#nnbb

1. "I needed you." O. M. G. oh watson ymmv, but for me, this is the culmination of three years of Joan denying, refuting, burying, ignoring, and fearing the repercussions of dependency. This is being kidnapped and Mycroft and London and Andrew and the relapse and Shinwell, and her struggle not to feel responsible for every damn thing, and she was doing it, they stood together against Morland and Sherlock trusted her to take the lead even, he trusts her more than anyone, and then it started to crumble and she doesn't understand why so kept going on, it's the work that sustains, that will bring them together, it's the thing they share, the basis and foundation for everything.

And then I realized it also describes how I feel about Elementary (the show) these days too, just not in a good way.

Those chips you showed me last night. You don't accept them for yourself. You accept them because you're part of a group. You accept them because...the work you did to stand up at a meeting inspires others.

It's bigger than you. Or us.

So you show up.

Watching this scene again, I was struck by the analogy Watson makes, comparing the Medal Day certificates to sobriety chips. What she doesn’t say, what she takes as understood, is the unequivocal value of the work underlying these moments of recognition: she’s obviously not doubting the importance of the years of effort at the heart of Sherlock’s recovery. Yes, accepting the chips in public is a way of giving back to the community that supported him up to that point. That doesn’t mean getting there in the first place is any less important. By making this comparison, she’s implying that their detective work, and the shared experience of doing it together, are also similarly essential and valued.

I’m not arguing that Sherlock necessarily understood that sentiment in what she didn’t say, but I don’t think her lack of a reciprocal statement to him meant she didn’t feel it. I’ve commented/ranted many, many, MANY times already about the Doylist problems with the way her character is written. It vexes, to say the least. But regardless of how else this could have been handled, I didn’t see her here as deliberately not responding in kind. Rather, she extended his point by reminding him that their partnership doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Just like his support groups, it’s important to their crime-solving community to occasionally join in recognition of everyone’s shared commitment. Even when it doesn’t hold that same meaning for him, personally. I’m reminded of Alfredo’s comment the first time this came up, “you gotta get over yourself.” I think Watson’s coming from a similar perspective here.

Of course the irony is that Watson is also just going through the motions herself; she’s still a bit lost in space and seeking validation. She wants to belong somewhere, but for whatever reason is unable or unwilling to rest in her place next to Sherlock the way he clearly finds comfort in his place next to her. [Head canon that her underlying ambivalence stems from her experience with Liam and the unresolved/unexamined emotions around Sherlock’s relapse. Her missing father would be a factor too. Bitter disappointment that the show will never go there.]

oh anon, so very kind of you to ask me to talk about Joan!

tl;dr: I rank them 1, 2, 4, 3, but there’s a huge gap between 1 and the rest.

WAY more detail below the cut.

I assume we can all agree that s1 is in fact #1. I came up with over 100 details and examples. Here’s a selection from the first 6 episodes:

- might prefer to sleep in- runs- photo of her mother & father showing him to be a white man; reference to his infidelity & reconciliation w/ her mother- left medicine bc a patient died (implication that she was, as S said “forced out by the sin of malpractice” later corrected)- likes opera- likes baseball- meet ex, Ty, who her parents are still in touch with & who perhaps doesn’t want to be an ex?- feels judged & undervalued by family/friends for her career change- observes at crime scene (notices photo of armoire; tests for pseudocoma)- lived in Cobble Hill 7 years before meeting Sherlock- was valedictorian of her medical school class (and is still proud of that)- meet friend Emily: oldest friend who apparently keeps trying to set Joan up- meet Aaron, latest set-up who she sees a few times- knows some Mandarin (not as much as her mother would like)- meet former friend, co-worker Carrie- knows something about soccer- her choice to end medical career - not actually forced out- apparently qualified to apply for a cardio-thoracic specialty- falsifies medical records to save patient’s life/save friend’s career- Zadie Smith is one of her favorite authors- skilled interrogator - manipulates Alistar into telling her about Irene (uses the same technique with Edson in the following episode)

still, I would say that we started to get fewer moments with her own reactions and thoughts about things after about episode 10; I started using my “Watson what are you thinking?!?” tag after “Details” in February 2013: The show will break my heart if they don’t make the transition to addressing Watson’s layers of [self-]camouflage/denial/deferral soon, I said. and it did because it never has.

s2 had the stand-alone episode in which we finally got the story of what happened with her last patient. Emily gave her a membership to a dating site, and she gave it a try. She started writing The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes. She had an uncle who works in construction and apparently did not have a sister (or else Sherlock would have slept with her). There was a certain regrettable retcon I chose to disregard. We met a former client and a few contacts she’s still in touch with at different hospitals. She’s quite comfortable committing perjury if the story’s good enough (and this actually speaks to the characterization we’ve seen in s4). She was kidnapped, volunteered to operate under duress, witnessed murder, was threatened with murder herself, witnessed more murder & betrayal at close quarters, none of which has ever been spoken of after the next day. And while she loves working with Sherlock, she’d rather not continue living with him.

s3 showed us a Joan who is still livid 8 months later over the way Sherlock broke their partnership. She started her own business, started dating Andrew, started mentoring Kitty, and accepted Sherlock’s non-apology though it’s not clear to me when she decided they were partners again, since she also decided to close her business in order to take a job with an insurance company, because she liked the people there (what?). That’s more an example of lack of lack of attention, which continued in this season: the casebook she finished writing (when?) and deleted (why?); her decision to stick with Andrew (and spend a week with him in Denmark) after Sherlock explained why he liked him. Her decision to break things off with Andrew after Sherlock pointed out that she didn’t like him enough. Her decision to go hang out with her boring[ly written] friends and their tedious wedding plans because Sherlock told her she should. Her half-answer when Sherlock asked if she planned to procreate. Her mother’s dementia scare was the only one that felt fully thought through, and yet it was Sherlock who brought resolution, disturbing though it was, in the end, not her.