N/A

Haymitch: I'm a political mastermind that started working on this revolution over 25 years ago, already blew up the arena twice and I am the best chance you have to get the victors to work with you

Katniss: I'm deadly in combat, can shoot arrows with the precision of sniper bullets and I am literally the face of the revolution

Peeta: I can get Katniss and Haymitch to eat three meals a day, maintain a semblance of a sleep schedule, exercise, stay sober, shower and actually listen when I speak

Coin: that's not-

They tell you Lily defended Severus in Snape's Worst Memory and Severus cussed her out. But Lily said some choice words to James; she didn't do anything to help Severus. She didn't use her wand to help Severus get down or cover him up or at the very least put up a ward that prevented the other students from seeing Severus half-naked and humiliated. She didn't fight off James, or call for a teacher. She said things like "put him down, let him go!" but she didn't do anything.

Then they'll tell you Severus was a bad friend because he called her a mudblood. They won't mention how Severus stood up to Voldemort who was at his prime, put his life on the line when he found out Voldemort targetted Lily. Then he went on for the rest of his life holding her memory in high regard, fighting tooth and nail to protect her son. He says crude things to her son, true. But what he always does is take every necessary action to protect him, even at the cost of his own life.

I rewatch this episode from time to time, and it strikes me over and again just how committed it is to non-legal means of justice, which is particularly rare given that Elementary technically operates within the copaganda genre (with some room for outliers here and there).

When Kitty is about to murder Gruner, the man who sexually assaulted and tortured her, Sherlock shows up. Typically within the police procedural, Sherlock would be the Character Who Reminds [X] That Killing Is Wrong and Legal Justice is Right. But Sherlock doesn't do any of that. He tells Kitty that she deserves to know that he has found a way to prosecute Gruner. He tells her that this is an option if she doesn't want to wrestle with what it means to take a life. While following the law is not what Sherlock thinks Kitty should do, it is an option nonetheless. What would be unfair, Sherlock understands, is for Kitty to have no way out but to resort to murder.

Kitty responds, "What does that have to do with me? With what he did to me?"

And she's right, prosecuting Gruner has nothing to do with what he did to her. What the police wants is not what she wants. Kitty's assault was a singular event, and only she can determine what justice should be. It's an oddly refreshing take, given that most procedurals would remind to Kitty to uphold the law (e.g. SVU).

Sherlock replies, "Nothing. Everything. Wish I could tell you. If you decide that killing Gruner will make you feel whole again, I won't stop you. But whatever you decide, you will always be my friend."

I've thought a lot about this scene, and how it places Kitty's decision and Sherlock's love at the center of what justice should be. It also brings to the forefront Sherlock's struggle with addiction — he doesn't have many friends which means that his gesture of love is completely genuine. It's a gesture of unconditional love from a stoic man who finds it difficult to love, to a woman whose experience of love has been destroyed by sexual abuse. It doesn't matter to Sherlock if Kitty kills Gruner because the fact that she is his friend will always come first. In the end, Kitty realises that she is offered something she has wanted for so long but thought she couldn't have. That is, someone loves her so much to the point where she feels, for the first time, that she is able to say it back and mean it. So it is beautiful that the episode ultimately conludes with Kitty saying: "Do you know what I haven't said to anyone in a really long time? I love you. Isn't that the saddest thing?"

He's a very important Sherlock Holmes actor for me, perhaps the most important there is. And it has nothing to do with how accurate his portrayal is to how Holmes is depicted in Doyle's stories.

Holmemes pt. 12

Took me a while to decide which Holmes picture to put this text post with and then realized that there was really only one answer: