#tjlc

I hope that when the dust settles and the smoke clears, bylers are able to see stranger things as simply a community. You did that. You built this. You saw yourself and your friends and your identity in this show. You made byler compelling. You made Will and Mike complex and interesting. You made it all human. The duffer brothers are just another example in a long, exhausting list of creators that use the queer community to accumulate wealth and power. Without you, they would be nothing.

Specifically, you need to realize that the origin of the Secret Fourth Episode idea came from a BFI screening Q&A -- specifically a journalist (for RadioTimes, unless my memory fails me) asking the showrunners about the possibility of a Secret Fourth Episode. The Q&A where this hypothesis was first floated took place three days before the finale had actually aired. In response to this question, the showrunners laughed and denied it, but joked that the hypothetical episode could be called "The Lost Special", a reference to The Story of the Lost Special, a crypto-Holmesian detective story about a missing train written by Conan Doyle during the hiatus between The Final Problem and The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Again: the hypothetical fourth Sherlock episode had been given a title by the showrunners three days before anyone except a screening audience had even seen the third episode. The idea, outlandish as it was, had originated with a question from a professional media beat reporter. The answer to that question was one of the few tidbits from the Q&A granted immediate release and not embargoed until after the episode aired.

In the lead up to the finale, this was absolutely mystifying information to receive -- why on earth would a journalist be asking about a secret fourth episode??? After seeing the finale (first when a leaked Russian dub was inexplicably shared by official BBC accounts for some fucking reason, then the official broadcast), the idea that they were attempting to prime hardcore fans for some kind of insane media stunt became one possible explanation.

All this to say: I was there, Gandalf. I watched the premiere of Apple Tree Yard with the best of them, feeling like a lunatic before, during, and after. There was a thread of reasoning that led us there, however tenuous, and it turns out watching a random show that is definitely not a Secret Sherlock Fourth Episode while feeling like a lunatic is still a pretty harmless place to be led in order to rule out a tenuous hypothesis about a tv show.

I'm not ashamed of having believed in johnlock from BBC Sherlock because the creators DID put things inside the show that were blatant queercoding multiple times in all of the seasons.

Wanting to believe in happiness for queer people in media that is not exclusively queer focused is not "embarrassing".

Conformity Gate in 2026: “there’s a secret ninth episode of Stranger Things that will fix the finale and explain all the plotholes”

everyone talks about how sherlock isn’t afraid because he saw the hound in the hollow, and is actually afraid of his feeling, specifically for john.

But there’s something that happens right before they even get to the hollow that backs this up so well!

when sherlock and Henry are walking to Dewers Hollow, Sherlock’s questioning why Henry’s dad was friends with Dr. frankland if their beliefs would have clashed, and henry just goes: “look at you and john.” and then points out that john is straightforward… and sherlock very much isn't.

and sherlock reacts to this.

he gets defensive. confused. almost… unsettled.

This forced him to look at his relationship with john from the outside. To see the imbalance, the difference, the possibility that whatever they are… might not work. Its a sore spot for him.

and then immediately after that, they walk into the hollow.

into the fog. The drugged fog.

so you’ve got sherlock already destabilised, already poked right at the thing he avoids thinking about: how he and john fit together, what they mean to each other, whether he’s too much or too strange for someone like john, and then gets hit with a drug that amplifies your fears.

And so, we get the scene: "Look at me, im afraid John." "I've always been able to keep myself distant. Divorce myself from feelings."

As sherlock has a full panic attack over it.

So it wasn't just the hound that triggered that reaction. But Sherlocks fear that he can’t trust his own mind, that what he feels for john is something uncontrollable and overwhelming and possibly destructive.