Time for another speculative theory about the Christmas scene

 (Sherlock meta by kathleenkellly)

Time for another speculative theory… In A Scandal in Belgravia prior to the Christmas scene, suppose Sherlock had been mistakenly informed that Molly had a boyfriend. He was especially agitated during this scene. Now this was probably due to the fact that all these people were in his flat. But maybe there was more to it. Why did he go after Molly here unless there was something that we don’t know about. He seemed so determined to prove that Molly’s present was for her boyfriend that it completely blinded him from the fact that it could be for anyone else (or himself!).

Let’s work through the whole scene. It starts out with Sherlock playing the violin near the window. As others have pointed out, every time Sherlock is expecting Molly at Baker St., he is near or looking out the window prior to her arrival. In this scene, it cuts away right after he steps toward the window and shows the outside of the building just as a cab drives by. I watched this very closely and it appears that he looks out just as it cuts away. In the previous scene, Sherlock is playing the violin and watches out the window as Mycroft leaves so it would make sense that in this scene he would be playing as he watches for as someone arrives. Playing the violin would give him an excuse to casually walk around and look out the window for Molly without anyone noticing. I’m guessing this party is just a casual, drop-by-whenever type of get-together. We know that Molly was invited because no one was surprised to see her, so Sherlock would have known to expect her. He finishes playing his song and proceeds with trying to figure out Jeanette’s name in his slightly annoyed mood (which gets worse when Molly arrives), not caring about her or John’s feelings. In fact, he seems to want to ruin everyone’s relationships as he later informs Lestrade that his wife is sleeping with a p.e. teacher and that John’s sister is still drinking, again all without remorse.

Molly arrives all dressed up, bearing gifts. “Oh, dear Lord.” Now this comment can be taken different ways. I think it’s due to her fancy appearance. Look at his eyes when he sees her walk in. They’re wide open and he stares at her for a minute. He wasn’t expecting her to be so dressed up and he’s probably never seen her like this before, since he mostly sees her at work. He says it sarcastically, but I think he is hiding his genuine surprise. After Molly walks in, Sherlock avoids looking at her. She takes off her coat with everyone in awe. She tries to make eye contact with Sherlock, but he busies himself with the computer, deliberately trying to distract himself. He can’t help but listen to the conversation though and add his biting remarks.

Molly makes conversation with everyone. She makes the joke to Mrs. Hudson about doing post-mortems. “Don’t make jokes, Molly” Sherlock says almost affectionately. I think Sherlock liked this joke. He couldn’t help commenting. He has a morbid sense of humor just like Molly. To me the subtext here is “I appreciate the joke but these people don’t, so it’s probably not a good idea”. We find out that Sherlock chats with Molly, possibly as they work together at Barts, and has told her about everyone’s holiday plans. She finally gets Sherlock to look over at her briefly by teasing about his complaining.

Sherlock proceeds to get crankier until he finally can’t stand it anymore. He has to find out who Molly’s boyfriend is. He has been thinking about it since she walked in and has now reached the breaking point. He picks up the present to peek at the label, but not before showing off a little. His deductions seem like rather a stretch unless he had heard something about a possible boyfriend. He jumps to some pretty hasty conclusions (she’s serious about him? long-term hopes?… getting a little ahead of ourselves aren’t we, Sherlock?). He thinks the reason she’s dressed up is because she’s seeing him later. This would explain why he’s gotten more agitated since she’s arrived. His jealousy has manifested itself as annoyance with everyone and trying to prove he is right.

Sherlock has a reason to worry about Molly having a boyfriend. The last guy Molly dated was Moriarty so Sherlock is probably feeling protective of her knowing what he does now. I wonder if he’s told Molly who Jim from I.T. really is. Either way, he has now met Moriarty and knows this same man went out with Molly. It would seem natural that he would worry about her since they work together often.

Sherlock’s focus on Molly’s boyfriend causes him to be wrong. His jealousy has gotten in the way of his deductions and causes him to hurt her. For the first time we see his feelings get in the way of his reasoning, the very thing he tries to avoid.

Sherlock is shocked. You can see it on his face. Not only is he wrong, but even worse he has hurt Molly. What started out as friendly teasing ended up going horribly wrong. She calls him out on the awful things he says. He tries to walk away, but can’t. Whether he was aware of it before or not, Sherlock realizes now that he cares for Molly and that he really screwed up. He apologizes and kisses her on the cheek to the shock of everyone else. His phone goes off and he gets distracted with Irene’s present still feeling awful. John tries joking with him about about the number of texts he’s gotten, but he’s not in the mood. He sets Molly’s present on his desk and we are left to guess what it could be. I also wonder what would have happened had his phone not gone off…

Later on in the episode Molly asks him about Irene’s phone: “Is it your girlfriend’s?”. “You think she’s my girlfriend because I’m x-raying her possessions.” Molly says “well, we all do silly things”. I think Molly is referring to how he deduced she had a boyfriend because of how she wrapped a present. They were both trying to figure out if the other was seeing someone or not and made hasty deductions. They are both interested in each other’s relationship status.

This is all before the big breakthrough Sherlock has with Molly in TRF, but I think it’s where their relationship really starts to change. Sherlock, who has never cared about what he says to others, including everyone else he taunted at Christmas, realizes Molly is different. He didn’t like how he felt after he hurt Molly and I think at this moment he resolves to treat her better. And Molly knows that she can stand up for herself and challenges Sherlock to be the better man that she knows he can be.

The significance of Molly's jumper

 (Sherlock meta by kathleenkellly)

I made a comment on this before but I wanted to elaborate. I think it’s very significant that they had Molly [in the ILY scene] wearing the jumper from The Empty Hearse.

“You thought he was the one though, the love of your life.”

Sherlock’s thank you to Molly was a day solving crimes together. One of the cases just happens to be a man catfishing his own step-daughter and Sherlock, well aware of Molly in the room, unleashes on him. He will not tolerate someone playing with another person’s heart and by doing so he shows Molly that he values her love.

Then that hallway scene. He brings up her engagement at last. It feels like it’s supposed to be a goodbye. He’s happy for her because she deserves love and she lays out all the reasons why she should be happy, but it doesn’t really feel like she is. They walk away with what feels like a lot of things left unsaid, because they can’t.

And then Molly breaks off the engagement. It’s not over.

Fast forward to The Final Problem, she’s had a bad day and wearing the jumper again. They finally say “I love you”. We’ve known it about Molly all along, but to hear Sherlock say it, especially that second time - it’s real. Whether you see it as friendship or something more, it was real then and it’s real now.

Sherlock notices Molly in a different way than other people

 (Sherlock meta by kathleenkellly)

It has always seemed to me that Sherlock notices Molly in a different way than other people. Of course he notices everything about everyone, but the way he goes about it with Molly feels different. When he deduces other people, he is either showing off or proving his point when working on a case (or we only see these deductions written on the screen as he does not reveal them out loud, which never happens with Molly!). With Molly, it seems like he does it for himself, like he’s just thinking out loud, not like he’s performing for a crowd. He holds Molly in high regard. Molly was there before he met John and Sherlock trusts her enough (meaning a lot!) to help him with his experiments which are very important to him and his work (“I need to know what bruises form in the next twenty minutes, a man’s alibi depends upon it”).

He seems to comment on her appearance more than anyone else (lipstick, hair, weight, etc) and not for any purpose. Sherlock only fills his mind palace with information that he deems useful. Molly’s appearance and her presence take up a part of it (and this was proven in His Last Vow after he was shot). And why does he feel the need to tell her these comments if she is insignificant to him? It is as if he is, either consciously or unconsciously, letting her know he thinks about her. In the lab scene in The Reichenbach Fall (“I don’t matter”), he suddenly becomes aware of her importance to him and realizes that he has been taking her for granted. Sherlock lacks social awareness and I think this was a very eye-opening moment for him. We, the audience, could see this transformation (mostly starting with season 2 and the Christmas scene) and at that moment he saw it himself.

Also, this scene in The Sign of  Three shows how much their relationship has developed. The scene in The Blind Banker where he compliments her new hairstyle was basically him trying to sweet-talk his way into the morgue. He needed to show the inspector the tattoos on the feet of both of the victims to would prove that the crimes were connected. Molly is flattered and willingly complies with his request, even though she was probably breaking the rules (“the paperwork has already gone through”). In contrast, this scene in The Sign of Three, when he tells her she looks well, doesn’t have that same manipulative aspect to it. To me, he is being genuine here and wants her to know that she looks good (also he pauses after “you look” which might mean he was going to use another compliment and settled for “well”). Molly is no longer so acquiescent, she stands up for herself. I love that she responds “I am” to this compliment. She knows she looks good and not just because he tells her so. She is also more comfortable with their relationship which she proves by teasing him and making him flustered. They have a more balanced relationship. It is not just her having a crush on him anymore. They respect each other.

Sherlock is not one to dole out a lot of compliments. I’m trying recall other instances of him doing so (besides his best man speech) and can’t think of a specific one at the moment (there might be some I just can’t think of right now). Ever since Sherlock became aware of Molly’s importance to him, he has complimented her several times (and of course we will never forget that she is the “ONE person that mattered the most”).

Also in this scene, he acts like he barely remembers Tom, but to me, he’s feigning indifference. I think he’s interested in hearing how their relationship is going. Sherlock doesn’t enjoy small talk. In The Sign of Three, he tries “chatting” with John (about Sholto) and then says he “won’t be trying that again”. Why would he bother asking about Tom, and therefore Molly and Tom’s relationship, unless he is genuinely interested in her and her life? Molly wonders why he is even there requesting her assistance. He is a graduate chemist and could probably figure out the calculations on his own. He says that he lacks the “practical experience”, but I think Sherlock enjoys Molly’s company and uses this as an excuse to spend time with her.

Sherlock and Molly’s relationship has been the most developed on the show

 (Sherlock meta by kathleenkellly)

Moffat and Gatiss have said that Sherlock is as much about relationships as it is a detective show. While with John the friendship is instantaneous, Sherlock and Molly’s relationship has been the most developed.

They start out at opposite ends of the spectrum. Molly has a crush on Sherlock and at first perhaps causes her a bit to turn a blind eye to some of his faults. But gradually it becomes impossible to ignore his comments and she finally calls him out on it at the Christmas party. She still loves him, but she doesn’t put him on a pedestal anymore. He’s flawed but she knows he’s capable of being a better person.

On the other hand, Sherlock barely acknowledges her in the beginning. He knows she’s smart and that they work well together but doesn’t see her as more than a working partner. He takes advantage of her willingness to help with his cases. When he gets called out at Christmas, I think that’s when he really first sees Molly as a person. He’s hurt her and it doesn’t feel good. His eyes are opened even further during the Reichenbach lab scene when she reads him exactly. He’s completely underestimated her.

In S3, Molly tries to move on with someone else and Sherlock is genuinely happy for her. But when Molly sees that Sherlock has changed, he’s kinder and tells her what she means to him, she knows it’s not going to work with Tom. She’s been trying to substitute him for the man she really loves. Meanwhile Sherlock gets shot and it is revealed that Molly has a prominent place in his mind palace. She keeps him calm and focused.

Now in the special we see Molly again in Sherlock’s mind palace. Confident, intelligent, determined. He acknowledges that he’s wronged her.

So with S4 it seems like they are meeting somewhere in the middle for the first time. There’s likely going to be repercussions for Sherlock for getting high again, but they seem to be heading towards a relationship that’s on more equal footing built on a foundation of mutual respect and understanding.

“Hooper.” “Holmes.” seemed like, at least in Sherlock’s mind, they’ve reached that point. It’s like he’s saying ‘you’ve seen me and now I see you’.

Sherlock and Molly in S3 

(Sherlock meta by kathleenkellly, sherlollymouse and doctor-molly-hooper-holmes)

kathleenkellly:

Interesting you would say this, Sherlock, because you have just spent the day:

• hinting that Mycroft is lonely right before Molly is set to arrive 
• asking Molly to join you solving crimes, the thing you love the most 
• telling Molly not to be John, but to be herself 
• being extra harsh to a man that posed as the love of his step-daughter’s life in front of Molly 
• smiling at Molly and giving her flirty looks 
• asking Molly out to dinner 
• telling Molly she was “the one person that mattered the most”, that she “made it all possible”, and that the whole day was about thanking her for everything she did 
• congratulating Molly on her engagement and telling her she deserves to be happy 
• giving Molly a genuine smile with a hint of sadness
• kissing Molly tenderly on the cheek 

Not all the men Molly falls for turn out to be sociopaths, because Sherlock is NOT a sociopath.

[...] So Sherlock has just spend the day showing Molly how he is not a sociopath (whether intentionally or not) and thanking her for “everything” that she did for him (which I think indicates that Molly did a lot more for him than we’ll probably ever know, but that’s another story).

Then he brings up her engagement and says “but you can’t do this again can you”. It shows that Sherlock considers this a date. He seemed nervous when he was originally asking her and now he’s treating it as something more than just a day spent solving crimes. If he doesn’t consider it a date, then why do they have to end it? They would simply be two friends spending the day working on a case. There’s nothing inappropriate with that. Why is he suddenly feeling guilty about spending the day with an engaged woman? Because he has feelings for her. Feelings that are potentially growing stronger as they spend more time together. Feelings that scare him and that he can’t share with her now she’s with someone.

Molly then describes Tom making him seem the opposite of Sherlock: “he’s nice, he’s got a dog, we go to the pub on weekends”. Tom is “normal”. Sherlock makes the sociopaths comment. He mistakenly thinks that this is what Molly wants: a normal man with a normal life. The funny thing is during the rest of S3 we are shown that Sherlock shares some of these characteristics, just in his own unique way. He had a dog he once loved. He goes to the pub with John. He has loving parents and a group of friends.

Sherlock doesn’t hear Molly’s comment at the end “maybe it’s just my type.” He doesn’t know that she considers Sherlock to be her type. Molly just spent an enjoyable day with Sherlock and sees what life with him would be like. She now realizes that life with Tom pales in comparison. She doesn’t want normal. It may have seemed okay when Sherlock was gone, but he’s back now and so are her feelings.

Moffat said after S3 that Molly is “fascinated by (Sherlock), but she knows that’s not who she actually wants to end up with.” If this is really the case, then why does S3 end with Molly breaking her engagement? They had Molly get engaged to someone only to realize that Tom is not what she wants, Sherlock is what she wants. They showed how important Molly is to Sherlock as she appears in his mind palace. They showed us how developed their relationship has become when she slaps him for using drugs. And then S3 ends with a subtle “oh yeah by the way he’s slept in her bedroom” revelation. Moffat even said in that same interview that Sherlock loves Molly. Why spend so much time on their relationship if it’s not going anywhere?

sherlollymouse:

Precisely, it’s nice to see him nervous around her, too. He makes that excuse to see her in TSoT and she calls him out on it, even pokes fun and teases him. I’m convinced she was FLIRTING with him and it was adorable. I would like to know, though, how Moffat wants to explain S3 if Molly doesn’t want Sherlock anymore.

doctor-molly-hooper-holmes:

In response to Moffat’s comment about Molly: I always took that to mean that she doesn’t idealize him anymore. For a while, it seemed like she had a crush on her fantasy version of Sherlock, not the actual man. I believe that all changed during the Christmas party in ASiB, when Sherlock finally turned his cruel deductions on her (it’s my head canon that this was the first and last time he did so). She was forced to see all of Sherlock, flaws included. I think this is when she first really began to fall in love with him.

It’s been seen many times on the show that Sherlock is awful at hiding his emotions around Molly (TRF, TEH, etc.). The lab scene in TRF revealed that she sees through him anyway, so why put forth the effort to hide them? In my opinion, Moffat was just stating that Molly doesn’t want to end up with her idealized version of Sherlock, because she now knows and loves the real Sherlock.

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.