John is âpeopleâ even in The Lying Detective
Sherlock becomes a weird, crazy version of his former self and John beats him to a bloody pulp out of resentment. And Sherlock lets him! Then, Greg asks John if they should have seen it coming. âItâ being Sherlockâs spiral out of control. John says âwe did see it comingâ but they didnât care to heed the warning signs because back then it was âfunâ to watch Sherlock in distress and reach farther and farther away from who they thought he was. Greg knows about Magnussen somehow, which doesnât fit the story at all, so that stands out as a red flag. They didnât need to include that line about Magnussen, the audience still would have made the inference. Then John blatantly hears Smith wants to take Sherlock to his âfavorite roomâ, which he KNOWS is the morgue, yet he IGNORES THAT (âWhat the fuck is that aboutâ you say? Iâll tell you in a bit). Smith used subtext to tell the world he was going to kill Sherlock Holmes and EVERYONE in the audience understood but John âPretty Damn Smartâ Watson did not. How???
John Watson stands for something larger here. He is the global audience, he is âpeopleâ, just like he has been through every other episode in this show. Seriously, take the word âpeopleâ out of every line in BBC Sherlock and replace it with âJohn Watsonâ.
âWhat do people have in their ordinary lives?â
âPeople want to know youâre human.â
BBC Sherlock turned into a weird, crazy version of its former self and the audience beat it to a bloody pulp out of resentment. And the cast and crew let them! The audience wonders if they should have seen it coming. They realize they should have, that BBC Sherlock started to diverge at the end of His Last Vow but nobody made a fuss because back then it was fun! However, the subtext of whatâs happening is staring them directly in the face, they are being told directly whatâs happening, that BBC Sherlock is about to be murdered and the audience DOESNâT NOTICE. The audience doesnât care anymore. What they once loved is gone, what they expected to come never came, the show has spiraled out of control, and theyâre leaving. Forever.
But BBC Sherlock knew that. They knew that weeks ahead of time. They counted on losing their audience. They canât save the audience that desperately needs it, they need to put themselves in harms way and watch what happens. On the show, Sherlock knows John wonât return on his own choosing. Same with this. Itâll take more footage from a seemingly deceased person/franchise to revive the audienceâs trust in BBC Sherlock. The show knows its audience has abandoned it.
âItâs not a trick, itâs a plan.â â a plan Sherlock canât tell John because he wonât like it.
Sherlock didnât fake the drugs, he actually took them. BBC Sherlock actually sacrificed itself. The audience abandoned it at the final hour and thatâs been accounted for. Subtext was used and ignored.
Series 4 is a commentary. The characters are not *just* characters anymore. When Sherlock can see into the future and know how his friends are going to act, when Sherlock throws himself into harmâs way even though he knows his friends are going to abandon him, he completes his mission anyway because itâs the right thing to do. BBC Sherlock is doing the exact same thing and they tried desperately to show the audience ahead of time that they arenât wrong about this and that we should still trust them. They knew it wouldnât work. And thatâs okay.
The audience will come rushing back once the extra DVD tells them to, and BBC Sherlock will be waiting there. Weâll call it names and be mad that they were clever. BBC Sherlock will be like âyeah, weâre monsters, but you love usâ and weâll be frustrated but weâll get over it.
And to think ALL of this hassle could have been avoided if John Watson understood Smithâs âfavorite roomâ subtext.
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