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Art by mccoyers @ Tumblr

I’ve been rewatching the opening scenes to A Study in Pink, particularly Sherlock’s and John’s first meeting in the lab at St. Bart’s. I’ve seen this scene several times now, seen it interpreted through fanfic and certainly replayed it in my own imagination; it’s our first introduction to Sherlock’s deductive prowess, and it’s simply so iconic. Perhaps it’s because I haven’t rewatched it in a while, or perhaps my mind is simply on Sherlock’s character with the approaching new series, but I noticed something I hadn’t ever seen before.

Fair warning: I refer to events throughout series two. I don’t think I ave anything substantial away, but if you’r avoiding series two spoilers, you may not want to read this.

If you haven’t seen the scene yet, watch the clip here. John’s acquaintance Mike Stamford has heard John is looking for a flatmate to split costs with and has suggested he meet another acquaintance of his, Sherlock, who’s also looking for a flatmate. The two men have never met each other, know nothing about each other before the meeting, and almost the first words out of Sherlock’s mouth are what he considers his worst selling points as a flatmate: that he plays the violin at all hours. (Which is a hilarious underestimation, but a different story altogether.) John’s quite taken aback that this virtual stranger would want to jump into a flatshare, and this is Sherlock’s way of convincing John just how much he’s worked out about him.

The thing that struck me here: when Sherlock deconstructs John, pretty much everything he notices also describes his own character. Let’s take this bit by bit.

 

1. “I know you’re an Army doctor, and you’ve been invalided home from Afghanistan.”

John is coming out of a professional path – doctor, veteran – and is landing in a situation where he’s not able to use them. He’s got, we know, a shoulder and a leg wound which give him mobility problems making him a liability in the more exciting kinds of medicine he practiced in the military, to say nothing of his very real psychological problems. (PTSD and medicine don’t mix.)

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Originally published at Faith Seeking Understanding. You can comment here or there.

fannish share of the day: Sherlock fan-trailer

Today is December 1st, meaning it's exactly one month before lucky UK viewers get to see Sherlock series three. He's really and truly coming home. Perhaps it's time for a trailer of the first two series, to remember why we love this show so much.

On second thought, let's not go there; it's a silly place.

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I've started using FaceBook to post what I'm getting onto with my day, RL stuff mostly along with thoughts I'm just starting to toy with. Thought those might be interesting, so I'll start including them along with my fannish share of the day:

30-Nov, 18:08

"I've picked up a bad round of head congestion. Don't feel at all sick, but in an effort to hold on to my voice (just one more week in the semester, I really can't afford to lose my ability to talk now) I'm on OTC decongestants and drinking lots of water. The former has me feeling a bit loopy.

So. I was going to blog, and then finish off the latest typhoon fanfi story. (Bilbo and Glorfindel, post-The Hobbit) But my brain has apparently decided it's now nap time. At least I got two more papers graded this afternoon, and did a few errands in the neighborhood. That's not nothing."

29-Nov, 19:23

"Despite living in New York, I don't go to live plays that much. It's simply too expensive for a student budget. But I do tend to pick out a play each semester that I really want to see and make an event out of it. This fall, it's "Waiting for Godot" with Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, this Friday. Lest you think this is mere fannish indulgence (which would be enough justification on its own, really), Sir Stewart is a *treat* on the stage. An actor of the finest caliber, and given his recent activism against DV, he's an artist I really want to support whatever way I can.

Then I forgot that the kid and I have tickets to the Rockettes on Tuesday. As in... four days from now, and three before Godot. Talk about spectacular spectacular. One of those tickets I've been saving up for since September and the other is a gift from the kid's mum to the two of us, so it only seems like I'm living high on the hog this week. Still, it's a nice feeling."

29-Nov, 15:59

"i do believe it's finally cold enough for me to break out my wool tunics. I love them for the comfortable fuzziness but I get so warm so easily, it has to be a rare day when I break them out. Three cheers for winter."

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And things I've been reading lately:

Fanfic:

1. The Mourning Woman by M_Leigh (Sherlock BBC; Molly, about her role post-Reichenbach)
2. Vultures and Other Incredible Birds by MercuryandMoonlight (House M.D.; House/Wilson but non-explicit, in which House has a surprise Thanksgiving dinner with friends)
3. Equal and Opposite by methylviolet10b (Sherlock BBC; Sherlock sees John for the first time as a highly competent trauma doctor)

Non-fanfic:

1. The speech that defined and challened us, by Leonard Pitts
2. Conspiracy Theorists Aren't Really Skeptics, by William Saletan
3. The Economics of the Hunger Games, by Matthew Yglesias
4. The Real Woman? Why Molly Hooper is the One Who Counts, by Miss Transmission

Sherlock observation: the assassinated assassin

[Reichenbach spoilers]

I rewatched a fan-video I'll be using for tomorrow's share and it has this brief shot from "Reichenbach". One of the assassins shakes hands with Sherlock after saving his life, and he (the assassin) gets shot for his trouble. And Sherlock gets this look of horror on his face. This man, a complete stranger, is now dead because he got too close to Sherlock. Sherlock must think to himself how like the anti-Midas touch he's becoming: everything he touches turns to dust.

And then on the roof Sherlock realizes that the three people he probably cares most about in the world (Lestrade, Mrs. Hudson, John) are going to die just because of their mere association with him, and that the fourth (Mycroft) is going to have to live with the aftermath. These are not strangers, but unless he pulls this off, they're all going to be just as dead as that stranger.

This is even more devastating under my personal theory of what was going on in Reichenbach: that Sherlock and Mycroft had been using the events of Reichenbach to tease Moriarty out and somehow eliminate him, most likely by killing him. I don't think Sherlock actually intended to "kill" himself until he hears about those three gun-scopes trained on his friends, but he always knew he was playing an extremely dangerous game. My hunch is this started after the pool scene in "The Great Game" and the final showdown between Irene and Mycroft in "Belgravia," showing that Moriarty was a threat to the things both brothers love best. The thing is, if there's even a little bit of truth to those theories, what must it be like for Sherlock in those final moments on the roof, with the sight of the stranger shot through the chest while shaking his hand and thinking that's about to be be his three closest things to friends and this time it will be his fault, because he decided to engage Moriarty?

Just in case the Reichenbach Fall itself wasn't traumatic enough...