A massive part of the Sherlock special was literally about women’s struggles

 (Sherlock meta by bassfanimation and thecutteralicia)

bassfanimation:

[...] This was so beautifully done, I am having a hard time actually forming coherent thoughts. I want to write so much but my fingers are just wanting to type animal noises…

The symbolism. Just. All of it together was about women being invisible. 

Molly Hooper appearing as a man has nothing to do with J-lock, it has everything to do with her gender and profession during that era. If she was in fact cross dressing, it means she HAD to do it for fear of repercussions, such as losing her job. If she was not cross dressing, and it was Sherlock seeing her as a man, it means he was effectively ignoring her femininity, denying her that identity. Do you guys even know what that means? Women who do certain jobs being seen as less than feminine? This has zero to do with shipping, good gracious please open your eyes and join in this beautiful conversation.

The Bride herself, she was shrouded, faceless. The congregation of women, covered, faceless. Mrs. Hudson, not being allowed to speak, to be heard. Mary being told to stay out of the way, to go home, ignored. John’s housekeeper being spoken down to, it all pointed in the direction of women being ignored, unseen, undependable, unintelligent.

At the end, when Molly and Sherlock address each other, “Holmes”, and “Hooper”, there was such an acknowledgement and respect there. It was a show of “Here I am, look at me, Sherlock”. And he did. He looked upon her face, her feminine face, her hair, and her dress, and he SAW her. That’s all she wanted. That’s what so many of us want. To be seen, respected, heard, allowed to BE, allowed to DO. Sherlock saw, and he acknowledged his wrongdoing towards her, and Janine, and Mary, and any other women he’s used or ignored.

Sherlock Holmes was held accountable for his poor behavior towards the women in his life. He acknowledged how he was blind to them, cold to their emotions, how he used them. He didn’t deflect blame, or whine, or point a finger, he simply knew he’d done wrong and that it was time to end that behavior. Good God I just can’t clap enough.

Please give this episode the respect it deserves. Can we drop shipping for just a moment and appreciate how important it is that the writers of our favorite show are acknowledging how much we, as women, want to be seen and heard? They’re saying they agree. We should be seen and heard, and treated as equals. I think that’s damn fine.

thecutteralicia:

Something which I really liked in this episode is also something that, from comments, seems to have flown over the head of some of my fellow American feminist Sherlockians. I’ve seen commentary basically taking issue with the suffragettes for being “violent” or “vengeful.” But a crucial part of the history of women’s right in the U.K. are the militant activists of the early 20th century, most notably the Women’s Social and Political Union.

While the early American suffragettes have the popular image of passive and nonviolent resistance, some contemporary leading British suffragettes took the view that nonviolent resistance had failed to provoke a change in the movement (note that the same debate about protest methods would later flare up in the American civil rights movement of the mid-century). Those British suffragettes began a campaign to meet male violence with violence via acts of vandalism, arson and bombings.

The most obvious parallel to Emilia Ricoletti, I thought, was British suffragette Emily WIlding Davison. Emilia’s flashy, publicly staged suicide (with the aid of her underground women’s group) recalled Davison’s publicly staged “suicide,” when she was killed after stepping in front of the king’s horse on the track at the Epsom Derby in 1913. While many people now contend that she was actually just trying to tie a “Votes for Women” banner on the horse and was accidentally hit, at the time the public and media thought Davison had deliberately committed a grand suicide in front of (newly modern) news cameras to sacrifice herself for the cause.

Doesn't it make more sense for Sherlock to have not meant 

the ILY?

 (Sherlock meta by strawberrypatty)

Q: [...] Doesn't it make more sense for Sherlock to have not meant it? Like the emotions in the scene were sadness, tragedy and the cruel antics of a villain that only works if Molly's love is unrequited. If this is a scene about Molly/Sherlock confessing their genuine love (on top of finding out Molly was always ok) the scene were framed as positive and cathartic but it's meant to be upsetting.

A: I am always willing to discuss other viewpoints.

The scene is framed as one of sadness and tragedy because to someone like Eurus and Sherlock love IS something tragic. Sherlock has a realization during that scene and he has no idea how to feel about it. He’s angry at Eurus for being able to absolutely shred him using his own emotions. Love is a chemical defect found in the losing side. The scene is upsetting because Eurus is able to manipulate Sherlock absolutely.

He describes it as “vivisection”, which goes perfectly with Eurus cutting herself to see how her muscles work. She’s cutting Sherlock open emotionally to see how HE works. He is not allowed to come to his feelings for Molly on his own terms. He is forced to do it by the metaphoric barrel of a gun.

He also doesn’t know if there is an end to all of it. He’s being turned into a puppet by Eurus who dances to her will, including doing something like admit his love for someone, which he never would have done.

There’s also that Sherlock has to come to terms with the feelings. While I think he’s felt them for a while, this is the first time he’s ever been able to admit that they’re true. But it’s such a foreign concept to him. It’s only by the end of the episode that Sherlock is actually comfortable with being “the emotional one”. This episode is his trial by fire to reach that point.

Eurus and Sherlock’s Relationship and The Game 

 (Sherlock meta by strawberrypatty)

I am fascinated by the character of Eurus. I’ve seen a lot of disparaging comments about her, but I think she’s incredibly interesting. She changed what we know about Sherlock, Mycroft and the Holmes family. I think this is part of why people are so resistant to the idea of her. We don’t like when the status quo is changed. But the introduction of Eurus does explain quite a few things and deepens our understanding of the characters.

(NOTE: I am not a psychologist. I have tried to leave psychoanalysis out of this. I am just trying to read the text provided to us by the episode)

Many Holmes pastiches have tried to explain the cause of Sherlock Holmes shunning interpersonal relationships. This is often done by having him with a tragic romance as a young man. He lost the woman he loved and thus has shut himself off from feelings for anyone. This is being reflected in Sherlock’s childhood trauma as the cause in Sherlock. This makes a lot of sense. In fact, having childhood trauma being the cause makes even more sense than a tragic romance as it is a far more scarring experience for him. Not only does Sherlock lose his best friend, it is because of the sister who tormented him. When he blocked the memories out, instead of getting Sherlock proper help to deal with his trauma, Mycroft just reinforced it for what he felt was Sherlock’s own safety.

I use the word “tormented” to describe Sherlock’s interactions with Eurus. While Eurus wanted to play with Sherlock, we don’t know HOW she wanted to play with Sherlock. She doesn’t understand what pain is. She wanted to make Sherlock laugh, but she doesn’t understand the concept of pain so instead she took screaming as laughter. She lacks the ability to recognize the difference between negative and positive stimuli.

To her, giving him the mystery of what happened to Victor Trevor is a gift to Sherlock. She’s giving him a puzzle to figure out. She understands that Sherlock has an attachment to him which will spur him to search. Only, Eurus doesn’t understand that Victor is a living, breathing human being. We see even as an adult that Eurus can’t grasp that other people are anything more than unconscious bags of meat, as witnessed by her “jet” and calling the governor a prisoner of his own meat. There is of course also an element of jealousy. Sherlock and Victor were inseparable. Eurus wanted to play, but she didn’t know how to.

Sherlock was described as an emotional child. I think this was something intriguing to Eurus. It is why she focused on him rather than Mycroft. During the entire Final Problem, Mycroft is as much collateral damage as John or Molly or the Governor. To Eurus, emotions are a puzzle that she has to figure out. All of the tests she sets are psychological and focused on Sherlock.

There is no need for Eurus to spend the night with Sherlock after giving him the Culverton Smith mystery. I believe this is a mix of wanting to understand how he treats a normal person and also a need to be around him. It is the first time in her life she is treated as normal, even if she is in disguise at the time.

When she talks to Sherlock in her cell, she looks betrayed when he doesn’t remember that she taught him to play the violin. She also wants to hear him when he’s playing violin. Eurus is trying to figure out who Sherlock is. He is not to her level, because no one is, but there is still a connection. Sherlock understand the things that she can’t— emotions.

Mycroft can understand Eurus on an intellectual level for the most part (she says if she went a bit slow he would get it). But Sherlock is still her favourite brother. There are think a few reasons for this:

(1) I know they say it’s never twins, but Sherlock and Eurus are [twins]. The only reason they had them a year apart (“Irish Twins”) is because Moffat and Gatiss I’m SURE didn’t want to read “Sherlock’s evil twin” in every single review, but every interaction between them is written as if they were twins. There is a deep connection between them that comes from being close siblings.

(2) While Sherlock is the “idiot”, Eurus doesn’t completely understand him. While she is incredibly intelligent, intelligence can’t help someone understand emotion since emotion and logic often work independently. Eurus’ understanding of emotion comes experimenting on Sherlock and examining him.

She speaks of emotional context, but Eurus doesn’t understand what emotional context truly is herself. There is no way she could. She is “beyond Newton” in terms of intellect, but she has been locked up in isolation since childhood. The most she has interacted with people has been to be used as a tool by Mycroft (this might also explain some of her coldness towards Mycroft. Since he used her as a tool, she will use him as the same).

She wants to understand emotional context, which for all of her talk about it turning the third test she does NOT understand. That is the purpose of the tests, so she can find out what Sherlock’s emotional reactions will be. Witness the people she uses in her test: the three people who are most likely to evoke an emotional responce from Sherlock, save for Mrs Hudson (however, I wonder if Eurus has meant for Mrs Hudson to have been killed in the blast on 221B, it’s just that Mycroft was able to rescue her).

There is one thing that is important to keep in mind through all of The Final Problem: The “idiot” Holmes sibling is able to predict the movements of his friends weeks in advance. We also get hints of this from Eurus, being told she spent an hour on Twitter and predicted terrorist attacks. There is an element of this in everything Eurus does. She is attempting to predict what Sherlock will do and what those around him will as well.

The first test is who Sherlock will choose to turn into a murderer (or multiple murderer). She is interested to know how everyone in the room is reacting. She asks for updates on their anxiety levels and suggests she should have fit them for cardiographs. This is how Eurus sees emotion, as physical responces.

Eurus is also completely and utterly in control of the test. I didn’t realize this until my third viewing. She said she’s providing a countdown, but it’s not verbal. Then I realized… The Governor himself is the countdown. Eurus has used her hypnotic suggestion on the Governor to take over Sherrinford. It is completely plausible that she would also set him to kill himself if John or Mycroft fail to kill him within the allotted timespan. That way, the Governor is out of the way for the next tests and John (and Sherlock) culpable of murder by proxy for their inaction.

Eurus says that the Governor is as interesting dead as he was alive. There is the same cavalier attitude towards anyone who is not Sherlock. The interest in John and Mycroft is still focused on Sherlock, as it will tie into Eurus’ finale. She gets into this during The Three Garridebs: “Make use of your friends. I want to see you interact with people you’re close to. Also, you may have to choose which one to keep.”.

In the first test, Eurus is instructing Sherlock to murder someone using either John or Mycroft as a murder weapon. She will be aware of Sherlock’s murder of Magnussen, so she knows that Sherlock is capable of murder. But what she is interested in is which one Sherlock will choose to use. I believe this ties into the final test.

With the Garridebs, Eurus says exactly why she does the test: She wants to see him repress his emotions in order for his reasoning to work. So she gives him the “context” that his actions will condemn someone to die. The Sherlock that Eurus is familiar with was quite emotional. But she’s heard and seen that he has turned himself into a cold, calculating man of logic. Mostly likely Mycroft has told her it is because of her. She wants to test that, see how far it goes, how much influence she has had on him.

In the end, her killing of all three Garridebs is because they don’t matter. What matters is Sherlock.

And now, the scene I have already written SO MUCH about. This is such a fascinating scene to me: the one with Molly Hooper. I will try not to repeat myself too much, but it is bound to happen. It is important to note that Eurus has SEEN Sherlock interact with Molly, albeit briefly. She heard John say that Molly is the one person able to see through Sherlock’s bullshit. We also don’t know what kind of information Eurus has received on Sherlock. However, it is clear to me that Eurus knew Sherlock harboured feelings for Molly. Why is this? Because Molly doesn’t matter to Eurus. She is— like everyone who is not Sherlock— just meat. Sherlock lying to Molly doesn’t make sense because

1. Molly would’ve seen through it.  
2. Guilt over playing with Molly’s affections isn’t enough for Eurus. 

Her previous two tests have been about Sherlock and life and death. Each subsequent test chips away more and more at him emotionally. Just making Sherlock revert back to who he was in Series 1 is not a strong enough test. Eurus is intelligent enough to know that Molly will want Sherlock to say it first and that Sherlock does in fact mean it. He doesn’t know what it means, but that is the reaction she wants.

Eurus claims a victory, because Sherlock has failed to figure out that she wouldn’t have wired Molly’s house with explosives. He was too blinded with panic to think logically, because someone he absolutely loved was in danger. He fails because he couldn’t come up with a way to get Molly to say the words without admitting his own feelings. (“Look what you did to yourself. All of those complicated little emotions.”)

Before Eurus mocks Sherlock, she has a fascinating reaction to Sherlock and Molly admitting their love. I’ve provided a screencap because of how important I believe this is.

That is not the look of an cold, removed scientist. In trying to evoke an emotional responce out of Sherlock using Molly, Eurus I believe has felt something herself. Eurus said that she liked to make Sherlock “laugh”. She has now gotten another emotional reaction from him.

The final test is whether or not Sherlock will kill John or Mycroft. This is Eurus’ true test, because she doesn’t actually know what Sherlock’s reaction is going to be. When Sherlock makes his choice, she says that is was Jim who predicted Sherlock would kill Mycroft. If she had thought that was the case, wouldn’t she say that herself?

I think Eurus thought that Sherlock would kill John, because Mycroft is family. Deep down, what Eurus is looking for is familial affection and she believed that Sherlock would choose family. He would choose HER in the end.

But Sherlock has been put through so much by this point that he’s managed to deduce enough about Eurus. He knows she still wants— needs— him alive. So he decides to kill himself. Rather than just doing it straight off, he gives her a verbal countdown, the thing she robbed them of when killing the Governor and his wife. He knows Eurus will stop him and thus both Mycroft and John will be saved.

Either way, someone was going to end up in the well. Eurus has stripped Sherlock down emotionally and mentally for two purposes:

1. Getting him to really remember her and her game. 
2. Motivate him to finish it.

 And in the end, her game is for Sherlock to come to her. Because she needs Sherlock. She is the girl in the jet with unconscious people around her. She is crashing, because she doesn’t understand her feelings. She has been locked away since she was five years old, just used as a pawn for Mycroft. Mycroft hasn’t had any interest in her emotional wellbeing. He has written her off. He doesn’t know how to deal with it, just like he believed the answer to Sherlock’s problems were to let him forget his childhood trauma rather than work through it.

In the end, I think the relationship of Eurus and Sherlock comes down to the fact that Sherlock is a bridge between Eurus and everyone else. Sherlock is in essence Eurus’ John. It is through John that Sherlock really learns how to form interpersonal relationships. When we meet him in A Study in Pink, he’s not able to find a flatmate, he can’t tell when a girl is asking him out for coffee. But it is through his relationship with John that he has managed to get to this point, where he calls Mary and Molly is friends, where he is able to admit his love for Molly, where he can talk to Mycroft without snarking. Sherlock is the only person who can speak on Eurus’ level, but teach her about the parts of life that she doesn’t understand, emotions and how to be able to live in the world.

Unfortunately, Eurus has done so much that she will have to remain locked up. But we see at the end that Sherlock and Eurus finally play together, this time with their violins. The Holmes family comes together, finally able to start to mend themselves after so many years of heartache.

And Sherlock himself has come to a new place in his life. He has subconsciously tried to make himself into Eurus, albeit a much more controlled one. He cuts himself off from people. He uses his intelligence as an excuse to not socialize with people because they bore him. He has even done experiments on his friends. He drugs John with terror toxin to see his reaction, he has drugged him in the past. He has even done the exact same thing Eurus did, threatening John with a bomb to get him to reveal his true feelings about Sherlock’s faked death, with Eurus does to Sherlock by threatening Molly with an explosive. As Mycroft said, the man Sherlock is comes from his hidden memory of Eurus. The emotional trauma of losing his friend, his home and his sister was too much for him to bear and he cut himself off, instead forming himself into a less version of Eurus.

But that’s not who he is. He’s Sherlock Holmes, the detective in the funny hat. He is a man with friends, with emotions. By the end montage we see him smiling, happy. He has accepted who he really is. He can still be the detective in the silly hat, but he had been able to let go of the things that have held him back from being who he truly is.

Sherlock Post-TFP

 (Sherlock meta by strawberrypatty)

The Final Problem has its problems, but I think the reason I find it so fascinating is because of the implications as to why Sherlock is the way that he is.

In The Abominable Bride, Sherlock says— in his Mind Palace— that “I made me”, but we hear the sound of a dog and Sherlock questions it with “Redbeard?”, setting up that yes, Sherlock’s issues with Eurus and Victor defined who he is. Mycroft says outright that “Every choice you’ve ever made, every path you’ve ever taken, the man you are today is your memory of Eurus.”

This actually does make a lot of sense. Sherlock has shied away from getting close to people, because of the pain he suffered losing his best friend.

I mentioned in my meta about Eurus that I think Sherlock’s trauma over the things Eurus did to him and blocking out her memory caused him to subconsciously remake himself in her image. He’s cold and calculating and does horrible things to the people around him. Only, he’s not Eurus, so he forms emotional attachments anyway.

There is also the cases. Sherlock takes cases constantly because he doesn’t want to be bored. Eurus tells him that he dreams of deep waters because of what happened to Victor. I extrapolate from that Sherlock has a constant need to solve cases because of the one case he never solved. His first one remained unsolved, but he wasn’t aware of it, so it gave him a subconscious need to push himself to solve more and more cases. This also potentially tie to his drug use. Sherlock using drugs to quite down his mind— keep his memories surpressed.

All of this makes you wonder… What is Sherlock going to be like now that he’s gotten rid of the mental and emotional block caused by Eurus and Victor’s death? We see him in the montage at the end of The Final Problem, holding Rosie and smiling, something that it doesn’t seem Sherlock BEFORE would do. But he is able to do that now.

So I’m wondering… What is Sherlock like now? Granted, you can’t just have a sudden breakthrough and then everything is hunky dory. Well, I guess you can on television, but for the purposes of meta I’d rather not use tropes like that.

We saw Sherlock going to see Ella in The Six Thachers. Might he go to see her in order to sort out his thoughts and feelings regarding Eurus? But more importantly… Is Sherlock going to feel the same drive to do cases? Of course, he still DOES do cases. But is it an addiction anymore? Can he actually have down time?

Mary talks about the Legend of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. But Sherlock’s own Mind Palace acknowledges in The Abominable Bride that the Legend of Sherlock Holmes is not the actual man he is.

So what kind of man IS Sherlock Holmes now that he is no longer weighted down by the Final Problem?

In case you wanted another feels angle for the ILY scene… 

 (Sherlock meta by writingwife-83)

I just realized that there’s something else in Sherlocks expression when he utters the second and heart melting ILY. There isn’t just realization…there’s peace. Which sounds crazy, considering the circumstances. Think about that.

The rest of that phone call, before and after his declaration, he is bordering on panic. But in that moment of the second ILY, something visibly shifts. And you can see in his suddenly softer gaze that it’s almost like he’s been transported away from the fear for just the briefest moment. It’s like his words and that accompanying realization physically calms him, even in that horrifying scenario. And if this doesn’t fit with everything else we’ve ever been given of Molly and Sherlock, I don’t know what does.

That love is a force to be reckoned with and nobody can convince me otherwise.

The super intriguing Holmes family

 (Sherlock meta by strawberrypatty)

I’m really just super intrigued by the Holmes family in general now. During series one and two they were portrayed as super cold minor nobles. But after series three it was like “Okay, cute little elderly couple who are utterly and completely normal”.

But now we’ve been introduced to Musgrave. Also the fact that cross-dressing Uncle Rudy held a position similar to Mycroft in the past. So like… I think the answer is somewhere in the middle of the two portrayals? Like, Mr and Mrs Holmes are incredibly chill and normal folks, but they actually do have some social status they just kind of ignore it?

I’m wondering how the loss of Eurus changed Mr. and Mrs. Holmes too. Like they totally left the grandeur of their old life behind after their daughter died and their youngest son was so traumatized he basically forgot his sister existed.

Molly got her happy ending

 (Sherlock meta by sherlocked167)

I see a lot of posts saying Molly Hooper deserved better, poor Molly or Molly is such a weak character. Really, are they all watching the same show. So here I am trying my best to negate them.

I think she is the strongest and the most badass character on the show. You don’t need to be a consulting detective, an ex-army man, an ex- super agent, the British Government, a DI, the widow of a drug dealer or a dominatrix to be considered badass. Look at our sweet pathologist Molly, she dated and dumped Jim Moriarty (the Consulting Criminal) and she was so freaking casual about it.

She wasn’t scared or worried even after knowing who Jim really is, and can we please talk about how she casually calls him “Jim” , whereas every other character addresses him by his full name or Moriarty as they are all a bit scared of him. It’s still a bit unclear as to why Jim let her walk away unscathed even after “she ended it” (my Molliarty shipper heart has its own reasons though). Anyway this is just one of the instances to show that Molly is neither a weak nor a timid character.

Now coming to the ILY scene, a lot of wonderful meta is already written about it but I would like to add my two cents to it. Firstly, I think Jim Moriarty is the one who told Eurus about Molly because the Jim we all know ( come on he’s a genius) would take into consideration the various possibilities regarding The Fall. He would have considered the possibility of Sherlock going to Molly for help, as he knows Molly loves Sherlock and would help him regardless of what people say. I think Jim always planned for Molly to be a part of "the final problem".

Anyway coming back to the ILY scene, I don’t know if this was deliberately done by the writers or not but there is an important thing we tend to miss. John “ I see but I don’t observe” Watson thinks the coffin is for Adler and Mycroft “ I’m the smart one” Holmes thinks the coffin is for somebody who loves Sherlock, both of them are wrong because the person who is in the coffin doesn’t write their own epitaph or the engraving “I Love you”. It’s the person who buries them, in this case it’s Sherlock who has to bury Molly if she dies, who writes the epitaph. So the whole point of the scene is to get Sherlock to admit his feelings and say the words to Molly. He most definitely means it when he says it the second time because that is the look of realization of a man who has fallen in love for the first time.

Molly deserves to have her love and feelings returned by the man she’s always loved and that is exactly what happened in The Final Problem. Even Loo Brealey in a recent interview said “ After playing Molly for seven years it was great to do her justice and give her a good send-off if it is the end…” I think this means Molly got her happy ending and we all know what her happy ending is and more importantly with whom. So I don’t understand from where this ‘Molly deserves better’ posts are coming from.

My point being Molly got her happy ending and there is no need to take pity on her or call her weak. Thank you very much.

“The man you are today is your memory of Eurus” 

  (Sherlock meta by thepurplecarbuncle and bassfanimation)

thepurplecarbuncle:

[...]  Absolutely not. Incorrect. How and why is that supposed to be true if he can’t even remember her? [...] You can’t make shit up as you go along and then pretend the random backstory you wrote into episode 13 has been some sort of unmentioned character arc from the beginning. [...]

bassfanimation:

It actually makes quite a lot of sense, especially if you take into account the series as an entire whole story. All of Sherlock’s choices make sense.

His preoccupation with solving murders = never being able to figure out what happened to his childhood best friend.

His temper tantrums and outbursts, failure to behave like a mature adult = childhood trauma at an early enough age that it essentially froze his emotional development.

His need for John = represents the best friend he lost, circling back around to Sherlock being essentially emotionally stunted at age 5 or 6.

His keeping all emotion and love away over cold hard logic = fear of loss, abandonment. Science and facts are always trustworthy and never leave you.

Mycroft’s preoccupation with Sherlock’s well being and safety = witnessing what loss did to his very small brother, and knowing it has damaged him terribly.

It’s understandable that many people didn’t like the character arc of Sherlock and don’t feel it was rolled out very well. It wasn’t done as well as it should have been, but I think the writers knew that getting everyone back together for a S5 was going to be virtually impossible. I do think they rushed forth with the Eurus storyline too quickly, and resolved it too quickly, I don’t think they had a choice.

Still, everything about it still made perfect sense, at least to me. I’ve had similar childhood trauma though, so maybe that’s why it feels so valid to me. I’m fully aware that I might be projecting, but the text of the storyline is really very clear to someone like me. It might be worth exploring along the lines of trauma though, and not so much about the cases or the villains, etc.

Holmes v. Hoopers: A Sherlolly/Parents meta

 (Sherlock meta by sincerelydayyy)

 I know we have the ily but my mind is forever going back to the scene where Molly tries to talk about her dad with Sherlock.

I like to think they do eventually talk about him. Maybe Sherlock apologizes for being so curt because he was uncomfortable with knowing that she really saw him for who he was, and asks her about him. I’m sure he was able to read early on that she only had her mother now.

But I think as someone who has both his parents still he would want to understand what it felt like. He knows in the coffin scene that she is distant from her remaining family members (she could have a sibling although we don’t know, I always imagine it’s an older brother), but her father was important enough that she actually made an effort years past to connect him to Sherlock because she sees something in him that mirrors her dad.

I’m not a huge fan of the "you sometimes fall in love with someone like your parents" but I think it’s something worth thinking about in relation to Sherlock and Molly. I actually kind of see Molly in Sherlock’s dad. They’re both very quietly observant, not to mention their adorable little quirks.

The idea that his dad somehow got Mummy’s attention is also worth noting. It mirrors Molly too, doesn’t it? When Sherlock didn’t realize it he had grown comfortable with Molly as his companion and friend, possibly more.

I see them getting along more than Mummy and Molly could - not saying they wouldn’t because I definitely see Mummy doting on Molly when she meets her. I can see it being easier because the two are more in-tuned to their respective partners. I think it would be a quick hello and while Mummy is berating Sherlock for something he would take her aside to get the tea ready and probably make some sort of joke to break the ice.

I got slightly off topic but Molly for a little while at least notices something specific that makes her think of her father. Perhaps it’s the idea that he tries to hide his pain. We know that her dad was sick when he was dying and he tried not to show it. Sherlock even still after he ‘died’ would try to this repeatedly as to not put his problems on to others. He was used to taking everything on himself. Which is truly significant when you realize Molly was the one person he felt inclined to ask for help on more than one occasion. I can’t feasibly see it as him using her for what she could do for him, not because I like them as a pair but more because of the way he went about it. It was all very dramatically emotional (teary gaze, pleading, eyes dilated - feelings involved).

Molly has always been a giver, always trying to be there for someone even if she couldn’t do what they needed. I need you. While Sherlock could have just gone on his taker role but not with her. Everyone else he feels inclined to do so. He doesn’t really take their feelings into consideration - many times even with Molly. He just doesn’t see the point.

Except the three times he did: I hope you’ll be very happy, Molly Hooper. I am sorry, forgive me. You’re wrong you know. You do count. You’ve always counted and I’ve always trusted you. 

I think Sherlock probably sees his mother in Molly too. The brain, the worker of problems, someone that is constant even when he attempts to push away. It’s a comfort for him.

It’s almost too obvious when he thinks about it. She’s the best parts of the person who gave him life. But she’s also nothing like them which leads me to believe it could also be why he didn’t catch his emotion context until it smacked him in the face.

/when you sat on a certain scene for years and then a headcanon turns to meta

Time for another speculative theory about the Christmas scene

 (Sherlock meta by kathleenkellly)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A thought: why did Sherlock go to Molly for help in S2?

 (Sherlock meta by therealbucky05, irisang and bassfanimation)

irisang:

I mean, he didn’t go to her because he had to fake his death. According to him later in S3, he and his brother had already been working on that. But he still went to Molly just moments before he jumped off that roof. He didnt go to her because of her profession. Because he and Mycroft must have already arranged everything they needed. So, the question remains.

What did he really mean when he said he needed her?

therealbucky05:

Moffat said in one interview that the emotional display on the rooftop was a show for John, but that the emotions with Molly where real - in my opinion he wanted a reassuring presence during that trial.

irisang:

I agree. He didn’t really need anything technical from her when he faked his death. Molly was about to leave her work place when he went to her. And we know that the building was supposed to be closed for other people when he jumped. But Sherlock wanted her on board.

bassfanimation:

This is probably a good post to talk about something that I thought about at 221B Con, during the Molly Hooper panel.

This gif shows exactly why Molly Hooper is in Sherlock’s mind palace, and why he goes to her for help when there’s no one else to turn to. It also shows why Lestrade, and more specifically John, are not in Sherlock’s mind palace.

“If I wasn’t everything that you think I am, everything that I think I am…” 

Sherlock, for all intents and purposes, appears to be superhuman, almost a magician, to John and Lestrade. You see it in how Lestrade looks at him, and how John looks at him. They really do think it’s all magic, that Sherlock alone has this amazing ability to dodge death and figure out every single problem on Earth with little or no assistance. They think he alone can rid the world of every evil. They truly ‘believe’ he is more than what he really is. Sherlock himself, as stated by Irene Adler, believes he is a higher power. Lestrade and John believe this as well, whether they admit it or not.

In this scene, Sherlock is effectively lifting the veil for someone he trusts. He’s showing Molly Hooper (and the audience) that he isn’t the Wizard of Oz…he’s just a man who needs help. Despite everything he has built around his reputation, his facade, his image, he is simply still a man, and he can’t do it all on his own. He is showing Molly, “This is actually something I can’t do, because I’m not a higher power…and I want to know if you are ok with that. Will you still care for me? Will you still help me even though I’m showing you what I am behind the curtain?” The funny thing is, Molly already saw what was behind the curtain…he is simply saying she was right.

Molly accepts Sherlock, without the magic, without the curtain, just as we, the audience have.

John and Lestrade are not allowed to see how the sausage is made (sorry, people said not to use that analogy for obvious reasons, but it’s so apt here). They can’t see behind the curtain. Sherlock is quite addicted to the feeling of people thinking he’s super human. John and Lestrade’s opinion of him, and what he can do, means more to him than logic at this point. He needs at least someone to believe he’s special, that he’s THE genius, THE BEST. We saw in His Last Vow that Mycroft constantly taunted Sherlock, calling him stupid, making him second guess himself. John and Lestrade believe Sherlock is not only not-intelligent, but they truly see him as the very pinnacle of the best. He must preserve that for them. For himself…and even for them. (It’s actually hugely selfish of all three of them to feed into this, but that’s another discussion.)

Lestrade and John, both having been in services that show the worst of humanity, need to believe in something good. Something far, far better than the humanity they’ve come to know. Sherlock is that answer for them.

For Molly Hooper, she’s also seen death, but it’s the aftermath. Because of her natural optimism, she doesn’t need all this reassurance that humanity is amazing or magical. She sees beneath the curtain all the time, in a very odd way. Her job is to see to what other people miss. To see inside. She does this with living human beings as well, and she’s not afraid of it. Sherlock, I think, notices this about her very slowly, but it becomes something very special to him later. This scene marks the real turn. He is allowing her to see inside him, because he trusts her to see inside him and not hate what she sees, as so many others have before.

This is why Molly, Mycroft, and even Anderson are in Sherlock’s mind palace. Most importantly, Molly is the only one who consistently encourages him. She’s the one who he trusts every time.

You know Jawnlockers

 (Sherlock meta by rosamundi)

The biggest moment I fell in fierce love for Molly Hooper was the moment she said, “I don’t count.” I’ve always loved her until that point, but this is when it stopped being a crush and became “I will twist someone’s balls for you” kind of affection.

Look at her face when she said that. She is terribly self-aware of her worth in Sherlock’s life. She knows she is only useful to Sherlock at some instances. She knows he is not interested in a relationship. But she doesn’t demand anything more from him. She goes on dates, she dresses up, has fun etc. She doesn’t sulk and cry about it, because that to me, that is demanding something from the other person. “Why am I not happy? This person should make me happy, look at all I do for him!” Molly Hooper isn’t like that. She just simply… Cares. I daresay it makes her happy and content to be able to care for someone. All she wants is the opportunity to help her friend, Sherlock, when he needs it. Even as the episodes progress from that moment, I have never seen Molly demand for anything. She doesn’t act like anybody to Sherlock, but a friend. If there were any romantic undertones at all, it is very subtle. This is the kind of angle we like. Sherlock is a difficult man. But we find Molly Hooper’s love for him pure and redemptive. Maybe… Just maybe, this is the kind of love Sherlock needs. A love that understands. Doesnt demand. Doesn’t challenge. Simple and straightforward. Just a constant, quiet force that he can rely on when he needs to. We fantasize about the eventual catharsis, yes: The moment Sherlock decides he needs this kind love and returns it back. But like our hero Molly Hooper, we are content to simply… be.

You know what this reminds me of? The Sherlolly fandom. Like Molly, most of us are terribly self-aware of our worth. Molly Hooper is not an ACD character so we know that she will always take less preference than the canon ones. Most of us don’t even want our ship to be canon. What we want, really, is to be happy to ship two characters we like. We don’t deserve judgement or chastising. We don’t deserve mockery. We most certainly don’t deserve hate. We are content in our place, and while we hope and want things, we certainly don’t demand it.

So please, just let us ship in peace. Let us continue being ourselves and liking the stuff we like. Like Molly Hooper, we are content with our place under the sun.

Why ship Sherlolly?

 (Sherlock meta by drinkingcocoa)

[...]

Most importantly to me: Molly is strange. This is the priceless thing about her. She is smart, too; from her winces and eye-rolls during the best man’s speech in TSOT, we see that she’s far closer to Sherlock’s league than Lestrade’s and Tom’s. But it’s her strangeness that makes her such a blessing to Sherlock’s life. He’s patronizing to her, but he’s patronizing to everybody. She perceives things so differently from most people that even though he hurts her feelings, that’s not the only thing that’s important to her.

Their relationship turned in the lab scenes of The Reichenbach Fall when it transpired that she was the only one who could see him for his true self, at a time when even John was fooled. Sherlock pushed her away and tried to dismiss her or shut her out, but she persevered and got through to him. He turned and looked at her with completely new perceptions after that, trusted her with his life, and understood retroactively that he’d always trusted her. Besides, pushing people away is part of how Sherlock involuntarily tests people, so her ability to withstand that defense mechanism of his, dislike it but not give it more power than it deserves, and still be steadfast for him makes her just the kind of thing he needs in his life.

When Sherlock asks if Molly would still want to help him if he wasn’t everything she thought him to be, and everything he thought himself to be – and she said, “What do you need?” – that boils down, essentially, to “Do you love me or my genius?” and “I love you and believe in you whether or not you’re a genius.”

Meanwhile, ships can only benefit from character growth, so when Molly shows rising confidence in her interactions with him, like her deliberate teasing when she puts him on the spot by saying she and Tom have been having “quite a lot of sex,” that’s a good example of the kind of dynamic that makes for delicious fic.

Anyone who is the person who appears to Sherlock when he’s about to die and talks him through everything has got to have some great significance in his life.

The Virgin Genius and the Power of Molly’s Desire 

 (Sherlock meta by drinkingcocoa)

The first time I watched “A Scandal in Belgravia,” I was startled by Sherlock’s viciously personal putdowns of Molly Hooper. Who is he to comment on the size of her mouth and breasts? “Don’t make jokes, Molly”? It’s not as though dating or small talk are Sherlock’s forté, either.

Ah.

In a discussion on LiveJournal, dis_quiet commented about the Christmas party scene: “Sherlock got a little jealous, or in any case, left behind. He thought he could always rely on Molly, in a way she’d never know, but there she was, all dressed up, ready for a date. I think Sherlock felt, or wanted to think that there was a sort of kinship between him and Molly. How he loved emphasizing her awkwardness. All your future attempts at a relationship, Molly, should be nipped in the bud. For him she was that Other that he felt comfortable with as far as sexual inadequacies were concerned.”

This is one of the many instances of mirroring in Steven Moffat’s beautifully structured script. Having been bested, for the moment, by a far more sexually savvy opponent, the suddenly inadequate Sherlock is sensitized to Molly’s similar shortcomings. Sexual knowledge has been on Sherlock’s mind.

He learns so much from the ways in which Molly and Irene are doubles. Where Irene hides her heart behind a mirrored safe, elicits desire from people and reflects it back to them, Molly is the opposite: her Freudian slips and blunders are a constant betrayal of her desire. So that’s how desire looks when it’s real. The same red lipstick as Irene, the same small breasts, but with nothing hidden, from her bra straps to her stammers…and the same arousal at Sherlock’s touch.

Ah.

The wince of shame on Sherlock’s face when he realizes what he’s done to Molly at the party – it’s not unrelated to his shame when he’s disgraced in Mycroft’s office. His dismissal of the relevance of sexual knowledge has hurt people, perhaps destroyed them. Whether one reads this virginal Sherlock as sexual, asexual, or celibate, he has avoided sexual interaction at least in part because it involves interpersonal communication. That has always been a source of disconnection and torment for him, an area so fraught that it’s too stressful to bother.

And he thought himself detached from sex because the rest of the world had passed him by so long ago in this area, in all its irrational stupidity and mess, and none of this folly had anything to do with him…until it did. Molly’s desire implicates him and he hadn’t seen it and look how he brutalized her honest overture. She desired him as though he were…valid. A part of all this. She was inviting him into the dance. Whether he wanted the dance or not, he’d thought himself apart from it. And then he showed that we must not ever underestimate Sherlock Holmes; we must not think that just because sometimes he doesn’t understand sentiment, he is always incapable of it. He crossed over and apologized and kissed her. And if he overshot and the quality of that physical contact was more sexual than it should have been, well, he didn’t have much experience, did he? He didn’t know yet how it feels when the object of one’s fantasies comes close and touches lips to the face and speaks one’s name, close and low. He didn’t know he was being seductive. How was he to have known? He didn’t mean to be. He only felt dreadful, and sorry.

But he learns from Molly’s undone response to his inadvertent intimacy. He recalls it when he takes Irene’s pulse. He learns more, to his shame, when Irene kisses his left cheek as he spills state secrets. And in a glorious bit of actor improvisation, when it comes time to undo Irene, Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock comes close to her in the same way he kissed Molly, on the right cheek, which is more emotional for most people than the left. But this time, the proximity is completely intentional in its intimacy: dangerous, fully knowing. He has learned Irene’s game.

It was not Irene, then, but Molly whose desire pulled him into mortality and sexual knowledge.

In “The Reichenbach Fall,” Molly asks what he needs and his answer, “You,” is laden with portentous meaning, verging on sexual. Whether this was intentional or appropriate, the intimacy seemed to acknowledge the sexual content of every anguished slip Molly has made over two seasons about her desire for him, amplifying and dignifying that desire. Molly sees Sherlock at his worst, sees him more clearly even than John Watson does, and still loves him. She sees him not as an overgrown child, a virgin to mock, or an unfeeling genius, but as a romantically valid adult. Whatever illusions she has about the kind of lover he’d be…oh, would you look at that. She doesn’t have any. She knows him.

That is what Moriarty cannot imagine even though he has played at romance with Molly. Nobody could see the true Moriarty and love him. The kind of sexual desire that can know the whole person and grow only stronger: Moriarty cannot see that at all. But now, Sherlock can. It is Molly’s desire that brings about Sherlock’s fall into sexual awareness, a fall in the most classic apple-of-knowledge cast-out-of-paradise sense, never again to be an angel. Not that he will necessarily desire Molly in return or be physically involved, but now he knows the thrilling humility of having been known truly and truly desired, not only in spite of but because. He’s part of the mortal world now.

A toast. To Molly Hooper.

To be, or not to be… 

 (Sherlock meta by bassfanimation)

Something else interesting to note about Sherlock and Molly, and who they ‘pretend’ to be in the real world:

Sherlock only likes himself when he’s something he’s not. When he’s dressed up in his detective identity. He hates himself, or is terribly uncomfortable, as anything else.

Molly is only not herself one time in the series, during the Christmas episode. She dressed up in a ‘costume’, to try and be something she really wasn’t. It’s the only time we see her look completely and utterly uncomfortable.

In The Empty Hearse, when Sherlock shyly asks Molly to come and participate in a case with him, she asks him what John usually does. By this point, Sherlock knows Molly. He remembers the last time she was at 221B, trying so hard to be someone she wasn’t, for him. This time, he makes sure she knows all he wants is for her to be herself. “You’re not being John, you’re being yourself.”

Molly is only comfortable when she’s herself. Something I think Sherlock admires greatly about her.

Sherlock is never comfortable, never okay when he’s himself…except when he’s with Molly.

Sherlock trusting Molly enough to be himself with her is in itself a kind of love. It’s not an everyday romantic kind of love, but I think for Molly, it’s worth far more than any dinner date or night at the pub. To her, it’s pure diamonds.

You. 

 (Sherlock meta by mae-jones)

Molly asks, “What do you need?”

Sherlock Answers, “You.”

Not, ‘your help’. Not, ‘help’. Not anything else.

Sherlock needed Molly, not just her assistance. I would argue there were agents Mycroft could have employed better than Molly. She was actually a huge liability and potentially detrimental to his plan. She’s not experienced in subterfuge. In fact, she wears her heart on her sleeve. I tend to doubt very much that she flitted around acting all cool and collected that day. Also, she would have been exhausted after pulling a double shift. Molly Hooper’s activities should have raised some serious red flags regardless of how ‘important’ anyone thought she was to Sherlock.

So, why did he risk it? He told us.

“You.”

He needed Molly Hooper. He wanted to be in the company of someone who loved him absolutely unreservedly in what might be the final hours of his life. He needed her emotional strength and support. He needed someone to save him while he saved others. No one else would do.

The significance of Molly's jumper

 (Sherlock meta by kathleenkellly)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sherlock notices Molly in a different way than other people

 (Sherlock meta by kathleenkellly)

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

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

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

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

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

‘I love you’ thoughts

 (Sherlock meta by lolafiction)

Euros is putting Sherlock to the test with each task. Up front the task involving Molly seems easy- she loves him, everyone knows it, and all Sherlock has to do is get her to say it.

But the problem is that because it’s true, it’s hard for her to say it to him.

So Sherlock tries to approach it from a detective angle- “it’s an experiment, it’s for a case" etc etc. But she’s all like “No Sherlock, I’m sick of your bull shit- if you really want me to say it you have to give me something real back.” He’s always using her, toying with her emotions to help him with his work. But their relationship is beyond that now. Euros knows this too- she heard John say “the one person who saw through your bullshit long ago” or something to that effect. So Molly is all “tell me you love me first and say it like you mean it- you want me to be vulnerable, you need to be vulnerable too.”

Sherlock freaks as does Mycroft because they both know that it’s incredibly hard for Sherlock to say “I love you” and mean it because he has locked away his emotions for his whole life. And he really DOES have to mean it because Molly can see through his bullshit. So he forces it out. But once he’s said it, he’s realised that it’s easy to say it again, because it’s true. Whether he means it in a romantic sense or not it doesn’t matter because it’s true. Sherlock loves Molly and he finally was able to tell her, for her sake.

When Sherlock realises it’s all for nothing he cracks because he just put himself and Molly through all that for nothing. Making him open up, forcing her to say it to him when it was breaking her.

I think Euros knew that Molly was the only one that could get Sherlock to open up emotionally and torture him in that way.

'I Love You' by Sherlock is in a Romantic Way. Of Course it’s Forced. It meant to be Forced.

 (Sherlock meta by adahgee)

After the ‘I love You’ phone call, Mycroft said: “Sherlock, however hard that was…”

It was hard for Sherlock to say I love you because he actually means it. Romantically. Or in between Platonic and romantic sense, I don’t know what it’s called, but definitely not platonic.

If Sherlock doesn’t mean it, of course he knows he might be giving Molly false hope or he might hurt her, he might open wounds in her, etc. or whatever, by saying 'I love you' too her. But hear me out. Given the urgency of things, his friend might just die in less than 30 secs, I know sherlock would immediately say it because his friend will die if he won’t say it at the expense of hurting her feelings. Sherlock would immediately choose to hurt her feelings to save his friend. He can say that without difficulty if just to save a friend’s life considering that they are running out of time.

But. But. But. It’s not just about saving Molly, (but of course it’s primarily and most importantly about saving Molly) it’s also about acknowledging what he truly feels for her. He would not stammer if he didn’t mean it. He is struggling to open up, to bare his emotions, but finally the fear of losing the one he ought to say those words to, forced those complicated emotions out of him. (bonus: he gently touched the coffin, then went berserked. Need I say more?)

So what if the “I love you" is forced? That’s the point, isn’t it? To corner Sherlock, to bare his feelings, that he himself may not even be fully aware he has.

[...]

The fact that Sherlock said 'I love you’ twice says so much 

 (Sherlock meta by yourpersonalintelligentelephant

[...]

I think the fact that Sherlock said 'I love you’ twice says so much.

Let’s observe the way he reacts when she tells him she’s not an experiment. He is flustered as he says “No, I know you’re not an experiment! You’re my friend!” He is being the most sincere, I think, than he’s ever been with her. He’s so against the thought of her believing he only sees her as an experiment, that he doesn’t care for her at all that he must clarify that he’s not just trying to use her or manipulate her. This line, right here, is proof that he does not want to give her the wrong idea. That he wants to be truthful and honest and to not wreck the friendship they have. That he does not, in fact, want to manipulate or use her.

So if that is true, then why does he say he loves her twice? He is being backed into a corner and made to say it once even though he does not want to give her the wrong idea, but he does not have to say it again nor does he have to say it so emotionally. He is being 100% sincere when he says he loves her and if you think otherwise, then you have an awful understanding of the scene.

Of course, whether he means it platonically or romantically is up to you but I believe the way he breaks down and destroys the coffin is a clue that he is disappointed in himself for feeling the way he feels. He always thought romantic feelings were for boring, mundane people and I think the destruction of the coffin was him realizing he cannot deny what he feels anymore and that he can’t hide his feelings from himself any longer.

[...]
.

Let’s talk a little about “I Love You.” 

 (Sherlock meta by sherlocklian and the-deplorable-707)

sherlocklian:

First off, I’m talking from a point of view of writing and storytelling. I’m no expert, but there is logic that goes into writing scenes and arcs and setting up and paying off various things. Scenes are finely tuned machines. Decisions have been made. Words were put down in a deliberate order to create a specific effect.

So. The show introduces a concept in the “I love you” scene:

It’s hard to say “I love you” when you actually mean it. 

What I mean is, this is presented as a truth within the show, within the scene. It doesn’t really matter if it’s true in real life, or true all the time. Within the context of the show, and this scene, we are presented with a truth:

It’s hard to say “I love you” when you actually mean it. 

Note that this also implies:

It’s not hard to say “I love you” if you don’t really mean it. 

So, based on that, why would Sherlock struggle to tell Molly he loves her?

Because he means it. 

Think about it logically:

Is Molly his friend? Yes she is. He says so.

Does he love his friends? Yes he does. He’s said so before, in John’s best man’s speech.

Has he had a female friend before? Yes he has, in Mary. He loved her, too.

Would he have struggled telling these people he loved them? No, I don’t believe so. We saw him do it publicly at the wedding. Forgive my memory but I think he may say it about Mary during series 4, too.

Why, then, is it so hard for Sherlock to tell Molly, “I love you” ? 

Is it because he knows she loves him romantically and he doesn’t want to give her false hope? Maybe. But isn’t it more important to save her life? Can’t he just ask for forgiveness later, explain things to her? She’s reasonable. He’s been cruel to her before, for no reason. He has the best possible reason to be cruel to her now, if it will save her. Not to mention, “Will caring about them save them? Then I’ll continue not to make that mistake.” (I know, he’s had character growth, he’s not that cold now. Except… he was, just 5 minutes ago, in every previous room Eurus had set up for him.)

Is he afraid he’ll lose a very good friend if he tells her “I love you” and it’s a lie and she never forgives him? Sure. Is it mean to make her say it to him when he at first has no intention of saying it back? Sure. (Although, none of this is really his choice, either; he’s not just fucking with her.)

But I want to remind you again:

It’s hard to say “I love you” when you actually mean it. 

It was hard for Sherlock to say “I love you” because he actually meant it.

What’s more, we were told in the previous episode that Molly Hooper is the only one who can see through Sherlock’s bullshit. We were told this by John, generally considered to be the voice of reason. We were told in the last episode that she wasn’t important, even though we as viewers know she’s the one who “mattered the most,” the one who apparently can’t solve crimes with Sherlock when she’s engaged (which makes no sense if it’s a platonic friendship).

So, Molly can see through Sherlock’s bullshit, and she won’t say “I love you” to him until he says it to her first, and says it like he means it.

But she did say it back to him. Because he said it like he meant it. And it was hard for him to say it, because it’s hard to say it if you mean it. 

The first time he said it, he was just trying it out. He’d never said it before. And he didn’t need to say it again. But he did. He said it again. And that time, he meant it.

We all thought in the trailer it looked like he’d had a revelation when he said it. Well, he did. He realized what he feels for her is love. And it must, in some way, be different from the love he feels for his friends, or else he wouldn’t have had so much trouble saying it.

Just my two cents.

the-deplorable-707:

I agree with all of this except just one little thing. I don’t think he struggled saying it because he thought she would believe him, because she’s the one who’s telling him TO say it. She told him to say it “like” he means it, implying that she doesn’t think he DOES. So, Sherlock struggling to say it, can’t be that. And I mean, he knows that if he doesn’t say it, she won’t, and Euros will kill her. So, why wouldn’t Sherlock just say it immediately? It’s so weird to see him struggle to get it out, knowing this. I think it’s because of what you said, it’s exactly the same reason Molly didn’t want to say it: because he means it. That second 'I love you' was as genuine as you can get. Sherlock is in love with Molly Hooper and his body language, the tone of his voice, that look of wonder in his eyes says everything we need to know.

sherlocklian:

Well, the reason I brought that up is because I saw a few other theories and I was trying to list them for completion’s sake, but I was in a hurry and I screwed up and didn’t actually write them all out! I also didn’t want to get too off topic.

But the specific thing you’re referring to, the reason I brought it up was because I’ve seen a theory which suggested that Molly already mostly KNEW he loved her, and that her telling him to say it like he means it, is her forcing him to admit what she already knows to be true. I consider this an interesting but unlikely theory.

But the vagueness of their relationship, and all the empty gaps in our knowledge allows us to imagine all sorts of things, which the show doesn’t prove OR disprove. (Though of course some theories are more plausible than others.)

Additionally, if we choose to think Molly’s “bad day” was because she was pregnant with Sherlock’s child, another theory I’ve heard [...], then having Molly force Sherlock to admit he loves her makes a lot more sense. On the other hand, there’s not any actual proof they’ve ever slept together! Unless you think that’s why her flat was one of his bolt holes.

For the record, I don’t like to assume too much is happening offscreen… I like to have proof. So I didn’t mention this stuff in my post, because it implies that Sherlock and Molly would be having sex before he knew he loved her, and that’s not my favorite kind of thing. But obviously, people do that in real life. So I suppose it’s not impossible.

[...]

Post ILY fall-out meta

 (Sherlock meta by mychakk)

 I’ve stumbled upon a couple of fics where the author chooses to kind of gloss over the post-ILY months aka Sherlock and Molly decided to just ignore it, pretend it didn’t happen, etc. It doesn’t seem right to me so it got me thinking and here is the result.

There is this basic group formation/evolution theory that outlines a simple formula:

1.  A group is formed 
2.  The group’s bonds strengthen 
3.  A crisis arrives 
4.  The crisis is resolved 
5.  The group either becomes stronger than before or disintegrate. 

This formula can be also applied to relationship (friendship, workship, siblings, etc). And of course the crisises appear regularly (not necessarily frequently, just that they are not a one time thing - unless the group disintegrate).

So I think the ILY scene was the crisis/milestone for Sherlolly to overcome in S4. Afterwards either they move forward or go separate ways. It needs a resolution if some kind and it needs it pretty much. If it’s not solved then the relationship (however we define it) will simply dissolve and stop to be.

There can be a couple of outcomes with the crisis of s4:

1. Sherlock and Molly talk, they clear the air and move forward as friends, lovers etc. 
2.  Sherlock avoids Molly or Molly avoids Sherlock, they ignore it, they fall apart and essencially their relationship is destroyed 
3.  They talk and realise they are at different pages in their hopes toward the relationship which at this point is quite fractured; ultimatley they separate and the friendship ends - the crisis is solved but it brought an ending. 

I believe, that since Molly showed her cards, was forced to come out clean about her feelings, she got freed from her burden, liberated from harbouring her feelings. And this means, that if Sherlock doesn’t give her any kind of indication about his feelings, she’s ready to truly move on (and probably away). The talk about their feelings toward each other must have taken place because with that one camera shot of Molly entering 221B BS, the show clearly indicates the solution no 1 took place. Sherlock and Molly must have a resolution to their crisis, and moved together forward. How deep the connection between them is at this point it’s up to our interpratation. Sherlock could have finally denied any possibility for them being together, but I don’t think Molly would heave beamed so widely and headed toward him in that short shot of her if this was the case, so the other logical conclusion is, they moved forward in the romantic sense.

[This little meta made me realize that for me personally, any post season 4 fic will feel ooc if Sherlock and Molly are not together or slowly on their way to get there. (it can be either Sherlock’s need to sort out his feelings, his drug abuse etc, to slow down the process, or it can be Molly’s need to process it all - read a wonderful little one-shot of Sherlock waiting and wooing Molly subtlety in order to make her believe his feelings were true and it took him almost a year.). It just doesn’t feel right anymore to have them separated with their relationship status still unresloved like it could have been being done after every of previous seasons].

About the coffin-smashing scene

 (Sherlock meta by justaminion)

Having seen various posts on this topic, I wanted to add my thoughts on why Sherlock “lost it” over Molly Hooper. I think it was because Eurus forced Sherlock and Molly to fast-forward through a potential romantic relationship and act out several intensely emotional moments that could really happen between them. As she said: “So many days not lived, so many words unsaid…”

In this scene Eurus is literally making them live those moments and say those words.

All of these potential moments scare the life out of Sherlock, and are the (possibly unconscious) reasons he’s afraid a relationship with Molly would be doomed to fail, (the irony being that his fears are completely human and normal, in fact, sweeter than normal, because that’s who he really is).

1. Sherlock’s request for Molly to say ‘I love you.’

In a relationship Sherlock is afraid he would be cruel to her, like this, he might hurt her, make her cry, and not understand why. If he is sociopath; she deserves better than him, and he won’t be able to avoid hurting her.

2. His first 'I love you.’

 In real life he might be terrified because he knows he has to say it, because she expects it, but he’s not sure if he does love her or even if he can love her in that way. He can’t lie to her; she sees right through him, so she’ll be able to tell if he doesn’t mean it, and then, no matter how much he wants her, he won’t be able to have her.

3. His second 'I love you.'

 Here is the realisation that he’s an idiot: it felt the most natural thing in the world to say, because of course he truly does love her. He’s stunned, he’s human after all, and he would be joyful, if it were not for the fact that…

4. She’s about to die, because of him.

He loves her, and now he faces the prospect of losing her, just as he lost Mary, and this time it’s entirely his fault for putting her at risk. By loving her, he’s shown he’s just as human as everyone else, and therefore just as vulnerable. Losing her will destroy him.

So Eurus made Sherlock live all of that, in three minutes. That’s why it felt like vivisection. She pressed on his most sensitive nerves and made him dance like an ordinary human being.

She opened up his beating heart and found sweet little Molly Hooper.