The Case of the Missing Blue Shirt and Why Janine is a stand in for John in the reunion Kiss

I know my meta series in three parts is over but a small deduction meta on why I think Janine is a make do for Sherlock in the kissing scene or the absent reunion KISS. BC’s brilliant gesture touch on his lips in the TEH started this whole meta series. But what matured it and made it span over three parts is the constant emphasis on the white shirt he wore for John in TEH. The transition to the HLV through this white shirt is not a coincidence, the Moftisson universe is rarely so lazy, if not never.

What planted the idea of Janine as a stand in, make do, in the kiss is John’s missing blue shirt that we saw in the studio promo photos but never once on the show. In the photos BC wears his white seduction shirt and MF a light blue one. I watched closely, and if I am not mistaken, John is never seen wearing it on the show. Why dress him in it if it is not relevant to the show? All his fellow actors BC, AB wear their character costumes. MF wears all the other costumes in the photos but not the blue shirt.

Do you know who wears a light blue shirt on Sherlock? Janine. She comes from Sherlock’s bed in it and goes to take bath with him in it. It is the ultimate sex shirt but I strongly believe that it is MF’s shirt from the promos. The script constantly gets our attention to the shirts. “What do you think of this shirt?”, folded shirts of flight risk John etc.

Moffat and Gatiss planted the clues of the invisible reunion kiss in the white and the blue shirts. That is why Janine parades in it for a long time. For me it is the strongest evidence that Sherlock imagined John in his brief kiss with Janine.

I try to keep each section short so the nuances are lost..I agree with some comments that stated that Sherlock looks frigid and not into Janine when they kiss because he is not at all interested in her. He tries hard to really detach from her, the eyes firmly shut is the sign. Janine is a transport. He doesn’t want her  in that position but the shadow of John at the background and the whole white shirt transition is for me what ties it back to the TEH. When I wrote “deep in the John kiss”, I didn’t mean he kissed her deeply. I should have used another word, shorthands are misleading. I think he was deeply disconnected. The depth comes from the absent kiss and “he gets the mind palace KISS John owed him from their reunion” means the narrative of the reunion kiss came to an end with this scene.

We see a Sherlock in this scene who is briefly happy that John is disturbed but I also read deep sadness in his little show. He is recruiting John into his life in a different format. In TEH, he tried to get him as one part of the “two of us against the world.” Here this new reunion is a different one, Sherlock feels it. And the faint kiss marks his transition into this acceptance. Janine is a make-do for the Kiss he dreamt of upon his reunion. A very faint make-do!

“Solve me a crime Sherlock Holmes” and if “I might call you – unless I meet someone prettier” is very Johnlock. Solving crimes is what Sherlock and John do. Again, echoes of a make-do life, doesn’t matter if it is Janine or Molly.

"I might call you – unless I meet someone prettier” in itself is right to the heart of TEH and the absent Johnlock reunion kiss. In Sherlock’s mind Sherlock came back but John met someone “-er”, pretty, better doesn’t matter but he chose her. For me the door sequence is a sad attempt to reclaim something which never happened.

A Mind Palace Can Give You The Kiss - Sherlock Kissed John

THE KISS PART 3

The arc is complete and the white shirt is its witness. I know it has been a torturous journey but this is the last installment of my The Kiss meta. The first image is where Sherlock prepared for The Kiss and the white shirt is our portal to Sherlock’s kiss. We get two scenes where he wears his jacket over this white shirt. First he wore it when he thought he was going to kiss John. Then we see it in an actual kiss scene. At this moment, TSOT already happened, Sherlock to his despair knows he could have had a chance with John and he still loved him but John made a choice. 

In the HLV scene, he has given up hope but the memory of his desire is there. He knows what will happen from the moment John finds out Janine. He comes out showered, wearing his white seduction shirt in front of John and then sets Janine up for a kiss. The Kiss happens in the doorway and when you look at the angle, John is a blurry image in between them. Sherlock’s eyes are very firmly shut, he is dreaming, dreaming of John in place of Janine. Like Irene, Janine’s body is a medium, ever watched the movie Ghost?

Sherlock is most probably in his John room of his mind palace. John is physically there with his scent and his breathing, which makes it possible for him to feel it more real. If you pay attention, he doesn’t open his eyes long after Janine opens hers. He is deep in the John kiss and disconnected from her. 

And finally, the last frame. He is sad, coming back to the cold reality from his stolen moment. Their bodily positions, their backs turned in this scene tell a thousand words..Nevertheless, he gets the mind palace KISS John owed him from their reunion. 

And the circle closes...Thank you for surviving this, a thousand kisses to you all.

Part One of the meta Mofftkiss is here.