Sherliam-shaped ramble incoming 🥴🥺
Rewatched Morimyu op. 3 for the millionth time and can’t stop thinking about Albert’s words to William about leaving the real Jack The Ripper culprits’ bodies there for Sherlock to find, and how much trust William had in this man despite only having met him a handful of times.
Like he really said ‘you and I are on the same wavelength to the point that I trust you not to fuck up this whole scheme to unite the current discord in London between Whitechapel and the Yard without even exchanging an actual word with you on the subject.’
He must have really felt so … vindicated to have found someone who could take one look at his actions and piece together his real motivations behind his criminal acts. Sherlock quickly paints the Lord of Crime as a ‘Robin Hood’ figure who’s seeking to rebalance their world, and although he can’t forgive the law-breaking methods employed by Liam, he recognises that Liam took on that role and condemned himself for the sake of the common people.
William found someone who could identify the real heart of him, and then he trusted that person with his life — to carry out the real justice to balance out his wrong-doings.
You know, the more I think about it, the more it hurts and the more I love Sherlock. I think for William, the answer to Sherlock’s ‘why me?’ (Why not a perfect actor instead?) is that an actor might see William’s acts but not really understand them in the way Sherlock does, or care to, and that is incredibly important to William.
William knew he had to die because what he was doing was passing judgement in a way he shouldn’t really be allowed to do, in a fair and righteous world, but he has to do it that way in order to make an impact and affect change. But at least let the person who ends his life truly understand why they’re doing it — not because William is rotten and hateful at his core, but actually, filled with love and compassion for others, so much so that he’s willing to become the villain for everyone else’s sake.
I believe it was the last comfort he could hope for — to have his act, his show, his existence brought to an end by an individual who would not hate him or misunderstand him as they ‘pull the trigger.’
He called Sherlock ‘the real devil!’ angrily in their final (and only) fight on the bridge because Sherlock hesitated, and William’s hard-wired view of his own guilt pushed him to think that Sherlock’s moral compass might suddenly be off, and he lacked the conviction to condemn William to death as William believed should be the just and moral end to his plan.
But then he realises that actually, it’s not that Sherlock is weak hearted and unwilling to follow through with the path of justice. What William has underestimated is Sherlock’s own depth of compassion — but compassion for him, specifically. In all his planning, even in his joy at finding Sherlock — a man who would understand his goal and dream and what it might take to bring it to fruition — William had failed to account for the possibility that someone might be moved enough by his sacrifice to want to save him.
The idea that he is as deserving of love as everyone else is not a thought he’s allowed himself to entertain, and he steels his resolve and decides that he will jump himself if Sherlock cannot do it.
But this idea that Liam is an individual hugely deserving of love has been at the forefront of Sherlock’s mind for a long, long time before they faced off on that bridge.
Sherlock sees the role William has taken on — completely by himself. He understands the lonely truth of William’s compassionate and self sacrificing nature beneath the facade, and to this he says, I’m here, I am your friend, and I won’t let you do this by yourself anymore. I won’t let you fall alone.
They are just. Everything. The love is like a physical weight on my chest, I cannot. 😭
