#constable clark

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In the first Sherlock movie, when Holmes and Watson go to the graveyard to sort out Blackwood’s supposed resurrection, Watson says to Clarky “Your boys have done a magnificent job of obliterating any potential evidence.” What I noticed here was that he refers to them as “your” boys, even though as Constable, Clarky is the lowest ranking of the Scotland Yarders. Really, Lestrade, as Inspector, should be the one who has “ownership” of the younger members of the force, but Watson and Holmes (or at least Watson) seem to have unanimously decided that Clarky is in charge anyway.  Which actually makes sense when you consider Clarky does the vast majority of the running around while Lestrade sits on his ass and talks shit about Holmes. And also makes even more sense when considering the “catatonic” interaction between him and Lestrade - even the Inspector himself seems to have the feeling Clarky’s better suited to the leading role than him.

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Okay, so, at the end of the first movie, when Clarky enters the study at Baker Street, he says “Mr Holmes, Doctor, Miss Mary.” Now, Holmes himself didn’t meet Mary until about 48 hours before, so how exactly did Clarky become acquainted with her?

You could, of course, suggest that he noticed her when she bailed Watson out of prison following the fight with Dredger, but 1), there probably wasn’t time for formal introductions, and 2) I don’t recall seeing Clarky in that scene. Also, Clarky (along with Lestrade and the rest of the Yarders) don’t attend Watson’s wedding, so he’s not closely acquainted with Mary.

So, when else do we see Clarky? Aside from after Sir Thomas’s death, there’s only one very predominate moment I can think of - the wharf explosion.

He’s the first one on scene, and his line is “Lord Coward has issued a warrant for your arrest - Watson’s alive” meaning that he’s been there long enough to have found and checked up on Watson. And as Holmes runs away, we see Clarky turn and start walking back towards the rubble - where we see Lestrade picking his way over to him. Now, we know at this point that Clarky is married (this is relevant, I swear) and Lestrade isn’t. We also know, that Lestrade doesn’t like getting his hands dirty, and that Clarky does a lot of his running around, as most of his lines start with “Lestrade asks/ Lestrade sent me/ Lestrade says” So, add Lestrade’s lack of wanting to be involved, added to the fact Clarky has more experience dealing with women (remember, he’s married.)

It makes sense that Clarky gets there first, notices Watson, checks he’s alive, realises Holmes is probably nearby (Irene has long since run off by then), warns Holmes that Coward is after him, and by then, Lestrade is just arriving on scene. Lestrade probably at this point notices Watson, and weighing up how they’re going to proceed, says that he’ll get Watson sorted and transported to the hospital, and Clarky can do the messier job - telling Mary.

This explains 1) how Mary even finds out about the explosion in the first place (since Holmes and Irene are both pretty much in hiding) and 2) how Clarky  knows Mary enough to call her by name.

Boom.

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Do Clarky with number 1! (the palette meme thingie hiiiii! *smooches*)

These are the prettiest clouds I've ever drawn... ALSO NO ONE SAID I COULDN'T USE SHADES OF THE COLORS IN THE MEME. 

[sparrowsabre7]

Can we just take a moment to appreciate Constable Clark? Because he is actually pretty awesome and actually reminds me of BBC Sherlock's Lestrade more than Ritchie's Lestrade (admittedly Ritchie's is more accurate to the novels though). He's basically like the anti-Anderson, he's not the best detective in the world, but he's very loyal to Holmes and has a great deal of respect for him, I just think he's a really neat character with a good sense of humour ("Just joking about the wife, sir").