How I Teach Men Not To Talk Over Me: From One Feminist To Another, When Basic Respect Is Lagging And

From what little I know, I like them more together than I do separately. They seem like they'd be awesome to hang out with. 

Husbands.

Martin Freeman is my spirit animal. 

Our Sherlock Mini Episode is now available online. Have a wonderful Christmas!

A limerick:

Doesn’t look like a limerick to you? Try this:

A dozen, a gross and a score Plus three times the square root of four Divided by seven Plus five times eleven Is nine squared and not a bit more.

Note this was from a YEAR ago.

There are lots of things that occur to me far later than they should. The thing about Mrs Hudson that I should have noticed but didn’t was the first one: I’m sure there will be a million more, because I am not particularly detail-oriented, to be honest. This is the second thing I just realized: Sherlock didn’t originally want John to be his assistant. He wanted Anderson to play that role.

Sherlock: Who’s on forensics? Lestrade: Anderson. Sherlock: Anderson won’t work with me.

Not Anderson is an idiot, but Anderson won’t work with me. Sherlock then proceeds to take John along with him to a crime scene, and is remarkably patient and accommodating with him. Why does he do that? Sherlock is neither patient nor accommodating as a general rule. When John deduces only the most obvious and basic details about Jennifer Wilson’s death, Sherlock isn’t scornful at all. Why does he behave this way?

Lestrade: He’s not your assistant. Sherlock: I need an assistant!

We know he doesn’t bring John along for his own innate skills, because when John asks why he’s there, as they’re standing over Jennifer Wilson’s body, Sherlock says, “Proving a point.” He doesn’t really care what John has to offer to the investigation of the crime scene, that’s why he’s not bothered by John’s simple description of the cause of death. That wasn’t the point.

He’s trying to make Anderson jealous.

These two appear to have a tumultuous relationship; they must have argued over bodies before. Sherlock must respect Anderson’s abilities; why else would he want him as an assistant? So Sherlock wants to demonstrate, in the most childish way possible, that if Anderson won’t play ball, he will lock him out altogether. That’s the worst thing Sherlock can imagine: being tantalizingly close to the crime scene and his own dazzling deductions, but not be able to hear them or participate.

So Sherlock slams the door in Anderson’s face. It’s not because noting that Rache is a German word is dumb (It was something that passed through Sherlock’s mind as well, as we know); it’s becauseSherlock is proving his point.

 I don’t need you. See? See me not needing you? How do you like that, Anderson? HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT? I can deduce the fact that you’re cheating on your wife with Sally, I know what you were doing last night. See? Aren’t I good? That’s how good I am. You want to be my assistant, Anderson, don’t you. You need to, because I’m dazzling and you need to watch me. If you ask really nicely I might let you act as my assistant next time. I just might. 

Sherlock doesn’t realize at that point that the perfect assistant for him is John. Anderson won’t fire a bullet with the steadiest of hands through a window for him. Anderson won’t help him behave appropriately in social situations and smooth out the rough edges of his interactions. Anderson may admire Sherlock’s abilities, but he’d never say so out loud. Anderson will never love him. John’s arrival utterly alters the job description of “assistant” for Sherlock. We never hear the word “assistant” again, in fact (to my knowledge).

Sherlock’s reactions toward Anderson, and all the negative things he has to say about him thereafter, appear, in this light, to be more a reaction to Anderson’s rejection of Sherlock than any scornfulness about his abilities. 

Sherlock has the emotional life of a nine year old.

How Uncle Greg Met Your Fathers

plot twist the entirety of Sherlock is Greg’s best man speech when he is at John and Sherlock’s wedding, telling the story of how they got here‏

I love this a lot. 

But I'm having less of a problem with John's reactions - or lack thereof - then many people seem to be. And I've been wrestling with why.

...after here be spoilers...

John is a bit broken. As we all are. He's always been ashamed of it and of the crazy choices it makes him love: war, Sherlock, and now, Mary. He's an apologetic adrenaline junkie. 

Why wasn't John more upset with Sherlock after he 'died'? Easy one. He understands that Sherlock was trying to protect him: It's what he'd do himself. 

Why wasn't John more upset with Mary for lying to him? Still pretty easy. He is upset with her – he doesn’t seem to talk to her for a good long time. And he’s not more upset, in the end, because it is his fault, a bit. He wouldn't have chosen her if she wasn't a disaster that needed fixing. And everybody in the sitting room - all disasters needing fixing - knew that full well.

Now, the hard one. Why wasn't John more upset with Mary for shooting John? John is, at least on the surface, okay with Mary shooting Sherlock because he feels personally responsible. It is his job to keep Sherlock safe and he brought someone dangerous into Sherlock's safe zone. It isn't Mary's fault that she's dangerous - it's her wiring. It's John's fault for putting the two crazy choices together; one was going to hurt the other eventually. It was his job to keep them both safe and he let them hurt each other.

But with that said, while I do believe that John has forgiven Mary entirely for hurting him, I am not sold on the idea that John has forgiven Mary entirely for hurting Sherlock. And I think we’ll see that eventually.

People have been reblogging my John Watson post recently. And I can see why. I re-read it today and I was most struck by this line:

Sherlock may be an undeniable hurricane-strength force whirling through John’s life but John also chose him.

No, says Sherlock in HLV. John chose Mary. And...