right? right? Because you know…he associates her with safety and survival. -

[...]

But I don’t think that’s just it - although to be honest, associating someone with safety is actually kind of a big deal, but let me just backtrack a little.

I might just be over-analyzing things but I have always been fascinated with the concept of mind palaces so I am just going to go ahead and give a little analysis.

The first thing I noticed when she entered was that she wasn’t immediately all sciencey, which is what I expected at first because it was after all, Sherlock’s analysis of his own wound and he is merely projecting people in his mind - basically he is just speaking to himself. If he was as ramrod-straight-purely-logical human being, as he always claims, Molly would have immediately launched an explanation and formulated a course of action, but instead, she opened with stating how it’s not like the movies. Notice how she was moving in true Molly fashion - wriggly, quirky and lively. This, I think, is a wonderful way of introducing her as part of Sherlock’s mind palace, because I can see this scene as a parcel of Sherlock’s memory wherein they had discussed a bullet wound while they were in the morgue. In short, he wasn’t just projecting a Molly-the-pathologist-who-has-seen-a-lot-of-bullet-wound-and-knows-how-it-causes-death, he was remembering Molly.

He was dying and the first thing he sees is a memory of Molly.

What was that they say about seeing your life flash before you when your dying? Yeah, I think this is a form of it. I once read that this flashes are all usually happy memories because it is the brain’s way of comforting the body as it goes through a traumatic experience. This is the first sign that confirms how Sherlock’s consciousness associates Molly with safety.

The next scene was more Sherlock. 

(Before we move on, let’s just appreciate the fact that Sherlock’s mind palace includes a morgue.) 

Anyways, as I said, the next scene in the-too-bright morgue has more Sherlock element in it. Now this, is Sherlock analyzing his body. Molly was talking faster, was more serious and is delving into more sciencey stuff, talking about the physics of the bullet and how it could affect his body. She concludes by saying that he’s almost certainly going to die. Notice how she became fuzzy all of a sudden before she said this? It was his body showing him that death is near but he needed Molly to say that to him in the face. Her stating it, allowed him to move past the first stage: denial.

So, if your body is already saying bye bye using the face of someone you know deals with death, what happens next?

You panic.

And so he does, which is why Molly told him to focus. Que the slapping. Twice. By now, I bet slapping is already the rig of our little ship-that-could, and so it should be, because it clearly made an impact with Sherlock. He retained the memory of Molly slapping him and he associated it with maintaining focus. In real life, Molly slapped him three times because she wants him to remain focused with all the beautiful things he has - his born gifts and his friends. Although he had been a bit of a douche afterwards - not really saying sorry in the way she wants him to - and being seemingly unaffected by the slap by making a joke about how he’s glad that she did it without a ring, his mind palace clearly showed us that the slapping had made its mark - can I say pun intended in this part?. Anyway, I bet from now on, when he needs to focus, he’ll just see Molly slapping him, instead of having to slap himself like the way he did in The Sign of Three. 

Speaking of The Sign of Three, remember how Mycroft was there in Sherlock’s mind palace to talk him through solving the case? Oh look, Molly was talking him through staying alive! Parallels, anyone? See, the importance of this is that if Sherlock sees Mycroft as his equal (or greater than, based on how he is on a pedestal and Sherlock has to look up to him) when it comes to thinking logically, enough that he seeks him out when trying to solve a case, then clearly he also sees Molly as an equal when it comes to medical and science knowledge, enough for him to discuss with her how he is dying. Take that, people who thought she was just a lab tech/assistant - which she really isn’t for she’s a Specialist Registrar, and from what I’ve read so far, we should probably kowtow to her for being that. 

Going back, the following scenes however, highlights the contrast between how Sherlock sees Molly and Mycroft. If we put his interaction with them side by side, we’d see a lot of differences. His subconsciousness always put Mycroft on a pedestal. First, in The Sign of Three where Mycroft was in the judge’s table, high above where Sherlock was. Now in His Last Vow, Sherlock reverted into his younger self and the camera angle shows him looking up to Mycroft. With Molly however, they were always equal - except maybe for that time when he was lying on the slab and she was looking down at him, which I think does not connote any feelings of inequality because as said earlier, that was the time when he was panicking and his consciousness acknowledging the fact that when it comes to death, Molly has the authority.

Another difference, is that If Sherlock associates Molly with the too-bright morgue, he places Mycroft in a dark, shady office where his intelligence was belittled. Molly’s presence was comforting, and although they were both analyzing what he should do, there was no restrictive atmosphere. She allows Sherlock to come to his own conclusion and there were no insults involved. With Mycroft however, even though Sherlock’s also consulting with him, our dying consulting detective reverted into being that kid who thought he was an idiot. 

Really, the whole mind palace sequence was a gold-mine! I’m quite glad they added this because it allows us a peak in the complex mind of Sherlock.

I’m just going to fast-forward to their next interaction -which is also one of my favorite in the whole sequence - wherein Sherlock now has to decide which way to fall. Oh hi, Anderson!. You see, I love how they added Anderson in the whole element simply because his presence and actions highlighted something important - probably the most important thing and the one I really want to emphasize in this post: Sherlock’s trust with Molly.

Before, when they were discussing how he should fall, Anderson was behind Sherlock while Molly was in front of him, but when it was time to fall *ahem The Reichenbach Fall ahem* , they switched places! It was almost as if Sherlock was about to perform a trust fall with Molly (again) - which in essence is actually what he was about to do. He was putting all his trust in his and Molly’s analysis that falling on his back will save him.

Oh The Reichenback Fall, it was almost as if it was just yesterday… 

So he falls…and goes into shock.

But he did not recognize it at first. You know, for a genius like him, one would think that he would know what happens next, but he didn’t! He had to ask Molly what was happening! This is another significant development because Sherlock, in real life, doesn’t always ask the opinion of others. He just assumes that he knows and that he is correct. In his mind palace, at the moment when his mind is having a hard time focusing and getting the answers right (as was demonstrated by his and Mycroft’s talk about the gun and the exit wound), he finds the right answer with Molly! This shows the reason why Molly is Sherlock’s pathologist.

He believes in her analysis - and he doesn’t question it.

(While we’re at this, let us take a moment to remember how he - a chemistry graduate- asked her help to develop algorithms to ensure that he and John would have a nice stag night, when he could clearly do it by himself.) 

Okay, fast-forward a little bit and we see Molly telling him to control the pain. Again, Molly sets him straight. In fact, for the entire episode, this is what Molly does - showing him what he really needs to see and telling him what he really needs to do.

You know what that makes Molly?

His ego.

She is the perfect balance between logic and sentiment and no matter what he had said and done to her before, I think that Sherlock knows this too. It is why in the moment when his body (sentiment) and his mind (logic) were both vying for control over him, it was Molly that he saw.

It was Molly that he needed.

Thoughts On Molly

 (Sherlock meta by johns-posh-boy)

Let me put this out there, I LOVE MOLLY HOOPER. All I want for her is to move on from Sherlock and find some happiness. However, I’ve been feeling annoyed with Molly for awhile, and I think it started with her striking Sherlock for doing drugs in His Last Vow. 

Molly did not have the right to do that. Sherlock is a grown man who has the right to make his own decisions, even if they’re the wrong ones. Sherlock didn’t ask for her input. Not even John did, only for her to analyze his urine sample. You could argue that Molly is acting out of anguish that someone she cares about is hurting himself, but you didn’t see anyone else physically assaulting him. Not even John, who is closer to him than anyone in the world and is known for having a violent temper. If Molly truly cared that Sherlock was harming himself, she’d have tried reasoning with him. She didn’t even try to understand why Sherlock would do this. Instead she just wanted to act self-righteous and insert herself in Sherlock’s affairs.

Same with the “anyone but you” scene from The Six Thatchers. I respect that John is hurting right now and Molly sent Sherlock away per John’s request (that time she had the right to get involved), but she didn’t necessarily have to use the most hurtful words possible to make Sherlock leave. Even if she was quoting John. She could’ve been more compassionate toward Sherlock, if she “loves” him so much. Instead, I think that tiny part of her that resents Sherlock for not reciprocating her feelings, wanted Sherlock to feel even worse about the situation.

The problem with Molly is that she makes the same mistake normal people do when they’re infatuated with someone - they gain a sense of entitlement to that person. Even if that person has made it plain that they will never reciprocate their feelings. Sherlock owed Molly gratitude for assisting him in faking his own death, which he paid back by bringing her along on cases for a day. But beyond that, Sherlock owes her nothing, because Molly’s given him nothing, except unwanted attention.

Let me explain using a personal example:

In high school, I had a huge crush on this boy. I would have done anything to be his girlfriend. He was always very nice to me, but he made it clear to me that he’d never return my feelings. Still, I clung onto my feelings for him, in hopes that one day he’d wake up and realize that I was the one for him. It made him feel uncomfortable. Over time, my unrequited feelings turned into bitterness, and I acted antagonistic toward him, blaming him for my feelings instead of myself. I still wanted him, but a part of me despised him for not wanting me back. I knew I should just let go of my feelings for him, but I couldn’t. And I ended up estranging him from myself entirely. Looking back now, I wish I could have put my feelings aside, because I missed out on a potentially great friendship.

And that’s exactly what Molly is doing.

I didn’t write this to tear Molly down, because like I said, I like her a lot, and because she has great potential to be a strong character. But she needs to let go of her crush on Sherlock to be able to grow. (Also, Sherlock is gay, honey. I think deep down, you know that.)

Even in Sherlock's mind, Moriarty always underestimates Molly

 (Sherlock meta by creamocrop)

Q: Loved your analysis of the Mind Palace! What's also interesting is that when his "Moriarty" (extreme crazy id?) tells him who will be crying for him, he never mentions Molly: even in Sherlock's mind, Moriarty always underestimates Molly: the one who always counts.

A: Thank you very much! Now, you hit this one on the spot! Moriarty in strait-jacket, wrapped in chains and locked in a padded room is arguably one of the scariest scenes in Sherlock so far. Props to Andrew Scott! 

Now on to the fact that Moriarty missed Molly again! When he was actually listing the possible reactions of the people who cared for Sherlock if he dies, I was actually crossing my fingers and was hoping that he would forget Molly again - and boy was I glad that he did.

Because, you see for me, mind-palace-Jim remaining clueless about how vital Molly is in Sherlock’s life, is very important! The mere fact that this Jim still has no idea about what Molly did for Sherlock, means that even though our dear consulting detective is scared of him (why else would he place Jim in such a secluded and heavily secured place, if he wasn’t), his ability to compartmentalize and keep his mind palace objective and organized remains top-notch. He did not let his fear of Moriarty rule him and leak a very vital information.

Even in his mind palace, Sherlock knows that he is safe from Moriarty as long as the consulting criminal remains in the dark about the woman who mattered the most. See, this again shows how Sherlock associates Molly with safety and survival.

She is the barrier between Sherlock and Moriarty.

She is the barrier between Sherlock and his fear.

Mary's Attitude in The Christmas Forgiveness Scene 

 (Sherlock meta by incurablylazydevil, theoklahomos and theleftpill)

incurablylazydevil:

 How do people watch that ‘oooh we’re doing conversation today it really is christmas’ scene and go ‘look how sweet and snarky Mary is, what a nice character’ while i’m sitting here trying to calm down my gag reflex?

theoklahomos:

SAME it’s like bitch you killed literally the most important person in your husband’s life and that was just the cherry atop the massive shit sundae you’ve served him up and now - now! - you have the nerve to act like HE’S being unreasonable for not having spoken to your bitch ass for a few months what the actual fuck Mary is horrible!

theleftpill:

I hold the opinion that people who react this way to the Christmas/Forgiveness scene have never been in a mature, respectful relationship. Those who have understand that 1. she’s not sweet and snarky - she’s scared and frustrated, and 2. because she might very well have reason to “act like HE’S being unreasonable”. The way they interact with each other tells us a great deal about what’s happened in the last few months without actually seeing it. “We’re doing conversation today?”: how many times has Mary tried to talk to John, to make things right, to correct the mistakes she’s made, and John has completely shut her down? “Months of silence, and we’re gonna do this now?” Her frustration and anger radiate off the screen; this is something she’s tried to work out before and has been completely rejected, but instead gets ambushed at a strangers’ home by her silent husband. Wouldn’t you be a little pissed off?

We have no idea what John has put Mary through for the last few months. We do know John has a nasty temper and we know he’s a complete dickhead sometimes. So maybe Mary has a reason to be snarky and angry and in pain and flat-out terrified when her husband finally approaches her. Yes she shot Sherlock but this moment isn’t about him; it’s about their relationship. About her secrets and his forgiveness. And yes, in a healthy relationship, it is possible to forgive.

Things aren’t so fanfic-black-and-white when you’re dealing with another real-life person. Sometimes you don’t like the person you’re in love with. Your partner can get angry, can get sad, can get frustrated with you and in a healthy relationship, you realize that maybe they have a reason to feel that way. John & Mary embody this dynamic beautifully in this scene, and it’s one of the reasons I love it so much, how utterly real their relationship is, and how much is revealed about their relationship in their exchanges. In this moment, I don’t see Mary as “nice”; I see her terrified. I see her protecting her heart by being defensive and sharp. And in a real relationship, that’s allowed.

And that complexity makes me curious to see what happens next.

She can’t sit there 

 (Sherlock Meta by sherlockmeta, fkef.tumblr and theleftpill)

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.)

His Last Vow Sherlolly Analysis

 (Sherlok meta by coffeewithsugarplease)

[...]

The first instance of Molly in this episode is when John says he is going to ring her. Now, this was interesting. John now calls Molly by just “Molly”, instead of her full name like in previous episodes. They have spent more time together and they are more familiar with eachother. He relies on her to provide him with a proper test result, knowing she will do it well and won’t try to protect Sherlock. When John says he’s abut to ring Molly the camera shows us Sherlock and you can see his reaction. He seems like he’s annoyed that John is making such a fuss and now he’s gotten Molly involved. He’s almost cringing that Molly will have to get a way from work to handle his piss and she also knows then he’s been back on the drugs. He doesn’t want Molly involved. He doesn’t seem to care Mary is there, but he doesn’t want Molly to know.

Now, onto the lab. A drugs test can take hours, but that is only if they are looking for particular substances. Molly was just looking to see if there was anything in his urine. The time- passed isn’t that long as Mary is still wrapping up ‘Billy’s’ wrist. So I would say about 15-30 mins have passed while they are all in the room, as Mary would have had to find the bandage – perhaps Molly provided it after she found out what has happened.

Here is the good bits… You ready… I watched this on slow-mo to ensure I got it all right. This is MUCH better than I thought it was.

While Molly is doing the test, Sherlock is looking away from everyone. Now this man is high, quiet, looking and smelling worse for wear. He’s embarrassed it has come to this, and perhaps a little annoyed. He didn’t seem to mind John finding him on drugs (he introduced himself), he didn’t mind when Mary saw him… but now he minds. Because Molly is there. Molly is taking time out of her day to test his own piss for drugs and he hates it.

Molly is now visibly angry. By the way she answers John I would say he wasn’t just a little bit high, he had a lot in his system. She snaps off her gloves and strides over to him. She squares up to him. No longer is Molly afraid to be close to him. She is so angry, because she risked her job and her freedom (what she did was illegal) to save this mans life and he is throwing it away. She’s upset and furious. If you look at Sherlock here he doesn’t make eye contact. When John speaks about the test “Clean?” he looks at John, but then back at the floor. He doesn’t look at Molly. Not until she is right infront of him about to slap him. She squares up to him. The camera shows us both their stances.

The first slap takes him by surprise. In this shot we see them both.

Then the second time Molly licks her lips and slaps him again. It is interesting to note that we are shown Molly’s face when she slaps him, and his face afterwards. It’s all about her hitting him, and all about him receiving it and realizing something. If you look closely at his face after the second slap he doesn’t look as shocked as before. It’s like he’s realizing her slaps are bringing him out of his high a little. He’s focusing. (might be why she does it in the mind palace but more about that later). After the second slap though she STILL cannot look her in the eye. When his head comes back around his eyes either go above her, or down at her coat. He can’t meet her eyes.

We see John’s reaction now, John actually gulps after the second slap. The final time she slaps him we see her face again, but this time it’s not anger, it’s pain. Her face is different. Sherlock then decides he doesn’t want to be hit anymore and nurses his face. Stopping her from continuing. He’s trying to focus and make sense of things – he’s still high, he looks away blinking. But her expression is still firm. Still no eye contact. He’s uncomfortable because he’s hurt her. Molly is fierce and calls the shots. We see both of them again now. Sherlock is still leaning on the counter, rubbing his face and Molly is still standing unyielding and straight.

We then get another glimpse of John, he’s watching them, watching the obvious change in their relationship. Note that when we see them again John is in the foreground, he’s behind Sherlock. He could he shown to be in-between them, but they have decided to put him off to the side – Sherlock’s side. John is not getting between them.

Molly speaks now, “How dare you…” She uses strong words. Dare, betray. Demanding he says sorry. She is truly hurt he has done this to himself. She cares enough about him to behave like this. But then he goes on the offence.

Only here does he make eye contact… briefly. When he mentions her engagement, infact it’s even on the word “engagement” he looks at her and then proceeds to either look to the side or above her.

Now she is really angry, the pain has gone and she’s angry again. Her teeth are gritted, her eyebrows are dipped and her nose is scrunched up. That’s an angry face of ever I have seen one. Molly Hooper is not backing down.

John then chimes in, we see Sherlock once again looking above Molly and not at her. Then Sherlock makes eye contact with John, then to the floor, then to Molly’s coat. Only for a few moments of John talking he gets frustrated. Now Molly had a go at him for a lot longer. Sherlock closes his eyes and gets visibly angry, then he turns to John (with his eyes still closed) and opens them on John and releases his anger on him, NOT Molly. They bicker for a bit and Molly seems surprised Sherlock can still deuce I this state.

Another good moment was when Sherlock got a text message he looks at his phone as says “finally”, then Molly asks “finally what”. Billy then says “good news?” Sherlock replies to Billy not Molly by saying “excellent news” and looking at him. He only looks at Molly again when he says “excuse me” Molly is the last person he sees in the room, as he gazes over her last. Then flings “for a second” into the air above them.

Ahhhh the mind palace…

I had this thought. “Betray the love of your friends”. When Mary shoots him, he feels betrayed. Might mean something, might mean nothing – but who said that to Sherlock… Molly. Then all of a sudden we see her. It’s also good to note that Sherlock only looks at her once during his mind palace scenes. Just once also.

Molly pops up with humor. In her coat. Ready for business. Behind him – always behind him. She’s got his back. Wearing the SAME CLOTHES as she was when she slapped him, wearing the same hair style and the same lipstick. It was THAT MOLLY that engraved it’s way into his mind. They have known each other for years, and she has worn some pretty colorful stuff in the past. But he didn’t want to remember those moments of Molly – He wanted to have THE moment of Molly, when she stood up to him. When she showed she was no longer a mouse. As seen here.

It goes all white and she gets serious and sciencey, Sherlock is on the table, but she is talking to the standing Sherlock. She is telling him about the wound. Then she starts talking to the Sherlock on the table. It goes all blurry when she talks to the table Sherlock. She slaps him to make him focus. Then a second time. She notes she’s in his mind palace, then tells him how much time he has. This is the 2nd time he makes eye contact in the whole episode. When he NEEDS her. She is standing over his body and talking to his standing self.

Then she’s asking the questions. But when she tells him he’s right about the blood loss, he looks surprised she’s there. She’s supportive when she’s asks about the exit wounds. Mycroft isn’t, he’s logic in Sherlock’s mind. Molly is reassuring him, asking him questions and keeping him focused. Mycroft is smarmy, insulting and belittling him too. Molly tells him to fall on his back, then she and Anderson swap.

Molly is once again behind him as he falls. Like a trusting exercise. Molly is calm, when he goes into shock. Sherlock s not. Once again Mycroft is smarmy “don’t go into shock, obviously”.

Then he starts to fit and MOLLY is in the same place as Redbeard. When he went to the dog it was some sort of corridor. That was him finding something to relax. Then he starts to lose his cool and he falls onto the carpet in the room. But then Molly shows up in the same ‘lets be calm, think of something calming’ corridor and instructs him again, once again behind him.

When Moriarty is in that little room, he tells Sherlock about the people who will cry. He mentions, Mrs. Hudson, The Woman, Mary and John. No mention of Molly.

I’m not sure why, but it’s something I picked up.

Then onto the bolt hole…

Right after his Brother, we see Molly. She was the next person to go to after his own brother. She has a sandwich, Satsuma, coffee and no ring. It's not known who is talking to her. But her hair is off to the side. Her fingers are fidgeting.

“Just the spare bedroom, well my bedroom. We agreed he needs the space.”

This is after he is shot. So it’s natural she is worried about him. The only bolt hole she might now of is her room. When she mentions her room she get a mixture of seriousness and fangirling. She then takes a drink to stop herself saying anymore and looks off into the distance, trying not to make eye contact with whoever is interviewing her.

Now I took this as Sherlock might stay over [at] hers, but he might kick her out of her room, or use it when she’s [working] nights. I don’t think it means they share a bed platonically. It also might mean that she knew about Janine and that Sherlock needed to escape from her now and then, and felt jealousy towards Janine. Again I don’t know for certain. Perhaps you can shed some light on it.

I personally think it’s telling he made minimum eye contact with her. He was clearly ashamed of how she saw him. Considering during the first episode before she comes over he is tidying himself up the mirror for her arrival at 221b. Now he looks like shit and she is seeing it.

Well there you go. [...]

Why Sherlocks bolt hole is Molly's bedroom

 (Sherlock meta by justanotherfangirls)

Bolt-hole (noun): a safe or restful place; a place where you can hide or escape from something that is dangerous or unpleasant. — merriam-webster.com

I want to talk about this, so let’s. At first glance it seemed just your regular fan serving, fan-teasing trolling thing that Moffat does to tell us, yes I read your fanfiction. Have some more details that please you but will not affect the plot and won’t be leading anywhere. And it also seems that Molly was back to being the girl with the crush who [Sherlock] takes advantage of, which she allows. Might be why she is uncomfortable and a bit embarrassed in that scene.

Yes, that may well be the case. To which I say, You don’t do that. You don’t just imply that Sherlock casually stays at Molly’s, in her bedroom no less. That is just too intimate a detail I think, and it does affect the plot and characters. Yes Mr. Moffat it will. Especially since this might have happened while Sherlock was faking his death (unlikely, Sherlock himself said he was unfamiliar with London implying he was away for the whole two years), while she was with Tom (that would explain the breakup, unlikely it was after Tom because it seemed he had only known the engagement was over when he noted she didn’t have the ring anymore), and/or while he was with Janine (it was pretty much implied in their scene that he avoided sex with her). I think it would be the latter two. There is a very good possibility that their initial unspoken rule of staying away from each other in The Empty Hearse lasted only until the end of The Sign of Three. And given that their mutual decision was loaded with tension and emotions and they allowed themselves to be together like that. I am not implying they had sex or even kissed. For all we know Sherlock just came marching into her flat, demanding he needed to think and charmed her into letting him borrow her bedroom while she uses the spare one, and then he leaves without as much as a goodbye when the case calls him. And so Molly is left both guilty and embarrassed when she was asked about it. Because in her point of view, it will always be unrequited, embarrassingly so.

It was needless to say entirely different in Sherlock’s point of view. We saw his mind palace. We saw what she made him do in his mind, in the brink of death. We saw how exactly he sees her. And that had conveniently given me some ideas. And now I will try to be as logical as possible. Really.

Of all of Sherlock’s known boltholes, even counting the Big Ben one, there’s only one that sticks out like a sore thumb. What makes Molly’s place special? He could have secluded places and nice views, and he has. He could have larger bedrooms and spacier locations and he could isolate himself all he wants. The answer is easy. It’s Molly’s. Molly is the bolthole. She makes him feel safe and protected, this tiny brilliant pathologist who matters so much she doesn’t even know. He protects John and Mrs Hudson and Irene and all of London, but this woman protects him. And I think the reason he had asked for her bedroom is he was testing her, like he had tested John in The Empty Hearse. Does she still like him enough to accommodate his irrational, demanding requests? (I also think he just likes to be in Molly’s bedroom to smell her pillow and deduce her bedthings but that is already with shipper goggles, so.) Surprise, surprise. She does.

And so quoting Benedict, it’s just so beautiful, their relationship is beautiful. I have read some articles, and even Louise had said people ship sherlolly because we see ourselves in Molly’s place and wanted to be kissing Sherlock or Benedict. But unrequited love is also beautiful and bittersweet, heartbreaking and good, and I would have no problem if that’s all they would give sherlolly. But that is not what I was seeing that they’re showing us. They let us see a potential. How much Sherlock needed Molly. How much he actually loves Molly.

Sherlock in Molly’s bed & Snapping at Mycroft

 (Sherlock meta by mscurious88)

I think the writers’ main intra-episode reason for Molly admitting Sherlock used her bedroom as a bolthole was to explain how Sherlock could be dating a sexually forward woman for nearly a month and still not have sex with her (i.e. he hadn’t been sleeping at his flat for weeks).

Before The Reichenbach Fall, I don’t think [Sherlock and Molly] were close enough for Sherlock to stay at her flat. After the Fall, they were, but while Moriarty’s network still existed, it’d be too risky. I could buy maybe one or two times if he returned to London during the two years he was dead, *IF* he felt it was safe enough, but Molly didn’t make it seem like a one time deal. And once Sherlock returned, he didn’t have a good excuse or any need (as far as we know) for a bolthole except for Janine staying at his flat.

Additionally, I think Molly specified he used her bedroom, not her spare room because the writers wanted to add fuel to the Sherlolly shipper fire. There was really no other reason to specify which room, but they did and for that I wish to say thanks.

Piecing together bits, my head canon is:

A few days after the wedding, bored Sherlock took Lady Smallwood’s case. He discovered Janine’s connection to CAM and asked her out. After a couple dates, it became clear that he’d have to invite her over to his place to keep up the charade and Sherlock didn’t want to have sex with her (“there are limits”). So I think he visited Molly at her lab, happily discovered Molly was rethinking engagement (after “meat dagger” who wouldn’t?) and was living alone again to to slow things down with Tom. I don’t think Molly had given Tom back his ring and made a total break but Sherlock took this sign of trouble as an invitation to use her flat as a bolthole. I think he was testing the waters on Molly’s feelings for him. Would she let him stay? I think he complained the spare bedroom’s bed was too small for him to be comfortable to see if Molly would give him the big bed (which she graciously did) and then maybe sleep in it with him (which I think she did not). I think this lasted for more than a week wherein Sherlock would take Janine out, they’d head back to his place and before anything got too serious, he’d get an urgent call making him leave for a case at which point he would go over to Molly’s and hang out with her until bedtime. I think Tom found out Sherlock was staying at Molly’s and they fought. Molly, not ready to give up on her engagement with Tom, told Sherlock he couldn’t stay at her place and so an ejected Sherlock came up with his plan to be blackmailed over drug use to solve his night accommodation problem, but it was really an excuse to get high because he was feeling abandoned and sorry for himself. I think he did this for a couple weeks until John found him.

This would explain how Sherlock knew Molly’s absent ring was from a broken engagement, not an accidental loss or removal for work and why he felt compelled to comment upon it. (i.e. he wanted Molly to know he noticed). I also wondered if Sherlock’s “sorry your engagement’s over” was suppose to have an edge to it because it sounded a bit snippy to me.

IMO Sherlock was not putting up the polite act about the engagement any more the way he did in The Empty Hearse and The Sign of Three. Yeah, it could be that Sherlock was too high to hide his feelings, but Molly also dropped her shy act. I feel the acting in the scene heavily implies SOMETHING happened between Sherlock and Molly off screen in that month to change their attitudes towards each other because Molly at the end of The Sign of Three was not set up as someone who would slap Sherlock. It isn’t that she loved him any more or less or that she changed who she was as a character but that Molly’s sense of “standing” in regards to Sherlock must have somehow changed to be a person who could touch him in such a familiar way.

This woman wasn’t comfortable enough with Sherlock to say what was truly on her mind. She whispered it when he was out of hearing range. There is no way, she would have presumed to slap Sherlock because he was taking drugs. Lectured him? Expressed disappointment and worry? Yes. Of course. But they weren’t close enough for Molly to physically touch Sherlock in such a sharp/hostile and familiar manner.

Fans have been comparing S3 John and S3 Molly and this parallel is to me one of the biggest. I don’t condone it, but both John and Molly assault Sherlock out of frustration with his behavior in s3. This doesn’t indicate diminished affection on either part. It was that they had both reached their tolerance limit for his bullshit and Sherlock understands that he has betrayed them so he allows both to physically take out their exasperation/frustration on him. It is totally unhealthy, just like Sherlock and it is how the characters get beyond what would be deal breakers in most other relationships.

Sherlock snapping at Mycroft, imo, was an extension of his scene at the lab with Molly. Sherlock blamed his hostile behavior on being high, but he was higher at the lab and he didn’t do anything but passive aggressively bring up her former fiance when Molly slapped him 3x. To me, Sherlock throwing Mycroft against the wall was done to show his real mood. He put on a placid facade in the lab, but Molly Hooper slapped him. Molly Hooper saw him high and said he had BETRAYED the love of his friends. And Molly Hooper was single again and that should have made him happy but it was all ruined now and he had only himself to blame for it. So Sherlock took out his shitty morning on his brother because he had all this anger at himself pented up from the mortifying lab scene and he was itching to let it out.

It kinda stinks that’s where [s3] stops. We have no idea if Molly forgave Sherlock and tried the kind, loving approach after the slaps or if she stayed angry and gave him the cold shoulder. Did Molly urge Sherlock to see a drug counselor or did they awkwardly avoid the topic? We have no idea what Molly’s reaction was to Janine’s stories in the newspapers or to Sherlock being shot. We never see Molly visit him in the hospital, but surely she did. And months pass by the end of the episode and we don’t know what is going on with Molly except she is still working at Barts. Moffat was right. I can’t believe they left [s3] there.

Mycroft and Molly: The two most important people inside of Sherlock’s Mind Palace

 (Sherlock meta by doortotomorrow)

This would be a great time to talk about the two most important people inside of Sherlock’s Mind Palace and what they symbolize inside of Sherlock’s subconscious.

In the entirety of the Mind Palace sequence, Mycroft and Molly are the two most prominent people we see and Sherlock’s reaction to when they switch places is a great way to gauge what they mean to Sherlock.

When Molly is by his side, Sherlock is able to speak, he’s able to breathe easier, and he’s open and receptive to communication. He’s more in control of the situation, and just thinking about Molly has placed him in a more relaxed state meaning he can think through the problem easier.

However when Mycroft shows up, Sherlock completely shuts down. He’s not able to speak, his breathing becomes erratic, and now he’s back into panic mode. He’s not able to think the problem through rationally; he’s paralyzed.

So what does this mean? It means that Sherlock associates Molly with being in control and being in a relaxed state of mind. She represents safety, security, and in this situation, life. Molly is Sherlock’s lifesaver when he’s been thrown overboard.

And even though we know that Mycroft loves his bother regardless of what he says, the way Sherlock perceives him is the absolute opposite. Sherlock has always felt intimidated, inferior, and has felt like a failure in comparison to him so that’s exactly what Mycroft represents. He represents fear, failure, and ultimately death in this scene.

So what we have here is an epic battle between Mycroft and Molly for superiority. Molly and Mycroft are fighting for the key to Sherlock’s heart and ultimately in the end when Sherlock reaches the deepest recesses of his subconscious, the last word we hear him utter is “control”. In the end, Molly overthrows Mycroft and sends him packing as Sherlock’s brought out of the limbo between life and death.

We already know that Mycroft has been paramount in forming Sherlock as a person due to how he was treated when he was a child, so what does that make Molly then? The person who’s been helping him become a man, and that’s why she matters so much to Sherlock.

Whenever there’s a big leap in development concerning Sherlock’s character, Molly’s almost always there to start it. She’s the catalyst, and in the end, she has made a profound impact on Sherlock’s life if she’s been able to reach this far into his mind.

All hail the queen.

Janine, reconsidered 

 (Sherlock Meta by mild-lunacy)

I was rewatching HLV in preparation for The Reckoning (aka Series 4), and I noticed something off about the Janine scene at Baker Street. As we know, Sherlock was acting weird, but then, he was *acting*. People have various explanations of how/why Janine was acting weird. Most people point to her willingness to forgo sex with Sherlock as the odd thing, or alternatively her willingness to believe he was really proposing. The usual point is, how could a savvy, smart woman go for that?

Well, that’s what I’d call an example of an ‘argument from real life’, which is almost always a dead end when analyzing genre fiction. I realize it’s really, really popular for a reason, and that is that it comes really naturally and is part of how most people process and relate to stories. That being said, I’m inclined to dismiss it. If you think these points suggest Janine isn’t believable or coherent as a character, fine. That simply means you’re not satisfied with the show, but that’s not offering a useful critique for further analysis. Nor is it a good reason to go against explicit canon and insist she did have oral sex with Sherlock at least. Anyway, the oddness in Janine that I’m speaking of is the stuff John canonically found weird himself, based on his scandalized, weirded out look: coming out without her bottoms, calling Mycroft ‘Mike’ and blatantly helping herself (staking a claim) in the kitchen. In other words, she was both forward and rude, in context: not acting very British. Then she was super-demonstrative, sitting in Sherlock’s lap later; people have theorized that this is because she knows about Sherlock’s plans, but there’s a simpler explanation. One that doesn’t require breaking a plot point in HLV (always important).

Janine’s inappropriate behavior fits if she was actually *trying* to make John uncomfortable, hoping to rub it in with her new relationship to Sherlock. Not to help Sherlock for whatever reason, but because *she* was jealous. Remember, she knows how important John is to Sherlock because of their conversation at the wedding. Sherlock made his fixation on John clear by his behavior there, and in fact Sherlock rejected her at the time (both sexually and as a candidate for the position John’s marriage represented an end to). The walking around half-dressed makes sense if you essentially want your lover’s ex to suffer. It really is that simple sometimes, and it also makes sense as a mirror with Mary’s dynamic with Sherlock and John in HLV, as well. Mary was starting to resent Sherlock’s role in John’s life as well, sniping at him earlier in the episode about some people not having heard of Sherlock.

The whole performance being directed at discomfiting John becomes truly obvious when she tells Sherlock right in front of John, “I’m the only one who really knows what you’re like, remember?”

That’s just *blatantly* a reference to John as well as John’s (presumably former) role in Sherlock’s life. It’s the sort of thing you don’t say in front of someone’s questionably-ex 'partner’ if you don’t have to, or you’re being friendly. If you’re not trying to score emotional points, you don’t say that sort of thing even to 'play along’ (assuming she’s doing that, rather than Sherlock, which I think is the actual reality of the situation). We know that Janine is canonically nasty and vengeful (from her going to the newspapers about her sex life with Sherlock), so this behavior is totally understandable. Further, if she was taunting John right then, it makes sense she’d been in that mode the entire time.

Not to say that this is somehow an anti-Janine post, but I’m guessing that one reason fandom hasn’t really talked about this before is that it’s not particularly flattering to Janine. We tend to be a bit protective about female characters in the show. In Series 3, however, every female character– Molly, Janine, Mary, even Mrs Hudson– repeatedly acted somewhat insensitively, and everyone except maybe Mrs Hudson was also manipulative and even emotionally abusive to various degrees. With Molly, I’m referring to the contentious yelling episode at the lab, and with Mrs Hudson, I’m mainly referring to the multiple times in TSoT where she mysteriously stomped over Sherlock’s apparent anxiety about John’s impending nuptials. Mary, on the other hand, exemplified every single aspect of this sort of insensitive, manipulative behavior throughout the Series, of course.

The other reason I haven’t seen anyone mention this interpretation before in the Johnlocker circles I travel in is probably because it treats Janine’s canonical heterosexual/heteroromantic feelings seriously. There’s not much I can say about that except that it’s my best judgment that they were indeed real.

“Mary Watson” isn’t good enough 

 (Sherlock Meta by Ivy Blossom)

The only thing I wanted out of Mary Morstan in Sherlock is that, if John is going to betray her or abandon her, which I think he arguably does in the original stories, (though it’s never framed that way, of course) that Mary return the favour with at least equal force.

What is clear already in His Last Vow is that John is not happy in his very new marriage. He’s having nightmares. His tremour has returned (but not yet the limp). He on the verge of bolting, keeping his things as close to packed as he can. He hasn’t seen Sherlock for a month, and a month is far too long, as far as John’s concerned.

In The Empty Hearse, Mary is delighted by John’s fixation on Sherlock. She teases him about it, encourages their relationship. She appeared to be completely unthreatened by it. By His Last Vow, John has worn through her last nerve. When we see Mary comforting her neighbour in her sitting room early in the morning, she is pretty much fed up with John’s whining, and I don’t blame her. They are both chafing inside that relationship. It’s a holding pattern for both of them.

Both of them find a release valve, and it’s the same one. Mary asks Sherlock to take John out and run him, which should appease John for a while and will give her the freedom to stop playing happy housewife. She needs to go take care of the business that has been plaguing her. As Sherlock notes, there must have been a part of her that had been missing that.

Mary and John both have the same problem at the opening of His Last Vow. They’re bored. And they’re bored for the same reason: they’re both trying to be ordinary.

When John asks Mary if “Mary Watson” is good enough for her, she says yes, but I think she’s wrong. It’s not good enough. It names and shapes one part of her persona, one that is arguably completely false. It shuts out the rest of her quite deliberately. John doesn’t even want to know about it. He doesn’t want to hear about it, and he doesn’t even want it named.

I think that’s a tragedy. I’ll be honest with you, I love the little peek into the rest of Mary’s character. She’s tremendous.

She’s cold-blooded, cruel, impatient, rude, conniving, ruthless, and manipulative. She’s at least as observant as the Holmeses. She’s smarter than John, and quite possibly smarter than Sherlock. When Wiggins poses as a beggar she dismisses him loudly and impatiently, but gives him money anyway, in spite of being in the middle of something quite important. She believes in social justice. She’s psychopath who voted lib dem. She’ll probably vote labour next time around. She bakes her own bread, can tell when Sherlock is fibbing, and can shoot a hole in a spinning coin. And killing (presumably) bad guys on a freelance basis is what she does for a living. She’s not ashamed of it. She’s proud of it. It’s not a stretch to say she probably enjoys it.

While her “Mary Watson” persona is demonstrably a lie, there is likely some truth to it (as there inevitably would be). I’m not sure what to think about her feelings about John (too complicated to judge at the moment, I’m afraid), but it’s clear that she likes Sherlock. While it wasn’t even close to enough to stop her from putting a bullet in his chest, I think they were genuinely friends. Unlike Sherlock, feelings don’t get in Mary’s way.

Is “Mary Watson” good enough? No. It can’t be. Neither she nor John can go back to their ordinary life as if none of this happened and be happy, which appears to be the plan. It didn’t work the first time, even before Mary shot Sherlock and her secrets spilled out. I can’t imagine a baby will make it any better.

When “Mary Watson” breaks apart and the real AGRA steps out, it will be spectacular.

Why they didn’t tell Amanda Abbington Mary’s whole story when they filmed His Last Vow

 (Sherlock Meta by Ivy Blossom)

I was really surprised to hear that they didn’t tell Amanda Abbington Mary’s whole story when they filmed this episode [His Last Vow]. Really, really surprised. For a few reasons: I didn’t realize they didn’t read all three scripts before they started shooting (hahahahahaha I should have known they’d still be working on the finer details up until the last second, no one’s ever as organized as they should be, are they), and also because the decision smacks of a lack of trust. If you wanted Mary as her disguise instead of Mary with her very dark side visible, couldn’t you just tell the actor that that’s what you want? Amanda Abbington knows what she’s doing. She’s smart, she’s competent. She’s an excellent actor. Why not trust her?

Just now [...], I think I get it. Keeping something like that from an actor, potentially alienating a cast member and presumably a friend in this way, they must have wanted something very particular from her. What did they want?

They wanted no suggestion whatsoever of what Mary would do, surely. Not even the slightest hint of a whisper of what she really is. They wanted the truth of her so buried that it doesn’t even exist here at all. They didn’t want to show Mary pretending to be what John thinks she is; they wanted her to be that Mary. They wanted her eyes clear and unconcerned. No doubts, no concerns, no faltering, no mistakes. Not a hair out of place, not a questionable stray glance.

That’s not something normal people can do, entirely subsume themselves, hide their goals and motivations out of every flicker and every movement. No one’s that perfect. It would have been a weird thing to ask for, if she’d known the truth. It would have seemed terribly fake. She would have wanted to play a woman hiding a terrible secret, naturally. Even just a little bit, when no one was watching. Because that’s what she is. But they didn’t want that, obviously.

Why not? Why would they want absolutely nothing of what Mary really is to be visible to the viewer, even in retrospect? There’s something intensely satisfying in seeing hints of the future in the past, once you know what happens. Why did they disallow us that pleasure?

What we got must be exactly what they wanted. This must be Mary in perfect, perfect control. Her eyes, her face, her emotions: she is perfectly in check. Every move she makes is a decision, and it’s always the right one. There is no darkness in her here, though she has plenty of that, as we later learn. She is not haunted, or conflicted, or distressed by her lies and manipulation. She is so perfectly not who she actually is that we have to question everything we see here. This is not Mary (or whatever her real name is). This is what she wants everyone to see and to believe.

She is the consummate actor, the perfect sleeper agent. Sherlock can’t see any of her secrets, except a hint that she might lie about a few little things (but who doesn’t?). She sets off no red flags. She is lovely and funny and adorable, she is forgiving and understanding, she is unthreatening and unthreatened. She is kind and gentle and intelligent. She befriends everyone, including the viewer, and including Sherlock, as impossible as that has always been for John’s girlfriends. But she manages it. She is the perfect manipulator, and no one can see it. She’s so good, it’s inconceivable. She can become whatever she wants completely and perfectly, and make everyone believe it.

Sherlock must wish he could be this good at pretending to be something he’s not. He’s pretty good at it, because most people genuinely believe he’s a sociopath. But he isn’t. Mary is.