The importance of Molly's absence in THoB

 (Sherlock meta by kathleenkellly)

There is not much written about THOB that is Sherlolly related, which makes sense since Molly does not appear. I think, however, that Molly’s absence from the episode actually reveals a lot about Sherlock and Molly’s relationship that carries over into TRF.

During the scene in the Baskerville lab, Sherlock is analyzing the sugar looking for the presence of a drug. He gets extremely frustrated. Dr. Stapleton and John are talking to each other and are of no help to Sherlock. He’s all on his own looking for the answer and ends up throwing the slide at the wall in frustration, something I don’t see him doing in Molly’s presence.

Sherlock is missing Molly at this point. He needs his lab partner. Like John, Molly is someone Sherlock needs to test his theories on, someone knowledgable enough to provide feedback. While John is helpful in other areas, chemistry and lab work are not his strengths.

In TRF when he needs to analyze the footprint of the kidnapper, Sherlock immediately goes to Molly. “I’ve got a lunch date.” “Cancel it. You’re having lunch with me.” He simply won’t do the analysis without her. When they start working, they’re a team. Molly keeps him calm and focused.

Sherlock calls her 'John', but John is important to his work. The fact that he confuses her says a lot. In the lab, Molly is his John, his crime-solving partner. Right after this, Molly blows Sherlock’s mind by correctly deducing him, something John has never been able to. Sherlock suddenly looks at Molly in a whole new light. This woman sees right through Sherlock and knows exactly what’s going on. He doesn’t fool her. She asks him what he means when he mumbles “I owe you”. He tries to blow it off, but Molly won’t let him. She proceeds to let him know that she is aware that something is going on and that he should tell her because she can help him. From this point on Sherlock knows that Molly is the one person that matters the most to him, the person he can turn to in his darkest hour.

Sherlock cares about his clients

 (Sherlock meta by thecutteralicia)

This is a completely underrated scene.

For those who allege that Sherlock doesn’t care about his clients, look at that third gif. There’s real sadness and compassion there. During this scene, Henry is actively suicidal and keeps putting a gun in his mouth, but it’s Sherlock - not John, the soldier and doctor - who talks Henry down.

“Someone needed to keep you quiet; needed to keep you as a child to reassert the dream that you’d both clung on to, because you had started to remember…You couldn’t cope. You were just a child, so you rationalized it into something very different. But then you started to remember, so you had to be stopped; driven out of your mind so that no one would believe a word that you said.”

Does Sherlock only care about the mysteries? At this point in the episode, he already had the solution. He knew the workings behind H.O.U.N.D. and the poisonous gas. He could have left. But he wanted to make Henry understand, to alleviate some of the grief he’d carried since his father’s death. Sherlock even forces Henry to look at the dead dog to drive the point home. “You couldn’t cope. You were just a child.“ 

It’s a remarkable display of empathy on Sherlock’s part.

I had to go back and find and reblog this meta from four years ago because it’s taken on new poignancy in light of The Final Problem. Now we know that Sherlock, too, had conjured a hound of his own.