AHHHHHH THE SECOND TRAILER FOR SHERLOCK SERIES 4 IS OUT
You know what that means!
Oh... you don’t? Uh...awkward.
Theories. It means theories. Specifically Johnlock theories.
So there’s a bunch of dramatic stuff in this 30 seconds that I could probably get into but the middle chunk just went out the window when we see that final confession.
So obviously I’m biased towards this being a sign of Johnlock being canon, but I can say why some of the common arguments against it are wrong even from a totally objective standpoint. Then you can only mildly judge me for my idealism.Â
The main reason people are saying this cannot be Sherlock saying he loves John is the fact that John is behind him. However, there are a few possibilities for it to still work:
1: Sherlock is standing in front of a mirror (this is a prevalent theory in the comments as well)
2: Sherlock cannot face John as he says this, either from fear of rejection or something else
3: This new (what we can assume to be) villain is making him say it to him or not directly to John for some reason.Â
Those may be unlikely as well, but if you are hoping for a Johnlock New Year’s miracle don’t be discouraged by the direction he’s facing.
A lot of other people are saying that he is reading a clue/writing on a wall/something similar to that, you get the idea. While possible, there is clearly way more emotion put into this than he would put into reading a note. He deals with problematic love story cases frequently even just on the show with little to no emotion for it so there would be very few circumstances where he would seem to care so much about these words.Â
Finally, we have the common “he’s talking to Irene/Molly/pretty much any other female on the show” arguments. If you haven’t watched/looked at TJLC I highly recommend it as it talks in depth about why these relationships are not the end goal for the show (and of course why Johnlock is end game but you probably assumed that). Focusing just on this trailer though, there is no possibility any of those are correct unless the script becomes inconsistent or the trailer is completely false. Both of which are possibilities but I’m gonna give the benefit of the doubt here.
Right before the “I love you” the presumable villain says: “What’s the very worst thing you could do, to your very best friends? Tell them your darkest secret.” The two key phrases here are “very best friends” and “Darkest secret”. Irene, while clearly important to Sherlock, would be hard to describe as his friend, let alone one of his best friends. Molly is clearly his friend, although best friend is a bit of a stretch based on his cold attitude towards her specifically, and the fact that Moriarty didn’t include her in the list of people that would be important enough to kill in order for Sherlock to jump. It could be argued that this was an oversight on Moriarty’s part and that she actually is more important to him, but then why does this villain catch on to it seemingly so easily? Also, even assuming this is the case, it would by no means be a dark secret for him to love Molly. If anything it might actually be convenient. Molly clearly would reciprocate, up until this point she hadn’t been a prime target for villains to get to Sherlock (but you know who was? John. Just saying), and a relationship in general doesn’t appear to pose a risk to either party (seeing as his “relationship” with Jeanine remained relatively safe). You know who Sherlock could love that would create a dark and unsafe situation? John. John is constantly threatened by Sherlock’s enemies as it is, and making it clear that the affection Sherlock feels for him is more than platonic would make John an even bigger target if that’s possible. Plus, there’s the fact that John is married to an (”ex”)assassin. A jealous assassin who is possibly carrying John’s child. That’s just scratching the surface of the risky aspects of this situation. If this probable villain is searching for a dark secret this would be a gold mine for him.Â
And just an extra note, the opening shot is clearly the same setting and situation as this closing shot but with the focus on John. This clearly means that no matter what the situation is, it is affecting John in some way.Â
Anyway, who’s ready for this new series? I’m certainly not.Â
