Regarding Harry
(Sherlock Meta by thenorwoodbuilder)
Dear reader, I feel compelled to start by warning you that THE TRAPEZIST IS BACK! Because I’m going to write an entire post of ramblings about a character we have not even seen in the episodes (no, not Sebastian Moran – not yet, at least…).
That is, I’m going to address the subject of John Watson’s mysterious sibling: Harry.
(Dear fellow mycroftians, don’t worry: I’ll find a way to link my analysis of the Watson Siblings to the study of the Holmes Brothers. Just be patient an follow my delirium reasoning.)
Let’s start, as usual, with the Canon. In the original ACD’s stories, we’re made aware that Watson had an elder brother only after the death of said sibling. In The Sign of Four Watson receives a watch and shows it to Holmes, who deduces from it that it had been his elder brother’s and that “he was a man of untidy habits – very untidy and careless. He was left with good prospects, but he threw away his chances, lived for some time in poverty with occasional short intervals of prosperity, and finally, taking to drink, he died”.
Incidentally, the same scene is featured in the first episode of “Murder Rooms”, but with Arthur Conan Doyle himself in the place of Watson, and Dr. Joseph Bell as the one who deduced from the watch Doyle’s father’s problems. I don’t know if this adaptation has any grounding in reality, but it’s quite certain that Doyle depicted Watson’s brother with many traits that belonged to his own father (as I’ve already briefly mentioned): the good prospects (in his case, an artistic talent, a middle-class background and a good marriage) that went wasted; the alternating of prosperity and poverty; the drinking (which, for Charles Altamont Doyle, was added to mental problems). Anyway, Watson is hurt by Holmes’ statement, as he initially thinks that his friend made inquiries into the history of his brother (and please do notice that the “researching” thing will come back in The Reichenbach Fall, but reversed, with Sherlock telling John that he “researched him” and his family); Holmes replies with an apology for having unintentionally hurt his feelings and the assurance that he “never even knew that Watson had a brother until he handed him the watch”.
(On a side note, you may notice that this episode is set in 1888, that is, seven years after Holmes and Watson firstly got acquainted: this makes me always laugh a little at Watson’s display of surprise in discovering only after several years that Holmes, too, had an elder brother – which he imputes to Holmes’ very private nature. As if he had not been very private about his own brother…!)
From this little exchange we may deduce that, albeit not being indifferent or enemy to his brother (his emotional reaction shows sorrow for his “unhappy brother’s” end), Watson, for some reason, had chosen long before to not be in touch with him (otherwise, Holmes would have most probably known of his existence before). He is pained by his sad life and – presumably – even sadder death as an alcoholic. So we might reasonably presume that they were mainly his brother’s addiction, and the unpleasant repercussions it had upon his character and his way of life, that had driven Watson away from him.
And now let’s compare the canonical Harry (well, actually all we know is that his name begun with an H, but let’s assume the name is the same) to his modern counterpart, that is John’s sister, Harriet (Harry) Watson. We don’t know, in this case, whether she is the elder or the younger of the two Watson siblings. I’d bet on her being the elder, anyway, mainly for two reasons: 1) because there was no narrative need, presumably, to change this detail; 2) because, as John is stubborn, and capable of handling even difficult customers (such as Sherlock, for instance…), if HE were the elder, he would probably have tried to impose himself upon his sister in a way or another, in order to make her quit drinking (such as Mycroft probably did with Sherlock and his dangerous “experiments” with drugs), while, being the younger, he had neither the authority, nor, presumably, the confidence to push her too hard. Anyway, we know she is an alcoholic, as her canonical counterpart, and that her addiction is affecting her life, as she got a divorce probably also because of her drinking habit (it’s not so uncommon that it is the party “at fault” to leave the other, as the sense of guilt and shame quite easily turns into rage and resentment). Here, however, the similarities end.
Because our John, unlike the canonical Watson, keeps in touch with his sister: he calls her quite regularly, he exchanges comments with her on his blog, he would even have spent (or maybe did spend at least part of) Christmas Day with her, if not for Sherlock’s reaction to Irene’s death. So our modern John looks more close to his troublesome sibling, despite their “not getting along”, than his canonical counterpart. Just in the same way as Mycroft is a much more present and significant figure in Sherlock’s life than his canonical counterpart even was for Sherlock Holmes. So, the first conclusion we may draw is that the Mofftiss are very interested in their characters’ human interactions, and particularly in family relationships – which is one of the features of the show that I like the most.
But what is more interesting to me is how John’s “complicate relationship” with his own sister affects his relationship with both Sherlock and Mycroft – that is, the parallels and the influences between the “complicate relationship” of the Watson Siblings and the “complicate relationship” of the Holmes Brothers.
I’ll start with Sherlock’s attitude towards John’s relationship with Harry. We know that the scene of the “mobile phone deduction” in A Study in Pink ingeniously follows the pattern of the “watch deduction scene” in The Sign of the Four. But this is exactly what makes the differences more interesting. Obviously I’m not thinking about the different details which were required in order to adapt the chain of deductions to a different object in a different context; what is really interesting is what Sherlock says, that Holmes didn’t. That is: in the Canon, Holmes didn’t utter any deduction, supposition or comment about Watson’s relationship with his brother; in A Study in Pink, Sherlock, instead, extends his reasoning to John’s relationship with Harry, and quite interestingly his first hypothesis is that John has a sibling (of course we knows that here he makes a mistake and says “brother”) whom he “doesn’t approve of, possibly because (s)he is an alcoholic, more likely because (s)he recently walked out on his wife”; and again, in the cab, he remarks that it’s evident that John has problems with his sibling, maybe because he liked her wife, maybe because he doesn’t like her drinking. So our modern Sherlock provides much more personal remarks than his canonical counterpart – maybe just because he is less polite than a Victorian gentleman, but maybe (also) because the writers decided to draft him as more interested in human relationships and, most of all, having decided to give a lot more space to his relationship with HIS own brother, they wanted to show us that Sherlock is immediately interested in what he perceives as another “complicate siblings relationship”, with which he can to some extent identify.
The other interesting feature is, of course, that John’s and Harry’s positions are exactly mirroring Mycroft’s and Sherlock’s ones. John, albeit the younger sibling, is the one who is constantly worried for Harry, because of her dangerous lifestyle, that he would like to persuade her to abandon, and who is both pushed away by her addiction and driven to her by his affection; Harry, in this case the elder sibling, is the one who refuses his brother’s advice and keeps recklessly hurting herself with her drinking habit. While, between the Holmes Brothers, the elder, Mycroft, is the one who is constantly concerned about his brother’s recklessness (which ranges from the risk of a relapse into drugs, to the risk of Sherlock killing himself while pursuing excitement and adrenaline through his work as consulting detective), and who takes upon himself the responsibility of watching over him, being at the same time pushed away by Sherlock’s resentment (and maybe by the painful memories of his past problems with drugs), and bound to him by his affection; Sherlock, the younger, is the one who had (but the risk of a relapse is always present) problems with substances, who keeps having a dangerous lifestyle, because of his work, and who systematically refuses to listen to his brother – at least in his face.
But even more interesting, Sherlock seems to transfer on Harry the distrust (and maybe the dislike) that he perhaps feels towards himself as an ex-addict, and that he almost certainly supposes Mycroft feels toward him for the same reason. Consider, to this effect, also the exchange between Sherlock and John at the Christmas party, in A Scandal in Belgravia: John says that, for the first time in her life, she has made an effort and stopped drinking, she is clean; to this, Sherlock replies just “nope” – and John shuts him up. Here we see that John, albeit being a doctor and knowing that an alcoholic needs much more than good intentions to quit drinking, and that many relapses are probable before a true and firm decision to stop is taken (there is also this subtext, I think, in his “shut up!” to Sherlock), has decided to show trust to his sister, by accepting to spend Christmas Day with her, presumably in order to encourage her in her fight against her addiction. Sherlock, on the contrary, stresses how unlikely it is that Harry will keep faith to her word and really keep sober at least for a while. This sharp remark, according to me, is not only imputable to Sherlock’s annoyance at John’s decision to spend Christmas Day away (and therefore to be forced to spend Christmas Day alone: sentiment!) – which IS, of course, a component, as Molly quite awkwardly points out. It’s also a statement that comes out of experience: both the general rules of experience that tell us how an alcoholic generally behaves, AND – more significantly – HIS OWN experience with drugs. Sherlock knows that the craving for artificial stimulus is always present in him, whenever a “difficult” time happens, and he probably imputes his ability to resist it and stay clean to his own exceptional qualities (which is partly true and partly an umpteenth demonstration of his lack of modesty and his dangerous overconfidence…), qualities which he doesn’t admit in “ordinary people” in general and Harry in particular: hence his inference that she won’t be able to stay clean and will end up hurting his brother again by relapsing into drinking.
Another thing is maybe worth noticing here: Sherlock allows John to play a “big brother” role with him, much more than he allows it – al least apparently – to his own elder brother (to whom, anyway, then turns when things become really difficult for him, while quite literally shutting his door in John’s face in A Scandal in Belgravia). That is, Sherlock allows John to be much closer than Mycroft; he listens to him, at least to some extent, and he accepts from John advices, admonitions and reproaches that one would expect coming from an elder brother, while he generally answers to any remark coming from Mycroft with a bellicose attitude; he looks more openly for John’s approval than for Mycroft’s (which, however, deep down is quite important to him, I believe: just see his reaction – the look in his eyes – at Mycroft’s reproach on the “plane of the deads”, in A Scandal in Belgravia). It is as if he could accept from John observations and reprimands that he is not able to accept when coming from Mycroft because either of his pride, or of the “too much history between them”, or of both, while in John he recognizes as much resemblances to his own elder brother – his caring attitude, his desire to watch over him, his disposition towards tutoring him in human relationships – as to invest him with a sort of vicarious “big brother” role, without the “handicap” of a shared past.
At the same time, John, too, seems to transfer on Sherlock, at least to some extent, that caring and protective, but also authoritative, attitude he is not able to fully display with his own sister. Maybe it’s also because, between Sherlock and him, he is the elder, but I’d assume that, even in this case, their “fraternal” relationship is mostly eased by the fact that they don’t have to be constantly confronted with a shared past (and this includes also the fact that, when John firstly met Sherlock, he had already mostly overcome his problems with drugs, and therefore John had not to watch him hurt himself as Mycroft did, and as he himself had to with his own sister and her drinking habit). Besides, John could also possibly see in Sherlock both a hope that Harry, too, might one day be able to quit her addiction, and a way to make amends for not being able to help his sister more, by helping at least Sherlock to remain clean.
Probably for the same reasons, John empathizes to some degree with Mycroft (or at least this is my impression), and this is the main reason he finally agrees to help him watching over Sherlock. Because it’s quite evident, from his conversation with Mycroft at Christmas, as well as from his attitude towards (what he believed to be) Mycroft’s summon, in A Scandal in Belgravia, that they have been having an agreement for some time, and that this agreement concerns the best way to look after Sherlock’s wellbeing. The information John so sternly refused to give to Mycroft for money in A Study in Pink, he now is quite eager to share with him (even a little TOO eager, as I’ve observed before…), and this is because he now knows that Mycroft’s concern is real, and it’s mostly similar to the concern he feels towards his own sister. So, even if maybe he doesn’t fully trust Mycroft, he trusts him about caring for Sherlock. This is also the reason, according to me, why John then, in The Reichenbach Fall, looks so hurt by Mycroft’s (alleged) “betrayal” of Sherlock: he’s not only worried about the negative repercussions on Sherlock of Mycroft’s (alleged) leakage to Moriarty, neither he is offended by it just on Sherlock’s behalf; he feels also PERSONALLY betrayed, because he had believed till now (quite rightly, according to me) that Mycroft would have always kept faith to their agreement, would have always done his part in protecting Sherlock. (On a side note, I also suppose that Mycroft perfectly understands this, and this is another reason why I believe that his final apology, even if addressed to Sherlock, was actually meant mainly for John himself).
And so finally we come to Mycroft’s perspective. He, too, according to me, recognizes in John a person with similar experiences and a similar attitude towards his own sibling as the ones he has in relation to Sherlock, and this is the reason why he relies so much on John when it comes to protect Sherlock from external dangers but also, and even more, from himself. Since A Study in Pink, after having “tested” him and, even more, after John saved Sherlock’s life by killing the cabbie, Mycroft knows that John is a trustworthy person; but, given his proclivity, too, towards risk and adrenaline, he is still in doubt about the fact that his influence on Sherlock will be really good (“this soldier fellow… could be the making of my brother, or make him worst than ever”). Even in The Great Game we may assume, by Mycroft’s attitude towards John as soon as he enters the flat, in the morning after the explosion, that he has not yet decided if the good doctor will be a valuable asset in handling his troublesome little brother; but I’d assume that, by the end of the episode, he made his mind up about it, and that their full cooperation started soon after the incident at the pool. And I also think that this cooperation, this agreement, is something more than Mycroft just USING Watson to watch over Sherlock; of course Mycroft is a master at manipulating people, and Watson is no exception, but my opinion his that, beneath this, Mycroft also feels a genuine affinity with John – an affinity that John, too, as I’ve said, recognizes and values.
Even more, I’m under the impression that, as for John his friendship with Sherlock and the role of his protector and caregiver he took upon himself are also a way to deal with various unresolved issues with his own sister, and to be, at least vicariously, closer to her, for Mycroft, too (and maybe even more for him), John is also a sort of projection of himself next to his little brother. Mycroft knows that, for various reasons we may only suppose, but which are linked to their shared background, Sherlock wouldn’t accept any attempt on his part to get closer, to be more actively present in Sherlock’s life; maybe, he himself is scared of getting closer to his brother, either because of the dysfunctional relation to emotions and sentiments the brothers developed because of the education they received and the kind of family they grow up in, or because of the unpleasant, painful memories linked to Sherlock’s problems with drugs, or for both these reasons and many more. Anyway, he is only human, and it’s quite evident that he deeply cares for his brother, and that he is linked to Sherlock by a very strong bound of affection, so – being him willing to admit it or not (and I’m for the “not”) – he probably suffers, at least unconsciously, for the rift that keeps them back one from the other. Thus, being able to watch over Sherlock by means of John, who shares everyday life with him, and getting information on Sherlock’s wellbeing directly from his best friend, is – according to me – also a comforting way, for Mycroft, to feel more close to his brother, to share more of his life, without being too directly intrusive and, most of all, without the risk of rejection which is a constant in their face to face interactions. And I wouldn’t exclude that Sherlock, too, might tolerate John’s regular interactions with Mycroft (which he is quite certainly aware of) mostly for the same reasons. After all, deviousness seems quite an holmesian personality trait…
Finally, a question for you all: do you think we’ll ever see Harry in the flesh? (I bet on “no”) Would you like to see her? (Me yes, greatly!) How do you think she will interact with John and Sherlock (and maybe with Mycroft)?
