Many people have noted that the stairs in Sherlock’s mind palace in HLV bear a striking resemblance to the stairs in ASiP, from Sherlock & John’s first case/night together.
However there’s an added symbolism that I haven’t seen anybody comment on before. (Though of course I may have missed it! But this meta was the only thing I could find that covers similar ground.)
One of the biggest obstacles to John and Sherlock’s relationship is John’s disbelief in the strength of Sherlock’s feelings for him. And why wouldn’t he disbelieve? Sherlock has been pushing John away for a long time, has been careless with his time and his belongings and his emotions, has lied and experimented on him and called him an idiot. He’s encouraged John’s mistaken belief that “he doesn’t feel things that way”.
These doubts are so deep seated that even as late as His Last Vow, after Sherlock has risked his life multiple times, spent two years in a dangerous undercover mission, and folded goddamn serviettes for him, John still asks, “But why would he care? He’s Sherlock. Who would he bother protecting?”
But Sherlock doesn’t do this from the very beginning. Until they go view Jennifer Wilson’s body together, Sherlock has been on his best behavior. He smiles, he flirts, he offers to clean, he shows off his skills, he invites John on an adventure, he asks his opinion, and he defends John’s presence to Donovan and Lestrade.
The winds shift with this line: “What is it like in your funny little brains? It must be so boring!“ And then, a few moments later, Sherlock rushes out to find the pink suitcase… leaving John behind.
The music changes, back to John’s slow, sad theme. We see John slowly walking down the stairs, struggling with his limp, in a shot that takes nearly twenty seconds.
This moment, I’d argue, is the first time Sherlock hurts John. It’s also the first time Sherlock leaves John behind, but it won’t be the last.
It is therefore tremendously symbolic that this staircase is the one Sherlock struggles up as he struggles to survive the shooting. It works on multiple levels: he’s trying to get back to John, he doesn’t want to hurt or abandon John by dying, and in order to keep John safe and truly make him happy, he needs to address the pain and the distance he’s created – that he’s been creating since this moment, the day after they met.
My head canon has been that the equerry in asib is Mycroft’s boyfriend as they are dressed alike. Thinking about him instead as a possible date for John works too, as they are emphasizing his similarity to Mycroft. And Mycroft is clean-shaven (hence gay) in tab, therefore the equerry is gay.
This changes the palace scene from male gaze, isn’t lesbian sex exciting, put down your teacup John – to discretion is necessary, you understand why the princess may want to remain closeted, queer solidarity.
What I love about this episode: Because it’s Sherlock’s dream, Sherlock becomes the person writing the story – it’s his dream, his perception, his subconscious. Except no, he reminds us that John’s the writer, John’s the storyteller, John controls the world’s perception of the two of them.
So there’s a constant reminder of the ambiguity of Sherlock himself: the man in John’s story, vs. the man John really knows. Are we getting John’s story, or Sherlock’s dream? Maybe someone is dreaming, or maybe someone is writing – John narrates the beginning, after all. Which is the real Sherlock: the deerstalker-wearing icon in John’s stories, or the hallucinating drug addict?
Well, both of them are the real Sherlock. Because, as the last shot tells us, 1895 Sherlock is in Baker Street, which fades right into modern-day Baker Street. Both can exist at the same time.
Because EVERY version of Sherlock is equally real. And equally unreal.
okay but listen so the maid is john’s bisexuality, right? and he yells at her “ARE YOU INCAPABLE OF BOILING AN EGG?!” i was like wtf is he even talking about, but what if the egg is a reference to a baby, what if sherlock knows or suspects that john didn’t get mary pregnant??? also “the fires are rarely lit, there’s dust everywhere,” john and mary are rarely “together” and she’s not keeping his bisexuality in line…
So the house represents John and Mary’s marriage/sex life. The maid, who should be keeping up the house (marriage), cannot maintain the house (marriage) because she’s too preoccupied with Watson’s stories about Sherlock in the Strand.
John’s bisexual side is too into Sherlock to pay attention to Mary. I fucking love this shit.
I’ve long suspected that Sherlock knew the baby wasn’t John’s if said baby actually exists, probably as early as the day he revealed the pregnancy to them.
Regardless, I love the fact that not once, the baby actually really comes up in TAB, meaning Sherlock must think it’s really a non-issue.
I’m still not over the fact that, even in his mind palace, when Mary takes John away:
Sherlock knows that Lestrade and Mycroft will stay:
And Lestrade will get into it with him, get his hands dirty, work just as hard as he is:
And Mycroft will shine a light on everything:
Because at the end of the day, while he wants John Watson, needs him. These two have always had his back and always will:
this is the truest thing ive ever read in my life. In series 4 i want to see flashbacks of pre-john sherlock with greg as well. How did they first meet? how did he end up solving crimes for the met? Imagine Greg pulling junkie sherlock into a jail cell thinking nothing of him until he starts spouting out these insane deductions about the other guy in the cell and after Greg pulls him out of there again before hes fucking killed he realises that Sherlocks basically just solved gregs case. and thus begins the progress of trying to get sherlock clean and keep him out of prison by providing him with an outlet while mycroft provides all his suits and helps him put down a deposit on a nice flat and i just, wow. yeah.
The Abominable Bride is about how writing saved Sherlock Holmes, among other things.
Sherlock does better when he sees himself through John’s eyes. He knows how he appears because he reads John’s writing about him. Some parts of himself aren’t even real to him until he sees them mirrored back to him from John. He doesn’t even know how he talks until people tell him John has transcribed him correctly. Hold yourself to a higher standard because of John’s stories, Sherlock.
In other words: Thank you, Moffat and Gatiss, for writing Sherlock Holmes and keeping him alive.
Whichever of you wrote “You will hold yourself to a higher standard,” thank you for what were, for me, the deepest, most stirring notes in this episode.
Yes. All of this! Very much all of this! This is all I could think about while giffing this yesterday:
