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.

Series 4 and The John Problem 

 (Sherlock meta by mild-lunacy)

[...] Previously, we had thought that John was going to have to have an arc that was resolved in Series 4, in part because of the arc framework we had of the whole narrative, and in part because Sherlock changed in Series 3 and John kinda regressed, at least in his relationship to Sherlock. Specifically, we expected some movement, and ideally a resolution or major development of John’s sexuality. So, all that… did not really happen. If it did, it did not happen the way we expected. In my opinion, before casting judgment, this means one has to reevaluate one’s analysis to some degree, and this is my attempt at a start of that process.

My initial impressions of the first two episodes were that John’s response to Mary’s death was closer to rage than grief. I still think comparing it to Reichenbach too closely (let alone with the implication that Mary’s death had more of an impact, since he didn’t hallucinate Sherlock as far as we know) seems counterproductive. Further, I thought that this was John’s belief that Sherlock’s superhuman coming to bite him and Sherlock on the ass, big-time. It seems completely irrational because it was completely irrational, as he implicitly acknowledged by telling Sherlock Mary’s death wasn’t his fault in The Lying Detective. In any case, clearly John always thinks Sherlock can ‘solve it’ and/or is the master of any situation, or at least that’s the attitude he normally develops under stress. See: The Sign of Three and his demand that Sherlock just ‘solve it’. And, of course, John’s guilt over his behavior toward Mary is no minor factor.

John was also kinda drifting further away from Sherlock in The Six Thatchers, which is what I thought when Sherlock chose Mary as the better or more useful partner early on in the episode. Sure, that’s correct on the merits, but it’s not suggesting any sort of understanding or valuing of their dynamic as partners and/or John’s value (to John, anyway). At no point in The Six Thatchers does Sherlock directly demonstrate to John he values and trusts him, even though you could argue everything he does is for John. This is a continuation of the issue he had in His Last Vow (where he continued to help Mary because of John, or even instead of John). So John clearly felt pretty alone and even isolated.

As I said, I liked how subtly the infidelity and John’s continuing unhappy life with Mary was handled: it continued the tendencies we saw in His Last Vow and developed them by having John have the emotional affair with Eurus (yikes!), though it’s unclear how much of that was manipulated. Of course, he still chose to follow up, so clearly it’s a sign that John continued to feel trapped. The ‘Antichrist Rosie’ conversation in The Six Thatchers did show a certain ease and some bantery dynamic with Mary, but the intimacy was a sham, since he just started texting and flirting with someone else right after. However, we do see that the surface His Last Vow narrative was more or less intact. There was no ‘secret plan’ to deceive Mary, and John really did his best to follow through on Sherlock’s insistence that he forgive Mary. (This doesn’t mean that there’s no subtext, by the way, just that they don’t make a habit of returning to and/or redoing the plot of previous episodes.) As of the beginning of The Six Thatchers, it seems that John was, just barely, coping with his new role as a husband and father, but not very well. However, he blames himself and (by extension) Sherlock, rather than Mary or perhaps the situation he’s (partly manipulated to be) in.

Anyway, as I’ve said, given that John believes that it’s his and particularly Sherlock’s fault for allowing Mary to die, his complete (semi-psychotic?) mental break in The Lying Detective makes sense. We never do get an explanation, so we’re left with John’s Mary hallucination being apparently unrelated to the other hallucinations and/or unusual mental phenomena in The Lying Detective. I have to run with the assumption that it’s more or less a contrast or mirror plotline than something causally related to Eurus or Culverton Smith. Since there’s no ‘plot thing’ to mitigate this as I had initially supposed, it’s just that John is struggling with seeing himself (and Sherlock) as monstrous. There’s definitely some projection going on, if you go by the last conversation in The Lying Detective, where John talks of Mary idealizing him. Anyway, he definitely has Sherlock’s Otherness on his mind (Sherlock as a ‘monster’ tying in with the ‘superhuman’ thing). Sherlock’s a monster, but his Mary avatar says it’s ‘our’ monster (in other words, John’s initially repressing the idea that Sherlock’s his monster).

My thought process was that clearly John doesn’t think he’s Mary’s John (as he tells Sherlock), but he’s also not Sherlock’s John. And we see that quite clearly: he acts quite differently and/or ‘OOC’. He’s not acting like our John, because he doesn’t see himself that way. John’s having a significant identity crisis as well as a crisis of faith in The Lying Detective, essentially. Faith in himself as well as faith in Sherlock, as these two seem to be connected. We know that Sherlock knows him– he predicted John’s behavior 2 weeks out! he demonstrably knows him much better than Mary– but then, from John’s pov, Sherlock’s just that good. He could do that with anyone. Yes, it’s surprising, but it’s not really proof he’s known by Sherlock to John. Certainly, it doesn’t go both ways at that point.

As I said in my review of The Final Problem, S4 has John moving toward his own version of Sherlock’s claim that he’s ‘not a saint, not a hero’ in His Last Vow. Obviously, John’s not even pretending to be a ‘high-functioning sociopath’, which is probably (in part) why people would say this is somehow character assassination and/or OOC for John. However, in The Lying Detective, John was focusing on Mary’s idealization of him, much like the sociopath persona is Sherlock’s idealization of himself, more or less. These personas (both of Sherlock and of himself) were haunting him– sort of literally, given Mary’s hallucination. John being haunted is perhaps a better description of what was going on than John having a ‘semi-psychotic break’, since there were no other symptoms of an altered mental state except for being a lot more stressed (and angry– at Sherlock, at himself). You can take ‘haunted’ as a metaphor that is being made literal: John is haunted by unresolved issues, more than he ever had been. We’ve heard before that he’s ‘haunted’ by the war (because he misses it). And now he’s literally haunted by all the things he can’t accept about himself, about Mary and about Sherlock, which helps explain why Mary tends to say stuff about Sherlock that John denies or won’t admit. One benefit of this reading is that the Mary hallucination isn’t automatically a sign John cared more in some absolute sense about Mary’s death than he had about Sherlock’s. The fact is, John simply– literally!– cannot be with Sherlock anymore as long as he has these mental blocks and idealizations in place.

So anyway, apparently Mary predicted John’s mental state after her death, and told Sherlock to ‘go to hell’ so that John could rescue him. In retrospect, her claim in His Last Vow that John can’t know that she’s lied because that would “break” him and she’d “lose him forever” wasn’t simply self-serving bullshit as many people have thought. In other words, it always pays to pay attention to surface narrative, or it bites you on the ass. It was still primarily selfish, but Mary’s power over John (born of manipulation as it may be) is real. Regardless, it’s clear that Mary’s solution for John’s predictable issues was a further sign of her not understanding John. I was struggling with this initially– isn’t it a given that they rescue each other, save each other, as Sherlock said in his wedding speech in The Sign of Three? If the show is making us question this, surely something is wrong, and we cannot take the ep at face value. But no, we’re supposed to question this, I think, at least insofar as assuming John’s always ‘the hero’ is also more idealizing John, which John says outright that Mary’s always done. So, Mary’s theory that John needs to save Sherlock was born of that idealization, even though (of course) in the end John did rush to save Sherlock in the hospital.

Of course, this brings us to the extremity of John’s violence in the morgue, which people have apparently flagged as OOC. Initially, as in my post on Johnlock in S4, this hadn’t really struck me as starkly as it did others. My John has never been super-fluffy, and as I said, I agree with @thecutteralicia’s point that this is consistent with John’s adrenaline-driven desire to keep hitting Sherlock after the one time in ASiB (and in TLD, he’s obviously under a lot more stress, as well). For many people, it seems that John’s physical assault is a dealbreaker for Johnlock (given that no plot-based or other extenuating circumstances appear). That’s fine: that’s always the viewer’s prerogative. For me, it’s enough that I see the characterization as being consistent and a believable progression from past behavior, and I believe this fits that criteria.

It may seem like more of a (temporary) regression, of course. This hasn’t been unusual so far in the show– in fact, we’ve had multiple regressions coupled with any progress for the characters (The Hounds of Baskerville regressing after A Scandal in Belgravia, His Last Vow regressing after The Sign of Three, etc). However, here we come back to the issue of John’s arc (or the lack thereof). In retrospect, I agree with @birdymary that Series 4 confirms that BBC Sherlock has primarily been concerned with an arc for Sherlock Holmes, showing his progression from ‘great man’ in A Study in Pink to a ‘good man’ in The Final Problem, as proclaimed by Lestrade, and it should be judged on those merits. Sherlock’s journey to forgiveness has often been seen as having gone too far (as in, he forgives too much, is too self-sacrificing, has too much of a ’heart’, even), but I think those concerns all ignore the whole point (and existence) of the humanization arc in the first place. John, on the other hand, does not have an arc so much as character development. That is, his characterization involves periods of growth and regression, but it is not formally structured as an arc. The Johnlock arc does still exist even in S4, in my opinion, and it remains tied to John– but it is an indirect thing, largely tied to the subtext and interstitial places in the narrative. John’s growth and his relationship to and with Sherlock still drives the story but isn’t the primary focus. Further, in my current analysis, that joint growth in John’s characterization and in Johnlock culminates in The Lying Detective, rather than the final episode of Series 4. I believe this fits in with the expected point for the climax as suggested by the arc meta narrative, but I’m not sure and would appreciate further input on this point.

To reiterate, the lack of an explicit arc for John is due to the primary focus being on Sherlock’s growth, and his adventures with John as his partner, as Mary’s narration and/or the framing monologue at the end of The Final Problem tells us. John’s own development– being tied to the subtext– is thus also shown indirectly.

Initially, my main problem with The Lying Detective was that the purpose of John and Sherlock’s conversation at the end was unclear to me. It seemed vaguely like hetero-baiting. After all, John pushes Sherlock to pursue a romance (with Irene) and insists on its importance. John’s role in the show has often been to be the voice in support of human (including romantic) feeling, which is one reason for the tie between John and Johnlock in the narrative. Anyway, my conclusion so far has been suggested by Ivy’s reading of the gap between The Lying Detective and The Final Problem: that Moffat and Gatiss intended the viewers to fill in the blanks, and for the act of understanding the narrative to be highly collaborative. Thus, I’ve said in my Johnlock-focused meta that I feel that the The Lying Detective conversation was meant to be suggestive of the kind of subjects John and Sherlock covered, and the kind of emotional release and resolution that’s suggested by John finally crying, Sherlock finally hugging him, and so on. John admitted, painfully, that he wasn’t perfect, and he was haunted by Mary’s idealization and her putting him on a pedestal. By his final acquiescence to Sherlock’s gentle touch, John accepted that both he and Sherlock were only human, and he saw that Sherlock accepted that as well: “it is what it is”. In the end, that was all that John needed to start to resolve the main issue he was struggling with.

My initial read of the last scene of The Lying Detective was that John was ‘still breaking’ and needed to be saved; I presumed that this would somehow be the focus of The Final Probelem. Instead, The Final Problem resolved Sherlock’s arc, with both John and Johnlock being resolved in The Lying Detective. Basically, I’m leaning toward the idea that John was firmly on the road to healing both himself and his relationship to Sherlock as of their final conversation in The Lying Detective. 

I agree with @ivyblossom‘s interpretation in that they’ve clearly turned a corner in The Lying Detective (as indirectly evidenced by The Final Problem), mostly due to John’s development. That is, yeah, it doesn’t have to be seen as a corner turned in a romantic direction, but there are multiple cues in The Final Problem that it has been. I find John’s calm response to Sherlock’s calling him ‘family’ and Mary saying they ‘could become’ something more than they are, as well as his unusual use of casual touch at Sherrinford to be particularly telling. One can certainly argue about whether this is ‘enough’ or good representation, as I’ve said, but that’s beside the point when evaluating the best reading that would fit and explain all the facts, as presented in the narrative. Basically, what I’m saying is that a newly romantic relationship between John and Sherlock does best fit and explain all the facts, particularly what Ivy called the ‘rifle on the wall’ presented by Sherlock and John explicitly being stated as needing a romantic connection at the end of The Lying Detective. The rest of it is left for the viewer to figure out, but I believe it’s mainly heteronormativity preventing that. Otherwise, that’s the main obstacle to John and Sherlock’s relationship (implicitly) resolved.

[...] It is not within the scope of this meta to critique the way that all this was portrayed and accomplished, so much as to outline my reading of John’s characterization and his progression in Series 4. It’s indisputable that a critique can always be made, and further, that it certainly already has been and will be made by enough people that I need not weigh in on the subject. I’m left with an increased appreciation and an ongoing interest in the subtlety and the nuanced nature of John’s growth in Series 4. I would be thrilled to see fandom explore this further, but I am also satisfied with the canon as it stands.

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.

The ILY scene is still not a setback for Molly's character

 (Sherlock meta by mizjoely)

Q: Honestly, even if the second ILY wasn't real (dont perry, I believe wholeheartedly that it was), that scene is still in no way a setback for Molly's character. Who on earth thinks that S1!Molly would have demanded he say it first? Plus, my personal interpretation of that demand has always been that Molly was putting them on equal footing, that she took a little moment to be selfish and decided that he had to experience for himself just how difficult what he was asking of her would be.

A: That right there, my friends, is a grown ass woman who is over her silly S1 crush and is capable of working around her feelings, capable of putting the man she loves in his place, capable of not just giving into his every demand. So really, all the people who pretend to feel sympathy for Molly can just eff right off because the rest of us can see just how wrong, misplaced, and fake it is. [...]

Sherlolly Thoughts

 (Sherlock meta by temporarymuse42)

So, I’ve been thinking about the ILY scene (because it hasn’t been analyzed to death already) and I had a thought:

When Sherlock says “I love you” the very first time, he does it so clinically, as if he’s giving Molly instructions, which other people have noted before. But its also in a very halting sort of manner. “I. Love. You.” Full stop after each word. As if he’s deliberately separating the phrase into fragments, words. Just words.

The rest of the time, right up until he’s forced into a corner, he never repeats it. He just keeps saying “these words” “do this for me” “say it”. He NEVER says it again until he does in an act of real desperation, and then once again (for no reason at all, I’m sure.)

You know how Molly couldn’t say “I love you” to Sherlock because it was true? So much so that she literally couldn’t say those words without meaning them?

Just a thought.

My thoughts on the ILY Scene

 (Sherlock meta by mybrainrots)

[...]

That scene is painful to watch, but it’s not because of Molly’s pain, not really. Because after telling him that she can’t say that and he knows why (which is obviously agonizing for her), she takes control of the conversation. I’d argue that although it’s still painful for Molly, from that point on it’s beautiful and affirming too. At that point, when she says “You say it first” it becomes affirmative.

We all know that she loves Sherlock, has loved him for 7 years, but since S3, I think Sherlock has loved Molly back, whether he was aware of it or not. Since S3, Molly has had the control in almost every interaction with Sherlock and certainly does here too. She forces him to confront and admit his feelings, and it is painful, intense and agonizing for her, but EVEN MORE SO FOR SHERLOCK. Just look at his face during the scene…

Does this look AT ALL like Sherlock is using Molly? (Remember, Molly can’t see him, so there’s no point in acting these emotions for her benefit) Does it look like he doesn’t appreciate her? No, he’s terrified of losing her. He’s willing to do anything to save her. The conversation is clearly more difficult for Sherlock.

Molly actually actually smiles a bit when he says it the first time.

Yes, it’s painful for her, but ultimately affirming. Sherlock, on the other hand, comes completely undone. In the past, when Sherlock put on an act to get what he wants, as soon as it’s accomplished, the act is dropped and he’s back to unemotional Sherlock moving on to the next step in the game.

But this wasn’t an act. The proof (there’s a lot of proof, but just one example) is Sherlock’s reaction when she finally says it. Yes, he’s relieved his friend isn’t dead, but it’s so much more than that. He tries to do what he always does, shake it off, get back to business, “I won. I saved Molly Hooper. Let me talk to the girl on the plane.” but he can’t. All the emotional turmoil of admitting his love for Molly bubbles back up. He tries to put it back in the box, and HE CAN’T.

That’s the kind of love I want for Molly. I want Molly to be with someone who loves her so intensely and powerfully that he would not only destroy a coffin with his bare hands, but also destroy the carefully constructed walls he’s built around his heart, not because her life was in danger, but because SHE ASKED HIM TO. 

People keep saying Molly deserves better, but seriously, how could anyone ever give her anything better than Sherlock completely stripping himself bare and offering his heart to her? It’s not reductive in the least.

Eurus, Sherlolly and “I Love You” 

 (Sherlock meta by strawberrypatty)

So a lot is going to be made of THAT SCENE, in several different ways. But we really need to break it down.

Sherlock declares that he won, by getting Molly to tell him “I love you”. But Eurus claims the victory and reveals that Molly was never in any physical danger.

All of Eurus’ games had been lethal ones up until then. But then she forced Sherlock to get Molly to say 'I love you'. With how intelligent Eurus is, she KNEW Sherlock was going to have to say 'I love you' first.

Sherlock says it. Twice. The first time, he says it because Molly told him to say it. And then the second time… There’s a difference in him. Finally he’s said the words and he knows they’re true.

Eurus grew up in a family where “Sentiment is a chemical defect found in the losing side”. The reason why she didn’t have to hurt Molly physically, why she thinks she won, is because Sherlock and Molly DO love each other. It reminds me of the exchange from Batman Returns: “Mistletoe can be deadly if you eat it.” “But a kiss can be even deadlier if you mean it.”

Getting Sherlock to say he loves Molly and for her to say it back is the most destructive thing Eurus can think of, because they both MEAN IT.

Even after Sherlock finds out Molly was never in any danger, he lashes out, destroying the coffin. I think there is an element of wanting to destroy a coffin meant for Molly, but more than that… Eurus has forced Sherlock to expose himself. He’s stripped to the nerve and he’s never been in that position before.

When we next see Molly, she’s coming into 221B, smiling and happy. Eurus hasn’t destroyed the two of them. Their relationship is okay.

Because Eurus is wrong. That kind of reveal isn’t something destructive. Sherlock did win.

They might not have made it 100% crystal clear, but Molly and Sherlock are a couple by the end of The Final Problem.

 The "ILY" was not a setback

 (Sherlock meta by mizjoely)

Q: I was reading some metas about The Final Problem and some (who aren't "Jlock Conspirators" oddly enough) claim that aside from Sherlock lying to Molly, Molly was in no danger and Sherlock knew it, since it explains how hurt both of them sound on the phone. What confuses me is how is all of this a setback to Molly's characterization since some claim she's back to being a lovesick puppy ("who deserves better") she was at the start of the show?

A: It’s only a setback if you feel it brings her back to being S1 Molly, the girl with the crush whom Sherlock manipulated. If you believe he was manipulating her again, and that his second “I love you” was nothing more than him “saying it like he meant it” as requested, then that can be viewed as a setback to her character.

I, however, do not believe that for one instant he “knew” she was in no danger. He believed she was in danger, therefore he was desperate to save her. That first “I love you” was him attempting to do as she demanded of him (oh, how weak of her, to demand that he say it first!); the second one, is him meaning it for real. A coerced confession doesn’t necessarily mean a faked confession, which is where I feel a lot of people are getting confused.

Just because he made her say it, and just because she made him say it, doesn’t mean it wasn’t true both times.

It Comes Back To Reichenbach

 (Sherlock meta by Ivy Blossom)

 It seems to me that how you understand S4 comes back to how you understand Sherlock’s fake suicide in The Reichenbach Fall. What actually happened there?

Sherlock prepared a number of different scenarios. He was concerned that he would not survive. He knew John, Lestrade, and Mrs Hudson would be at risk. He knew he had to play along.

He was not required to make John a witness to his fake suicide. He was not required to keep John in the dark about it, either. Not for two years. That was Sherlock’s decision, against the advice of his brother.

This is the point where I think either you agree that Sherlock’s fucked up badly, or you think he sacrificed himself for the greater good and should be praised for it. Either John has a right to be deeply hurt and angry, or John should be thanking Sherlock for his noble sacrifice.

Many fans are deeply invested in Sherlock having been required to lie to John in The Reichenbach Fall because so much depended upon it, including John’s own life. We wanted that hurt to mean something big and emotional, but what we learned from The Empty Hearse is that it meant nothing. It was just a miscalculation.

That’s why Sherlock can arrive back in John’s life making jokes and being jolly. He didn’t understand the hurt he caused; it never crossed his mind that he had torn John to shreds. He had no idea he was loved. It was an emotionally tone deaf, cruel mistake, one Sherlock learns from in S3 and will not make again.

With the perspective of S4, we can say that S2 Sherlock didn’t believe he was capable of having a friend who cared so much about him. He’d believed his whole life that that would be impossible, he was unlovable, only entertainment at best. He constructed a self-image where he wouldn’t and couldn’t have friends who could be taken from him and hurt, and he didn’t know why.

Knowing what we know now, It looks as if he might have deliberately destroyed his extremely close relationship with John out of some kind of subconscious fear of loss and pain, out of fear that someone would take his beloved friend and kill him just to watch Sherlock squirm. But he doesn’t know that he’s reliving a traumatic memory from his past. And that means he doesn’t really understand why he’s crying on the roof before he jumps.

Either you believe Sherlock is emotionally aware and noble at the end of S2, or you think he fucked up. Which side you land on may determine how you read S4.

An explanation for John's reaction as Sherlock says “I Love You” to Molly

 (Sherlock meta by Ivy Blossom)

Q: Ok but what other explanation is there for this reaction from John as Sherlock says “I Love You” to Molly? I really want to try and figure out what other reading I can glean from this because…. Why? He looks similar to when Sherlock proposed to Jeanine (although John is more upset in this photo). Why would Martin select this acting choice for this scene. What other meaning can there be?

A: [...] To me, this is a pretty important moment to pay attention to when you’re trying to work out where the relationship between Sherlock and John is at this point in the story. We know already that it’s changed; John’s long-awaited moment of honesty at the end of The Lying Detective and Sherlock’s subsequent acceptance and embrace is a profound turning point, so where are they now?

It’s honestly a bit hard to tell, because The Final Problem is a non-stop action adventure, and Sherlock and John have no scenes properly alone together. It’s also the first episode that isn’t about Sherlock and John’s relationship, which is super interesting. Why would that be? Because that relationship is now resolved and it has settled into its fated state, and we are seeing it at it’s birth. Literally: this new relationship between them began on Sherlock’s birthday.

So how does this moment help us understand what the new state of affairs between Sherlock and John is?

John doesn’t appear to be jealous; his flat out jealousy comes with a trademark angry smile. Is he devastated? Perhaps. Could it be empathy? Empathy for whom?

If John is feeling empathy for Molly, it means that he understands what it feels like to have to speak the most painful truth imaginable to the person it hurts the most to tell. We know John does understand how that feels, because he did the same thing at the end of The Lying Detective. It’s possible that he’s remembering that very damp and devestating moment.

Or: John is feeling empathy for Sherlock. Does that mean he knows what it’s like to cause someone you care about unbearable pain? He certainly does. Is it understanding that Sherlock knows he can’t give Molly what she want from him, he can’t be the person she wishes he were? He knows all about that!

But I think there’s something else at work here.

I think it’s is hard to John to watch Sherlock hurt Molly because he knows exactly how this much it hurts Sherlock to do so. Again. Because now, finally, after years of thinking Sherlock didn’t feel things, John knows that that’s not the case. He knows that Sherlock is not proud of the cold and casually cruel way he’s behaved most of his life. John and Molly, two people who love Sherlock most, have received the brunt of this in recent years. Sherlock pretended to be dead for the lulz, for one. Sherlock also created a near-replica of this “I love you” scene at a Christmas party at 221b and hurt Molly terribly. Sherlock has repeatedly hurt the people he cares about in ways that will never fully heal, and he knows that.

Sherlock wants to be a good man. He is trying very hard to be. But this situation is forcing him back into the horrible fake-sociopath shell from whence he’s just emerged. Going back to that, to confront the depths of his own past callousness, hurts him. And John knows that.

Who should be hurting the most here? Molly, obviously. But it’s Sherlock who combusts in an emotional frenzy and destroys the coffin.

John: Look, I know this is difficult and I know you’re being tortured. 

This is new. For a long time, John has assumed that Sherlock is pretty impervious to emotional pain, and certainly not harmed by casually destroying people, even people he knows well (including John). He’ll do it in a pinch. He’ll do it for a case. He’ll do it because it’s the best decision in the moment, right? Not anymore.

John says: “I know you’re being tortured.” He knows Sherlock far better in this scene than he ever has. He knows the inner workings of Sherlock’s heart. He knows what hurts, and he knows why.

What has passed between them since The Lying Detective to give John this much insight into Sherlock’s most private world?

I think what you’re seeing on John’s face is both empathy and love.

Molly is Sherlock's safe sanctuary

 (Sherlock meta by fangirlhani)

I think to Sherlock, Molly feels like an escape from what he is. A hideaway from everything that make him Sherlock. He thinks that sentiment is a defect but he’s never embarrassed to be vulnerable in front of her. He thinks that it’s not a pleasent feeling but he’s not afraid to feel human with her. She’s his safe sanctuary, a literal comfort zone. A curtain to his heart and he’s protective about what happens behind that curtain. Like Molly is his little secret which he doesn’t want to share with a soul. That’s why each and every heartfelt interaction between them have always been private, always. I feel that It confers a special value to their unique relationship. So if John Watson thought she’s the last person Sherlock would think of or Irene is the somebody who loves Sherlock, I can’t blame him. None of Sherlock’s close friends have ever been the audience until THIS particular moment.

Eurus wanted him to face his feelings 

 (Sherlock meta by cherish--these--times)

Don’t tell me that someone who presumably convinced Jim Moriarty, in the spam of five minutes, to kill himself if necessary and predicted three terrorist attacks on twitter in less than an hour did not foresee Sherlock having to say 'I love you' first. That was the whole point. Eurus wanted him to face his feelings and prove to him how detrimental they are to his thought process. The prospect of losing Molly Hooper made him lose his cool and his logic. (Duh, of course there was no bomb in her flat you dummy).

He knew that Molly loved him. He knew that asking her to say the words was cruel. And that’s why the whole make-her-say-it procedure took far longer than it should have.. He hesitated, rambled, begged. He was a mess of emotions. A disconnected Sherlock would have lied to her face in order to save her life 10 seconds into the conversation. This is what he is best at. Seeing the bigger picture and putting feelings aside to achieve the goal. Being a soldier. And he is brilliant at it. But this is the woman he loves. Hurting her hurts him too. That’s how it works. Add a death threat on top of it that turned out to be a scam and that’s what you get.

On Frames and Deductions 

 (Sherlock meta by bassfanimation)

I don’t normally do stuff like this, but in light of recent hypocrisy regarding the "I Love You" scene that’s coming from The Other Side, I feel somewhat justified. And since the OP has me blocked I’m just going to recreate the post here in a condensed fashion. This isn’t about making fun of them, or their ship, but about showing how people viewed this scene prior to it’s airing.

The original meta, again posted before the episode’s airing, was from a JLer about how the scenes below are framed and what each scene was about. I’ve done some similar posts but not quite from this angle. I spoke mostly about facial expressions, but this is actually a much cleaner representation of why this scene was A) real and that B) Sherlock wasn’t lying. Honestly it’s all assumption until Moffat or Gatiss confirms or denies, but this is about as close as it gets to anti-shippers doing your work for you.

I’m going to keep it concise as I don’t know if copying and pasting their post in it’s entirety is too much of a Tumblr faux pas. Again, this post isn’t to belittle that person, their post, or their ship. The point in posting this is to show that even those guys saw then what we are seeing now, only now they’re deriding us and calling us losers for it.

First, the original thoughts, which are actually very good.

——————————————————————

TGG 

The Van Buren Supernova. The fourth pip. A kid’s life is at risk. People in the back, Sherlock looking at the painting(camera), yelling the puzzle’s answer to the phone.

ASIB 

Irene’s safe code/Vatican cameos. John’s life is at risk, people in the back, Sherlock looking at the safe (camera) trying to deduce its code; the safe contains her cell phone. Double deduction, as he realises there’s a trap in the safe.

TRF 

Addlestone. Children’s lives at risk, people standing at his side, Sherlock is looking at a map (camera) in his [Mind Palace], placing the info he just received via his phone. Info that helped him to narrow down the kids location.

TSOT 

(the two reasons why every single one of us is) here today: The mayfly deduction. Sherlock looking at the photographer’s camera (actual camera). Someone’s life is at risk (Sholto’s), Sherlock just poured his soul reading John’s blog from his phone, and people are sitting beside him.

So all these scenes: 

• Have an audience. 
• Sherlock is looking directly at a clue/camera (in reality or in his MP)
• Involve a cell phone. 
• Are about Sherlock saving someone’s life. 
• Have Sherlock saying his deduction outloud. 

So what can we say about this?

It has an audience, probably it will be about saving someone’s life, Sherlock’s eyes are focused on something (a clue) and his deduction is I LOVE YOU. What can be that puzzle, the thing that makes him say it?

We all know how in this show a clue or a deduction is not JUST that, but it carries a meaning and say something about Sherlock. And the fact Sherlock says these words out loud deserve all the freaking out we can experience.

“I LOVE YOU” SAVES A LIFE

LOVE CONQUERS ALL

————————————————————————

(Now, here’s me agreeing with about 99.9% of their thoughts.)

Beautiful meta. I agree these shots are intentional, and what they mean for the ILY scene…

In each shot, Sherlock is making a discovery/deduction. We’re intended to see these frames as if we’re looking directly into Sherlock as he is looking directly into his discovery. We get to witness his feelings firsthand like this, meaning there’s no hiding what he’s feeling. Those behind him, the “audience” OP speaks of, they actually can’t see him so he has this benefit of hiding some of what he’s going through. But we, the true audience, we see it in full. So, absolutely, yes, there’s huge importance in the way these shots were filmed.

Also, in each situation, a person’s life is in danger. This is Sherlock’s “style”. In The Six Thatchers, when he meets with Ella, she asks him to reciprocate her communication and he says that’s “not his style”. No, it’s not, but this is. Sherlock only knows how to communicate if it is laid out in the guise of a case. The Sign of Three was a beautiful example of this. He’s saying all these wonderful things to the camera about John and Mary, but it is hard for him…very hard. It only begins to become easier when Sherlock focuses on the murder case that’s happening right in front of them. Same goes for all those other frames. As long as something is presented as a ‘case’, then Sherlock can ‘deduce’ it…even if it’s about himself, which was the intention of Eurus setting up Sherrinford as one huge case, all centering on Sherlock himself. Without danger, without a case, without the threat of a life ending…he can’t see anything.

In the longer version of OP’s meta, they first thought this scene was occurring in the Mind Palace. It’s interesting that so many saw the "I Love You" scene as taking place in Sherlock’s head. Almost everyone thought it was in his imagination, because there’s no way he would ever say those words in real life, right? But no, this room turned out to be real. It’s a deduction zone, as we’ve seen so, so many times before, with one big difference. In that room, with Mycroft and John there, as well as Eurus, we effectively see Sherlock absolutely unable to hide himself any longer. Normally when he’d turn towards us to make his deduction, it would feel safer for him, but not this time. This secret….this secret that he’s not allowed a single person to know, he’s being forced to spill it via the only thing that can do this to him: a deduction. But this time, the deduction, and the case, are ALL about him.

“This is all about you. Everything in this room.” -Mycroft

The importance of Mycroft and John alone being there for this startling revelation, and why it’s so ingenious (and cruel), is those are the two people Sherlock fears knowing this deduction. Mycroft, who holds love up to be about as important as a paper cup, and John, who has always thought love was an unknown quantity to him, not to mention John is still suffering the loss of his wife. Also, Sherlock still feels he has to play this role with John, being a sort of superhero who ‘doesn’t love’. He even goes through that whole “While romantic entanglements might be fulfilling for ordinary people” spiel at the end of The Lying Detective to try and maintain the last hanging threads of this image. It is all image with Sherlock, but especially with Mycroft and John. Here, in this room, right now…that image is about to be destroyed. The image he’s worked so hard on for almost his entire life, is about to be utterly demolished.

And it’s all because of a deduction. The deduction that Sherlock loves Molly Hooper.

‘I LOVE YOU’ SAVES A LIFE: it does, it saves Sherlock’s life. Molly’s life was never in danger, but Sherlock’s life always was. 

LOVE CONQUERS ALL: it did. Love conquered trauma for Sherlock, John, Mycroft and Eurus. Love conquered fear for Mary Watson. Love conquered the hate of Moriarty. Love conquered loneliness for Molly Hooper. Love truly conquered all.

My thoughts on the “I Love You Scene” and Afterwards

 (Sherlock meta by thedramaticfanatic)

 This entire post is basically going to be an in-depth analysis of the scene, and why I believe that not only is it finally a verbal confirmation of how Molly feels for Sherlock, but also a confirmation of how Sherlock feels for Molly. I believe that he truly does love her. And I will explain why. I will warn you in advance that this is going to be a very, very long post, but I want to thoroughly explain why I believe this. So if you can hang on until the end, I promise I’ll try to make it worth your while.

First off, I’ll begin with Eurus discussing the third test (I’m quoting directly from the episode, I keep pausing it while typing to make sure I get it completely accurate).

E: “Coffin. Problem: someone is about to die. It will be, as I understand it, a tragedy. So many days not lived, so may words unsaid, et cetera, et cetera…”

As soon as Eurus gives the word, Sherlock begins his deductions, examining the coffin and wasting no time whatsoever. He’s clearly in his element, two seconds away from going full out (what I like to call) Trippy Deduction Mode- and then, Mycroft breaks in with this:

M: “Yes, very good, Sherlock, or we could just look at the name on the lid.”

Then Sherlock looks at the lid, and his expression, his expression when he sees the words “I LOVE YOU” on that lid says EVERYTHING. Absolutely everything. He knows, in less than a second, in less than a milosecond, as soon as he reads the words, who it is.

Sherlock knows that coffin is meant for Molly Hooper, and neither Mycroft nor John have any clue.

Sherlock Holmes steps back from the lid, and almost staggers back to the coffin, clinging to it and staring into it with an expression of pure horror while John and Mycroft try to guess. John’s first guess is, of course, Irene Adler (and I’ll go into that in a little bit), and Sherlock dismisses that idea completely, doesn’t even give it a second thought. In fact, he dismisses it as ‘ridiculous’, and I believe he does this for two reasons. One, the coffin is clearly not the style that The Woman would pick out for herself. It’s not made of marble and gold, for one thing (haha, terrible joke, but I’m kind of serious), and for a second thing, Irene Adler is not his weakness. She’s his intellectual match (almost; she’s very sharp, but not as sharp as Sherlock, but I would say her understanding of human nature which Sherlock lacks does give her enough of an edge that his advantage over her is rather slight), and certainly he finds her attrative and he is attracted to her, but she is not his weakness. He likes her, but he doesn’t love her. She’s fun for him, like unstable fireworks. My opinion, of course.

But no, the coffin is for Molly Hooper. Listen to the way he describes her; he says “Unmarried, pratical about death, alone.” When he was trying to deduce earlier, without a name or a face, he says the exact same things, but the words are hurried, they’re facts, they’re just descriptions of a random figure. But when he says them about Molly, it’s like each word is another nail in the coffin right in front of them.

Then Eurus turns the screen on, and we see cameras in Molly’s kitchen. We see Molly moving around. Sherlock’s eyes are glued to the screen, they never leave it. Until Eurus says “Make her say it”. And once again, Sherlock’s face says everything.

He knows, in that moment, that in order to save Molly’s life, he has to shatter her. He has to break her. He has to rip her heart open, and let it bleed. He has to do it to save her, and as Eurus calls Molly, he visibly begins to brace himself to do it. The call progresses, Molly doesn’t pick up. Sherlock clearly becomes quite agitated.

The scene cuts to Molly. She sighs and picks up the phone. I want everyone to pay special attention to what’s going on on Sherlock’s end before she answers. His head is bowed, pressed against the barrel of the gun. He’s shifting back and forth. He is clearly, visibly, upset. And when he hears her voice, he lifts up his head and his eyes are clear and wide, almost unbeliving. He’s relieved, quite obviously so.

He starts talking to Molly. He’s still anxious, but trying to hide it. He seems borderline desperate, but holding it together. Even so, this is hard for him. He knows he’s going to hurt her.

He tells her what to say. She’s about to hang up. Sherlock aboslutely loses it at this point. He doesn’t stop trying to hide his fear, he is incapable of doing so. He cannot keep himself from reacting at the thought of her hanging up, and him losing his chance to save her. He BEGS her. He’s said in previous episodes he’s never begged for anything, but he begs her not to leave.

Sherlock makes himself calm down at Eurus’ warning (and note that John and Mycroft are barely keeping it together themselves in the back). But he’s shaken, he’s breathing hard, he’s trembling slightly. But as soon as Molly says “I’m not an experiment,” he breaks down again, the emotions flood back, and he’s trying desperately to keep her there.

She says she can’t say it. He asks her why. She says “You know why.” Sherlock says, “No, I don’t know why.”

At this point, right here, Sherlock is lying. He’s clearly lying. He undoubtedly knows that she loves him, as evidenced not only in the last season when they discussed her engagement over chips, but when he saw the “I LOVE YOU” on the coffin. He knows Molly Hooper loves him. But he has to make her say it, has to save her, so he pushes her, trying to get her to admit it. Moriarty’s videos aren’t really helping to keep him calm, either. Then she says “Because it’s true.” And there’s something in his face when she says that, something that’s suddenly vulnerable, and soft. And suddenly when he speaks to her, his voice is quiet and gentle. And I think this is partially because he wants her to say it, and also partially because he actually feels something when she says it. When she says that, and he becomes still, it’s like a peace has suddenly come over him. It’s like something has suddenly clicked into place for him, and his composure is back.

Until she demands that he say it first, and to say it like he means it.

I want to point out here he once again loses his composure. He’s flustered, taken aback. He did not expect this. But he takes a moment, and says “I… I love you.” He goes from his eyes closed, trying to form the words, to looking up at the screen and saying it.

And then. after a moment, he says it again. He says “I love you,” while looking at the screen, while looking at Molly, his gaze not wavering.

He says “I love you.”

And this time, he means it. This time, it’s real. This time, he knows it’s real and he means it, and that’s why he says it in a voice of almost wonder, of surprise. Of awe. Sherlock Holmes has told Molly Hooper that he loves her, and he truly does, and he didn’t know it until just that moment.

Now, I will take you back to just one episode before, though it’s been stated several times before that- Molly Hooper can see Sherlock. She can really see him. She can see through his bullshit, through his lies, through his posturing. She knows, when he says it, that he is not lying.

Molly Hooper knows that when Sherlock Holmes tells her that he loves her, he truly does. And that is why, at this moment of complete and utter vulnerablitly, she can tell him that she loves him back.

The seconds in-between him saying he loves her and her saying she loves him are actually quite delicious to me, because Sherlock is now the one who is waiting for her. His distress is almost palpable at this moment, it was so beautifully done. And when she finally says it, it looks like he almost collapses in relief.

And THEN comes the real punch to the gut. It was all a trick. Sherlock didn’t win. Eurus reveals that he destroyed Molly Hooper’s heart for nothing. She thinks Sherlock Holmes has just played an elaborate, horrible, experimental trick on her, and she’s been humiliated by the man that she loves. By the man who, at this point, I am completely convinced, loves her.

And then we come to the coffin scene. Mycroft and John are about to walk out the door, they seem surprised that Sherlock isn’t following and confused by what he’s doing.

But Sherlock places the lid on the coffin, and stares at it. Then he says “No. No!” and goes to town on it with his bare hands, screaming at it and tearing it to pieces. The coffin that was meant for Molly Hooper, the One Who Mattered Most, The One Who Counted, The Woman Who Loves Him. Some have said that the destruction of the coffin is because Sherlock is angry that despite years of trying to avoid love, Sherlock has fallen for her just the same. Some have said that it’s because he can’t stand the idea of Molly lying dead in that coffin, lying there dead right after he’s realized he loves her. I’ve read a few people saying it was just pure frustration that he did it. The first two, I can see both being very possible, and I personally think it’s a combination of the two. The last one, I don’t buy.

Remember that this is Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes, in all his cases, has never, ever, ever, EVER lost his cool the way he did when he found out he’d destroyed Molly Hooper for nothing. Not John having bombs strapped to him, not discovering that a woman he cared about was actually alive, not him jumping off a roof and lying to his friends about it, not having his best friend’s wife shoot him in the chest, not seeing a man kill himself in front of him, and not seeing a woman shot and three men dropped to their deaths just minutes before. He was the one who kept Mycroft and John calm. He was the one who kept everyone together. But it was Molly Hooper, Molly Hooper’s love, and Molly Hooper’s potential death, that brought him low.

Also keep in mind that right after this, Sherlock has to choose between shooting his best friend or his brother, and he stays calm during that. Then he has to save his best friend from drowing, and he stays relativly calm during that. He keeps his head on. He doesn’t panic completely.

The only time IN THE ENTIRE SERIES OF THE SHOW where Sherlock Holmes has lost his shit (pardon my language) is when it comes to MOLLY HOOPER.

And yes, we don’t know what happened between Sherlock and Molly after Eurus was re-captured to reconcile them, and we don’t know if their relationship is now romantic or platonic. Chances are, we may never know, especially if this is the last season and given that neither writers like to comment on romance. But I thoroughly believe, especially after this episode, that Sherlock is in love with Molly Hooper. And I personally choose to believe that they’re happy, and even though it’s not confirmed in-show, that they’re happy together. 

So, there’s why I think that Sherlock loves Molly. Feel free to agree or disagree, but this is my belief and my reasons why I believe it. Thank you for reading this whole long thing, and have a wonderful evening/day, depending on where you are.

“I saved Molly Hooper!”

 (Sherlock meta by waytoomanyhobbies, thequietone0008 and celticmoonbeam)

celticmoonbeam:

My thoughts on the end of the ILY scene….

She said it. The timer stops. Mycroft steps forward and tries to comfort his brother. “Sherlock, however hard that was…” (Of course we’ll never know what he was going to say, but in my head it was “you did the right thing.”)

But Sherlock cuts him off. “Eurus, I won. I won. Come on, play fair. The girl on the plane. I need to talk to her.” Then, with a little more emotion, “I won. I saved Molly Hooper!”

Why does Sherlock want to move on so quickly? My take on this… With the other two challenges, he thought he’d won, only for there to be a sudden twist. The Governor was dead, but because he didn’t die by John or Mycroft’s hand, Eurus still killed his wife. Sherlock identified the Garrideb brother who was a murderer–only for Eurus to kill the two innocents.

I think he is terrified of another twist, one that results in Molly’s death after all. He wants to move Eurus on quickly and get back to the girl on the plane and make sure that Molly stays safe in her kitchen. I think his desperation shows through when he says, “I saved Molly Hooper!” He wants her to be saved–no surprises, no tricks. Because it would be very uncharacteristic of Eurus to spare Molly after all.

But then, Eurus shows her hand. There was a twist indeed–fortunately not one that will cost Molly her life. This was psychological torture. Molly was never in danger, and Sherlock just hurt her for no reason. He just damaged their relationship–maybe irrevocably–not to save her life, but just for his sister’s whim. And he’s just been forced to realize how very much Molly means to him. He loves her. He loves her and even though she’s alive, he may have lost her all the same.

He lost the game because he didn’t see through Eurus’s ploy. Molly is his blind spot.

thequietone0008:

OMG that’s exactly it . He was ensuing there were no after effects like the other two.. And look at his reaction to the countdown ending.. compare to the boy on the phone at the art gallery . Done over…next.. even gallery owner was more sickened.

waytoomanyhobbies:

So much yes! Sherlock is obviously terrifed for Molly throughout this scene. Molly is the woman who repeatedly saves him, and he both relies upon her and loves her–as he realizes during the scene. This is a Sherlock who is desperately trying to save Molly this time.

Downplaying Molly’s importance seemingly kept her off Moriarty’s radar, so it is a logical strategy for him to attempt here. As celticmoonbeam pointed out, Eurus has twisted both of her previous “tests” to hurt him. He can’t let that happen again with Molly’s safety in the balance. So trying to distract Eurus before she can turn this around is the most natural way he could respond here.

Sherlock is thinking so loudly in that moment that you can practically hear his thoughts screaming, “Get Eurus’s attention off Molly. Cajole Eurus into not cheating again. Make Eurus move along before she can go back on her word!”

And, while Sherlock knows that Molly can see through his facades and bullshit, he’s in uncharted emotional territory now. Platonic love took him time to wrap his head around, and he’s just been thrown into the deep waters of romantic love in a terrifying way. Someone previously described this scene as their feelings… their “I love you"s … as having been ripped from them, and that is such a perfect description. He never expected to be someone’s best friend even, let alone the love of someone’s life. He’s been denying for years that emotional entanglement had any meaning for his life, and now he’s forced to admit that it most certainly does have meaning to him and how human he is.

He’s going to have all the normal fears. Can he even do this whole relationship thing? Does he want to or feel ready to, knowing how painful it can be (Mary’s death devasted everyone, but Sherlock nearly killed himself trying to bring John back from it per Mary’s request) and how vulnerable it can make him? Will Molly even still want him after all the pain he’s caused her? He hasn’t had time to process any of it yet, and he’s trying to protect that fresh emotional wound that Eurus has made. (I think that is another reason he cut Mycroft off.) Instead, Eurus’s twist is to rub that emotional wound raw.

As Benedict Cumberbatch said Sherlock’s weakness is failing to see what’s right in front of him. Oh how many times that has bitten him in the butt regarding Molly! Meanwhile, Eurus doesn’t understand how to make connections with others, but she certainly can recognize them between others and exploit them.

Here’s a thought (about Molly)

 (Sherlock meta by creamocrop)

Sherlock Holmes imagined Molly Hooper as a progressive Victorian woman who risked her reputation and life just so she can study and practice pathology (her obvious passion), and fight for a cause that she believes in.

High-as-a-kite Sherlock Holmes, subconsciously think and (therefore) imagined that Molly has the courage and determination to pursue being a pathologist in a time when women were confined to minimal social roles.

His subconscious revealed that he believed that if Molly was born during the Victorian era, she would fight for her dream, such that she would actually take the dangerous route of pretending to be a male, just so she can pursue and practice her dream.

He believed that Molly has what it takes to get what she wants.

Sherlock sees Molly as a strong, independent woman.

If high-as-a-kite Sherlock Holmes can see this, why are there people who still look at Molly as a weak character?

This is also the same woman, who in the midst of tremendous emotional distress, showed a rebellious streak by making Sherlock Holmes (the same stubborn man who walked into Buckingham Palace wrapped in a sheet) say. it. first. 

 And while we are on that topic, the same Oh-look-at-me-sitting-inside-Buckingham-Palace-with-just-a-sheet man, said it…

TWICE…

John really cares about Sherlock in s4

 (Sherlock meta by Ivy Blossom)

Q: [...] are there any particular moments in Series 4 that suggest or demonstrate to you that John really loves and/or genuinely cares about Sherlock? I guess secondarily, how do you read Sherlock putting off rescuing John from that well until after he dealt with Eurus In TFP?

A: Any particular moments? It’s hard to pick, it’s kind of infused through the whole thing, but okay, I’ll do my best.

In The Six Thatchers, John should be deliriously happy. He’s got what he wanted: the normal life with a job, a wife, and a new daughter, but he’s also got Sherlock, who is as committed to maintaining this careful and potentially awkward balance as he is. They still solve crimes together, and Mary and Rosie aren’t an obstruction. In fact, sometimes they join in! John’s devotion to Sherlock is pretty obvious from that alone, but Sherlock’s special place in John’s life is underscored by John asking him to be Rosie’s godfather.

John should be happy, but he’s not. He’s never managed to get over what Mary did and who she really is. His happy life with wife and baby is a lie. As his trust in Mary continues to decline, his trust in Sherlock never waivers. John and Sherlock confront threats together as a team while Mary lies, drugs Sherlock, and scarpers. Sherlock, weird, rude, and difficult, is John’s stable rock, and Mary does not look good in comparison.

After Mary dies, John blames Sherlock and cuts him off. I’d suggest that this is more indicative of how much John cares about Sherlock than otherwise. Not only because he thought Sherlock was a superhero who could could genuinely protect Mary and Rosie from everything forever, but because, as we later learn, the reason why John pushes Sherlock away stems primarily from his own self-loathing. John betrayed Mary, and his guilt and despair at not being able to live up to Mary’s, Sherlock’s, and his own expectations leads him to push away the things he loves most, including his daughter and his life with Sherlock. This is underscored by his goodbye scene in the hospital, where he leaves his cane as a silent final message: you saved me, I didn’t deserve it, and here I betray you. 

We’ve had Sherlock’s mind palace for a while, which is a wonderful way to see what’s actually going on in his head. In The Lying Detective, we finally get the equivalent for John: Mary. Hallucinated Mary isn’t a ghost or even a memory, she’s the honest part of John. And she adores Sherlock. She talks about him constantly. She watches him mid-deduction with love and delight. She recognizes that Sherlock knows John, understands him completely, but John disagrees. Sherlock can’t possibly know how worthless John is; like Mary, Sherlock believes he is a good, moral man, and John knows that they’re both wrong. The voice in his head says: Sherlock may be a monster, but he’s my monster. 

The most dramatic indicator of how John feels about Sherlock is his confession and breakdown at the end of The Lying Detective. This is the first time John has been completely honest in this entire story. John hides his feelings constantly, he lies about them, even to himself. And in this scene he nearly does it again, he nearly walks away. Had he done so, I believe his relationship with Sherlock would have been essentially over. He would have grown more and more distant and dishonest until their connection was entirely lost. But out of love and faith, he finally, finally makes a different choice. He chooses to be brutally honest and vulnerable. He cries, but does not turn away. He lets Sherlock hold him. No one has or ever will be this close to John.

Sherlock does not put off rescuing John in The Final Problem. From the moment he realizes that John is in danger, all Sherlock does is try to save him. The problem is that the solution is Eurus. We know that he can’t rescue John without her intervention because he was unable to the first time; the puzzle is too complex for him, it will always be too complex for him. The mistake he made all his life was thinking that intelligence was the answer. When he was a boy he didn’t have the resources to do what he does now: he recognizes that it’s sentiment that will save John, not brainpower. He’s got sentiment in his tool belt now, and that’s because of John. John made him feel and taught him to be a loving and feeling person, and that’s what allows him to triumph over his much more brilliant sister in the end.

Why did Sherlock hand the gun to Mycroft first?

 (Sherlock meta by notagarroter, anarfea, harriet-spy, cumberbatchitis and thecutteralicia)

notagarroter:

In the scene where Eurus wants them to kill the Governor, I mean. Just curious about people’s headcanons, since Sherlock doesn’t explain his reasoning.

anarfea:

Sherlock has built Mycroft into an almost god-like figure: omniscient, omnipotent, not-quite benevolent. He’s the Voice of Authority in Sherlock’s mind palace, where he appears with what look like a halo and angel wings.

And while Sherlock resents Mycroft’s meddling and intrusion, he also relies on him. Whenever he OD’s, he makes a list for Mycroft. When he shoots Magnussen in the head, he expects Mycroft to get him a pardon “like a proper big brother,” (and Mycroft does him one better by making it look like it never happened). And even though Sherlock and Euros spell out “fuck off” when they’re wandering the streets, I think Sherlock takes comfort in knowing that Big Brother is watching over him.

Mycroft has cultivated this image, probably from a pretty young age. The Final Problem shows us how quickly Mycroft grew up; he watched his sister kill his brother’s best friend, threaten his brother’s life, and burn down the family home when he was 12-13. The more we learn about Mycroft, it’s clear that “caring is not an advantage,” is something he says because he knows the pain of caring too much. So he buried his heart deep, and cultivated his Ice Man persona. And it appears to have worked–his code-name is Antarctica, which shows his colleagues, at least, believe it.

I think Sherlock believes it, too. He thinks that Mycroft has succeeded in entirely suppressing sentiment–a behavior he initially tries to emulate in S1. By S3, he’s learned that there are advantages to having friends, and he tries to encourage Mycroft to find himself a goldfish. But while Sherlock transitions from wanting to be like Mycroft to wanting Mycroft to be like him, his belief that Mycroft doesn’t form attachments is constant.

I think over time, because of whatever resentments and feuds and unsettled scores lie between them, Sherlock has come to believe Mycroft doesn’t care for him, either. His comment, “then why didn’t you want me to take it?” re the suicide mission to Eastern Europe is only half-jesting. And Mycroft realizes that he’s made a mistake by guarding his heart so closely even Sherlock has come to suspect he doesn’t have one. So he tells him, “Also, your loss would break my heart.” And Sherlock chokes on his cigarette; he’s that unaccustomed to sentiment from Mycroft. But Mycroft continues to let Sherlock see through the facade. At the end of The Abominable Bride, he tells him, “I was there for you before, I’ll be there for you again, I’ll always be there for you.” I think, even though Sherlock brushes him off, it’s gotten it through his thick skull that Mycroft cares about him. But the goldfish? Not a chance.

So he hands Mycroft the gun because he thinks it should be easy for Mycroft to do this for him. Mycroft has always fixed all his other problems, and anyway what’s one more dead goldfish to The British Government? I think he’s shocked when Mycroft refuses. (So was I, and I’m still not entirely convinced that that moment was in character). If I try to defer to the fact that Mark Gatiss is writing a character and playing a character he knows well, the best explanation I can come up with for Mycroft’s behavior is that he’s already seeing how this is going to end–he knows how Euros thinks, and he’s terrified that Sherlock and/or John is going to die and it’s all his fault. And I also think having to kill the Governor in particular hits him especially hard because of the threat he makes when they first arrive to Sherrinford: “I find any indication my sister has left this island at any time, I swear to you, you will not.” I’m not saying that was an idle threat, but I don’t think Mycroft can deal with being forced to carry it out. While I suspect that Mycroft has, even if he’s never murdered anyone himself, at least sanctioned murder before, I don’t think he can deal with getting blood on his hands when he’s not the one making the decisions.

Anyway, he can’t do it. And Sherlock is surprised, I think, because it doesn’t fit with the image of Mycroft that he has. I think a huge part of The Final Problem is about Sherlock remaking his image of Mycroft, realizing he is not a demigod but a man. Mycroft if fallible, Mycroft isn’t always clever, in short, Mycroft isn’t as strong as he thinks he is. Or as strong as Sherlock thought he was.

But he did his best.

harriet-spy:

I have had very similar thoughts about the failure to shoot myself. I would add that the moment seems to have arisen from a tension between the demands of theme and of plot. As we’ve been told, the point of The Final roblem, and of Euros’s tests, was to force Sherlock to choose emotion and human connection over Mycroft and mere reasoning. Which means that, all along, Mycroft should have been advocating for the ruthless/”logical” choice in every test. But if he did so, it wouldn’t have been much of an episode. They had to find some way to avoid his simply short-circuiting every supposedly riveting moment of emotional suspense by killing a bitch or three, and the best they could come up with was to vaguely cripple/sideline the character, regardless of continuity.

Many, many things about the treatment of Mycroft in The Final Problem bothered me, but I do think that, in order for Sherlock to become more mature, he needs to take a more realistic view of Mycroft. His response to Mycroft’s perceived infallibility has always incorporated a large element of childish abdication of responsibility. That’s something he is only likely to get over at this late stage in his life by recognizing that the infallibility has its limits. To me, this is the most legitimate of what I will (in extremely petty fashion) refer to as the attacks on Mycroft in this episode, the one that is most psychologically sound generally, and most consistent with prior episodes. And yet, to be honest, I’m not sure that the writers fully thought it out, and I wouldn’t be surprised if any S5 showed regression on this point.

(now if only they could’ve bothered to construct their plot so it supported their conclusions, rather than having a lot of random loud! exciting! stuff! happen and then informing us that it meant this or that…) 

anarfea:

I do agree with you that The Final Problem has a lot of tension between plot and theme, and also between plot and character. I find the reading of The Final Problem that I like best is to look at it as almost an allegory about the show rather than an actual episode (not sure if that makes sense). All of the characters feel symbolic on pretty much every level. I do agree with you that while there were some moments in The Final Problem which I loved and which gave me lots of Mycroft feels (the whole flashback sequence where adult Mycroft is interacting with the Holmes children, for example, and the bits about Lady Bracknell, and of course the Holmes killing Holmes sequence) I was upset about a couple of decisions they made, particularly the clown sequence. I can come up with satisfactory (to me, at least) explanations for why Mycroft couldn’t shoot the Governor.

I cannot reconcile the version of Mycroft we see in Serbia, who clearly has field experience and trusted himself enough to go in and get Sherlock out of there, with the Mycroft who is apparently incapable of dispatching an intruder in his own home. Much the way I cannot reconcile the idea that the Holmes’ family had an ancestral home in the countryside with the version of Mummy and Daddy Holmes we see in The Empty Hearse. I was arguing in my multi-shipping meta that I almost think of the different series of Sherlock as existing in parallel universes or something. Up until now, all my longer fics have been canon compliant, but I now feel like there are too many inconsistencies for me to come up with a coherent narrative. At this point I’m just going to use the parts of canon that I like and ignore the bits that don’t make sense.

cumberbatchitis:

I have always thought he simply considered Mycroft responsible for the whole mess, so in his eyes he was supposed to be the one to deal with it. And also he did not want John to face such a task. But yeah, all points mentioned are very reasonable.

thecutteralicia:

I must say, I’m surprised that so many people have a hard time with Mycroft being unable to shoot the governor. Serbia was different, as Mycroft had control of the situation and also no one died (that we know of) - if he had, for example, been forced to kill the man beating Sherlock, it would have been in defense of his brother (and himself). Being prepared to shoot a home invader is self-defense. Should I find it disturbing that so many people can’t see a difference between those situations and being forced to murder an innocent person with one’s own hands???

John is a soldier. In the first episode, he killed Jeff Hope with zero remorse. Yet no one seemingly had a problem with his inability in The Final Problem to carry out the murder of the governor. In his case, people seem to realize that just because someone is a soldier - and prepared to shoot a person who is actively a danger to others - doesn’t mean they’re automatically okay with the willy-nilly murder of innocents. Why isn’t the same extended to Mycroft?

We know Mycroft is in intelligence and probably his orders have resulted in the deaths of others. However, every indication in the show is that Mycroft specializes in counter-terrorism and homeland protection. His goal is to protect as many people as possible - we see that in The Final Problem, too, with his thought that they should have the girl crash the plane into water or away from civilization, so more people don’t get hurt. His job is to have pragmatic thoughts like that - if the girl and the plane’s passengers can’t be saved, then obviously the next best option is to have the plane crash in a place where people on the ground won’t be at risk.

The situation with the governor is different. For one thing, Mycroft is not in control. They are being manipulated, and the choice is either one person dies or two people die, and really, there’s no guarantee Eurus wouldn’t just kill the governor’s wife anyway. The prospect is to kill a person with his bare hands - something we have zero evidence Mycroft has ever done (and Sherlock has done, FFS). Furthermore, we have the psychological weight of the situation: this is the place (Sherrinford) and the person (Eurus) Mycroft is supposed to be able to control. This is the sister who has haunted him his entire life suddenly having power over him.

Mycroft has spent literally most of his life trying to contain Eurus, and now it’s all gone wrong. As a child, he witnessed his baby sister turn into a psychopath and kill another child, then threaten to kill Mycroft’s adored baby brother. Then she burned down the home with (presumably) the entire family in it, which could have killed them all. Then Mycroft was burdened with the secret of her captivity and pressed by his uncle into being complicit into a huge, groundbreaking lie to this own parents. Mycroft then spent years tending to his drug addict baby brother by himself. The man has more issues than Vogue, and in Sherrinford they all began to collapse in on him.

anarfea:

"if he had, for example, been forced to kill the man beating Sherlock, it would have been in defense of his brother (and himself). Being prepared to shoot a home invader is self-defense. Should I find it disturbing that so many people can’t see a difference between those situations and being forced to murder an innocent person with one’s own hands??? "

No one in this thread is arguing that killing a home invader and being forced to kill an innocent person is the same. What I specifically said is that while I think it makes sense that Mycroft was unable to kill the Governor, the bit I really feel was OOC for Mycroft was the clown sequence. Like you said, the clown is an intruder. Killing him would have been self-defense. Serbia!croft would have skewered that clown.

I get that Mycroft was in charge in Serbia and he feels out of control when he thinks Eurus is in his house. Even so, I feel like the reason Mycroft panics and runs down the stairs instead of killing the clown is because that’s what he has to do for the sake of the plot. And I do think that writing Mycroft OOC for plot reasons was a disservice to his character.

Also, when people are talking about Mycroft’s hypocrisy, again, the comparison isn’t really between killing a home invader vs. killing an innocent person. The comparison is between ordering an assassination and pulling the trigger yourself, or between authorizing an operation which will result in people dying and killing someone yourself. We know from The Six Thatchers that Mycroft employed AGRA. We don’t know what exactly he utilized them for, but we do know what kind of work Mary did. We know from The Final Problem that he authorized the purchase of a number of “patience grenades” that will presumably kill a bunch of people.

And yes, you can argue that there’s a difference between ordering the assassination of a terrorist and killing an innocent person. But innocent people die in counter-terrorism operations too, and their deaths are written off as collateral damage. People try to justify the deaths of those innocents by making the utilitarian argument that more deaths may have been prevented, and we see Mycroft employing that argument:

"His goal is to protect as many people as possible - we see that in TFP, too, with his thought that they should have the girl crash the plane into water or away from civilization, so more people don’t get hurt."

Quite so. And if you carry that argument through to its logical conclusion, he should have shot the Governor so that just the Governor died instead of the Governor and his wife. Fewer people would have been hurt. That was the utilitarian choice, and presumably when running counter terrorism operations, Mycroft makes utilitarian choices.

But he couldn’t make that choice in The Final Problem because he didn’t want to get his own hands dirty. And the reason people are saying that he’s a hypocrite for that is because his hands are already unclean.

thecutteralicia:

“What I specifically said is that while I think it makes sense that Mycroft was unable to kill the Governor, the bit I really feel was OOC for Mycroft was the clown sequence. Like you said, the clown is an intruder. Killing him would have been self-defense. Serbia!croft would have skewered that clown.” 

He tried to kill the intruder. He pulled out the gun and pulled the trigger, but Sherlock had removed the bullets in anticipation of that so no one would get hurt. As for skewering him, you can’t stab someone who is many feet away and out of your reach.

As for the rest of your post, the talk of “collateral damage” runs into a philosophical debate about war that I’m not interested in having in this context. I don’t think it’s OOC for Mycroft (nor John, for that matter) to not have wanted to shoot the governor in the head as part of Eurus’ games, no matter their pasts or what they’ve done to protect others (and again, it astounds me how many people forget that we’ve seen John shoot someone already on the show).