The John Watson problem: It’s not just John, it’s the imbalance in the relationship, and it’s the writers fault 

 (Sherlock Meta by sussexbound)

So, I’ve slept on the TLD John issue. I’m still heartbroken. But I want to clear a few things up, firstly about my view of John as a character (because I’ve been accused repeatedly of idealising John Watson, and have been told that the reason I’m upset now is because I was ignoring his flaws, his darkness up until now), and also about my views on the writing, and the imbalance it’s starting to cause in the johnlock dynamic.

Let’s start with my understanding of John…

I came to this fandom after Season 3. I had no real attachment or understanding of the fandom John characterisation as some sweet-hearted, slightly grumpy, but generally level-headed and selfless carer. I started reading fic, and engaging on tumblr after the days of ‘hedgehog john’, ‘jawwwn’, and ‘jumpers, jam and rage’. So, for starters that has never been the John I saw in the show. That’s never been the John I embraced in fandom. And that’s never been the John I fleshed out and explored through fan fic. Mine has always been a John deeply coloured by the events of Season 3, and the fandom focus that arose after it.

The John I know: 

The John I know and love has always been deeply flawed. He’s always had anger issues. I headcanon him coming from a profoundly broken and emotionally and physically abusive home life. He has always had an attraction to violence and adrenaline-fuelled activities, while also somewhere, deep down, being slightly unsettled by that part of himself. He has always been passive-aggressive, always struggled with a drinking problem that could, at any moment, snowball into something serious. I think he knows that. Look at Harry. He knows. I’ve always seen him as someone who projects his issues with himself onto others (again look at his relationship with Harry and her drinking). I’ve always seen him as someone who turns to casual sex for comfort and to distract himself from uncomfortable feelings and attractions he doesn’t want to think about (hence the string of girlfriends in ASiB after the pool thing happened). I wasn’t surprised in the least about the affair with the woman on the bus. I also wasn’t surprised in the least about his guilt over it, while still battling with wanting it to continue. I’ve never been surprised by how deeply John keeps himself rammed in the closet, how much he keeps inside, how little he is willing to open up and make himself vulnerable. None of these things has ever been a deal breaker for me. I understand them, and they are a part of what makes John flawed, and horribly, beautifully human.

John Watson is a loyal, loving man, but he is also deeply flawed. He is also a bad man. And there are aspects of that that Sherlock loves and craves, yes. Sherlock isn’t an easy man himself. There aren’t many people who would be able to live with him. He knows that. Part of what makes him and John sort of ‘fit’ is John’s complexity, his flaws, his brokenness, his difference from the rest of society.

Sherlock sort of flaunts and celebrates his own difference and exceptionalities, while deep down still feeling like a freak, unlovable, something to be put up with and tolerated. While John does everything within his power to hide his difference, to celebrate his ‘normalcy’ while deep down feeling terrified that the real him will someday fight it’s way to the fore, and that he will be revealed to be the monster he secretly worries he is. But because they both know they are different, they fit, and they have, perhaps, more tolerance and empathy for the difference in the other.

So, I don’t think I’ve idealised John Watson, or his relationship to Sherlock. I think I’ve always had a pretty realistic, balanced view of John, one that accepted both his darkness and his light, and of his relationship with Sherlock.

The imbalance in the relationship: 

But here’s what the writers have been doing the last couple seasons, and what they continue to do, and why I think the beating in TLD was the last straw for me.

There is a serious imbalance in John and Sherlock’s relationship, and if you know anything about abuse, you will realise that this imbalance is a ‘perfect storm’ set up for future, chronic, domestic abuse.

I’m going to leave The Fall totally out of this argument, because I think that is a huge psychological wound between them, that requires it’s own separate treatment, it’s an issue that has been repeatedly addressed on screen, is about to get revisited in TFP (I think), and because John actually brought it up, to Sherlock’s face in his therapist’s office in TLD, and Sherlock actually acknowledged that he now realises why that actually upset John (our lives are not our own).

What I want to do, though, is compare what I think are the two worst, most inexcusable things that Sherlock and John have done to one another physically (though each of these also have a strong psychological element, as physical abuses always do):

*John beating Sherlock to a bloody pulp, in a fit of misplaced rage, in TLD.
*Sherlock non-consensually attempting to drug John, a traumatised war veteran, with a fear-inducing drug in tHoB, and triggering a severe fear response in him.

So let’s look at how the show handled these two issues.

We’ll start with the tHoB drugging: 

At the beginning of this episode both of John are sort of settling into their relationship. It’s kind of a high point for them. John’s given up the girlfriends. Sherlock’s trying to quit smoking with John’s help, though he’s clearly bored and restless (probably due to the fact that he’s experiencing emotions and attractions he doesn’t know how to process or what to do with).

They go off on the Baskerville case. Sherlock thinks he’s giving John a deliriant drug via sugar in his coffee. He then sets up a situation in the lab, which triggers an anxiety/fear response, through a combination of sensory overload, and suggestion. Now, it turns out that he actually didn’t drug John, because the drug wasn’t in the sugar (I guess the jury is still out on whether John actually was drugged at the lab somehow, or whether he just got that triggered from the fear stimulus, which is highly likely given his previous war-related trauma), but the intention was there, and Sherlock did trigger John’s trauma response through the other means I mentioned, which is really horrible.

So we see John in the cage in the lab, terrified. Once Sherlock hears the sheer terror in John’s voice I guess he decides maybe the whole thing was a bit much, and had gone far enough, and he tells John to sit tight, comes and gets him, does seem to try and comfort him (hand on shoulder, asking if he’s alright, etc.), but then he sort of slips back into ‘cold machine’ mode, and off they go to keep working on the case. John is clearly feeling ill from being triggered. He’s pale, and shaky, even Dr. Stapleton mentions it, “Are you alright? You’re looking a bit peaky.” And Sherlock, is back in case mode now, pretty much ignoring John, and the level of trauma he caused him.

At the end of the episode this situation comes up again, and is discussed, so we can see how both characters feel about it. John is clearly angry, and Sherlock shushes him, and tells him that it was laboratory conditions, all very safe. John insists that he was scared to death, and Sherlock just sort of justifies his choice.

John seems strongly irked, but generally okay, and they joke about the sugar and Sherlock being wrong. John had a right to be angry, because it was a non-consensual situation that resulted in John being seriously triggered to the point it made him physically ill. But John actually enjoys teasing around the edges of that. His danger addiction lends that a certain level of appeal.

I’m not justifying any of Sherlock’s actions, and that definitely took things too far, but I’m saying the reason John seems to forgive it, is because on some deep level he really doesn’t mind all that much, and he does trust Sherlock to engage in that kind of danger play with him, and keep the conditions ‘laboratory safe’.

Sherlock also seems fairly attuned to John’s responses, and did stop the ‘experiment’ when it was clear John needed out.

They play dangerous games together, these two boys. They always have, and they probably always will. The fact that John craves and needs that, and that Sherlock is more than willing to provide that, is part of what makes them click.

So onto the TLD beating: 

This brings us to the TLD beating. John and Sherlock are both not in the best mental state to say the least. John is hallucinating his dead wife, just starting to go to therapy to work through the issues surrounding his wife’s death. He’s still projecting his own guilt and self-loathing onto Sherlock, and blaming Sherlock for Mary’s death. He’s drinking. He’s probably been pushing up against suicidal ideation at times. He’s had more than one danger night, by the sounds of it. He’s probably the lowest he’s ever been.

Sherlock is also the lowest he’s ever been. He’s lost Mary, John and Rosie in one fell swoop. The circumstances surrounding Mary’s death are at least partially related to Sherlock’s actions. John has asked for space, and so Sherlock has granted it. Sherlock’s despondent, self-destructive, back on drugs. He’s got that video from Mary charging him to be John’s keeper, to save John from himself, and his own self-destructive tendencies. He decides to pick a fight with a serial killer to hopefully present John with an opportunity to save his life (honestly what even was that plot?! But I digress…).

Now we get to the morgue. John’s been dragged along on this case sort of unwittingly, but once he’s there, he seems to fall into line. He’s still hallucinating his dead wife, but she seems to be encouraging him to go along on the case, rather that making him feel guilty or bad about it. It’s good for him, she suggests. The game is on!

In the morgue everything goes wrong with Sherlock’s plan, due to the unforeseen thing with Faith not being the Faith Sherlock met at 221b (there are serious holes in this plot, and how it relates to Sherlock’s plan to save John but I won’t go into that here).

Sherlock wigs out and pulls a scalpel on Smith. He is a real risk here, doped up, starting to slip mentally. John hits his arm once to disarm him, then slams him back against the cooler to get him out of Smith’s personal space. At this point he punches Sherlock in the face and says, “Stop. Stop it now. What are you doing? Wake up!” He hits him again, and Sherlock falls to the floor, and this is when John says, “Is this just a game? Is it just a bloody game?!” And then he punches him again, and again, and starts kicking him in the side until the smile falls from Culverton’s face, and two orderlies rush in and pull John off.

Sherlock’s response to Culverton’s request that John leave him be, is, “No it’s okay. Let him do what he wants. He’s entitled. I killed his wife.” Sherlock isn’t angry at John. Not even slightly irked. He doesn’t try to defend himself. He just lets John do it, and even says it’s okay to let John continue to do it, because he deserves it, really, he killed John’s wife (which he didn’t, though he probably does have some second-hand responsibility surrounding her death).

To which John tightly replies, “Yes you did!”. So John is again misplacing his anger, and allowing Sherlock to take the blame here.

Of course this beating on top of Sherlock’s already fragile condition lands him in the hospital, and we know the rest.

Like Sherlock in tHoB, John never apologises for this action. But unlike Sherlock he also never acknowledges the event even happened in Sherlock’s presence. It’s swept under the carpet, and never comes up in the episode again. Presumably, since Sherlock thinks John had every right to beat him in that scene, it never will be addressed unless John makes a point to bring it up, to apologise, to make sure Sherlock knows he didn’t deserve it, and that John was projecting his own feelings onto Sherlock, and giving himself permission to use Sherlock as his own personal whipping boy.

The hug scene at the end of the episode is also not in any way an apology for this event. I don’t know where people are getting that impression from. I’ve had a good handful of people tell me that, and it’s simply incorrect.

In the hug scene, John admits that he wants to be the better man that Mary saw him as, that she makes him want to live up to her high estimation of him. He confesses and apologises to his head-Mary for the text affair, and admits that he isn’t the perfect man she saw him as, that he never has been. This reduces him to tears. At that point Sherlock gets up and tenderly comforts John.

There were a lot of things discussed in that scene, and AGAIN, John was projecting a ton of his issues onto Sherlock (like with all the Irene stuff), but there was never an apology for, or even an acknowledgement of the beating.

So here’s where the imbalance lies: 

When we first meet John and Sherlock in ASiP, John is presented as a kind of decent bloke, with some mental issues related to the war, and a danger addiction seemingly related to that. We also find out that alcoholism runs in his family, and that he has a difficult relationship with his sister, and is fairly socially isolated. But he also has a strong moral compass. He is in desperate need of money, but he turns down Mycroft’s offer to spy, for instance. He’s complex, he’s got issue, but we’re supposed to read him as generally decent.

Sherlock is presented as a odd genius with a small, but fairly loyal social circle. A man who eschews emotional connection and entanglements, is a self-professed ‘high-functioning sociopath’, and doesn’t seem to understand or care about social conventions at all. He’s also got a bit of an obsession with murder, and Sally is there to plant the suggestion that someday they’ll all be standing around a body, and Sherlock will have put it there. He’s got human elements, but he’s a little bit cold, maybe a little bit dangerous?

Over the seasons, since the show is called “Sherlock” and since from the very beginning the whole point of the show is to show Sherlock moving from being not just a great man but also a good one, they have been seeking to ‘humanise’ Sherlock.

However, what that has resulted in, is a Sherlock who is getting more, and more selfless, especially after The Fall, and especially when it concerns John, and a John who started out seeming complex and flawed, but decent, who has been slowly being written more and more selfish.

It’s starting to cause a serious imbalance.

Let’s just compare the balance between good and ‘not good’ in Season 3 & 4 (I will bold the items I feel bear more moral or emotional weight in john and sherlock’s relationship).:

_______________________________________________________

Sherlock’s ‘Not Good’ (and bear in mind that some of these things can be somewhat explained or justified which lessens the blow a bit, imo): 

1. Does not prepare John for his return with a text or phone call in TEH. 
2. Interrupts John’s proposal dinner to announce his return from the dead with an ill-conceived joke in TEH. 
3. Tricks John into thinking he was about to die on the train car in TEH.
4. Walks off in TSoT when John is trying to talk to Sherlock about Mary.
5. Shuts John out and goes back on drugs in HLV.
6. Seems to be discussing John with Mary behind John’s back. John and Mary seem to be arranging John’s schedule for him. It’s almost like John is having his personal agency stolen from him at bit.
7. Tries to make John jealous with Janine (nothing will convince me that wasn’t his intention)
8. Leaves John behind, and runs headlong into danger in CAM tower, and get’s shot as a result.
9. Really botches the whole Magnussen affair (though I don’t see this as a personal attack on John, but it does have negative consequences for him).
10. Shoots Magnussen (this was for John and Mary even though it was morally wrong).
11. Overdoses on the plane in TAB.
12. A lot of being glued to his phone in TST, during times when John clearly desires him to be engaged.
13. Seeming to join in with Mary in questioning John’s value as a companion in TST. 
14. The Norbury mess, and Mary’s resulting death in TST. 
15. Self-destructive and back on the drugs in TLD.
16. Kind of manipulating John into joining in on the Smith thing, though I think a lot of the weight of that falls on Mrs. Hudson’s shoulders.

Sherlock’s ‘Good’ (and ‘good’ is probably relative here, I just mean stuff that makes Sherlock sympathetic to the audience): 

1. Recognises that he made a social misstep with the way he announced his return from the dead, and tries to apologise - TEH.
2. Allows John to wrestle, strangle, head butt him, without complaint, and without trying to defend himself, despite the fact he is still recovering from torture, presumably because he recognises his wrong, and feels John is justified (sound familiar) - TEH.
3. Let’s John have space when John expresses that he doesn’t want to see Sherlock - TEH.
4. Saves John from the bonfire - TEH.
5. Initiates a conversation when John comes over the next day, apologises again, sincerely. Tries to make things right - TEH.
6. Tells John to just go and Leave him in the train car, when he thinks they are going to die - TEH.
7. Befriends Mary - TEH.
8. Practically plans John’s entire wedding, and puts John and the wedding before ‘the work’ - TSoT.
9. Agrees to be best man and makes a beautiful speech even though it is clearly something that is hard for him (on many levels) - TSoT.
10. Saves the life of John’s ex at John’s wedding - TSoT.
11. Seems to do everything in his power to make John’s wedding day perfect, even if his own heart was breaking - TSoT
12. Stands by and watches John dance away with his wife, while John drops a last parting jab of a joke, that even Mary knows was not good - TSoT.
13. Claws his way back from the dead for John and John alone. Seriously. Comes back to life for John - HLV.
14. Doesn’t keep the truth about Mary secret from John, at great personal risk to himself (remember Mary threatened him about telling John) - HLV.
15. Encourages John to forgive his wife, to trust her and take her back, even though she shot him when he tried to help her, and then threatened him in the hospital and again in the empty house - HLV.
16. Basically moderates the Watson family domestic and keeps John in check, trying to diffuse his violent anger that is focussed on Mary, and refocus it on Sherlock himself (wtf, this is such a horrible pattern!!!) - HLV.
17. Puts himself (and his brother) at great personal risk just to clear the name of John's wife - HLV.
18. Kills a man to keep John’s wife’s secrets safe - HLV.
19. Get’s himself exiled for this act (an exile that will inevitably end in his own death) - HLV.
20. Holds back telling John he loves him on the tarmac, and makes a joke just to see John smile - HLV.
21. Continues to put himself at great personal risk to keep his vow about keeping Mary safe - TST.
22. Lets John in on the AGRA drive thing in TST, before confronting Mary about it.
23. Goes with John to Morocco to confront Mary after she takes off - TST.
24. Figures out the Norbury deal, and tries to close that case out forever, to protect Mary (I guess) - TST.
25. Acknowledges he did bad with the Norbury thing -TST.
26. Asks Mrs. Hudson to remind him when he is being arrogant or too cocky in the future so he will not repeat his mistakes - TST.
27. Gives John the space John wants. Doesn’t pressure him - TST.
28. Is so sweet and nice to E./Faith.
29. Acknowledges that his life is not his own, and by extension the audiences realises that he understands the effect his fake suicide had on John.
30. Let’s John beat him in the morgue, says he deserves it, lets John blame him for Mary’s death - TLD.
31. Is willing to die at the suggestion of John’s dead wife, by placing himself in the way of danger, just to try and keep John from killing himself (honestly, wtf kind of crazy ass, horrible plot?!!!) - TLD.
32. Initiates conversation at the end of the episode when John is going to once again walk out without talking. Starts by asking John if he’s alright - TLD.
33. Listens in silence to John talk about how he should engage in a sexual affair with Irene because she likes him and is available (never mind they’re both gay), and to John’s suggestion that without romance and sex he isn’t a complete human being - TLD.
34. Holds back from telling John that he loves him (again) - TLD.
35. Quietly sits and listens to John confess that it is his wife (the woman who once almost killed Sherlock) who inspires him to want to be a better man - TLD.
36. Listens as John confesses his affair to the hallucination of his dead wife - TLD.
37. Hugs John when he finally breaks and cries over all his guilt, and anger, and self-loathing - TLD.
38. Ensures John that he isn’t a bad man, but just human, still essentially loveable -TLD.

______________________________________________________________

John’s ‘Not Good’ (and bear in mind that some of these things can be somewhat explained or justified which lessens the blow a bit, imo): 

1. Wrestling, head-butting, attempting to strangle Sherlock the night he came back from the dead in TEH (bolding this, because though it was somewhat understandable given the depth of Sherlock’s deception, it bordered on excessive, imo, and was, once again, never brought up again, or apologised for).
2. Going ahead with a marriage that he seemed very hesitant about (this is even referenced when Mrs. Hudson tells John that she just sort of got swept along into her own abusive marriage) - TSoT.
3. Not recognising that Sherlock was stressed about John getting married, or even acknowledging that it would change things between them (even Mary could see this) - TSoT.
4. Adding shots to Sherlock’s beer to get him drunker than he wanted to be on stag night in TSoT (again this was never addressed unlike the drugging in tHoB, which they at least discussed, and John had the chance to express his anger over).
5. The ‘behind closed curtains’ joke at the reception - TSoT. 
6. Blaming Sherlock for Mary’s death (though I think that this is understandable given the circumstances) - TST.
7. Telling Sherlock he would rather have anyone’s help but Sherlock’s (again somewhat understandable immediately following Mary’s death - and there’s that ‘anyone’ again) - TST.
8. The affair (this wasn’t that big of a deal for me, but it was for a lot of people, and I think a fair argument could be made about whether it might ever become an issue in John’s future).
9. The beating -TLD 

John’s ‘Good’ (and ‘good’ is probably relative here, I just mean stuff that makes Sherlock sympathetic to the audience): 

1. Forgives Sherlock for The Fall - TEH.
2. Finally uses his words and tells Sherlock what he means to him in the train car. - TEH.
3. Tries to tell Sherlock a couple of times how much he loves him, and values their friendship - TSoT.
4. Asks Sherlock to be best man - TSoT (though this was obviously emotionally difficult for Sherlock, which John seemed clueless about, so I’m not sure how much of the audience would view this as a good thing) - TSoT.
5. Tries to initiate conversation/test the waters sexually on stag night (though they were both drunk off their ass, partially because John got them that way, so it was bordering a bit on dub-con, and thank god for Mrs Hudson and the client interrupting) - TSoT.
6. Cries at Sherlock’s beautiful speech -TSoT.
7. Doesn’t stop himself from hugging Sherlock - TSoT.
8. Seems understanding, and like he’s trying to be supportive when Sherlock is spiralling out of control in the mayfly man deduction scene - TSoT.
9. Misses Sherlock horribly even on this honeymoon - HLV.
10. Dreams about Sherlock - HLV.
11. Takes him to get drug tested, calls Mycroft who makes sure the flat gets searched for any other drugs - HLV.
12. Cares for Sherlock immediately after he is shot. - HLV
13. Stays at the hospital all night, waiting to see if he’ll pull through - HLV
14. Is genuinely furious about Mary shooting Sherlock - HLV
15. Forgives Mary (I still can’t decide if this should be a ‘good’ or ‘not good’ tbh) - HLV.
16. Goes along, trustingly, with Sherlock’s crazy, ill-conceived Magnussen plan - HLV.
17. Seems shaken by Sherlock’s attempted overdose, and to take Mycroft’s charge to look after Sherlock quite seriously (sadly this isn’t born out with acton in S4, so I’m not sure it should even be on this list) - TAB
18. Asks Sherlock to be godfather of his daughter - TST
19. Seems to be trusting and working with Sherlock again - TST
20. Actively seeking therapy - TLD
21. Saving Sherlock from Smith (which he later admits he wouldn’t have done without Mary’s urging - wtf?) - TLD
22. Admitting he isn’t the perfect man Mary thought he was (this is directed at his memory of Mary, not Sherlock though) - TLD.
23. Admitting he had an emotional affair while married to her (again, directed at head-Mary) - TLD.
24. Admitting that his wife’s opinion of him made him want to be a better man (seriously, y’all. I’m so tired…).
_______________________________________________________________

So, as you can see there is a HUGE disparity between the emotional and moral weight of Sherlock and John’s ‘good’s and ‘not good’s, especially as it applies to their relationship to one another.

This will not only skew the audience’s sympathies in a certain direction. It also seriously makes me question whether John, as he’s being currently written, has the level of self-awareness, and willingness to take responsibility for his own actions, necessary to be in a healthy or sustainable relationship with anyone.

Sherlock is being painted as someone with flaws, but who is essentially committed to growth, selfless when it comes to John, someone who is willing to die, kill, and live entirely for John Watson. And who is also willing to take any level of abuse at John’s hand if he feels it will make John feel better (which is more than a bit not good).

John on the other hand, is being painted as someone deeply flawed and deeply selfish. He constantly projects his own issues onto Sherlock, and then punishes Sherlock for them, rather than himself. He rarely talks to Sherlock about things that matter. Other than forgiving Sherlock for the fall, I can’t think of a single selfless thing John’s done specifically for Sherlock since TRF. And now that Mary has been redeemed it seems that the few leaps of growth he’s managed have been all for her and her angelic memory.

I know in ACD canon, Sherlock states that Watson’s marriage to Mary Morstan was the one truly selfish thing Holmes can recall Watson doing to him in the history of their friendship. Maybe this is part of the writers way of trying to pay homage to that? But it seems to be getting out of hand, and unless we see John starting to be more selfless, more giving, more apologetic, and taking more responsibility for the pretty profound ways his personal issues are impacting Sherlock, I just don’t know how this relationship could ever be healthy or sustainable.

So my objections to what happened with that TLD beating are not because I don’t understand mental illness or abuse, it’s not because I’ve idealised John Watson, don’t understand the character, don’t understand the John/Sherlock dynamic and relationship. My objections exist because I feel like it was sort of the final nail in the lid of the coffin on what might have been a sustainable relationship built on mutual commitment to personal growth, and mutual sacrifice for each other. That balance used to exist before The Fall, before Mary Morstan. It wasn’t perfect, because neither of these men are. It certainly wasn’t conventional, but it was working for them in a weird, limited way, that gave you hope that over time they could grow into something even stronger, even better.

Nothing is working for them anymore, and it just seems like Sherlock gives, and gives, and gives (almost to a fault), and John isn’t even meeting him halfway.

The writers are going to have to work some serious miracles in TFP to salvage this relationship, and make me feel it’s something still worth rooting for, and I wonder if they have time, since they seem more committed to weird twists, rug pulls and final hour ‘evil sibling’ plots.

baxterboy: Sadly, Mofftiss have killed off everything we loved about Sherlock and John in the early years. They’re not just damaged, they’re broken. Sherlock has no self-worth and is full of self-loathing. John is just full of rage and violence directed at the wrong person for the wrong reasons. I’m sure the magic reset button will make it all go away but, frankly, Sherlock needs therapy and a restraining order and John needs mandatory anger management classes and supervised-only visits.

Will the Real John Watson Please Stand-Up

 (Sherlock Meta about fan fiction by sherlockcharacteranalysis)

So, when I first started reading Sherlock fanfiction, I tried to pinpoint, for every one I read, what exactly about it made it work or not work for me. For me, ultimately, it always came down to the characters. If the characters felt real and fundamentally true to their BBC originals, then I liked the work, even if the plot was a bit jumbled at times.

What I’ve noticed also, over the many fanfictions I have since read, is that John Watson is a much more difficult character to write than Sherlock Holmes. Almost any fic I consider decent as a whole seems to have a pretty good characterization of Sherlock, but I’ve read works that I would consider really well written that doesn’t seem to get John completely right.

I think this happens for two reasons: 1. Sherlock’s personality allows for more interpretations than John’s does and 2. John’s personality is deceptively simple when actually it is as complex and multi-faceted as Sherlock’s.

Sherlock’s personality is loud, and the contradictions inherent in them are out bright and clear in the open. He’s ridiculously confident of his abilities and yet at the same time strangely susceptible to others’ admiration and praise. He claims not to care for people, yet risks his life over and over in service of the greater good, whatever his reasons. He shows kindness when you wouldn’t expect him to, callousness at the most inopportune moments, and from time to time, fierce love for those around him. He’s an enigma, and any writer knows that they have to find a coherent way to reconcile these aspects of his personality in order to do his character justice.

However, with Sherlock, there’s often a great disconnect between what he shows and what’s going on in his head (it’s in fact the source of all the seemingly paradoxical aspects of his personality). What he shows only indirectly conveys what he means. The enigmatic aspect of Sherlock gives the writer a great deal of creativity to fill in that mysterious inner world with whatever they see fit. Sherlock’s character requires that we make up our own interpretations of who he is.

John, on the other hand, is a much more straightforward person than Sherlock in that his actions much more directly convey what he thinks, feels, and believes on the inside. Therefore, the writer cannot stray as far from what we are literally shown about John on the show. Sherlock is a character with many solutions, but with John I think there are at most only a few. Moreover, John is a quieter person than Sherlock, and he doesn’t have the same degree of eccentricities that are just screaming for an explanation. So it’s much easier to overlook important aspects of his personality and end up with a John Watson which, though makes sense as a whole and resembles the original in some way, is missing some crucial aspect of the character.

John Watson is both a doctor and a soldier, which says loads about his personality. He’s both a caregiver and a protector; they both have equal weight in his personality, and mischaracterization of John often happens when one of these aspects is given a disproportionate significance compared to the other. I’m thinking of too-nice John or conversely, too-violent/angry John.

The other important thing about John Watson is that he is the most important person to Sherlock.  Sherlock loves and respects John more than anyone else in his life (including, I’m almost certain, himself), and it’s crucial that any characterization of John be able to show us why. Why has John Watson, and no one else, captured Sherlock Holmes’ heart? I’ve read many John Watson’s who, while interesting characters in their own right, doesn’t seem like the kind of person that Sherlock would love and let himself be influenced by.

To me anyway, the reason John is so special to Sherlock is twofold. One, John admires and appreciates Sherlock’s intellectual abilities for their own sake, not just for the practical results they deliver. (As did Moriarty and Irene, both of who captured Sherlock’s interest.) This means, by the way, that John needs to be pretty intelligent himself, even if he’s not a creative genius. Secondly, and most importantly, John believes in Sherlock in a way that no one else does: he believes that Sherlock Holmes is a good person (or even more:”the best man and the most human, human being I have ever known”), not just potentially (as Lestrade does), but as he is already. He treats Sherlock as just another person with both virtues and flaws, emotions and desires, and the ability to decide for himself what’s best for his own existence.

John loves and accepts Sherlock as he is, and John believes that Sherlock is someone amazing and good and capable of being understood, which I don’t think anyone else does. Even the others who love Sherlock, like Mycroft, Lestrade, Mrs. Hudson, and Molly, probably would like to change some aspect of Sherlock’s personality and/or don’t consider him fully understandable.  Moreover, Sherlock Holmes also believes that John Watson is a Good Person. John retains his composure under the heaviest of pressures and always, always, always tries to do the right thing according to his beliefs. This is something that I think Sherlock actually aspires to himself; he’s just far less clear as to what those beliefs are which leads to huge errors in judgment like risking his life to play the pill game with the cabbie. So the fact that John does this all the time would definitely be extremely admirable to Sherlock, even if he rarely says so. And so, for this Very Good Person to love Sherlock completely unconditionally the way that he does is beyond priceless to Sherlock (or anyone, surely).

So, any characterization of John which goes against this fundamental relationship between Sherlock and John just screams WRONG to me. I’m thinking of any story where John tries to terminate his relationship with Sherlock, or where he won’t forgive Sherlock for Reichenbach or Baskerville or even worse, because Sherlock didn’t act in some conventionally expected way. Especially baffling are the ones where John chooses Mycroft over Sherlock, or becomes some kind of assassin/vengeful killer. The whole point of John Watson is that he is an unassailable moral anchor for Sherlock. A John Watson who would admire Mycroft’s Machiavellian personality or be driven to obviously immoral acts of violence would not have earned Sherlock’s love and would most definitely not have inspired the positive changes in Sherlock that we saw on the show. I doubt such a John Watson would even be capable of committing to and loving Sherlock the way that he so obviously does.

Anyway, with all that aside, here are a list of fanfictions that I think really highlight John Watson’s character. (There are definitely others with good characterizations out there as well—basically any fanfiction I’ve recommended does unless I mention otherwise, but these really stood out to me):

Only Intelligent by Basser

Here, John is an amazing human being who will do anything to help Sherlock, but he also doesn’t put up with Sherlock’s enormous amount of bullshit. That’s John Watson in a nutshell.

To Light Another’s Path by Beautiful Fiction

Here, John is even better than how he is on the show, displaying an emotional understanding of Sherlock that I don’t think he currently has but will easily get to after some more time with the mad detective.

Sympathy for the Devil and Mycroft Holmes by scifigrl47

I love John in this, even though I think John on show definitely does not have this level of astuteness. Like above though, I can definitely see him getting there after some more time dealing with the Holmes brothers. (John was already way more astute about Mycroft’s schemes in Reichenbach than he was in The Great Game, for example.) Yet the idealized version here makes it extremely clear all that is good and admirable about John Watson.

(And here’s hoping I won’t make the same characterization mistakes in my own writing!)

"How would you know?"

 (Sherlock Meta by ibelieveinmycroft)

sherlockcharacteranalysis asked you: I have a question about the scene in Scandal where Sherlock says “sex doesn’t alarm me” and Mycroft says “how would you know?” Every time I see that scene, my first thought is always, “but you do, Mycroft????” Mycroft seems even more devoid of actual relationships than Sherlock, so what do you think? Has Mycroft had sexual/romantic relations in his past?

ibelieveinmycroft: Hello dear! I had the exact same thought when Mycroft delivered that line. Oh Mycroft, you devil!

M: Don’t be alarmed. It’s to do with sex.
S: Sex doesn’t alarm me.
M: How would you know?

Sherlock had absolutely no comeback to Mycroft’s comment - he instead looked hurt, if not mortified. Evidentially, Sherlock knows that this is territory that his brother has explored, otherwise Mycroft’s snide remark would not have had this impact.

Some people have posited that Mycroft may use sex as a weapon or negotiating tool where the situation calls for it. While Mycroft can be a ruthless tactician, he is initially very dismissive of what Irene Adler does, which amounts to the same thing, so I’m not certain about that. Perhaps he does, perhaps he doesn’t. A more likely explanation would be that Mycroft has experimented with sex in order to fit in with his peers. Neither of the Holmes Brothers are particularly normal, but Mycroft is much better at sustaining the mask. Perhaps it was expected of him. However, the way that "How would you know?" was delivered hints at someone who is sexually experienced and is very comfortable with that side of himself.

The brothers do seem to know about each other’s sexual history - whether from deducing it about each other or whether they actually confide in each other. That this exchange comes right on the tail of the "Here to see the Queen?" jibe seems very telling. This may have been little more than an example of Sherlock’s quick, albeit cruel, wit, but the evidence seems to be mounting that Mycroft is indeed homosexual. Mycroft knows enough about Sherlock’s sexual experience (or lack thereof) to make unkind jokes about it - that Sherlock is able to do the same to Mycroft suggests to me that he has the same sort of knowledge about his brother.

Yet, as you point out, Mycroft does not seem to have any relationships to speak of, or any real ties to anyone, aside from his brother. In spite of what seems to be a long sexual history, it does not seem to have had any particular bearing on his personal life; his sexual relationships have not led to romantic ones.

And yet, Mycroft is prone to as much concealed sentiment as Sherlock. The brothers have a hard time with empathy, but that does not mean that they lack it. This is the troubling thing about Mycroft. Sometimes, especially when he is alone, he seems to be so like his brother - strange, vulnerable and very, very lonely. Though consistently even more brilliant than Sherlock, Mycroft also seems to lack his brother’s tacit ability to draw people towards him.The Christmas scene in Scandal was horribly illustrative of this - Sherlock was surrounded by people he considers his friends, in a room decorated with colourful Christmas lights, while Mycroft was alone in a dark house, staring into the fire. His genius doesn’t dazzle like Sherlock’s does, doesn’t draw people toward him. Instead, it thrums uncomfortably at the edge of a person’s consciousness, it chokes and intimidates, driving them away.

Mycroft does have relationships with a handful of people. I believe he is comparatively close to his brother, however complex that rivalry may be. He respects John. He is close enough to Anthea to muse aloud as to the dynamic of his brother’s new friendship with John. He is on first-name terms with Harry the Equerry. There is also his canonical friendship with his neighbour, Mr Melas, who may or may not show up in series. But, in spite of all that, Mycroft is still a man who is a member of (and, canonically, founder of) a club where the people not only are required to remain silent at all times, but are not permitted to take the slightest notice of one another. For a man who seems so lonely, he does elect to be alone a great deal.

In long and short, I really don’t know. It is one of the many unanswered questions about Mycroft. He knows more about people than Sherlock does - he understands their motivations and how to manipulate them - yet has far fewer people in his life. And I’m not entirely certain that this is by choice.

On Mycroft and trust

 (Sherlock Meta by thenorwoodbuilder)

I’m always amazed at the amount of information about the characters that the writers (here Moffat) managed to convey through this very short exchange:

1. John establishes himself again as “Queen and Country”: he is initially very surprised that Mycroft doesn’t trust his own men, because he, instead, implicitly trusts his Country’s institutions: he once decided to serve his Country in the army, after all, so he supposes that one can trust one’s own Secret Service…

This is also one of the reasons why, according to me, once he realized that Mycroft was actually NOT a criminal mastermind, but instead (not only Sherlock’s elder brother, but also) a government official (or the British Government…), John coudn’t help but feeling that it was his duty to help him, both in relation to the cases he decides to submit to Sherlock (see tGG), and when it comes to keep Sherlock himself safe (albeit, in this respect, he was, of course, primarily driven by his affection and concern for Sherlock himself, as well as by his ability to relate to situations where one sibling has to deal with a “problematic” other sibling - two traits which, of course, both he and Mycroft share).

2. John is not the only one to have “trust issues”. Mycroft confirms himself (after his first appearance, in ASiP, upon which I’ll come back soon) as a person who doesn’t easily grant his trust to anybody, not even to people - his own colleagues and subordinates - who, afer all, have taken an oath to serve and protect their Country.

On one hand, it’s quite logical, in his line of work: for a man who (presumably) has made a career into the Secret Service, and who has a certain experience, is a sort of professional bias to always suspect of anything and anybody, just on principle. He presumably had occasions, in the past, to get first hand experience that this world is full of double- or even triple-agents, that almost nobody is what appears to be, and that almost everybody has his own secret agenda…

But, on the other hand, it’s also possible that Mycroft chose this particular line of work - in the Secret Service, amongst all the ways he could find to put his talent at the service of his Country and of its innocent citizens - also because of a certain personal attitude towards people: that is, it’s possible that he chose a work that requires, as a prerequisite, the attitude to suspect everyone, always, because he intimately was already persuaded that people - or at least the vast majority of people - can never be trusted. So, he entered the Secret Service (also) because it was a work that suited his persuasion that the majority of people would be capable of everything, under the right (rectius: wrong) circumstances, that nobody is totally trustworthy and loyal, and that always be on guard is however a necessity for any sensible person. A persuasion that, of course, his experences at work could only have strenghtened.

But then the interesting question becomes: WHY did Mycroft feel this way? WHAT in his past experiences - in his childhood or youth - persuaded him that nobody can be really trusted? WHICH betrayal had he to endure, from a person or persons he should have been able to trust unconditionally (and of course I’m thinking primarily to one or both of his parents…), and who, instead, revealed him/herself unworthy of such trust?

3. Obviously, this little exchange also offers the final proof that Mycroft’s initial “abduction” of John, in ASiP, with its corollary of threats and offer of a bribe, was just a way to “test” him, his courage, his honesty, and more generally his personality, in order to satisfy himself that Sherlock was not going to share his flat with someone who could be tempted to “sell” him away out of fear or greed - or, even worst, who since the beginning approached him with evil intentions (first of all, the intention to get leverage upon the British Government by hurting or kidnapping his one little brother…). A “procedure” that, given Sherlock’s quite placid - and even a little amused - reaction when John related his recent experience to him, was probably a sort of tried and tested routine, for similar occurrences. But a “procedure” the whole purpose of which John probably only realized after this little exchange at the Palace, given the small, understanding smile with which he replied to Mycroft’s observation about the “venality” of professional spies… (albeit I’m persuaded that John started to suspect Mycroft’s true motives since he discovered his identity, that is, that he is Sherlock’s brother; but he got a confirmation from the man himself only at this moment).

Even more, in this little dialogue Mycroft is basically telling John that he trusts him much more than he trusts his own men - not only when it comes to his loyalty to Sherlock, but also when it comes to dealing with delicate matters of State… And I suppose that, if already before this John’s attitude towards Mycroft was certainly not an hostile one, after this display of trust on Mycroft’s part, he couldn’t but reciprocate, as it is an instinctive reaction for human beings to trust in turn a person who demonstrates to trust us.

Hence, probably, the escalation of cooperation with Mycroft we see through this episode, with John and Mycroft discussing how to deal with a foreseable “danger night”, first; then John willingly reporting to (the person he believed to be) Mycroft (but was instead Irene) about Sherlock’s reactions to Irene’s death; and finally John and Mycroft discussing together whether tell Sherlock about Irene’s “second” death, in order to spare him more suffering.

Hence, also, the fact that Mycroft, during his second confrontation with John in tRF, feels the need to apologize apparently to Sherlock, but in fact, according to me, actually (and mainly) to John himself…

4. Finally, the other thing that gets a confirmation in this scene (albeit, in this case, we already could infer it by tGG) is that, when it comes to really delicate matters, the only person Mycroft feels he really CAN trust, his Sherlock. That is: he may not always trust his maturity and ability of stay out of danger’s way, but  he has not the slightes doubt that Sherlock could never, ever intentionally betray him, or his Country. Mycroft knows that his little brother may be stubborn, may be reckless, may be - as he’ll have to aknowledge on the “Bond Air” - a “lonely, naive man desperate to show off”, and therefore make foolish mistakes; but Sherlock would never deliberately hurt or harm his elder brother, would never intentionally fail him. Mycroft knows this, and is openly (or at least, as much openly as being an Holmes would allow…) aknowledging it in this scene.

With regard to Sherlock reciprocating this sentiment, and to my theory about the Brothers’ secret conspiracy in tRF, I’ll just point you to my previous posts.

Irene Adler is Not a Loser - Part 1

 (Sherlock Meta by wellingtongoose)

I really love Irene Adler in BBC Sherlock, but even more I love the complex plot of A Scandal In Belgravia. This meta is dedicated to discussing the intrigues and deceptions that are only hinted at on screen and play out behind the scenes. I aim to show everyone why Irene is not a loser but an incredibly intelligent and ambitious woman. On the way I explore:

* Why dominatrix is not her only line of business
* Why Irene actually phoned Jim Moriarty – and what deal they came too
* Why Sherlock was just a pawn in a much bigger game

A Disclaimer before we start… 

This piece isn’t about sexism or the portrayal of women in the media. It’s much more focused on the plot of ASiB and analysis of Irene’s motives as if she was a real person, not an artificial construct presenting a particular literary troupe. Certainly, there are things that I would have changed about Irene if I had been one of the writers but then there are many things I want to change about myself and can’t. In this case I am going to think of Irene as person – not a representation of the female gender – and just accept that she has flaws but they do not make her any less brilliant.

A Journey of a Thousand Miles…



We can assume that before she made this phone call she had already obtained sensitive material on her phone. I had always assumed the sensitive information she had was the MOD email but there is no evidence at that time, Irene realised its importance or that she even possessed it. We do not know the timeframe over which she was being pursued by the Americans – it might have started just recently before Sherlock and John turned up (remember there is quite a long period of time between the pool scene and Sherlock meeting Irene).

At the time of the pool scene the MOD email could not have been the bait that Irene used to hook Moriarty because even if she had it she didn’t know why the email was important even or that it was important. The MOD man might just have been talking nonsense in an attempt to impress her and the code itself was a load of jumble even to a cryptographer. Moriarty certainly couldn’t figure out the information either because Irene had to manipulate Sherlock into given them both the answer when they realise it was important much later on.

So Irene couldn’t have got Jim Moriarty’s attention by saying “I have a nonsensical fragment of an MOD email that, according to the stupidly pathetic man who’s in love with me, is going to save the world.”

She must have had much more than just that email on her phone. As she suggests to Mycroft – she has all sorts of things on there and I certainly believe that she does.

The Americans were after her for one single email but it doesn’t mean that Mycroft and the British Government weren’t after her for much, much more.

The Economics of Being a Dominatrix 



From the clients she chooses to engage with (high ranking police officer, best cryptographer in the country, an official from the MOD), I think her line of business is more than just being a dominatrix. I think the most lucrative part of her business is actually the information she gets out of her clients. I’m sure the thrill of having power over powerful people was also very enjoyable but Irene is a very pragmatic, cunning person and she likes money. (I think people over look the fact that the entire point of her plot was to extort billions from the British Government)

If you think about it, all the clients she has picked are exactly the kind of people that actual spies want to get close to - people with access to classified and/or sensitive information. Irene has basically set up the ultimate honey trap and she makes Anna Chapman (professional Russian spy) look like a complete looser. ¨

Of course she’s not a professional spy –she doesn’t report what she finds back to some sinister foreign organisation. Irene is a freelance, independent stock broker in sensitive information and I think this definitely suites her personality.

However being a freelance information broker has its disadvantages

1. you don’t always have the right customers
2. you are dealing with some very dangerous, very ruthless people at both ends and there is no tag team of CIA agents to watch your back.

Customers for sensitive information do not appear like punters rolling up at the curb. Their reasons for wanting classified/sensitive information are definitely shady and as people they are probably even shadier. Her customers might work for a multitude of foreign intelligence services or be unofficial/commercial/terror organisations but these people are hard to find. This is why she needs Jim Moriarty. Not just to find these customers but also to make sure the deal is sealed without any of these people harming her. 

I think initially Irene did manage to build a small network of contacts to pass information onto. However like any shrewd businessman when there is more supply than demand, Irene wanted to expand her business. This is the second reason she comes to Moriarty – she must have hooked him with an immediately financially lucrative set of documents. Imagine what other classified documents the MOD man might have leaked to her before the Bond Air email? As Irene say she usually likes to visit her clients more than once.

Let us not forget that Moriarty is still a businessman despite being obsessed with Sherlock. He might have thrown £30 million away to get Sherlock to come out and play but it doesn’t mean he isn’t looking to recuperate that money elsewhere. What Irene proposes is simple: she’s provides the data, Moriarty is the middle man and gets his cut of the profit which can be substantial.

Irene also needs to find her own protection and that is where her celebrity clients and her camera phone come in. Firstly, celebrity clients get one some exposure/publicity within their circles – yes she is extremely controversial but she’s not anonymous anymore. You cannot just make her disappear overnight and not have people ask questions. Secondly, there is no reason to believe that all of her clients hate her guts, she doesn’t openly screw over everyone she meets – it’s not good for business. Some of her clients might actually think they are in love with her. Irene has the great power of making people “feel special”. She can make people love her and love is much more vicious motivator – perhaps enough for a motivator for them to protect her against enemies foreign and domestic?

When all else failed she had the material on her camera phone to fall back on. When clients became threatening or violent – she can always pull out that smart little device. However I doubt this happened very often because Irene is perfectly capable of keeping her clients sweet.

Before the Americans started turning up with their armed hit squads, I think Irene’s protection was perfectly adequate. She had Jim Moriarty for the information customers and her own resourcefulness for her clients. Irene is a small-timer compared to the huge network of spies and informers that nation states employ. MI6 might have been aware of her before she threatened the Royal family but just as likely, she managed to fly under the radar. She’s very intelligent and Irene would have known how important discretion is. As long as her clients never linked security leaks to their own blathering, there is no reason why anyone would suspect a lowly sex worker and even if they did – she had enough on her phone to ruin them.

It was only when she realised that there were trained killers out hunting her that she started to fear.

The Anatomy of a Royal Scandal 



 - -

Whether or not Irene actually demanded something from the Royal family, we don’t know. Mycroft claims she didn’t because Sherlock doesn’t do blackmail - he simply tells them to pay her off. Telling the Royal family that she has the photographs does sounds like a prelude to making some kind of request or demand in the future as well as a power play. I personally don’t subscribe to the idea that the Royal Family “have people whacked” – they are not that unrestricted or even that shady. They could easily provide her with enough money to get out of the country and change her identity but that’s not what Irene is aiming for. -

Irene is aiming to extort billions from the treasury before she leaves the country (and yes she was plotting this before she knew about Bond Air as explained in Part 2). -

Now that’s what I call ambition. -

However the Royal Family can provide a good second avenue of escape if her plot goes to pot but this is only one of the reasons she informed them about the pictures. -

There is no evidence at the beginning of ASiB that Mycroft sees Irene (and Moriarty) as anything more than mere insects – little conveniences compared to the broad power plays of entire nations. However both Irene and Moriarty desperately want his attention for very different reasons.

For Irene Mycroft is literally the key to the treasury. Her plot was never about Sherlock at all, he was at best a vital pawn and amusing distraction. Mycroft is probably the only man who has the power to authorise the transfer of such vast sums she’s demanding in one night. He has control over the spineless brainless government ministers and he can pull their strings like a master puppeteer. First she needs to get him to the negotiation table and there is no evidence that Mycroft took her at all seriously. He certainly doesn’t take her threat to national security seriously given he has real, highly trained operatives who could retrieve that cameraphone but he doesn’t use them. Instead he opts for his little brother, a civilian detective.

Moriarty obviously wants information on Sherlock but he’s perfectly willing to play along with Irene when they have the same goal in common.

When the Americans started chasing her – Irene must have realised she stumbled onto something really big this time – something utterly out of her league. It might have taken some time but she did eventually realise it was the MOD email. I think the first thing she did was use her own contacts and resources to try and crack it but when that failed she showed it to Moriarty. 

Obviously Moriarty couldn’t make heads or tails of it either but he suggests a solution that will kill two birds with one stone - getting Mycroft’s attention and cracking the code: GET SHERLOCK. The best way to get Sherlock was through his brother Mycroft who just happens to be very old acquaintance of the Queen.

Sherlock doesn’t get Irene’s camera phone and Irene learns to be careful what she wishes for because she really has attracted the attention of Mycroft Holmes with this shenanigan. I mean how forgiving is he going to be to someone who drugged his little brother? Now it’s personal.

From this point forwards the pair of them: Irene and Mycroft are locked in a ruthless game of chess Continued in Part 2

Other Parts in the Series: Hidden Heroines of Sherlock - Molly and Sally Why Molly and Sally are not just one dimensional characters but prime examples from strong, independent, professional women

For a List of Other Metas regarding Irene, Mycroft, Jim etc: Heroes and Villains series.

Why had Mycroft never met other children before Sherlock did? 

 (Sherlock Meta by ibelieveinmycroft)

Anonymous: Mycroft is supposedly about 7-8 years older than Sherlock. How come he never met other children before Sherlock grew up old enough to meet other children? Surely Mycroft had had experienced "other children"before Sherlock was born? Their parents seem "normal" so they would've introduced their first son to other kids as toddler, surely? Because if both never seen other kids for sometime-even thought "Sherlock is idiot"- then they did have unusual upbringing after all...

Answer: It would be, indeed, very unusual!

Assuming that the house that we saw in His Last Vow was where the boys grew up, their home was was quite rural and remote. This shot, when Sherlock and John leave after drugging everyone, shows what is immediately outside the front doors of the Holmes household:



There is nothing but green fields for miles around. There may be the odd house dotted in the distance, but otherwise that is idyllic, secluded countryside.

It is equally likely that the canonical Holmes grew up in such isolation too, as it does lend a certain slant to this famous line from The Copper Beeches:

"It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside."

What little we know of Sherlock’s upbringing - a fondness for board games, pirates and a dog called Redbeard, alongside becoming obsessed with the Carl Powers story in the newspaper - seems to indicate that he was, in many ways, both a very normal and a very odd child all at once. This may be due to his parents attempting to normalise him and give him something more akin to a childhood, after Mycroft.

Seven years older, Mycroft was probably born just after his mother ended her academic career. A mathematician who, although a bit scatty, had a brilliant mind, likely chose to home-school her first born son - a step that would have kept Mycroft alone in that remote country house, nurturing an impossibly brilliant mind with mathematical equations and any book he could lay his hands on. This way, he could easily reach age seven without meeting another soul save for his parents.

Mrs Holmes probably home schooled Sherlock too - Mark Gatiss has said he thinks the Holmes brothers were brought up "like hothouse flowers" - and, after some years, she realised that he was gifted in similar ways to Mycroft. She will have wanted her younger boy to be better adjusted than her elder - so was probably the one to encourage him towards pirates and Operation and bought him the dog. But Mycroft will have held real sway over his younger brother’s forming intellect too, with Sherlock constant attempts to keep up with and surpass Mycroft’s unmatchable genius the foundation for more than a little sibling rivalry.

At some point, when Sherlock was old enough to remember, Mrs Holmes had taken the decision that both her sons needed to meet other children, likely realising, from the strange behaviour of her eldest son with his unwieldy genius that even her enormously intelligent second son could not parallel, that it was a mistake to have kept them so isolated and they should make some friends.

It went badly, of course. The realisation that the rest of the world were mostly unbearably ordinary cannot have been an easy revelation for the brothers, and especially not for Mycroft, who was much older and had been long working on the assumption that his incredible intellect was the norm.

I think this meeting, though, probably gave him a new found appreciation for his little brother, who could almost keep up with Mycroft and, compared to ordinary people was blindingly brilliant. It was this realisation that made Sherlock the single most important person to Mycroft in the world, and his only pressure point.

Sherlock wanted Anderson as assistant

 (Sherlock Meta by Ivy Blossom)

There are lots of things that occur to me far later than they should. The thing about Mrs Hudson that I should have noticed but didn't was the first one: I'm sure there will be a million more, because I am not particularly detail-oriented, to be honest. This is the second thing I just realized: Sherlock didn't originally want John to be his assistant. He wanted Anderson to play that role.

Sherlock: Who's on forensics?
Lestrade: Anderson.
Sherlock: Anderson won't work with me.

Not Anderson is an idiot, but Anderson won't work with me. Sherlock then proceeds to take John along with him to a crime scene, and is remarkably patient and accommodating with him. Why does he do that? Sherlock is neither patient nor accommodating as a general rule. When John deduces only the most obvious and basic details about Jennifer Wilson's death, Sherlock isn't scornful at all. Why does he behave this way?

Lestrade: He's not your assistant.
Sherlock: I need an assistant!

We know he doesn't bring John along for his own innate skills, because when John asks why he's there, as they're standing over Jennifer Wilson's body, Sherlock says, "Proving a point". He doesn't really care what John has to offer to the investigation of the crime scene, that's why he's not bothered by John's simple description of the cause of death. That wasn't the point.

He's trying to make Anderson jealous.

These two appear to have a tumultuous relationship; they must have argued over bodies before. Sherlock must respect Anderson's abilities; why else would he want him as an assistant? So Sherlock wants to demonstrate, in the most childish way possible, that if Anderson won't play ball, he will lock him out altogether. That's the worst thing Sherlock can imagine: being tantalizingly close to the crime scene and his own dazzling deductions, but not be able to hear them or participate.

So Sherlock slams the door in Anderson's face. It's not because noting that Rache is a German word is dumb (It was something that passed through Sherlock's mind as well, as we know); it's because Sherlock is proving his point.

I don't need you. See? See me not needing you? How do you like that, Anderson? HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT? I can deduce the fact that you're cheating on your wife with Sally, I know what you were doing last night. See? Aren't I good? That's how good I am. You want to be my assistant, Anderson, don't you. You need to, because I'm dazzling and you need to watch me. If you ask really nicely I might let you act as my assistant next time. I just might. 

Sherlock doesn't realize at that point that the perfect assistant for him is John. Anderson won't fire a bullet with the steadiest of hands through a window for him. Anderson won't help him behave appropriately in social situations and smooth out the rough edges of his interactions. Anderson may admire Sherlock's abilities, but he'd never say so out loud. Anderson will never love him. John's arrival utterly alters the job description of "assistant" for Sherlock. We never hear the word "assistant" again, in fact (to my knowledge).

Sherlock's reactions toward Anderson, and all the negative things he has to say about him thereafter, appear, in this light, to be more a reaction to Anderson's rejection of Sherlock than any scornfulness about his abilities.

Sherlock has the emotional life of a nine year old.

Janine, reconsidered 

 (Sherlock Meta by mild-lunacy)

I was rewatching HLV in preparation for The Reckoning (aka Series 4), and I noticed something off about the Janine scene at Baker Street. As we know, Sherlock was acting weird, but then, he was *acting*. People have various explanations of how/why Janine was acting weird. Most people point to her willingness to forgo sex with Sherlock as the odd thing, or alternatively her willingness to believe he was really proposing. The usual point is, how could a savvy, smart woman go for that?

Well, that’s what I’d call an example of an ‘argument from real life’, which is almost always a dead end when analyzing genre fiction. I realize it’s really, really popular for a reason, and that is that it comes really naturally and is part of how most people process and relate to stories. That being said, I’m inclined to dismiss it. If you think these points suggest Janine isn’t believable or coherent as a character, fine. That simply means you’re not satisfied with the show, but that’s not offering a useful critique for further analysis. Nor is it a good reason to go against explicit canon and insist she did have oral sex with Sherlock at least. Anyway, the oddness in Janine that I’m speaking of is the stuff John canonically found weird himself, based on his scandalized, weirded out look: coming out without her bottoms, calling Mycroft ‘Mike’ and blatantly helping herself (staking a claim) in the kitchen. In other words, she was both forward and rude, in context: not acting very British. Then she was super-demonstrative, sitting in Sherlock’s lap later; people have theorized that this is because she knows about Sherlock’s plans, but there’s a simpler explanation. One that doesn’t require breaking a plot point in HLV (always important).

Janine’s inappropriate behavior fits if she was actually *trying* to make John uncomfortable, hoping to rub it in with her new relationship to Sherlock. Not to help Sherlock for whatever reason, but because *she* was jealous. Remember, she knows how important John is to Sherlock because of their conversation at the wedding. Sherlock made his fixation on John clear by his behavior there, and in fact Sherlock rejected her at the time (both sexually and as a candidate for the position John’s marriage represented an end to). The walking around half-dressed makes sense if you essentially want your lover’s ex to suffer. It really is that simple sometimes, and it also makes sense as a mirror with Mary’s dynamic with Sherlock and John in HLV, as well. Mary was starting to resent Sherlock’s role in John’s life as well, sniping at him earlier in the episode about some people not having heard of Sherlock.

The whole performance being directed at discomfiting John becomes truly obvious when she tells Sherlock right in front of John, “I’m the only one who really knows what you’re like, remember?”

That’s just *blatantly* a reference to John as well as John’s (presumably former) role in Sherlock’s life. It’s the sort of thing you don’t say in front of someone’s questionably-ex 'partner’ if you don’t have to, or you’re being friendly. If you’re not trying to score emotional points, you don’t say that sort of thing even to 'play along’ (assuming she’s doing that, rather than Sherlock, which I think is the actual reality of the situation). We know that Janine is canonically nasty and vengeful (from her going to the newspapers about her sex life with Sherlock), so this behavior is totally understandable. Further, if she was taunting John right then, it makes sense she’d been in that mode the entire time.

Not to say that this is somehow an anti-Janine post, but I’m guessing that one reason fandom hasn’t really talked about this before is that it’s not particularly flattering to Janine. We tend to be a bit protective about female characters in the show. In Series 3, however, every female character– Molly, Janine, Mary, even Mrs Hudson– repeatedly acted somewhat insensitively, and everyone except maybe Mrs Hudson was also manipulative and even emotionally abusive to various degrees. With Molly, I’m referring to the contentious yelling episode at the lab, and with Mrs Hudson, I’m mainly referring to the multiple times in TSoT where she mysteriously stomped over Sherlock’s apparent anxiety about John’s impending nuptials. Mary, on the other hand, exemplified every single aspect of this sort of insensitive, manipulative behavior throughout the Series, of course.

The other reason I haven’t seen anyone mention this interpretation before in the Johnlocker circles I travel in is probably because it treats Janine’s canonical heterosexual/heteroromantic feelings seriously. There’s not much I can say about that except that it’s my best judgment that they were indeed real.

ASiP Retrospective: They Won’t Work With Me (Because Only John Will)

 (Sherlock Meta by radvera, just-sort-of-happened and ivyblossom )

radvera: 

That’s right, it’s 2016 and I’m writing a Johnlock meta about A Study in Pink. Luckily, it doesn’t matter that I was an infant when this episode first aired because Johnlock is the one facet of all our lives that is eternal and will always be. I’m also revisiting season one again because I love dying.

Not that we haven’t noticed and written extensive metas about everything in the show, but did you ever notice or write an extensive meta about how Sherlock says, “[They] won’t work with me?” The first time he says it, he’s talking specifically about Anderson, saying he needed an assistant but that Anderson, for some reason, wouldn’t work.

SH- Who's on forensics?
GL- It's Anderson
SH- Anderson won't work with me

Later on in the episode, it becomes very clear why Anderson wouldn’t want to work with Sherlock. But what about that second time he says it? Sherlock is asking John if he’d take a look at the body; Lestrade protests, saying they had a whole team of medical people outside, and Sherlock replies, “They won’t work with me.”

So what, exactly, does that mean? Anderson, understandably, is not willing to work with Sherlock on cases, but did Sherlock really offend the living hell out of an entire team of medical experts to the point where they can’t bear to put aside their personal distaste for the sake of professionalism and work with Sherlock on a case? Actually….possibly. But let’s take a look at that first “Anderson won’t work with me.”

GL- Well, he won't be your assistant
SH- I Need an assistant.

Why did Sherlock insist that he needed an assistant? That’s like, not even true. Sherlock doesn’t NEED an assistant, he just would LIKE one. He works better with one – speaking aloud to someone else helps him think – but Sherlock saying he needs an assistant and then ultimately agreeing to come to the crime scene even though Lestrade didn’t promise him an assistant at all sounds like he was just trying to kick up drama when there was no question whether or not he would go in the first place. But was he just being a baby, or was he trying to get out a message to a certain someone sitting 10 feet away? In this context, listening to this conversation, the audience is clearly meant to think immediately of John when Sherlock says that he needs an assistant. The real question is, did Sherlock intend for John to be his assistant from the minute Lestrade walked through the door?

After twirling around for a while, Sherlock puts on his coat and his little scarf and bounds out the door, leaving John and Mrs. Hudson in the dust. Mrs. Hudson then briefly talks about her husband to a pissed-off-looking John, and John yells because what else does John even do besides yell. Mrs. Hudson is off to make tea and John opens up a newspaper. We’ve all seen it like a hundred times so I’m paraphrasing.

But then…Sherlock comes back. He appears at the door again, purring about how John is an army doctor. Did you guys ever notice how long of a while it is between the moment Sherlock leaves and the moment he comes back? True, it seems like a very short time – only a few things happened and only a few words were said. But it’s kind of a long time for Sherlock to be gone, especially the way he was swooshing around, and we know how fast Sherlock can swoop down a flight of stairs when he has someplace to be, only to decide to…come back? And, unless I am completely misinterpreting the layout, there are only two flights of stairs between the ground floor and Sherlock and John’s flat, because the flat is just one floor up, right? So…when did he decide to come back? When he heard “Damn my leg” and decided that he couldn’t miss out on John’s super hot yelling? It’s possible, but it’s also possible that Sherlock had intended to come back into the room anyway. What I’m saying is, Sherlock must have deduced somewhere between meeting John and the moment when he asks him to join him to the crime scene that John would actually WANT to go. That he missed the adventure and would WANT to be his assistant. And, after all, Anderson won’t work.

GL- We have a whole team right outside
SH- They won't work with me.
GL- I'm breaking every rule letting you in here...

Fast forward to the second time Sherlock says “They won’t work with me.” An entire professional medical team refusing to even be in the same room as Sherlock, or just Sherlock bullshitting so Lestrade will let his bf take a look at the evidence? I think it’s the latter. I think Sherlock is not only curious about how good of a doctor John really is, but he wants to see if they’re actually compatible. (Not that being a hot army doctor doesn’t immediately put you on Sherlock’s Acceptable People List.) And maybe Sherlock isn’t necessarily comfortable with or ready for a relationship at this exact moment, or maybe he is, but at the root of it all, having John as just a friend is a really, really good start.

And maybe it’s not just Sherlock talking, either, when he says “They won’t work with me.” Maybe it’s the writers trying to tell us something. If something is repeated, pay attention to it, right? This show has constantly, since the very beginning, repeated lines, made the same thing pop up multiple times as if to say, “Hey, this is important so why not pay some attention to it, because we are trying to tell you something here.” (@ the entirety of The Abominable Bride) When Sherlock says “They won’t work with me”, maybe it’s the writers, the producers, the Sherlock team, Jesus, and all them, trying to say, “No one else will work.” Lestrade quickly and nobly offers his squadron of doctors and Sherlock shoots them all down at once. They won’t work with me. Because there is only one person in this entire show that really, truly, undeniably works with Sherlock.

They won’t work with Sherlock, because only John will.

just-sort-of-happened: 

I love this. Also, makes the TEH Works Beautifully sign a callback to this. A reminder of how well they fit together.

ivyblossom:

But John’s first outing with Sherlock isn’t a test of John’s skills at all, or even of his compatibility as an assistant. John doesn’t need to prove himself useful at that point, which is good, because he isn’t. Sherlock still wants Lestrade’s team to help him. The reason Sherlock brings John along to the crime scene was to prove a point to Anderson, to Sally, and to the rest of Lestrade’s team who refuse to work with him. What was that point?

You won’t help me? That’s fine. You’re expendable. I don’t need you. I’ve found someone else to take your place, look how easily I did that! Does that change your tune? Don’t you want to be inside the room rather than outside it? 

Sherlock is intensely petty and childish, and he brings John along to make Anderson jealous. He wants to shut Anderson out the way Anderson wants to shut Sherlock out. The fact that John is an army doctor is helpful in making his case for bringing him in to Lestrade, and make the whole thing seem at least marginally legit. But it’s not John he wants at that point. John is just his accommodating flatmate with an obvious lust for adventure. It’s Anderson and his team he wants in the room with him.

You can tell this is true because the most important part of John’s presence at that first crime scene was certainly not his contributions. He agreed that the victim was dead. John is resolutely not useful at the crime scene, but Sherlock isn’t petulantly disappointed about it. In fact he was gracious and patient with John’s stumbling deductions; how out of character! He doesn’t actually care what John says about the body. He doesn’t need John to have any deductions about it. He only wants John to take up time so that Anderson has to wait at the crime scene. He wants to slam the door in Anderson’s face and make him wonder what was going on behind it. So John has already fulfilled his role, as far as Sherlock’s concerned. Proving a point.

John goes on to completely surprise Sherlock several times: first by being as enthusiastic about deductions as Sherlock is. He wasn’t counting on praise. He wasn’t even looking for it, and he doesn’t know what to do with it. But it’s nice, and it changes things. Then, John goes on to demonstrate his ultimate capacity by figuring out where Sherlock is and shooting the cabbie with the steadiest of hands. Sherlock really wasn’t expecting that. 

What started as a petulant trick to get Lestrade’s team on side turned into discovering not only an assistant but a true partner. That’s the moment when John becomes, not just someone “who will work” with Sherlock, but someone who takes his russian roulette life and makes it about something much more. John makes him more than a puzzle solver. John makes him a hero.

The Love Story of Sherlock and John 

(Sherlock Meta by Ivy Blossom)

I’m a broken record on this: Sherlock is already a love story, and it’s been a love story since the beginning. Nothing that happens in the next two weeks or 10 years will alter that fact. Nothing whatsoever!

Sherlock and John have outsized feelings for each other, and they both know it. Everyone around them knows it. So far this story has been largely about the various ways they try to make sense of this basic truth, and try to find an arrangement that satisfies them based on what each of them thinks they want.

They try being friends who solve crimes together; John’s dating gets in the way, and he fails to distinguish between one girlfriend from the next. Without discussing it, they become monogamous and ambiguous life partners who sometimes share a bed and don’t bother correcting people who assume they’re lovers. Sherlock, with his big ego and low self-esteem, fails to understand the nature of his complicated relationship with John and inadvertently breaks up with him (oops). Two years later, Sherlock wants his relationship back, but John has understandably moved on.

But John can’t quit Sherlock altogether. He needs and loves Sherlock as much as Sherlock needs and loves him. But how do you square this circle? They are very different people who appear to want very different things. John wants a romantic, ideally sexual relationship and everything that Sherlock is. Sherlock wants John to solve crimes with him and be with him at all times, and artfully dodges everything else.

John shifts his language to best friend, best man, godfather of my child, and they slip back into something of their former closeness, but with the addition of Mary. Their relationship is still far more intense and involved than would be considered usual, but what’s the word for it? What are the rules?

John’s happiness is reliant on his relationship with Sherlock. Fortunately Mary doesn’t mind, and fortunately Sherlock is prepared to do whatever’s required of him. Mary and Sherlock learn to comfortably share John, though it’s not clear that John is comfortable being shared. You’d think he’d be happy, he’s got everything we thought he wanted: the normal life and romantic/sexual relationship with Mary that he seemed to crave, even a child, and he still has Sherlock. Everything should be perfect, but it isn’t.

John doesn’t just love danger and adventure. If he did, Mary’s danger and adventure would be equally thrilling to him. He doesn’t just love hints of sociopathy and acting as someone’s moral compass, or he’d be as invested in helping Mary become a better person as he is in helping Sherlock. Mary’s brilliance doesn’t excite him the way Sherlock’s does. John is a man with trust issues: he isn’t able to forgive Mary the way he’s able to forgive Sherlock. John’s feelings about Sherlock go beyond the adrenaline and the thrill of danger, and beyond a mere admiration for his abilities.

People don’t always understand what it is they want. Sometimes it’s through convolutions like this that they work it out.

Considering this progression, it makes perfect narrative sense for John to act upon the knowledge he’s gained about exactly how deeply and irrevocably in love with Sherlock he is, and that he is not capable of forming this unique kind of bond with anyone else. It makes sense that Sherlock, who has thus far has deliberately avoided romance, love, and sex, to finally mature enough emotionally to accept that he has these needs as well. It makes sense for them to admit all of this in one way or another. They are made for each other. They are both better people when they are together. They will only be truly happy with each other.

If Sherlock and/or John decide not to address this, it will be a tragedy in the classic sense. But it will not mean theirs has not been a love story.

Love Live Irene Adler 

(Sherlock Meta by Ivy Blossom)

I love it when Irene comes up, because Irene is the embodiment of Sherlock’s sexuality. She’s the question that he tries very hard to ignore. She is the road not taken, but a road he could still take, possibly, if he wanted to. When Irene pops up, it’s a cue to think about Sherlock as a sexual being. It’s that for John as well, clearly.

I don’t want to be self-referential about this, but I feel compelled to be tonight: we fanfiction writers know how great it is to have Irene crop up as a conversation between Sherlock and John. It’s a crisis point conversation. It’s the best way for John to ask all the questions he wants to without actually asking them, and that’s pretty much what happened here as well. He wants to know: are you straight, are you gay, what are you, Sherlock? What do you want? Do you love her? Is it her, or is it me? 

That conversation usually ends like this: “I could go to her, but I’d rather stay with you.” (Why would he do that, John? Ohhh right, because he loves you!) We’ve all done that, haven’t we? Haven’t we all written that in one way or another? I don’t want to disparage my favourite screenwriter by saying “low hanging fruit,” but…Irene is low hanging fruit, we all grabbed it, didn’t we?

I like this idea that Sherlock sometimes responds to Irene’s texts. That’s good; that’s some ice melting off of him. To me that says he’s been thinking about the possibility that maybe a sexual relationship is something he wants. With her? Probably not. But she’s an entry point to it, she’s his libido, and yes, he has one, and he just acknowledged that. That’s great. Tonight, in this episode, Sherlock acknowledged that he sometimes considers the possibility of engaging in a sexual relationship. That’s huge.

I’m so glad Irene came back up just now.

John was about to leave. He was going to abandon Sherlock 20 minutes early, why? He’s trying to put distance between himself and Sherlock because he is not the man Mary thinks he is. Does this make sense? What does that have to do with Sherlock?

And why does he suddenly need to tell Sherlock what to do about Irene?

Because it’s not only Mary who needs him to be a good man. Sherlock needs him too, and John feels that he’s failed both of them. Why is he sending Sherlock off to Irene? He’s saying: I’m not good enough for you, Sherlock. Irene loves you too, go to here instead.

But that’s ridiculous. We all know Irene can’t keep Sherlock right. If anything, she’d send him down the worst paths, as she’s done before. John says to Mary, and to Sherlock: I can’t be the man you need to be. I cannot live up to your expectations. I am not that man.

And both of them say, yes you are. You’re human, you do the best you can, and that’s why we love you, and it’s good enough for me.

And John hears that, and he doesn’t leave.

I like it.

Evaluation of John's reaction to Sherlock in The Lying Detective

 (Sherlock meta by Ivy Blossom)

We knew from the outset that this series was going to be about demons. What’s interesting, and unexpected, is that so far it’s been about John’s demons, not Sherlock’s. We didn’t really think about John having demons, but I think that was the point.

Everyone in this story has a high-octane dysfunction of some kind. What’s always been true is that Sherlock is seen as the sexy, amoral weirdo who is secretly normal on the inside. John is the opposite. He’s a milquetoast, average guy on the outside, and an violent, rampaging action hero on the inside. Both Sherlock and John aspire to be what they project themselves as, and do their best to fight, dismiss, and hide from their inner reality. That core conflict is the fuel that drives each of them to despair.

Resolving this inner/outer conflict is the overarching theme of Sherlock. We see this very clearly with Sherlock himself: this is the story of how Sherlock learns to accept his human needs and emotions and becomes a greater consulting detective because of it. But running in parallel, we’ve now discovered, is the story of how John reconciles his inner monster with his stout, ethical heart.

We always thought it was Sherlock who was striving, and often failing, to meet John’s high expectations. But it turns out that the opposite is also true: Sherlock’s (and Mary’s) idea of who John is forces him to be that man, too. John knows he fails, but he doesn’t think Mary and Sherlock know this, and surely they would reject him if they knew. They can’t know how he struggles to be who they think he is. This series shows us exactly how.

We think of John as being moral, patient, forgiving, and above all, profoundly fair. But he holds Sherlock responsible for Mary’s death when it was clearly not his fault. John is meant to be the good guy, but he cheats on his wife and lets his grief and his anger overtake him when he beats Sherlock bloody. These things are so inconsistent, and no one can tell you that better than John Watson himself. He hates this about himself. These are his demons. He cannot live up to the expectations he has set for himself, let alone those or the people he loves. He fails them, badly and repeatedly.

That’s why John tells Sherlock to go to Irene. Because he knows what Sherlock needs him to be, and he knows he cannot deliver. He is a fraud.

Sherlock knows all about being a fraud. He is not a sociopath; he’s a profoundly emotional man who wants to love and be loved. Of course we know that by now. We know that the best Sherlock is a blend of all that he is, not just one or the other. The same is true for John. The guy who sprained someone’s wrist for not answering a question, the guy who shot and killed an unarmed cab driver because Sherlock was about to voluntarily swallow a pill that might be poison, the guy who beat Sherlock until he was spitting blood, that guy, with his desire to be loving, normal, good, that guy has the capacity to be a hero.

Sherlock embraces John’s inner violence, he always has. It’s the thing that first drew Sherlock to John, his improbable contradictions. He accepts, and even depends upon, the monster in John.

Is this a template for a good, healthy relationship? Uh, no. Are you kidding? No, these people are not moral exemplars by any means. They are profoundly and dangerously flawed people. But they have the capacity to be good, to be great, even, with each other’s help.

Why does Sherlock show Molly affection?

 (Sherlock meta by fuckyeahsherlolly)

Q: Why does [Sherlock] show Molly affection in that way [in TEH]? Why did he care that he hurt her on Christmas [in ASiB] ? He's upset people in the past and not thought about it twice. John's teacher girlfriend, Hudders and the flour, Lestrade... Always. Why apologize at all, and furthermore, why was he actually upset (enough) that he'd hurt her? I understand the day they spent [in TEH] was a thank you. He was kind, cordial, accepted her help. That's a lot from him. So why say all of the things he said? Why chips? Why kiss? [...]

A: For me it has a lot to do with the fact that he truly and utterly cocked up. Sherlock wasn’t being ‘cruel’, he was 'teasing’, but he didn’t understand the weight of his words until he saw what everyone else already knew, that the gift was for him, that she cares for him. He doesn’t understand that, in the same way that he didn’t understand that John saw him as his best friend - he’s at a loss, because he doesn’t see himself as a person who is worthy.

I think a lot of what he does try do to in series 3 is to show that he’s much more receptive, not afraid, but it’s more the - “you can’t do this anymore” that gets me really. It’s not supposed to mean anything, is it?

Then why say it, why not go for chips?

The kiss is almost like a goodbye, like this was their first and last time doing anything like this, because she is engaged.

And then there’s the fact that she slaps him in the later episode, and tension is high, and I’m basically on the edge of my seat wondering what the hell is going to happen between the pair of them in series four.

Whatever it is, I’m ready (not really).

One Last Little Pre-S4 Molly Meta 

 (Sherlock meta by theleftpill)

[...] So I was thinking this morning about TAB, and how it’s all about *women*, both their importance in the world and Sherlock’s (raging hard-on) High Regard and Esteem for them, and thinking about the various metas written about why Sherlock initially sees Molly as a man. A lot has been said about her needing to be in disguise to hold her position in the Victorian era, about whether Sherlock knew or didn’t know that she was a woman, but one idea I haven’t seen:

Molly’s reveal in the church reveals her to Sherlock (and to the aware audience) that she’s a woman. This happens in Sherlock’s Mind Palace. They share a tender moment of recognition. This is the moment when Molly changes for Victorian Sherlock from a trusted and equal colleague, a professional in a professional capacity, to a real human being, to a woman, to a personal connection.

This is the moment in Sherlock’s brain when Molly shifts. Ever so slightly, if you weren’t paying attention you would miss it, but Molly changes for Sherlock here. She’s no longer just the pathologist, she’s no longer a trusted and dear friend. She’s now a woman.

Series 4 has answers. Let’s see where it goes.