Hello

We know we have plenty of evidence for Sherlock and John becoming a stable romantic couple/life partners/canon johnlock. But I wanted to see an exclusive list of every suggestion at the possibility of Sherlock and John in a bond of marriage/wedlock/tying the knot/putting a ring on it.

I surprised myself clueing for looks for this, because the list kept going on and on! I wrote it on the basis that if anything I see or hear in the show makes me even consider the idea, then it’s most likely deliberately put there to trigger in me that association. I’ve learnt that’s like a rule of thumb for reading the subtext in ‘Sherlock’.

ASiP

💍 John implying that marriage = nice stuff that could happen to you. 

These entries are from before and after he meets Sherlock.

💍 Mrs. Turner’s “married ones”. In the canon, ACD referred to Mrs. Hudson as Mrs. Turner in ‘A Scandal in Bohemia’. Mofftiss took this original continuity error and ’fixed it’ (as they like to say, it’s what they’re doing with this show) by getting Mrs. H. mistaken for Mrs. Turner on John’s blog, the neighbour from next door, whose lodgers are a married gay couple. 

💍 Mrs. Hudson comparing Sherlock to her ‘husband’. Her natural emphasis on ‘my’ makes the equation more evident. As in, ‘Yours is just like mine was’. They do this type of thing again in THoB, when Billy asks John ‘Is yours a snorer?’.

💍 “Might we expect a happy announcement by the end of the week?”. Right off the bat and in John’s face, Mycroft is blatantly implying marriage. Also, ‘end of the week’ = end of the show? He basically kidnapped his potential brother-in-law to make sure he’s a keeper, with physical examination and all.

💍 Sherlock delicately slipping the ring back on mirror-John’s finger. My favourite. We’re familiar with Jennifer Wilson being a mirror of John, and the fact that Sherlock’s deduction about her ring foreshadows John’s marriage with Mary… but can we just take a moment to appreciate the beauty of this particular shot?

💍 “I’m married to my work”, says the man who by season three keeps ignoring cases in order to plan the perfect wedding for John. The writers could have chosen ANY other way to phrase it, but they chose the word ‘married’. This trope has allowed Sherlock to have an arc in which he eventually realized he needs to make amends and focus on the things that ‘keep him right’ (his love for John).

TBB

💍 John literally saying his name is “Holmes” to the ticket guy at the circus, because he made reservations under Sherlock’s name. Sherlock is so inserted in his life at this point that he practically ‘took his name’ too. It just sounds so natural on John’s lips. Sarah is Not Impressed.

💍 Lucy & Westie were engaged to be married, and we know that they mirror John & Sherlock respectively.

THoB

💍 Sherlock admitting he can no longer “divorce” himself from feelings.  Again, they could have chosen ‘separate’, ‘detach’, ANY other word, but not if the writers wanted us to make an association with a marital bond.

💍 The ‘sentimental widow’ who still wears her late husband’s ring around her neck, could mirror John, mourning Sherlock like a widower. 

TRF

💍 This visual of Sherlock and John tied together by their wrists:

We’ve always seen this as romantic. But it’s interesting that the idiom we know as “tying the knot” actually comes from ancient wedding traditions were bride and groom were literally tied by their wrists with some sort of cord to symbolize the binding together of their two lives into one. Many people still do this today, even in the uk, like THIS same-sex couple. (My mind blew when I saw this connection, and was the reason why I started this post.)

TEH

💍 Visual metaphor of Sherock ‘walking down the aisle’ and John as the waiting groom. Like you all flailed about in this lovely post.

💍 Sherlock teasing that weddings are ‘not his thing’ with a wink. When we know he ended up being the best wedding planner you could possibly ask for.  (Also everybody in this show seem to contradict themselves.)

The whole of  TSoT

💍 This promo picture personally attacking me.

💍 This exchange on John’s blog.  If you didn’t know them and just stumbled upon this entry, you’d think they’re talking about John and Sherlock’s wedding, since Mary’s not mentioned even once on that page:

Sherlock’s little “we” there does the trick. Bonus points for domestic banter.

💍 John says “My husband is three people”, Sherlock is one of them!

💍 Sherlock’s motif -instead of Mary’s- plays when John and Mary come out of the church as newlyweds, like Rebekah pointed out. ALSO, you can hear the beauty of Sherlock’s motif actually played in a special way underneath that loud bell-pealing sound, if you isolate the audio on channels 1 and 2: 

💍 “Just the bride and groom, please” *Sherlock lingers* 

💍 Sherlock first talking against ‘love’ and ‘weddings’, and later contradicting himself by declaring his love for John, calling John his ‘helpmate’ and saying ‘weddings are great, love a wedding!’, all in the same speech.

💍 John popping ‘the big question’ to Sherlock like he’s proposing. 

So, we didn’t get to see John finish his -already awkward- interrupted proposal to Mary, but we did have this loving, heartfelt, beautifully framed scene instead. After all, John did indirectly confess that he loved him, and we saw them softer than ever. Sherlock later says this ‘request’ made him feel ‘flattered’, ‘suprised’, ‘a little daunted’, and ‘very close to being moved’. Also, come on, asking someone ‘the big question’ is asking them to marry you, NOT to be your best man. And finally, this was a ‘relationship upgrade’ for them (from Friends to Best Friends), so this scene was indeed about them ‘taking things to the next level’.

💍 Just like Bainbridge’s murder was a rehearsal for Sholto’s, this very wedding might be a sort of first try in the show’s story too; another ‘inside joke’ from the writers, as in they planned the johnlock wedding and rehearsed it. After all, the paper Sherlock stares at in his MP was about the wedding itself:

💍 The general way in which Sherlock behaves like one of the grooms instead of the best man. (ie. sitting next to John in the center like they are the celebrated couple, or even throwing his buttonhole flower like a bride would a bouquet)

💍 Sherlock’s Vow as a ‘Declaration of Protection’:

Like the trope’s definition specifies, this could perfectly have been a comradely statement, but instead they chose a wording ‘akin to a Love Confession’. Fitting, given that Sherlock is making a vow to John (and not-Mary and not-John’s/inexistent-baby)  AT A WEDDING.

💍 Sherlock teaching John the wedding waltz AND dancing it with him (which they couldn’t show because for two ‘just friends’ who have unspoken feelings for one another that’s literally a Convenient Slow Dance). Also Sherlock didn’t get his dance after confessing he loves dancing, and that he lives ‘in hope of the right case’.

💍 This dialogue and framing, which just scream ‘husbands’:

💍 Sherlock angrily writing about a ‘next wedding’ on John’s blog: 

Also, when Sherlock is sarcastically posing as John at the beggining of the entry, this is what comes to his head as he writes:

HLV

💍 Waking up from dreaming of Sherlock, John tells Kate that Issac, who he knows is “the drugs one” is her “husband”, when it’s actually her son. Freudian slip?

💍 Lady Smallwood’s pressure point is her husband; Sherlock’s is John. 

Since she’s not only a foil to Mary in the plot, but also a mirror for Sherlock. Magnussed used both of them as leverage and sexually harassed them. (Yes, it was sexual harassment) I mean look at how he treated them (deleted scene on the right). We didn’t see Magnussen doing that to Mary, did we?

💍 Missis Hudson saying “It was my husband’s cartel, I was just typing”.

💍 When Sherlock proposes to Janine, the first time we ever see the ring and realize what he’s doing we get this shot:

And then of course this heartbreaking one:

💍 John sees Sherlock’s parents as “a fine example of married life”. Mummy and Daddy Holmes mirror Sherlock and John respectively. So much so, it’s astounding.

💍 Sherlock thinks that naming someone ‘Sherlock Watson’ could work, like pointed out by this lovely person.

TAB

💍 Maybe Lestrade explaining the crime scenes had “rice on the floor like at a wedding and the word YOU written in blood on the wall”? Since ‘YOU’ means ‘John’? I just added it here because it made me associate the ideas of ‘wedding’ and ‘John’ yet again. But I think this may as well be Sherlock equating ‘John marrying Mary = death’. Either as in ‘I died that day!’, or as in ‘marrying Mary was John’s doom’. Please feel free to let me know your perspective on this.

💍 Mary calling John “my husband” while embodying Sherlock:

Since we are inside Sherlock’s head, this looks like Sherlock proyecting himself on Mary, since he recognizes they are similar (and rivals for John’s affection). Therefore, he visualises her having his mannerisms and same dramatic way of storming out when an exciting case arrives. 

Also, “Just a friend in need (…) England.” = “Who needs me this time?” “England.” 

Remember that in this episode Hopper dressed up as a man. Sherlock mouthed other charaters’ voices. The sharp and observant brunette Maid told John things Sherlock would say (I’m not the only one seeing this). So why won’t he be proyecting himself on Mary as well? I’m 100% sure this was the creator’s intention. Mofftiss managed to have a personification of Sherlock calling John his ‘husband’ in Victorian times.

💍 Hooper saying that Emelia was “positively identified by her own husband seconds before he died”. Which always reminded me of John checking Sherlock’s pulse seconds after the fall. ouch

💍 The Bride, Eustace and Lady Carmichael in the maze framed like Sherlock, Mary and John in the empty houses. We know the Bride is meant to represent Emelia, to whom Eustace once promised marriage, while Lady Carmichael is his current wife. Of course, I’m not denying that Lady Carmichael is the mirror for John and Eustace is Mary’s. I’m only pointing out the parallel that IMO these specific visuals are making; both are love triangles. The two women are romantic rivals, just like Sherlock and Mary are.

SETLOCK, June 16th, Kennignton Street

💍 Extreme likeliness of ‘The Wedding Wardrobe’ boutique appearing in the background of that scene.

(x) 

Here’s the full front of the boutique behind that bus stop in Google Street View:

Now, I needed confirmation of the position of the camera when filming there to account this as the possible background for that scene and I remembered the extra that took this picture from inside the bus:

After all, why would you choose THIS location out of 19,000+ bus stops in London, if not for its surroundings? (Also, ‘wardrobe’ = ‘closet’?) I can’t wait to see a confirmation of this. 

So, in a show that pays SO much attention to detail, wording in dialogue, cinematography, etc. Why would they want to introduce in my head the idea of marriage with things related to Sherlock and John’s relationship? I mean most of these aren’t even necessary to set them up as a couple -the rest of the show already does that. See what I mean?

Thanks for reading, and please feel free to add your perspectives on this. If there’s any other hint I missed, or if you can think of arguments against this reading please don’t hold your thoughts back. I learn a lot from you all. :)

this thread started by @cupidford

visual metaphor in asip by @bug-catcher-in-viridian-forest

this little one by me

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So I finished Stories Untold last night and ajskdamja I can’t possibly write up a post with all the Fucky things in it but basically SPOILERS you were in a coma and mixing reality with fiction from horror and sci fi shows you like to watch.

It turns out this guy (named James) was drunk driving after a New Years/going abroad party that reminded me so much of the boy from TST. He ends up crashing and killing his sister and a cop in a blue sedan. He plants a whiskey bottle on the cop and then collapses and is taken to a hospital where he’s saved. All the games are built around his guilt for what he’s done but he can’t face it so he pretends it’s part of a horror game/science experiment/military weather base. His sister (Jennifer) is a constant source of torment and her name keeps popping up.

I’m like losing it over this it’s just too coincidental. There are so many parallels to theories we have. Idk man if you’re part of the Game I highly recommend at least watching a play through of this.

And don’t get me started on all the blue and red lights

Bean Puzzle Tombstone It took over 100 years to decode this enigmatic epitaph for two buried brides.

In rural Rushes Cemetery, one headstone stands out from the rest. Rather than the usual RIP, the Bean grave marker is etched with a crossword code. A message below the code urges, “Reader meet us in heaven.”

Dr. Samuel Bean’s first wife, Henrietta, died just seven months after the two were married. His second wife, Susanna, also met her untimely end after only a few months of marital bliss. Bean buried his two loves side by side, erected the mysterious tombstone above them and didn’t tell a soul what it meant. He took that secret to his watery grave when he was lost overboard from a boat heading to Cuba.

The epitaph drew curious visitors attempting to break the code to the little town of Wellesley over the following century. So many people came to make rubbings of the headstone that by the 1980s it was entirely illegible and had to be replaced with a replica. The cemetery groundskeeper claimed he had cracked it in the 1940s, but never revealed the answer. In the 1970s a 94-year-old woman solved the code and told what Dr. Bean had written for his two wives (read no farther if you would rather solve the code yourself.)

the primary camera which had been specially designed broke on their very first day of filming so everything was delayed as hell while they sourced a new one

they couldn’t get Scotland to let them use its National Trust castles so they ended up using the same one for every single fucking castle and/or used paper cutouts

the only reason they used the music they did was because after a whole fucking soundtrack had been written they realised their budget didn’t actually expand to an orchestra, so they used stock music and the only actual original Python song in the whole deal is Knights Of The Round Table

Graham had delirium tremens during his very first take, suddenly realised and admitted that he was an alcoholic, and was consequently hammered out of his brain for the remainder of filming so he wouldn’t go into the DTs again

as a result of this he constantly picked fights with the other Pythons, extras and random hotel staff

and constantly forgot half his lines

and ran ass naked up and down hotel corridors yelling “Betty Marsden” until Michael asked him to stop so he could sleep (and so Michael then woke up to a note pushed under his door reading “with love, Betty Marsden”)

but miraculously still no one realised Gray’s drinking was making him so ill and so Michael’s diaries are full of random excuses for why he was shaking his ass off every morning (“we were up v high today I think Gray was scared” “I didn’t think it was that cold but Graham was shivering” “gosh tensions are running so high Gray was so mad with us he was literally shaking”)

the Terrys tried to codirect and fell out over literally everything

and consequently constantly reshot each other’s takes behind the other’s back

John kept getting upset because he doesn’t like being dirty and/or cold and they were in fucking Scotland and “there wasn’t enough hot water for a shower”

John and Eric consequently switched hotels from the rest of the cast and crew so John could get his fucking shower

they were all wearing knitted “armour” and I reiterate this was fucking freezing wet Scotland so they all froze half to death and had to keeping shooting anyway

and John got so pissed at Terry Gilliam’s directing style (“treating us like pieces of paper”) that he eventually essentially told him to fuck off, so filming was delayed even further so Terry G could go and be offended and cry and sulk by a wall

First a few background notes: I have not been following EMP theory. I read 2 posts before s4 aired and it just wasn’t hitting home for me. I discussed this with two of the primary EMP bloggers, and respectfully agreed to disagree. I just didn’t read anything more on the idea after that, I avoided EMP posts. I found it all unsettling. Then s4 occurred, and on Jan 20th rambling around in the theory that TST was Sherlock’s perception of real time events, I decided that I would revisit EMP but as an independent study. To really look at it and see if I reached the same conclusions on it’s validity as others, even though I was very skeptical about the premise. I kept a draft of all my ideas, and two months of arguing with myself ensued. But I am at the stage where I need to post my progress. So here it all is with the chains of thought I experienced and explanations of how I reached certain conclusions.

First it was the sharks that got me. They hammered those sharks into our heads prior to s4. The whole Rachel’s-crew-tee-shirt-thing, the shark graffiti, and the Mark and Amanda tweets, all appeared rather ‘lame’ after watching TST.  All our pre s4 speculation fizzled out and we were left with the only real thread being s3 and the most obvious clue to sharks with it’s clear depiction and reference to CAM. He’s identified as the shark. In TST we see water haunting Sherlock, but not JUST water, it’s illuminated water, it’s tank water. Shark tank water. And Sherlock, by the end of the episode, ends up in a building with shark tanks.

Oh and look at his clothes:

He’s in a white shirt which is the same shirt as he was wearing when he broke into CAM Towers and got shot: CAM’s office - shark tank - aquarium. Could they be one and the same but in a dream reference of Sherlock’s subconscious. Yes. They could and it would be a very good one at that.

So then my mind takes me to that magic bullet and the ladies firing the gun, one in CAM/Shark Tower and one in the aquarium:

Two women with secret identities, both mistaken for Lady Smallwood. Sherlock thought Mary was Lady Smallwood in CAM/Shark Towers, Sherlock and Mycroft think Lady Smallwood was the leak that led to the AGRA debacle when it was actually Vivianne Norbury. Mirror events. Then we have Mary jumping in to take the bullet for Sherlock. Mary SUBSTITUTING herself for Sherlock. Wonder when she began to be a substitute herself for Sherlock? Oh yes, when John thought Sherlock was dead, when John was the grieving widower, devastated and very angry. An anger that balloons out of all proportion in Sherlock’s mind as it’s John directing anger at him for killing himself and disappearing for two years. He accepts John’s beating in atonement in TEH but in his mind it is far more violent, graphic and sadly justified by Sherlock, as we learn in TLD. But it’s Sherlock beating himself up. In essence Sherlock did kill John’s spouse, he made John believe that he had killed himself. And Sherlock knows John is not over that event:

Sherlock underestimates John’s grief, he sees only the anger phase, displayed on his return, but he didn’t consider the deep depression, the many regrets, and John’s inability to ever recover fully. Mary’s letter during her hiatus is everything Sherlock wanted to say and didn’t. Mary’s journey in TST looking for AJ is Sherlock’s hiatus twisted down to involve an ending where John is with him on that journey. That suicide mission to Eastern Europe Sherlock was being sent on? Well he’s already been on it and died on his return. Mycroft brought him home into heartbreak. His life, as Sherlock knew it, and the hopes he had for his future were dashed, and Sherlock’s heart broke.

The post Mary shooting Sherlock scenes in HLV now take on a sad twist, as they are in Sherlock’s mind. He imagines that he reveals to John the truth about the person who shot him, and John is furious at Mary, rejects her and relegates her to client. It’s probably not far from the truth of real events. He says a goodbye to Janine and assigns his dream retirement cottage to her, in an offering of repentance. He’ll revisit this theme in his Victorian MP in TAB. But I digress. Back to my chain of thought, as I need to leave the rest of HLV and TAB out of this for now. I came to the conclusion that Sherlock isn’t still on that plane, he’s not in the hospital. Sherlock is still on the floor in CAM’s office. And they PLANTED a trigger in that scene to tell us. The plant moved.This is all on repeat. Everything is being replayed. Twisted and convoluted, and nothing is new. Rest under cut:

The reason I think the bullet is in the air, is because well…then he still has a chance to live. And it’s symbolic of the importance of choice - something that can go two ways - the bullet buries in his chest and kills him….or it doesn’t. It represents how a decision effects all of the future. S4 is symbolic of “all of the future”, which also includes “all of the future of Sherlock Holmes”, because S4 shows how the love story is recognized but ignored and the no-homo ending of TFP represents the heteronormative future of the character….UNLESS. Unless a different choice is made in a single moment which will change the course of the future.  And the poignancy of “the course of the future” wouldn’t be there without us actually having watched it play out. But really, the “future” of S4 is really the past. The old version of Holmes and Watson, the one we’ve seen before (the wheel turns…). 

The significance of Vivian Norbury getting that role in T6T ties back into CAM tower and the idea of a choice that effects the whole rest of your future, and which is to do with over-confidence. Sherlock got cocky with deducing Vivian and got shot for it. In HLV, Sherlock was cocky with Mary, thinking he could so easily talk her down (”No, Mrs Watson, you won’t”), and he got shot for it. “Norbury” is really about how he handled that moment of confrontation with Mary in CAM tower, and how it changed the future (it got him killed, and because #sherlocklives means #johnwatson lives, it kills John too). I keep trying to imagine how over-the-top the EMP reveal could be, and a return to Mary firing the gun seems to be dramatic enough for Moftiss. I’m only spewing this idea on to your lovely post because I haven’t written it anywhere else yet, and because you also recognized the possibility of a frozen-in-time type of scenario where we return to a moment in that room in CAM tower. I might possibly spew more ideas onto another reblog, lol. Because I really love the way you’ve explained EMP here. 

“Uh….maybe you should ask your other daddy….”

Scenes without background music: Sherlock sees John for the first time after the fall.