Totally Johnlock!

I have a general question for anyone reading this. Do you have one special activity, one special talent, one special THING that makes you light up from your toes to your head, that makes you think THIS IS WHY I AM ALIVE? (NB: not sex. Too obvious.)

Okay, so this post is a result of all of the things that have popped up on my dash in the last day and a half - disappointment, bitterness, tin-hatting, and denial. I’ve participated in a bit of each, but what makes me hesitant to give up right now is that the whole of s4, and especially TFP, just felt off somehow. It felt fake. But a thought popped into my head today, and suddenly everything makes sense, so I wanted to share it with you. (If I turn out to be wrong, sorry for getting your hopes up; if not, this will truly be television history.)

Why is this episode titled The Final Problem, if it has nothing to do with Reichenbach (like in ACD’s canon) or burning the heart out of Sherlock (like in BBC canon)? It’s titled that because it serves the same function as ACD’s Final Problem.

Think about it: ACD wrote The Final Problem in 1893 for the sole purpose of killing off Sherlock Holmes, so that he could stop writing about the detective. The backlash against this was so great that he was eventually pressured by his fans into bringing back Holmes in 1901 with The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Mofftiss love the Canon so much that this is totally something they would want to replicate. Because of their enthusiasm, though, there’s no way that anyone would believe them if they suddenly decided to stop at series 4. They have an international reputation, with critics and fans. Everybody loves how well-made Sherlock is. So the only way that they could suddenly surprise people and cause a backlash would be if it suddenly stopped being good.

[x]

If you think about it, they never leave us hanging like this. Aside from the cliffhanger at the end of TGG, Mofftiss has never ended a series with an overwhelming feeling of unresolved plot holes or unanswered questions. Did TRF end with John standing devastated by Sherlock’s grave? No, it panned to a shot of Sherlock smiling quietly, to reassure us that he was alive. Did HLV end with the plane flying away, a bittersweet ending to haunt us through the hiatus? No, the credits got interrupted by Moriarty’s message, promising us a return to the Sherlock/John dynamic that we love. To contrast, series 4 has left us with more confusion than ever before… so that must mean that they’re not done yet.

There are so many loose ends in this series. So many things that just don’t make sense. There’s even concrete proof that the inconsistencies were at least partially intentional; even if the weird glowing skull wasn’t there, entire scenes are repeated with different dialogue.

So much points to at least part of this series being fake, and then The Final Problem came out of nowhere and just felt so off. But what if that’s the point? They’ve been going on and on about a rug-pull for ages; what if it isn’t just that they’re adapting the romance that was in ACD’s stories, but that they’re paying a homage to Doyle by repeating historical events.

TRF was an adaptation of The Final Problem’s story, but not of its context; we all knew that Sherlock would survive, and sure enough, he didn’t even stay “dead” through the end of the episode. So now, we have the REAL adaptation of The Final Problem: the installment that is designed to confuse you, disappoint you, and make you feel like BBC Sherlock has reached its end.

But they wouldn’t be so cruel as to make us wait - only for a week. They don’t want to turn into villains, and these days we have so much available media and so many other Holmes adaptations that their fans would simply get mad and then fade away, instead of protesting until they bring back the Sherlock that we love. So instead, they’ll wait a week, then give us the return of the real Sherlock Holmes.

[x]

Queerbaiting feels very out of character for Moffat and Gatiss, especially given everything they’ve said about LGBT representation and about getting the stories right. But this? This seems exactly like something they would do.

It explains their silence on social media right now. Either they’re waiting for us to cool down, they’re only now realizing what a mistake they’ve made, or else they’re waiting to respond until after s4 is done. This rug-pull is so huge that it blew right through TJLC and genuinely stunned us. Imagine how great this could be.

[x]

As @lostspecial reminded us, Moffat did mention something about a “lost special,” which could be a reference to The Lost Special by ACD, and @london2go compiled a wonderful list of hints for a fourth episode taken straight from s4 promotion.

But didn’t Mofftiss just write themselves into a corner? Not necessarily. As @jenna221b​​ points out, there is strong visual evidence that Sherlock is dreaming, and also evidence that TFP is really just a parody. EMP seems increasingly plausible, as shown by @loudest-subtext-in-tv​‘s post about how TST fits with the theory. As people have pointed out, this episode stands apart because there is no subtext beneath the surface; it stumps us because there is nothing to analyze. It’s like a deliberate dead end.

And maybe this explains why.

I just realized that Mofftiss didn’t take so much effort in Eurus. They just copied Moriaty.

Moriaty first meeting with Sherlock:

He is in a disguise and flirts with Sherlock.

Eurus first meeting with Sherlock:

She is a disguise and flirts with him.

later: Moriaty:

He is himself and tries to kill Sherlock and John

Later: Eurus:

She tries to kill John.

And also Moriaty appears in different costumes:

Eurus:

So yesterday I was reading @silentauroriamthereal‘s Best of Three, again (it’s a really good story!). And I realised that the John in that story is pretty much a total dick. He’s incredibly patronising and self-congratulatory about being such a wonderful friend to Sherlock etc etc etc, all the while being actually unimaginably cruel to Sherlock.

And I left a comment to the effect that I loved the story but hated John, and she very kindly replied that she thought it was pretty in character and I had this absolute oh my god moment because she’s bloody right, isn’t she?

And somewhere between Season 4 and Best of Three and SilentAuror’s comment, I think the scales sort of fell from my eyes with regards to John and the show. It’s not that Season 4 ruined John. Season 4 was the logical continuation of where they had taken the character, arguably from the second episode. Go back and look at the way John talks about and treats Sherlock, all the way back to TBB. Try to reconcile the way John talks to and about Sherlock with the way Watson talks to and about Holmes.

Season 4 John is not out of character. Not for BBC John. It’s extreme, but it’s not actually out of character. We think it is, but I think that we have good reason for that. In my specific case, I knew and loved the canon long before BBC Sherlock came on the scene. I know Watson, and I know how he feels about Holmes. So when John acted the way he did in Season 4, I thought it was awful, and terrible, and it came as a shock to me. Before Season 4, when John acted in ways that Watson would not have, I was like “well, maybe he’s just having a bad day’, but Season 4 made me realise that Watson hasn’t been having bad days, Watson has never been here at all.

We think that John is better and wiser and kinder than he is because we spend more time with the wiser, kinder versions of John Watson that we see in the canon and in fanfiction. We’ve been blinded by those Watsons to the truth of John’s character in the show.

And that leads me to another conclusion. BBC’s John doesn’t love Sherlock. We think he does, because Watson loves Holmes, and whether you think that it’s platonic or romantic or sexual or whatever, you can’t deny that there is love there, but John? He doesn’t love Sherlock.

I think he wants Sherlock. I think he’s addicted to Sherlock. To the cases and the life they lead and the danger and all of it. And I think that, like any addict, he hates Sherlock and everything that comes with him, and hates that he needs him. And that’s why the morgue scene happens. Because John, unlike practically every other Watson in history, does not love Sherlock Holmes. Because John wishes that he had never met him and wishes that he could live without him, and knows that as long as Sherlock is alive, he will never, ever be able to leave him for good.

Which means that yes, they really did do TPLoSH all over again, with a gay Holmes desperately in love with Watson, who doesn’t love him back. Except they dialled it up to 11, because everything has to be bigger and louder and hurt more, and instead of a straight Watson who still loves his Holmes, they have given us a John Watson of ambiguous sexuality who not only does not love Sherlock, but actively despises him.

i mean, especially after s4, i felt more or less convinced that John doesn’t love Sherlock back, certainly not in the way Sherlock loves John so selflessly and unconditionally

but to see you spell it out so well and dial it up some more….. oh my heart….. oh my poor sherlock…. it makes this scene THAT much more painful to watch

Also, there are other Johns. Try Granada! Granada John is beautiful.

I remember saying to my best fandom friend (not tagging in case this post makes her sad) at the time that seeing it all again after some time and distance made me realize that John wasn’t actually very nice to Sherlock. He was a bit of a dick.

I do believe he cares about Sherlock, and comes to see him as a friend, and I do believe John knows that he owes Sherlock his very life, and he’s absolutely addicted to him as a surrogate for the adventure. But he also blames Sherlock for getting in the way of the happy normal life he thinks he wants. He goes back to Mary because he wants to, because he’s pissed off at both of them, but he wants Mary, and he doesn’t want Sherlock. At least, he doesn’t want to want Sherlock, and he never gets past that. And he hates Sherlock when Mary dies because if there hadn’t been Sherlock, there’d be a Mary. Sherlock is John’s fly in the ointment, his virus in the system.

And I think I went as far as to say that I didn’t think johnlock was endgame, that I would love to see it, because they’re my OTP, but I didn’t think the show had given us a foundation for it. We’d spent so much time in hiatus, consuming fic and seeing subtext in three-second long clips taken out of context, and just simply dreaming and wanting, but I didn’t think it would happen.

I don’t like it. I don’t like having my johnlock-colored glasses ripped off, but John didn’t turn into a dick. He kind of always was one.

And maybe that explains why I’ve found myself drawn more and more to Victorian johnlock lately, and why I don’t really write fixits, preferring AU.

Here’s the thing – okay, there’s more than one thing here, but here’s one of the things: fanon always goes too far. I love being part of a fandom. It’s wonderful to have a huge number of people to share your interests and passions with! But one thing that inevitably happens is that the fanon view of the characterisations turn into two-dimensional stereotypes really quickly. I loathe the terminology that calls Sherlock a “gay baby penguin” and John a “human trash can”, etc. It happens in every fandom, not just ours! What this practise does is reduce these complex and multi-layered characters into so much less than what they are.

That said, I’ve always been a fan who identified more with Sherlock than with John, and maybe because of that, I’ve always seen and disliked John’s cruelty. I just started watching the Big Bang Theory and I feel the same way about Sheldon, whom I identify with less, but I’m still completely appalled by how his friends treat him sometimes. He’s infuriating, as Sherlock can be, but Sheldon is clearly autistic or somewhere on that spectrum. He’s not insane, yet his friends constantly refer to him as being crazy. He’s eccentric and neurotic and completely frustrating sometimes, but that’s no reason to treat him that way. I feel like this is the popular view, though, to have the show’s “regular person” there as a foil to show how smart/odd/different the special character is, which isn’t at all to say that John and Leonard aren’t special in their own right. We’re meant, I think, to accept John’s regular treatment of Sherlock as normal, and that’s a larger problem than in this show alone.

And THAT said, I still have further issues with how John treats Sherlock, and more than just in series 3 and 4. I’ve found that John regularly assumes the worst of Sherlock intentions without confirming them, and Sherlock is frequently too focused on the larger problem to care to correct John. Far from being the machine John thinks he is, Sherlock is extraordinarily compassionate. If he chooses not to show it, or focuses his response into finding practical solutions, that doesn’t take away from this. Consider their exchange in The Great Game:

John: Try and remember there’s a woman here who might die.

Sherlock: What for? There are hospitals full of people dying, Doctor. Why don’t you go and cry by their bedside and see what good it does them?

 John took that to mean that Sherlock didn’t care about anyone’s death, whereas Sherlock rather failed to explain that what he was doing was solving the case and thereby far more useful than sitting around expressing sadness. It happens again and again. Later in the same episode, John gets all snarly and furious when Sherlock expresses admiration for the intellectual intricacy of Moriarty’s planning. He doesn’t condone it. It’s just a passing remark, yet John immediately jumps to the conclusion that Sherlock doesn’t care about any of the people involved as potential victims. And yet it’s always been clear that Sherlock cares. His face, upon hearing that the old woman’s building was blown up, is such that even John, despite his views, reaches instinctively out to console him, gripping the back of his chair rather than Sherlock’s actual shoulder. But it still happens over and over again. John clings to this narrative that Sherlock doesn’t care about people. It’s this unfounded bias that makes him only see certain aspects of Sherlock. I mean, to an extent we all do that, but John takes it to special new levels.

 Which brings me to my next point: John Watson is incredibly, ridiculously, obnoxiously emotionally repressed.

Although… the idea that John doesn’t care about Sherlock mainly appeared after S3. And why is that? Because that’s when we lost John’s POV.

Before that, we could see what ultimately lead to these moments. So why does he think Sherlock is heartless? Oh, I don’t know, he drugged me ‘for a case’, he played with my PTSD, he doesn’t care about the hostages, just the thrill of the game and so on. Look at that sociopath, how giddy he is at the thought of playing with Moriarty, flirting with him while I’ve got Semtex on me.

“What is he? Nothing more than a distraction, a little scrap of ordinariness for you to impress, to dazzle with your cleverness. You’ll find another.”

John believes all of that. Mycroft’s speech hurts because despite everything Sherlock has done, he is still convinced he amounts to nothing. He’s just the dog they need to put down. The distraction, Sherlock only needs him for the game and he has outlast his usefullness.

We know better though because since TEH until TFP, we are living in Sherlock’s head, seeing through his eyes. And Sherlock? He feels the same. He is certain John only wants him for the thrill of the game. It’s not as if John has ever cancelled dates to take care of him, it’s not as if he’s offered his life for him, it’s not as if hours after discovering Sherlock was alive he was already back to Baker Street.

The Lying Detective is a shock but John is a ticking bomb. He tried to be someone he can never be. He isn’t after the adventures, or the thrill of danger, no Mary could have given him that. It was always Sherlock. Sherlock he was dreaming of a month after his wedding, Sherlock he’s mourned for years. That high functionning sociopath who’s fakes his death and let him mourn him only to come back laughing at his face. All the web of lies he’s waved to protect himself has collapsed and he is forced to admit that there was never anything genuine in his marriage. “Trust you to fall for a psychopath. That chance doesn’t last forever, it’s gone before you know it.” He can’t run away from his true feelings anymore. He’s done, broken by all these years repressing who he truly is.

It’s time for John to get the hell on with it. To accept and embrace his true self. Seven years and he’s just taken the first tiny step all Watsons seem to have taken so effortlessly before. But that, we can barely see it, because Sherlock is also a mass of self-loathing and can’t think anyone would love him if he wasn’t “Sherlock Holmes.”

These two idiots are still in that stage where they keep wondering “what are we?” and try to pretend they have a clue, even though they’re terribly wrong.

In the 3rd gif when Martin says ‘I’ll push you back..’ Ben has to blink away [clear away] a visual image. He is sooo focused on Martin and that little nod is so reverential. I suspect it was not an image of the scene Ben needed to clear from his mind.

In the 4th gif Martin has to give a fond ‘pat’ to Ben’s shoulder, Ben is in character but Martin isn’t [unusual for Martin] and he feels the need to offer contact in a positive way. 

Gratuitous Sherlock GIFs

Gratuitous Sherlock GIFs

Legit Johnlock Scenes

Sherlock’s first major arc comes is in season two. Throughout the season he begins to understand the sacrifices that come with friendship, and how you have to be willing to work to make the other person happy. This begins to show in Hounds, with Sherlock arguing with John and apologizing, as well as him being remorseful about tricking John about the hound. This culminates in the fall, where Sherlock sacrifices himself to save the people he loves, although, lets be fair, it’s largely about John.

His second major arc is throughout season three and TAB. It’s all about him realizing that his emotion isn’t a weakness, and that he should embrace it. Lines like “you always feel it Sherlock. But you don’t. Have. To. Fear it” and him taking the leap off the waterfall in TAB most show this. By the end of the season, he’s in a place where he can embrace his emotions, and have the sociopathic mask slip away.

These aren’t all his arcs, but they’re the most important in my opinion.

John’s arc mostly center around Sherlock, and his most major is finally, finally beginning to understand that Sherlock isn’t a sociopath. It takes him practically the whole show, and is a long, arduous process.

And by TLD, it’s been established that both characters need romantic attachment to be fulfilled, and every episode so far has shown that not only are the characters only happy with each other, but that they are unable to be in other relationships because of the other person.

Just think about it for a moment. If every single arc of the characters is about embracing emotion and the people you love, then the episode that’s supposed to be a culmination of everything so far should center around that. John and Sherlock haven’t spent years thinking about Sherlock’s sister, they’ve spent years breaking through their repression and allowing themselves to feel.