The dynamic of Macdennis facinates me. Especially from Dennis's point of view.
The purest love dennis ever felt was crushed by years of relentless homophobia from Mac, only for those same feelings to stick to him, twisted, malformed by anger & resentment but still there. Now mac is comfortable in his sexuality, after decades. And that makes dennis hate him more than ever before, but the hatred is so different from his usual apathy interrupted by annoyance. the hatred is just that same love. Now theyre stuck with emotional distance & severe codependency, their lives too entertwined to pick apart, though Dennis did try in leaving to North Dakota.
i think the catfishing thing encompasses it completely. As Johnny he let out his repressed love while becoming more and more cruel in person to match it. He convinces himself its just his annoyance at Mac's presence, that he doesnt miss the sweetness of their earlier dynamic, missing Mac loving him as an equal, not this constant subservience. But now Mac loves this single figment of Dennis, the softness Mac himself crushed, and that must cut deep. That Mac's side of this thing they have could be laid aside so easily for someone he's never even met. This pushes Dennis to be even worse to Mac in punishment & jealousy of himself, furious he cannot bring back parts of the dynamic lost to Mac's loud internalised (& external) homophobia, one that can never truly come back, too much hurt has been cause to both of them by now.
We get so many little hints of how Dennis was quite effeminate pre the show & early seasons, especially compared to Mac's pursuit of hypermasculinity. Given he had frank as a father & the time period he was growing up, the person he was closest to (& maybe completely in love with) spouting such constant & cruel homophobia for YEARS must have hurt Dennis in a deeply personal way. So he tried to move on. He's convinced himself he doesnt have, and in fact never had, those feelings. Now Mac is confidently & openly gay, after 20 years of screwing up Dennis, why should Mac get to be happy? So he tears Mac down, but hates when Mac tries to bow below him - where's the revenge in Mac letting him cause all the pain he wants (maybe a small part of him is trying to tear Mac back down to his level)
so yes he hates Mac, but maybe not in the way anyone else would define hatred.
So, for some reason when I had nothing else to do, I started thinking about Sherlock (as one does 😂), and I got to wondering about the scene at Angelo's. John, despite what he wants to think, was making his interest in Sherlock pretty evident. That's just 100% obvious. And also just as obvious, Sherlock deduced John's interest. The part that got me thinking is that Sherlock says "...while I’m flattered by your interest, I’m really not looking for any...", which is of course where 'not gay' Watson makes an appearance.
It's just the way Sherlock phrased that, so politely, like he didn't want John to take offense, or get angry. And that is absolutely *not* the Sherlock we've seen up to this point. He doesn't do polite just to spare your feelings. He's not necessarily malicious, but just has no filter at times ("What happened to the lipstick?" "It wasn’t working for me." "Really? I thought it was a big improvement. Your mouth’s too small now.") 🤦🏼♀️
So the fact that he's being careful with John's feelings, when he barely knows him and saying "while I'm flattered by your interest", when he could just have as easily said "Not interested! Next.", seems to be because:
He already *really* likes John and doesn't want to run him off.
He's surprised that someone like John is interested in him, and flirting with him, and maybe doesn't know how to react in the moment.
He wants to let him down nicely, because he wants more time (case-free) to consider John's flirting and if he's serious, and most likely thinks that if he decides that he would like to persue John, how hard could it be? 😂
All of this to say (15 years later lol) that how dare mofftiss try saying that they never intended for John and Sherlock to be a couple?!? If Sherlock was asexual, he wouldn't have been so intrigued by John's lame chat up line. And if John was so straight, he wouldn't have asked those questions in that particular way, nor said "Right. Okay. You’re unattached. Like me. Fine. Good."
Or at least that's what I came up with after a couple of hours of obsessing 🤣🤣.
I'm sure there's meta or whatever about this, I just had to get it off my chest before I do something stupid like break my Sherlock Blu-ray out of frustration! 😉
Hey Nonny!
LOL Never feel bad for the random need to analyze Sherlock! It still happens to me on occasion when I'm feeling inspired LOL. And your analysis is fairly sound, and is pretty much what everyone else thinks.
My only disagreement is that "If Sherlock was asexual, he wouldn't have been so intrigued by John's lame chat up line." is, in my opinion, false. I personally read Sherlock on the ace spectrum, and saying this line, as an ace myself, perpetuates the stereotype that aces are oblivious to sexuality at all, and is LOWKEY aphobic. I know you meant nothing by it, but I'm just trying to normalize that aces feel attraction too.
That said, I personally believe that Sherlock turned John down because he though John was ONLY interested in Sherlock because John wanted sex. I'm pretty sure Sherlock knows he's a good-looking man (he does, after-all, make a conscious effort to be good looking I think because he knows he can throw people off with it) and probably gets hit on a lot, ergo, his letting John down before John got the wrong idea about the evening. BUT FOR SURE, Sherlock clocked John's sexuality, and I truly believe that Sherlock knows john is either closeted or internalizes his hangups with "that side" of himself.
I think in John, Sherlock can see a genuine friend and possibly romantic interest later on down the line, but I think Sherlock is just a bit oblivious to the fact that he IS actually projecting his flirting too. Sherlock's a bit silly that way, LOL.
I may have some more analysis pieces on my ASiP META MASTERPOST (April 2019) that you can check out. I'm sure more of my own thoughts are on there LOL.
But yes, I agree, Mofftiss must really think us stupid for not seeing the Johnlock right away and then act like it was never there. Like... ugh.
My grandpapa used to always sit with his back to the wall before he had a wheelchair. He sat there so that he could keep his eye on the whole restaurant.
I think John might be a bit paranoid. Why would he sit facing this direction? He can see the whole of the restaurant if he was facing Sherlock...but this way he can also see the door. Also, sitting beside someone is awkward to talk, but sitting accross is so far away. Sitting adjacent is much better.
From a Joke to the End Game - The Evolution of Molly Hooper: Molly the Tool: A Study in Pink
NHello Everyone!
Thanks so much to all who had read the introduction to this meta posted a week ago. Today, I’d like to start on Season One and the first episode of it: A Study in Pink. I’ve already addressed the importance of Molly being introduced alongside Sherlock in the previous part of this huge meta, so today I’ll focus only on the scenes in ASiP themselves.
Rest is under the cut, it’s a long post with captions.
Please remember that I write this with the view, that the aired episodes we’ve been given are a sum of Moftiss' initial ideas, their screenplay, the director’s interpretation, the actors’ portrayal, music composers’ creations AND the editing crew’s choices. All of that created the show as we know. And it got Moftiss’ final approval to be aired as something they want to share with us.
Season 1: Molly Hooper the (writing) Tool: A Study in Pink.
Being a writing tool is Molly’s initial role in s1. That’s her purpose and the reason behind her reappearances in the following episodes. In A Study in Pink Molly’s role was to introduce Sherlock, in The Blind Banker she’s used to show more of his characteristics and tactics, while in The Great Game she serves as a means to introduce Jim Moriarty. That’s her initial reason for existence: The Tool. And yet, each scene she’s in is enriched by the actors’ interpretation and portrayal, which in turn creates so much more nuances regarding her character and her relationship with the protagonist, Sherlock Holmes.
Let’s have a look at the scenes in the first episode and see what we can learn about her:
In the first camera shot of Molly and Sherlock we see Sherlock peering at the corpse in the body bag. He and Molly share a short dialogue:
S: How fresh?
M (cheerful): Just in. Sixty-seven, natural causes. He used to work here. I knew him. He was nice.
S (smiling): Fine. We’ll start with the riding crop.
In that short exchange we can already learn a lot about Molly herself and her relationship with Sherlock. First of all: Molly. She’s nice. And cheery. And she’s totally unaffected by death, corpses and all things morbid. We can also see she’s pleasant during her dealings with Sherlock.
The way the two of them are with each other in this scene clearly suggests this is not a new situation for them both. She’s not nervous at all about him needing a body, she doesn’t ask him what he plans to do with it, why he demanded this from her. She pleasantly answers his questions providing additional information. She’s used to this.
And Sherlock?
He just accepts her finding (the corpse) and tells her how the experiment will start. And he smiles at her. I think this smile is more on the giddy-at-doing-an-experiment side than on it being a fake; but! he aims this smile at Molly, sharing said giddiness with her. They are both clearly comfortable with the, quite frankly unusual, situation of flagging down a corpse. They are comfortable with each other in the working/experimenting environment of st. Bart’s.
Notice also the use of “we” in Sherlock’s final comment:
“We'll start with the riding crop." (emphasis mine)
The pronoun clearly indicates Sherlock includes Molly in the making of his experiment, they are both going to work on it. Does it mean the experimenting is actually - from the beginning - theirs instead of being just his? Did he plan from the beginning to do it with her? We do not know explicitly but the possibility is there.
The next camera shot shows us Molly observing Sherlock while he beats the corpse with the riding crop.
Is she there out of her own decision or does she need to supervise him? We do not know that either. What we do know is that Molly is both slightly disturbed and definitely quite turned on by the sight. Kudos to Loo for portraying it as such (but who can blame her, really? XD Ben beating a corpse with a riding crop? Hot! Period. :P). Sherlock is unaffected by her presence, and definitely doesn’t mind it. (I bet he was proud as a cock for having her admire him while he did it.)
After the beating is done Molly comes down to Sherlock.
She makes a joke as an opening to start a talk with him, but Sherlock ignores it and instructs her:
“I need to know what bruises form in the next twenty minutes. A man’s alibi depends on it. Text me.”
This innocent sentence gives us tons of information partaking to Molly and Sherlock’s relationship (whatever it is exactly at this time). He trusts her to continue his experiment and providing him later with accurate notes, (maybe as good or even better than his own would have been?). This indicates he trusts her as a scientist, trusts her working ethics and precision in conducting lab work. Sherlock values Molly as a reliable working lab partner to the point of leaving her with completing his experiment on her own. If we tie up this trust in Molly the Scientist with Sherlock’s first instruction:
“We’ll start with the riding crop.” (emphasis mine)
It may actually mean that this experiment was supposed to be theirs from the very beginning. He had factored her help while devising it. He wanted to do experiment with her. This would also explain why was Molly observing him while he conducted the beating.
Finally, there is also that little titbit at the end of Sherlock's instruction:
“[…] Text me.”
This clearly means that they have each other’s phone numbers and that texting each other is not something new to them, but probably a regular occurrence. “Text me.” Text me what? When you’re ready? When the results come? When The report? What? Even being Sherlock Holmes you won’t say “text me” to a new acquaintance you've just convinced to let you beat a corpse. You’ll at least explain what you’d like her to text you exactly. Here, this instruction is short and to the point: “Text me”. Molly already knows what he would like to receive in her text and how he prefers she writes it. As I wrote above, they have to have known each other for a while and are quite accustomed to each other quirks in the working environment that is St. Bart’s. This is their usual interaction. And they clearly have fun together. (Molly is enjoying herself for sure, but Sherlock is also giddy at the beginning of the whole sequence and quite enthusiastic in his greetings her later on in the lab when she brings him coffee. Clearly he enjoys working with her, too).
Now, we come to the most interesting part of their interaction in this episode:
M: Listen, I was wondering: maybe later, when you’re finished-
S (a double take): Are you wearing lipstick? You weren’t wearing lipstick before.
M: I, er, I refreshed it a bit.
S (oblivious): Sorry, you were saying?
M (intent): I was wondering if you’d like to have coffee.
Notice Loo’s facial expressions as she walks up to Ben and start this exchange.
She portrays Molly as still being affected by Sherlock’s performance with the riding crop, her Molly’s still slightly turned on, and yet there is this determination on her face. This intesity as she gazes at him heading toward him. It’s clear Molly’s already decided she’s going to ask Sherlock out. And she isn’t discouraged at all by his initial instruction to complete the experiment. She’s determined, and confident, she’s not stuttering when she starts her first question. She isn’t even that much thrown off by his lipstick comment.
She’s quite quick with her reply, and she’s positively intense in her determination when she finally asks him out:
M (intent): I was wondering if you’d like to have coffee.
It’s all there in Loo’s body language. As a viewer you don’t think much about it, but subconsciously you pick it all up. And since the show is aired (and available to be viewed over and over again), you can consciously pick on it, notice all the details, and like me - analyse. :)
In that very first scene, when we were supposed to learn about Sherlock’s obliviousness to social indications, we actually learn quite a lot about Molly, the Tool, who is already being fleshed out as a real and quite strong character. In this exchange with Sherlock, when she asks him out, Molly is shown as a confident, independent, and determined woman. She is completely undeterred in her pursue of what she wants. And here it’s asking Sherlock Holmes out.
Molly’s aplomb attitude fades only after Sherlock’s reply of:
“Black, two sugars, please. I’ll be upstairs.”
And I don’t blame her, because it takes you aback when someone can be this oblivious. And Sherlock is oblivious, but I’ll address his character in the later part of this meta. Let’s stay with Molly for now.
We don’t see what Molly does after Sherlock leaves her in the morgue, stumped and kind of stupefied. We see her later on while she’s bringing the said coffee to Sherlock in the upstairs lab. Notice, that Sherlock didn’t explain where exactly upstairs he’s gonna be, just that he’ll be “upstairs”. This also points to a familiarity with the place and with each other and each other’s usual habits. Sherlock doesn’t need to add more for her to know what he means, and where he intends to be. She’ll just know from that small titbit of information he gave her.
In the final scene with Molly, she enters the lab with a smile as she brings Sherlock the coffee.
This itself is quite interesting. If she were embarrassed by Sherlock’s initial rebuttal and dismissal of her asking him out, she’d probably stay away and definitely not carter to his coffee needs. But she brings it to him as if nothing happened. She even smiles. This tells me, she’s not that much affected by his rebuttal. She finds him attractive and so she has decided to give it a go but it didn’t work out. Oh, well, will find someone else then. Molly is quite chilled out about this whole situation. I can see her going to the loo, looking at the mirror, wiping off the lipstick, then shrugging her shoulders, and leaving to make Sherlock the coffee. She might be attracted to him and even having a slight crush on him, but she isn’t defined by it. Even in this very first scene we see her, she’s already so much more.
What a marvellous and strong character Molly is! She’s already shrugged her shoulders, whipped the lipstick off and decided to move on. That’s why I think she’s a little taken aback when Sherlock again brings the lipstick up.
I think that she assumed – like some, most? viewers – that the question about the lipstick earlier in the morgue was supposed to distract her from asking him out in the first place. As it didn’t work out, Sherlock had found a different tactic to indirectly let her down (Black, two sugars, please). But if that was the case, why would he bring it up again, right? Yet he does and it throws Molly for the loop. But, once again she takes all Sherlock-ness in stride and gives a sardonic kind of self-depreciating comment of:
“It wasn’t working for me.”
This quip is also aimed at his expense, at his obliviousness, but like before Sherlock doesn’t catch up on her meaning. Also, there is the coffee itself. Why is Sherlock grimacing? Maybe she’s a little vindictive and didn’t doctored it to his liking? Alas, the answer of the latest questions is of course to be found only in our imagination. Nevertheless, Molly is passively sassy during this exchange. She matches his inquires and shots comebacks without any trouble. That doesn’t scream to me: here is a dejected little wisp of a woman ready to be broken at a moments’ notice. Here is a woman who - if given the chance - will become your match, your equal.
Molly’s screen time in A Study in Pink last for about 1 minute and 20 seconds. In this short time we’ve learned that she’s acquainted with Sherlock long enough to feel comfortable with his experimenting; she finds him attractive; she’s determined and intense in her pursuit of something she wants; she’s not easily deterred when she’s on her way to her goal; she’s confident, self-assured, sassy in a passive way; and she doesn’t let minor failings affect her. Of course, she’s also cheery, happy, pleasant and nice.That’s quite a list for a one-time character indeed.
In those 80 seconds of her screen time we have learned Molly is AWESOME. Duh :)
Now let’s take a look at what we have learned about Sherlock thanks to Molly’s interactions with him.
Sherlock the One Who Observes But Doesn’t See
First of all, thanks to Sherlock’s scenes with Molly we’ve learned that he is oblivious when facing social cues. And that he has completely no clue what Molly was on about in the morgue. He totally missed the point of Molly’s actions and her questions. Let’s take a look at him and we’ll see why this is the most probable if not the only interpretation of his actions here in this scene.
In the morgue Sherlock is immersed in the experiment he’s conducting, he has just finished applying the beating with the crop and starts taking his notes.
Then, there comes in Molly bantering as she usually does in her pleasant manner. Although he’s not really focused on her, he doesn’t really tune her out. When she says, “listen” in the middle of her prattle, he reacts and finally catches his attention enough to give her a proper look.
And he does a double take.
Why? Because this is the reason for this whole scene in the first place: to show the audience that Sherlock notices all the smallest details, even such as an applied lipstick. And yet he’s completely missing the social cue of Molly’s behaviour.
So Sherlock sees the lipstick and so he just needs to ask Molly about it and he does it in his self-absorbed manner. Or maybe it was a distraction that needed to be addressed immediately? [Why had she changed her looks? I must know right away or it won’t stop bugging me! And wow, but doesn’t her lips looks nicer now! Silly boy]. He asks, and she provides an answer, which isn’t exactly what he excepted but it’s enough to satisfy his immediate curiosity, it’s enough for him to return to his original task: notes taking while listening to Molly:
“Right. You were saying.
He’s just finishing them when Molly starts talking about coffee. Coffee sounds good – bring it to me at the lab where I’m about to be off to. Bye!
Now, we can argue that Sherlock’s done it this way on purpose, to avoid openly turning down Molly’s invitation. Let’s examine this scene with 3 different scenarios in case of Sherlock’s motivation behind his behaviour:
1) Sherlock immediately realizes why Molly has put the lipstick on. In this case, he calls her on it in order to throw her off, to deter her from her plan: asking him out. This is actually quite a cruel way to do as it purposefully brings the attention to her efforts and consequently purposefully embarrasses Molly. And if there is one thing we can say about Sherlock is that he’s not intentionally cruel (without any good reasons). Also we’ve already established he enjoy his time with Molly, why would he jeopardize it and his time at St. Bart’s? If it’s not this: him pointing out the lipstick with full knowledge of the reason behind it, than he must have asked her about it because he’s got no clue why she put it on. Scenario no. 1 - busted.
2) Sherlock has no clue and is puzzled by the lipstick appearance so he asks Molly about it. When she replies, he catches up on the purpose of it (as it being her preparing herself to ask him out) and allows her to continue while quickly coming up with a way to gently and indirectly let her down. This is actually quite a sound possible scenario, but only if we had got just the morgue scene between Sherlock and Molly. Alas we’ve got another short exchange between them in the lab and this is the defining factor here. Scenario no. 2 - plausible without the lab follow-up.
3) Sherlock is oblivious to the lipstick’s purpose and doesn’t catch up at all to it during the morgue exchange and later on. In this case, when Molly brings him his coffee upstairs in the lab, Sherlock - once again puzzled about the change - asks her about the lipstick. If he had realized what Molly had been trying to do earlier in the morgue (as in asking him out) and, as a result, had successfully let her down in an indirect way, then bringing the lipstick up again in the lab is not only a cruel (in its embarrassment to Molly) thing to do, but most importantly: rather counter productive. I’ll point out the most import point here once more: why bringing the lipstick up if he’s just masterfully avoided the issue in the first place? The only reason he does it is that he still has no clue about it’s purpose. Therefore, in the lab he is genuinely puzzled by another change in Molly’s looks in such a short period of time, and thus brings it up once again. Clueless boy.
Sherlock doesn’t even catch on Molly’s sardonic reply:
“It wasn’t working for me.”.
He’s totally oblivious here. He had accepted her poor explanation and quickly justified in his mind why she had put it on: refreshing it a bit, ‘cause it makes her look better. It makes sense in his mind, because he likes the lipstick on her lips. Why can we say he likes it on her? Because of the backhanded compliment:
Really? It thought it was a big improvement.
He’s of course totally clumsy in his verbal diarrhoea, just saying what comes to his mind without any thought how he phrases it. But that actually means he’s genuine in the thought behind his poorly worded comment. The lipstick makes her look better. Nicer. He noticed and commented on the fact.
Then of course he tries to find the reason why it’s feels off with the lipstick being gone. Look how he tries to puzzle it out. Why does it feels off?
Your mouth is- too small now.
Notice also the small pause in his comment. He’s searching for the correct way to verbalise his unease. And of course the clueless boy does it in a poorly worded fashion. Still so much left to learn for that genius. XD
It’s interesting that Sherlock notices the lipstick on Molly’s lips and cannot resists commenting on it, and that he notices the lack of it and once more cannot resists throwing his two cents. It bothers him. It bothers him a lot. Molly’s lipstick is quite the focal point of his focus in the early episodes. He does it again in ASiB during the Christmas scene. But this, here, is the precedence, the very first scene in many to come when he pays attention to Molly’s look (her lipstick, her hair, her weight gain, her breast, and mouth and lips). He comments a lot of Molly’s physicality for a guy who doesn’t do girlfriends/boyfriends and everything. Notice also, that most of them are attributes associated with sexual attraction. Based on that we can safely assume he is clearly attracted to her on a physical level. Why else would he pay so much attention to the changes in her look if he wasn’t looking in the first place (even if its on a subconscious way at this point in time)? He finds her looks so worth his notice that he cannot stop himself from his regular commentary on it. She’s one who matters the most, indeed. She did form the very beginning in fact.
This, of course, doesn’t change the fact that Sherlock did embarrass Molly and probably hurt her a bit with the poorly worded and casually spoken comment in that very first scene we saw them together. But we have to keep in mind that everything points out of it being not intentional on his part. He doesn’t want to hurt her. He comments things as he sees them and definitely doesn’t care how he says what he thinks at this point in his life and how it may affect the people around him.
I also think he’s doesn’t realize Molly’s interested in him at all at this point in their relationship. He’s completely clueless about it. Let me reason this out:
There is a difference between Sherlock’s reactions to John openly asking him about girlfriends/boyfriends or Irene openly hitting on him and his lack of directly letting Molly down when she’s asking him out. Both John and Irene are new acquaintances of his when they inquiry about his sexual preferences and they do it without beating around the bush. They are open in their curiosity and Sherlock shots them down right away. He can recognize it right away and reacts immediately, even in a cruel way (just look how he eviscerated Kitty Reilly n the toilet). But he does nothing of the sorts in regards to Molly. Why?
We don’t know the origin of Molly and Sherlock’s relationship (however it’s defined at the beginning of ASiP) but I think (and their interactions in ASiP supports that interpretation) they have known each other for quite a while. I also think there wasn’t any real open attraction on Molly’s part toward him at the beginning. I think her crush on him might have grown slowly and quite more subtly for Sherlock to notice. That’s why he hasn’t got a clue about Molly’s feelings for him at that point in time. After all he always misses something.
I also think, that, by the time Molly asks him out in ASiP, Sherlock, hm, categorized Molly as an acquaintance/friend. What’s more I think that Molly’s a part of the net of his safe places: Mrs H at Baker Street, Lestrade at Scotland Yard, and Molly at Bart’s. Those are people he trusts. His close ones. His friends. I think Molly is kind of unintentionally friendzoned at this time of their interactions. In this case it’s actually a compliment to her, as Sherlock doesn’t look for love, he actually quickly and efficiently shots down any openly romantic overtures toward himself (John and Irene and Kitty), and he’s reluctant in his friendships, yet Molly is an integral part of his daily comforts, someone way more important than a mere potential love interest. She is someone very dear to him. Someone he trusts and feels comfortable with.
We have to also remember, that he doesn’t see Molly as anything potentially more than a friend, because, at this time in his life, it is something that just doesn’t enter his brilliant mind, that someone who knows him for who he is, who deals with him on daily basis, might actually find him worth being interested in. I think it’s tied up with his deeply rooted low self-esteem and lack of belief in being lovable, but that’s a topic for a different meta. Sherlock just doesn’t think about Molly in any romantic sense (both in her interest toward himself and his potential interest in her) at this point in time and that’s why he’s oblivious to her advances.
But he does see her as a friend. And an important one as that. He’s happy to see her. Look at Ben’s portrayal of Sherlock when Molly enters the lab. John speaks out, but Sherlock totally shifts his focus onto Molly the moment she enters the lab.
“Ah, Molly, coffee. Thank you.”
“Thank you”? When does Sherlock thanked anyone? Apparently to Molly in one of his very first dealings with her in the show. She’s something else and it’s obvious from the very beginning ;)
But let’s return to Ben’s portrayal: Sherlock is quite happy to see Molly. But then again, it could have just been the coffee ;) His tone of voice is pleasant. He thanks her for the coffee, he even makes an inquiry about her looks – by which I mean is him asking about the lipsticks. ;) He shares his opinion with her, backwardly complimenting her that she looks better with the lipstick. And let’s stop here for a moment: if Molly’s mouth looks smaller without the lipstick, it must have looked bigger with it. Didn’t I mention that said lipstick might have been a distraction for our silly boy and that’s why he noticed it in the first place in the morgue? – he liked what he saw but instead of telling her he likes it, he just asked her why she put it on. Si-lly Boy, I tell ya. Now, she’s without it and he’s actually not happy with it. XD
And there is the grimacing after taking a sip of the coffee.
Why doesn’t he say anything? This is Sherlock Holmes we are talking about here! He is quite opinionated and he doesn’t sugar coat anything. Especially this early in the series. And yet here he’s silent. Hadn’t he earlier told her how he takes his coffee? Yet he’s grimacing, so something must be wrong with it. And no comment form him. I wonder if it’s because it was Molly who had brought it to him. And like we’ve already established, he doesn’t want to intentionally hurt her, so he keeps quiet even though he clearly dislikes what he tastes.
To sum up, Sherlock’s interactions with Molly showed us that he’s oblivious to people (who had known him for a while) having a crush on him, that he’s unable to see himself as someone worth having crush on. It also showed us Sherlock trusts Molly as his lab partner, he considers her a person able to continue his experiments, and one he likes working with. We learned he probably subconsciously finds her physically attractive, and that he definitely doesn’t want to hurt her intentionally. Even in this very first scene you can see the trust between them. “I have always trusted you”, indeed.
Molly the writing Tool served its purpose in A Study in Pink: she helped introducing Sherlock Holmes. In the process she became its own character, interesting enough to be explored in the upcoming episodes. We’ll see how exactly, in the following part of this meta partaking to The Blind Banker. I should publish it within a week time.
Happy weekend, goddess! I was wondering if you have any metas on why Sherlock really wanted John to move in in the first episode? Like when John kind of complained how messy the flat was, Sherlock started tidying his stuff immediately, lol!
Hey Nonny!
Thank you! It was a surprise long weekend for me at work so just happy to have a three day week next week because I booked Friday off, LOL.
Ahhh, good question. I perused my 'asip meta' tag and here's what I immediately found:
Unappreciated Moment of John's First Arrival
UAP: Removing Trash for More Trash
I also have a list of additional ASIP Meta if you're interested :)
If anyone has any they want to suggest for Nonny for the best moment in ASiP, please do! :D
hello steph! i was rewatching ASiP, and this is probably a silly question, but how do mike stamford and sherlock already know each other?
Hey Nonny!
Ahhh, it’s never explicitly stated in the show, but I assume it’s because Sherlock got the lab space at Barts, and Mike is a teacher / doctor at there who is very personable and hard-to-hate, so Sherlock probably valued his opinions, and Sherlock, who talks out loud constantly, probably mentioned about his need for a flatmate offhandedly, and the rest is history, LOL.
Hi Steph! I would like to read metas about ASIP. Could you give me some?
Hi Nonny! <3
Sure! I lost a lot of the ones I initially filed ages ago, so I’m just perusing both the offline list I’ve been making and my ‘asip meta’ tag <3 I tried to keep everything in order of events as possible <3
MY META (UAP)
Why Did they Never Air the Pilot?
Sherlock is so Smol
The Gay Porno Music
It Will be Heard Again for the Johnlock Kiss
The Beautiful Sexy Music
The Cinematography of the Pilot
John’s Missing Wednesday
MY META (ASiP)
What Are John’s Nightmares Actually About? (Does John Have PTSD?)
Title Card: Heart In the Pills?
Phones and Hearts (Community Meta)
This Is How Sherlock Handles John’s Heart
How Old was Sherlock in ASiP
Gay Since the Beginning
Does Lestrade Know He’s Gay?
Smug Mike Stamford
Any Anthea Meta (mini masterlist)?
Mrs. Turner’s Married Ones
Did Sherlock Return Because He Heard John?
Why Didn’t Sherlock Put on the Anti-Contamination Suit?
How Did Mycroft Know About John’s Therapy?
John Doesn’t Deny His Attraction
Are Mrs Hudson and Angelo Implying John’s His Date Because they Know?
Where Is Angelo’s (Is It In Soho?)
Is Sherlock Using During the Drugs Bust?
Five Years and Sherlock Doesn’t Consider Lestrade a Friend
Was the Cabbie a Proper Genius?
Bitterness is a Paralytic
Did They Do Any Cases?
Why Didn’t Sherlock Test The Pill?
How Did Jeff Know Sherlock?
Why Did Sherlock Omit John from Cases After ASiP?
ASiP vs. HLV: Love is a Vicious Motivator
Orange Pips: Was Mary Involved Since the Beginning?
OTHERS’ META
UAP: Removing Trash for More Trash
UAP: Unaired / Deleted Scenes Play On Sherlock’s Sexuality
A Series of Five(s): ASiP is the Whole Show
OPENING TITLES: Anteros Statue
Additional Thread
Sherlock Dug John Out of the Trash (Silly Post)
“Don’t Commit Suicide”
Closted John Watson and the Introduction of BBC Sherlock’s Queer Theme
Upside Down
Between My Legs
Sherlock is Gay Immediately
Bi the Way
Sherlock and John: Their First Meeting
“Bit Different From My Day” (ACD’s John Watson Travels to our Time)
Sherlock Fell In Love Since the Beginning
What Was Sherlock Thinking About?
John Watson: Not the Sitting-Down Type
Mycroft Kidnapping John: Take Care of My Brother (Silly Post)
A Study in Subtext: Amazing
“Harry’s Short for Harriet”
Besotted From Day One
Cleaning Three Things
Desperate To Keep John
The Moment Sherlock Nearly Disliked John
ANGELO’S
Reserved Table
Answering Too Quickly
French Translation of the ASIP Dinner Scene
Angelo’s Relationship to Sherlock: What is the Backstory?
Sherlock is Gay - Analyzing the Convo at Angelo’s
So You Got a Boyfriend? (Short Analysis John During The Conversation)
Sherlock Realizing John Is Hitting on Him
Sherlock’s Face
They’re Very Expressive
Discussion About Lighting in the Series
CHASE SCENE
“Welcome To London”: John Surprises Sherlock
Subversion in Sherlock: Post-Coital
DRUGS BUST SCENE
Sherlock’s Terror When Lestrade Reveals His Drug Past
Sherlock Regretting His Words To John
“Not Good?”
Jennifer Wilson & the Phone/Heart Metaphor
The Birth of Jealous John
Good Man From the Beginning
CLIMAX
3 Pills vs. 1 Pill: Why Did Sherlock Only Get One Pill Per Bottle?
Did Sherlock Choose the Wrong Pill?
Sherlock Check’s John’s Hole (Silly Post)
FINAL SCENE
Thought Process of Sherlock Upon Finding Out It Was John
Hi! I have a quick question. During the drugs bust in asip when John says Lestrade could search the flat, and Sherlock tells him to shut up does it imply that Sherlock is still using drugs when that episode takes place? Because if they did search the flat they would find them. Thank you!
Hey Nonny!
No! I don’t believe Sherlock is using at this point – he even said as much – but I do believe that there were drugs in the flat, but he was hiding them (as an aside, I think John did find them though and threw them away; John found Sherlock’s cigarette stash so he’s a lot more observant than Sherlock gives him credit for). He’s not afraid of that though... what he was worried about was that Sherlock’s past drug use would scare off John; he was already unknowingly besotted with John, worked hard to build up this image of himself to this man he had an instant connection with, and wanted John to be super-impressed with him... and all of a sudden that all falls apart in Sherlock’s mind in one fell swoop, thinking a doctor would never stay with a former user. Hence his surprise at seeing John at the end of the episode; if you notice, after the drugs bust confrontation, Sherlock almost avoids John because I feel like he’s already told himself that John is leaving and not staying.
He’s absolutely thrilled that John came after him... he didn’t really know that John would come, he was just saving face, trying to restore his brilliance in John’s eyes. Sherlock is so tiny smol I don’t even know what to do with his sad gay ass.
