#Watson is a former soldier and it's apparently quite clear

[amypihcs]

And from today’s letter from Watson!

John is tired and Holmes DROPS BY HIM AT A QUARTER TO MIDNIGHT! Mind you, the man was literally falling asleep on his novel. I can imagine him interrupting mid-yawn opening the door and finding himself facing Holmes.

AND THEN THE MAN STARTS DEDUCING HIS DAY AND LIFE, as you do, obv

well, as you do. Watson is so gracious not to kill he man instantly as he raps out deductions almost at midnight to a man asleep on his feet. I want to underline this once again, Watson is a darling and too good for this world.

And then, and then and then. Watson noticed of course that there’s a case going on! 

Well, at least Holmes worries about Watson being sleepy and tries to compress the story. Such a nice boy, he’s learning well.

[crowley-fe11]

Ghost!John (Lost RP)

You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!

You both like darklock, vamplock, and johnlock.

Stranger: (Ghost!John, can include other AUs / they could previously have known each other if you like.) Fractured images were a constant for John when he expended enough energy to exist in any conscious form. Often they were disturbing. Shrieking technology, planes that tore the air with the speed they were capable of, newer and more brutal weaponry blaring through colourful and ridiculously realistic films in the televisions of the people who took turns inhabiting and redecorating and warping his home. He'd never been able to communicate with any of the people who had lived there so far. At most he'd just accidentally scared them when trying to show he was there. But this new tennant- John had actually mustered enough concentration to watch him on a fair few occasions -he /helped/ people. He knew things. Perhaps he could help him, too. It would take far too long to get used to thinking and moving around initially to do that /and/ become corporeal, so he started simply, finding a pen and paper and scrawling a note, pinning it to the wall next to the mirror. "Captain John Watson, 1905-1939." He had seen enough to trust that the other could ascertain who he was easily given a name and years of birth and death. John didn't remember much apart from his name, those dates, but it seemed like a start if the man would help him. He fell into nothing again for a week or so, to rest so he could attempt to become visible.

You: While Sherlock had resided in this flat, he'd noticed some odd things happen that he always seemed to brush off. Cold spots, random drafts, flickering lights at times. He'd always attributed that to what many people referred to as 'charm' in a living space. However, one day he couldn't ignore one strange occurrence. A name and years written in handwriting that wasn't his own, pinned in a place he never considered leaving such a snippet of information. He quickly ruled out a break in, seeing as there were no signs of forced entry. So he treated this like a case. Over the following week, he did his research and found some old military documents found online, given the title and timeframe. He perched with his laptop on his chair, browsing each document with diligence as he tried to uncover just who this military captain was.

Stranger: It took an incredible amount of energy to become visible and John had attempted it perhaps twice in his entire time being stuck in the flat. The week of nothing helped, and oddly so did the attention paid to the note by Sherlock, his interest a residual energy of its own kind. Time was an abstract thing to a being like John so he wasn't certain how long it had been exactly when he came back to consciousness, appearing in the living room of the flat. If it wasn't for the faint translucence of his form he would have appeared quite normal - if a little out of time, and perhaps looking slightly lost. He was still wearing his uniform.

You: Sherlock had just found photographs of the mysterious, and rather attractive, army captain, and apparent doctor as well when he saw something out of his peripheral vision. He looked up only to find him standing in his living room. He certainly didn't remember taking any hallucinogenics. Perhaps he slipped into his mind palace, imagining what Captain Watson looked like. However, this didn't seem quite right, even with that scenario. All of his imagined elements of his mind palace were solid while the man before him was slightly translucent. Not to mention the lost look in his eyes. "Captain?" He whispered, unsure quite what to make of this image standing before him.

Stranger: John's image flickered for a moment when Sherlock spoke up, and there were a few seconds of no response before he seemed to take stock of the situation at hand properly and actually looked at him directly. It had been a long, long time since John had 'looked' at anything, rather than just existing as an abstract thought or movement within the boundaries of the flat. Everything felt almost too real, too intense. It was part of the reason why it took so much energy to keep in a form that was somewhat like his former self. "Watson." Despite the uncertainty of his translucent form, his voice came through as clear as anything. Out of habit, he straightened his posture when introducing himself, still a soldier, after all. "Captain John Watson."

You: Looking back at everything that had been going on in the flat, Sherlock was finally beginning to put the pieces together. While it seemed highly improbable, paranormal activity, while still a phenomenon that people took for urban legends, seemed to be the only explanation that encapsulated everything before him. "It's a pleasure to meet you," Sherlock told him. "My name is Sherlock Holmes. Did you happen to leave a note for me a week ago? Or are you simply a figment of my imagination?" While he was certain he wasn't high, he needed to rule that out, and he usually was self-aware enough that he knew he was hallucinating. Therefore, the man before him would know.

Stranger: "I left it. You're quite sane, this is real. I think so, at least." John had his own doubts, considering the oddity of everything about the world around him as it now was, and the fact that he could remember almost nothing with any clarity. There were a few names, a few faces, that set of dates, a horrid feeling that he'd /lost/ something, but most was blank.

You: The detective rose to his feet and reached a hand toward where John stood, finding that the air around him was much cooler than the rest of the room. His senses couldn't fail him. "Then the obvious explanation is indeed that you've been haunting my flat," he observed with a small smile taking in the image of John Watson, the color that photography had yet to capture in his time. "Is there something you're looking for?"

Stranger: "Haunting?" John sounded confused. Everything was such a /blur/, so messy. He didn't quite get what the odd man who'd apparently taken over his flat was getting at. "I'm not certain. I think I've- something's not right. I'm sure I've lost something. Forgotten something. I don't know-" He seemed to be becoming stressed, and his image became more unstable once again.

You: Perhaps the spirit wasn't ready to comprehend what he was just yet. One thing at a time then. "Well, if you've forgotten something, can you tell me what you remember?" Sherlock asked. There were stories of ghosts who had unfinished business in this world that trapped them. If that were the case for Captain Watson, this had to be the most interesting thing he's ever encountered.

Stranger: "I don't know what- What are you doing in my home?" John seemed to be getting stuck in a loop, confused. "I'm sure I've lost something." He was too out of practice to keep it together just yet, and his form was definitely getting less stable by the moment. He probably only had a few minutes until he would have to rest again. "I think something went wrong."

You: "I'm here to help you, John. I'm a detective," Sherlock tried to explain, but the other was already starting to fade. "Is it alright if I call you John? Listen, I need you to try to focus for me. Did something happen during the war that went wrong?" Sherlock asked. He had the file open, but he needed to try to see what John could remember.

Stranger: John shook his head, less of a response to Sherlock and more like he was trying to clear it. It was all fractured images yet again, and he had a feeling in his gut like pure dread. Something was terribly wrong, or something /had been/ terribly wrong, but he couldn't place it. "I don't know." A few seconds later, John disappeared from view entirely. While gone once again, it was almost like John dreamed. There were snatches of remembered conversation, fond smiles, someone whose face he couldn't picture. The nice images turned rather suddenly sour, however. Garbled shouting, being dragged off somewhere. He could feel himself shouting for someone, panicking about someone else who'd been dragged off in a similar manner. The feeling of metal at the back of his head, a click, then nothing else. Unbeknownst to John, the dreams were shared with the other inhabitant of the flat whether he liked it or not.

You: When John disappeared, Sherlock knew he had to figure out just what had happened to John during his lifetime. However, the files he had were limited, and he'd likely have to rely on his brother to get him more in-depth reports. However, he eventually fell asleep in front of his laptop, only to be overcome with a terrible nightmare. And while he couldn't hold on to many of the images, he could feel the intense fear coursing through his veins that ended with the barrel of a gun resting at the back of his head before he heard a click and woke in a cold sweat, panting as he sat straight up. It took a few moments for him to get his bearings, and he soon padded into the kitchen and got himself a glass of water, sipping it as he looked out into the darkened flat.

Stranger: "Sholto." John was barely visible, energy all but gone after his initial meeting with Sherlock the day before. It didn't matter too much as the flat was dark anyway, though the effect was eerie, a half shadow of a man in the shadows of the flat itself. "They said I died in action." The words were distorted, like they were coming through radio feedback, folding in on themselves a little. "/Liars/. Issss- what happened to him? Is he alright? Is he safe?"

You: "That's what your reports say," Sherlock responded, looking back towards the shadows where John's voice came from, as different as it seemed now. "James Sholto. He was your commanding officer?" The detective asked, figuring John might be able to give him more information than what mere files could give him. "I'm afraid he didn't make it either. I can tell you what I've found so far."

Stranger: "Tell me." There wasn't enough of John present to really respond properly or to take in the news about his CO. That could come later, once he'd rested, once he was in enough of a form that made sense, and as such could make sense of it all. For the moment, he would just listen to the man who was in his flat. He'd said he was a detective, after all.

You: Sherlock went back over to the living room and fetched his laptop before going back to the kitchen, resting it on the table as he went through everything he'd found. "You were an army doctor in the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers, one of the best in the army. However, you didn't make it long into the Second World War. You were deployed to support the French during the Nazi takeover, but you and a few of the key members of your troop were captured during an ambush."

Stranger: John disappeared briefly, coming back into view right next to Sherlock, peering over his shoulder at the screen with little comprehension. "That's- it isn't." He frowned, brows furrowed. "It wasn't the enemy. I'm sure it wasn't the enemy." When concentrating on something it seemed that he became more stable, looking more like the almost solid apparition from the day before.

You: "Well, there's only so much I can gather from these reports. I'll have to dig deeper. Surely this was an enemy, but not one you were expecting," Sherlock told him. "I'll figure out what happened. I promise," he added, looking up at the clear apparition leaning over his shoulder. "You didn't deserve any of that."

Stranger: John was quiet for a few moments, attention moving eventually from the report on screen back to Sherlock. He stood back a little bit, frown fading. "Thank you." John disappeared from view yet again, needing almost total nonexistence to rest from the effort of actually showing himself to the man in his flat. For almost a couple of months normality seemed to rule. There were no cold spots, no flickers of light or problems with the power. Mrs Hudson downstairs was rather relieved not to be constantly changing bulbs or getting people in to fix the heating. There wasn't a peep from John.

You: It took ages to dig through everything he'd pulled up from Mycroft's archives, and Sherlock found himself missing the soldier who'd asked for his help. He wished he could see the warm smile he saw in the old photographs of him, but he needed to find out what was tying John to this realm. Then he found something. "John?" He called out, hoping the spirit would hear him and make his presence known to him once more.

Stranger: It felt a lot less confusing than when he'd first appeared to Sherlock to come into appearance that time. Perhaps it was because Sherlock had called him by name, given him something to concentrate on, or perhaps it was all a matter of practice - John wasn't sure. Whatever it was, at Sherlock's call, there he was. Standing in the living room once again, looking /almost/ solid, still in his uniform. "Sherlock?"

You: Sherlock was almost taken aback by just how stunning John looked, especially after silence for so long. He gazed back at him with admiration before clearing his throat and turning his focus back to the task at hand. "I may have found a connection in your case. Do you remember anyone by the name of Sebastian Moran by chance?"

Stranger: "Well, yes." John even sounded more like himself. Things were certainly less foggy, he felt like he could communicate properly, even if a lot of details were still odd, especially concerning that last night of his life. "I worked with him. He was in the army, we joined at similar times."

You: Sherlock nodded, finding that John's recollection matched with his findings so far. "Well, he was off-duty on the night that you and Sholto were captured, and later on in the war, he was dishonorably discharged. I think he may have a connection to your capture."

Stranger: "..Did James really not make it?" John asked after a moment. He sounded like he was already certain of the answer, but had to know, had to be sure, even if the knowledge wasn't something he relished in the slightest. "Perhaps Seb witnessed something. I can't be certain."

You: Sherlock gave a small, solemn nod. "If he survived, he would have found his way back. If your troop was known for anything, it was they're undying loyalty." He looked back at John, noting his insistence on knowing about Sholto. "I take it you two were close."

Stranger: John's tone became undeniably defensive, even if he tried to cover it. Perhaps if he'd been talking to someone who wasn't Sherlock Holmes they might not have noticed. "He was my commanding officer." He said, rather briskly. "It's my duty to be concerned about him." He cleared his throat. "Like you said. Loyalty."

You: The way that John got defensive at Sherlock's comment only confirmed the detective's suspicions. "John, I'm from a time that someone can love whoever they love, regardless of gender. No matter what kind of closeness you two had, I'm not judging you in the slightest if that's what you're concerned about."

Stranger: John's jaw tightened, but he didn't confirm nor deny Sherlock's suspicions. "..Who else was 'attacked'? I imagine they made it back, told the story about the ambush." He was so sure that the ambush didn't make sense. He'd never have been caught on his own, caught off guard so easily. Surely he'd have been armed? He'd have fought back?

You: "From what it looked like, it was a sniper. Most of the hits during that ambush were definite kill shots, and the angle is extremely similar in how each man was shot. The only two who weren't accounted for were you and your commanding officer," Sherlock told him. "Also, some blood was found on the uniform of one of the fallen soldiers that didn't match his own type, but it matches yours. I have a feeling you were more focused on tending to the wounded."

Stranger: "It was my duty, I had to take care of my men." Trying to recall the details of what had gone on was rather sobering. It might have been worse but John couldn't recall the horrid dream he'd shared with Sherlock. It seemed that remembering things at will was still rather difficult. "So we were never- the bodies were never recovered?" John hadn't even noticed it himself yet, but it was the longest conversation he'd had with anyone since before the ambush itself had happened. The last few days of his life had been busy and fraught, all effort into looking after the evacuation of townspeople where possible out of the front line. He and James had only had a few moments of snatched peace together, duty had always needed to take priority.

You: Sherlock slowly shook his head. "It could be why you've been holding on for so long," he explained. One item that could fall under the category of unfinished business was the lack of a proper burial, and since John was missing in action and presumed to be dead, that was very likely the case. "I can imagine this would be difficult to take in. But I'll make sure I find out who was responsible."

Stranger: "Holding on?" John didn't quite understand what Sherlock was getting at with that. Despite what they were talking about, it was like there was a mental block that prevented him from understanding his own state of existence. Perhaps it was an automatic thing, self preservation to stop a trapped soul from going mad with the knowledge.

You: "Well, you know you've passed, you're looking for closure of some kind, hence why you'll stick around until you've found it and chosen to move on," Sherlock explained simply. "If you don't mind me saying so, I really do enjoy your company, and I hope you stay for a while at least."

Stranger: John stared at him for a moment. There was a brief flicker to his expression like he was /almost/ understanding, caught between what was really happening and the construct that aided him in coping, before he dismissed it. "I just need to find out what's going on. Where is Sholto?" Frowning, John turned, walking away, and for the moment, walking out of existence once again.

You: Sherlock couldn't help but find himself drawn more and more to John the more he spoke with him, the more he saw him and felt his presence. However, now that he knew John had a lover that practically died with him, that complicated things a bit. Still, he wanted more than anything to help John figure out what had happened to him, and to at least help him understand that.

Stranger: John didn't appear again for a long time once more. He was vaguely aware of the man in his flat, moreso than when previously nonexisting. He watched him with detached interest as he seemed to work on cases, looking either triumphant or stressed or exhausted or elated, depending on the case or if another man - his brother? - turned up to talk to him about them. One day John simply turned up again. It had been months, making it almost half a year since he'd first spoken to Sherlock, though it was hard for John himself to keep track of any length of time. Watching Sherlock was helpful on occasion, he could get a better grasp on reality by doing that, it helped link him to the world. He was already there and sitting on the sofa, rather than appearing and standing in the middle of the room looking lost, when Sherlock returned from wherever he'd been that day.

You: Sherlock had just come home after finishing up some paperwork on another case with the Yard when he saw John seated on the sofa when he stepped inside the flat. "John," he greeted with a bright smile as he shed his coat and went over to sit next to him. Already, the other seemed far more at ease, and Sherlock was relieved at that. "It's been a while since I've seen you last," he remarked softly, feeling the apparition's cool, comforting presence beside him. "How have you been?"

Stranger: John smiled a little in return, shifting a bit so he could face Sherlock better where they were sitting. "I don't- when I'm not here, I'm not really anywhere. There's nothing to be. I watch your cases, sometimes. I hope you don't mind that. ..Have you been keeping well?" He definitely sounded more fluid, more human yet again, able to actually chat rather than getting distracted by his confusion or overfocused on some message he desperately needed to pass on.

Technical error: Lost contact with server, and couldn't reach it after 3 tries. Sorry. :( Omegle understands if you hate it now, but Omegle still loves you.

[avelera]

Women Pretending to be John and Sherlock

.... or why the women who try to seduce John and Sherlock consistently fail or succeed. 

Picking up on my conversation with @mostlyanything19​ - there have been several instances of women providing mirrors for John and Sherlock, effectively cosplaying them within the series. This has provided varying degrees of success with seducing the other, on a subconscious level. However, many of them have also been wrong. My thesis statement is, in essence, that women who present as “Sherlock” tend to magnetize John, who can’t fail to see their charms, but tend to repel Sherlock. Women who present as John tend to be people John can’t wholly get into, but who Sherlock adores. For the record, both John and Sherlock have not met every woman who masquerades as them, but here’s a quick non-spoilery instance before I get into Season 4 examples:

Jeanette

Tall (taller than John in heels), dark haired, wears a coat. John was clearly superficially attracted to her, as they did date, but she was no match for the real thing and he abandoned her for Sherlock as soon as it came up. Sherlock disliked her instantly and wanted her out.

(Goes a bit into spoiler territory next + gets a bit long and image heavy so putting under a cut)

Mary

When we first met Mary it seemed obvious to me that she was a John parallel. She is a former killer (literally a soldier, just like him) who meets him working in the doctor’s clinic. She’s blond, middle-aged, and trying desperately to have a normal life. Clearly she modeled her new self on some level after John, and what she thought John would like. But by the end, John states that he doesn’t like Mary very much. Coincidentally this coincides with John admitting he no longer likes himself very much, as a result of his attempted affair. The problem with Mary isn’t that she was a killer precisely, but rather that John wanted to be normal and by ending up with another non-normal person, and one so similar to him, he has to admit that he’s not normal and never will be. Joh likes her a great deal, but not enough to be only with her forever, just as he likes himself alright, but not enough to be alone forever (and he sees romantic relationships as fulfilling the missing piece).

You know who unabashedly adores Mary, no matter what she does?

Sherlock. 

Irene

Clearly cosplaying as Sherlock here. Interestingly, the episode makes frequent reference to disguises revealing who we truly are. Interesting that Sherlock cannot read Irene, but he also cannot read himself. She is his mirror here, intentionally so as to avoid being read. She even admits it at the end with SHERlocked. She never said she loved Sherlock, she only said that she was him. If she was trying to seduce him, however, she failed. She confronted him with a sexual version of himself, which made him uncomfortable, but Sherlock never admitted to returning her attraction. 

The reason Irene was wrong to choose this guise with which to seduce Sherlock (if that was her intention) is because Sherlock doesn’t particularly like himself. His arrogance is a mask for his feelings of inadequacy. 

John, on the other hand, is immediately attracted to Irene, begging her to put her clothes back on, her nudity being something that doesn’t phase Sherlock very much at all, because he has no sexual feeling toward her (arguably, no more than he would for his own reflection in the mirror). 

John at the end of The Lying Detective is urging Sherlock to call Irene. Though John doesn’t love her, he completely understands why someone would love Irene, despite her being dangerous, a criminal, a sociopath (a word Sherlock used to describe himself the first day he and John met). John sees Irene as dangerous but amazing. How could Sherlock fail to love someone like that? He states that Sherlock shouldn’t let this chance slip away. John is absolutely projecting how easy it is for him to love Sherlock by commanding Sherlock to make advances towards Irene. Throughout the scene, Sherlock is visibly perplexed by the notion and admits over and over he has no feelings for her, something incomprehensible to John.

The Reporter

Far less expert than Irene, the reporter also tried to seduce Sherlock in a way and make him like her enough to open up to her by masquerading as him. I’m not convinced Irene was trying to seduce Sherlock, rather she was trying to hide her intentions from him and therefore quite rightly chose to disguise herself as Sherlock to hide from him. But the reporter was trying to seduce Sherlock, albeit much more clumsily. She made the mistake of thinking that Sherlock is an egomaniac who would fall for his own image reflected back at him. She could not have been more wrong, because again, Sherlock does not like himself. His words to a woman pretending to be him? 

“You repel me.”

Which finally brings us to the mastermind, the very first person who ever figured out how to successfully seduce both John and Sherlock, by masquerading as each of them to the other. 

Eurus

How Eurus seduced John:

“This girl just smiled at me. That's all it was, it was a smile. We texted, constantly.”

Let’s not even get into the fact that the woman who only needed to smile at John to get him to contemplate infidelity to his wife and mother of his child was a Holmes. She knew how to get him. She didn’t need a disguise as such, she just needed to be a Holmes and let that shine through. Furthermore, John has always had a knack for finding danger that lurks below the surface, and she is very dangerous. She got him immediately, hook line and sinker. 

The reason she was successful in gaining him when Mary was losing him is because Mary also assumed that John liked himself (arguably because Mary, like Sherlock, likes John a great deal and can’t imagine him not loving himself too. I’m not personally anti John/Mary, but I argue also that Mary is not anti John/Sherlock). Eurus recognized that the missing piece for John was Sherlock Holmes, at a time when being only with himself or someone who was trying to be like him (rather than like Sherlock) was becoming bland and distasteful to him, literally as bad as being alone.

How Eurus seduced Sherlock:

Nowhere else to go (Stanford offered John his last chance to live in London, without London it’s very likely John’s mental state would have deteriorated even further). A cane. A limp. Being amazed by his deductions but also willing to poke fun at them and not be threatened (”Amazing.” “I know.” “No, the chips.”). Willing to walk around town with him solving crimes. Eurus recreated Sherlock’s first night with John, thus thoroughly charming him. Interesting too that she wore red, when the first episode was A Study in Pink, based on Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet. 

Eurus is a Holmes and therefore granted a level of insight above that of most “normal” characters in the show. For years, women have been trying to get closer to John and Sherlock by imitating them to themselves and to each other. Eurus is the final step in this progress, knowingly masquerading (unlike Jeanette who was accidental via being picked by John, or Irene, who was arguably hiding not seducing) as them in order to gain their confidence, find their vulnerabilities, and break them. 

Eurus attacked John on the one place where he felt safe: his morality. His image of himself. He may not be as smart as Sherlock, but he could be the moral compass and she broke that down. Ironically, in a way that allowed him to eventually forgive himself, Mary, and Sherlock for not being the super human paragons that he demanded of himself, and the people he cares for. 

Eurus attacked Sherlock’s deduction, bringing him to the point of a mental breakdown in a very short period of time by making him question reality and wonder if the people he was seeing were delusions. Ironically, putting him in  situation where he was humiliated in front of John, his intellect and sanity called into question. Ever since the Fall, John has been afraid of Sherlock’s intellect now that it’s been used against him to such devastating effect (literally ruining his life) with Sherlock’s “death”. Seeing Sherlock vulnerable when his deduction apparently failed was what allowed John to see Sherlock as human again, allowed him to help Sherlock on cases again, and ultimately rescue Sherlock without fear that the need for rescue was another of Sherlock’s tricks.

True to her name, Eurus is a dangerous force, but a cleansing one. She brings destruction, but in the wake of the catastrophe (the eucatastrophe to steal a word from Tolkien) we have catharsis and renewal. 

“There's an east wind coming all the same, such a wind as never blew on England yet. It will be cold and bitter, Watson, and a good many of us may wither before its blast. But it's God's own wind none the less and a cleaner, better stronger land will lie in the sunshine when the storm has cleared.” 

- Arthur Conan Doyle

[roseangelx]

Slightly More Coherent Sherlock Thoughts

In a word, that episode was intense. Scrolling through the Sherlock tag tells me that people’s reactions are very mixed: I’ve seen some posts saying that they thought it was brilliant and they’re in tears, and others saying that they’re furious, that they’ll never be able to watch the show again. The latter seems to outweight the former from what I’ve seen. My opinions sit somewhere in the middle, though I confess they lean more towards the former opinion. Warning: This is unbearably long. I have a lot of feelings. I put tl;dr summaries in, so you can just skim it and get the main points there. 

The Plot

We’re all in agreement that the plot felt more like a Saw film than it did a Sherlock episode. It’s not at all what I expected from them. In and of itself, considering this 90 minute film without thinking of the wider context, I did actually like it. It was intense and gripping and I could barely breathe for most of it - I cannot say that I disliked something when I was that enthralled by it. Considering the wider context of the series, it did feel kind of out of place. Up until this series, the writers have done a phenomenal job of staying true to the original series - cases have on them a modern twist, but it’s clear which case (or cases) from the original series each episode is based upon. This one had elements of the original stories in them - or, at least, an element, for I only picked up on the Three Garridebs reference and little else - but otherwise seemed to come from the writers’ own creativity. Was it creative, different, exciting? Yes, certainly. At the same time, however, the views of the audience might not be quite so polarised if the writers had stuck to something from the ACD canon rather than making it seem kind of like they’d gone mad with power and felt they could get away with anything.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the plot of it. There are certain character traits, certain types of development that can only be seen when you put the characters in certain situations - like life or death situations where they are faced with decisions that make them question morality, question whether they did the right thing - and I will not deny that I loved being able to see a side of these characters that we would never now otherwise. However, my point still stands. The plot of the episode was enjoyable, but certainly not typical of this show.

tl;dr:

Sherlock, or Saw? Scientists can’t tell.

Enjoyable in and of itself but very different and unexpected for a Sherlock episode

A little bit disappointing that it didn’t so clearly tie in to an original story, after Moffat and Gatiss have spent so long talking about how true their series is to the original 

Interesting to see how the characters reacted in such an impossible situation

Our Three Heroes

Perhaps the main reason why I cannot hate the episode as much as some people seem to do is because of the opportunity to see these sides of the three central characters of this story: Sherlock, John, and Mycroft. Placed in such an impossible, insane situation, there is so much opportunity to learn about how each of these characters’ minds work.

Let’s start with Sherlock. Sherlock had gone through a massive character development over the past two seasons, going from a man who is cold, callous and apparently uncaring, a man who calls himself a “high-functioning sociopath”, to a man who is more emotional than he is intellectual, a man who loves and feels. He’s turned into the hero that our season one John Watson wanted him to be. The last episode saw to that: Sherlock Holmes is a man who will spend all night with someone if it means preventing them from harming themselves.

Seeing Sherlock in this context was interesting, with this character development in mind. You’ve taken a man who, in a matter of speaking, has only recently developed his moral compass, a man who has only recently learnt that it is not a weakness to feel, and you’ve put him in a situation where he is tested, pushed to his limits, and where he needs to be objective. Yes, emotional context will always overhang his judgements, but it cannot be allowed to cloud it. That was what Eurus was interested in: seeing how emotionality affected how he played her little game, and to an audience who has followed Sherlock through this development, it was fascinating to see the same thing. In a way, it’s kind of a nice parallel to The Great Game, seeing pre-development Sherlock focus objectively on the game and not at all on the human lives at stake, and now seeing post-development Sherlock remain aware at all times of the consequences of his decisions, of how their choices affected the people around him (see: Sherlock making sure John was okay), of the distress of the little girl on the plane.

tl;dr:

Sherlock has gone from a cold, callous, self-proclaimed “high-functioning sociopath” to a man primarily driven by emotion, and it’s interesting to see how he reacts when put into a situation where he has to be objective

Interesting parallel to The Great Game

Next, we have John, back at Sherlock’s side and looking like he belongs there. John is ever the soldier, and this situation definitely brought that out in him. Of the three of them, he was the only one to remain composed - at least to some extent - throughout all of it. I liked the fact that he was unable to pull the trigger - we saw him kill on the very first episode, and we’ve seen him take his gun everywhere like a lifeline, but it was nice to see the moral compass that we’ve always known he has. John Watson has killed, but he isn’t a killer. He can’t kill an innocent man, not even when the man himself has asked him to. And maybe that’s the wrong choice, in the end, because it ends up with two dead instead of one, but emotions are not logical. 

After that point, though, with John believing he has blood on his hands even though he didn’t pull the trigger, you can see a change in him - like this was the moment the soldier came out. That was the moment he stopped caring about his own life, the moment where his priority became saving as many people as he could - the people on the plane, Sherlock, Mycroft, anyone else threatened by Eurus. You can see this in what I think was the most heartwrenching scene in the episode: when Sherlock was asked to choose between the life of John Watson and the life of his brother.

John hardly questioned it, when Mycroft insisted that he and Sherlock be the ones to go forward. Mycroft barely had to do any convincing. John just resigned himself to it, prepared to die at the hands of his best friend if it was for the greater good. 

tl;dr:

Ever the soldier, and I love him for it

Nice to see his moral compass at work, to know that he can’t take an innocent life even when it might be the right thing to do 

Heartwrenching to see him resign himself to his death, putting the greater good ahead of himself 

And when the gun was turned on Mycroft, he resigned himself to it, too. All three of them in that scene were willing to die. That scene was insane, brilliantly acted, and very, very hard to watch.

Mycroft might have been my favourite of the three, in that episode. From the beginning, from Mycroft’s umbrella tripling as a sword and a gun (possibly my favourite part) and actually being afraid of his sister, to seeing that even he has a heart, that he can’t kill a man even when it’s the logical thing to do, and, of course, to his resignation to his own death - Mycroft was a brilliant part of the episode. It’s also interesting to see his thinking surrounding Eurus, how convinced he was that keeping her life a secret from the rest of his family was the right thing to do. It’s definitely an interesting comparison to his brother: Sherlock, over the past few seasons, has proven himself to be driven by emotion, but Mycroft is purely logic. He doesn’t quite understand the emotion aspect like his brother does. See also: Meaning well, trying to help Sherlock when forced to choose between him and John, trying to make the task easier, but in a way that doesn’t actually help.

tl;dr: 

Umbrella/Sword/Gun. Enough said. 

Mycroft actually does have a heart and a moral compass. Who’d have thought?

Mycroft doesn’t get human emotions but he gets points for trying. 

Eurus

Eurus is probably my main complaint in the episode. I loved her for the first, I don’t know, 80 minutes? Anyone who saw my post last week would have known how excited I was for her: a kick-arse female villain, a woman with an intellect to surpass her genius brothers? It was all I could have asked for, and at the start of the episode, she seemed to be exactly what I wanted. She was insane, brilliant, and psychopathic. People were toys, and she had a complete disregard for human life. There was no guilt, no remorse, no emotion. She was manipulative, she could get inside people’s heads - and, okay, there we were getting a little bit outlandish, but I was accepting of it. Given that we only had the story of the man who had killed himself and his family, it wasn’t too impossible - you could explain it not by hypnosis or anything equally ridiculous, but just by Eurus talking to them, over, and over, planting little ideas inside their mind that they couldn’t get rid of.

Given how much I was enjoying her, therefore, I’m so, so disappointed with how the episode ended. For one, we didn’t actually get an explanation for how she got out of Sherrinford for long enough to be the woman on the bus, fake Faith, and John’s therapist, and then get back without anyone reporting to Mycroft that she had ever been gone. I was waiting almost all episode for a clever little deductive sequence that never came. It wasn’t even that it was that impossible to explain  - she’d have just needed a few security guards on her side, maybe a thing or two left behind by Moriarty, and they could have explained it. But, they didn’t. 

That’s not even the most disappointing part, however. The most disappointing part was finding Eurus in her room, supposedly in the midst of a flashback. There was no little girl on a plane, talking to Sherlock on the phone - there never was.

That... makes absolutely no sense.

If Eurus had been faking the voice of the little girl, that’s one thing. That’s acceptable, really, because we’ve seen her put on accents - how hard could it be to put on the voice of a child? I could have believed that the plane was fake. I think I did believe the plane was fake, because it was too impossible a situation. Yet the fact that Eurus was apparently distressed by this flashback that had never happened - I just can’t wrap my head around it. I can’t make any sense of it. The only way I can reconcile it in my mind is with the idea that Eurus suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder (colloquially known as Multiple Personality Disorder). It’s not unheard of for one of an individual’s ‘personalities’ to be aware of others, meaning it’s entirely possible, technically speaking, that Eurus could have had one psychopathic personality that knew of the existence of a second, child-like, fearful personality and wished to exploit it - but it’s still an explanation I’m displeased with.

At the end, with Sherlock embracing her before asking her, gently, to help him save John, I’m not sure if we were supposed to feel pity for her. I don’t. I can’t, not after what she did in the episode, and what she did many years earlier.

tl;dr

You messed up a perfectly viable female villain is what you did. Look at it. It’s got dissociative identity disorder and even that explanation hardly makes sense. 

Redbeard and Victor Trevor

Here’s a plot twist I didn’t see coming: Redbeard, Sherlock’s beloved dog that we were introduced to in season 3, was not a dog at all, but his childhood best friend, Victor Trevor. 

I’m not quite sure what to think of it. On the one hand, I was excited to see Victor Trevor exist in the series. Given how Sherlock behaves with regards to friendship in the early seasons, Victor could have only existed in his childhood - he couldn’t have had a lifelong friend in Victor, because John is clearly his first real friend in his adulthood. It’s such a heartbreaking thought, to think that a young Sherlock lost his best friend and couldn’t cope with the thought of it, so he had to change it, to imagine he had lost a dog and not a friend. I suppose I can accept that idea, sort of - trauma is damaging, and while I don’t subscribe to Freudian psychology, I’m accepting of ideas of repression and changing memories into something that is easier to deal with.

I suppose what frustrated me about the storyline is that Eurus being linked to a missing child was not enough to get her sent away - it wasn’t until she burnt the house down that she was taken away. But, I suppose, if they couldn’t find Victor, if they couldn’t prove that she was associated, there was only so much they could do. I suppose. It still sounds like an iffy storyline to me. And what of Victor Trevor’s family? What did they think happened to their son? 

tl;dr

what

I’ll accept the ideas of repression and replacing memories if you explain to me why a child’s life was not enough for something to happen to young Eurus 

I think I would have preferred Redbeard to be a dog

Memories

Tying onto the last section, we have the curious case of Sherlock’s memories: both his mental replacement of Victor Trevor with a dog named Redbeard, and the fact that his sister is gone completely from his mind. As I said in the last section, I will accept the idea of repression, and I won’t deny that it is interesting, and it gives a bit of background to Sherlock Holmes and why he was so cold and callous in seasons 1 and 2. It gives the suggestion that Sherlock Holmes was not a high-functioning sociopath as a child but rather a child who learnt to hold emotions back, to present himself as a high-functioning sociopath because it hurt less. So, that’s interesting, in a way.

However, I would have been at least fifty times happier with the memory repression if there had been drugs involved. Yes, obviously Sherlock has used drugs, but certainly not when he was that young, so you cannot use being high as an explanation for how the memories were so fully repressed. Yet, you don’t need that as an explanation. The writers introduced a drug last episode that distorts memories. It would have been so easy to use that. I would have believed it a bit more.

I’ll accept it, as I said, but they missed out on an excellent opportunity that would have fixed it.

tl;dr:

You introduce a memory-altering drug last episode and yet no one considers the possibility that it might make a bit more sense than pure memory repression?

The End

The very end of the episode was beautiful, and all I could have asked for. Season 5, as of yet, has neither been confirmed or denied, but if this is our ending, then I am happy with it. I remember thinking before this episode started (when I was still kind of afraid of the possibility that the writers might actually end the show with everyone dead) that the only acceptable way for the Sherlock series to end once and for all was for John and Sherlock  to be side by side, back together, back in Baker Street so that all we can see is the road ahead, the two of them against the rest of the world. That was how we ended, and so, if this is to be my last memory of the show, then I am happy with that. The little scene with John, Sherlock and Rosie was beautiful, and of course I’m thrilled by the idea that they’ll be raising her together - with the help of Mrs Hudson and Molly too. It leaves a sweet image.

It’s worth making a note here of the state of the relationship between John and Sherlock - or, in other words, the fact that Johnlock is not canon. My scrolling through the Sherlock tag seems to suggest that this was people’s main complaint in the show. People were hopeful, people believed that they would end up together, and they’re angry at the queerbaiting.

I understand this, completely. I won’t deny that I’d be thrilled if John and Sherlock ended up together in the end - I’d be thrilled to have queer representation, and to see this relationship that has evolved over many years come to that. I think I’m not as upset by the queerbaiting as some people are because though the show didn’t explicitly confirm that they are in a relationship, it also did not explicitly confirm that they couldn’t be. Neither of them ended up with someone else, and it’s still easy to believe that Sherlock is gay (I confess after I first saw the I love you trailer I feared he would be saying it to a female romantic interest, and then I would have to dismiss all the comments on how women were not his area as queerbaiting and that would have annoyed me). So, I can see that Moffat and Gatiss thought they were doing the right thing by anyone - leaving it ambiguous, so that those of us who ship it can believe they got together in the end, and those of us who do not do not have to see it like that. 

Implication is not representation. It’s a disappointment in that respect. However, in every adaptation I have seen, Holmes and Watson have the strongest bond imaginable, and they have been my favourite fictional relationship of all time - whether you see that as a strictly platonic friendship or a romantic relationship. In this adaptation, it is clear that their bond transcends the realm of the purely platonic. They have both told each other more than once how much they love each other; they are willing to kill for each other, die for each other, to do anything for each other. Their lives are entwined permanently and forever, like they belong by one another’s side. So, yes, while the lack of representation is a disappointment, the depth of the love between Sherlock and John is not. I completely understand why so many people are unhappy with the ending, but in the end, I am happy. 

And they’ve left the door open for fic writers everywhere. You’ve got no female love interests to write out of the story, no explanations that need to be made for the development of their feelings. It’s all already there. You just have to take the next step.

tl;dr:

I personally thought the ending was beautiful, and if this is it, then I’m okay.

I know you’re upset with the queerbaiting, but at least they left it ambiguous rather than explicitly making it clear that they were not and would never end up together. It could have been worse. 

Implication is not representation.

John and Sherlock have the deepest bond known to mankind. It transcends the platonic. There is no denying their deep love and admiration for each other. Whether you ship them or not, that much is clear. 

Other Points of Mention

I’m a little bit frustrated that Mary’s death seemed to serve no more purpose than furthering John and Sherlock’s stories. I had hoped that there would be more to her story after death, that we would find things about her past, and yet we did not. I despise the tendency of writers to use female characters, and especially female character deaths, to further male storylines. I am disappointed. She deserved better. 

On a related note, Rosie has only had a couple of scenes and it makes me wonder if her entire purpose was to give John incentive to get back with Mary in HLV. It’s also something I’m displeased with, even though I like the idea of the two of them raising her together. 

Greg calling Sherlock Holmes “a good man” and Sherlock remembering Greg’s name was a perfect touch to the end. 

All in all: It could have been better, but it also could have been a lot worse. If it is the end, then it’s a nice way to close the door, but if it isn’t, then I’d watch another series. Really, there are still a few loose ends that could be tied up.