Molly Hooper and the Reichenbach Fall

 (Sherlock meta by penfairy)

There is something they’re not telling us about Molly Hooper.

In all the theories they showed us of how Sherlock survived The Fall, none of them quite seemed to fit, and the chink in the armour is always Molly.

When Sherlock went to Molly in TRF to ask her for help, he was in a tremendously vulnerable state. His facade had completely crumbled and he was showing her a side of himself not even John had seen. There were tears in his eyes when he said “I’m not okay” and the answer to the question “What do you need?” was “You.” Sherlock needed Molly: he said it. For the conclusion of that highly emotional scene to be Molly faking some paperwork or finding a Sherlock look-alike is absurd.

Just look at how Sherlock treats her when he comes back to London, the way he’s a little nervous around her, the way he actively seeks her company and tries to impress her and make her laugh, the way he thanks her with sincerity and the way he smiles before he kisses her cheek and wishes her happiness. This man adores her. He treats her with an uncharacteristic fondness that is completely at odds with his attitude towards her in S1 and S2. He made a real point of thanking her properly and refused to let her brush it aside. All of this indicates that whatever she did was far more important than they’re letting on.

And then there’s the fact that Sherlock immediately thought of Molly when he was shot. It’s as though “How Not To Die” is now filed under “Molly Hooper.” She’s a safety net for him, ready to catch him the instant he’s about to fall apart. She’s a constant source of comfort and security for him and he quite literally trusts her with his life.

So what exactly did she do to earn this incredible trust?

To bring about such a profound attitude change in Sherlock Holmes, she must have done something truly extraordinary on the day of The Fall. [...] Molly did a lot more than fake some paperwork. The day of The Fall, his life must have been completely in her hands.

Why didn't Sherlock see through Molly's disguise in TAB?

 (Sherlock meta by penfairy)

I’m seeing some people say that it’s unrealistic for Sherlock not to see through Molly Hooper’s disguise in The Abominable Bride, but remember that this is all in his mind. Sherlock is seeing what’s appropriate for him to see.

Since they recreated the scene where Sherlock flagellates the corpse, I expected them to introduce Molly in the same scene. But they didn’t, because in Sherlock’s worldview Molly did not exist in that scene. She was too unimportant to take any real notice of. Later on, she’s introduced to us as Hooper, and she’s effectively neutered by her male disguise, rendered sexless. She is nothing but the slightly argumentative doctor who provides valuable assistance with his work. “I don’t count” is her famous line in S2, and it takes Sherlock some time to realise “You do count. You’ve always counted and I’ve always trusted you.” He didn’t see the real her and who she truly was until much later on, just as he doesn’t in the special. That is why it’s such a shock when she doffs her disguise and he sees her as a woman, and why one of the biggest revelations he has in his mind palace is “I’ve treated the women in my life horrendously and I need to make amends.”

Of course the real Sherlock would have seen through Hooper’s disguise in a second, but in his mind Sherlock doesn’t because it reflects his changing perceptions of her in real life. John, on the other hand, sees the value in people right from the start, and he cared for Molly’s feelings in real life from the moment he met her. Sherlock knows this, and that is why John recognises her in the mind palace before he does.

Explaining Molly Hooper and the ILY scene

 (Sherlock meta by penfairy)

A lot of these posts “””defending””” Molly Hooper after that last episode are really rubbing me up the wrong way, because I swear NONE of y’all have given a single shit about Molly until now. I’ve had to endure 3 years of people saying it’s “pathetic” that Molly slapped Sherlock because he “didn’t return her feelings” (WHICH IS NOT WHY SHE HIT HIM OH MY GOD), and I’ve had to listen to people say her silly crush on Sherlock is embarrassing or that she needs to grow up and move on. Even when she’s been praised, she hasn’t been praised as an engaging and interesting character, as the sweet, kind and intelligent young pathologist she is, she’s been praised because she allegedly serves as a prop to further a relationship between two gay men. Which - guess what guys, IS NOT PROGRESSIVE.

But oh, now that her feelings have finally been vindicated, now suddenly it’s poor Molly and Molly deserves better. But listen. I’m the first person to say that Sherlock’s got major problems with writing women. Ask me about Mary’s fridging sometime. And yes, I wish to God Molly had more screentime, but this idea that her final scene is about glamorising abusive relationships or that Molly was nothing but a prop is killing me.

Do you know what I saw when I watched that scene with Eurus and Molly?

I saw a character who had undergone tremendous growth over the past four seasons. Originally intended as a one-off, but so spellbindingly brought to life by Loo Brealey that she was made a non-canon recurring character, Molly has grown from timid, mousy and submissive to a woman more than willing to stand up for herself, whose kindness is her strength and whose love was the undoing of Moriarty. She’s smart - she’s the literal embodiment of medical and pathological knowledge in Sherlock’s mind palace. She proved you can be soft and strong, that vulnerability doesn’t have to mean weakness, and that you can stand up to someone and demand better treatment in a gentle voice.

And, God forbid, she’s also in love with a man. But she’s never been given the opportunity to say so. Her feelings, which have been a strength and a weakness, are visible enough to us and everyone in the show, but she’s never said it out loud.

Now, truth in fiction is a rare substance. It always takes a tremendous amount of pressure for two people to be completely honest with each other, especially if that truth concerns feelings of love. The question, “what will it take to make Molly tell Sherlock she loves him?” is answered in this scene. And the answer is: Sherlock needs to say I love you first.

And do you know who was in control in that scene? Molly. Every single step of the way. At any moment she could have told Sherlock to stick it up his arse and hung up. There would have been no repercussions for her. Sherlock tries in myriad ways to get an I love you and she blocks him every time, says “leave me alone,” tells him she won’t let him make fun of her, tells him she’s not an experiment. She hasn’t been treated well by Sherlock and John this season, is still grieving over Mary, is probably suffering depression, and she’s sick of Sherlock’s nonsense. She’s willing to help if it’s urgent, but she’s done playing games.

She tells him she can’t say it because it’s true. It’s always been true. She’s always loved him. Do you have any idea how long we’ve waited for her feelings to be validated? At last, no, it’s not a stupid girlish crush, it’s not infatuation, it’s a beautiful, selfless love that she cherishes for him. She loves this man. She saved his life. She stood up to him. She refused to tolerate shabby treatment from him. She was happy to be his friend. She moved on and found a new man, but when Sherlock came back, she had to be honest with herself, and she decided it would be better to be alone than marry a man she doesn’t really love. She is so brave, and so selfless, and she’s never once made her feelings his problem. That’s why she begs him - don’t make me say it because it’s true, it’s always been true.

And then, still feeling like this must be a game somehow, she challenges him to say it first. Go on. If you want me to make a fool of myself, then you have to go first. I’m not jumping until you do. Molly can see through him; he can’t manipulate her like he did in S1. She’s not that person anymore. And he’s not that person anymore, either. Eurus didn’t rig Molly’s flat with explosives, and Sherlock didn’t win when he supposedly saved her life, because it wasn’t about that. It was about torturing Sherlock emotionally, and where once he manipulated her without a second thought, hurting Molly now is like vivisection to him. Eurus - Molly - both get him to admit “I love you” - twice. Once, because he was trying to save her life - the second time because he realised it was true. As a friend, or something more, who even cares, he loves her and he realises just how much.

And still, Molly is in control. She can hang up, if she wants. She contemplates it. But then, almost kissing the phone, perhaps having recognised the note of sincerity in his voice, she whispers, I love you. 

Too often an unrequited crush ends when a character suddenly finds a new man or woman, falls in love, and gets over their old feelings, and has a happily ever after with this random new person. But I’ve always found that maddeningly dissatisfying, and even though it comes from horrific circumstances, I’m so glad that Molly’s feelings were validated, not because Sherlock returned them, but simply because those feelings are hers, and they are real, they’ve always been real, and it hurts, god it hurts, but at least she was able to be honest. The cut has been made, the truth is revealed, and now she can begin to heal. She doesn’t have to keep those words festering inside her. Molly loves Sherlock, and it took him telling her he loved her to admit that.

And Sherlock’s a wreck afterwards. He caresses those words “I love you” and thinks about how he always believed caring was not an advantage. He thinks about selfless, kind Molly Hooper, who had always loved him, and saved him, whose love was her strength, whose love was doomed, who would not suppress or deny her feelings, but merely kept them to herself to spare him discomfort and then -

He thinks about Molly in that coffin. He thinks about losing her. He thinks about what he’s just said to her. He thinks of how he’s hurt her.

No.

He loses control. Always, he’s pretended to be pure intellect, has always clung to rationality, but in this moment he is nothing but emotion. Rage, pain, fear, sadness, needing to destroy this coffin, smashing it to pieces, screaming in agony because of how much he feels for this woman.

Molly loves Sherlock. We’ve known for a long time. And I truly feel that Molly being allowed to own those feelings, because they are hers, regardless of whether they are reciprocated or not, is far more powerful than sweeping them under the rug and pretending they never existed or that she got over them just fine. This is how she feels, and no she won’t tolerate poor treatment because of them, and no she won’t put up with him playing games, but yes - she will be there when he needs her, because that’s just who she is.

Molly's behaviour in TFP were symptomatic of depression

 (Sherlock meta by penfairy)

jacobs-jottings: 

I thought maybe [Molly was] pregnant at first [as an explanation to her mood before the phone call]. But I think she's just meant to be run down, plus, it'd be odd to make a character possibly pregnant whilst establishing uncertainty on any new series, and also, that she's still not over her love for Sherlock (she deserves better tbh!!!) But yeah, they're also all general symptoms of depression, and by the analysing of her coffin, we gathered her life isn't so good. Then that was reaffirmed by her isolation and general sadness on the phone.

penfairy: 

Yeah, I think they would’ve made it explicit if she really were pregnant. Plus, thinking about it, it’s far more powerful if her behaviour were symptomatic of depression. Sherlock’s voice broke when he said “alone” and I think that’s what it all pivots around. Molly has no close family; her father is dead and she had no-one besides the Baker St crew to spend Christmas with in ASiB. She had Tom for a while, but it’s clear he was there to fill the void and she didn’t really love him, and in a decision that would have taken an enormous amount of courage, she decided it was better to be honest and break it off with Tom - better to be alone than marry someone she didn’t really love. Then she became godmother to Rosie, and had to deal with the aftermath of Mary’s death, trying to look after Rosie and keep John and Sherlock from falling apart while she was grieving too. She had to watch the man she loved slowly killing himself through reckless behaviour. She was tired, so tired. She’d had enough. She stood up to Sherlock in that phone call, wouldn’t agree to any games or experiments, didn’t even want to pick up the phone because she was so sick of it all. And that’s fucking heartbreaking. The only family she’s got has been torn apart, and she was slowly buckling under the strain of keeping it all together.

So when we see her she’s sad. And alone. She couldn’t even find the strength to go to work that day.

When Sherlock said he loved her, and she said the same to him, it was a moment of release and catharsis. The second time Sherlock said those words, he meant it - and it’s up to us to decide whether he meant it romantically or platonically - but he fucking meant those words, and he meant it when he called her his friend. And even though it hurt both of them - even though it was torture, vivisection, being cut open - it means they can start to heal now.

Just look at Molly’s smile in the montage at the end. Her big smile as she greets her friends - her family - at 221B. Things were rough for Molly. I don’t doubt that she developed depression, or at least suffered a depressive episode. But what Eurus did was allow Sherlock and Molly to tell the truth for once, and once they’d said those words and revealed their darkest secrets, they could move on, and Molly could recover. Whether or not Sherlock returns her feelings romantically is irrelevant; we know she’s going to be all right. She has friends who value her and treat her well, she has a god-daughter and all her work colleagues too. She’s not alone.

Eurus wanted Sherlock to hurt Molly, and hurt himself in the process

 (Sherlock meta by penfairy)

Eurus wanted Sherlock to hurt Molly, and hurt himself in the process, but more importantly that was her way of making him admit he loves Molly. She set up the game so that Sherlock thought he had to make Molly say those words - but when he fulfilled this aim, he lost. He lost, because Eurus’ aim was actually to make Sherlock sincerely say I love you.

Eurus can read people in seconds, and she knew that the only way Molly would ever admit she loved Sherlock was if Sherlock said he loved her first. Molly was always so careful to keep her feelings to herself; she made sure her unrequited crush was her problem and not his; she respected his boundaries and didn’t let it get in the way of their friendship. So of course, only one thing could make her speak up. Molly’s challenge for Sherlock to say it first was initially rooted in fear that this was a game, and she refused to make a fool of herself unless he did. He stumbles out a clumsy I love you, blinks in awe, and says it again, this time truly, sincerely. It is the second I love you, ringing with a note of tragic truth, that makes her whisper it back instead of hanging up.

Think about how Eurus set this up. Think about the fact that the “I love you” is written on Molly’s coffin. If Molly were inside that coffin, as we are meant to imagine her, then those three words would necessarily have been engraved there by someone else. They are not Molly’s words. Those words on Molly’s coffin are FOR Molly - an epitaph, from someone who loves her. Mycroft was wrong. The question to ask was not “who loves you?” but rather “whom do you love?” because if Sherlock did not love this person in return, then where would the emotional context be? Those words are Sherlock’s.

The platonic or romantic argument is another matter, but the point is that Eurus was vivisecting Sherlock here, and she wanted to see HIM come to terms with his love for Molly, and to see him grapple with how much he wants to protect her and how painful it is for him to hurt her in any way. It’s this heady brew of emotions that makes him absolutely lose his mind. He trashes the coffin and screams in agony, because he loves her, because he hurt her, because it is pure torture to be cruel to her or to think of her in that coffin, with “so many words unsaid.” Particularly those words - his words, for her.

About Molly Hooper being lonely

 (Sherlock meta by penfairy)

Anonymous: I think Molly Hooper is a lesbian! (attracted to unattainable men, (sherlock + 'jim from i.t.') or in a relationship with a poor substitute for that first unattainable man (tom) who she doesn't really care for) what do you think? also I hope you've been having a nice day!

penfairy ehhhh… as a wlw who’s been in a relationship with men/convinced myself I was attracted to men (thanks strict Catholic upbringing, small town life and compulsory heterosexuality, you sure did a fucking number on me there) Molly’s behaviour doesn’t strike me as that of a closet lesbian. She’s missing the feelings of terror, guilt, entrapment and horrific self-loathing that come with dating a man in those circumstances, and she certainly enjoys sex with Tom. I think her attraction to Sherlock is real and valid, and her relationship with Jim and Tom comes from a desperate need to be loved. Jim flattered her and gave her all the attention she wanted to ensure he’d get close to Sherlock. Tom, though she doesn’t love him, brings company, normality and stability to her life, which is as close as she can get to fulfilment.

The thing is with Molly, she’s lonely. Remember that Christmas party where Sherlock was so cruel to her? She volunteered to to go down to the morgue afterwards because, “everyone else was busy with Christmas.” As in, they’ve all got friends and family but I don’t, so I might as well work. She had nowhere else to be that night, no other friends and family besides that little group of misfits. She was close to her father, once upon a time, and she watched him die a slow death. Now he’s gone and she has no close family left. But Molly is so kind, and so full of love, and even though she’s lonely and she’s been hurt and rejected time and again, she keeps reaching out to people. She doesn’t isolate herself to make it hurt less, doesn’t pretend she’s better off alone, she still loves with her whole heart and is prepared to help any friend who asks.

A big reason for her isolation comes from the nature of her job. She’s a pathologist, and her work, and her attitude towards her work is alienating to others. In Sherlock’s mind palace, Molly is the embodiment of medical and pathological knowledge. He calls on her for help when he’s shot. Not John, the doctor - he turns to Molly for expert knowledge. When it comes to the human body - dead people in particular - she knows more than Sherlock. Mycroft, Sherlock and Scotland Yard all count her as the best and most trustworthy pathologist in Britain. Considering her relatively young age, that’s pretty phenomenal. She has an amazing passion and talent for this work and she loves the thrill of helping to solve cases. This is why it’s so wonderful to see her becoming a part of the Holmes crew, because amongst an army doctor, a pregnant ex-assassin, a consulting detective, the ineffable Mrs Hudson and Scotland Yard’s finest, this mousy pathologist fits right in. You might even say she has a family now.

I personally see Molly as bi, and I think she just wants to be in a relationship with someone she genuinely loves and someone who loves her in return. Someone who understands her and who will fulfil her desire for family as well as understand and accommodate her passion for her work. I mean, we saw her sigh over Sherlock flogging a corpse. Whoever she ends up with can’t be boring and ordinary like Tom. He or she will have to be strange and wonderful and extraordinary, just like her.

Jealous?

 (Sherlock meta by penfairy)

I need to talk about this moment.

From what I’ve seen, a lot of people don’t fully appreciate the gravity of this scene, or else they look at it with the shipping goggles on and say Sherlock’s jealous because he’s spotted Molly’s wedding ring.

But I’m almost certain we’re supposed to take this moment as an indication that Sherlock is indeed jealous of Molly Hooper’s intelligence.

Throughout this scene Sherlock hears John’s voice taunting him, saying things like “You forgot to put your collar up.” Being on bad terms with John has caused him to hear John vocalising his insecurities and pointing out his flaws. So when Molly begins to make correct deductions from just a look at this skeleton, he hears John’s voice saying “Jealous?”, which implies, “You just can’t stand anyone being cleverer than you, can you? You can’t handle the fact that Molly is smarter.” 

We’ve known for a long time that Molly is good at what she does. Even before Sherlock took any real notice of her, she was still the person he trusted most with autopsies. He used her as a lab assistant, not because he took any real pleasure in her company as he does later on, but because he knew he could rely on her expertise. He’s “always trusted” Molly, both as a person and as a professional.

And she not only lives up to his impossible standards. She excels them. He is jealous of her. He’s jealous of her anatomical knowledge, of her abilities as a pathologist, of her skill in the medical field. In his mind palace she is even the damn personification of medical knowledge.

Sherlock may be a consulting detective, but Molly is his consulting pathologist. When it comes to dead bodies, Molly Hooper is queen.

Sherlock, Molly and Season 4

 (Sherlock meta by penfairy)

I really believe that Sherlock is gearing up for Molly to become Sherlock’s love interest in the next season.

Just think about it. If Moffat and Gatiss had wanted to take a Sherlolly romance off the cards they would have married her off to a nice young man and simply kept her as Sherlock’s friend. Instead they engaged her to a dumb Sherlock lookalike whom she dumps by the third episode.

Molly is a fan favourite and the writers know this. They know we want her to be happy, so they would not stop her from moving on and attaining happiness unless they had planned a romance more suited to her tastes in later seasons. The Tom/engagement arc is important because it would have been insulting to Molly’s character to simply have her moping around, alone, waiting for her beloved to return. But The Empty Hearse makes it clear that Sherlock is the only man for her. Almost all of her dialogue and body language is centred around showing how much she adores him. By comparison, her relationship with Tom seems strange and forced, an obviously inferior substitute for the relationship she truly wants.

Molly is in love with Sherlock Holmes. No surprises there. But what about Sherlock? How does he feel about her?

We know Sherlock only has one true friend in this world - John Watson. John is the only person he trusts to assist him on cases, the only person he will deign to eat dinner with. Yet in The Empty Hearse, Sherlock invites Molly to solve crimes with him and, at the end of the day he casually asks, ‘fancy some chips?’ He asks Molly to eat with him, an invitation that even the enigmatic Irene Adler could not procure. It is clear that Molly has pierced Sherlock’s most intimate sphere, a place that until now has only been broached by John.

Sherlock also makes it clear that she is not just a replacement for John. ‘You’re not being John, you’re being yourself,’ are his words when she expresses doubt in her abilities as his helper. For a man who is usually so callous and dismissive, who accidentally labelled her ‘John’ in Reichenbach while she was helping him because he simply could not be bothered to look up, this is a huge step. He values Molly’s companionship as much as he appreciates her help, and at the end of the day he thanks her for everything she has done for him, congratulates her on her engagement, wishes her happiness and kisses her on the cheek.

What does all this show? On a basic level, it shows that Molly Hooper is Sherlock Holmes’ friend. There is a beautiful softness and a sincerity in the way he treats her. She humanises him. She can make him apologise with a single look. And let’s not forget that she was the only person to notice he wasn’t okay in Reichenbach and she was the only person he ever showed fear in front of. He drops his mask when he’s around her. He trusts her unconditionally.

Let’s examine some other moments in season 3, shall we?

• They shared gentle jokes and smiles throughout the Empty Hearse, an episode that also featured an intense Sherlolly kiss which, although fake, could easily be read as foreshadowing 
• Sherlock refused to say anything bad about her fiance, when once he might have cruelly intervened as he did upon meeting Jim 
• Sherlock went to her for friendly advice on how to plan a stag night 
• Molly was the only one who realised how much Sherlock would struggle with public speaking and tried to rally help for him 
• Molly shed tears during his Best Man’s speech, a speech that emphasised the ability of this 'machine’ to love 
• Molly was the only one to notice Sherlock leaving the wedding early 
• Molly slapped Sherlock three times and reprimanded him in a way that John has never been able to do 
• Sherlock’s memories of Molly helped to keep him alive after Mary shot him. The Molly of his imagination told him which way to 'fall,’ reminiscent of the way she saved him in The Reichenbach Fall.

And then there’s Janine. Her appearance would hardly seem beneficial to Molly/Sherlock relationship, but it did show that he at least has the ability to mimic the workings of a romantic relationship and even hints that Sherlock is not asexual. Although he and Janine did not have sex, his statement “I was waiting til we got married” seems to suggest that while he does not engage frivolously in sexual escapades, he could engage in a relationship as long as he loved and trusted his partner unconditionally. Since Molly ticks both those boxes, I would contend that it would not be out of character for Sherlock to become romantic or even physical with her.

Further evidence of Sherlock’s sexual interest may be found in Irene’s appearance in The Sign of Three, where she turns up naked and alluring in his mind palace and he has to suppress the memory in order to concentrate on cracking the case.

All of these subtle hints finally lead us up to the big one: Moriarty’s return. It was only with Molly’s help that Sherlock was able to survive the fall: we all know the line.

“Moriarty slipped up. He made a mistake. Because the one person he thought didn’t matter at all to me was the one who mattered the most.” 

When Moriarty and Sherlock meet again, he won’t overlook Molly this time. Whatever happens in the next season, Molly will be heavily involved. Moriarty will come after her. And so, with Molly set to be a big player in the next series, I suspect we will see more development between her and Sherlock that will probably culminate in an expression of love or even a relationship.

Well, maybe that’s just wishful thinking. But whether you ship it or not, remember:

This smile, this beautiful, perfect smile right here, was for Molly.