I was just struck by something that comes up S3E8 of Elementary. Disregarding the onslaught of copaganda, it discusses addicts and how people treat them (usually poorly), and struggles faced on the road to recovery (like making up for decisions you made when you were at less than your best). The primary murder victim was a recovering drug addict, and once that fact becomes apparent, along with the very bad decision he made while in the throes of addiction, the tone with which people regard him - a literal dead man - becomes Incredibly Negative.
Now, at the same time, Sherlock is finding out that someone in meetings he attends has betrayed the fundamental rule of addicts anonymous, i.e. that they are anonymous safe spaces. What I did not pick up on until this, the nth time I’ve watched the episode, was that both the discussion of a recovering addict and the betrayal of trust were put in the same episode for a reason. Because when Sherlock confronts the man who’s been quoting what Sherlock says at their anonymous meetings, the first thing the guy says is, “You’re different. You get that, right?”
To which Sherlock says, “I’m a drug addict, Daren. My thoughts on sobriety are no more remarkable than your own.”
A salient point that can apply to the discussion of the deceased former addict whose murder is being investigated:
A drug addict is a drug addict, no matter the vocation or temperament. So, for Sherlock, watching people disregard a dead man simply because he was a drug addict that made a horrible choice, must be incredibly distressing. Because these people are speaking this way, in front of Sherlock, not realizing that he is also a recovering drug addict. One that has made and will go on to make more mistakes. A drug addict who relapses later this very same season.
You know the two people that are vaguely normal about all of this? Joan and Kitty. Joan, who approaches the victim’s wife trying to get information not because she wants to shame his memory or make her feel like shit, but because the detail might be relevant to her husband’s murder. Kitty, who decides to track down the person who violated Sherlock’s sense of privacy at meetings. But I think Joan’s contribution to this is most important, because she has no choice but to share this information and from that point she can’t control how the narrative is spun by other, less forgiving people. (Sherlock can and does protect the anonymity of the person who didn’t do the same for him. But that’s not terribly important here.)
What all of this made me realize is one of the other reason’s Sherlock values Joan so much (and vice versa). In the surrounding episodes, Sherlock tells Joan that she’s more remarkable than she gives herself credit for. She comes from a conventional family with conventional expectations - different post, but I think Joan holds herself to conventional standards more than her family does bc her mom encourages her to become a detective. So Joan doesn’t give herself the room to be weird, nor does she give herself credit for the ways in which her deviation from the norm make her such an interesting person to have the pleasure of knowing.
Meanwhile, Joan treats Sherlock like A Guy. She learns how to deal with his quirks, sure, but the whole reason Joan survived S1 as Sherlock’s sober companion was because she didn’t allow him to use his eccentricity as an excuse not to work through his sobriety via conventional methods. She threatens him with a thumbtack so he’ll pay attention in meetings, and - AGAIN - this is a time where Sherlock later admits he was dying and no one could see that but Joan. She treated Sherlock like he was normal without ignoring or even discrediting his oddities. Because she knew the oddities were a bullshit smokescreen to avoid discussing what he perceived to be a failure that made him just like any other guy that’s failed. I mean Sherlock even discusses how hard it is to realize that he still stands out in the one place he felt he most blended in with the crowd. Joan never did that to him.
Idk sometimes I just forget to give this show credit because I’ve already given it so much, but sometimes it deserves more
