I think series 4 was partially a makeshift. It was very difficult to get all the actors together again because all of them are so very busy, so they had to reckon with the possibility that a series 5 would be impossible. So they needed a finale that would work as the end of the series. And I think TFP works for that. I don't like every detail of it, but a lot of important questions which have remained open until now, have been answered. Overall it is an acceptable ending.

And what JP writes I have already thought: "the story makes a full circle back to the point where ACD stories began". At the end of TFP Sherlock and John are so far in their personal development that they really are the ACD characters. In a way we are now exactly at the place where the other film adaptions begin. And therefore it would be exciting to continue, really.

It's true: both Sherlock and John learned an awful lot about themselves, and so much trust between them is an new thing and really moving.

Vhanja said, John is repressed emotionally, he has always bottled up everything. And that is very true, in my opinion. John has been at war, he was wounded, he has seen terrible things, undoubtedly over a long period of time. Therefore he suffers PTSD. And that is the key to his behaviour. I am kind of expert in this, because I have lived in a very extreme situation for some time (details are unimportant, that's boring for anyone else). In such a situation one learns mainly one thing: survive, everything else does not matter. Emotions are luxury. And weakness is not a good idea, because if you are weak you will perhaps not survive. And if you still have feelings, you do not risk any feelings that look like weakness. You will not cry (I cannot cry, not even when I am alone). Being aggressive is much easier because being aggressive is not weak. And you have the excuse "it is not my fault that I have PTSD". That is why you do not apologize. Apologizing is weak.

And if someone like John is actually able to be weak, to cry, even in the presence of someone else, it is an incredible improvement. And if Sherlock, the alleged "psychopath", can react accordingly this is an equally incredible improvement. - I know, "happy end" is a terribly stupid concept. But this is a happy end. One of the most beautiful I know.

This is perhaps a bunny which glows in the dark, "like a fairy". It might be possible that it has a longer life, too...

Perhaps it's just me, but honestly, I can not imagine that parentlock was the reason. In my opinion it does not fit the style of the series.

The whole thing is becoming more and more complicated indeed. SusiGo is right, until TEH the MP is simply a memory technique, "a storage device for knowledge he thinks he might need one day." But since HLV there is added something else besides data. Two things are added. First, he sees memories as reality, although they are not true, because he wants to see them like that (the truth would hurt too much): he sees Redbeard as a dog. And secondly he sees scenes which are clearly symbolic (Mary in a wedding dress who shoots him, Moriarty chained in a rubber cell); these are not facts, these are certainly images edited by the subconscious which mix between the data in the MP. Since then the MP has changed, from an exclusive collection of facts to something that stores emotional things as well and makes them visible, too, if only in a masked form. Could it have to do something with Sherlock's development during the series, and with the fact that he more and more learns to be aware of his own emotions and to accept these emotions?

Of course we all deal with things in our own way. This is because writers and their shows do not exist in a vacuum, The people watching it have very different experiences in their own lives, and therefore a very different way of seeing things. I think it is very brave that Moth shared sich a painful  personal experience with us, and I understand completely that it is in conceivable from this point of view that Sherlock has completely "forgotten"/repressed these things. I personally have the opposite experience: there are very unpleasant things in my past and I knew nothing about it until my therapist made me aware of it. I think, it depends on the situation and the personality how you react.

But one thing speaks against the idea, that a lot of things in series 4 are MP: Sherlock has apparently no (or no true) remembrance of Eurus and Victor. I am sure that this memory is somewhere in his subconscious, but he has no access to it for a long time. I assume that unter these circumstances he could not see the events in TFP in his MP. Therefore they must be real, in my opinion (which, of course, by no means must be correct, it was just a thought).

Elemental wrote something, almost a week ago, and I wanted to answer, But this was a hectic week, and I did not have enough time for it. So I am writing now.

Elemental wrote, the Idea of Johnlock seemed to her "extremely weird and far fetched" at first sight, and now, after further discussion about it, "it's almost ridiculously clear."

It was a bit different for me. For me, the idea was not "far fetched", but, strictly speaking, it existed long before the series was made. For me it was in the original stories of ACD. It seemed to me that it was perceptible, by the whole situation. Of course it was never talked about. That would have been unthinkable at the time when the original stories were written. And when I learned about the new "Sherlock" series for the first time, and that this series would play in the 21th century, my first thought was another (I was curious about the encounter of Sherlock Holmes with computer technology), but I also thought whether they would make the love story more clear which could not be shown in 19th century.

At first it became no love story, seemingly. Of course there were allusions that everybody seemed to suspect it (and that was quite funny), and there were a lot of nonverbal hints. But it didn't become a "real" love story. And I was a bit disappointed, because I thought it was an unused chance. But meanwhile I think a bit different about it.

I am glad that it is not a "real" love story from the beginning, because that would have destroyed the love story. That sounds a bit crazy, I know. Therefore it has to be explained. Imagine it would have been a quite normal love story from the beginning. It would have been a sensation, of course, and some people would have cheered, and some people would have found it terrible. People would have talked about nothing else. Nobody would have been interested in the development of the characters. And it is just this development which makes the story so exciting: the slow development of these two

I want to try to say something about all this. Even if that becomes a bit difficult because firstly I can not speak about emotions very well und secondary because I am not a native speaker.

Diva wrote: "the only thing that makes me a bit sad is the fact that their relationship seems to be much stronger from Sherlock's side than from John's side." And she is right, it really looks like this. But I am not sure if it really is.

Of course "Sherlock made a deliberate decision to put John first and he never let him down", as diva wrote. But sometimes ist really looks, at least since TEH, whether this relationship was more important to Sherlock than to John.

At the end of TRF, John saw Sherlock die, and he grieves very much about his death, no one doubts it. But John was at war, as a doctor even, he must have seen plenty of dead and mourning, and therefore he knows that one can sometimes only live on if one pushes away the feelings for the dead.  Those who have experienced terrible things will learn this survival tactics, or they will just not survive. And that is exactly what John does. He pushes his feelings for dead Sherlock into the background and tries to find someone else (Mary, in this case). And then Sherlock comes back. And John knows (visibly during the first seconds of the reunion scene): Sherlock is more important than Mary. But Mary does not suddenly disappear, of course. So the result is a terrible emotional mess: John wishes actually to go back to Sherlock, but he can not just leave Mary for reasons of fairness, because she did certainly help him to gain a new foothold in life after Sherlock's "death". And emotional mess ist a thing which John is not able to handle, because of PTSD. And that is typical for PTSD: it becomes confusing, and he reacts with violence against the  person who is responsible for it: Sherlock.

It would be consequent to leave Mary, but he is unable to do that. He continues to pursue his marriage plans (quite annoyed, at times), a

That is an interesting thought, indeed. I mean, John's aggressions against Sherlock are understandable to a certain degree, and we have seen him react aggressive before (TEH!). But this level of aggressiveness is another thing. It is not a normal reaction, not even for John. There is a difference between beating someone und nearly killing someone. Therefore it could be that John was manipulated by Euros (she had the opportunity to do that, at last).

Kae Em wrote about Mycroft's "caring is not an advantage", and she said, that it doesn't mean that Mycroft does not care. And that's right. Mycroft does care, he cares a lot indeed. And ne never says: "I don't care". "Caring is not an advantage" has a complete different meaning. It means: if you care that will cause you a lot of sorrow and stress. He will have a lot of experience with it.