How John reacted to the ILY Scene

 (Sherlock meta by celticmoonbeam and waytoomanyhobbies)

celticmoonbeam:

Today I’m wondering about how John reacted to the ILY scene… Who has head canons about that that they’d like to share? Last night I had fun talking through the ILY scene with a friend who interprets it totally differently. She thinks Sherlock just loves Molly platonically, and I see him loving her romantically. (And we are still friends and we enjoy talking about it and seeing the other person’s POV! As fandom stuff should go.) While I was explaining my perspective, I was surprised how much I was describing things that happened in past episodes, rather than clues about his feelings in that particular scene.

My friend was surprised too. She loves Molly Hooper, but she got it firmly in her head in season 1 that Sherlock would never be interested in Molly, and so the little Sherlolly-esque details I fixated on slipped past her completely. She viewed all their scenes in light of Sherlock having no interest in Molly. (Again, total valid reading–this post isn’t to say that she’s wrong and I am right!).

Anyway… I found myself reshaping my headcanons about John’s reaction to the ILY scene. Now I’m wondering if he would respond a lot like my friend, automatically assuming that Sherlock isn’t interested and he said “I love you” just to save her life. After all, John wasn’t around for the vast majority of their scenes together. I don’t know that he ever picked up on Sherlock’s feelings. In TLD, he calls Molly the last person Sherlock would ever think of. So what exactly does he think is going on with the phone call? And how long does it take him to realize what’s really going on with Sherlock and Molly? After all the craziness of Eurus, I doubt that would be the first thing on his mind…

waytoomanyhobbies:

When the test first ended, John and Mycroft were ready to crack on like soldiers. Realizing that Sherlock wasn’t right behind them raises alarm bells. John turns back to find his best friend ritualistically placing the lid on the coffin, staring at the “I love you”, caressing the wood, and then repeating the word “no” before destroying Molly’s coffin with his bare hands. John is visibly struck by it.

John would have seen the entirety of Sherlock’s violent outburst until Sherlock finally spent all that emotion and slumped against the wall. He saw even more than we did of Sherlock screaming and breaking everything he could until he was exhausted. John has seen Sherlock remain calm in the face of innocents murdered before. Sherlock didn’t even have a outburst like this after identifying the supposed body of Irene, despite all Sherlock’s later melancholy. The incident would have to have raised some questions, especially thinking back to Eurus’s taunts.

John has been questioning Sherlock for years about his love life and hoping for Sherlock to find a relationship. John hadn’t picked up on it before then, but John has a history of wanting Sherlock to find romance, which could lead him to wanting to meddle. When John thought Sherlock may have found a woman in the two previous instances (Irene and Janine) John was pleased and very curious. He was very recently trying again to get Sherlock to find a woman who makes him the man he wants to be. John is quite invested in helping Sherlock find that romantic entanglement that he feels would do Sherlock good.

Not to mention that John has still only recently lost Mary, so how much of Sherlock’s outburst might have struck John as familiar from what he, himself, has recently gone through? It would be very odd for him to not start thinking back and reexamining what he’d seen between them.

It’s an interesting talking point. From my point of view, if John doesn’t know he should at least suspect. He’d be raising that subject soon enough if Sherlock didn’t take initiative with Molly first. John tried to play matchmaker for Sherlock only weeks before this, and he would probably be watching them like a hawk after this.

About how Sherlock treats Molly 

 (Sherlock meta by cassbel5)

I wanted to have a look at the trope of Sherlock treating Molly badly, as I think it is one of the most unfounded yet resilient tropes in fandom and among other viewers. It is often stated or implied that he is unkind to her, manipulates her, uses her, is mean to her, thinks she is weak etc, The persistence of this trope is surprising to me because after the Christmas party scene and his astonishing apology, my deep impression was that their dynamic changes and he actually comes to treat her perhaps even with more care than he treats most people. So I wanted to take a look, once and for all, scene by scene, and investigate this impression. This is a very long post as I have listed all their scenes together by episode (after the Christmas ASiB scene), as well as references to their relationship. Also, I couldn’t help the occasional ironic comment, so forgive me for that.

So, here we go.

*

A Scandal in Belgravia 

Mortuary scene (after the party). He gently tells her that she didn’t have to come in. Irene Adler is presumably lying dead on a slab before him, so he must have been experiencing considerable emotional upheaval, even if he wasn’t showing it. And yet, he takes the time and energy to say something kind to Molly, with a look of tenderness and compassion.

Lab scene. “We all do silly things”. He’s obsessing over Irene’s phone. He thinks she was killed and has left him with a puzzle. He’s not paying Molly much attention, because he is completely focused on the phone. He talks to her the way he usually talks to people when he’s focused on his work. It’s because Molly is so lovely here that we might think “Oh why doesn’t he see, the dickhead!? I agree. But context is relevant.

The Reichenbach Fall 

“You’re having lunch with me” scene. He is in a great mood and enthusiastically tells her to cancel her lunch date, jokingly (?) offering to compensate with lunch with him in the form of microscope work and crisps. OK, he’s trying to find two kidnapped kids AND Moriarty. He’s thrilled and in full “the game is on mode” and it wouldn’t surprise me if he actually thinks it must be thrilling for her too. He also amicably teases her about her ex-boyfriend criminal mastermind.

Lab scene. This is one of my all-time favourite scenes, so I am biased. But let’s see. Yes, Sherlock calls her John at one point early on. But we shouldn’t forget that while he is deep in his thoughts on a case, Sherlock, for example, habitually doesn’t notice John’s absence for days. This, however, doesn’t make us question his love and respect for John. When Sherlock calls Molly John he is in his working mode, oblivious to humans around him except as much as they pertain to the task at hand, as he sometimes is with everyone, including John. The focus of TRF is also the growing and strengthening bond between Sherlock and John, and Sherlock’s heart-breaking plan to save his friends that involves keeping John in the dark. That is why we see him watching John come into the lab but John not watching him, just unknowingly going about his business.

His curt remarks to Molly later in the conversation, after her “You’re a bit like my dad”, also have to be seen in context. He is troubled, the Reichenbach drama has already started to unfold for him and he is very much in his task-oriented “alone protects me” mode. And Molly here is crossing a very firm boundary. Now, I LOVE that she did that, this was actually the moment she definitely captured my heart. But Sherlock warning her to stop and saying that “making conversation” is really not her area, in THIS situation, doesn’t qualify as “treating her badly”. She is the strong one here, she is stepping into his walled off space, gently but with great determination, she is lovingly uncovering something, a secret he is willing to guard with his life – his own vulnerability and human frailty, his heart. She knows this, but she proceeds nevertheless. He is on the defensive and his initial curt responses are part of the toolkit he normally uses to guard this space and protect himself. It was, of course, a feeble attempt and he gives in, which brings us to.the

“You do count” scene or “Man comes to woman and reveals his utter vulnerability, as he has never revealed it to anyone before. Tells her that she has always counted to him and that he has always trusted her (and this guy’s got SERIOUS trust issues). Tells her that she was in fact right about his emotional state and that he needs her.” Right.

The Empty Hearse 

Locker room scene. Although he’s clearly got a kinky thing about hiding in her place of work to scare her a bit (I think he just loves hearing her gasp), it’s hard to see anything that is not lovely about this scene. He goes to her straight after seeing John, positions himself so that she would see him in her mirror (ah, his flair for drama) and his little smile as their eyes meet is just magic.

Baker St. “Molly, would you like to…”? A lot has been said about this scene so I’ll keep it bare and simple: Man, somewhat nervously, asks woman to go out and do fun stuff together.

Crime solving in Baker St. All the cases have to do with couples and love. I won’t go into why he has made this particular choice of clients, because that is an interesting topic in itself, but it is clearly NOT evidence of treating her badly, rather the opposite. He has made some kind of special effort for her – these are NOT the kinds of cases he normally takes.

Crime solving – dungeon scene.

Things we find out in this scene:

1. Sherlock misses John very much. He is used to adventuring and solving crimes with John, this is probably his most favourite thing in the world. (And how poignant this is now that we know about Victor). He has come back after two very tough and lonely years and John completely cuts him off. It must be devastating. He misses him so much that he hears John’s voice in his head and at one point says “indeed John” in reply to Molly. Again, like in TRF - he is in work mode, the game is on etc. and John should be there with him in reality, but he is not, so Sherlock’s mind conjures him to make it a bit easier. It reinforces the fact that in this world of adventures, it is John and Sherlock who are a natural unit, one that Sherlock really needs. It does not mean that he does not see Molly, appreciate her or that he treats her badly. He just really misses his friend. 
2. Molly is very smart and capable. To the extent that Sherlock’s mind (as John) suggests that Sherlock is jealous. Quite amazingly, he still lets her encroach on his territory and deduce the skeleton. Once again, quite an effort to please her and behave nicely. 
3. Sherlock’s “Welcome to my world!” or ”You see Molly, this is further evidence of just how amazing I am.” 
4. Sherlock and Molly finish each other’s sentences. 

Things we do NOT find out in this scene:

1. Sherlock manipulates, uses and treats Molly badly. 

Shilcott’s flat. Well, this is just embarrassing. With all the flirting going on in this scene and that smug little smile of his, I don’t need to get into how he VERY MUCH doesn’t treat her badly. Also, she makes him apologise with a look.

Hallway scene. Ok, should we just skip this? Or should we put it briefly: Man invites woman for a meal after spending the day with her. He is clearly enjoying himself and wants to continue (again, that smug little “I am so funny, I will make her laugh again” smirk as he’s going down the stairs is priceless). Woman goes: “Ah, dude, sorry, I can’t, I’m engaged”, to which he stops and says in almost a whisper: “I hope you’ll be very happy, you deserve it” and after the SADDEST. FUCKING. LOOK., plants a gentle kiss nanometres away from her mouth. Yeah, terrible treatment. Oh wait, he actually is treating her badly because he just fucked up her engagement, right there.

Party at Baker St. He gives her a lovely smile and doesn’t say a word to or about Tom although he is evidently dismayed at Tom’s resemblance to him.

The Sign of Three 

Lab scene. He comes to ask her for help. She is clearly taking the piss throughout the scene, he is completely on the back foot. She finishes his sentence again.

Wedding – deductions. He is unusually restrained with Tom after his astounding meat dagger deduction. Sherlock is irritated beyond belief but he refrains from any scathing comments, unlike with Lestrade moments ago. He is making a big effort not to smash Molly’s fiancé and embarrass her.

His Last Vow 

Lab scene. Molly slaps Sherlock hard three times and scolds him. He just stands there and lets her hit him. Finally, he attempts to deflect by bringing up the end of her engagement. It’s quite an interesting choice of topic in that moment, but the point is she has just hit him three times and scolded him in front of three other people. And this remark is all he does.

Mind palace or “I have only three seconds left of consciousness so I’ll imagine this woman being there for me, standing between me and death and telling me how to survive; I will imagine her referring to “US” and to what “WE” have to do in order for me to survive and then I will make a decision that will determine whether I live or die based on the words I imagine her saying to me because… well, that’s just what you do with people you treat badly because they are weak and mean nothing to you.”

References to their relationship. Molly tells us, and only us, that he uses her flat as a bolt hole - a fact Sherlock keeps VERY secret, as nobody, not even Mycroft, knows about this. We also find out that he likes to sleep in her bed. And that she lets him. Now, ok, you could argue that technically this qualifies as “bad”, but it’s just such a weird thing. We aren’t told that he, for instance, makes a mess of her beautiful kitchen or scratches her coffee table or watches loud TV or some other erotically uncharged but discourteous or disrespectful thing. No. We learn that HE LIKES TO SLEEP IN HER BED. AND SHE LETS HIM. With the new information on what the original script said about Tom moving OUT because they agreed he needed the space while Sherlock moves INTO HER BED because they agreed he needed the space, this just tells me that those two had some kind of weird unspoken slightly twisted kinky thing going. Bad? Yeah, ok.

The Six Thatchers 

Christening scene. He is definitely treating someone badly in this scene - his two best friends John and Mary and their daughter Rosie, as he is on the phone while Rosie is being christened. Molly whispers “Phone!” and he immediately puts it away (well, at least out of sight). He does not respond to the priest until Molly nudges him. (We could also infer that he never deletes Molly’s texts as it’s news to her that he does so at all, to John for instance). If anything, this scene, the way they are positioned, their interaction, the way she teases him about PEOPLE THINKING (with the implication that she knows better) he’s incapable of human emotion, the fact that they were talking and had to be silenced by Mrs Hudson like a couple of kids, the way she nudges him – all of this shows us that there is an intimacy between them that we may just wonder about a bit.

At the door with Rosie. Her heart is breaking for him but she can’t do anything. He is very hurt by the message she gives him, but he accepts it gracefully.

The Lying Detective 

Therapist’s house and ambulance scene. This is kind of an extended version of the HLV scene with her scolding him and him trying to deflect, but there is also something more going on here and it’s kind of weird. I’m convinced they cut something out from this scene and/or episode that would shed some more light on their interaction here but we’ll never know, so… Does asking her to come with an ambulance qualify as treating her badly/using her? Perhaps. But he does worse things to John, Lestrade, Mycroft and Mrs Hudson when he needs something for a case. I think the ambulance thing just feeds on the memory of how years and years ago he used her to get access in the mortuary and similar stuff. But the situation has changed, they are both different and they have a completely different relationship now. So if she helps him and does things for him (like Lestrade does, for instance) it does not necessarily mean he is using /manipulating her. And let’s not forget, they ALL indulge him at least a bit because he’s, well, Sherlock Holmes.

OK, the “tell me when to cough” thing was crass, but, Sherlock is very very high and a bit out of control, so…. OK. Bad.

Then there is their interaction outside the ambulance. He is being flippant, yes, but that whole interaction sounds more like a couple bickering than him being mean to her. Look at her facial expression of “Oh, you are so not fooling me with your crap” and his facial expressions seem to me like “I am going to give you my best crap…but shit, it’s not really working is it, but can’t blame me for trying’”. And that very very mysterious look he gives her as he leaves (yes, it’s for her, the camera cuts to HER face for a response) could, I suppose, qualify, as treating her badly because if it were me I would die right there.

References to their relationship in TLD:

1. John singles Molly out as the one person who sees through Sherlock’s bullshit. Sherlock’s tone and expression as he says “Who’s that then, I’m sure I would’ve noticed”, reveals that he is unsettled by the fact that there is actually someone who fits that description. And he knows it’s true. 
2. John also believes, much like the audience who hang onto the “Sherlock treats her badly” trope, that she is the last person Sherlock would think of in this regard. It turns out he was wrong, of course. 
3. Molly and John are the only ones Sherlock celebrates his birthday with. In every festive occasion on the show so far, the rest of the gang (Lestrade, Mrs Hudson and Mary while she was alive) were there as well and now they are clearly not. It makes sense – Sherlock is still in a very vulnerable state, he is trying to stay clean and has been through a crushing, life-threatening and heart-breaking ordeal so it makes sense that he will celebrate his birthday with only his very closest friend who he has finally just made amends with and…and with…oh, yeah…with the woman he treats really badly because he doesn’t really care. 

The Final Problem 

“I love you” scene. Ah, let’s just not go there.

*

I have tried to think of all their scenes together and scenes that deal with or mention their relationship. If I have forgotten anything it wasn’t intentional. But the point is, after the Christmas scene in ASiB, which truly was awful before his apology, you could say that the worst he does specifically to her is: call her John on two occasions when he is working and/or absent-minded and misses John; suggest she cancel a lunch date in order to help him find 2 kidnapped children; defend himself against her anger with silly flippant comebacks; ask her help with the ambulance car. Oh, yes, and sleep in her bed. (And make lewd remarks when he is high and out of control.) On the other hand, he shares his secrets with her, he lets her see his vulnerability, is compassionate and kind after hurting her, trusts her with his life more than once, seeks out her company, tries to impress her and make her laugh, tells her how much she means to him, thanks her for everything she did for him, immediately obeys instructions she gives him with her eyes or a single word, invites her for chips and eats cake with her unshaven and with a blood-clotted eye. And the hat.

(And probably quite a bit more that we don’t see if we are to judge by the intimacy we see between them.)

As the list above shows, the vast majority of their scenes together are really rather lovely. And the way BC plays it, Sherlock is always just a touch softer, just a touch more vulnerable in his scenes alone with Molly. I would really love it if people could just think back on their actual scenes together before they bring up the “he treats her badly” thing, which more or less ended half way through the fourth of thirteen episodes.

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.

[...]

Sherlolly in The Sign of Three

 (Sherlock meta by ladylillianrose)

Okay let’s discuss the various Sherlolly things in The Sign of Three shall we? [...]

Firstly, Archie. Yes, yes I know not technically Sherlolly, but come on. You can’t tell me he’s similar to what a child of Molly and Sherlock would be like. Stubborn, curly haired, interested in murder, totally could be their child. And he causes Sherlock to sort of look at children differently, his little “hmm” when Archie comments on the maggots in the eyes being cool. Almost as though he’s thinking, you know kids aren’t that terrible when they’re not screaming or misbehaving. AND he technically solved the murder!

Then there’s the weird photograph moment with Tom and Molly. Molly is clearly attempting to give him a proper kiss, he is her fiance and they are at a wedding. But Tom seems reluctant and more focused on the photographer taking their picture. Wedding photographers (even the murderous ones) like to take a variety of photos, so an engaged couple who are friends with the bride and groom, kissing would be a sweet photograph. It just bothers me that Tom seems to almost be pushing her away.

And then of course there’s Sherlock in the background keeping an eye on his pathologist. Thought we didn’t see you there did you?

The Speech/Telegrams. Molly seems to be the only one genuinely concerned about Sherlock having to give the speech to a roomful of people. She knows that it’s completely different from when he deduces people, deals with the press, etc. This speech requires sentiment and emotions, which while he’s gotten better about them over the years, are still not terribly easy for him to express. And certainly not to a large group of people about his best friend. Both Lestrade and Mrs. Hudson believe he’ll be fine because they’re assuming it will be just like when he’s explaining about a case. He’ll ramble on, but have no issue delivering it to a room full of people because he’s a show off. But this is far more personal, and Molly understands that. Which is of course why she’s so concerned. And of course the telegrams will be full of sentimental messages, which she knows he’ll have trouble dealing with the wording of them (full of sentiment and nicknames, etc.).

And on the subject of her phoning Mrs. Hudson, she’s calling from work, her goggles specked with blood, in the middle of something (she still has one glove on and a tool in her hand) to discuss Sherlock and his role in the wedding. And then we of course see John talking to Sherlock about his role in the wedding, and what’s Sherlock doing? Experimenting with a blowtorch and a human eyeball. Please try and tell me they aren’t beyond fucking perfect for each other.

Then there’s the looks she keeps giving him throughout his speech. She’s smiling, biting her lips and fiddling with her engagement ring, all while looking at Sherlock and sitting a decent distance from Tom. She’s sitting closer to Lestrade than she is to Tom, which is incredibly unusual to be doing at a wedding when sitting with one’s significant other (unless you’ve had an argument or something, and this position is prior to Tom being a complete and utter idiot!).

Her face when he asks Lestrade about the murder, is priceless. She’s just trying to keep from laughing out loud because she knows Sherlock is teasing him and that Lestrade has given a ridiculous answer. And then Tom opens his mouth. The look on Sherlock’s face is one of polite behavior, almost as though he’s telling himself internally, “Be nice for Molly’s sake.” The minute he says anything Molly looks like she’s about to kill him. Firstly if Lestrade couldn’t come up with a decent answer she knows Tom’s answer is just going to be worse. And then he stands up awkwardly, so of course everyone sees and hears him, and gives his “meat dagger” theory. Which again has Sherlock refraining from making any comment apart from repeating “meat dagger” in a questioning tone and no. And poor Molly looks like if he weren’t standing she’d be giving him a swift kick to the leg. Her “sit down!” is totally in the tone of, “you’ve completely embarrassed yourself and me, so shut up and sit down.” Because we all know she’s an intelligent woman, so one would hope that she would find an equally intelligent significant other, which Tom is clearly not.

Then he goes to see her about the stag night. She thinks the murder scenes theme is odd, but then when she see’s what he means with the personal touch, she genuinely says “delightful.” She speaks/understands Sherlockease, so she gets that it’s meant to be a sentimental gesture. Hell if it weren’t a stag night Molly would probably be up for a pub crawl along the same theme. His coming to her about the “practical experience” is of course rubbish. She points out that he’s a graduate chemist, and we know he’s had a history with drugs (so of course he knows how substances and body chemistry work), so there’s no reason for him to come to a Pathologist for this data. And then when he fumbles about with Molly’s teasing (which I love that she’s able to do that with him) and then realizes that she’s teasing him he gets flustered. “You look….well,” was of course not what he was going to say. In the past he’d have complimented her in order to get his way, but he won’t do that to her anymore because she counts. And then there’s him actually making an effort to remember Tom’s correct name!!!! The man can’t remember Lestrade’s first name, and though it takes him a minute he remembers Molly’s fiance’s name because it’s Molly and it’s important to her. The not a sociopath comment is of course great, and I think people are misconstruing Molly’s comment of, “and we’re having quite a lot of sex.” It perplexes Sherlock, but it’s a connecting thought to the "not a sociopath", because Jim was a GAY sociopath. So she’s merely running with that theme. It’s just my theory, to be fair, but that was my first thought, Tom’s still not a sociopath, and she’s established that he’s heterosexual.

Then there’s when Sherlock realizes the Mayfly man is there. He says he’s come up with ways to kill friends and colleagues, and while he doesn’t mention Mrs. Hudson (because she’s like a second mom to him) he also doesn’t mention Molly either. Probably because he knows from first hand experience how Molly is capable of helping him fake his suicide so hiding a body or making a murder look like an accident would be simple for her. I see it as a compliment to her abilities and how highly he esteems them.

And Tom of course has to go and open his big mouth again, assuming Sherlock’s drunk. But apart from John, Mary (whom John told), and Lestrade (who had to be told by text), Molly is the only other one who gets that something related to the murderer is happening. Which of course is why she stabs Tom with her dessert fork, not even looking at him in regret (she doesn’t take her eyes off of Sherlock).

And finally there’s the reception. Molly doesn’t take her eyes from him the entire time he’s playing his violin, she’s in a spot close to the stage specifically for the best view of course. Then after he finishes his piece he tosses his boutonniere to Jeannine with Molly standing right next to her. She pulls a face, not the face of a woman who has a wonderful fiance (who she is standing far away from).

When Sherlock leaves, looking sad, as we’ve all of course pointed out the comparisons. Molly is of course the only one who sees. And you can see her struggling with whether or not to follow him outside (and oh how I wish she had!) but I think she reminds herself that she’s engaged, and continues dancing with Tom, almost sort of settling. She’d rather run after Sherlock and throw her arms around him, but she’s a good person and doesn’t want to hurt Tom and has decided to settle for less than what she deserves (not saying she doesn’t deserve to be happy, but come on we all know she is obviously not happy with Tom).

[...]

Sherlock and The Social Dots

 (Sherlock meta by bassfanimation)

I keep seeing people continue to fight over Sherlock and the meaning of Eurus’ tests so I wanted to write a little thing on it. I’m doing this with a wrist brace on and heinous fibro-turd pain, so forgive any misspellings.

The way I have personally absorbed Sherlock and the meaning of Eurus’s tests is that it’s about Sherlock as an empty person. He is an incomplete picture until he begins connecting the dots that are his social connections and even more importantly, his emotions. Let’s look at his relationships one by one and I’ll explain.

Dot 1: Greg Lestrade 

Lestrade represents respect for authority. In fact, he is the only real authority figure in the series. He’s Sherlock’s ‘boss’ in a way. Bosses need people they employ to be reliable, respectful, and trustworthy. Sherlock treating his boss/mentor like crap, making fun of his intelligence and skirting around him at every chance he gets is terribly disrespectful. Sherlock is childish and arrogant and disregards Lestrade in most cases, even refusing to acknowledge his name. We’ve all had those bosses when we were young that we didn’t respect, so we act like spoiled brats about it even though those people probably have way more experience than we do. They have earned their position via the rout of hard work and being reliable and respectful. By the end of the series, however, Sherlock shows us he has resolved the issue of his respect for Lestrade by politely asking him, by name, a first for the entire series, to please take care of his brother. Sherlock is no longer a bratty child and he has connected the social dot of respect.

Dot 2: John Watson 

John represents friendship, pure and simple. John is literally the “replacement” for Victor, Sherlock’s best friend who was killed when he was very, very little. That left Sherlock as the empty shell that we see at the start of the series. The loss of his friend at such a young age meant that he essentially shut down the part of him that he felt could even have friends. He rejected the idea of personal connections with other people entirely, so that he wouldn’t suffer loss again. John, through all their trials and tragedies, has now healed that wound for Sherlock. Even more, John as Sherlock’s friend, has helped him connect all the other dots. He walked with him step by step to do it. Without John’s companionship, Sherlock would still be empty. John’s maturity helped Sherlock grow up and be the man he was supposed to be, had he not suffered such a terribly traumatic event in his youth.

One other thing John represents is family, brotherhood to be specific. Mycroft was very cold to Sherlock in their youth, even though it’s obvious it wasn’t always that way. In the family videos we are shown, Sherlock absolutely loves his brother. It isn’t until later, after Victor, that he feels so alone. It’s obvious Sherlock loved Victor just like a brother, like the brother he really needed but was taken from him. Sherlock says John is “family” in The Final Problem, and he means it. It also shows just how much emotion Sherlock has. His love is that strong. His friend was his brother, a part of his own blood, even if they wren’t born as brothers.

Dot 3: Mrs. Hudson 

Mrs Hudson represents a parent’s love. It’s clear that Sherlock has a very strained relationship with his parents. He doesn’t hate them, but he doesn’t appear to believe that they care for him. They’re not around when he is still basically a child in a grown man’s body. He has cut them off in his mind. Maybe they weren’t there for him in the past so he continues to believe they’re not there for him now. Meanwhile, Mrs. Hudson dotes on Sherlock, brings him tea and food and generally ‘takes care’ of him. She’s kind but not a pushover. She’s also led a life that is about as tumultuous as you can get, which I think appeals to Sherlock. He always surrounds himself with people who aren’t “regular” people. Mrs. Hudson holds enough action and adventure in her life that she appeals to Sherlock, and she is also loving and sweet to boot. Mrs. Hudson is the connected parental dot for Sherlock.

Dot 4: Irene Adler 

Irene Adler represents sexuality. What’s even better is that Irene represents fluid sexuality, and more importantly, the rejection of labels. Regardless of how everyone has interpreted this, when you get down to the simplicity of it, it is simply about rejection of boxing one’s self in. Sherlock’s box was his own making, his image as the “higher power” that Irene pointed out. Irene’s own box was her sexuality. Both of these people had discovered during the episode that their boxes weren’t taped shut all the way. There was wiggle room. Back to the sexuality part, Irene awakened Sherlock sexually. The entirety of A Scandal in Belgravia was loaded with sexuality, from Sherlock being naked and looking extraordinarily dashing, to the very naked Irene appearing to completely disrupt his logical thinking power. It’s as close to canon as one can get that Sherlock did sleep with Irene after Karachi (judging by Eurus’s reaction to his violin song for her). Sex and intimacy was something Sherlock had very much refrained from in his life and Irene connected that dot for him.

Dot 5: Molly Hooper 

Molly represents authentic love, or “romantic entanglement” as Sherlock puts it. Everything about Molly and Sherlock’s interaction falls in line with how everyday romantic relationships blossom. They began just like kids, with Molly having a crush and Sherlock being a jerk to her, ignoring her, or thwarting her attempts to date other men. As they grow together, they begin to close the gap between them. Molly earns Sherlock’s complete trust, which was monumentally difficult for her to do considering Sherlock’s fear of connecting with people too closely. Molly loves Sherlock through his best times and his worst times, unconditionally, even though he doesn’t appear to return her feelings. From small things we’re shown, however, it feels as if Sherlock does feel something for Molly, but he has compartmentalized it and buried it as deep as he can underground out of fear. Eurus’s test is what forced Sherlock to dig up that box, that box he’d put his heart in and covered it underneath the earth. Eurus forces that box open, and connects the dot of romantic love for Sherlock.

Dot 6: Mary Watson 

Mary represents, I think, coming to terms with one’s self, and the different shades of the self. She represents acceptance. Mary connected with and accepted Sherlock instantly because they were the same. They both came from dangerous lives, they are both morally gray, and they both have a need to be accepted for who they are, the good and the bad. Mary was in many ways, a reflection of Sherlock’s own duality. I think Mary made him question things about himself (no not sexually), and I think she also taught him how much he is worth as a person. She showed him that even though you are this person you’ve constructed out of your own pain, you don’t have to live just as that person. You can have anything you desire and still be you. You can live with shades of yourself, and those around you who truly love you will accept you as that. They will love you for the good that you are, and forgive you for the bad that you are. Mary connected the dots of acceptance for Sherlock.

Dot 7: Jim Moriarty 

Jim represented fear. He represented who Sherlock would have been, had he not had some form of love and connection in his life. He was a madman, a true sociopath. He showed Sherlock what it really would be like if he was who he said he was. We learn very quickly, however, what Moriarty already knew. Sherlock can never be like him because he does have a huge capacity for love. He’s hidden it, denied it, but it is there. Anywhere Moriarty appeared, it caused great fear in Sherlock. Even after his death, Moriarty was in Sherlock’s mind, chained up in a padded room like a some kind of caged monster. As much as Sherlock tried to be like him, he really feared becoming that. He also feared that Moriarty would be the undoing of his friends and family, forever a threat to their lives. Moriarty was an endless threat to Sherlock, an endless fear of madness and murder. Jim connected the dot of fear, true fear, for Sherlock.

Dot 8: Mycroft Holmes 

I admit this one’s tough. I feel Mycroft represents weakness. For all the power Mycroft wields in the government, he’s very fearful of being out in the world. He keeps people as distant as he can manage and still be a part of functioning society. He also did a terrible thing and locked up his little sister and lied to his family about it because he feared confronting it. All along in the series, we see Mycroft chastise Sherlock for things like having friends, being close to people, tangling with psychopaths, etc. Mycroft is a very soft, fearful person, which makes his nickname The Ice Man sort of ironic. Its not that he doesn’t care, he’s just far too soft to care. We see his softness demonstrated with Sherlock, time and time again. He cares so much for his little brother and fears so much for him that he constantly keeps watch on him. Mycroft also tried to help Sherlock by proxy, using John as a means to help Sherlock heal his wounds. In the end, Sherlock comes to realize his brother isn’t a bad person, and that he loves him deeply. In fact, he loves his little brother enough to die for him so that he won’t be left like he was as a child, without his best friend. I think Mycroft regrets being as weak as he is, because he didn’t do more to help his siblings. It just required too much care, and he wasn’t able to fulfill that. In the end, it is Sherlock who is the stronger of them, and he is stronger because of his connected dots. The last dot is connect by Mycroft, and that is Sherlock understanding that he is capable of protecting the weak, that he is stronger thanks to his mind, heart, and soul now being complete.

_____________

That’s about all. I only included the major characters here, the ones we see almost every episode. I’ve already talked a bit about how Eurus forces Sherlock to confront trauma, so she represents that last little bit which Sherlock needs to connect everything together. She wasn’t a dot, so much as the one who helped him see the entire picture he’d made. Also, Rosie helps Sherlock in her own way, as Sherlock now has this capacity to care for the smallest of people: children. Rosie is a teeny, tiny, adorable dot.

I mostly wrote this because I had wanted to for a while, but also because some people are still arguing about the 'I Love You' scene. They’re missing the forest in favor of the leaves. The bigger picture is pretty clear on what everyone’s purposes were in the show, and how they affected Sherlock as a man. To become a great man, he needed to be a complete man. All these connected dots make him that man.

Sherlock and Irene and one night in Karachi

 (Sherlock meta by mae-jones)

Q: Hi I just saw a post here which said that Sherlock slept with Irene in Karachi and it's canon but was it actually stated in the show? I'm kinda confused here coz from what I saw in TFP when Eurus asks if he's had sex ( isn't there an inflection in her tone) he retorts with "why do you ask?" instead of a 'yes' and also isn't Adler's theme a sappy sad song, so from where is this sex part coming from? I kinda got the vibe that he still hasn't crossed that line. Your thoughts? If you don't mind.

A: [...] Sherlock and Irene getting it on was not canonized on the show. However, the ‘one night in Karachi’ was a direct answer to a question about whether Irene and Sherlock had sex during an interview with that Ben guy. He was adamant it happened. Now, if you ask me, I would say that Ben’s comments are a confirmation of them having had sex. You have to remember, he played the character with this in mind. It’s as close to canon as one can get without Sherlock admitting it or us seeing a hot and heavy montage on the show.

But, if you want to envision Sherlock as not having jumped in the sack with Irene (or anyone else), I suppose there’s a wee bit of wiggle room for it. In fact, I am quite certain that the writers wrote conflicting indicators into this show just to preserve some mystique about Sherlock and to make us question what we think we know about him. You are free to believe what you like, just don’t tell others they’re wrong, okay? No one has the definitive answer on this. It is all a matter of interpretation. Unfortunately, people are too hasty assign motivations to interpretations and that’s where these things get testy.

If you want my opinion on it, I have never really envisioned the Sherlock I saw on screen as a virgin. Nor does it bother me to imagine that he and Irene got it on because even though they’re not my otp, I don’t see why him having sex with her would diminish any other relationship. It’s here nor there for me. In the end, Sherlock told my Molly - my fave, fave character - that he loved her and she has the only claim that really matters to my shipper heart, the one on his affections.

The Interpretation of Dreams: 

A Freudian reading of The Abominable Bride (Part 1) 

 (Sherlock meta by notagarroter)

In The Abominable Bride, Sherlock makes reference to “an Viennese alienist”. "Alienist“ is an archaic word for a doctor who treats the insane, or what we would now call a psychiatrist, which makes this a clear reference to the father of modern psychology, Sigmund Freud, who was busy developing his psychoanalytic practice and theories in the 1890s in Austria. In this scene, Sherlock is complaining about John asking questions that are inappropriate from anyone but one’s psychoanalyst. But is there another reason Sherlock might have Freud on the brain?

Possibly it’s because Freud was notoriously experimenting with cocaine at almost exactly the same time the original Sherlock Holmes was concocting his 7% solution.

Or perhaps because most of The Abominable Bride is an elaborate, extended dream sequence, and one of Freud’s most significant works from this era is called The Interpretation of Dreams.

For Freud, dream interpretation is a way of accessing the unconscious mind. What does Freud mean by the unconscious? According to the theory, the unconscious is a part of the mind kept hidden from us under most circumstances. Freud believed that humans are excellent secret-keepers, and there is no one we are more inclined to deceive than ourselves. The unconscious mind holds all of our darkest desires, fears, and obsessions. It affects our daily lives and the choices we make, and yet we only get occasional glimpses of its workings.

Freud argues that dream analysis is one method of uncovering the secrets of the unconscious. Would Sherlock Holmes agree? It’s tempting to assume that Sherlock would dismiss Freud’s ideas as a lot of untestable, pseudo-scientifc blather (plenty of real humans have!). The Abominable Bride, however, gives us some indications that Sherlock is at least willing to play with Freud’s approach.

Freud’s interest in dreams comes from the idea that in sleep, the mind lets down some of its carefully constructed defenses, and allows usually hidden material to rise to the surface (if only in weirdly altered forms). If we believe Sherlock’s claim that he deliberately self-administered a cocktail of drugs in order to unearth clues and make connections about Moriarty’s death, well… that sounds like a pretty similar approach.

That Sherlock should be interested in navigating the unconscious is itself a bit surprising. In Freud’s understanding, the unconscious mind is totally amoral, irrational, chaotic, and pleasure-focused – in other words, everything Sherlock Holmes consciously abhors. Nevertheless, Sherlock appears to recognize that the key to Moriarty’s return is already contained in his own mind, though inaccessible by normal means. This is what Mycroft means when he says "The Mind Palace is a memory technique.” 

The mind palace is a mnemonic device for accessing memories using the conscious mind. What Sherlock is doing in The Abominable Bride – digging deep into unconscious mind for repressed thoughts and memories – is very different.

In order to understand what Sherlock uncovers in The Abominable Bride, it’s helpful to know a bit about how Freud approaches dream interpretation. For Freud, dreams are incredibly personal and dream imagery is built out of the objects and experiences specific to the patient. There may be symbolic resonances, but they can’t be universalized. It is NOT about simple, generic symbolic readings, i.e. “if you dream about fish that means good luck.” Similarly, he avoids trying to read the whole dream as a coherent narrative and finding meaning in that. It’s more productive to take every object, character, event, and impression in a dream separately than to try to make sense of the whole. This involves talking to a patient and getting to know them well enough to tease out the repressed anxieties and desires that may be represented in altered form in their dream. Since we don’t have Sherlock on the couch in front of us, we can’t exactly pick at his brain to find hidden associations. Instead, we have to rely on what we already know of his character from previous episodes and maybe a dash of ACD canon.

Another caveat: Freud specifically talks about fictional dreams and how little they generally resemble real dreams. Fictional dreams usually contain glaringly obvious symbols because they are the creations of conscious minds, not unconscious, repressed ones. In The Abominable Bride we clearly have a fictional dream constructed by a couple of conscious minds: Sherlock’s dream in The Abominable Bride is WAY more coherent and complete than real dreams normally are. (Necessarily so – if the dream had been as bizarre and incoherent as a real dream, it would have been unwatchable as a story.) So we must be careful of getting carried away with our analysis. That said, the fact that the dream includes a direct reference to Freud suggests that writers were expecting and even encouraging a Freudian-style interpretation of their invented dream. We owe it to them to at least give it a shot! '

In Interpretation of Dreams, Freud puts forward the theory that every dream is the expression of an unconscious wish. This is an extension of his theory of the Pleasure Principle, which states that all human action is governed by the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. In dreams, we can do whatever we want, so naturally we would seek out pleasures unavailable to us in waking life. While in some cases (sex dreams, food dreams), the dreamer’s pleasurable wish may be obvious, in the case of anxiety dreams and nightmares, the wish has been disguised because our conscious minds find it shameful for some reason. For example, if you have a test tomorrow, you might dream that a million little obstacles prevent you from getting to the test. People normally interpret this as anxiety about getting to the test on time, but Freud claims this dream is really the expression of your wish not to take the test at all.

So going by this theory, what might be the wish at the heart of The Abominable Bride? The Abominable Bride contains a nightmare scenario where Sherlock fails to prevent the murder of a client’s husband.

Read simply, this could be an expression of Sherlock’s anxiety over failing at his profession. Read as the fulfillment of a wish, however, we might conclude that Sherlock actually wants Sir Eustace eliminated because he has repressed desires for Eustace’s wife, Lady Carmichael. And (Johnlockers, cover your eyes!) there is plenty of support for this reading in the dream: Sherlock directly accuses Sir Eustace of being unworthy of his wife, John later suggests that Sherlock has taken a fancy to her, and Sherlock himself – despite all his denials – admits that she has “admirably high arches”.

But all of this is still surface interpretation and doesn’t get us close to the deeper levels of the dream. According to Freud, when the mind has something it feels guilty or uncomfortable about, it will go to extraordinary lengths to bury the idea and keep this repressed material from becoming conscious.

Freud gives the example of what he calls “kettle logic”. This comes from a story about a man who is accused by his neighbor of having broken a borrowed kettle. The man replies that

1) the kettle isn’t broken
2) it was already broken when he borrowed it
3) he never borrowed the kettle at all.

Any one of these justifications might make sense, but together they become absurd. This is the way logic works in dreams: these kinds of excessive, overlapping, and contradictory rationalizations are a sign that there is a submerged idea or desire that the dreamer isn’t ready to face yet. We see this “kettle logic” at various points in the The Abominable Bride  dream, but most frequently it occurs whenever the subject of Moriarty comes up.

When Sherlock asks himself, “How could he survive?”, Dream!John immediately replies “She, you mean” – a sign that Sherlock’s mind is trying to paper over the momentary inconsistency and distract Sherlock from the buried content of the dream. And again:

The “miss me” note appears out of nowhere on Sir Eustace’s corpse, and its message bears no relevance to the case at hand.

Then in the Diogenes Club, when Sherlock says, “His body was never recovered”, Dream!Mycroft replies, “To be expected when one pushes a maths professor over a waterfall”, even though that’s not relevant to the modern mystery Sherlock’s actually trying to unravel.

But Sherlock’s dream self participates in this misdirection too. Sherlock says, “He’s trying to distract me, to derail me”, presumably from the “real” case of Mrs Ricoletti. But in fact, Ricoletti doesn’t matter at all. The whole Ricoletti case was only ever intended as a tool to get him closer to Moriarty.

Within the dream, the only one who really gets this game of repression and revelation is Moriarty himself. Sherlock tells Moriarty that he chose to come here, and Moriarty replies, “Not true. You know that’s not true”, suggesting that they both know nothing happens in this dream space without Sherlock wishing for it. Then Moriarty proceeds to lecture Sherlock on what we’ve called “kettle logic”. He points out the logical impossibility of him showing up at the scene of Sir Eustace’s murder. He emphasizes all the points that don’t add up, that don’t make sense. He insistently reminds Sherlock that the whole Ricoletti case is little more than a screen over what really draws Sherlock: Moriarty himself.

But why is Moriarty’s appearance in 221b, in the crypt, and at the waterfall a fulfillment of Sherlock’s unconscious wish?

There are a lot of ways we could take this. The most transparent is that Sherlock needs to solve the mystery of Moriarty’s apparent reappearance, and for that, he needs to consult Moriarty. That makes sense, but it’s a little dull, and it’s not clear why Sherlock’s mind would go to such lengths to disguise this motivation.

The most fannishly appealing explanation is that Sherlock wants Moriarty for ~sex stuff~, but can’t admit it. And hey, let’s not pretend there isn’t a TON of evidence for this reading:

Plus, it would be pretty typical of Freud’s patients to be repressing sexual desires with a very inappropriate person: an arch-enemy, say, or better yet, a corpse. So far, still pretty obvious. But what if we went deeper still… Is there anything else?

Oh, yes. Read more in part 2: The Pleasure Principle and the Death Drive.

The Pleasure Principle and the Death Drive: 

A Freudian Reading of The Abominable Bride (part 2) 

 (Sherlock meta by notagarroter)

A continuation of my meta on TAB and The Interpretation of Dreams. 

In my previous meta, I talked about Freud’s theory that every dream is the expression of a wish. If so, what is the unconscious wish hidden in Sherlock’s drug-fueled dream in The Abominable Bride?

Sherlock’s in kind of an unusual situation here, because where most of us dream as an accidental side-effect of sleeping, Sherlock has consciously set out to have this dream to serve a particular purpose. According to Sherlock (when conscious), the purpose of this whole exercise is to figure out whether it’s possible for Moriarty to have survived their encounter on the roof of Barts.

So that’s Sherlock’s conscious wish. But what about his unconscious?

Officially, the question Sherlock is asking in The Abominable Bride is, “How could Moriarty return from the dead?” But underneath that question, I want to suggest a deeper concern of Sherlock’s: “Why did Moriarty kill himself?”

In a way, Sherlock’s world would make more sense if Moriarty did fake his death, just as Sherlock did. We might not know how, but we would certainly understand why. But if Moriarty really and truly did kill himself just to force Sherlock’s hand on that rooftop… the real mystery is, why? What pleasure or satisfaction could Moriarty hope to gain from all his carefully laid plans if he is dead?

As many other meta-writers have eloquently observed, Sherlock has personal reasons to be interested in this question: there have been many indications throughout the show that Sherlock has at times considered suicide.

He might well believe that understanding Moriarty’s motivations could help him better understand his own.

But how could suicide be the fulfillment of an unconscious wish? According to Freud, wishes are supposed to be about pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain, right?

Well, this is where I need to complicate that idea a little. Because it turns out, Freud didn’t stand by the ideas in The Interpretation of Dreams all his life. Interpretation of Dreams was written early in his career. Years later, towards the end, Freud posited the existence of something he referred to as The Death Drive. He invented this idea to account for the fact that, over the course of his career, he ran into a lot of human behaviors that did not seem to fit his model of pleasure-seeking/pain-avoiding. Why, Freud asked, do people sometimes do things that cannot bring them any pleasure, and actually cause them more harm than good?

In his book Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Freud guesses (and believe me, this idea remains plenty controversial) that there might be some other drive competing with the Pleasure Principle, and causing us to seek our own destruction. The reason why this might be and the mechanism for how it might work are pretty flimsy, as even Freud acknowledges. He’s really just putting this forward as a hypothesis for discussion. But whether or not this is a real drive that exists, it may nevertheless be of interest to Sherlock as he contemplates Moriarty’s apparent suicide.

And indeed, the conversation between Sherlock and Dream!Moriarty is haunted throughout by the specter of death.

MORIARTY: That’s all people really are, you know: dust waiting to be distributed. 

This idea actually gets very close to Freud’s theory of the death drive – that people are irresistibly drawn to the state that they are destined to become: ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

The cannibalism angle just adds a disturbing element of pleasure to the idea of destruction. It suggests that death itself serves a pleasurable purpose—that it can feed our secret urges as much as other physical indulgences.

Dream!Moriarty goes even further than Freud, suggesting that death and pleasure might not be opposing drives at all, but inextricably linked. Death is pleasure… and maybe pleasure is itself a kind of death.

Which brings us to another player in Sherlock’s dream who has something to tell him (and us) about the relationship between pleasure and death:

Dream!Mycroft gives us a few more clues to the mystery at the heart of Sherlock’s unconscious. On a simple level, we get John’s admonition that Mycroft’s gluttonous behavior is unhealthy and, pleasurable though it may be, could result in his early death. This falls in neatly with Freud’s early theory of life as a balance between pleasure-seeking and pain-avoidance, and could be construed as merely a warning to avoid pleasurable excess.

But what’s particularly interesting is the way Mycroft doesn’t balk at the threat of death, but embraces it. Like dream!Moriarty, Mycroft isn’t interested in avoiding death or even ignoring it. He is actively courting it.

In fact, one gets the idea that chasing death (i.e., the death drive) may actually be the greater motivator for Mycroft than whatever dubious pleasure he receives from devouring three plum puddings in a sitting.

Some readers have read elements of this scene as foreshadowing Mycroft’s death in some future episode, but it’s important to remember that this Mycroft has very little to do with the actual character. Instead, he has everything to do with Sherlock’s repressed desires, anxieties, and fixations.

Despite Sherlock’s grand plan to use this dream to solve a real life mystery, ultimately a dream can only lead the dreamer back to himself. As Dream!Moriarty insistently reminds Sherlock, there is no new information to be gleaned from a dream:

In other words, a dream can only give very limited information about someone else – a regurgitation of what the dreamer already knows. The real revelations are necessarily going to be about Sherlock himself.

Thus, the Mycroft figure in the dream is really just a tool to allow Sherlock to investigate his own repressed urges without admitting to them. It’s not really about Mycroft’s weight or his pleasure or his health, but about Sherlock’s repressed desires and what might happen if he gave into them.

And what are those desires? Drugs? Food? Sex? Love? I’d argue: yes, all of the above. Dream!Mycroft is the literalization of Sherlock’s fears about what might become of him if he lost control and allowed himself to indulge in any or all of his various urges. Sherlock fears he could become something grotesque – too big, too much.

Perhaps even to the point of death.

Or is that death not merely an unfortunate side effect of indulgence, but what Sherlock ultimately desires most of all? Sherlock, who takes drugs that “usually” aren’t fatal, and who fantasizes about jumping into an open grave?

Sherlock, who ends his dream by throwing himself, alone, off of a waterfall:

A triumphant moment within the context of the show, but surely a somewhat morbid one as well.

Why does he do it? Yes, he says he “always survives a fall". But he is also subtly invoking the common superstition that if you die in a dream, you won’t wake up. This is no idle risk for Sherlock, as we know that in real life, he is actually overdosing on a drug cocktail. There is a very real threat that he won’t survive this “fall”.

We don’t get a really firm answer to this “final” problem – indeed, I doubt one is possible. But there may be a hint in Sherlock’s certainty at the end of The Abominable Bride that Moriarty really is dead. That suggests that Sherlock’s unconscious has convinced him death did have a compelling appeal for Moriarty, against all logic. And if for Moriarty, why not for Sherlock too?

Romantic Entanglement

 (Sherlock meta by celticmoonbeam)

SHERLOCK: As I think I have explained to you many times before, romantic entanglement, while fulfilling for other people … 
JOHN: … would complete you as a human being. 

This line in The Lying Detective hit me so hard. Because, it’s true! Over 4 seasons, we’ve seen Sherlock learn to let friends into his life. We’ve seen him improve his family relationships, particularly with Mycroft.

But, he’s never really opened himself up to romance. He seemed to have some feelings for the Woman, but as he says, he hardly texts her back. His relationship with Janine was a lie to get access to Magnussen.

To complete his character development arc, to become complete as a human being, this is the last hurdle Sherlock has to cross. He has to open himself up to romance. This line resonates because of its truth. And why plant that idea and then do nothing with it in the narrative?

In my mind, this line helps set up Sherlock’s character arc–and it’s evidence that Sherlock meant it when he admitted his love for Molly Hooper. It takes that idea to a conclusion. We see Sherlock become more complete as a human being. When he finally says, “I love you,” he’s opening himself up to romantic entanglement. He’s admitting he can have those feelings, and he DOES have those feelings. Eurus’s vivisection rips him open and shows his heart… and this new side of him can fill that last gap and complete his character development arc.

Yes, he admits it under duress… but that’s part of the beauty of the scene! At times in the past, he’s taken Molly for granted (although I would argue that changed in season 2). But now he’s faced with the possibility of her death–of losing her forever. He’s absolutely frantic and panicked. I think facing her impending demise, imagining what life would be like without her, makes him realize more than ever how much he cares. You can see in his eyes that her loss would destroy him.

For me, this scene fits best into the narrative if Sherlock does love Molly. He’s cleared that last hurdle and he’s about to become more complete as a human being.

What was going through Sherlock's mind during TLD?

 (Sherlock meta by Ivy Blossom)

Q: [...] I was just curious as to what you think was going through Sherlock's mind during TLD. How do you think he understood John deserting him? Like, why do you think Sherlock never seems to doubt John, or lose faith, as John himself did? What must he have thought of John to assume or calculate that John would seriously hurt him? Why would he think that? And yet, how did he still imagine John could or would return? Was he always actually able to predict John all along, or....

A: I’m not sure it’s clear that Sherlock was planning for John to seriously hurt him in The Lying Detective; his plan doesn’t require that. Sherlock doesn’t end up in Culverton Smith’s hospital room because of John’s violence. He’s there because he’s drugged himself to within weeks of his own demise.

That said, I don’t think Sherlock is especially surprised that John hit him. John has a well-known tendency towards violence, particularly when coupled with strong emotions he can’t process. When that incident occurs, John is already sideways coping with the sudden death of his wife by blaming Sherlock and pushing him away, so I don’t think it’s a huge deductive leap for Sherlock to suspect that some level of violence against him might ensue.

When John hits Sherlock in The Lying Detective, it isn’t even the first time John’s deliberately hurt Sherlock: Sherlock incited him to it in A Scandal in Belgravia, and John hit him in anger multiple times at the beginning of The Empty Hearse. Sherlock has every reason to expect a violent reaction from John, but to be honest I don’t think he was factoring it in as part of his over all plan in The Lying Detective. It wasn’t required.

It’s interesting to consider the premise of your question: what do you think Sherlock never doubts? That if he needs John enough, John will definitely be there to save him?

I’m not sure Sherlock is convinced of that. While John is riddled with self-loathing through The Lying Detective, I think Sherlock is, too. The Norbury reference tells us that Sherlock considers Mary’s death to be his greatest failure and miscalculation. He clearly believes that he deserves to be blamed for it.

It’s not clear to me that Sherlock is so confident that John will run to his side. But he’s prepared to pull out all the stops anyway. The plan isn’t for John to save Sherlock; Sherlock is trying to save John.

I think Sherlock is very much aware that he might fail in that task, and that if he does, it will probably cost him his life. He is in the middle of this potential suicide mission even while telling Eurus-as-Faith that suicide isn’t an option. Sherlock has decided to save John, or die. His very last plan, his own death recorded via the device in John’s cane, wouldn’t have saved him. It would only have been evidence to solve his last case.

When Culverton Smith is about to kill him, Sherlock says he doesn’t want to die, and he means it. He can only mean it in that moment because he thinks it’s imminent. He isn’t expecting John to break through the door, is he? Does that mean he lost faith in John?

Sherlock’s constructed crisis wasn’t a test of John’s heroism, which is frankly never in question. When Sherlock looks at Culverton Smith and realizes there’s no way out, it’s not John who failed. It’s Sherlock’s rescue mission that failed.

Could Sherlock predict all of John’s actions? He knows John very well, and he can predict many of his choices. But not all of them, as he admits. Sherlock thinks he’s about to die, but John makes a choice Sherlock didn’t count on: he saves Sherlock in spite of everything.